Drug WarRant

“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?

NYT Editorial:

After dragging its feet for months, the agency has asked a tiny nonprofit group to pay a ruinous sum for information on the impact of a law that bars students who have committed drug offenses from receiving federal grants and loans. […]
The fee represents an increasingly common tactic that is used by the government to discourage public inquiries. The student group has acquired pro bono representation and filed suit in federal court. Members of Congress could end the battle by requesting the information on the group’s behalf. Beyond that, Congress should reinforce the Freedom of Information Act — which was meant to prevent this kind of thing in the first place.

Via Hit and Run
The Drug Policy Alliance has released their new 2006 Drug Policy Reform Congressional Voter Guide: A Survey of the U.S. House of Representatives on Drug Policy Reform (PDF file)
It’s a wonderful report. I had worked on putting together state by state voting guides in 2004 — a lot of work. What the Drug Policy Alliance has put together is a great start, focusing on six votes in the House of Representatives.
The best of the best (based on voting record and bills sponsored) included: 2005 Champion: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-18th/TX); 2005 Heroes: Rep. John Conyers (D-14th/MI), Rep. Sam Farr (D-17th/CA), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-6th/AZ), Rep. Barney Frank (D-14th MA), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-23rd/FL), Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-22nd/NY), Rep. Ron Paul (R-14th/TX), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-46th/CA), and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-3rd/VA; Honorable Mention: Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-3rd/OR), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-10th/OH), Rep. John Olver (D-1st/MA), Rep. James McGovern (D-3rd/MA), Rep. George Miller (D-7th/CA), Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-5th/MN), Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-39th/CA), Rep. John Tierney (D-6th/MA), Rep. Diane Watson (D-33/CA), Rep. Julia Carson (D-7th/IN), Rep. Al Green (D-9th/TX), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-9th/CA), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-15th/NY), Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-9th/IL), and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-6th/CA).
Naturally, my Representative — Weller (R-11th/IL) — is in the worst category, with a voting record of 1 out of 6. (Nobody got 0 of 6, because one of the votes that the Drug Policy Alliance used was a minor adjustment to treatment rules that received a unanimous vote in the House.)
How did your Rep score?

Every now and then, my hunting through the web produces a find that’s just startling in its loquacious ignorance.
It’s unlikely that a dialog with such a deluded mind would prove in any way useful, so just enjoy the absurdity (and the bizarre sentence structure).

Soros’ influence over at Lewrockwell.com with Soros’ anti-War on Drug status is a major concern. Soros is tied to “alternative anti-drug” groups that are not honest on the affects on illegal drugs onto the American public. These drugs include mostly maijuana, but can include cocaine to what these “alternative” groups advocate. Soros’ Open Society Institute funds these “alternative” groups and encourages for the “drug alternative” to the current anti-drug groups like DARE.[…]
There is a clear case that Soros is attempting to influence Libertarian groups into going against the drug war America is waging. [emphasis added]

Oh yeah, those libertarians were huge supporters of the drug war before Soros came along!
He has more here

George Soros and his Open Society Institute is the main culprit in funding these “friendly drug alternative” groups. These groups of course want to legalize potentially harmful drugs to the American public. They are spreading disinformation on America’s War on Drugs. They want an end to it, because they know that America doesn’t really seem to get that it’s a real war. Meaning real rogue nations with ties to nations like Russia and China that are being endorsed to spread drugs to drug America.

Over the years, the drug reform community has often had to deal with an image that was perceived by the press and politicians as a joke — the long-haired hippie stoner as spokesperson for reform. Well, the tables have turned. Sure, we still have the hippies, but we have academics, lawyers, cops, religious leaders, and the best thinkers within liberal, conservative and libertarian camps. And our opposition? Corrupt officials, psychotic paranoiacs and sado-moralists.

It’s not enough for many to enforce unjust laws against marijuana possession, growth and sale… they have to find other ways to express their displeasure through punishment.
Paraphernalia laws are a prime example of this. How absurd a notion! Thing A (marijuana) is illegal, and Thing B (pipe) can be used to facilitate the use of Thing A. Thing A doesn’t in any way require Thing B, and Thing B and be used for a lot of different things not involving Thing A. Someone can buy Thing B intending to use it with Thing A and that’s legal. However, if you attempt to sell Thing B with the acknowledgment that someone might use it with Thing A, you’re busted (even if the buyer had no interest in Thing A, and no Thing A was around or involved). Confused? You should be.
I can legally tell people that Hookahs can be used to smoke marijuana. I can legally open up a store and sell Hookahs and tell people that they’re for tobacco use. However, once i have that store, if I tell people that Hookahs can be used to smoke marijuana, I’ve broken the law, because now I’m selling drug paraphernalia.
Not counting the big Tommy Chong affair, I haven’t talked much about paraphernalia busts, but they continue to happen all the time. Recently, it seems that Spencer’s Gift stores seem to be targeted.

A hookah may be just a hookah, police in Middletown Township say.
But if sold under a sign reading: “Marijuana – because your friends just aren’t that funny,” it’s drug paraphernalia, they contend.
Middletown police have charged the president of Spencer Gifts Inc., Steven Silverstein, 46, of Summit, N.J., and the manager of the chain’s Oxford Valley Mall store, Wayne Oles, 53, of North Philadelphia, with delivery of or possession with intent to deliver drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy for selling hookahs — tall water pipes used for smoking tobacco and other substances in some parts of the world.

The detective claims that employees gave him tips on how to use the hookahs to smoke marijuana — possible, but a claim I find unlikely given the fact that every store I’ve been in seems paranoid about this exact scenario, and has a big “For tobacco use only” sign above the hookahs. What really seemed to set the detective off was the fact that the store also sold items with marijuana leaves on them.

Police seized the hookahs in September, along with thousands of key chains, T-shirts, Frisbees and other items depicting marijuana leaves, Detective Daniel Baranoski said.
Stores are permitted to sell merchandise with drug-related artwork, said Witold “Vic” Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
“Just because something has a marijuana leaf on it doesn’t make it illegal,” he said.
Baranoski concurred and said the merchandise was seized and continues to be held as evidence to show that the hookahs were intended for marijuana use.

So let me get this straight. In this case, pictures of leaves have been seized because their existence demonstrates intent that another item’s sale was to be used with something illegal. Orwellian?
So, if I had a Farmer’s Market, and sold marijuana key chains, I wonder if I could be arrested for also selling apples?
Here was the kicker in the story:

Parents initiated the investigation at the Oxford Valley Mall, Baranoski said.
“Some parents were shocked at what they sold behind the counter there,” he said. “Adolescents go in that store and may think from the merchandise that marijuana use is OK. And it’s not.”

Horrors! The danger of kids going into Spencer’s Gifts and getting the wrong idea from something that’s sold there.
Well, a picture of a marijuana leaf is a pretty dangerous thing to expose children to — as opposed to all the other child-friendly items sold at Spencer’s…