Drug WarRant

There’s lots that I missed while I was gone. Here’s a few good items worth reading. More may be coming later.
“bullet” Stephen Young is a good friend and an excellent drug policy reformer. You should read his article The Colonel’s Weed, which was recently printed in the Chicago Reader, telling about the hemp farm run by the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s.
“bullet” Potent Argument: The Latest Marijuana Scare by Jacob Sullum at Reason — another rebuttal of the ridiculous Reuters article by Maggie Fox.
“bullet” Yet Another Drug War Failure by Ted Galen Carpenter at CATO Institute — while the Drug Czar has admitted Columbia is a failure, Carpenter notes that it was doomed to failure.
“bullet” ‘Big decline’ in Colombia cocaine shows that the BBC knows how to report and actually questions the Drug Czar’s statements, particularly when they contradict each other. Would that more U.S. press would follow suit.
“bullet” Pseudoaddicts vs. Pseudopatients by Jacob Sullum again – at Hit and Run, a fascinating post about the DEA’s new pamphlet (pdf) on pain medication for doctors.
“bullet” Baylen at D’Alliance tells us about a paper in Utah that’s got their act together.

Yawn… Apparently marijuana may be useful in shrinking cancerous tumors in the brain. Libby at Last One Speaks has the story, as do several other bloggers and drug policy reform sites.
It’s almost old news — there have been so many studies showing the medical benefits of marijuana, and now there’s one more.
What makes it not old news is the fact that the U.S. government still promotes the blatant lie that there is no scientific evidence of the medical value of marijuana. And so, for that reason it is a critical piece of news. Yet, as my friend Scott notes, it’s off the radar not only of the U.S. government, but most of the mainstream media as well.
When I did a Google news search, I noticed coverage of the story in UK, South Africa, Ghana, Australia, India, Canada, Germany and all over the world.
However, in the U.S., the Washington Times put in a tiny mention, along with a TV station in Indiana and Kentucky, and some coverage in science journals.
Maybe it’s still coming? I can hope. But where’s AP and Reuters, who seem ready to pass on the Drug Czar’s distortions and lies at the drop of a hat (and without question)?

Apologies for the extended time without posting. I had less access to wireless time when I was out of town than I expected. Plus, I was busy having fun!
I’ll be back posting tonight, and starting to work on voting guides for more states.
A big thanks to all those who wrote me while I was gone and kept me up to speed.

Go check out Libby’s post at Last One Speaks about Kate Bradley, a former police officer who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has become an advocate for medical marijuana.

‘The first time I took it I was terrified because I really didn’t know what the effects were going to be. But when I did I just couldn’t believe it. Within half an hour the pain had started to fade for the first time in years. I just couldn’t grasp the fact that there was something so much more effective than all the conventional medicine I had tried, yet it was not available on prescription. It didn’t make any sense…The government seems to be blase about our fate.’

I also love Libby’s conclusion to her post, which reflects my view perfectly:

The prohibition profiteers like to tell you that medical marijuana supporters have a hidden agenda to legalize the plant altogether. Not true. What is true is that the drug policy reformers like myself who forthrightly admit our goal is to eventually legalize all use completely also support the chronically ill in their quest to find relief now.

I’m taking a little time off — up to Chicago this weekend as usual with my show (which got a nice review in the Sun-Times this week) and then a few days just having fun in the city with a friend.
I’ll be checking in occasionally to see what’s going on. I’m curious to see if Alan Keyes decides to be the GOP senate candidate in Illinois, or whether they’ll have to fall back on former drug czarina Andrea Barthwell. Either way, that candidate won’t be getting my endorsement.
“bullet” Remember that I’m looking for some assistance in preparing my voting guide. No knowledge required, just a matter of cross-referencing existing data from vote-smart and some other sources I provide. I’m ready to go ahead with California, Maryland, Arkansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Kentucky, and Idaho. If you’re interested in working on one, let me know.
“bullet” Check out this excellent recap of the potential and confirmed marijuana ballot issues this election cycle by Paul Armentano of AlterNet (of course, you already know about the win in Detroit) (thanks, Scott).
“bullet” As always, check out the current issues of Drug War Chronicle and Drug Sense Weekly
“bullet” Read a couple of enlightening posts on the Drug War in Afghanistan at
Media Crapola and Last One Speaks. Here’s conservative and a liberal who both agree that the U.S. drug policy is a failure. Why can’t our government see it?

Via Drudge (Thanks, David):
Stressed soldiers to be treated with cannabis

Israeli soldiers suffering from combat stress after tours of duty in the Palestinian territories could soon be treated with cannabis to relieve their symptoms, the Ma’ariv daily reported.

The mental health department of the Medical Corps is set to to begin tests in the next few days on volunteers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after reserve duty, the paper said.

A scientist who will help conduct the experiment heads a research team, which discovered that cannabis helped mice that had suffered physical stress and even reduced the risk of stroke.

This could be interesting. Marijuana certainly can reduce stress. I can just imagine the reaction of the U.S. administration to such a suggestion with their troops. Of course, then again, they have no problem giving pilots amphetamines to keep them violently on edge alert.

Detroit Free Press:

With 40 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, 62 percent of voters approved the measure. Thirty-eight percent opposed it.

The Detroit proposal exempts residents who use or possess marijuana for medical purposes from the portion of the city code that makes the drug illegal.

That means Detroit police officers would not arrest or ticket residents with medical permission

Update: A Win for Medical Marijuana!
From AP (Earlier version from WXYZ-TV was incorrect):
With 98% of precincts reporting:

Yes	38,604	59%
No	26,497	41%

Just announced

CHICAGO — The five-week search for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate is down to two contenders: two-time presidential hopeful Alan Keyes and former Bush administration deputy drug czar Andrea Grubb Barthwell.

State party chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka announced Tuesday night that Republican leaders would interview Keyes and Barthwell on Wednesday and then choose one to take on Democratic rising star Barack Obama, almost assuring that Illinois will produce only the fifth black U.S. senator in history.

Many of us in the drug policy reform community have been offended by the Drug Czar’s and Administration’s distortion of treatment numbers to claim that they somehow prove marijuana is addictive, or that today’s marijuana is more dangerous than before.
Jim at Vice Squad gives some additional rebuttal based on the limited information that SAMHSA released publicly.
However, while the government likes to release information only in ways that support their contentions, the underlying data is public information if you know how to wade through it.
I have run the government’s data myself here so that it’s available in a convenient form (and shows clearly that the Drug Czar is lying). Let me know if you’d like to see other data comparisons in the treatment data.
The sad fact is that the data can provide useful information that should inform a national discussion, but it’s been hijacked in the Drug Czar’s desire to demonize marijuana to the detriment of any other policy.
See the data for yourself.

“bullet” There’s still hope in Nevada.

U.S.æ District Judge James Mahan issued a temporary restraining order Friday stopping the state from taking any further action on the marijuana initiative petition that is short of the necessary signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

Mahan has set Aug.æ 13 as the date for oral arguments on the suit by the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the groups supporting the petition to allow adults to possess and use one ounce of marijuana.

There are a number of legal arguments being considered regarding the petition and the legality of the requirements. The state claims that the initiative has 50,088 valid signatures and needs 51,337 to qualify for the ballot.
“bullet” Libby at Last One Speaks has a ton of interesting stuff to read, including the anniversary of the signing of the Marijuana Tax Act, comments on an article by Amanda L. Stevens on legalizing marijuana, and a report of a good review of the new book by Martin Booth called Cannabis – A History.
“bullet” Vice Squad continues to have some of the most fascinating material in the world of Vice. Check out Michael’s post on the war on drugs in Russia (I was particularly taken by the story of the veterinarian who was charged with “trafficking” for supplying ketamine to a cat by injection — they must have gotten training from U.S. prosecutors). Jim notes that drug selling in Iraq is one of the nine activities that qualifies for the unofficial death penalty administered by radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his army of devotees. The nine include theft, kidnapping, robbery, spying ‘for the Wahabis, al-Qaeda and Saddamists’, trafficking in women, and selling alcohol, pornographic CDs and drugs.