Drug WarRant

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.

… and stuff that fell through the cracks.
“bullet” Heroin injecting room wildly popular with neighbors (Australia)

Nearly three-quarters of local residents and businesses support the heroin injecting center at Kings Cross, reporting a significant decrease in public drug use and rejecting the idea it encourages people to inject drugs.
Support was strongest among residents and businesses who were in the area before it was established, providing further evidence of the success of the center, which has dramatically reduced overdose deaths. […]
The NSW Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, has vowed to close the injecting center if he becomes premier.

“bullet” Marijuana tax possibly in trouble in Tennessee. See discussion here and here at SayUncle.
“bullet” We Love Porn and Pot

“… in Canada the consummate professional will never admit to being a pot smoker, a porn surfer or a pig. “

“bullet” Since Rumsfeld won’t take advice from us regarding the Afghanistan opium crops, he has no clue what to do about it. So he’s trying to turn the problem over to Europe.
“bullet” Judge Says Police In Vermont Must Knock Before Searching — Despite Hudson ruling, exclusionary rule will apply under state’s constitution.
“bullet” The shot heard across both sides of the border. Finally, the full story of the death of Esequiel Hernandez Jr., tracked and killed by U.S. Marines conducting war on U.S. soil.
“bullet” Mark Fiore: The United States of Incarceration
“bullet” Justice Kennedy calls efforts to increase sentences “sick”
“bullet” Skippy the Bush Kangaroo turned four this week, and his blogiversary is always a momentous occasion in blogtopia. Congrats, Skippy. (And it reminds me that DrugWarRant’s own 3 year mark will be coming up on the 27th. I have to order the cake.)

With all the problems we’re having in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, and with our soldiers’ lives at risk, it’s disheartening to see such a complete lack of command competence.
The issue this time?

US troops and Iraqi police seized and destroyed a bumper crop of marijuana plants last week, according to a report in Stars & Stripes. Based on a military press release, the report said soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which has responsibility for most of northern Iraq, discovered the field in an unnamed location.
According to the military press release, the field contained “juvenile marijuana plants grown in a series of furrows. The owner claimed he was growing sesame.” Police put the value of the field at $2 million. The crop was cut down and destroyed, and the man arrested.

First, we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars (or is it in the trillions yet) on Iraq, and we’re trying to get them back on their feet, including developing their own internal commerce. Well, if the estimates are correct, we just destroyed $2 million of potential commerce.
Second, things are a little too tense over there. It’s hard to think of a better tension reducer than a little cannabis. In fact, we should take all the marijuana that’s seized here and help the war effort by giving it to the citizens of Iraq. Imagine the Sunnis and Shiites sitting there passing around the water pipe, and hearing one say “Wow! When you put it like that, what you say really makes sense. I never thought of it that way before.” and the response: “Yeah, you too! … Uh, what was I saying? … Hey, look at the camel spider!”
I say it’s time to replace Donald Rumsfeld with Tommy Chong (Hey, he couldn’t do any worse!)

Check out the end of this post of mine from yesterday, and compare it to this post from the Drug Czar today.
Same exact quoted material.
The difference? The readers of my blog can get a chuckle out of the story, because they are smart enough to realize that the police and reporters in it are brazenly dishonest nitwits. On the other hand, the Drug Czar thinks by posting it that he can make readers think that marijuana causes murderous psychosis. This, of course, makes the Drug Czar a brazenly dishonest nitwit. But I repeat myself.

The ACLU Freedom Files: Drug Wars will air tomorrow (Saturday, July 15) at noon (Eastern and Pacific) on Court TV.
Here’s the line-up for the program:

Racist Drug Raids: The “War on Drugs” costs taxpayers more than 50 billion dollars annually, but it costs those disproportionately targeted by the government — youth, communities of color and the sick and dying — so much more. In the “Drug Wars” episode, we’ll take you to Hearne, Texas, where nearly 15% of the town’s young African American men were incarcerated on drug charges based on the false accusations of a mentally ill police informant.
The Drug War Goes to School: And you’ll meet the students at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina, who were held at gunpoint, forced by school officials and a police SWAT team into lockdown — all because of suspicion that a student “might” be in possession of a marijuana joint.
Excessive Prison Sentencing: We look at the family impact of cruel and excessive prison sentences for drug offenses through the eyes of three sisters from Oregon. Their mother, Hamedah Hasan, was sentenced to 27 years in prison because of her involvement with a man who was dealing drugs, though she never sold or used drugs herself.
Medical Marijuana: Valerie Corral suffered from constant, debilitating seizures until she discovered that marijuana relieved her symptoms. She helped author the country‰s first statewide law allowing the use of medical marijuana and started a hospice to help people with terminal illnesses cope with pain. Nevertheless, federal agents stormed her California home and arrested her and her husband. She talks about her fight to help seriously ill people live with dignity.

The ACLU web page for the program has some good resources (the pdf viewing guide looks pretty cool). They also have a web page for people to tell their own stories.
Nice. Just wish the program was on network TV in prime time instead of Court TV at noon, but still, it looks like they’ve done a good job with it.
If you don’t have Court TV, you may not be out of luck. The ACLU has plans to stream the video on their site next week.