Drug WarRant

There are a lot of industries related to prohibition that are full of corruption and that put self-interest above value to society.

One that is not discussed sufficiently is the treatment industry.

We all recognize that there are people who need help — those who cannot deal with the vicissitudes of life by themselves — and for that reason we recognize that treatment is a potentially valuable service to both individuals and society. We also understand that many who enter this field do so out of a legitimate and unselfish desire to help people, and that they believe the work they are doing has that capability.

However, it’s time for the larger community to understand and address the fact that as a field, the treatment industry is rife with corruption. There are huge profits to be made that depend not on helping people, but rather on insuring that a large number of “customers” go through their system.

I have noted here in the past that there are literally thousands of treatment centers regularly fighting to improve their google ratings, many of them begging to pay me to place text ads on my site, all to take advantage of the easy paycheck from criminal justice referrals for “treatment.”

And, of course, regulars here already know that whenever they hear someone in the news defending prohibition, the odds are about 9-1 that they have a connection to the treatment industry. Oh, sure, not all are merely corrupt — some may actually have deluded themselves that grabbing the easy money that comes from prohibition is somehow OK because it allows them to also help the people who need it, but that’s a copout.

A friend who spent some time in the criminal justice system for possessing enough cannabis to sell recently came forward to tell me about his experience with treatment.

“As part of my conditions of probation I was asked to enter a drug treatment program for treatment of my dependence on cannabis.

I was recommended a treatment center by the court system, which I went to. The guy who owned the treatment center sat down and did my intake appointment. We ended up getting pretty friendly and he came out of left field with the following: “If you can help me out I can help you out.” What ended up happening was I paid the guy $200 for his pocket, $200 for the classes, and he signed a paper saying that I had completed 20 hours of drug treatment.

I did it. Of course. I smoke pot, but I’m not dependent on substances, and I was happy to not have to sit through a bullshit class about drug dependency and DUI’s. But as time has gone on and I see how our criminal justice system works, it truly saddens me and I had to speak up about it. Truly makes me sick.”

Cannabis treatment is one of the biggest scams in the industry. A dramatically high percentage of those entering treatment for cannabis are there because of criminal justice referral. And even those who self-refer are often doing so because it’ll look better to a judge.

When the government’s own figures show that 38% of those entering treatment for cannabis haven’t even used it in the past 30 days, that’s got to raise questions.

Now I’m not in any way denying the existence of the category of cannabis dependency, but there’s a wide range of degrees of dependency, lots of options besides treatment for mild dependency (where cannabis clearly falls), and clear evidence that huge numbers are entering treatment solely because of the criminal justice system and not because of a need for treatment.

Despite this fact, I’ve never found an instance of someone being denied treatment because they were determined to not need it. And yet, isn’t treating someone who doesn’t need it unethical? (I’d be happy to hear from treatment centers that actually only accept those who need help, rather than all those for whom there is money to collect.)

And we’re not even getting into the problems with treatment regimes in the United States for those who do have problems. There’s a lot of evidence that cold-turkey, high-stress programs are much less effective than those based on harm reduction, and yet we rarely have that discussion on a national basis.

Unless the legitimate players in the treatment industry step forward and condemn the abuses and call for reevaluation of their own business, there’s little reason for us to accept anything they have to say.

They can no longer depend on an ignorant public simply believing them. That day is coming to a close. It’s time to clean house, or eventually be relegated to the category of quacks like historic barbers who bled their patients.

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.”