Drug WarRant

Via D’Alliance….
…So as soon as I heard about this, I rushed across the street to Pop’s Grocery, but they seem to be out of it.
Darn.

I’ve finished the California U.S. House and Senate Voting Guide. These guides focus on statements made by candidates through Project Vote-Smart, as well as actual voting records of incumbents on the “Hinchey” medical marijuana amendements in the House.
The Senate race is definitely one to check out. I’m strongly encouraging all California drug policy reformers to vote for James P. Gray. He is running specifically on a drug policy reform platform, so every single vote for him is a statement. If he ends up with significant numbers, it could make a lot of people pay attention.
Another race to watch is the 3rd District, where former drug warrior and California Attorney General Dan Lungren is trying to get into Congress, which would not be a good thing.
I also found it remarkable just how many incumbents voted against the Hinchey amendment. To understand this, realize that the amendment simply said that, in states where medical marijuana was legal, the federal government should not interfere in state law regarding medical marijuana. California is a medical marijuana state. So those California Representatives who voted against the amendment were essentially saying: “Although the people of California clearly voted to legalize medical marijuana and although the people overwhelmingly support legal medical marijuana, I disagree, and wish to have the federal government step in and arrest and harrass my constituents who are obeying state law.” These idiots need to be removed from office, where they’re currently incumbents in districts 2, 4, 11, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 48, 49, 50, and 52.
Now on to the next state. I hope to find time do one or two a week, and get as many done as I can before the election. I welcome suggestions, assistance, further details on races (or which states you’d like me to do). I also welcome feedback on the usefulness of such a guide. My thinking at this point is that even if there are a handful of voters who are not fully informed, but do a google search on the candidates and “drug policy” before they go in to vote, these guides could be worthwhile. (I’ve already found, with the Illinois guide, some candidate staff google searches for their candidate’s name and the word “endorsement” — they need to know that someone is paying attention to drug policy.)
“bullet” Don’t forget my featured race in Illinois, where I’m strongly pushing for Tari Renner over drug warrior Jerry Weller. And it’s one we can win. Support Renner.

I’m busy working on the next state US House voting guide (this time, California, Illinois is already up), and dealing with an unexplained slow internet connection at the same time.
So go read Baylen at D’alliance who has been blogging up a storm. He’s got so many posts up in the last two days that I can’t keep track of what I already read there — and you have to go to the archives to read posts from this morning! (So what exactly did you put in your coffee, Baylen?)

From the Charlotte Observer: Officers cleared in drug raid at S.C. high school.

CHARLESTON – A guns-drawn raid at a Goose Creek high school last year did
not violate civil rights laws, and the case is closed, the U.S. Justice
Department says. …

Using a drug dog, police found no drugs or weapons in the Nov. 5 raid that
frightened children, provoked marches and lawsuits and brought national
media attention and the resignation of Stratford High School’s longtime
principal. Fifteen officers entered Stratford’s main hallway and ordered 130
students to the floor. They used plastic ties to handcuff 18 students.
School officials opened and searched 17 book bags police dogs reacted to.
S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, the state’s chief prosecutor,
criticized the tactics used as ill-suited for a school and said they created
a “dangerous tinderbox situation.”

Fortunately, civil lawsuits are still in the works. There must be a clear message given that this kind of police work is unacceptable.
Update: Sister Geoff at the very interesting The Superlative Suppository had this one a couple of days ago. Be sure to check out the Suppository — another good blog addressing the drug war.

Several readers sent me this story: Pot grower faces murder charges for firefighter deaths.
Daniel Brough was growing marijuana in a basement closet in Philadelphia. The lamps dried out the wood in the closet and started a fire. Two firefighters (Fire Capt. John Taylor and firefighter Rey Rubio) died in the resulting blaze. Now Brough is being charged with third-degree murder, marijuana possession, involuntary manslaughter and causing a catastrophe.
Brough was stupid and created a dangerous situation. But that list of charges is a bad case of prosecutorial piling on in a very emotional situation. I’d like to know if the charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and causing a catastrophe would have been filed if the cause had been someone carelessly leaving a candle burning.
One other point. Please note that these two firemen are also drug war victims. Marijuana hurts nobody, and there would be no reason to grow it in a closet if it was legal.

The MPP is really doing a great job of getting the word out.
“bullet” First, this release which is designed to prep the media for the upcoming barrage of meaningless statistics, which will inevitably be spun to support drug warrior claims.

“The annual changes in these survey results generally have no more significance than the daily ups and downs of the stock market, but government officials hype the survey results for political reasons,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “This year, we are urging reporters to ignore the spin, take a step back, and look at the big picture — the long-term trends that policymakers try to obscure.”

And they follow it up with an extraordinary pdf document: Marijuana Arrests, Availability, and Use:Three Decades of Failure, with visuals and text like these:

• “We are winning this war
  [on drugs].”
  –Pres. Richard Nixon, Oct. 15, 1972
• “It is the declared policy of the United
  States to create a Drug-Free America
  by 1995.”
  –The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Sec. 5251-B,
  enacted by Congress and Pres. Ronald Reagan

Check out the whole thing (note: graphs above provided here without explanation or context are fully explained and cited in the MPP document)
“bullet” In your face, Drug Czar (I mean, Drug Lord)!
MPP also released this illuminating information:

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — New figures released today by the state of California show that teen use of marijuana has dropped markedly since the state’s medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, was passed by voters in 1996. …

“These new figures should put to rest forever the myth that medical marijuana laws ‘send the wrong message to children,'” said Bruce Mirken, a lifelong Californian who serves as director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. “Frankly, it never made any sense that kids would think a drug is ‘cool’ because cancer or AIDS patients use it to keep from vomiting. We teach young people that powerful medicines like morphine and other opiates can help some very sick people under a doctor’s care, but that these drugs are not toys, and we now know that teens can understand the same message about marijuana.

Good stuff.
(Of course, according to Google News, only a tiny handful of media have run this story, while 243 media outlets are running big with a different story: Survey links teenage sexuality to drug use – much more fun for them to report.)

The Nevada Appeal newspaper makes an interesting slip in their headline about Drug Czar John Walters and the Nevada Supreme Court’s ruling:

High court avoids drug lord disclosure case

Maybe it’s not so silly. After all, he is an internationally notorious figure, with underlings that do his bidding. He profits from the illegal drug trade (he wouldn’t have a budget without it). He has corrupt officials in his pocket. His activities prey on the weak, the poor, and the children. Yep, the Drug Czar is a Drug Lord. Sounds right to me.

An anonymous friend send me this little news item (you have to scroll down):

Citizens Police Academy will open a 13-week training course Aug. 31.

During the three-hour-long sessions at the Palm Springs Police Department training center, citizens will learn basic laws, traffic stop techniques, arrest and control techniques and theories, SWAT tactics and participate in baton use and “shoot/ don’t shoot” video simulations, the department reported.

Wasn’t this already made into a movie?

On February 1, 2002, Cecil Knox was seeing patients in his Roanoke, Virginia, clinic when more than a dozen federal agents burst through the doors with guns drawn. Helmeted, shielded, and wearing bullet-proof vests, they terrified waiting patients and employees. One worker later told the Pain Relief Network, a patient advocacy group, she thought she and her husband, who was helping her in the office that day, would be shot. She looked on in horror as an agent put a gun to his head and ordered, “Get off the phone! Now!”

Read the rest at Reason.

Libby at Last One Speaks does a great job of keeping me up to date with the activities of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). One quote in particular in her recent post struck me:

“Legalization of drugs is not intended to be an approach to our drug problem in America,” [Law Enforcement Against Prohibition member Peter] Christ explains during an interview in his hotel room. “Legalization is an approach to our crime and violence problem in America. Once we legalize drugs, then we have to start the really hard work of dealing with our drug problem.”

This is such a critical point. Criminalization is not a solution to drug problems. And there are drug problems. Legalization will not exacerbate drug problems. In fact, legalization could help reduce some of the drug problems we have and lead to actual solutions (in this post, I’m ignoring the made-up drug problems like the Super Pot that the Drug Czar talks about).
While many prohibitionists are that way for cynical political or financial reasons, there are some who mistakenly believe that criminalization is a path to solving drug problems. Thus you get people like this commenter on Guest Drug WarRant:

My son Dan,Jr. died June 30, 2004 of a drug overdose. I believe that the media glorifies drugs by showing large amounts of cash, guns, nice expensive cars, but they never show the ones who die. I also believe fools like yourselves have a hand in killing people. Daniel Ferguson, Sr.

Mr. Ferguson is angry. Understandably. And yet he posted this in response to an article about the benefits of hemp. Certainly Dan Jr. didn’t die from an overdose of hemp. And he didn’t die because drugs were legal, and it’s certainly not logical to blame those who wish to legalize and regulate drugs, rather than having them sold in uncertain doses and purity by criminals, which is probably how Dan Jr. got his. But Dan Sr., like many others, operates under the false assumption that criminalization will solve drug problems. Why, after decades it hasn’t — must just be that we haven’t tried hard enough.
Criminalization will never solve drug problems. Pass more laws and Dan Jr. still dies. It’s harsh, but it’s the truth. You want to solve drug problems? First eliminate the criminal profits. Then deal with drug problems openly, with treatment and candor.
Mr. Ferguson, I’m sorry for your loss. Please be aware that current drug laws support the system in which your son overdosed. You could make a difference. Take a moment to read this. Then work with some excellent organizations like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition to get rid of the ineffective drug war, get rid of the violence and dangers associated with the drug war, and replace it with a pro-active system that will help those who truly need it.