Drug WarRant

Here’s wishing a truly great year to all of our DWR family. Let’s take some more stellar steps forward in ending this drug war.

An extra special thanks to a few of you who so generously made an end-of-the-year contribution to Drug WarRant. I don’t do much asking for funds here, and don’t wish you to contribute if you can’t afford it, but I do want you to know that it’s very much appreciated and goes toward paying hosting costs.

Update on the Westboro Baptist Church picketing. After my post, the Church actually tweeted a thank you to us.

Thanks for helping us preach! Take your signs. “@DrugWarRant: Marijuana has finally made it http://t.co/wgLPnbTW83” pic.twitter.com/S71qe7wdAf

— Westboro Baptist (@WBCSaysRepent) December 25, 2014

The church did show up to picket, but were heavily outnumbered by supporters of marijuana legalization, and skipped out without going to their second stop.

Many of the counter-protesters weren’t there to take the church seriously, Denver Relief Consulting’s Joseph said, rather they were supporting the pot shops.

“I don’t know that the mass majority takes (Westboro Baptist Church) too seriously,” she said, “but for me it was important to be there — not as a practical protest, because it’s hard to take them seriously, but to show support to the dispensary owners. And they were glad we were there – they were thankful.”

The Daily Signal inexplicably decided to start off the new year with Kevin Sabet: Will Legal Pot Cut Unfair Drug Arrests? One Opponent’s Take

Here’s the video:

Really lame. Basic take: He doesn’t think we should arrest marijuana users, but says there’s a better way (which he won’t, of course, explain) than legalization, which (again without any evidence) he says will result in a repeat of the last 100 years of tobacco. Apparently legalization will cause marijuana to be just like tobacco and cause us to forget everything we’ve learned about tobacco in the modern age.

More evidence that the U.S. government is so committed to its drug war that it is regularly involved in, or complicit in, killing those involved in trafficking.

Leaked Documents Show the US Used Drone Strikes to Target Afghan Drug Lords

The latest documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that US drone strikes in Afghanistan weren’t limited to just al Qaeda and Taliban leaders — they also targeted drug dealers accused of supporting the insurgency.

The papers, obtained by German news magazine Der Spiegel, include a “kill list” that once contained as many as 750 names, including many mid- and lower-level members of the Taliban involved in drug trafficking.

According to the documents, NATO defense ministers decided in October 2008 to start treating Afghan drug lords with ties to the Taliban insurgency as “legitimate targets.”

“Narcotics traffickers were added to the so-called Joint Prioritized Effects List (JPEL) for the first time, allowing them to be targeted for strikes,” one NSA document states.

Iran defends high execution rate for drugs crimes

An Iranian official has defended the regime’s soaring execution rate for drugs offences under so-called ‘moderate’ President Hassan Rouhani.

Mohammadreza Habibi, the head of judiciary in Yazd province, said ‘no sentence can replace death verdict’
as a means of reducing drug trafficking across the country.

He added: “There are some who are critical of the execution of drug traffickers. These should know that if there is no firmness and execution, drugs would be easily distributed across the country.” […]

The London-based Reprieve organization recently published a detailed report on how the aide provided to Iran by UN member states help Iran to carry out executions.

If you haven’t read about the death of Jason Westcott yet, you need to read this.

Police Informant Says His Lies Killed a Harmless Pot Smoker

It is therefore hard to know what to make of Jamison’s disturbing story, in which Coogle blames his police handlers for fabrications that resulted in the death of a harmless pot smoker named Jason Westcott during a drug raid last May. But one thing seems clear: The cops recklessly relied on Coogle’s highly questionable word as long as he was helping them makes busts, turning against him only after he accused them of misconduct. Now the police department argues that Coogle is utterly unreliable except when it comes to providing evidence against Westcott and other drug suspects.

The drug war incentivizes the use of potentially unreliable snitches to determine what could be life-and-death situations, while also incentivizing lies.

Obama Welcomes End Of The Longest War In American History

Finally, we’re ending the drug war!

President Barack Obama says the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.

Obama is welcoming the end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. The war came to a formal end Sunday with a ceremony in Kabul.

Oh.

That war.

Thats great, and all, but it’s certainly not the longest war in American history.

Carry on.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. My mom decided to celebrate by falling off a chair and breaking her leg, so I got to spend a lot of quality time with her over the past few days visiting with her in the hospital. She’s doing OK, but will have a full-length cast on her leg for some time.

So all of you readers who are advancing in years, remember that your bones aren’t as supple anymore and really be careful out there.

…

This is a time when we’ll start seeing a lot of year-in-review pieces. And it’s been a big year for drug policy reform.

Here are a couple already.

Five Drug Scares in 2014 by Jacob Sullum.

The history of drug control in America is a series of panic-propelled policies, most of which have not turned out very well. Those of us who support a calmer, more tolerant approach to psychoactive substances therefore spend much of our time defusing scares aimed at justifying or expanding the government’s role in policing our bloodstreams.

The Year in Drug Policy: Movement at a crossroads by Alfonso Serrano at Al Jazeera.

The 43-year-old war on drugs had never seen such a barrage of opposition as it did in 2014, with successful marijuana legalization initiatives in several U.S. states, California’s historic approval of sentencing reform for low level drug offenders and world leaders calling for the legal regulation of all drugs — all of which cement the mainstream appeal of drug policy alternatives and offer unprecedented momentum going into 2015.

What are your favorite drug policy moments of 2014?

Poor cannabis – for so many years, despite being extremely prevalent in use, it just couldn’t get any respect.

All that’s about to change:

Westboro Baptist Church hates pot: controversial Church to picket Marijuana shops in Colorado

The controversial church plans to picket Pueblo West Organics located on 609 E. Enterprise Drive and Marisol Therapeutics on 922 E. Kimble Drive.

The church claims marijuana shops are associated with sorceries because of their link to the drug trade.

Anything they picket turns to gold. Look what happened when they started picketing gays. Suddenly gay rights seemed like an incredibly good idea.

You really can’t buy this kind of help.

From Westboro’s schedule of picketing:

Pueblo West Organics (a/k/a Weed Store 🙁 in Pueblo West, CO December 29, 2014 1:15 PM – 1:45 PM
Westboro Baptist Church will picket Pueblo West Organics, to warn the living – it is a most dire warning … GOD HATES YOUR SORCERIES!

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. (Rev. 18:21-24)

Sorceries – pharmakeia far-mak-i?-ah sorcery witchcraft 1; 3

1) the use or the administering of drugs

2) poisoning

3) sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it

4) metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry
Do you see yourselves in that promised coming destruction foolish USA?

Doomed USA leads the world in your illegal drug trade. As if that were not bad enough, now the government sanctions those drugs. You bring down the wrath of God upon you! God Almighty will get his honor in your destruction! Westboro Baptist Church rejoices at the promised coming full, complete, final destruction! God is true and every man a liar. The mouth of the Lord has spoken of this event, so it WILL be!

GOD HATES SAME-SEX PIMPING, POT-SMOKING, FILTHY COLORADO PERVS!

Ahhh….

More on the lawsuit by Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Nebraska and Oklahoma are misreading Raich By Randy Barnett.

are Nebraska and Oklahoma just Fair-weather Federalists? By Jonathan Adler

Quote of the day from Radley Balco:

It’s possible to both be appalled by senseless executions of cops, and angry at unjustified killings by cops. This isn’t hard to understand.

Yep. That’s the answer to the decision by Nebraska and Oklahoma to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Colorado’s laws legalizing marijuana. Also, “ridiculous,” and “moronic.”

Nebraska and Oklahoma sue Colorado over marijuana legalization

Nebraska and Oklahoma filed the lawsuit directly with the nation’s highest court on Thursday. The two states argue that, “the State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system.”

“Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States’ own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems,” the lawsuit states.

Assuming that’s the case, and that those states feel the need to actually do that additional enforcement (which is their choice), it seems that it’s a matter of appealing to the federal government to help defend their border, not a question of overturning state laws.

“Federal law undisputedly prohibits the production and sale of marijuana,” Bruning added in a statement. “Colorado has undermined the United States Constitution, and I hope the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold our constitutional principles.”

Wow. It’s truly remarkable how people like to twist around rights. Apparently Nebraska feels that it has the Constitutional right to determine Colorado’s laws. That’s just facially absurd.

Speaking of facially absurd…

Groups opposed to legalization cheered the lawsuit. Kevin Sabet, a co-founder of the national group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said legalization of marijuana “is not implemented in a vacuum.”

“Colorado’s decisions regarding marijuana are not without consequences to neighboring states, and indeed all Americans,” Sabet wrote in a statement.

Well, then, I guess all states should be required to charge the exact same tax on cigarettes. And what about alcohol? There are still dry counties – isn’t legalization of alcohol making it more difficult for them? All state gun laws should be the same.

As much as some people would like to have a federal government run everything, that’s not the way our country is structured. And I don’t think the Supreme Court is going to tell a state that they have to get their laws approved by neighboring states.

Drug enforcement is not racist by John P. Walters and David W. Murray.

Yep, that John Walters. The former drug czar, and subject of hundreds of drug warrant postings. And yes, he and David Murray are arguing that the drug war isn’t racist.

His argument construction is truly masterful in its evil obfuscation.

Note where he tries to take you. From “the drug war is not racist” to this explanation:

A 2008 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that fewer than 0.3 percent of those incarcerated in state prison (which is where most US inmates are incarcerated) are there for simple marijuana-possession offenses — and many of those have just “pled down” from more serious offenses.

Wow. I’ve seen others misuse the state prison argument, but none to this degree. Of course, the drug war is way, way more than simple marijuana-possession offenses, and, of course, simple marijuana-possession offenses are not likely to end up specifically in state prison, but that doesn’t mean that the hundreds of thousands arrested each year for it are not harmed. Note the “which is where most US inmates are incarcerated” line, which is intended to make you think that anything else is an insignificant aspect to the argument.

Are African-Americans targeted victims of the drug laws? No — race is not the driver of “disparate impact.”

This is also fascinating. The drug war is racist because of its impact, not necessarily because of conscious effort on the part of all those enforcing. But here, he uses one aspect in the question, and a different one in the answer, making it seem like they follow when they don’t.

Walters was really good at this kind of paragraph construction when he was drug czar. He’d place disconnected statements next to each other in a way to make you think there was a connection between them.

Read the rest of his piece and see how he uses this in many of his arguments (also pay particular attention to words like “associated with” and “linked,” as well as his use of the perfect solution fallacy). Analyzing his writing is good practice for us.

Walters has definitely been consistent as a manipulative sadomoralist, even going back to his early days, when he was co-author of “Body Count: Moral Poverty.. and How to Win America’s War Against Crime and Drugs” with William J. Bennett and John J. DiIulio, Jr.

In some strange way, I almost miss this evil genius. Today’s buffoons like Kevin Sabet really don’t hold a candle.

There is a new surgeon general, and Kevin Sabet approves:

Congratulations to the new @Surgeon_General Vivek Murthy, who opposes marijuana. “I don’t recommend marijuana.” http://t.co/TB0FMuQxoy

Marijuana’s a no-no, says desi Surgeon General nominee

Dr Vivek H Murthy (bottom left), President Obama’s nominee for the United States Surgeon General, believes the jury is still out on the medical benefits of marijuana and hence he wouldn’t prescribe it to his patients. Furthermore, if he had kids, he would advise them to stay away from it. […]

Murthy acknowledged that “this is a very important issue” in many states and noted that some of his patients too had spoken to him on the efficacy of marijuana.

“This is an important public health issue,” he noted, but asserted, “I wouldn’t prescribe medical marijuana myself.”

Murthy said, “In my estimation, while there is anecdotal evidence of benefits we hear about from cancer doctors and other physicians about medical marijuana, I agree with the AMA (American Medical Association) and other organiastions, that we need more information about the proven indications of medical marijuana as well as safe doses and the risks and the side effects, before we can safely prescribe it for medical purposes.”

“Just like other drugs,” he said, “I don’t recommend marijuana and I don’t think it’s a good habit to use marijuana.”

Murthy added, “If I had kids, I would tell them not to use it.”

Asked if he would use his bully pulpit as surgeon general to get this message out to the public, he said, “What I would do is — as I was mentioning earlier — I believe we need more information on marijuana.”

That doesn’t sound like opposition so much as it does an attempt to walk some kind of political line. The “I can’t decide without more information” response is not only getting old, but since there actually is so much information out there, it makes the speaker sound stupid and uninformed.

Of course, there are drugs prescribed and recommended all the time about which we have far less information than we do about marijuana.

But maybe Dr. Murthy is some kind of radical who actually opposes all drugs, including pharmaceuticals, too…

“Just like other drugs,” he said, “I don’t recommend marijuana…”

Hmmm… appears he hasn’t even really figured out the definition of the word “drugs.”

The Surgeon General position has always been political, and rarely relevant. It appears that this may be more of the same.

Now and then, however, we’ve had someone actually step up in the position.

“The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS — or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them. And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day.” – M. Jocelyn Elders

Absolutely outstanding response to the Big Marijuana nonsense: Marijuana Legalization: The Big Tobacco Smokescreen by Jon Gettman

Big Marijuana? It’s catchy, but comparing legalized marijuana to the tobacco industry misleads both the public and policymakers about the challenges of regulating this industry. […]

However, marijuana regulations need to be devised on solid information and experience, and not on the basis of superficial analogies, and most certainly not based on hypocrisy. Big Marijuana already exists — it’s also called the Black Market. Public concern over a large, unregulated, socially irresponsible marijuana market is, and should be, argument number one in support of marijuana’s legalization.

Native American reservations now free to legalize marijuana

The Justice Department said Thursday it will no longer prosecute federal laws regulating the growing or selling of marijuana on reservations, even when state law bans the drug.

The government will let tribal governments decide what to do about pot.

So, apparently Congress blocked the implementation of Washington DC’s vote for legalization. Or maybe they didn’t. Depends on who you read and how they interpret the language of the amendment. I’ll wait and see.

However, it’s always interesting to follow the money. Why Is This Maryland Republican Really Trying to Block D.C.’s Pot Legalization?

As for why Harris has made this fight against D.C. democracy his primary cause, the Attn. blog looked into the congressman’s biggest donors and found that a Maryland-based company called Emergent BioSolutions near the top of the list.

Attn.’s Matthew Seagel reports:

One of Emergent’s products is epsil, “a fast-acting treatment that reduces the pain associated with oral mucositis,” which is a common complication of chemotherapy from cancer treatment. According to its website, “by reducing the pain associated with OM, episil® may help you maintain proper nutrition and a level of comfort—and may allow you to continue your cancer therapy uninterrupted.”

So what does any of this mean?

Marijuana (cannabis) is a huge combatant against many of the deleterious effects of cancer and chemotherapy, and thus a hugely disruptive threat to Emergent’s business model.

No surprise there.

U.S. marijuana foes discuss launching tax-exempt funding body

Marijuana legalization opponents could launch a tax-exempt fundraising body as early as next year that would let them shield donors, part of a broader 2016 election strategy aimed at raising more cash and merging political factions, activists said on Wednesday. […]

Smart Approaches to Marijuana President Kevin Sabet, who said he pushed for the tax-exempt group, said there was a moment of relief over a U.S. spending bill that bars the nation’s capital from using funds to implement legal pot.

Sabet said the group also discussed lobbying 2016 presidential candidates and appealing to wealthy donors like casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who spent some $4 million campaigning against Florida’s medical pot initiative, as well as corporations concerned about stoned workers and liability.

Another outrageous case that’s been added to my Drug War Victims page.

Police shoot, kill Georgia grandfather during no-knock drug raid

EAST DUBLIN, GA — A drug task force gunned down a grandfather in his home during a botched late-night raid that was based on the word of a self-confessed meth addict and burglar who had robbed the property two nights prior. [..]

The officers claimed to be looking for methamphetamines. After searching the home forty-four (44) hours, not a single trace of narcotics was retrieved.

The warrant — which was acquired only 1 hour before the raid — had been founded on information provided by the very same burglar who had stolen the Hooks’ Lincoln Aviator SUV two nights prior. The self-described thief and meth-addict was Rodney Garrett, who alleged that he had obtained drugs from inside the vehicle he had stolen from David and Teresa Hooks.

Attorney: Hooks shot in the back and head during raid

He says officers were looking for drugs in the home, but didn’t find any. Shook says the officers fired 17 shots inside the home and struck Hooks.

He says Hooks had four wounds, two of which he says are very problematic. Shook says that’s according to the Laurens County EMS records. He says the same information is found in the medical records from Fairview Park Hospital.

“One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots,” says Shook. […]

Teresa Hooks, David’s wife, remembers the night clearly.

She says, “Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, ‘Who is it?,’ and I said I didn’t know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over.”

She says, “Initially, I thought that I was going to die, I thought I was going to be shot, I thought a gang had broke in, and up until I heard the radios the dispatch radios, I had no idea.”

Hooks says she sat outside in handcuffs for two hours after her husband was shot to death.

She says during that time, she had to watch her husband on a stretcher without a word from officers about what was going on.

More links at that story.