Drug WarRant

Continuing on her crusade against marijuana as medicine (except when it’s sold by a company she works for), Andrea Barthwell has resurfaced in Ohio.

Dr. Andrea Barthwell says she’s seen marijuana shops pop up like liquor stores. “These people move in with a vengeance,” she says.

The former adviser to President George W. Bush is warning against legalizing the drug for medical purposes.

“It’s full of contaminates, bird droppings, animal carcases and it exposes the sick and dying to a number of potential problems,” Barthwell adds. […]

They point to data from Colorado, which legalized medical marijuana in 2000. From 2006 to 2011, traffic fatalities from drivers testing positive for marijuana increased 46 percent. In 2011, drug usage among kids 12-17 was higher than the national average.

Barthwell’s goal is to stop all that from happening here in Ohio.

For those new to this blog, Andrea and I go way back.

In 2005, I broke the story about Andrea’s traveling con job, including the fact that she falsified sponsor information to suppport her Illinois Marijuana Lecture series.

I then covered her move as a Snake Oil Salesman, shilling for a company that sells medical marijuana while still going around opposing medical marijuana.

Later, Barthwell created an organization called “Coalition to End Needless Death on our Roadways,” publishing a “Fatal 15” list each year which they promoted in the media (big scare stories) based on NHTSA data. The only problem is, they didn’t use the data properly and their results were completely false and misleading. I created this page to alert the media to the scam, and before long, her organization evaporated.

Andrea is a con artist who loves to see her name in print and can’t seem to do anything without lying or distorting the truth in some way.

Keep alert, Ohio.

Update: Here’s another article:

“There is no instance where marijuana is superior to anything that is currently on the market,” said Dr. Andrea Barthwell, a former deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “There is no need for it. There is no room for it. There is no place for it in the physicians’ toolbox.”

She claims there is not enough good medical research to show that marijuana has any positive effect except “an anecdotal finding that marijuana gives people the munchies.”

Barthwell worries that, if it is legalized in Ohio, we will see the drug become more easily available, especially to teens and children. She also argues that medical marijuana would set modern medicine back by over a century because it would open the door to letting ballot issues and lawmakers, not science and medical experts, determine what medicine should be on the market.

“Set modern medicine back by over a century.” Wow.

Now this particular article also has an anecdote from someone else (not Andrea) that really set me on edge…

At a Statehouse news conference, Coleman told the story of a client who explained the difference between drunk driving and drugged driving.

“With beer, you don’t see the red light. With marijuana, you see the red light, and you don’t care,” he said.

Noooooooooo!!!!

What a horrible (and inaccurate) distortion of my joke:

The drunk driver speeds through the stop sign without seeing it.
The stoned driver stops and patiently waits for it to turn green.

I missed this one last week.

Representative Steve King speaking about… I don’t know… weightlifting?

“For every [undocumented immigrant] who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

Nice to see… finally…

Quinn to sign medical marijuana bill Thursday

One reason Quinn said he was giving legalized pot more thought was that he was impressed by an injured military veteran who maintained marijuana provided him relief from war wounds.

It’s not going to be easy — it’s touted as being the toughest medical marijuana law in the country (the only way they could get it passed). I think you already have to be dead with a coroner’s certificate to qualify (although in Chicago, that may not be too hard to get).

The green shoots of recovery? Morocco considers the legalisation of marijuana cultivation

At least 800,000 Moroccans live off illegal marijuana cultivation, generating annual sales estimated at $10bn, or 10 per cent of the economy, according to the Moroccan Network for the Industrial and Medicinal use of Marijuana, a local charity.

Morocco, with a population of 32 million, is Africa’s sixth-largest economy. Legalisation would allow farmers to sell to the government for medicinal and industrial purposes rather than to drug traffickers. That could boost exports and help reduce a trade deficit that widened to a record 197 billion dirhams last year, about 23 per cent of gross domestic product. It could also help pacify inhabitants of a historically restive region after Arab Spring uprisings toppled regimes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Uruguay’s Marijuana Bill Faces Political, Economic Obstacles

If Uruguay’s proposal to regulate the production, sale and distribution of marijuana is properly implemented and overcomes political and economic hurdles, it could be the most important drug regulation experiment in decades. […]

Unlike in the Netherlands, where cannabis cultivation is still technically banned, this will legalize and regulate every step in the process of marijuana production and distribution. […]

It now appears set to pass the lower house in a July 31 vote with the support of the FA’s slim majority, despite the fact that public opinion remains mostly opposed to the measure.

The debate on this bill is going on now. It will then have to pass the Senate, which is likely.

One of the “reforms” touted by the ONDCP and their apologists has been drug courts as an alternative to prison for drug offenders. Yet drug courts have severe issues because of the fact that they are part and parcel with the criminal justice system… and using the criminal justice system to deal with addiction is like using a baseball bat to house-train a dog.

Worth reading: Reevaluating Drug Courts: No Mother Should Have to Go Through What I Did

Here’s something I didn’t know…

Participants are placed on probation while going through the Drug Treatment Court process and do not have the same rights as others when it comes to getting emergency care for drugs or alcohol. New York’s 911 Good Samaritan Law, designed to save lives by encouraging people to call 911 during an overdose, doesn’t offer those on probation and in drug courts the same protection as others — even though drug courts say that drug abuse can be a chronic and relapsing occurrence. My son could not overcome this dilemma and died as a result.

So much destruction.

One more data point in the destructive war on drugs. Since drug transactions are consensual, police can’t count on “victims” reporting the crime, so they have to seek it out, often using nefarious means. One of the most nefarious is the use of informants who are trying to either make money or avoid jail and are willing to lie or plant evidence in order to do so.

It was this corrupt practice that led to both Tulia and Kathryn Johnston, for example.

And here, we have: Undercover Informant Plants Crack Cocaine in Smoke Shop, Business Owner Saved by Tape

Andrews was arrested until he was able to show police the surveillance video exonerating him. WNYT reports the county sheriff admitted procedures were not followed and blamed the informant, who has apparently gone missing. Andrews is preparing to sue for his wrongful arrest.

Lucky for Andrews he had those video cameras installed. Otherwise, as an upstanding business owner, he would have had no chance against the word of a low-life informant.

The video segment is worth watching – a pretty good job by the television news station.

Trudeau calls for legalization of pot

At the end of his five-day B.C. tour, federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau spoke out about a well-worn topic in the province: marijuana legislation. Following unprompted remarks in Kelowna Wednesday on the legalization of marijuana, Trudeau told supporters and volunteers on Thursday in Vancouver his thinking had “evolved” when it comes to pot laws.

Could it be that it’s finally reaching the point where it can be politically advantageous to be opposed to criminalization (and that politicians are realizing it)?

He also said:

“Marijuana is not a health food supplement. It’s not great for you. But it’s certainly – as many studies have shown – not worse for you than cigarettes or alcohol.”

Um, well, actually… marijuana is a health food supplement. Parts of the plant have extraordinarily beneficial nutritional value.

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days.

I’ve been a judge at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival in Palatine, Illinois. It wraps up today, and this afternoon I’ll be presenting the awards along with the other two judges.

It’s been an excellent Festival with a great selection of independent films this year.

The Pope has made it clear that he’s completely clueless about drug policy, adding just one more data point to the list of the Catholic Church’s embarrassing blunders throughout history (hello, Galileo).

RIO DE JANEIRO – The legalization of drugs will not reduce the problems of addiction, Pope Francis said Wednesday at a hospital in Brazil dedicated to the rehabilitation of drug users.

“A reduction in the spread and influence of drug addiction will not be achieved by a liberalization of drug use, as is currently being proposed in various parts of Latin America,” the Pope said.

“The scourge of drug-trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires of society as a whole an act of courage.”

Yes. And that act of courage just happens to be legalization. What did you think it was?

What the Pope does here is simply mouth some non-sequitors and meaningless platitudes, along with using strawman arguments.

He should be embarrassed, but quite frankly, I doubt he’s aware enough.

And so, if his words are followed, the drug trafficking organizations will continue to use violence to get rich and the governments will use violence to go after them and the people stuck in the middle will die.