Throughout the history of prohibition, lacking science and facts on their side, prohibitionists have tried to control the message, and suppress any attempts to talk about reform. There were even Congressional hearings discussing whether drug policy reformers could be prosecuted! For decades, many people legitimately thought that even talking about legalization could get them in trouble.
And in some places that really was true. One of the greatest voices for reform has been Law Enforcement Against Prohibition made up of (mostly retired) law enforcement officials, judges, etc. But it’s been hard for active LEOs to participate, even in their own time, simply because they’re often not allowed to by their job. That’s right – their employment doesn’t allow them to express their opinion about science and law in their own time.
David Bratzer is a friend to Drug WarRant, and was an active police officer who was an active member of LEAP, until the Victoria Police Department told him that he could no longer speak publicly or personally as a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Fortunately, Canadian courts have ruled on his behalf.
Victoria police officer can advocate for drug legalization, tribunal rules
A Victoria police officer who won a human-rights complaint against the force says “on the ground†experience led him to support drug legalization – and he says he doesn’t think he’s alone on the force.
Constable David Bratzer was awarded $20,000 last week after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled the Victoria Police Department violated his rights by preventing him from advocating for legalization. A civil-liberties group describes the ruling as precedent-setting.
An editorial in the Times Colonist was blunt: Editorial: Rights case wasted money
It can be difficult for some to accept that police officers might not agree with all of the laws they are being asked to enforce.
It is more difficult to accept the notion that a police department could discriminate against one of its officers because of his political beliefs that were not far removed from mainstream thinking.
What is most difficult of all is the realization that this case was allowed to go on for as long as it did, taking time and money that could have been spent on more important priorities.
The tribunal found that former police chief Jamie Graham was not in favour of drug legalization or decriminalization, and that played a partial role in the treatment of Bratzer on at least one occasion.
Let’s restate that: If Graham tried to gag Bratzer’s off-duty comments because he disagreed with Bratzer’s views, then Graham overstepped his position. That kind of management action is wrong.
It’s good to have David’s voice back!
Kind of reminds me of those folks in NE and OK continuing to spend their constituent’s money pursuing a case they have no chance of winning, when in fact their winning would actually exacerbate the problem they’re supposedly trying to fix.
Wow. I assumed the numbers would be skewed, but that’s kind of shocking. And depressing.
Very easy to be black balled and passed over for promotion. Or worse, as Constable Bratzer found out. Thankfully, the courts stepped in this time. Good work, David. You have showed the courage of your convictions.
And good to see you, Francis.
With city managers and councilman thinking the drug war grants are saving them raising taxes for funding their LE from the local taxpayer base it could bring pressure from them that would cost them their job.
Of course they do not consider that grants will not cover anything but more drug war and will do little for the day to day requirements for their police force,,,unless they can wiggle the expenditure of grant money being attached to more drug war,,like the “Margarita” dispenser bought for their safety/training for their SWAT team meetings in KY if I recall correctly..
strange that in a free society, even the police have to fight for the right to speak freely. it’s as if everything has to be regulated to nth degree.
Constable David Bratzer was viewed by the Canadian government as a potential whistleblower who opposes the drug war, so they messed with him. The United States is currently at odds with its own whistleblowers, making it difficult for drug enforcement officials and police to speak up about prohibition. Lack of transparency, active suppression of the truth, are all big clues something criminal is happening within a government. And it’s the cover-ups that get people and organizations into trouble.
The Nixon tapes cost Nixon, Haldeman, and Erlichman their jobs. Had John Erlichman been a whistleblower at that time revealing Nixon’s plans to use prohibition to repress blacks, minority neighborhoods, and people on Nixon’s enemies list, Erlichman might not have been sent to prison. Nixon could have been eliminated well prior to Watergate, saving everyone the embarrassment and problems related to Nixon’s schemes.
Another opportunity-lost to stop Nixon is described in David Talbot’s book, The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government. Talbot reveals an interesting and little discussed Nixon scandal.
Nixon was running for Vice-President on the Eisenhower ticket in 1952 when the CIA discovered a California businessman had bribed Nixon with a $100,000 check. Photos of the check made their way up the chain of command at the CIA to the desk of a CIA officer who quickly classified the material, knowing the hot evidence would crash the upcoming presidential election for the Republicans. Nixon had already skated once on corruption charges with his Checkers speech. By sitting on the evidence, the CIA and Allen Dulles owned VP Richard Nixon. Had the CIA acted in a more legitimate fashion, Nixon and Kissinger might have ended as footnotes in history. The Viet Nam war would have ceased in 1968 with Lyndon Johnson in command, rather than 1973 with Gerald Ford. Watergate and the mess that followed would have been preempted.
With Allen Dulles (of MKULTRA fame) as Nixon’s virtual boss, it’s difficult to know who originated the giant American black-op we now call the drug war. Anslinger was aware the intelligence services were manipulating drug sales through the mafia as a means of funding intelligence-based black ops. Certainly Harry Anslinger (“Hank†to his friends) must have known of the mafia distribution of heroin to black jazz clubs, and to the Haight-Ashbury District in San Francisco. The schemes would have been obvious once Harry discovered he wasn’t allowed to bust certain people for drug trafficking.
Mr. Bratzer is a great example of why whistleblowing and dissidence is critical to preserving democracies. If constables, police officers, DEA, and CIA agents refuse to come forward to do a tell-all, the consequences of delaying justice will likely be far worse than the immediate exposure and remediation of a problem.
Thanks Pete. No more lurking for me. It’s nice to have a voice again.
David, thanks for your courage in speaking out against prohibition.
Congrats David, I was going to post Neill’s email but Pete already posted the gist of it. Ash tray’s and papers on the second shelf beside the Tricky Dick dart board. Munchies in the fridge. Welcome to the Couch.
The brainwashed never wonder
http://oi51.tinypic.com/110ce20.jpg
The ECS regulates all of the body’s other systems and yet no Medical Schools have an ECS Science Department or anyone teaching future doctors.
California Cops Are Trained ‘Marijuana Is Not A Medicine’
recent court case in San Diego has revealed some California police officers are basing their sworn court testimony in medical marijuana cases on badly outdated, legally inaccurate information.
Here’s a story saying that testimony from a “narcotics” official in a medical marijuana dispensary case in San Diego shows that police at least in certain sectors of California are still taught that marijuana is not a medicine. Can it be that law enforcement is officially taught such misinformation? I checked, and this pamphlet full of inaccurate misinformation is till up on the California Narcotics Officers Association website.
Disciplining Police Officers Re: Medical Marijuana
Most state laws allowing the use of medical marijuana do not protect individuals against employment related sanctions. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not protect or even apply to current drug users. Similarly, employees using marijuana for “medical†reasons generally are not protected from such sanctions under state disabilities discrimination laws requiring reasonable accommodation of disabling medical conditions.
For a current or former member of the Armed Forces, an inference of current use may be drawn from recent disciplinary or other administrative action based on confirmed drug use, e.g., court-martial conviction, non-judicial punishment, or an administrative discharge based on drug use or drug rehabilitation failure.
Perhaps the most dramatic impact on the issue of the right of public safety agencies to terminate employees using medical marijuana in compliance with state
“Professionals” are more of a problem, than solution.
Constable Bratzer,
Thank you so much for your work with LEAP and for challenging drug war orthodoxy even when your livelihood was threatened. You are a great example to other officers who think that speaking up would be a career-ender.
I have seriously considered a career in policing, but my interest waned over the last several years due to unfortunate policies like drug prohibition. But if drug war propaganda continues to face challenges and talk of criminal justice reform becomes more mainstream, I may give it a second thought. It is all well and good to have activists challenging the drug war, but getting more officers on board could drive another huge nail into the prohibitionist coffin.
Well done, sir.
This is a big victory… i am so proud of this man.. really, I spent most of my life afraid of and hating the police…. well let me say it like this, most of my adult life, because most of my adult life has been spent homeless. theres nothing quite like going through just a normal routine day of homelessness with a huge heroin habit, dealing with all of that, overcoming one day of that is… its impossible to explain really.. but going to sleep so exhausted, beaten down, broken, starving, etc. then all of a sudden, jolted awake by the cops telling you “this is an incorporated town, you cant sleep anywhere. move over the boundary where youre not our problem but any cops over there will do the same” and then they literally followed me in their vehicle, 2mph as I walked passed their boundary. Oh, so many things man, could you imagine if i even tried to list the stories, forget it, Pete would need a new server just for my cop stories…
this guy is great I read things he said and I was very moved. not ones that tell you they think they should be allowed to pay your girlfriend to get an abortion with state money cuz of what we were, or to get her eggs remove or my reproducing abilities removed for the “sake of the children” …
guys like this gentlemen, it reminds me of a time, there were three of us in an abandoned building/factory in Portchester, we were about to head in for the night when this one officer cornered us and insisted…. on taking us to the nearest diner and buying us all diner then escorting us back, even though we were trespassing private property, even though we were in possession of paraphenelia and controlled narcotics… etc. a REAL human being, a great man, I have no doubt this gentlemen is the calibre of officer like that one guy I just spoke about. I mean its a hard thing to say “i hate the police” because then theres guys like this that really make you feel wrong about that opinion and that really not just give you hope in the police force but in your fellow man, we cannot for a minute undervalue this officers bravery because Im sure the politics, pressure and difficulties are beyond our comprehension what this man went through to be heard, we have to salute this man and always remember him in the reform movement, although Im sure the best is yet to come in his case. It is truly a proud moment for reform, really.
Just wanting to let all the commenters know that No2Pot a page on facebook was caught endorsing Melvin and Betty Sembler and the abuse that happened at Straight Inc, on top it was found a person by the name of Robert Miller who runs the No2Pot page and when the Straight Inc survivors visited the page and confronted the person who runs the page, a lot of people were blocked for being under the guise of being abusive.
Moral of the incident
The Straight Inc incident is a fact, defending what Melvin and Betty Sembler did just gets unwanted attention from the Survivors of Straight Inc.
I also have screenshots available of the No2Pot page defending the Semblers if anyone wants to see them feel free to contact me on facebook
Take it to the media! It would be SAVOURY if cannabis reared its inconvenient head in a Clinton “town hall” event.
Oh, wow, I love that idea! Do it, Alex. Yes, it could also be interesting for it to raise its inconvenient head at a Trump or Cruz rally (Kasich isn’t worth bothering with).
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Man arrested for possession of an apple (the actual fruit) (among other charges):
Driver charged with hitting motorcyclist, hiding marijuana
Why didn’t he just eat the apple?
He was trying to get the hell out of Utah?
The failure to yield charge is weak. It likely means there should have been a stop-sign or signal-light at the scene, rather than a yield sign or yield situation. Blame then falls on the Utah highway safety officials, who will escape liability for the accident by blaming marijuana and an apple.
BTW, it is illegal to not drink milk in Utah. See that and other dumb Utah laws here. Unless the marijuana motorist was chugging a dairy product, he could face another charge of not drinking and driving.
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Isn’t bhang made with milk? If the driver was drinking bhang couldn’t he argue that it was the only way he could could comply with the must drink milk law? Also, why haven’t the lactose intolerant sued to have that law struck down on the basis of Federal preemption? It’s pretty obvious to me that the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act Trump’s the Utah law.
But failure to yield is a very valid charge. It also doesn’t require a sign. I got hit head on by a matronly old lady who inspired me to recall that there are people who consider Valium to be a recreational substance. I was uptown driving north on Massachusetts Ave, she was southbound and turned left in front of me. What really made it stupid was if I hadn’t used my vehicle to prevent her from completing the turn she would have been going the wrong way on a one way street. But that’s neither here nor there, the collision was her fault because I wasn’t doing anything other than puttering along in a straight line.
Traffic Tickets for Right-of-Way Violations
The driver in the article has much larger concerns than a fail to yield infraction. Utah has a zero
intelligencetolerance per se DUI-cannabis law and he’s probably going to prison over this. Do you recall the guy in Pennsylvania in 2007 sitting at a red light and smoking a bowl in who got rear ended by a drunk? The drunk driver was killed and the guy who he rear ended went to prison for vehicular manslaughter because he was he was guilty of impaired driving.I think my favorite stupid law is the Kentucky law which requires all residents and sojourners in the State to bathe at least once per year. Only in Kentucky would anyone find the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that residents can comply with that law by taking a shower despite the fact that the language of the statute is silent concerning the Legislature’s intent of the word “bathe”.
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Upon further reflection it appears to me that I got bit by Poe’s law in my post above. I thought it obvious that I was kidding about the KSC ruling. The law is real, the court case is fiction.
Vietnam War ends April 30, 1975
Fr. Daniel Berrigan RIP April 30, 2016
Jesuit, poet and peacemaker who was one of the most influential voices in shaping Catholic thinking about war and peace during the past century, died today. He was 94.
Vietnam War, Period
November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975
January 22, 1973
Lyndon Baines Johnson Died (aged 64)
January 23, 1973, the day after LBJ dies…
Nixon Announces End of U.S. Involvement in Vietnam
No one noticed a disgraced president removing cannabis from medicine and lumping in Hemp keeping it from the farmers. Just too busy with those hotel break ins. A $Trillion has been spent letting a traitor write policy traumatizing 30M Americans with arrest records and more millions unemployed by inaccurate irrelevant drug testing. Millions suffering and dying from big pharma while the Nixon drug worriers are watching kids seizures be reduced and choose to maintain the lies and perpetuate the prohibition profits and perks.
Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
As ugly as Nixon was towards Americans, he is still being followed by both parties keeping cannabis from the people. On the same disgraceful politician reasons. Continuing to reject any science as Nixon did with the Shafer re-evaluation report or the 1999 IOM re-re-evaluation report. Concluding the same as the 1894 Indian Hemp Commission report.
Nixon’s Treason
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This might be something that disappears when the corporate high muckety-mucks learn of it, but for the moment a very even handed description of the benefits and risks of medicinal cannabis is posted by Walgreen’s. A couple of flub a dubs for sure but considering it’s from a Fortune 500 company which would go teats up without a DEA license to operate its pharmacies its pretty darned impressive to me.
Polling confirms that more and more Americans age 55 and up are using more and more marijuana.
Seniors and marijuana
Senior Americans Overwhelmingly Support Legalizing Pot
More “stop resisting” mantra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI0WSUtsVWU
Inevitably, Patrolmans’ Benevolent Association make lame attempt to justify.
Knowing more about how marijuana works is the same as knowing more about how the brain works. Such information leads to other new discoveries that could possibly help in the future treatment of brain diseases. Thanks to some Germans in Berlin, whose country allows them to do positive cannabinoid research, scientists now know something new about the CB2 receptor and the brain:
Even though a few NIDA scientists were involved in the study, the Berlin researchers appear to have written the AAAS press release, as no one is spinning this discovery as another reason to condemn marijuana or its consumers.
AAAS Press Release: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/d-gc-ndp050216.php
Publication: “Cannabinoid type 2 receptors mediate a cell type-specific plasticity in the hippocampus,†http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(16)30025-3
So, do these people have any experience producing cannabis seeds? They do know that seeds are produced from clones, right?
OLCC licenses seven marijuana growers
Feds drop Harborview prosecutions: http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2016/05/03/medical-marijuana-patients-win-huge-victory-in-oakland/
Congratulations, Steve De Angelo.
Canuckistan is even worse about censorship than the glorious People’s Republik of Amerika.
Disruption of hivemind groupthink is just too much for some precious little snowflakes so the powers that be must nip it in the bud.
Non conformists should be marched off to re-education camps for the good of the collective. Only happy talk Uniparty approved agitprop will be allowed in public forums. The economy is on fire, drugs are bad, we have always been at war with Eastasia.
OT –
Can someone point me to links that show the Sembler/SAM connection? Here in NV the anti-measure 2 activity is ramping. Neocon former assemblyman Pat Hickey has sullied himself with the title of “Nevada Coordinator for Smart Approaches to Marijuana” and I think my contacts in the media might like to know with whom he has aligned.
Thanks
Alex (Mr. Alex is his username here) probably has those links you need.
Goblet, if you want info on the Melvin Sembler Kevin Sabet connection, here it is:
DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation) 2007 Document lists Kevin Sabet:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qmV2P12o9QAJ:dfaf.org/assets/docs/dfaf_annualreport_2007.pdf+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz&client=aff-maxthon-maxthon4
DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation) 2008 Document lists Kevin Sabet:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bf2R6Q5PBl0J:dfaf.org/assets/docs/dfaf_annualreport_2008.pdf+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz
Also we must talk about Kevin Sabet by Tony O’ Neill touches it in depth:
http://www.substance.com/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-sabet/19316/
“But just as I was wrapping up my exchange with Kevin, Maia Szalavitz, who I’d spoken with about the whole activist thing, brought up some names I hadn’t heard in a while: Mel and Betty Sembler.
The Semblers are notorious anti-drug crusaders and the masterminds behind Straight, Inc., a drug program so misguided and cruel that lawsuits resulted in millions being paid out to abuse victims. The courts heard terrible reports of young people held on the floor so long that they soiled themselves, sleep deprivation, gagging and more. Despite the horror stories, the Semblers remain key players in the anti-drug movement, although of a very different stripe to the image Project SAM wants to project.
“You know something,†Maia told me, “I’ve always wanted to ask Kevin about when he worked for them…â€
So I asked him, and once again got a flat denial.
“I never worked for them,†he said. “I am against the use of any of those techniques for treatment or anything else. DFAF [Drug Free America Foundation, the Semblers’ new project] has nothing to do with SAM—it has zero involvement. No money. No influence. Nada. We agree on some issues, yes, but I think you’ll find we are different organizations with different approaches. And I only became aware of any allegations after a few articles on the subject some years ago.â€
Which seemed definitive enough. But then Maia sent me something very interesting: the 2007 DFAF Annual Report, which listed a certain Kevin Sabet as a member of their advisory board in the role of “drug prevention expert.†Sabet was also listed as a member of the editorial board for the journal of the Institute of Global Drug Policy, a division of DFAF.
I reached back out to Kevin to ask, “What gives?â€
This time, his answer was rather different.
“Tony, I was on the advisory board along with Jeb Bush, Bob DuPont and others for a few years—that’s all unpaid.â€
Robert DuPont was the US “Drug Czar†from 1973 to 1978, and now makes a lot of money running Besinger DuPont & Associates, a workplace drug testing company. He’s also advocated that unhealthy patterns of drug use “warrant ‘stigma’.†Worried perhaps about what would happen to those piss-test profits if marijuana were legalized, DuPont once compared legalizing marijuana to “legalizing drunk driving.â€
“And I’ve published in their journal and reviewed for them,†Sabet continued, “as have about 100 other academics. In fact their journal is peer reviewed (blindly) and people like Jon Caulkins and other reputable academics have published in it.â€
Just to give you a flavor of the kind of guff that the Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice has preached, take a look at this study, which comes to the conclusion—contrary to the World Health Organization and every other reputable body—that the effectiveness of needle exchanges in reducing the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users is “overrated,†and that access to clean needles for HIV-positive drug users as the major method for combating the spread of HIV among this population is “not correct.â€
Given such claims, it’s little wonder, in light of his efforts to rebrand himself as some kind of anti-pot centrist, that Sabet is now eager to distance himself.
He was quick to add: “That work was 8-9 years ago. I’ve never been an employee of theirs. And they have never given a penny to SAM and there’s no connection between them and SAM. Making any connection between DFAF and SAM or me personally and DFAF would be false and unrepresentative of the truth.â€
Making “any connection,†one assumes, except for the whole “being on their advisory board, writing and reviewing for their journal, and doing consulting work at the UN for them under the SUNDIAL moniker†thing. (SUNDIAL was, in effect, a “let’s keep prohibition tough†campaign, built around ensuring that the UN drug laws didn’t change and that all signatories stuck to them.)
“While a student in the mid-2000s I did do some consulting work for them regarding the UN—that’s what SUNDIAL was,†Kevin says. “A project I led for them to support the UN conventions, which I’m proud of. We got 1 million signatories to show support. They along with some other groups around the world supported me to do that…â€
I wonder if Kevin was really so “proud†of his work with them, when he refused to even acknowledge it until I sent him the evidence.
Looking at the things DFAF believes, it becomes harder to see Kevin’s shift toward the “third way†as anything but opportunistic. DFAF advocates drug testing all school children, and an approach to “harm reduction†that would shutter needle exchanges and methadone clinics around the country, leading to the kind of public health emergency that hasn’t been seen here since the onset of the AIDS epidemic.”
Maia Szalavitz has confirmed that Kevin Sabet has done time with DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation) and was not truthful about his connection with the Semblers.
If you really want to know how DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation) is involved with Drug Policy in a International and National Level, I seriously suggest you read Wes Fager’s site (theStraights.net). Please note that Wes Fager is also deceased, he has been a very good supporter for the Straight Inc survivors
http://thestraights.net/reports/dfaf-and-drug-policy.htm
straight is still around with the name of S.A.F.E. it used to stand for substance abuse free environment. now it calls itself students and family enrichment. i haven’t heard that they enriched anyone besides themselves.
Not a surprise at all, also some of the Cannabis reformers have always suspected that Project SAM was set up by Melvin and Betty Sembler and Kevin Sabet is placed in there because he basically does what Melvin Sembler tells him to do
Gracias Señor Alex