Free hard drugs

Posted on October 15, 2005 by Pete Guither

Are people allowing themselves to actually be bolder in their thinking these days?
From a small Pennsylvania town…

Amid the flurry of voices on the phone cheering a column about an ex-cop advocating drug legalization was that of Dr. Joseph Foreman.

I’m assuming the reference is to a story about one of the fine folks at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) — perhaps Howard Woolridge’s ride across America. From that, a doctor gains the courage to speak up.

Dr. Foreman isn’t a crank. When he told me that heroin, cocaine and meth should be legalized, I listened.

“You have to control the suppliers. Once you take their profits away, they dry up. This is how we keep young people from getting hooked,” he said.

Foreman, 79, lives in Churchville and spent 40 years as a surgeon, part of it as chief of surgery at Warminster General Hospital in the 1980s.

Here’s where it gets really interesting.

His solution is to launch government-run clinics where registered addicts would go to snort and shoot up. ( He doesn’t include marijuana, which to him is not a “hard” drug. )

“If my plan works, there will be no more money for suppliers because the hardcore users will be getting [drugs] for free,” he said.

With the profit motive gone, the black market would disappear, and kids would be far less likely to get hooked on street dope, he said.

His plan sounds like appeasement, I said.

“Yes it is,” he said. “But I recognize that putting addicts in jail or arresting street runners who are supplying drugs only means there will be another guy to replace them. I think my plan will work. I really do.”

The reporter was uncertain about the idea, but at least willing to pass it on. Well, I can tell Dr. Foreman not only that his plan would work, but that it has worked.
From an article in the Guardian:

Switzerland is now leading the way out of prohibition. In 1994, it started prescribing free heroin to long-term addicts who had failed to respond to law enforcement or any other treatment. In 1998, a Lausanne criminologist, Martin Kilias, found that the users’ involvement in burglary, mugging and robbery had fallen by 98%; in shoplifting, theft and handling by 88%; in selling soft drugs by 70%; in selling hard drugs by 91%. As a group, their contacts with police had plunged to less than a quarter of the previous level. The Dutch and the Germans have had similar results with the same strategy. All of them report that, apart from these striking benefits in crime prevention, the users are also demonstrably healthier ( because clean heroin properly used is a benign drug ) and that they are more stable with clear improvements in housing, employment and relationships.

Kudos to Dr. Foreman for having the courage to think outside the box and speak up. Kudos to J.D. Mullane and the Bucks County Courier Times to look past their conventional wisdom and allow the doctor’s idea to be printed.
We’re a long way from the public’s ability to even let their mind grasp such a solution — being able to actually discuss it is an incredible first step.

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News?

Posted on October 15, 2005 by Pete Guither

“bullet” Melissa Etheridge smoked pot while she had breast cancer.

“Instead of taking five or six of the prescriptions, I decided to go a natural route and smoke marijuana,” Etheridge says in an interview to air Sunday on “Dateline NBC” (7 p.m. EDT). When asked how her doctors reacted, Etheridge says, “Every single one was, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s the best help for the effects of chemotherapy.’ “

The sad thing about this is that in a sane world it shouldn’t even be news. It should be the equivalent of a celebrity saying “When I had a tooth pain, I took ibuprofen.” Of course you did.
But we’re not there yet.
So for now, I’m thrilled that she’s saying it on NBC and lots of media are picking it up as celebrity news.

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How are your brain cells?

Posted on October 15, 2005 by Pete Guither

One of the classic reefer madness claims was that smoking pot would destroy your brain cells. Even though that was thoroughly debunked long ago, this wrong-headed assertion still pops up regularly. Not a single legitimate study has found any long-term damage to the brain from marijuana use.
Now a new study indicates that pot may actually increase your brain cells!

Cannabinoids promote neurogenesis in embryonic and adult rats, and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects, according to a new report in the current issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The effects appear to contradict those seen from other studied drugs of abuse, the authors note.

“Most drugs of abuse such as nicotine, heroine, and cocaine suppress neurogenesis in these cells, but the effects of cannabinoids weren’t clear. We show that cannabinoids, in fact, promote neurogenesis,” study author Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, told The Scientist.

Now before you rush out and try to gain some brain, be aware that this is only a preliminary finding that shows some interesting results; it doesn’t involve humans or smoking; and there’s much more to learn. However, the good news is that this will generate interest (the press is already having a lot of fun with this) which will encourage more research in this area.
And the thing is, for those who have studied and observed the effects and use (as opposed to abuse) of marijuana, none of these results are particularly surprising.

[Thanks, kwix]
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The DEA strikes again!

Posted on October 14, 2005 by Pete Guither

In a nationally coordinated effort, operation Justify Our Budget (or JOB, for short) came to a stunning conclusion today.
487 DEA agents, working with local law enforcement officials, went into stores in 73 cities around the country and bought bags of Doritos. Some agents purchased two, and one agent in Phoenix, Arizona actually came away with five. The bags had a street value of $1 to $3, based on size and whether they were cheesier.
All the bags will be taken to a secure site where they will be destroyed.
DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said in a statement. “This shows what we can do with significant resources around the country working together. This will absolutely decimate the Doritos supply in the United States.”
When reached for comment, a Doritos spokesman said, “Crunch all you want. We’ll make more.”

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Long Whine

Posted on October 14, 2005 by Pete Guither

The DEA is triumphantly announcing the conclusion of Operation Long Whine (have they run out of good operation names?). Reports say they seized a bunch of coke, meth, and cash, and arrested 28 people.

DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said in a statement. “To decimate the drug trade, we are following drug money back to its sources, targeting the laundering networks and eliminating the profits that fuel drug trafficking gangs.”[…]

Of the 28 arrested, 19 were illegal Mexican immigrants, DEA said.

Another batch of drugs seized that will have no impact on availability, another bunch of small fish arrested, another trumpeted claim to be “decimating” the drug trade. Your tax dollars at work.

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This is nice…

Posted on October 14, 2005 by Pete Guither

Link

Advocates for medical marijuana use will have an ally in the governor’s office next year, regardless of whether Democrat U.S. Sen. Jon S. Corzine or Republican Doug Forrester wins November’s election.

Both candidates said Tuesday night that if elected, they would allow for the medicinal use of marijuana if it is prescribed by a doctor.

“Under the proper circumstances, I think we need to provide all medical resources, and that includes what is emerging now with regard to this particular application,” Forrester said. “I’m very much open to that.”

Corzine said, “If a doctor prescribes it, we need to do what is in the best interests of the patient.”

Are politicians starting to get on the bandwagon?

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Drug War Victims

Posted on October 13, 2005 by Pete Guither

“bullet” Radley Balko at the Agitator has more good questions about the Anthony Diotaiuto case. A good piece. Go read.
“bullet” It’s nice to see a lot more of the blogosphere picking up on the Steve Tuck case, with some appropriate outrage. Still not much coverage in the press.
Update:
Steve Tuck (a medical marijuana refugee who was snatched from a Canadian hospital by U.S. police and brought to the states and given nothing but ibuprofen in jail) has finally been temporarily released by a judge’s order so he could get medical attention.

His lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and the president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sunil Aggarwal, brought him to Harborview Medical Center, where he was being evaluated in the emergency room Thursday night.

“The doctors are appalled at the condition he’s in,” Hiatt said.

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Thank you, James P. Gray

Posted on October 13, 2005 by Pete Guither

I have been a fan of Superior Court Judge James P. Gray since I discovered his book several years ago: Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs . It was simply one of the clearest and easiest to read arguments against the war on drugs — a particularly good book for someone to read who was just getting ready to consider drug policy reform. I bought 6 copies and have had them out on loan (and given some away).
Well James continues to amaze. His article in Wednesday’s National Post: The war on drugs cannot be won” is superb.

Based on my experience as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, as a criminal defence attorney for the U.S. Navy JAG Corps, and as a trial judge in Orange County, Calif. since 1983, I’ve concluded that the U.S. government policy of drug prohibition has not only failed, but that it is hopeless.

The problem is not that our law enforcement officers aren’t doing a good job. In truth is they have a dangerous and difficult task, and are doing better than we have a right to expect. They are no more to blame for the failure of drug prohibition than was Elliott Ness for the failure of alcohol prohibition. The problem, rather, is that our prohibitionist laws make the trafficking in illegal drugs so obscenely profitable that we will never exhaust the supply to criminals willing to take the risk of imprisonment in order to produce and sell them.

In fact, our present system is giving us the worst of all worlds. As a direct result of our policy of drug prohibition, crime, violence, corruption, taxes and — in many cases — even drug usage have increased, while the health and civil liberties of citizens have suffered. America’s “prison-industrial complex” has gotten so fat and powerful from the money our governments have budgeted for the War on Drugs that it has become politically dangerous for elected officials to speak out against the current policy. Under these circumstances, it is up to ordinary people — as citizens, taxpayers and voters — to call a halt to these failed policies.

And he asks all the right questions as well…

– Why do we not make distinctions between drug use, drug misuse, drug abuse and drug addiction? I agree that marijuana, for example, can have harmful effects upon the user if taken to excess on a regular basis. But obviously, so can alcohol. I drink a glass of wine almost every night with dinner. Does that mean that I am in need of an alcohol treatment program? […]

– Given that there has never been a society in human history that has not embraced some form of mind-altering drug to use and abuse, should we not put our focus on harm reduction, rather than fighting human nature through prohibitionist mechanism?

And check out this line: “The people of Colombia do not have a drug problem: No one is dying from coca plants. What they have is a devastating drug money problem.”
Good stuff. He ran for Senate in California as the Libertarian Candidate in 2004. He only got 1.7% of the vote. Sad. I’d love to have him in Washington.

[Thanks, Bruce]
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Let’s Get Political

Posted on October 12, 2005 by Pete Guither

This is a single-issue blog, and although I have personal political views beyond the drug war, I try to stick with the drug war here. I welcome conservatives, liberals, moderates, and libertarians.
However, there is no reason to avoid the big elephant in the room. The Republican leadership controls the House, Senate, Presidency (and has appointed most of the Supreme Court). And they are therefore responsible for the current escalations and travesties of the drug war. Sure, I still go and yell at the Kos Kids for their complicity through lack of attention to the drug war, but for now, the responsibility falls primarily with the Republican leadership (Note that I purposely do not say “conservatives,” for most true conservatives do not support the drug war.)
Because of this, a recent rant from Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute really hit home.

The House Republican leadership must go. Even if that means the GOP loses control of Congress. Democrats spent decades practicing the policy of spending lavishly to win elections. Republicans refined the practice in just a few years.

More fundamentally, it took the Democrats four decades to fully succumb to the temptations of power, ruthlessly abusing their control of Capitol Hill. After only one decade the Republicans are proving to be even worse. […]

When it comes to policy there seem to be ever fewer serious differences between the two leading political parties. Both expand government power, increase federal spending, lavish money on pork barrel projects, and put their own interests before that of the public at every turn. And these days, at last, the GOP appears to be more ruthless about using every bit of the power that it has accumulated for its own advantage.

While there are few substantive reasons to choose between the parties, there now is a practical reason to vote Democratic: to put at least one organ of national power into someone else’s hands. As Lord Acton famously observed, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The GOP seems intent on proving the truth of Lord Acton’s axiom.

Regardless of your political beliefs in other areas, it’s clear that the Republican party has gone overboard in its support of the extreme excesses of the drug war.
It’s tough enough to imagine a party that encourages people like Mark Souder, but this one puts him in charge of drug policy…

  • Mark Souder, Chair, SubCommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources
  • F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Chair, Committee on the Judiciary
  • Tom Davis, Chair, Committee on Government Reform
  • Dan Burton, Chair, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere

I can’t imagine any worse choices for these positions (although there are rumors that Dan Burton has occassional moments of doubt). So even though we may not be able to defeat the individuals, remember that a change of party means a change of committee leadership, and while that may not mean so much in the Senate (we’d be giving up Graham for Biden in the Crime and Drugs SubCommittee), in the House, a change of party would be huge for us. Right now we’re on the defensive with all the horrific bills being developed by Sensenbrenner and Souder, et al. It’s hard to develop good reform policy when you’re spending all your time fighting off these idiots.
November, 2006, is going to be coming remarkably soon.

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SSDP is the future

Posted on October 11, 2005 by Pete Guither

I am continually impressed with the work and energy of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Check out the latest from the Brown chapter’s Jesse Adams — this column in today’s campus newspaper.

I heard it for the first time in first grade and then again every single year from the fourth grade to the end of high school: “Drugs are bad. Drugs are addictive and destroy your life. Drugs will kill you.”

Considering that this message came from my kindly neighborhood police officer, the guidance counselor with the never-ending supply of Tootsie Roll Pops and eventually my high school’s endearingly dim-witted football coach, I was at first inclined to believe their obviously well-intentioned warnings. But over time, just like thousands of kids who have endured the DARE program, my peers and I became jaded and cynical.[…]

[…] what turned the kids I knew against DARE was the blatant inconsistency of the (mis)information it provided. […] For most kids, I think, it seemed ridiculous to respect warnings from an organization with such a clear lack of respect for its audience’s intelligence.

This group is not only getting the word out, they’re doing something important.

What we have now is a vacuum of readily available truthful information about drugs, at least for those who don’t want to conduct their own extensive research online. In the absence of education that could encourage safety, I have witnessed some truly dangerous drug-related activity: smokers wrecking their constitutions by single-handedly burning through ounces of marijuana in a matter of weeks; students snorting Adderall so that they can do their homework after an evening of using downers; even people assaulting their livers by washing down prescription painkillers with copious amounts of alcohol. Since prohibition is clearly impossible, harm reduction should be the goal. It is clear that students need an objective, trustworthy and confidential source for factual information about drugs and drug safety.

Last year, the Drug Resource Center opened as a joint project between Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Department of Health Education. Its mission is to provide unbiased and truthful information about drug use, including the dangers thereof. The DRC’s volunteers are trained to direct visitors to the best sources of information so as to reduce harm. A more informed student body will be a safer one.

I encourage all students to visit the DRC, regardless of their personal stance regarding drugs – knowledge is power, and power is safety.

Congrats to the Brown SSDP.

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