Drug WarRant

70 years ago today.
December 5, 1933.
The 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified,
ending the failed war on alcohol.
Prohibition was over.
The Constitution was restored.

Little did they know then,
That politicians today
Would fail so miserably
To learn from history.

A reminder to those in my neighborhood that Hempfest is today (Thursday) from 3-8 pm in the Bowling and Billiards Center Activity Room. I’ll be speaking around 6 pm. There’s bands, and activities, and even some raffles and door prizes (including some highly valued Drug WarRant frisbees!). I was interviewed in the student newspaper today.
I also wrote an extensive article titled “War on a Plant” for this week’s Indy (an excellent local weekly paper), but they decided not to publish a paper this week, so I’ve published the article here for your enjoyment.
Regular readers of this blog will recognize most of the material in the article, but you may still find it an interesting re-cap.
Here it is: War on a Plant.

According to WBBM newsradio

Beginning next fall, St. Patrick’s High School, on the northwest side, will become the first in Illinois to require drug tests of ALL its students.

A number of public schools require students who participate in extra-curricular activities to undergo drug testing, but are barred by Supreme Court ruling from extending such tests to all students. Principal Joseph Schmidt said he considers the all-boys school, at 5900 W. Belmont Av., the “catalyst” in Illinois for universal testing.

In the Washington Post: Marijuana Ad On Metro Infuriates Lawmaker.
You may remember my reporting on Change the Climate’s ad campaign.
Well, Oklahoma Representative Ernest Istook really didn’t like it. So..

This week, Istook inserted into a bill language that would cut Metro’s funds by $92,500 and prohibit any transit system that receives federal funds from running advertising from a group that wants to decriminalize marijuana.

Keep in mind that Metro was following policy in accepting the ad and would have had to fight a first amendment battle to deny it. However, Istook doesn’t seem to understand that part of it.
Why can’t we require that when public officials swear to uphold the constitution, they’re required to actually read it?
The most ignorant statement came from Istook’s press secretary:

“Metro is using taxpayer facilities to promote illegal activity,” said Micah Swafford, Istook’s press secretary.

This boggles the mind! First, Metro didn’t promote illegal activity, they accepted an ad as required by policy. Second, Change the Climate didn’t promote illegal activity, they advocated a change in the law. If that qualifies as illegal activity in taxpayer facilities, then Istook is guilty of it every day he’s in the House of Representatives.
You can contact Ernest Istook or Micah Swafford by email. If you live in Oklahoma 5th district, Istook is up for re-election in 2004.

There was plenty of reporting of the bad science by Ricaurte – the “oops we used the wrong drug” that ended up causing more bad law regarding ecstacy. It’s nice to see that the issue isn’t being dropped.
This excellent New York Times piece brings the issue back to the forefront and seriously questions all of Ricaurte’s work, and points out that some in the scientific community are concerned about this trend.
Ron Bailey, in a Reason Online article takes it a step further and calls for an investigation into the peer review process and the possible co-option of Science into the drug war.

Part 2: Each debater was given 2 minutes to rebut the first round comments.
What to watch for:
William Bennett: Trying desperately to dump his debating partner, and clinging to his one-statistic argument.
Gary Johnson: Bats around Bennett’s statistic, and gives a human interest story on mandatory sentencing.
Charlie Rangel: Still thinks he’s debating education policy, and then, apparently to his view, sarcastically suggests growing drugs in America.
Kurt Schmoke: Continues to push harm reduction and uses tobacco to show how ridiculous prohibition is.

Supreme Court rules in favor of police barging in.

The court ruled 9-0 that if police had waited any longer than 20 seconds, a drug suspect could be flushing evidence down the toilet…

Justice David H. Souter, writing for the court, said that because police believed there were drugs in his apartment, officers had more reason to rush. “Police seeking a stolen piano may be able to spend more time to make sure they really need the battering ram,” Souter wrote.

9-0. Because of potential toilet flushing. So instead, we’ll probably get more of this.

On Thursday, I told you about a debate that was scheduled on C-Span. It ended up getting pushed back due to coverage of a Thanksgiving Dinner, so I missed it when it aired, but the full audio is available at Drug Sense (RealAudio file) and I finally got a chance to listen to it. I planned to just give a report, but it was really quite interesting, so I ended up transcribing large sections of it for you.
The event: The Debate of the 21st Century on “The Future of American Drug Policy” (held in New York City in October).
The participants: Republican Activist William Bennett and Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel vs. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke (moderated by drug war cheerleader Joseph Califano).

Each participant started with 6 minutes to make their presentation, followed by 2 minutes of rebuttal and then questions from the audience. Today, I’ll just give you the first section (the 6-minute presentations).
What to look for:

Via Random Act of Kindness, comes this story.
In Kansas, Stephen Fletcher tried to grow some psychedelic mushrooms in his apartment. Also in Kansas, Tremain V. Scott shot a man 18 times at close range, killing him. Both men are in their 20’s with little or no criminal conviction record.
Scott is facing 4-6 years. Fletcher is facing at least 11 1/2 years.
Yep, that’s the criminal justice system.

A couple of good new additions on the Guest Drug WarRant page. Be sure to check out:

• Another Drug War Victim by Casey
• I Don’t Want to Wake Up in the Middle of the Night Worrying Anymore. by Yan