Drug WarRant

An article worth reading in the Economist: Battles won, a war still lost:

At the last count by the United Nations, in 2003, land under coca in Colombia was down to 86,300 hectares (213,200 acres) from a peak of 163,300 hectares in 2000. In 2004, contractors working for the United States sprayed herbicide on 136,555 hectares of coca, a similar amount to the previous year. That points to a further decline in cocaine production last year, according to John Walters, who heads the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

In 2004, almost 150 tonnes of cocaine were seized in the country, a third more than in 2003, while 1,900 cocaine labs were destroyed, 40% more than in 2002. Mr Uribe has extradited 166 Colombians to face drug charges — and probably a life behind bars — in the United States. They include Gilberto Rodrâguez Orejuela, who as head of the Cali drug mob ruled the trade a decade ago. American officials say that they have squeezed the drug revenues of the FARC guerrillas and their right-wing opponents, the AUC. “We’re moving in one direction. The bad guys are losing and the people in Colombia are winning,” says Mr Walters. Those who see it otherwise “want this thing to fail”.

Yet to many people across and beyond Latin America, the Andean drug trade seems as effective and dangerous as ever. The most telling evidence is the price of cocaine. According to the Washington Office on Latin America, an NGO, the ONDCP’s own figures, released to Congress but not yet to the public, show that in the United States a gram of cocaine wholesaled for $38 in 2003, down from $48 in 2000 and from $100 in 1986, with no fall in purity.

It’s really quite simple. It doesn’t work. In the past, I’ve compared eradication efforts there to this child’s game, and this cartoon fairly accurately depicts interdiction efforts.
Yet we continue to pour money down this black hole and help ruin the lives of Latin American citizens.

I had to temporarily suppress all humility to post this one, but I couldn’t resist. It’s such a wonderful post from Christopher Filkins that means a lot to me, and I wanted to share it:

I’ve been reading Salon Blogs since, well, when they started (or at least publicly available) me thinks. There are some great writers & journalists round these parts, far far better than I; this piddly thing. Anyway the best so far is Pete Guither’s Drug War Rant. Pete has a knack for cutting right through the drug war misinformation and slight of hand. His reports are stoic in the face of horrible stories, facts, and circumstances of this most odious of travesties the pundits call the drug wars. Salon (or some other organ) would be well served by hiring his ass.

I’d love to see more attention paid to this issue. Josh Marshall, I’m talking to you. How come the drug war is never ever ever ever ever questioned in polite company in the media? It’s so fucking frustrating.

[ed. note. I don’t mean to infer that Mr. Marshall writes in polite company. ]

[ed. note. err, or that Mr. Guither’s writing is written among the impolite. ]

Yes, it is frustrating.
Mr. Filkins then goes on to provide a good suggestion over at Radio Free Blogistan:

With all of this new found interest in online “journalists” such as Jeff Gannon getting access to the White House briefings I hope we’ll soon see more folks with access to the White House. …

…Wouldn’t it be nice to see Pete Guither grilling Bush on the drug war. God knows I’d like to drill him on gay marriage.

Someone, anyone, pay for this poor hack to fly to Washington. I work cheap. Don’t even need an entourage or a ticket to ride.

I’m with you. Day passes to the White House briefings are fine with me. Got my list of questions handy. Just need to pick a pseudonym.

“bullet” Via Last One Speaks, comes this fascinating and delightful piece by Dana Larsen: What’s In Popeye’s Pipe?

The evidence is circumstantial, but it is there, and when added together it presents a compelling picture that, for many readers at least, Popeye’s strength-giving spinach is meant as a clear metaphor for the miraculous powers of marijuana.

“bullet” Radley Balko talks about rights and gets some scary email.
“bullet” Robert Sharpe comes out with one of his usual outstanding letters, this time on heroin treatment (making the same points I did earlier). And he has a great tag line:

Putting public health before politics may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children are more important than the message.

The Illinois Medical Marijuana bill will have an initial hearing in the Human Services Committee on Thursday, Februaryæ17 at 8:00 a.m. in Springfield. I plan to be there and am hoping to bring others. It should be fascinating.
In the meantime, if you live in Illinois, check out this Action Alert from NORML and contact your state representative. If you have friends or relatives in Illinois, have them contact their representatives. It’s easy.

When I saw this headline:

I thought… “Finally, somebody’s got their act together and they’re not going to put up with the administration increasing the federal drug budget by $268 million at a time when we should be slashing it dramatically.”
But no.

…but lawmakers from both parties criticized its proposed budget that would cut several anti-drug programs.

Give me a break. And they’re talking about programs that even the big-drug-war-spending Bush adminstration says don’t work.
The idiots in this particular story:

• Mark Souder, (R-Indiana)
Elijah Cummings, (D-Maryland)

If they’re your rep, let them know how you feel.
Of course, Drug Czar Walters tried to make them feel better by saying that the administration was increasing funding in many areas, including a 15 percent boost in funds for drugs testing in schools.
Wanker.

Cannabis-munching cows to get change of diet in Alpine state

Farmers in Liechtenstein æwill no longer be allowed to feed cannabis to their livestock under new rules to be introduced in March in the tiny Alpine state.

Hemp — of which the marijuana plant is a well-known variety — contains small amounts of THC, the active substance in hashish, and traces of the drug have been filtering through to the milk of dairy cows fed with the plant.

The levels breach the maximum limit set by the new rules, which say that animal feed must be free of any component that could have an adverse effect on humans, the country’s veterinary and food controls office said in a statement.

A disturbing look at the immediate future of the privacy of our bodily fluids in Paul Armentano’s column at Reason.

The purpose of this symposium — and the intent of the bodily fluid snoopers in attendance — was to call for an unprecedented, government-mandated expansion of both drug testing and the application of new drug screening technology — and not just for those within the workplace. And the pee police may be close to getting their wish….

According to its website, DATIA is “a 1,200-member national trade association representing the full spectrum of alcohol and drug testing service agents, including laboratories, collection sites, … and [drug] testing device manufacturers.” In layman’s terms, it’s the lobbying arm for the drug testing industry.

I’ve known for years that the drug testing industry was wielding political pressure — now they’re being up front abou the lobbying. This is an industry that will push until they are drug testing every employee, and every student, and every driver that’s stopped on the highway.
And right now, the government (through the ONDCP) is facilitating their profits.

The expected response to the petition by Americans for Safe Access has come… (thanks to atg in comments)

RE: Request for Correction of Infomlation Submitted by HHS Regarding the Medical Use of Marijuana

Dear Mr. Elford:

Your October 4, 2004, request for correction of information disseminated by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the medical use of marijuana is still under review. While the goal of the Food and Drug Administration is to respond within 60 days to such requests, we are unable to do so in this case. We anticipate that a response will be forwarded to you by April 1, 2005.

You can see all of HHS’s responses to Data Quality Act petitions here. Some of them have stretched on over a year. The whole 60 days rule seems to have more limited teeth than I first thought, since HHS can simply award itself multiple extensions. However, they still have to respond to political pressure, and eventually they’ll have to answer. At which point, an appeal can be made, etc., etc.
In the meantime, the DEA continues to block re-scheduling efforts and the FDA continues to block research.
An entire bureaucracy just to obstruct, divert, and deny the truth.

In the State Journal-Register

The conflict reached a head this week, when Rep. Larry McKeon, D-Chicago, challenged Dr. Andrea Barthwell to a public debate about medical marijuana. Barthwell declined the challenge. …

McKeon charged that Barthwell’s seminars appear to be a smear campaign against his proposal. The lawmaker – who is living with AIDS – said House Bill 407 attempts to improve the quality of life for terminally ill patients struggling with the debilitating side effects of chemotherapy and other treatments.

Drug warriors are afraid of being in the same room with someone who has the facts.

Well, I spent some time looking over President Bush’s budget request, and my head hurts. The government spends so much money that it takes thousands of pages just to lay out the main categories of spending. And, of course, this will all change once Congress gets its hands on it and adds all the pork.
The short story: Bush ignored my suggestion to reduce the deficit by eliminating the drug war budget.
The Good News: Most of the “Byrne Grant” fund that supports some of the worst of the drug task forces around the country has been cut in the President’s budget (see Scott at Grits for Breakfast who has been following this very closely. There will be efforts to reinstate this budget.
Bad News: The vast majority of drug war functions will continue with no reduction, or even slight increases in the President’s budget, despite meeting the criteria of ineffective programs.
DEA – Increase of 4% in their budget, including some adjustments:

1. DEA’s plan for rightsizing its overseas presence, including additional resources to address the threat of Afghan heroin and to operate effectively in Central Asia and the Middle East;
2. vital
   resources to enhance intelligence capabilities to more fully
   exploit DEA’s ability to gather, analyze, and share intelligence
   information; and
3. investigations of drug trafficking and
   money laundering PTOs.

Yeah, send the DEA to Afghanistan. That’ll work.
Some offset will be provided by reductions in some areas:

• elimination of vehicle support
  for the State and Local Task Forces;
• transfer of the
  Marijuana Eradication program to the Office of Justice Programs
  (OJP) to be managed as a grant program [at a cost of $19 million];
• elimination
  of the DEA’s Demand Reduction Program;
• reduction
  of the Mobile Enforcement Teams by approximately 50 percent;
• reduction to non-operational administrative training
  resources; and
• savings associated with implementing Etravel.

Of course, that’s only one part of the drug war in the budget. In fact, the entire budget is riddled with drug war costs. Things like the Southwest Border Prosecutor Initiative (increased), Andean counterdrug initiative (increased), Drug Testing Initiative (increased), Drug-free communities program (increased), High intensity drug trafficking areas (transferred, with budget, to Justice), International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (increased), National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (increased).
Total Federal Drug Budget: Increase of $268 million.
Yeah, that’s the way to show those costly, ineffective, federal programs who is boss!