President Uribe says the drug war isn’t working because we haven’t gone after the consumer enough.
We believe that instead of advocating for the legalization of drugs, we must reflect on the need to make consumption illegal. There is no coherence between the severity facing production and trafficking and the permissiveness of consumption. This has lead to murderous micro-trafficking in cities, to encouraging consumption by adolescents and youth and to involving children in the criminal enterprise. We are advancing in the constitutional process to make consumption illegal
Yeah, that’ll work. Um, President Uribe? It’s prohibition that causes all those problems. [Via Eric Sterling]
Hey, look! Marijuana Policy Project is offering a $10,000 challenge. No way in hell you’ll be able to collect, though. You’d have to prove that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana.
Oops.
In a Sept. 20 story about drug trafficking in Puerto Rico, The Associated Press… reported erroneously that 1,430 metric tons of cocaine reached the island last year… only 5.5 metric tons of cocaine were documented moving into Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.
Only off by a factor of 260.
Coverage of the Drug Policy Conference in El Paso this past week:
- UTEP drug conference: New cartel methods widen drug war’s toll by Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times
- Forum panelists critical of status quo in Drug War by Elizabeth Ruiz, Newspaper Tree
- Reporting the Drug War by Sito Negron, Newspaper Tree (9/21)
- Juarez forum provides hope in ‘war on drugs’ by Angela Kocherga, KVUE
- Are drugs “intrinsically evil”? Panelists debate the cost and consequence of exporting the Drug Warby Elizabeth Ruiz, Newspaper Tree
- War on Drugs conference: Legalize marijuana, participants say by Ramon Bracamontes, El Paso Times
- Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz: U.S. drug policies need to change by Ramon Bracamontes, El Paso Times
- Debate over Legalizing Drugs by Maggie Lineback, Fox News
- An Open and Honest Debate About Drug Policy in El Paso by Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Cato @ Liberty.
- Corruption, ‘cartel’ violence rampant in Mexico as drug policy debated in El Paso by Scott Henson, Grits for Breakfast
DrugSense Weekly – a weekly review of the most interesting or relevant articles in the press and on the web related to drug policy reform.
Drug War Chronicle – weekly update of drug war news and analysis from Stop the Drug War.org.
I wonder if the prohibitionists are looking around and wonder how they got surrounded. Right now I put it at a stalemate. Hopefully the tide will change and they’ll start losing ground.
They have no problem putting their agenda through congress. I can no longer buy my favorite flavored cigarette papers anywhere as everyone is out do to the (impending?) ban.
I would guess at saying they will soon ban tobacco outright. They have the majority to do so.
WAMMfest mostly mellow
“Organizers of the event were very respectful and responsive to any inquiries park staff had who were doing their regular patrols of the park,” Santa Cruz police Lt. Rick Martinez said. “There was a small smoking tent but it wasn’t located on park property. We estimated the crowds to be around 200-300 people. Overall I think it was a success for the organizers.”
Police wrote two citations for smoking and one for alcohol at the end of the day.
Santa Cruz Pot Smokers Light Up
WAMMFest Kicks Off At San Lorenzo Park
“The benefits absolutely outweigh any of the legalities,”
As a voting citizen of the US I find this drug war a complete and total embarrassment. It not only tears huge chunks from the Constitution. It treats the most vulnerable citizens with contempt, continuous harassment and even illegal domestic terrorism. Written off as collateral damage. Headlines about how the US government mistreats foreign countries and their sovereignty disregarded. Liberals jamming the op eds reporting abuse of “enemy combatants”. In many cases I might agree. But American citizens abused by the US government in this Ganjawar not only deserve fair and humane treatment, they have a birthright to it.
Family Guy Marijuana Episode Banned in Venezuela
Cheeky television show The Family Guy has stirred up a new controversy, this time getting itself banned from an entire country.
Family Guy “420” – “X”
American High Society
“They have no problem putting their agenda through congress. I can no longer buy my favorite flavored cigarette papers anywhere as everyone is out do to the (impending?) ban”
Maybe you should try smoking better quality ganj. 😉
j/k my friend. flavored rolling/blunts/cigars papers are not “eeevil” any more than unflavored papers/blunts and cigs.
Gerberals envious of GOPerverts Ganjawar, need to supplement for lost prison revenues, letting those sick people burn doobies. Driving up cost so the poor buy generics, with more floor sweepings and chemicals. Quicker getting sick, without insurance having to worry, they’ll get treatment in ER’s, paid by tax payers. Never mentioning the true culprit causing the lung and cancers. The chemicals added to improve the flavor, retard the burning so the tobacco keeps up with the paper. Organic tobacco has never harmed Indians for thousands of years. Or Pioneers, forefathers growing. Egypt or Turkey or Ole England with no statistics like since the additions. By the same chemical/pharmaceutical corporations producing the Ganjawar. Bait and switch. Latest flim flam kept sick people from toking. CoDependent politicians fixing what ain’t broke, just to charge a tax. Now flavored cigs banned? While the transfats and pesticides keep killing.
Why a Ban on Flavored Cigarettes and Outdoor Smoking Will Backfire
US: Web: Newman, Tony AlterNet 25 Sep 2009
Santa Cruz Expands Smoking Ban
Organic Cannabis/Tobacco vs Chemical Cigarettes
Thankfully everybody has vices, except the puritans that started this 80 year drug war crime spree of course. But thanks to science and documented facts we know the drugs alcohol & tobacco are far more addictive, deadly, and dangerous to society than cannabis and would also need to be controlled and criminalized… and obviously more so! I seriously doubt ‘Joe six-pack’ wants to go to prison and end up in a cell with ‘tony the toker’… at least not this one;o Remember, the religious rehabbers claim alcohol drug addiction is 2 beers a day or a total of 6 per week. Ye hawwww… let the round-up begin! Worse JSP’s addiction is for life… just as they demanded… poor diseased bastards. Don’t scare me though… underground is just a matter of degrees and a state of mind. Hello speak easys… and don’t forget to dress like a gansta… grandpa… just like your daddy did… dawg!
@WyldPirate:-) Are you ‘Pastafarian’ by chance? Can I get a RAmen?
I suspect that Pres. Uribe is not simply an antisocial misanthrope, but an idiot also. But to be fair, most of the politicians in power today are, so as they say, “bird of a feather”. As long as the drug war continues and the authoritarian fascists stay in power, there will be idiots like this sucking up to them everywhere, for selfish reasons. These assholes are everywhere. This planet is not the Earth I was born into, it is the evil-twin.
Speaking of El Paso there is a great article in the October issue of Texas Monthly. The author hits a home run.
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