Drug WarRant

Radley Balko has a great couple of pieces (1, 2) on the new version of the horrendous Straight programs (see also our discussion about the Semblers last week) called Kids Helping Kids.
The Agitator already has this list, but it’s worth repeating. Check out these warning signs put out by the group (any four means your kid should be enrolled in a torture program):

Has your child….

• seemed depressed
• become rebellious and defiant
• had trouble with the law
• had a bad attitude
• avoided you upon arriving home
• become increasingly isolated
• had a drop in grades
• required extra sleep
• dropped out of favorite activities
• changed friends
• started looking unkempt or unhealthy
• changed image/clothes/personal style
• been caught lying
• possessed unexplained money
• threatened or attempted suicide
• frequently broken curfew
• been fired from work
• come home high or drunk
• destroyed car or property

Do you…

• argue with your spouse about your child’s behavior
• feel anger or dislike for your child
• fear you are a failure as a parent
• “bargain” with your child to change
• compromise your own values
• lower your expectations
• feel frustrated because nothing seems to change your child’s behavior
• cover up for your child
• make excuses for your child
• feel relieved when your child leaves the house
• give money to your child
• fear your child might injure him/herself
• fear your child might injure others
• desire to spend less time at home
• fear your child is out of control

How many of these signs applied to you? I was a preacher’s kid who never got in a bit of trouble (and never even tried alcohol until college), and yet I bet that 12 of these applied to me when I was in high school.
Update: The Onion understands.

In the early history of marijuana prohibition, there were plenty of bizarre stories. There was government expert Dr. James Munch who testified in court, under oath, that marijuana had turned him into a bat (until even Anslinger was embarrassed by his testimony).
Then there was the evidence presented to Congress about the dangers of marijuana:

Surely, you say, that was in the dark ages. We don’t think that way any more.
Jump forward to yesterday: Pit Bulls to be Tested for Marijuana

Ah, yes, marijuana was found in the home. Nothing else could explain why pit bulls would attack people, so it must have been the marijuana. Marijuana eaten by the dogs causing violence. Right. (If anything, it would make them docile and sleepy.)
I’m sure there were other things in that home as well. Bread, flowers, drain cleaner — why not test to see if any of those caused the dogs to become violent?
The level of ignorance involved here is astonishing.

… or another one in your face, Drug Czar!
Via Marijuana Policy Project: Largest-Ever Study of Marijuana, Depression Finds Fewer Depressive Symptoms, Better Mood:

So is this just a small effect that could be open to interpretation?

So how could the drug czar be so wrong? (other than the fact that they like to lie and manipulate data)
It’s the junk science approach that they use. If, for example they study a group of depressed people and find that many of them use marijuana, they’ll link depression with marijuana use. However, it is more likely that depressed people are using marijuana as self-medication for their depression. This study is better, because is takes full populations and looks at the overall effect — and overall, those who use marijuana (whether depressed or not) are less depressed than those who do not.
Earlywine confirms this:

No, I wasn’t at the Drug Policy Alliance convention — I was in a kind of personal computer hell for a few days. Three disconnected events: 1. A separate website I run had its server and two backups fry at the hosting company and we lost everything from late October on. 2. A messageboard I manage (on a different server) for a theatre company was maliciously hacked with all messages deleted — got that mostly restored. 3. On an external hard drive at work, over one Gig of original photographs of mine were mysteriously deleted. We’re still working on trying to recover some of the data.
Enough about that — let’s get back to talking about the drug war. I’ve got the best group of commenters in the world, who have been keeping discussion going here while I’ve been out of action.

Well, I finish my run in Marat/Sade this evening. It’s been a wonderful show and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but losing every evening for the past 8 weeks has taken its toll. I now will need some time to recover and catch up with other work, but I’ll try to get back to more posting here quickly.
For now, check these out:
“bullet” Militarizing Mayberry at The Agitator. Standard knock-down-the-door-slam-the-residents-to-the-floor-and-cuff-them drug warrior approach for 2.5 grams of marijuana. And sure, ignore the fact that the woman is havin a heart attack. When it comes to busting marijuana, who cares about human life, anyway? The woman survived and is suing.
“bullet” A new political approach? Politician admits using cocaine and his poll numbers immediately go up. Hmmm… Bush could use some help right now… (Thanks, Lee) [Also, I see Joel Miller had the same thought]
“bullet” Jews Lead the Charge for Medical Pot — interesting article by Joe Eskenazi of Jewish News Weekly. The article talks about Irv Rosenfeld, Robert Raich, Ed Rosenthal, and others. One of my favorite anecdotes in the article is from attorney Bill Panzer:

A good article at Reason by David Weigel: When Patriots Dissent —
Surprise: Standing up to the PATRIOT Act can be good politics.
The article gives a nice background of the erosion of support for the Patriot Act, and while the drug war isn’t mentioned, it’s relevant.
The Patriot Act was touted as a way to apply drug warrior tactics to terrorism, and then, behold, the new provisions were often primarily used to give drug warriors more weapons to use against Americans’ rights.

Thanks to Daksya —
Check out this excellent re-cap by Dahlia Lithwick of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on Georgia v. Randolph. You can get a real sense of what mattered (particularly in 4th amendment terms) to the different Justices (and it doesn’t look good with our new Chief Justice).
I agree with Dahlia’s conclusion:

Here’s my earlier post on the subject.

Via MPP:

A couple of interesting pieces to read if you’ve got a little extra time.
“bullet” Ambassador de Sade, By John Gorenfeld in AlterNet.
Bush’s ambassador to Italy doesn’t speak Italian, and his qualifications seem to be a history of running a program that tortured kids. That’s right. Ambassador Mel Sembler and his wife ran STRAIGHT, Inc….

Despite all the lawsuits and legal actions, since the Semblers were political contributors, STRAIGHT, Inc managed to change its name to the Drug Free America Foundation, receiving government subsidies and spinning off organizations like SAFE, and the Semblers got to party it up in Italy, where they still keep busy…

It’s a pretty sickening article.
“bullet” Give me Cognitive Liberty by Salim Muwakkil in In These Times.

Probably not the most effective argument to use when debating your local prohibitionist, but an Interesting article with some points worth discussing.

Ethan wrote an OPED last week in the Scotsman that’s worth reading: Don’t Follow Us into a Disastrous War on Drugs
With some pressure in the UK for government to revert cannabis to class B (harsher penalties), Ethan uses the United States as a prime example of how idiotic that would be.
It’s an interesting read — nothing particularly new to us, but good background for Europeans on how stupid we are about drug policy in the U.S.
I particularly liked this quote (a good one to use when talking to those who fear that legalization will somehow turn society into a drug-free-for-all):