Drug WarRant

Via Vice Squad: Andrea Barthwell is at it again in this OpEd in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. Andrea is one of our Drug Czar’s Deputy Directors.
Naturally, shortly after a medical marijuana bill is introduced in the state legislature, the feds have to step in and try to apply some pressure — as usual by lying.
First, she brings up and completely distorts, as an example of excess, a medical marijuana awards event in Oregon and then notes:

With marijuana awards making a mockery of medicine, drug use and addiction, it is no wonder we have a hard time teaching kids how dangerous drugs really are and creating an environment of prohibition.

“creating an environment of prohibition”??? What is that and why would we possibly want it? Isn’t an environment of prohibition when citizens are less and less likely to cooperate with police because of rightly perceived excesses in tactics and sentences? Isn’t an environment of prohibition when people end up dead like this? Isn’t an environment of prohibition where students are, without suspicion, made to pee in a cup for the government and lie down on the floor while dogs sniff them? Environment of prohibition? WTF?
She continues with the usual:

Smoking marijuana impairs attention, memory, and dexterity, and increases the risk of traffic accidents. Repeated use can lead to respiratory disease and permanent cognitive impairment. Marijuana use is addictive.

False. All of these specific points have been debunked before and elsewhere on this site, and what do any of them have to do with medical marijuana? According to the DEA’s own chief administrative law judge Francis L. Young, marijuana is “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”
Andrea again shills for the pharmaceutical companies:

There is a variety of existing, scientifically proven options available to patients in need of pain relief. Among these is the FDA-approved medicine Marinol. But smoked marijuana advocates refuse to acknowledge Marinol as a viable option. Interestingly enough, the only property that Marinol lacks is the capacity to create a “high.”

Again false. One of the problems with Marinol is its strong “high” that is harder to control with oral medicine. Patients complain that by the time the high reaches them it’s too late to adjust the dosage, whereas with smoked marijuana, the dosage can be easily regulated.
She ends:

The biggest threat to creating an effective environment of prohibition is the active campaign of legalizers to blur the line between dangerous, illegal drugs and medicine.

There’s that “environment of prohibition” again. And the lie of classifying marijuana as “dangerous.”
And don’t forget. We pay her salary.

“bullet” LastOneSpeaks points us to the transcript of an incredible speech on the floor of the House this week by Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, regarding the DEA’s meddling with pain management.

Finally, I wish to express my hope that Mr. Limbaugh’s case will encourage his many fans and listeners to consider how their support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with their support of individual liberty and constitutional government.

“bullet” LastOneSpeaks also notes that Narco News is back in town, redesigned and with a group format that should prove interesting. (And I am also quite thankful for the visual re-design and skin change option – red and yellow text on black background was in for about 5 minutes when the internet first discovered color; now it’s just painful.) Check it out. There’s no better source of information on the Latin American Drug War.
“bullet” An Illinois school district has decided not to drug test its students.

“There would have to be a clear and present [drug] problem,” Stinson added.

Although some of their other policies are still too extreme, it’s nice to see a school that has avoided the lock-step buy-in to the drug testing regime.

Nationally, asset forfeiture laws, in conjunction with the drug war, have been extremely profitable to law enforcement, to the extent that many units depend on a certain level of seizures to achieve their annual budgetary goals.
This means that law enforcement is sometimes put in the position of making decisions based on profit motive, rather than protecting and serving.
In Utah, citizens decided through initiative B (AKA the UFPA, and supported by 70% of the voters) that this was a conflict of interest. According to Deseret Morning News:

Before UFPA, forfeiture proceeds went back to police departments to fund equipment, training and other costs.æ Since the measure, that money was redirected through the state treasurer’s office for deposit in the Uniform School Fund.æ
Very little money has actually come to the state, however, because law enforcement either halted it or partnered with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for federal investigation and prosecution.

So law enforcement basically responded to the citizens with “If we can’t have it, we’re not going to let education have it either.”
Well now Senator Chris Buttars has introduced SB175, a bill to reverse many of the initiative provisions and put profits back in the hands of law enforcement.
Shameful.

A U.S. report that has been hitting Canadian media sites in the past two hours says that Canada is too terrorist friendly. A serious charge, but let’s take a closer look at it.
First, the report (titled Nations Hospitable to Organized Crime and Terrorism (pdf) and completed in October) is prepared by the Library of Congress in an arrangement with the CIA Crime and Narcotics Center, which naturally continues to try to link drug policy with terrorism (and is influenced by the administration’s drug war).
Second, some of the language in the report is downright offensive. Canada is blamed in part for:

The Canadian Constitution guarantees rights such as the right to life, liberty, freedom of movement, freedom of speech, protection against unreasonable search and seizure, and protection against arbitrary detention or imprisonment that make it easier for terrorists and international criminals to operate. In addition, a technologically advanced economy and infrastructure facilitate operations and activities as well as providing a myriad of opportunities for abuse.

This tone continues later in the report:

Perhaps until recently, there has also not been widespread concern that Canada could be the victim of a terrorist attack. Sensitivity to civil liberties combined with this low threat perception has made both the adoption and the enforcement of tougher immigration laws and strong counter terrorism measures more difficult. The fact that the 2002 bill designed to make Canada’s immigration laws less favorable to terrorists and international criminals is entitled the “Immigration and Refugee Protection Act” serves as an indication of the prevailing concern for or priority placed upon civil liberties in Canada.

Is it just me, or is it extremely disturbing that the United States would, in an official report, talk about civil liberties and individual rights in a country as a negative factor?
Aren’t these qualities that the United States used to value? (And in fact, if a government of the people stops supporting these rights and liberties, doesn’t it lose its legitimacy?)

TalkLeft reports that the cost of prosecuting Tommy Chong for making bongs was $12 million. This comes by way of Chong’s attorney who got the information from the government prosecutors.
It’s outrageous, but not particularly surprising. The amount of tax money that’s thrown away in this drug war would probably be enough to end world hunger.
But let’s just look at the cost of prosecuting Tommy for making some pipes:

• $12 million would pay for treatment for 3,500 drug addicts for an entire year.
• $12 million would pay for enough needle exchange programs to prevent 1,258 HIV infections.
• $12 million as a direct grant to me would stimulate spending in my household and help the economy.

Got any other ideas of what we could do with $12 million? Leave them in the comments.
Update: Some additions:

• It would also provide 1,000 AIDS victims antiretroviral drug therapy for a year [David]
• 12 million would also buy approximately one million large pepperoni pizzas with side orders of cheesy dots from Domino’s.[David]
• After listening to All Things Considered tonight, I’ll also add that $12 million would pay to add new technology that prevents fuel tanks from exploding to 48 passenger jets.

The Canadian federal government reintroduced a marijuana decriminalization bill on Thursday. The text of the bill is here.
The bill provides for fines if the amount of marijuana is 15 grams or less (and smaller fine for 1 gram or less). Possession of up to 3 plants would also be handled through fines. Anything more than 3 plants or 15 grams would be subject to criminal/prison penalties.
There are also a number of additional factors that can increase fines (being near a school, driving a motor vehicle, etc.)
The bill also protects the information about these fines. It makes it a prosecutable offense to give information about fines to a foreign government. (In other words, if you get fined for possession of under 15 grams, it would actually be against the law for officials to tell the United States government that you had a marijuana offense.)
The bill has a ways to go, and there is expectation that the House of Commons may wish to reduce the amount from 15 grams to 10 grams.
Update: Got some info on the actual fines involved. $500 for up to three plants, and from $100-$400 for possession of up to 15 grams of pot.

Now that I’ve got your attention… A post by Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy led me to his fascinating paper in the Cato Supreme Court Review: Justice Kennedy’s Libertarian Revolution: Lawrence v. Texas (pdf)
In it, Barnett posits that Lawrence v. Texas, as Justice Kennedy wrote the ruling, is not so much about privacy as it is about liberty.

Although he never acknowledges it, Justice Kennedy is employing
here what I have called a ”presumption of liberty” that requires
the government to justify its restriction on liberty, instead of requiring
the citizen to establish that the liberty being exercised is somehow
”fundamental.” In this way, once an action is deemed to be a proper
exercise of liberty (as opposed to license), the burden shifts to the
government….

Powerful editorial yesterdayl: NOTHING CRIMINAL IN HEALING HERBS

Should patients suffering from severe ailments — AIDS, cancer, glaucoma — have access to medical marijuana which, often alone among available medicines, can alleviate their suffering? Or should they be liable to arrest and prosecution like any other drug user?

Few issues cut so wide a gulf between the federal government and the states.æ The feds are anti-pot, period.æ Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have passed laws exempting the very ill, often terminally ill, from facing jail.æ Now Illinois may join them.æ A medical marijuana bill introduced into the General Assembly would exempt patients who have a doctor’s prescription from prosecution.æ It deserves full debate and then swift passage.

Use of medical marijuana is only controversial to the feds — responsible medical organizations such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Nurses Association support it, as do countless doctors.æ “It is pointless and cruel,” said one Chicago physician, “to threaten the sick with arrest and jail simply for trying to feel better.” The sufferings of thousands of sick Illinois citizens demand that we cast off punitive and wrong-headed notions about marijuana and pass this bill without delay.æ

Kind of makes you wonder if this might actually be possible in Illinois. After all, Illinois legislature passed industrial hemp legislation 3 or 4 years ago, which only failed because then Governor Ryan vetoed it under pressure from then Drug Czar McCaffrey. And Illinois already has a medical marijuana law on the books since 1978 – it just never had the legal authority to be implemented.
Will Illinois be the next medical marijuana state?

As I mentioned yesterday, Illinois is looking at Medical Marijuana. Companion bills have been introduced in the House and the Senate.
If you live in Illinois, go now and contact your representative.