Drug WarRant

So the Drug Czar went to Denver to announce the new National Drug Control Strategy. Gee, I wonder why he went there? Marijuana Policy Project was all over that move…

White House Drug Strategy: Use Tax Dollars
to Campaign Against Reform

Document Continues Failed Policies as Officials Lobby
Against Common-Sense Reforms, MPP Charges

DENVER, COLORADO — The 2006 National Drug Control Strategy unveiled today by White House Drug Czar John Walters renews concerns about the federal government’s continuing use of tax dollars to campaign against changes to failed drug policies, officials of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) charged. The plan was released at a news conference in Denver, where voters in November passed an initiative that made adult possession and use of marijuana legal under city ordinance.

“This document signals that the administration will continue using tax dollars to campaign against common-sense reforms, while wasting billions on failed policies,” said MPP Director of Government Relations Aaron Houston. “It is not a coincidence that John Walters took his junket to Denver, where voters dealt a stinging rebuke to the government’s war on marijuana.”

In that release, MPP also dramatically demonstrates the lie that Walters loves to promote — that drug warriors have a hard time countering the “well-funded” legalization lobby. This chart (pdf) shows just how little drug policy reform organizations have compared to their opposition.
In a related bit of news, President Bush gave a speech on Wednesday:

I’ve got a group of folks that are constantly analyzing whether or not the federal government is doing what you’re doing — doing what you expect us to do. You realize we spend $2.7 trillion a year, and there are more than 1,000 federal programs. That’s a lot, that’s a lot of programs. And it makes sense to make sure that they’re working. See, good intentions aren’t enough, as far as this administration is concerned. We’re insisting that people show us, program managers show us, whether or not they’re achieving — these programs achieve results.

[…]The point is, is that if they can’t prove they’re achieving good results, then the programs, in my judgment, ought to be eliminated and/or trimmed back. That’s why I told you earlier, we found 141 such programs. And we did the same thing in last year’s budget, as well.

One of the interesting innovations that we have put forth is a new website, called expectmore.gov. It’s a program where — it’s a website where we start to put the measurement results up for everybody to see. Nothing like transparency into the federal bureaucracy to determine whether or not a program is working. And so I think you’ll find it innovative — I do — that the White House has put this website up. And you’ll be able to see whether or not results are being achieved for the money spent.

So, what do we find at expectmore.gov?

…and just to let you know how low the bar is set on these, both the DEA and the Andean Counter Drug Initiative (two of the most outrageous wastes of taxpayer funds) got grades of “Adequate.” I was unable to find any drug war programs listed as “Effective.”
So, Mr. President. If you really want to reduce the deficit and eliminate programs that aren’t achieving good results, shouldn’t we be taking a closer look at the drug war?

Drug WarRant is expanding. Today, I added Drug WarRant.net — intended to be a community site as a companion to Drug WarRant.com.
Right now there is a messageboard, and soon there will be a Wiki for developing a set of pages to serve as a guide to Drug Legalization Regulation Regimes.
Stop by the messageboard and let me know what you think.
[Note: if you’re not able to access the site, it’s because the domain name was just registered on Wednesday and it may not have gotten to all ISP’s yet. Wait a few hours and try again.]

There’s a great new film about the drug war making its debut this month. John Holowach has created a serious documentary that’s lots of fun to watch. And while the title, High: the True Tale of American Marijuana gives you the starting point for this film, the overall content sneaks up on you and before you’re fully aware of it, you’ve come to understand that the entire drug war is inescapably interconnected.

John Holowach is an accomplished film-maker who has passionate feelings about the drug war (he’s been a regular at Drug WarRant). This film came about because of his realization that there was an important void to be filled. And “High” is the only documentary out there that provides a comprehensive contemporary view of drug policy reform.

Visit the website of HIGH

OFFICIAL PUBLIC PREMIERE
February 28, 2006
Ohio State University
Campbell Hall, Room 200
7:30 PM – $5
Q&A with Director afterwards

More public showings listed at the site, including February 28 at Brown University, and March 24 at Truman State University. If you want to set up a showing, there’s contact information on the site.

Jim’s post of the same name at Vice Squad is a fascinating read…

Let me suggest four reasons. The first is simply the tyranny of the status quo.

…and it’s a status quo with a hell of a lot of momentum.

Second, there is a dose of logic which is persuasive (on the surface, at least) and irrefutable, but not dispositive — though the fact that it is not dispositive apparently is subtle. That logic goes along the lines of “if there were no drugs, there would be no drug problems.” Because this logic is absolutely correct, any tragedy that occurs under the current prohibitory regime — instead of discrediting prohibition, which would seem to be the obvious response — can be met, without conspicuous senselessness, by a call for a more committed prohibition. The notion that the drug-free world that the logic calls for is itself either a chimera or not worth the cost seems to be less than immediately accessible. So prohibition becomes a self-justifying policy.

Deliciously worded, Jim! And so true. “Chimera” is the perfect word to describe the goals of the drug war.

Third, parents in the middle and upper classes in developed nations might believe — and they might be right to believe — that prohibition (relative to some undelineated alternative) makes it a bit less likely that their kids will become enmeshed in drugs.

Jim goes on to qualify this, but I do want to point out that, while I fully agree with the fact that “parents might believe,” I’m not so sure I agree that “they might be right to believe” — particularly when used with the word “enmeshed.”

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, people don’t have a good idea about what a legal alternative entails. […]
Perhaps the time has come for the legalization advocates to coalesce around some very specific policies that spell out, on a drug-by-drug basis, the precise regulatory regime that we have in mind.

I’ll start working on it right away (and I welcome submissions from my readers).

“There is no drug known to man which becomes safer when its production and distribution are handed over to criminals” says Professor Norman Zinberg who led a study into drug addiction at Harvard Medical School.
“Water would become dangerous if it were banned and handed over to a criminal black market.”

From Heroin is Harmless.

Link

Variety reports that Steve Buscemi will topline New Line Cinema’s We’re the Millers, a comedy about a marijuana dealer trying to get out of the business after making one last score by smuggling 1,400 pounds of pot from Mexico.
We’re the Millers, written by the Wedding Crashers scripting team of Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, will be directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty).

I haven’t seen much yet about the 2007 budget proposals from the administration (submitted to Congress yesterday), but this article in Asia Times talks about the foreign expenditures portion.
Of course, there’s a lot for continuing military operations, and especially the war on terror — now renamed “the long war” by the Pentagon.

By contrast, Bush’s proposed 2007 foreign-aid request will remain roughly the same as last year’s at some $24 billion, the equivalent of what Washington spends in less than five months in Iraq.
Moreover, the president is calling for a nearly 20% cut in development aid – from roughly $1.5 billion $1.26 billion in development aid – and similar cuts in disaster assistance and child-survival and health programs. […]
Apart from Bush’s pet anti-AIDS and MCA programs, the new foreign-aid bill calls for a 70% increase in anti-drug spending, to some $1.5 billion worldwide. Much of that will be spent in Afghanistan which, since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001, has become by far the world’s biggest source of opium and heroin. “The drug war comes out a real winner in the budget allocation,” [research fellow Stewart] Patrick said.

Decreasing development aid and increasing drug war funding. Sure. That makes sense. If you’re playing Calvinball.

Jonathan V. Last is the online editor of the Weekly Standard who rather famously described the torture at Abu Ghraib:

Worse happens in frat houses across America … bad pictures with some guys playing naked Twister. It’s bad, but we don’t want to get too crazy.

In addition to his enjoyment of the innocent pleasures of torture, he’s a big fan of the drug war, and the ONDCP in particular.
He rhapsodizes about the drug war in today’s Philadelphia Enquirer: We Are Winning the War on Drugs, in which he uncritically, and without context, parrots ONDCP talking points.
In conclusion, he practically gets down on his knees to fellate the Drug Czar:

Next week, the ONDCP will release a report outlining their order of battle for 2006. Director John Walters is not the type to go running for the nearest TV camera. Yet the quiet success he has overseen is a powerful reminder that the bad guys are not 10 feet tall; that failure is not inevitable; that the war on drugs is a war worth fighting; and that we’re fighting it well.

Here’s something to watch in preparation for the big event.
Super Bowl – White House Office of National Drug Control Policy: Subway Ride — A classic.
Remember this? The ONDCP used taxpayer money to buy a Superbowl ad to attempt to shift the blame for their failed policies. The drugs and terrorism ad campaign ended up receiving extraordinary ridicule (some decided that the moral of it was that pot smokers should be sure to “buy American”), and the Libertarian Party and Drug Policy Alliance both responded with newspaper ads that put the blame for drug-profit-funded terrorism where it belonged — on John Walters and international drug policy.

It’s not that I’m scared of the things I’m supposed to fear. Al Qaeda and terrorist attacks are less frightening to me than the ongoing destruction of the constitution by our own government.
But given our recent… incompetence… in foreign affairs, and our long-standing willful stupidity in international drug policy, the potential for near-future disaster is appalling.
First, take a look at Venezuela (where the DEA has clearly been a vehicle for political spying, sabotage, and the creation of instability) and Bolivia (where oppressive U.S. drug policy actually vaulted Morales to power). Instead of looking at how we might adjust drug policy to work with these countries better, or finding a way to open up dialog, what do we get?

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld likened Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Adolf Hitler, reflecting continuing tension in relations between the United States and the Latin American government. […]
“I mean, we’ve got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money,” Rumsfeld added. “He’s a person who was elected legally _ just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally _ and then consolidated power and now is, of course, working closely with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others.”

Oh, yeah, that’ll help. Is this a setup for some future action?
Closer to home, we have Mexico, with all the drug violence that is a result of our drug war. And the major players in the violence are former (and current) Mexican police, former (and current) Mexican soldiers, and assassins trained by the U.S. government (Los Zetas) who switched sides.
Link

A 216-page federal court file obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows how the Sinaloa drug cartel last year bought police protection at three levels of government, run by three political parties, to maintain its hold on Acapulco.

So we already here a situation that we created through the drug war that has overrun established law enforcement mechanisms through corruption. If it continues, how will the U.S. react? Particularly when they see this…

IED’s Among Weapons Seized in Laredo Raids
Believed tied to Mexico drug war, not Middle Eastern Terror

Improvised explosive devices, the home made bombs which have killed and maimed so many U.S. troops in Iraq, were among the items seized in three raids in the Texas border city of Laredo, federal officials said today.
Julie Myers, the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters here today that the raids at three homes in Laredo, on January 12, January 27, and yesterday, seized stacks of automatic weapons, grenades, gunpowder, ammunition, and drugs, as well as IEDs.

Chavez, Morales, Hitler… IED’s, narco-terrorists, U.S. soil…
The seeds are planted. But can we survive if the U.S. decides to take its beloved drug war up to the next level?