Drug Policy Reform Group

I like to think of myself as an effective drug policy reform advocate, but I realize that as an individual, my impact can be limited, so I like to check out what organized groups are doing for drug policy reform.

Imagine my surprise, when reading an article in the Huffington Post, that I apparently had missed one.

Since day one, the Obama Administration has been engaged in an unprecedented government-wide effort to reform our nation’s drug policies and restore balance to the way we deal with the drug problem. We have pursued a variety of alternatives that abandon an unproductive enforcement-only “War on Drugs” approach to drug control and acknowledge we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem and, further, that drug addiction is a disease of the brain, not some “moral failing.”

Wow. Who knew?

But a government official says so, so it must be true.

So the candidate who ran on reform and then failed to really reform much of anything except some rhetoric is now, with an election coming up, realizing that reform is a popular notion, and wants to run on reform again.

Pappy O’Daniel: Goddam campaign is lagging! We need a shot in the arm. Hear me, boys? In the goddam arm! Election held tomorrow, that sumbitch Stokes would win in a walk!

Junior: Well he’s the reform candidate, Daddy.

Pappy O’Daniel: …Yeah?

Junior: A lot of people like that reform. Maybe we should get us some.

Pappy O’Daniel: I’ll reform you, you soft-headed son of a bitch! How we gonna run reform? We’re the damn incumbent! Is that the best you can come up with? Reform?! Weepin’ Jesus on the cross. That’s it! Start drafting my concession speech right now.

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29 Responses to Drug Policy Reform Group

  1. kaptinemo says:

    So now we know who got Sabet’s job as ONDCP’s ‘Wormtongue’. No matter. As predictable as ever. Just like the old Soviets, the lies can be told only so many ways…

  2. thelbert says:

    Charles Durning(pappy o’daniel) survived the Malmedy massacre during the battle of the bulge. we’ve already got the concentration camps. maybe the little hitlers of the administration have decided to shoot the prisoners rather than waste tax payer’s dollars on trials. just got to get people used to the idea. drug war is drug peace

  3. Maria says:

    So when are they going to start rounding people up for forced treatment of their “diseases of the brain”?

    /sarc (I only half joke….)

    Any changes in policy from addiction being a moral/criminal issue to it being a public health issue would be welcome.

    • Tommy says:

      It’s already started. It’s called “drug court”. That’s what we’re supposed to call “reform”.

  4. claygooding says:

    “”We have a bureaucrat­ic empire with a 16 billion dollar budget that has repeatedly failed to reduce drugs or the harms done by the drugs and in the act of trying to stop drugs by persecutio­n of drug users and eradicatio­n of crops in foreign countries,­done more damage to our society than the drugs would have if we had never prohibited the drugs.

    Our drug policy has created a black market that is today a player in the world money market,run by criminals and gangs that resort to murder and bribery to continue their marketing of the drugs.
    45,000 dead in Mexico is enough. It is shameful to continue our present policy and expect any different results than seen so far.

    The prohibitio­n has become a hole to throw money in and our present economical situation is being brought about because of the costs of this war on drugs/war on the American citizens by it’s own government­.

    I don’t even want to mention the loss of our civil rights and freedoms these “drug warriors” have cost us in the last 40 years,but to me these people represent someone the FBI should be investigat­ing as terrorists and never held up as “champions­” of anything.””

    shoulda said “exacerbated instead of “brought about”

  5. Francis says:

    OT: But I got a kick out of this article from the good people over at Fox News: The Miley Cyrus Conundrum: Train Wreck in Training or Typical Teen?

    The former Disney star does have a penchant for getting in trouble, whether its talking about puffing illegal drugs last week, getting filmed smoking something out of a bong a few months ago, dancing suggestively with a man twice her age, showing off too much skin, or tweeting about her tattoos.

    Well, I don’t know about all you degenerates, but I’m certainly scandalized by that list. Regarding the tattoo, I’m not sure if the “scandalous” aspect is the fact that she got a tattoo, that she tweeted about it, or (this being Fox News) that the tattoo had a pro-gay rights message. I also liked this:

    “In a way, Miley is no different than many college students who strongly believe that pot or marijuana (or whatever the going term is) is a benign relax-and-get-the-munchies ritual,” says parenting expert Ellen Rittberg, the author of “35 Things Your Teen Won’t Tell You So I Will.”

    and

    “It’s one more instance of a young celebrity acting somewhat badly and some people calling her to task for it. But we shouldn’t be surprised by this,” Rittberg said. “She doesn’t live in a bubble. We have near-epidemic percentages of average teenage binge-drinking or drinking to the point of getting drunk; adults who call themselves ‘social drinkers’ when they are problem drinkers, parents who themselves smoke dope. She reflects our society’s shortcomings.”

    Here’s the comment I left:

    I believe the young’uns are mostly calling it “Muggles” or “The Reefer.” Also, I believe (although I can’t be sure) I overheard one of those young Negro jazz musicians refer to what I suspect was a marihuana cigarette as a “Mary Warner.” And again, that’s unconfirmed.

    Anyways, parents sure are lucky they can turn to a hip lady like Ellen Rittberg for help understanding their kids. She’s clearly down with the teen scene. I mean, she speaks their language. But if you do buy her book, I’d “keep it on the low down” (as the kids say). Let your children continue to THINK you’re clueless.

    • allan says:

      Careful Francis, you can pierce a cheek with a sharp tongue ya know…

      I was thinking how improper it is for gummint ‘ficials to hold their circle jerks in public, they otter be ashamed! I mean seriously… what tune is in their heads to make them twitch so weirdly? Critics of hippie dancing should watch the gyrations of this lot. Crikey! How many former employees from Straight Inc/The Seed are making a living as “professionals” in the rehab biz? The whole lot are suspect in my book. And truly, masturbation jokes aside, such farcical self-congratulatory displays are bad form. Mr Obama needs to spend an evening hangin wit Snoop Dog soz he can reconnect with his roots (and leaves and flowers).

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      Thanks for remembering. Did you know that in the 20s and 30s that calling it spinach wasn’t uncommon?

      When I grew up a saying, “that thing has more names than the Eskimos have for snow” was a classic chestnut. As far as our precious muggles is concerned I think it would be much less work to list the names that haven’t yet been attached to it. Speaking of, I’ve left a post at the end of this page which addresses pakalolo.

  6. claygooding says:

    We all curse the urine analysis because marijuana stays in your system much longer than all the other drugs.

    In reality,,urine testing has proven that marijuana belongs in your body,or your body would cast it out as it does the other drugs.

  7. darkcycle says:

    They’ve decided that they can do whatever they want as long as they make reform-ey noises with thier mouthparts. Fat chance they will be convincing the folks who fell for it last time around.

  8. thelbert says:

    when they say they are reforming the criminal justice system they mean they are going to partially divert the gravy train to the rehab and whiz quiz industries. a truly epic reformation of the criminal justice system. now the addicts can pay for their own rescue from a life of dependency. these guys are geniuses. amazing social engineers.

  9. allan says:

    “reforming the criminal justice system”…?

    aaah, re-forming the criminal, just-us system… now it makes sense.

    And really? I think Pete has himself here a script from an SNL sketch. Really… if this isn’t bad comedy then it’s most certainly bad reality.

    I’d love to see someone redo Steve Allen’s short-lived series where he had actors portraying major characters from history and they’d have these really intelligent discussions with Steve Allen’s best humor in the mix (think Jefferson, Einstein and Genghis Khan talking about the Vietnam War). Some of the uh… *cough*… older folks (asleep on the couch again I see) probably remember. Heck there might even be some clips on YouTube.

  10. ezrydn says:

    Clay hit on a point I’d like to explore for a moment. If you are a daily user and have been for some time (maybe 4-5 hits a day), how long after you “abstain” will you show “clear” without using any of the OTC “washes?”

    I have a “concerned friend” and I don’t have a clue of how to factually respond.

    • darkcycle says:

      Ez, depends on several factors. Is your friend hefty or thin? How much excercise? Drink a lot of water?
      Because the metabolism of THC proceeds at a pretty stable rate, and because it is fat soluable, a person with a lot of body fat will retain more of the stuff, and therefore take longer to eliminate it.
      Heavy (girth AND consumption volume wise) smokers can take thirty days or more.
      If a whiz quiz is impending, remember to be thoughtful of the laboratory techs and NOT take Tylenol one and a half to two hours before peeing. You see, for the test to work, you need o be metabolizing and eliminating the THC when they test you. It is problematic for the tests when you have Tylenol in your blood stream, because Tylenol is a poison that makes your liver work overtime to eliminate it. Oddly, when metabolizing Tylenol, your liver does not process anything BUT the Acetominophen, until the tylenol is completely gone from your system. The upshot? If you take tylenol 1-2 hours before, pee at some time prior to the test and after the tylenol, then give them their test. If you were to do that, the pee you give them would be clean of all metabolites of THC, or anything else your liver happened to be working on when you took the OTC medication. So, the helpful prospective employee will abstain from tylenol before a test and let them have a true taste of thier pee.
      Let’s be helpful to our laboratory inquisitors and abstain from consuming all “me first” substances like tylenol, or alcohol before the laboratory trial.

    • thelbert says:

      before i was a cannabis patient i was a marijuana addict. i got a call from the machinists union for a job requiring a urinalysis. the job was fitting rubber bumpers to a tugboat. i really wanted the job so i started drinking as much water sa i could and took my usual vitamins which included b complex. next day i went to the clinic and passed. one of the best jobs i ever had, i got to see a tugboat launched. one of the few jobs where i got a raise. at least in 1990 it could be done in less than a day.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
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      Don’t waste money on those so called urine cleaners. The secret ingredient is dihydrogen monoxide (H20). Remember, people can die from drinking too much of that deadly chemical in too short a period of time.

      If it’s not for involvement with the Courts either pre-trial or probation/parole the best way to pass is with synthetic urine. It’s actually the best thing in the case of observed testing but they often observe and if they find someone substituting they squeal like stuck pigs. Exactly the same way I would squeal if I caught someone substituting synthetic cannabis for my genuine muggles. But I wouldn’t toss that person jail after I had finished expressing myself, and they would.

      Some States now have created a new crime called “defrauding a urine (some drugs) test.” Sadly, no fooling. I actually read about a guy that caught that charge when he gave consent to search his car and they found discarded packaging. I have no clue what the disposition was so that could have just been an overly zealous LEO. Never consent to a search, you may not know what you have is illegal as new crimes sprout like mushrooms nowadays.

      I’d recommend QuickFix Plus which you can find at urineluck.com. DOT drivers with commercial driver’s licenses, forklift operators, surgeons, EMTs and air traffic controllers never leave home without it. It comes with a temp strip and a chemical hand warmer so that the sample can be within range when presented. Skip the modified dildos because most tests are unobserved. Quite often observed tests are performed by highly qualified professionals that can spot phony genitalia from across the room. I don’t know, they may have training classes in identifying dubious dicks and spurious skin flutes. But those tests are the ones where the consequences of being caught in possession of a meretricious member can be quite deleterious.

      If you claim a prescription for Marinol they can and will test for metabolites of other cannabinoids. That still could be useful if those metabolites don’t stick around so long. I don’t know what secondary metabolites are tested for. Actually, I only learned of this a few weeks ago.

      I found my leftover from 1992 Marinol® gelcaps in the back of my medicine cabinet recently. The best proof that Marinol is not “pot in a pill” is the fact that Duncan still has 4 of them that will be 20 years old in less than a year, and considers them a souvenir. Very, very rare, especially considering that the prescribing doctor’s name is Grinspoon.

      But this really begs the question, what kind of perverted a society produces a website for an actual business called urineluck.com? The really sick thing is I’ll betcha the concern is owned by the people who sell the urine tests to the people on the other side of the urinal. The best way to profit from war is to supply weapons to both sides, and make sure they’re more or less equal in firepower. Then they keep on fighting and buying, fighting and buying, fighting and buying.

      • darkcycle says:

        That’s a KILLER souvineer. Ditch the expired capsules, they’re inert by now, gelcaps don’t exclude oxygen. But keep that pill bottle! That rocks!

  11. Matthew Meyer says:

    OT: Here’s the first attempt I’ve seen to quantify Humboldt’s cannabis economy. Looks pretty well done, and the conclusion is that a conservative estimate says it’s 1/4 of the county’s “GDP” (he he), or about 400 mi.

    http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_19468081

  12. claygooding says:

    It sounds like a clean up of a disaster we don’t know all the info about,,,yet.

    D.E.A. Launders Mexican Profits of Drug Cartels

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/world/americas/us-drug-agents-launder-profits-of-mexican-cartels.html?_r=2&hp

    Did not see how much money the US made for laundering cartel bucks,,or was that bonus money for the management?

    Kinda like the bank bailouts?

  13. ezrydn says:

    Thanks, DC,

    I’ve relayed the info to him and he understands. He’s a tall, skinny stick of a guy an smokes very little but it’s been daily for a long time, according to him.

    I had an app in the “WayBack” days that showed degradation. At it’s upper usage limit, it took 45 days to reach the 0 line. Just wanted to check before I got back to him. He said to relay his thanks also.

  14. Cliff says:

    Judicial ordered WO(s)D “drug treatment” = prison

    Can anyone tell me how WO(s)D drug treatment system is any different than the mental institutions the Soviets used to warehouse dissidents and political prisoners?

    • Tommy says:

      No difference. Just a change of the sign on the jailhouse door.

    • kaptinemo says:

      The only real difference is that the Soviets used psychotropic drugs to break down their victim’s resistance.

      But, give the prohibs time. They’re mentally slow, but eventually they’ll catch up.

  15. Deep Dish says:

    To quote from the book the 48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene:

    “Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once

    Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit.  Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt.  If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things.  If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.”

    Obama has certainly followed this doctrine, but too closely, too gently, for too long.

    • darkcycle says:

      Can I paraphrase? “Go ahead and pander, but don’t upset the apple cart, and if you really must do something, make sure you pay off the cart driver.”

  16. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    Darn it all, I had completely forgotten about The Circle Jerks until you mentioned them. I hadn’t heard of their Self Congratulatory collection before; is that a greatest hits compilation?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNacHEe68xE

    That clip is blessedly short at 53 seconds. Gosh, I have to admit that I was nervous doing a search for Circle Jerks on Youtube. Sometimes Youtube is like a box of chocolates you know. People post up all manner of perverted entertainment. But that clip is just (sorta kinda) rock’n’roll, no actual genitalia were self abused in its making. So let’s see how many of you can get through the entire clip. I couldn’t myself, but if you do you win a dunce cap. There’s no doubt that that band shouldn’t have been allowed to appear in public.

  17. Duncan20903 says:

    1st Amendment? What’s a 1st Amendment?

    CU studies how other schools deal with 4/20
    Spokesman: Some lessons useful, but CU is unique
    By Brittany Anas Camera Staff Writer
    12/03/2011
    /snip/
    But concerns over marijuana smoking pale in comparison to worries surrounding the annual “Floattopia” event, which involves heavy drinking and floating on rafts in the nearby ocean, she said. Campus officials in Santa Barbara have been focused on squelching that springtime event because of the safety and environmental problems it poses, Martin said.

    Dozens of people who have participated in the event have been treated for head injuries because of accidents on nearby cliffs, and officials have scolded students for peeing in the ocean, destroying vegetation on the cliffs and littering the shoreline with broken glass and garbage.
    /snip/

  18. If you’ve smoked a lot of marijuana, then it will take you longer before the THC in your body drops back below the amount that is detectable by most drug tests. Nice stuff

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