Drug WarRant

In the state of Washington, people are now apparently legally smoking pot and getting gay-married (though not necessarily both at once), and from browsing the news reports, it appears that God has neglected to smite anyone, and there are no reports of rampant cannibalism or other societal collapses.

It’s still early, though, so we’ll keep a close watch on the sky…

The new documentary, Breaking the Taboo opens tomorrow… on YouTube. Interesting notion to have a film open on YouTube, but it certainly is a good way to get wider distribution immediately. Based on the trailer, it sure looks like it could be a good one.

At the link above, you can also sign their petition to end the drug war. And if you take a look at the supporters they have, or the list under the mission statement, it’s pretty impressive, and sure dispels the old tired notion that drug policy reform is just about potheads wanting to get high.

Event the relentlessly hysterical pro-prohibition rag The Daily Mail seemed to get excited about the film after seeing all the celebrities that showed up to support it at last night’s screening.

I don’t expect the film will be overtly pro-legalization, but it will be overtly pro-change, and specifically include a call to change the single convention. Here is their mission:

We call on Governments and Parliaments to recognise that:

Fifty years after the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was launched, the global war on drugs has failed, and has had many unintended and devastating consequences worldwide.

Use of the major controlled drugs has risen, and supply is cheaper and more available than ever before. The UN conservatively estimates that there are now over 250 million drug users worldwide.

Illicit drugs are now the third most valuable industry in the world, after food and oil, all in the control of criminals. Fighting the war on drugs costs the world’s taxpayers incalculable billions each year. Millions of people are in prison worldwide for drug-related offences, mostly personal users and small-time dealers.

Corruption amongst law-enforcers and politicians, especially in producer and transit countries, has spread as never before, endangering democracy and civil society. Stability, security and development are threatened by the fallout from the war on drugs, as are human rights. Tens of thousands of people die in the drug war each year.
The drug-free world so confidently predicted by supporters of the war on drugs is further than ever from attainment.The policies of prohibition create more harms than they prevent. We must seriously consider shifting resources away from criminalising tens of millions of otherwise law abiding citizens, and move towards an approach based on health, harm-reduction, cost-effectiveness and respect for human rights.

Evidence consistently shows that these health-based approaches deliver better results than criminalisation. Improving our drug policies is one of the key policy challenges of our time. It is time for world leaders to fundamentally review their strategies in response to the drug phenomenon.

At the root of current policies lies the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It is time to re-examine this treaty, which imposes a “one-size-fits-all” solution, in order to allow individual countries the freedom to explore drug policies that better suit their domestic needs.

As the production, demand and use of drugs cannot be eradicated, new ways must be found to minimise harms, and new policies, based on scientific evidence, must be explored.

Wired: U.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force

Unsure how your private security firm makes money as the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down? One option: Go into the drug trade — more specifically, the lucrative business of fighting narcotics. The State Department needs a business partner to keep its fleet of drug-hunting helicopters and planes flying worldwide. You could make up to $10 billion-with-a-B.

Starting next month in Melbourne, Florida, the State Department will solicit some defense-industry feedback on a contract to help operate its 412 aircraft, based in at least eight nations, before it reopens the contract for bidding. Among the missions the diplomatic corps needs fulfilled: “Provide pilots and operational support for drug interdiction missions such as crop spraying, and the transport of personnel and cargo,” according to a pre-solicitation the department’s bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs released on Friday.

Must be some of that Third Way stuff the ONDCP keeps talking about.

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days — the L.A. trip wiped me out, and now it’s the last week of school with a lot of catching up to do.

Interesting legal development: California Court: Landlord Can’t Evict Medical Marijuana Dispensary

One of the tools that the feds have been using has been to threaten the landlords and get them to do the dirty work for them by evicting the dispensary. This ruling notes that as long as the lease indicated that the business was for medical marijuana, the landlord can’t use the state courts to evict them for doing what they said they would do and what’s legal under state law.

Gee, maybe there really are some limitations to applying U.S. law to the entire globe. U.S. law targeting drug smugglers in foreign waters is deemed illegal

In a bit of a blow to the endless war on drugs, a federal appeals court has concluded the 1986 law used to charge the defendants is illegal. In November, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta vacated their convictions after finding that Congress exceeded its constitutional power when it passed a portion of that law that was used to prosecute them.

The appeals court found that the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act could not be used for prosecuting drug smugglers arrested within the 12-mile territorial waters of foreign countries such as Colombia, Panama, Guatemala and Honduras.

Only a minor restriction to the global domination of the U.S. drug war, but important nonetheless.

Pretty pathetic. Colorado Business Groups Ask Feds to Enforce Marijuana Laws

That’s right – a bunch of Chambers of Commerce and other organizations have sent a letter asking for the feds to step in. It’s a truly bizarre letter. They say that the legal uncertainties of the clash between state and federal laws create a difficult business climate, but their only suggestion for solving it is for the Feds to impose draconian enforcement and they completely ignore the other way to resolve the difference.

On November 6, 2012, Colorado voters passed Amendment 64, a statewide initiative that makes it lawful for any adult to possess up to one ounce of marijuana for recreational use. Passage of Amendment 64 has left considerable uncertainty for employers and businesses in Colorado with regard to their legal rights and obligations. At a time when the Colorado economy is successfully emerging from the most recent economic downturn, enjoying certainty in our business decisions will assure continued growth in our economy.

The Colorado business community, as represented by the signatory organizations noted below, seeks clarity from the Department of Justice with regard to your intentions to enforce federal law under your prosecutorial discretion.

The provisions of Amendment 64 are in direct conflict with the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and other provisions of federal law. The CSA clearly states that federal law preempts state law when there is a positive conflict between the two jurisdictions.1 Furthermore, Amendment 64 violates the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution as well as our government’s treaty obligations ratified by Congress.2
Consequently, we encourage the enforcement of the CSA, to provide the certainty and clarity of law we seek.

Another whirlwind weekend for me. I’m up in Chicago now – just played a couple of hours of Christmas music on the piano for a nice alumni event at the Allerton Hotel. Tomorrow I’m off to Los Angeles and I’ll be doing an event Sunday afternoon and then taking the red-eye back Sunday night.

So play nice and share the pizza.

…

The local paper asked me to comment on the medical marijuana bill in Illinois. It was kind of odd, because my mindset is currently so far beyond the petty things that they’re arguing over that it was hard to even focus on the arguments.

It was like “Oh, wait, you want me to comment on legalizing medical marijuana? Right. What were the arguments against?”

Medical marijuana bill could be voted on next week

A much better article in The Nation than the one after election day in USA Today. Dave Zirin: THe NFL’s Coming Conflict on Cannabis, which he notes the dysfunctional NFL policies.

In the bizarre macho ethos of the NFL, alcoholism is ignored, pain killer abuse is encouraged and other violent, off-field behavior is winked at because these are byproducts of the kind of destructive masculinity that the NFL markets every Sunday. Marijuana, in contrast, is for hippies, beatniks and long-hairs.

In reality, weed wouldn’t turn NFL players into extras from Half-Baked. Players will use marijuana either to wind down after a game, as a healthier, less addictive alternative to alcohol, or as a way to manage their pain. This last point is particularly explosive for the NFL. Amidst lawsuits, suicides and documentaries, there is unprecedented attention being paid to the physical toll players have to endure, particularly concussion and brain injury. Medical marijuana is recommended by doctors for headaches, light-sensitivity, sleeplessness and loss of appetite—all of which happen to be symptoms associated with concussions. The idea that the league would deny a player their legal pain relief of choice seems barbaric. It’s their pain and their right to treat it however they see fit.

I think this article has it right. Quietly, marijuana will eventually ease off the NFL banned list as more states legalize.

Mark Kleiman has a very reasonable article at The Crime Report: Legalizing Pot: One Step at a Time. I’m pretty sure a version of it has been published elsewhere, but it’s essentially a plea for the federal government to let us learn from the federalist experiments in Colorado and Washington.

What’s bizarre is the current sole comment at the article, by someone called Dr. Alexander Jablanczy MD. It’s not abundantly clear what he actually supports – he claims to be a quasi libertarian and supports “liberalisation” as well as supporting some kind of control group with the “death penalty imposed for any buying or selling or trasporting [sic] of any drug whatsoever.” He also claims that “marihuana” made his IQ “drop like a stone.” I’m willing to take his word that his IQ is low, but rather doubt his explanation.

I wonder if this guy has actual patients, and whether they should be… warned.

Continue reading →

A little piece, but one that made me stand up and cheer on a small miner’s union in Vancouver.

Miners Union Fights Drug-Testing Policy

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) – A coal miners union wants Teck Coal to put the brakes on a random drug-testing policy before wrapping up arbitration proceedings.

The union claims that the new policy is unjustified, as injury rates at open-pit mines are “lower than that for a lawn bowling facility.”

Two locals of the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union claim in B.C. Supreme Court that Teck Coal wants to start randomly drug and alcohol testing miners at its open-pit Elkview and Fording River coal mines known by Dec. 3.

The union filed a grievance, citing privacy concerns. It claims that until now, the company tested workers only before hiring them, for “reasonable cause,” or after an accident.

That’s something that any good union should do – protect its workers from unreasonable intrusion into their private lives.

I really liked a recent tweet from Lee Rosenberg:

Based on my experience, if I encounter a company that wants to drug test applicants, I conclude they have management problems.

Exactly.

He followed that up with a post where he noted that certain industries (in particular, those who need to compete for the best workers) have generally dropped out of the drug testing craze…

Being in the software/internet/IT world, I don’t have to worry about this any more. In fact, if I come across a company that actually wants me to take a drug test (and isn’t being forced by federal policy to do so), I’d take it as a sign there’s something wrong with the company. It’s like saying “we’re so dysfunctional, a person with a drug problem can pass the interview and work here unnoticed”. Almost no companies do it.

Another industry where you’re generally safe is government, as courts have generally held that, except in safety-sensitive positions, government drug testing can be a Fourth Amendment violation.

Eventually.

Via Drug Policy Alliance

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry is reporting that the United Nations has accepted its resolution to hold a General Assembly special session on drugs. The session will take place in the beginning of 2016 with preparations beginning next year.

The resolution is about international cooperation against drugs, but it’s also clearly about considering new directions and approaches.

And given the international mood that exists right now regarding the drug war, it could percolate into a mass revolt against prohibition (if it hasn’t already by then).

Do not pass go, do not go to the lunchroom.

At 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.

Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school — with a student population of 1,776 — on “lock down,” kicking off the first “drug sweep” in the school’s four-year history. […]

While such “drug sweeps” have become a routine matter in many of the nation’s schools, along with the use of metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies, one feature of this raid was unusual. According to Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) Public Information Officer Thomas Anderson, four “law enforcement agencies” took part in the operation: CGPD (which served as the lead agency and operation coordinator), the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Gila River Indian Community Police Department, and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

Corrections Corporation of America Used in Drug Sweeps of Public School Students

“To invite for-profit prison guards to conduct law enforcement actions in a high school is perhaps the most direct expression of the ‘schools-to-prison pipeline’ I’ve ever seen,” said Caroline Isaacs, program director of the Tucson office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization that advocates for criminal justice reform.

We start them out young with drug testing in order to be in chess club, we use law enforcement officers to pervert the job of health instruction (D.A.R.E), and now we ue for-profit prison guards to lock them down.

Yep. That’s a fine way to prepare our youth for their future lives.