Drug WarRant

…for getting people talking!
The blogosphere has been alive in the past day with talk of the drug war (as of this point, Feedster tracks about 50 blogs discussing Tierney and meth since his article appeared). All because a New York Times columnist dared to question it.
Oh, sure, there are debates about the numbers he used for use/abuse/addiction. The biggest critique (from Mark Kleiman) appears to be that the numbers are wrong because we don’t have good enough system to accurately identify the numbers.
But none of that is able to derail the major points that Tierney boldly lays out:

• Prohibition isn’t always the answer
• Media hype doesn’t help the problem
• Drugs are both good and bad, depending on how they’re used

And people are talking. Check out the comments at TalkLeft (65 at this point) and at Balloon Juice (47 at this point). In addition to some well-reasoned ones, there are the usual idiots…

• “Meth is bad. I know someone who was addicted. It was horrible. How can you want to legalize it?” (this is usually in response to someone who notes that prohibition actually caused the more dangerous aspects of meth)
• “I suppose you’d be OK with making murder legal as well, wouldn’t you?” (this is usually in response to someone who notes that meth exists as a problem even though it’s illegal)

Lots of blind spots out there. But discussion is good. Discussion is great!
People read the New York Times. And look at what they’ve been reading lately:

• Column: Debunking the Drug War (8/9)
• Cultural Differences Complicate a Georgia Drug Sting (8/4)
• Column: Handcuffs And Stethoscopes (7/23)
• Editorial: Cutting College Aid, And Fostering Crime (7/20)
• Column: Punishing Pain (7/19)
• OPED: Let A Thousand Licensed Poppies Bloom (7/13)
• Editorial: Playing AIDS Games In New Jersey (6/30)

Nice.
The first step is getting people so they’re actually able to talk about alternatives to prohibition. Many people don’t realize how huge a leap that is for those who have been conditioned all their lives.

Jesse Parker writes:

HEY F[*]CK YOU AND YOUR DRUG CULTURE, DRUGS MAKE YOU ANTI SOCIAL AND DESTROY THE HUMAN MIND, SO I HOPE YOU ALL DIE. ANYONE WHO IS OPPOSED TO THE DRUG WAR, WILL BATHE IN THEIR OWN BLOOD.

Thanks for dropping by, Jesse. You might want to turn off the caps lock. The bathing in blood thing is very colorful, though, in a secret covenant or apocalyptic kind of way.

Tierney: Debunking the Drug War

More tragedy. I’m going to have to update my Drug War Victims page with several new additions. Here’s the most recent:

Link

SUNRISE ‡ A poster outside Anthony Diotaiuto’s home Saturday summed up his friends’ anger over his death: “Did you find what you were looking for?”

The message was addressed to the Sunrise Police Department, whose SWAT team raided Diotaiuto’s house in Sunrise Golf Village early Friday morning searching for drugs. There, they shot the 23-year-old dead. Police thought there was drug activity at the house and that there could be violence because Diotaiuto had a valid concealed weapons permit.

Because he had a valid concealed weapons permit, the police felt it necessary to use a SWAT bust-down-the-door-and-scare-him-to-death approach, knowing that he was likely to be carrying a gun. How does that make sense? He worked two jobs a day. Couldn’t they have stopped him on his way to work?
Link

SUNRISE ‡ The SWAT team assembled outside Anthony Diotaiuto’s home in Sunrise Golf Village early Friday morning, expecting to find drugs and guns, authorities said.

Inside, Diotaiuto had been home for only a few hours after his night shift at one of the two jobs he kept to help pay for the home where he lived with his mother. He had a valid concealed weapons permit and kept a shotgun and a handgun for safety, friends said.

It was about 6:15 when the SWAT team smashed in Diotaiuto’s door and shot him dead.

Officers were right to expect him to be armed, said Lt. Robert Voss, spokesman for the Sunrise Police Department.

“He had a gun and pointed it at our officers,” Voss said Friday morning. “Our SWAT team fired.”

Later Friday afternoon, he didn’t sound as certain about whether Diotaiuto, 23, aimed his weapon.

“In all likelihood, that’s what happened,” Voss said. “I know there was a weapon found next to the body.” He also said he did not know if detectives found any drugs or whether Diotaiuto fired any shots.

Of course there was a weapon found by the body. They knew he had a concealed weapons permit. But now they’re not sure he actually pointed it. And by that afternoon he didn’t know if they “found any drugs or whether Diatoaiuto fired any shots.” What kind of crap is that? Are they completely incompetent or lying?
What were they looking for? The family wants to know.
Link

According to the search warrant, the police were looking for money, bookkeeping records, firearms and other evidence that Diotaiuto was a drug dealer. The warrant was provided to the newspaper by Diotaiuto’s family.

Cannabis and drug paraphernalia, along with firearms and a BB gun, were listed as items seized, but the warrant did not specify the amount of drugs or what type of paraphernalia was confiscated.

Sunrise Detective Michael Calise signed the search warrant, the newspaper reported.

Phone calls to the Sunrise police department were not returned on Sunday.

BB gun? Oh, come on. They seized a BB gun? And the other guns were most likely the legal guns that Diotaiuto had. So what did they kill him for? An unspecified amount of cannabis and drug paraphernalia. For all we know that’s a couple of grams of pot and some rolling papers.
I have a feeling we won’t be getting much more in the way of answers from the Sunrise Police Department until the inevitable lawsuit (the family has hired a lawyer).
But Diotaiuto’s mother is trying to think positively.
Link

Marlene Diotaiuto hopes to keep her son’s memory alive through a scholarship for children of single mothers.

“She is the unofficial mother to dozens of kids,” said Pamela Larson, who lived next door to the Diotaiutos for nearly eight years when they lived in Davie and remains close friends with Marlene Diotaiuto.

“She has mentored so many teens turning into adults. Children are completely her life. She knows what it’s like to be a hard-working single mom trying to put their kid through college.” […]

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. David Catholic Church, 3900 S. University Drive, Davie.

Instead of flowers, the family suggested donations in Anthony Diotaiuto’s memory to Marlene’s Angels scholarship fund, 2801 SW 87th Ave., Number 1003, Davie, Florida 33328.

Note: Watch the news video coverage here.

Peter Jennings learned a lot about the drug war during his tenure with ABC and began to question many aspects of the war. He ended up hosting an outstanding expose of the government’s lies regarding MDMA. He discussed it with the press…

“Government is best when government is most honest, especially for the younger generation, which is more susceptible to trying drugs,” Jennings remarked to the Palm Beach Post. “If they can’t rely on the government for good and honest information, then government has lost something enormously valuable, which is people’s belief in the government’s credibility.”

“This was an opportunity for us to look at whether or not the government isn’t its own worst enemy in trying to control illegal drugs,” Jennings says.

Thanks, Peter.

Link

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents for espionage, and said Venezuela was suspending cooperation with the U.S. agency.”

Oops.

Of course, Karen Tandy should never have been confirmed as head of the DEA in the first place (see my post Can Congress Get a Clue (Karen Tandy and the DEA)). At the time, she was unqualified, uninformed, and, previously as a prosecutor, probably guilty of criminal misuse of prosecutorial powers.
During her tenure as head of the DEA, she has overseen a DEA that has gained notoriety for harrassing doctors and patients.
Now, not only has she gone after a foreign citizen (Marc Emery) for marijuana charges, she has bragged that part of the reason was to stifle political dissent.

Today’s arrest of Mark (sic) Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on. [Link]

Yes, that’s right. The head of the DEA came out and said that the importance of the bust is not the marijuana that was grown from Emery’s seeds, but rather the stifling of political speech.
The US Marijuana Party has called for Tandy’s resignation. I intend to write to Senator Dick Durbin (the only Senator to question Tandy’s confirmation) and ask him to investigate. You should do the same.

I’ve held off saying too much about the Supreme Court nominee, waiting for more information. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have that much of a judicial record, so he’s a bit of a stealth candidate, but based on this post by TalkLeft, I feel confident in saying that John Roberts is not who we want on the Supreme Court.
We already have a court that has too often sided with the government over the individual, eroding our rights as free citizens — particularly 4th Amendment rights. All the government has to do is say “drug war” and the Supremes roll over and say, “Well, in that case, certainly you should take away more constitutional rights,” regardless of whether the policy even works.
It appears from his record that John Roberts will actually be eager to join in this shredding of the Bill of Rights, and may even become a leader in this effort.
He should not be confirmed.

Link
In addition to the amnesty program for the big traffickers, Colombia has instituted a cash for coca program in one region of the country. Farmers can take their plants to the police and get cash on the spot for them.
Sort of like a government subsidy to grow coca.

Rebels in the region typically traffic in the coca to finance their armed struggle against the Colombian government. Mr. Uribe said recent military operations have forced the rebels into hiding, leaving the farmers without buyers.

The program has come under harsh criticism from lawmakers such as Colombian Sen. Rafael Pardo, who said it would encourage small farmers to grow more coca just so they could sell it to the government, a guaranteed and steady paying customer.

Mr. Pardo — who is a likely presidential candidate in next year’s elections — and other critics say farmers will find ways to continue cultivating illegal crops and selling them to the government, the rebels or right-wing paramilitaries that also produce cocaine for income, or all three.

Of course, Uribe sees this as a wonderful way to eradicate some of the crop!
Aren’t any of these political leaders required to take an economics course at some time in their lives? I admit that I slept through a lot of the classes myself, but I understand supply and demand (even elasticity), and can see a price support when it hits me in the face.
Of course, Uribe counters by noting that the farmers must “sign a legally binding agreement to halt cultivation.” Ah, that solves it. So growing coca is against the law, but if you do break the law, you can take the coca to the police and get paid for it, but then you must agree not to break the law or you’ll be in violation of your agreement not to break the law.
Right.

Link

CRAWFORD, Texas, Aug 4 (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush pledged on Thursday to sustain funding for Colombia’s fight against drugs and violence even as a senior State Department official said Washington would like to reduce its anti-narcotics aid.

[…]

“And we’ll ask the Congress to sustain our commitment to follow-on programs for Plan Colombia so Colombia can build on its progress and win its war against the narcoterrorists,” Bush told reporters before getting behind the wheel of his white pickup truck to give Uribe a tour of his 1,600-acre (650-hectare) ranch.

Words fail me.

Their meeting came in the same week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certified Colombia was respecting human rights and distancing itself from paramilitary groups sufficiently to allow U.S. aid to be given to its military.

Uh huh.