Drug WarRant

Surprise — an article about drugged driving that doesn’t blame marijuana or promote zero-tolerance drug testing (neither of which are the problems in real drugged driving).
Experts Concerned About `Drug Driving’, by Maggie Shepard in the Albuquerque Tribune focuses on — get this — those who are actually impaired when they drive.

Just before Christmas, a woman who says she was taking only the prescribed dose of her pain killer and anti-anxiety medication blacked out as she was driving to the grocery store.
She lost control of her SUV and caused a crash that killed Natasha Ruth, 69, according to Rio Rancho police. […]
New Mexico law does not differentiate between impairment from alcohol, legal narcotics or appropriately used prescription drugs.
“Impairment means impairment,” said Franklin Garcia, program director for the state Traffic Safety Bureau.

Exactly. And law enforcement should deal specifically with thoe who are impaired, regardless of the means of impairment.
In the article, the Police Lieutenant (Conrad Murray) called for more training for officers to be able to deal with identifying this kind of impairment. He didn’t call for more drug testing, or stricter laws based on identifying trace elements of illegal drugs in the bloodstream as we so often see.
Refreshing. Perhaps Murray really wants to make the roads safer, rather than following the Drug Czar’s political motivations.
We need more of this attitude. Sure, having to actually identify impairment on the road or in the workplace, in the context of the situation, requires skill and judgement. It takes more work than a blood test, or simply demonizing marijuana users because that particular drug happens to leave evidence in the blood longer.

The health section of today’s New York Times has a fairly decent article (not well written, but very informative to the lay person), about the challenges of treating chronic pain these days, and isn’t very nice to the DEA

Now the federal government, and especially the Drug Enforcement Administration, is working overtime to make it even harder for doctors to manage serious pain, including that of dying patients trying to exit this world gracefully.

The article even addressed the fact that most people (and even some doctors) don’t understand the difference between addiction and dependency:

An addict uses a drug to get high, becomes tolerant and needs ever-increasing amounts to maintain that high. Patients taking narcotics for pain don’t get high; they get relief from their pain, and when larger doses are needed, it is usually because their pain has become more intense, as often happens in patients with advanced cancer or degenerative diseases.

Always nice to see a major paper take on an issue like this.

Talk about a disconnect from reality…

VANCOUVER — The federal government argued yesterday that Steve Kubby and his family should be deported to the United States because there is no evidence he will be denied marijuana to cope with his cancer, even if he is put in jail.

Link
The judge is expected to make a decision this week.

From the Narco News Bulletin: Leaked Memo: Corrupt DEA Agents in Colombia Help Narcos and Paramilitaries

The drug war is supposed to follow a very clear script: According to the official screenwriters, the U.S. justice system is pitted against corrupt players in foreign countries who are trying to flood American streets with illicit drugs. The narco-traffickers, crooked cops, and thieving politicians in the drug war are always over there, in Latin America, and elsewhere, and U.S. law enforcers and government officials are always the good guys battling these forces of evil.
But what happens when evidence surfaces that turns that script on its ear? What happens if proof emerges that it is the U.S. justice system that is corrupt? A document obtained recently by Narco News [pdf] makes those questions more than hypothetical queries. In this document, Department of Justice attorney Thomas M. Kent claims that federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Bogot½, Colombia, are the corrupt players in the war on drugs.

Surprise, surprise.
(The author does sacrifice some clarity in that last sentence, however. It should probably read: “federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Bogot½, Colombia, are also corrupt players in the war on drugs” since there is certainly no shortage of corruption within the Colombian factions.)
More on DEA corruption in Colombia here.

I’ve been spending the day upgrading to Tiger, so here are some things to check out elsewhere:
“bullet” The Austin Chronicle gave its Top 10 Drug War Stories of 2005 in The Chronic Goes On
Scott at Grits for Breakfast responded with his own Top 10 list focusing on Texas.
“bullet” Loretta Nall has been getting some respect in her bid for the Alabama governor’s mansion, getting a mention on Alabama Public Television, a bid to participate in a candidate forum, and is working hard toward the ultimate goal – participating in debates.
“bullet” John at High: The true tale of American Marijuana is getting close to finishing his film and has a new poster up at his site. Provocative!
“bullet” thehim, as always, has an excellent drug war roundup for the week

I had the distinct pleasure yesterday of being interviewed for a television documentary exploring contemporary political debates regarding Constitutional rights. Matt Ehling and the crew from ETS Pictures came to my home town to talk to me about Raich and the drug war as they relate to the Commerce Clause and the Fourth Amendment.
The local paper actually covered the filming, if you’re interested.
They hope to have the documentary ready for release by the end of the summer– I’ll let you know when it’s going to air.
Welcome to any new local visitors who stopped by because of the article. If your interest is in the Raich case, I have a page here.

As long as we’re discussing the potential ramifications of Sativex in the U.S. on medical marijuana and recreational marijuana reform, here are a couple of follow-up questions for you to discuss (I’ve got a packed day today and no time to do extended posts myself)

1. Given the fact that Sativex trials are being done specifically for late stage cancer pain right now, it seems likely that approval for Sativex will be given for only certain very specific uses. As we know, marijuana is useful for a whole variety of medical purposes relating to pain, nauseau, and more. Will the restrictions on Sativex use keep the door open for medical marijuana laws?
2. If Sativex is approved, what impact will that have on workplace and school drug testing?

That’s the question raised in this Hit and Run post by Jacob Sullum.

These developments, while a boon to patients, will pose a challenge to the drug policy reform movement, which has gotten a lot of mileage out of the federal government’s cruel, know-nothing intransigence on the issue of medical marijuana. Once legal, equally effective aternatives to marijuana are readily available, reformers will be forced to switch their focus back to recreational use (which is, after all, the main form of marijuana consumption), seemingly confirming the accusation that all their talk about the drug’s medical virtues was just a cover. And having emphasized the sympathetic claims of suffering patients for so long, they will be in a weak position to argue that people shouldn’t need a special excuse to smoke pot.

I’m not sure I agree, but it’s an interesting question. What do you think?

The Canadian government has issued a stay of three conspiracy charges filed by a private citizen against Marc Emery. By not allowing the trial to go forward, it opens the door to extradition hearings against Marc.
It’s a strange set of circumstances. The charges by the private citizen were filed on purpose to interfere with extradition. If Marc was under trial in Canada, he could not be extradited to the U.S. Emery’s attorney, Kirk Tousaw says the decision is politically motivated.

“I’m concerned when our government acts as an arm of the U.S. drug war and has an opportunity to reassert Canadian sovereignty but refused to do so,” Tousaw said. “I think all Canadians should be concerned about that.”
McCann said he doesn’t understand why the federal government would participate in an extradition request by the United States when it largely ignored Emery’s activities and Health Canada even referred patients needing medicinal marijuana to him.
Emery and his associates were arrested last July after police raided Emery’s pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Emery, dubbed the Prince of Pot by American media, is set to return to B.C. Supreme Court next month to set a date for his extradition hearing.

Sativex, the liquid form of marijuana being marketed by GW Pharmaceuticals, has been given the OK by the Food and Drug Administration to skip ahead to phase III trials in the U.S. — actual testing on advanced stage cancer patients to last 24 to 36 months.
I guess GW gets the preferred treatment. They don’t have to buy their marijuana from the U.S. government. They get to use their own.
Interesting.