Drug WarRant

Senate candidate Barack Obama has admitted to the youthful indiscretions of using marijuana and cocaine. This should be an inspiring story. Young man from difficult youth, experiments with drugs, but takes a positive route, working his way to being the keynote speaker at the Democratic convention and the new rising political star.
Unfortunately, instead it’s a tale of political hypocrisy as usual. You see, Obama wasn’t caught, so he was able to get to where he is today. If he had been jailed, the tale would be different. Yet he works to imprison and ruin the lives of other young people with youthful indiscretions who happen to be not as lucky as Barack Obama.
And he’s proud of it. From Barack Obama’s own website (in the August 19th entry):

During 8 years in the state senate, Senator Obama has repeatedly voted for tougher penalties for drug offenders. [HB 3387, 5/13/03; P.A. 93-0546; SB 1793, 3/21/03; P.A. 93-0223; HB 2347, 5/6/99; P.A. 91-0336; HB 3170, 5/7/98; P.A. 90-0674; HB 1278, 5/14/99; P.A. 91-0403; SB 0105, 3/23/99; P.A. 91-0263; HB 2843, 5/20/03; P.A. 93-0596; 93rd GA, SB 2447, 3/25/04; P.A. 93-0884; SB 1578, 3/24/03; P.A. 93-0297; SB1028, 4/2/98; SB 1028, 5/19/98, SC HA1,4; P.A. 90-0775; HB 0070, 5/16/97; P.A. 90-0382; HB 2844, 5/13/03; P.A. 93-0340; HB 3073, 4/4/00; P.A. 91-0802; HB 0252, 5/7/99; P.A. 91-0366; HB 5652, 5/9/02; SB 1332, 2/24/00; P.A. 91-0899; HB 4245, 5/7/02; P.A. 92-0698; SB 0014, 5/20/97, SC HA1; P.A. 90-0397; SB 0003, 4/6/01; HB 2015, 5/9/97; P.A. 90-0164; SB 1011, 4/5/01; SB 1224, 3/24/98; HB 2030, 5/15/97; P.A. 90-0557]

We don’t need tougher. We need smarter. Obama should know better.
What about Alan Keyes? Don’t make me laugh. His view seems to combine government prohibition to enforce drug morality combined with the execution of international smugglers.
Jerry Kohn, on the other hand, quoted at Vote-Smart:

The ” war on drugs” is a war on people who harm no one but themselves. End criminal penalties for the use of drugs.

Is Jerry Kohn going to win? No. Obama will win handily. But here’s a chance to put in a vote for drug policy reform without worrying about throwing it away, or being a spoiler.
If you live in Illinois, vote Jerry Kohn for U.S. Senate.
For more races in Illinois, see the voting guide.

A proper editorial in the Myrtle Beach, SC Sun News

Absence Of U.S.æ Charges Doesn’t Justify Drug Raid

The U.S.æ Justice Department says last year’s police drug raid at Stratford High School in Goose Creek didn’t violate the civil rights of the students, whom police confronted at gunpoint – and 18 of whom police handcuffed.æ The case, said the department last week, is closed.

Maybe so.æ But even though Attorney General John Ashcroft’s S.C.æ representatives could find no violation of the federal civil rights stature, most South Carolinians know deep down that the raid, which netted no illegal drugs, was a travesty.æ Most would agree that the students, especially the blacks singled out for rough treatment, will go into adult life with an indelibly cynical view of “the system” that treated them so shabbily.

The law may exonerate police and school officials for staging the raid.æ But no one should pretend that the grave injustice they perpetrated upon Stratford students has been remedied.

NORML takes on the Drug Czar with their newest release discussing the DOJ’s new report (pdf).

New Federal Report Contradicts Drug Czar’s Claims

Washington, DC: A newly released federal report refutes claims by US
Drug Czar John Walters that the United States is being inundated with
Canadian pot, that the drug’s potency is dramatically rising, and that
marijuana poses a greater public health threat than heroin or cocaine.

According to the US Department of Justice report, “National Drug
Threat Assessment 2004,” the overwhelming majority of commercial grade
marijuana consumed in the US comes from California and Mexico. The report
further adds that Hawaii, not Canada, is the US’ “leading source of high
potency marijuana.” The report estimated that between 10,000 and 24,000
metric tons of marijuana is available in the US.

In recent months, Walters has testified that the US marijuana market
is being inundated with high potency cannabis from British Columbia,
dubbing it the “crack of marijuana.” Most recently, Walters has claimed
that this influx of Canadian pot is directly responsible for sending
rising numbers of Americans to the emergency room.

According to the DOJ report, however, increased mentions of marijuana
during emergency room visits “in recent years have not been significant,”
and account for less than ten percent of all drug mentions. The report
further stated that the average THC content of US commercial grade
marijuana is around five percent, despite claims by Walters that today’s
marijuana potency levels are “10 to 20 times stronger” than they were a
generation ago.

Authors of the report note that despite federal and state anti-drug
efforts, marijuana remains “widely available” in the United States, with
“98.2 percent of state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide
[describing] marijuana availability as high or moderate.” Nevertheless,
only 13 percent of state and local law enforcement agencies identified
marijuana as “their greatest drug threat,” and less than five percent
identified pot as “the drug most contributing to violent crime in their
areas.”

The release of the DOJ report came on the eve of an announcement from
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy that the
administration plans “to shift some of the focus in research and
enforcement from ‘hard’ drugs such as cocaine and heroin to marijuana.”

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.