The Chicago Sun-Times discusses the proposal to decriminalize minor possession of marijuana in Chicago.
Thanks to Dan, who pointed out this bit:
From the DEA’s perspective, the battle over drugs in Chicago is on a much higher level.
“I am at war with the Mexican cartels,†Riley said.
Chicago’s drug market run by street gangs is directly tied to those cartels, which see the city as a hub for doing business and as a launching pad to deliver drugs throughout the country, he said.
Somebody didn’t get the message to Jack that our Drug Czar ended the war on drugs.
Saying the war on drugs is over while police and federal agents are still kicking down doors and shooting dogs is the propaganda that just won’t float,,,but it worked for Iraq and is working for Afg,,,except that Al Quieda (alleged)just killed the top general of Yemen’s armed forces.
Apparently they don’t read propaganda.
http://www.theagitator.com/2012/06/18/reuters-on-the-painkiller-issue/
Reuters on the Painkiller Issue
The comments from Michele and Gill are just as stupid as ever.
Texas Democratic Party Endorses Marijuana Decriminalization
http://blog.norml.org/2012/06/18/texas-democratic-party-endorses-marijuana-decriminalization/
“”This decriminalization of marijuana does not mean we endorse the use of marijuana but it is only a call to wiser use of law enforcement and public health policy. Prohibition of marijuana abdicates the control of marijuana production and distribution to drug cartels and street gangs. Such prohibition promotes disrespect for the law and reinforces ethnic and generational divides between the public and law enforcement.””
Jaw dropping thud,,,but TX is predominately Republican in their legislature,,however that could change with the economy in the ditch,,,
I think that hearing “Prohibition of marijuana abdicates the control of marijuana production and distribution to drug cartels and street gangs” come (again) from a state pol party is,
a) a resounding acknowledgement of all you wwweb warriors, you lte writers, you whom are well spoken in fam and community, all of us that have been yammering that exact point for decades.
And
b) a bat for folks (like here in OR) to beat on their state parties with – “hey look, if Texas is starting to get this, why aren’t you all? I mean you do grasp the concept yes? Please tell us you do…”
Heck, it’s easy enough to do, even the Repugnicans in WA get it.
Cannabis Spring indeed… legalization, the real Nessie…. Sh’r, fewks thot we wa’ a daft lot, but look’tit! E’en they see tain’t a myth a’tall… [cue to Young Frankenstein] “it lives! IT LIVES!!”
As far as Mark and his legalization will bring drastic increases in use theory… most people will not be attracted to most other drugs. The largest shift (imho) would be to ganja, because most other drugs just aren’t as… easy to get along with. That and those countries actually venturing into other than Prohibition drug policy modes are finding decreases in use, associated crime… I mean really… this literally isn’t rocket science.
Feck!!!
Decrim is a small step, and I’m not entirely convinced it is really where we want to go. That having been said, I believe that anything that lessens the impact of a marijuana bust is positive. And maybe, just maybe, the message will get through to Hopey the Eighth Dwarf.
decrim as a step… hmmm… would that be like a side shuffle? Because decrim (and I know you know) leaves production and distribution in the hands of those of whom they claim to oppose
If Mr Riley wants to oppose them, he first needs to take away their golden egg laying goose.
I hate the way politicians can change the meaning of a word and make the whole country accept that new meaning. Decriminalization actually means (should mean) removal of ALL criminal and civil penalties and sanctions related to whatever is being decriminalized.
Politicians have twisted the meaning of “decriminalization” from “NO penalties” (as with growing, selling/buying, possessing and using/eating basil, carrots, tomatoes, etc.) to “decreased penalties”: fines, 1-3 days in jail, etc. there is still an arrest record and likely a conviction record, tho no longer a felony it becomes a misdemeanor, but an arrest, even for a misdemeanor, has a chilling effect on one’s ability to make a living in future.
Douglas Husak touches on this here: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=nB8LTwhVSpwC&lpg=PA193&ots=sP5wDWaB4m&dq=%22Do%20Marijuana%20Offenders%20Deserve%20Punishment%3F%22&pg=PA190#v=onepage&q&f=false
As does Herbert Packer: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=gncxJvRGyR0C&lpg=PP1&dq=limits%20of%20criminal%20sanction&pg=PA333#v=onepage&q=lord&f=false
I like his warning:
Small reforms are the enemy of great reforms.
Yes, just like Lord Morley said. A lesson that far too many in our camp still haven’t learned.
Take Prop215. That should have been our Normandy…but instead became our Anzio.
And just like Anzio, the miscalculation has proven to be terribly expensive for cannabis reform, in that after achieving the initial success, little more was done, and the opposition had lots of time to build-up a counter-attack. Which they’ve now done, with devastating results.
Yes, a lot was our fault…’ours’ as in the ‘leadership’ of the movement in honestly, truly expecting any quarter from the Feds. Having learned that lesson (I hope), we now know we cannot ever let up. Because vastly more is at stake than just the ability to toke in peace.
Nearly everyone who does their homework agrees that the majority of the criminal justice apparatus is running on drug prohibition, with all the attendant abuses of power that the accumulation of that power invited. Cannabis prohibition being the foundation cornerstone, when that’s knocked out, the only justification for maintaining the burgeoning paramilitarized police would be ‘terrorism’.
The overgrown and dangerously unaccountable ‘justice’ system cannot maintain its’ systemic abuses in that light. In fact, its’ current state cannot be justified at all without a potential ‘target pool’ of scores of millions of ‘low hanging fruit’ to prey upon, such as represented by those cannabists. Remove that, remove cannabis prohibition, and scores of thousands of those associated with and dependent upon that institutionalized predation would find they need a new food source. One the public isn’t willing to foot the bill for in these hard times. And they know it.
OY: the justice system’s emphasis on drug prohibition is producing its’ inevitable result; Public Defenders are cracking under the impossible caseloads, and starting to rebel by suing the system, itself
From the article:
“At half past 5 on a cold, cloudy April morning, Ed Olexa kneels by his front door, sorting through stacks of case files for the coming day’s hearings. Olexa works as a public defender in Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania, and he’s quadruple-booked this morning, which means four clients are scheduled to appear at the same time before different judges.” (Emphasis mine – k.)
Four clients before 4 judges…at the same time. I don’t see any clones of him in the picture provided, so how in the Hell are his clients, almost all drug ‘offenders’, going to be properly represented? the obvious answer is they won’t be…and neither will any other ‘clients’ as the system cannot handle it.
How much longer the entire system holds together is dependent largely upon the Defenders…and they are cracking from the strain…
Drug warriors have tunnel vision, focusing on the cartels and not the system that creates them. The cynical ones recognize the futility of it all but just don’t care.
In their desperation to blame Mr. King’s death on merrywanna, the police confiscate an alleged merrywanna plant from Mr. King’s home.
Uh oh. I don’t think that’s a merrywanna plant. That’s a narcissus of some sort, or a lavender or butterfly bush cutting.
I could be wrong of course… but look at it. It’s a narcissus, I’m pretty sure.
Well I sure wouldn’t know a cannabis plant if I saw one. Honest Engine!
Well. Calling that poor thing a marijuana plant is generous, to say the least. So sad. Some people simply cannot take proper care of a plant. I think “compost” would be more apropos. Hope, it isn’t a merrywanna plant…although it assuredly once was.
OT: And also stupid, but I couldn’t resist sharing this story: US Police Testing Hand-Held Laser Drug Detector.
I was inspired to write some ad copy for the product. (If any company representatives are reading this, you guys are more welcome to use it.) “TruNarc: it’s ‘cop-proof.’ Because when you’re a true narc, plain old ‘idiot-proof’ just won’t cut it.”
NRA-Backed Law Spells Out When Indianans May Open Fire On Police
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-05/nra-backed-law-spells-out-when-indianans-may-open-fire-on-police.html
Oh my word, the comments! The comments!
Yeah. Holy Shit. This is TGTBT.
The badge-lickers are getting whupped. Hard. But the main problem with the comments is the usual one: failure to blame drug prohibition for leading to the military mindset of public servants vis-a-vis their paymasters that required the law to be written. The police would never have become such a problem, had it not been for that.
Here’s a golden opportunity for educating those who may already be thinking along those lines, and for those for whom it never occurred to think about it in this way.
Here’s mine:
How dare this corrupt ex-marine refer to us as “civilians”. We are the citizens of what was once the most successful and freedom loving nation on earth, until that is, mindless authoritarians like himself decided to incinerate our American traditions.
People like Heaton, Hubbard and Downs are willing servants of tyranny and hate, having but one sole purpose – to make the rest of us suffer their putrid legacy of incalculable ignorance, waste and destruction.
Uniform or no uniform, enter my house illegally and you’ll leave in a friggin’ box!
They don’t appear to be accepting new comments, at least not mine.
“You are at liberty to seek your salvation as you understand it, provided you do nothing to change the social order.” – Dr. Josef Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister (c. 1933-1945).
Rated R for Graphic Violence: Video clip collection of demonstrators and others suffering police beatings at the NYC stop-and-frisk march and elsewhere…
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2012/06/19-0