Drug WarRant

Billionaire Peter Lewis, Advocate Of Marijuana Legalization, Dies At 80

“Our marijuana laws are outdated, ineffective and stupid,” Lewis told Forbes in a 2011 interview. “I am a progressive by birth, by nature, by philosophy—that’s the name of the insurance company I ran as well, which is coincidental—but I am a small ‘p’ progressive. I don’t believe that laws against things that people do regularly, like safe and responsible use of marijuana, make any sense.”

So good to see Nick Gillespie’s OpEd in Time: What’s So Bad About Casual Drug Use?

But in an age in which we are expected to use legal drugs (like beer) and prescription medications (Adderall) responsibly, it’s time to extend that same notion to currently illegal substances whose effects and properties are widely misunderstood. Indeed, the effects of coke, heroin and the rest are a mystery partly because their outlaw status makes it difficult both to research them and have honest discussions about them.

Yes.

And has been noted here in comments, there are some good discussions brewing in the comments at Time.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) has been one of the good organizations out there making a difference. I’ve been to a couple of their conferences and know a number of their members, and I’ve been faculty advisor of a college chapter as well. They fulfill an important need — reaching students at a time when they are seeking knowledge, answers, direction.

SSDP is undertaking a crowd funding campaign with Indiegogo. Worth checking out.

So I decided to check out the new Fox television series dealing with android police officers: Almost Human. I’m a big science fiction fan, so I figured it might be fun.

The opening scene of the pilot was rather disturbing. It was set in the future, but it appeared to be a future in a world where drug policy reformers like us never existed, and prohibition just kept escalating and escalating, leading to a world of super cartels and massively militarized police.

The opening screen:

The text continues to say:

Outnumbered and Overwhelmed
Law Enforcement Implements a New Strategy
Every Police Officer is Partnered with an
Advanced, Combat-model Android.

And the first image of an actual future police officer makes it clear that this is policing as drug warriors imagine it.

Now the show itself actually calms down a bit after the opening scene and starts getting into the characters and the repartee between the human and android cops.

But I was struck with how good a lesson this was as to our future if we continue our drug war unabated. Pretty bleak.

Welcome to all those who attended my presentation tonight sponsored by the Illinois State University chapter of Young Americans for Liberty. It was a huge crowd and quite attentive and interested. Quite a few political science students attending.

I suggested you come here and check out the Drug War Victims page. Definitely worth checking out their stories.

Also for further information about the legal grey areas presented by the horrific David Eckert case that I discussed tonight, see this post and the one by Radley Balko that’s referenced.

Feel free to join in the comments section. Introduce yourself, or ask questions. There’s a really good group here, they don’t bite, the refrigerator is stocked, and there’s still room on the couch.

There was a time when Peter Bensinger could spout his false drug-war propaganda points and the mmedia would print them — particularly in his home state of Illinois. After all, he used to be head of the DEA.

So it’s particularly gratifying to see this fact check takedown by WLS Chicago editor Matt Lo Cascio.

“The citizens of Illinois lost. They’ve compromised their safety and the exposure of kids to marijuana. Eighteen-year-olds can take this without a parent’s permission. And you have to only look at other states to see what’s happened,” Bensinger said in an interview with 89 WLS reporter Bill Cameron.

“In Colorado, the grades have gone down in the high schools, the drug violations have gone up and the highway traffic fatalities from people smoking pot and driving have tripled. One person is dying every week because someone is driving a vehicle and has smoked marijuana.”

Numbers from the Colorado State Patrol don’t support Bensinger’s statement. Colorado traffic fatalities have decreased since they enacted medical marijuana laws. In fact, a study done in part by a University of Colorado-Denver economist shows that when states legalize medical marijuana, traffic fatalities decrease by an average of 8 to 11 percent the first year, and that figure rises to 10 to 13 percent by the fourth year. It’s a study that has been cited by many news agencies, including Time, The Denver Post and most recently The Boston Globe.

No more free rides for Bensinger’s lies.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6:30 pm: Prohibition in 2013: Liberty and the War on Drugs.

I will be talking about a wide range of issues regarding the War on Drugs’ assault on Liberty, followed by a Q and A period.

The talk is in Stevenson 101 on the Illinois State University campus in Normal, Illinois. It is being sponsored by the Illinois State University chapter of Young Americans for Liberty.

I remember back in the 80’s when going to the East Village (St. Mark’s Place) was this incredible experience — the people, the shops, so… radical and edgy. And then… in 1988, the Gap moved in at the corner of St. Mark’s and 2nd Ave. People were outraged — it was ruining that underground cultural experience.

There has to be a similar kind of feeling going through some in the cannabis community regarding this: The Culinary Potential of Marijuana

Yes, the New Yorker is publishing recipes calling for “one bunch of fresh cannabis leaves.”

Kind of hard to believe that it wasn’t so long ago that no major media outlet was allowed to say anything positive about cannabis.

Brought to you by Cliff Kincaide, with guest stars Calvina L. Fay, and Dr. Paul R. Chabot, complete with anti-Soros messages and calls for tougher laws against cannabis.

Narco-Nation Comes to Colorado

Notice the lack of quotes from Kevin Sabet. These people are so rabid, they think Kevin is pro-marijuana.

The article is in the “Canada Free Press: …Because without America there is no Free World”

They have an odd notion of the meaning of the word “free.”

An interview with the new Dread Pirate Roberts:

You will hunt me — but first ask yourselves is it worth it? Taking me down will not affect Silk Road — back-ups have already been distributed and this entire infrastructure can be redeployed elsewhere in under 15 minutes, and you will gain nothing from our database.

So, if you want to go after the real criminals, such as the rapists, the violent street thugs, and child abusers, then go ahead… but if you come after us, then all you will have done is take the unadulterated drugs away from people who will simply turn to more dangerous supplies.

I am peaceful. I will be donating money to charity; I will be providing free testing services for users and vendors — so if law enforcement wish to turn this into a PR disaster for themselves, then I will not stop their self-destruction. […]

The recurring theme [at] Silk Road is that we provide honest, unadulterated products to people who want them, and whether we [were] here or not, most people would have access to them anyway from shady street dealers who lie through their teeth.