Drug WarRant

I need to preface this post by noting that I believe Mark Kleiman to be a well-educated man with quite a bit of intelligence. He is considered an expert in drug policy. He is a liberal and writes passionately about liberal issues, yet in a balanced way, and he is always willing to speak up when he feels that another liberal blogger has gotten carried away in a particular point without enough evidence to back it up.
It is because of these things that I find his blind spot when it comes to prohibition so frustrating. Time and time again, he clearly, and with abundant data, points out failures in government policy. And then, almost invariably, somewhere out of the blue, he throws in some statement in favor of prohibition or opposed to legalizers, without a shred of logic or evidence. For someone who professes himself part of the reality-based community, it’s an unfortunate form of self-delusion.
In his latest: Such another victory…, he calmly and effectively dismantles the ONDCP’s claims regarding cocaine prices. And then watch…

At some point, policymakers are going to figure out something that’s been obvious to analysts for more than a decade: While prohibition reduces drug abuse (otherwise why are there several times as many abusers of alcohol alone as of all the illicit drugs combined?), and some level of enforcement is necessary to make prohibition a reality, increasing enforcement efforts against mass-market drugs can’t raise the prices of those drugs, or at least not much.

Did you catch it?

prohibition reduces drug abuse (otherwise why are there several times as many abusers of alcohol alone as of all the illicit drugs combined?)

What possible logic has been invoked here? Does Mark really believe that every single drug (alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, peyote, heroin, methamphetamines, glue, caffeine, aspirin, etc.) would have equal levels of abuse simply because they are legal? There are so many things wrong with that notion that it’s beyond absurd.
The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Report: “Marijuana and Medicine, Assessing the Science Base” makes it clear that there are a host of factors that are correlated with drug dependence, including pharmacalogical effects of the drug, gender, age, genetic factors, individual risk-taking propensities, acceptance of a drug in society, and on, and on.
Mark may respond that he didn’t really mean that they’d be equal, but just that it’s obvious, since alcohol has so much more abuse than illegal drugs, then it must be true that prohibition works, otherwise there would certainly be at least somewhat higher levels of illicit drug abuse than now (if not actually equivalent to alcohol).
But of course, that isn’t obvious either. It’s at least as likely that those who are prone to abuse a particular drug will tend to find it whether it is legal or illegal. After all, Mark himself has noted that illicit drugs are not hard to acquire. In this case, prohibition would have no effect on levels of drug abuse.
It’s also at least as likely that there is a certain percentage of the population that is predisposed to substance abuse in general, and they’ll find a way to abuse some drug (either legal or illegal). In this case as well, prohibition would have no effect (other than potentially shifting someone from one drug to another).
It’s even possible that there are higher levels of abuse of a particular illicit drug than there would be of that same drug if legal. This could follow from a reluctance of those abusing illicit drugs to seek help, due to social stigma and fear of prosecution. In this case, prohibition would actually increase drug abuse.
The one thing that we can know for certain, is that the mere fact that there are many more abusers of alcohol than of illicit drugs does not provide any evidence (or a reality-based argument) that prohibition reduces drug abuse.
And remember, even if it turns out that prohibition actually does reduce drug abuse by some amount (something not demonstrated by Mark Kleiman), that is not sufficient argument in favor of prohibition, since you’d have to factor in the incredible amount of collateral damage caused by prohibition.
Further reality-based reading:
Mark Kleiman on:

• Cocaine and terrorism
• On Black Market and Taxes
• Sativex (where he claims drug reformers don’t give a rat’s ass about sick people)
• Prohibitioning is hard work

Update: Check out this good article Elusive Victory, Disputed Statistics

Despite the ready availability of cocaine, the White House’s ONDCP reported: “Our … overseas counterdrug efforts have slowly constricted the pipeline that brings cocaine to the United States.”
Similar announcements have been issued regularly ever since Richard Nixon issued the official declaration of war on drugs in 1969. Four years later, Nixon said the United States had “turned the corner” on drug addiction and drug supplies.
When Washington’s first drug czar, William Bennett, left his post, the White House said he had put the U.S. “on the road to victory” in the drug war. That was 16 years ago. Today, cocaine, heroin and marijuana are as widely available as they were then – at sharply lower prices.
“The price decline began in 1979 and the downward trend has been steady,” said Mark Kleiman, director of the drug policy analysis program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kleiman is one of about a dozen academic experts in the United States who have studied the drug trade for decades.
They viewed with skepticism an assertion in the drug czar’s report that the street price of cocaine – the drug that most worries the government – had increased by 19 percent while purity had dropped by 15 percent between February and September 2005. The drug policy office called it a “trend reversal.”

Note Mark’s excellent contribution to this article. But because he cannot allow himself to envision any regime other than prohibition, when he is interviewed as an expert no alternative to prohibition will ever be raised. Here again, the article shows all the weaknesses of government policy, but never raises the possibility that an alternative might work.

The current administration is bad enough, but when you add Congress into the mix, things just get surreal.

A Bush administration decision to divert money for Colombian drug interdiction and eradication programs to the war on terrorism has opened up the southern U.S. border to a new flood of heroin and cocaine, say senior congressional and Colombian officials.
Some members of Congress, angry that appeals by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for help in rebuilding his depleted and aging fleet of surveillance and interdiction aircraft have been ignored, plan to bypass the White House by dipping into a $72.4 billion supplemental appropriation for the war on terrorism to fund $99.4 million in military and police aid to Colombia.
An amendment to the pending emergency supplemental bill likely will be offered by Republican Reps. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Dan Burton of Indiana, a member of the House Government Reform Committee. It would pay for three DC-3 marine patrol aircraft for the Colombian navy and two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and 10 Huey II helicopters for the Colombian national police.

First of all, the administration is already paying way too much in Colombia. All the drug war financing should be cut.
And here’s the kicker:

“After seven years of work on anti-narcotics efforts in the Andean region, we are now seeing the fruits of our labors in the drug war in Colombia and making great progress with our Colombian security partners in preventing drugs from reaching the United States,” Mr. Hyde said in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Fruits of our labors? Do you mean the fact that billions of dollars have had no effect on supply? Or do you refer to the out-of-control violence and corruption? Or the scorched earth?
And now that every government entity in Colombia has been corrupted with black-market money, you want to give them helicopters?
Note: Hyde is retiring this year, so we’ll get some relief. But there’s still a lot like him who need to go.

Via Hammer of Truth, comes this report that Steve Kubby has been released from jail.

I just spoke with a very happy Steve Kubby, who was released from Placer County jail this afternoon, where he had been held since January 27th, following his expulsion from Canada on January 26th.[…]
… it appears that Kubby was freed once again at the initiative of the Placer County jailers and sheriff who are still refusing to do the dirty work of their higher ups, who like to have their underlings do their killing for them.
As MarijuanaNews reported last week, Steve has lost 25 pounds in the last month. Marinol has controlled most of the symptoms of his adrenal cancer, but this remains a very dangerous and unethical medical experiment because of the absence of the other cannabinoids.

Kubby is still scheduled to return to court on March 14.
Update: Nice article in the LA Times.

So in the latest Colombian news — Due to extensive government corruption, wealthy drug traffickers have opened a new door to transporting their drugs… … from the U.S. to Colombia.
“How’s that?” you ask.
The U.S. has complex negotiations regarding what preferential treatment Colombia has to give the United States in exchange for turning their country into a wasteland, and there have been free trade negotiations as well. Here’s one of the outcomes:

Colombian negotiators also caved on the issue of intellectual property rights. As a result, patents held by U.S. pharmaceutical companies will now be more comprehensively protected in Colombia, which means that cheaper generic drugs will likely be replaced with the more expensive U.S.-produced versions. Stephanie Weinberg, a policy adviser for the aid organization Oxfam International, said that the trade agreement “could dangerously hinder Colombia’s access to important lifesaving drugs at affordable prices.”

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is heavily funded by drug traffickers, thought it was a good deal.
Interestingly, in a country where we are spending taxpayer money to convince farmers to switch to crops other than coca…

The Bush administration succeeded in getting Colombia to agree to initially lower, and eventually remove entirely, tariffs on U.S. poultry, corn and rice. Consequently, heavily subsidized U.S. farmers will be able to flood the Colombian market with these products, threatening the livelihood of their Colombian counterparts.

Oh, that makes sense.
However, at least the Colombian flower growers will get some help.

The deal also allows U.S. companies to purchase privatized public utility companies and allows more Colombian flower exports to the United States. Interestingly, the greatest benefactor of increased Colombian flower exports will be the country’s largest flower producer: the Dole Food Company, a U.S. multinational that controls 25 percent of the Colombian flower industry.

Boy, we sure know how to play the drug war, don’t we. Use taxpayer money to rape a country, destabilizing it without actually affecting the flow of drugs, and then pick up some of the choice leftovers.

So I wrote about a stupid and horrible bill proposed in Idaho, thinking it was one of those ridiculous measures that pops up in every session and then just quietly dies. But no.

The bill, which passed [the Senate] by an 18-16 vote, would mean pregnant mothers convicted of doing marijuana, LSD, methamphetamine or other drugs could face up to five years in jail and a $50,000 penalty.

Now I’m not sure what it says about Idaho or their legislators, when we have to turn to Senator Compton for help.

During a passionate debate, Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, said he’d like to see drug dealers publicly stoned, but voted against the bill out of a fear of unintended consequences.

The one real voice of reason is coming from the Idaho State Journal, which previously noted:

Pediatricians rightly worry that women using any of the above drugs will not seek prenatal care for fear of becoming a felon.
One local doctor also says the best time to convince a woman to stop taking drugs is when she’s pregnant or has just given birth. Drive them underground and that opportunity may never present itself.

… and now says:

Interestingly, the 35-member Senate includes only four women, three of whom voted against the bill.
And while methamphetamine and other drugs are widely thought to have negative consequences if taken during pregnancy, the only substance definitively shown to harm a fetus is alcohol, a product legal to those age 21 and over.

“bullet” Don’t forget 60 Minutes tonight.
“bullet” Increase in secrecy in federal trials (mostly drug cases).

The number of criminal cases that have reached verdicts but still have most of their records sealed has more than doubled in the last three years.

As TalkLeft notes, there are often good reasons for cases to be sealed. However, it is disturbing to see the increased level of secrecy, particularly when entire cases are sealed. [thanks, Casey]
“bullet” thehim’s Drug War Roundup is outstanding as always.
“bullet” Libby’s got a ton of important stuff at Last One Speaks, including the BuzzFlash interview with Charles Bowden, a report on Steve Kubby’s failing health, Patriot Act passage, a nice post about Howard Woolridge, and a police chief complaining about (and getting pulled) Marijuana Policy Project PSA’s on the radio.
“bullet” Grits for Breakfast notes that an entire police department in Texas was shut down for tampering with evidence and stealing drugs.
“bullet” Hammer of Truth is looking to declare a war… on drug prohibition rhetoric.
“bullet” Loretta Nall’s been making an impact in her run for Governor of Alabama. There’s video available of her speech to the Black Mayors Conference (where she talked about racism and the drug war).
“bullet” Radley Balko continues to light up the web with his stories of botched drug raids and his updates on Cory Maye.

This blog has received a nomination for the distinguished Koufax Award in the category of Best Single Issue Blog. It’s an extremely competitive category with some amazing blogs, and it’s great just to be listed with them.
Stop by and vote for your favorite in the comments, or by email. (Only once)
Here’s the info on the voting, with links to other award categories as well.

Mohammed Daoud, governor of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, either knows nothing about Afghanistan, or nothing about drugs.
He has vowed to destroy all the opium in his province in two months (the Helmand province is the leading producer of opium in Afghanistan.)
Mark May 4 on your calendar. Let’s see how he does.

… for today goes to Ianthia Smith, Guardian Staff Reporter, for the article Bahamas on winning side of drug war.
Ianthia actually led off the article with:

The Bahamas is one step closer to winning its drug war…

On step closer to winning the drug war! Wow, that is big news. Especially since nobody in the history of the world has actually won a drug war yet (to my knowledge).
But then again, maybe Ianthia meant it in the way I might say that, by eating a bowl of Wheaties this morning, I moved one step closer to winning an Olympic Gold Medal.
Now, here’s the evidence that the Bahamas is winning its drug war:

1. Seizures of marijuana doubled in 2005, demonstrating the success of the drug war.
2. Seizures of cocaine decreased in 2005, demonstrating the success of the drug war in previous years

Kind of hard to lose when you measure it that way.

Must see TV. Tomorrow (Sunday, March 5), CBS’s 60 Minutes (7 pm ET/PT, 6 pm CT), includes a segment on Marc Emery. I don’t know how the segment will turn out, but this is the kind of visibility he needs.

The last place he wants to be is in jail, but Emery says if the Canadian courts allow the U.S. government to extradite him and a U.S. jury puts him away, he still sees a silver lining.

“I am blessed by what the DEA has done,” he tells Simon. “I would rather see marijuana legalized than me being saved from a U.S. jail. I hope that if I am incarcerated, I can influence tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people to take up my cause.”

Note: There are a couple of short preview videos at the CBS page.