Drug WarRant

I’m in Tulsa, Oklahoma until Sunday, attending the Experiential Classroom througn OU. I’ve got homework and everything, so I’ll probably be swamped.

Ten Huge Issues Being Ignored in the Presidential Campaign.

ThinkProgress has this piece out and it’s nice to see that we’re not the only ones noticing. Number one on the list is Mass Incarceration and the Drug War.

One of the principal causes of the rise of mass incarceration is the War on Drugs, which has failed abysmally at limiting the use of dangerous drugs but succeeded wildly at aiding and abetting racial inequality in the United States and the murderous drug trade abroad. The Justice Department recently doubled down on these policies by initiating a massive crackdown on medical marijuana in states that have legalized the drug’s medicinal use.

LEAP video: Cop opens up about losing her brother to the war on drugs.

Great catch (Thanks to Evert and Transform).

The Swedish Government (one of the most rabidly pro-prohibition) makes a cogent case against prohibition…

‘In the opinion of the Swedish Government the prohibition against selling snus cannot be regarded as compatible with the principles of free movement of goods, since the prohibition is discriminatory and is not in proportion to the level of public health sought. The same level of health protection can be achieved by means of less intrusive measures.’

Denver Post editorial writer takes on the dirty tactics of the opposition to Amendment 64

Let’s have a real pot debate

I’m not here today to formally pick a side in the fight over marijuana legalization in Colorado, but I will suggest that one side is playing dirty.

The argument that legalization is about keeping kids safe doesn’t pass the smell test. And keeping information from voters smacks of timidity, incompetence, or both.

We should have a real pot debate.

Ring the bells. The long effort has finally paid off!

Colombia’s president says last big drug lord has been captured

BOGOTA, Colombia –  President Juan Manuel Santos announced Tuesday evening that a man he described as Colombia’s last big-time drug lord had been captured in neighboring Venezuela. It was the third arrest of a purported Colombian drug boss in the last year.

Santos said alleged drug boss Daniel “Loco” Barrera was arrested in the Venezuelan city of San Cristobal after months of multinational cooperation that included help from the United States and other nations.

“The last of the great capos has fallen,” Santos said in a brief statement to journalists. He didn’t answer questions.

Nice coverage by Phillip Smith over at StoptheDrugWar.org: Bolivia, Venezuela Reject US Drug Criticism

“I hereby designate Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela as countries that have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to make substantial efforts to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements,” President Obama said in the determination. […]

Venezuela “rejects in the most decided manner the accusations of the government of the United States,” the communique said, adding that the presidential determination is “plagued with false statements, political preconceptions and veiled threats,” which only repeat its “permanent line of aggression against independent sovereign governments.”

Venezuela also counterpunched, accusing the US of allowing “a fluid transit” of drugs across its borders” and “the laundering of capital from drug trafficking through the financial system.”

“The government of the United States has become principally responsible for this plague that is the scourge of the entire world,” it said.

The foreign ministry added that Venezuela’s anti-drug efforts improved after it kicked out the DEA in 2005 […]

Bolivian President Evo Morales, for his part, said the US, home of the world’s largest drug consumer market, had no grounds on which to criticize other countries about its war on drugs.

“The United States has no morality, authority or ethics that would allow it to speak about the war on drugs.” […]

“I’m convinced that the drug trade is no less than the United States’ best business,” Morales added, noting that since the first international drug control treaties were signed in 1961, drug trafficked has blossomed, not declined. He said he has suggested to South American leaders that they form a commission to report on how well Washington is doing in its war on drugs.

Morales also took the occasion to lambaste the US for opposing Bolivia’s request before the United Nations to modify that 1961 treaty to acknowledge that chewing coca leaf is “an ancestral cultural practice” in the Andes.

Gone are the days when countries feared being sent to the Drug War Principal’s office.

Mike Riggs over at Hit and Run brings us the winner of the day: Wilmington, Massachusetts Police Chief Michael Begonis.

“Illicit drug use is a form of domestic terrorism to some extent,” said Wilmington Police Chief Michael Begonis. “It is preying on folks who are more susceptible and who need a better life. And it’s something that we need to deal with head on.”

Riggs then gives a photo essay to ask just who are the real domestic terrorists – drug users or SWAT? And notes:

For me, the guys with the machine guns and the legal authority to kill me in my own home inspire far more terror than illicit drugs or the people who use them.

Check it out.

We’ve talked about this before, but one of the truly criminal aspects of the international drug war is the extent to the UNODC and western governments ignore, facilitate, or outright fund and promote outrageous human rights abuses worldwide in the name of the drug war.

The Guardian brings it home again:

Has Britain’s war on drugs led to more executions in Iran?

In the 12 months to November last year, there were at least 600 executions, according to Amnesty International, 81% of which were for drugs offences.

And, among increasingly vocal human rights groups, the concern now is that the UK has unwittingly helped fuel the killing machine.

There is no shortage of those awaiting execution. It is estimated that as many as 4,000 Afghans alone are on death row in Iran for drugs offences. There are reports that some are executed without a trial and that others are juveniles. Human rights groups claim that many of those executed come from the most disadvantaged sectors of society. Some are women. Many of those arrested have been duped into carrying drugs for others. […]

Even trafficking small amounts can prove fatal. In 2010 Iran introduced a new law prescribing corporal punishment for most drug crimes and the death penalty for anyone who “imports, produces, distributes, exports, deals in, puts on sale, keeps or stores, conceals and carries” more than 30 grams of a number of listed drugs, including psychotropic substances. “We’re talking about hundreds of people being killed by Iran every year because they carried some drugs across a border,” said Damon Barrett, deputy director of the charity Harm Reduction International. “These are mostly people living in poverty with no other options. Meanwhile, western donors, including the UK, as well as the United Nations, provide money and assistance to the Iranian authorities for drug enforcement.”

Yes, the blame goes to Iran, but the blame is also ours, because it’s our drug war that encourages and promotes this kind of extreme murder by foreign governments.

Despite what you may believe from watching Jurassic Park or Dr. Who, the dinosaurs are extinct, and so shall be Representatives like Doug Cox (R-OK).

Don’t let Oklahoma go to pot

As the chairman of the subcommittee on appropriations for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health, I have had the opportunity to visit many of the state’s drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities. In this position, as well as my work as a physician, I have met many people who have addiction problems with methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and, more recently, K-2. Without exception, every one of these addicts told me their entry level drug was marijuana. In addition, a large number of prescription drug abusers also smoke pot. […]

Regular users tend to develop “amotivational syndrome,” a condition where they lose interest in everything except making sure they have the next joint to smoke.[…]

Potheads are more likely to be high school dropouts, unemployed, on disability, or dependent on the government dole for support. They are just downright lazy. […]

Most of us will live long enough to see the pendulum swing back the other way toward tougher penalties for pot use.

This kind of nonsense may well still be believable to a small minority of idiots in Oklahoma, but most folks today actually know people who have smoked pot, and realize just how ridiculous it is.

Just in case you thought he might have changed since we last saw him, uh no.

Sheriff opposes legalized pot

Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor says voters have been “put to sleep” on the issue of marijuana but he, along with the County Sheriffs of Colorado, is strongly opposed to Amendment 64 on the November ballot, which would essentially legalize and regulate marijuana similar to alcohol and drinking.

Taylor told The Pueblo Chieftain editorial board Friday that allowing people to legally buy and use even small amounts of marijuana would worsen all of the societal problems that are associated with other drugs, including alcohol.

There’s something insanely wrong with a world where this kind of creativity exists, but LSD is illegal.

More artwork from Yayoi Kusama here.

This cracked me up.

Opponents of Massachusetts Marijuana Initiative Accidentally Advertise a Spoof of Themselves (Jacob Sullum at Hit and Run)

The official voters’ guide that was mailed to every household in Massachusetts beginning last week includes a Web address for the No on Question 3 committee, which is urging voters to reject a ballot initiative that would legalize the medical use of marijuana and authorize dispensaries where patients can obtain it.

The address, logically enough, is votenoonquestion3.org, but the committee settled on that name without bothering to register it. Whoops.

On Tuesday a savvy satirist registered the URL, where you can now find Onion-esque items with headlines such as “FACT: Marijuana Is the Gateway Drug to Twinkies,” “FACT: No Marijuana User Has Ever Been Successful” (above a collage of famous pot smokers’ photos), and “Elementary School Counselor Speaks Out Against Medical Marijuana” (quoting Mr. Mackey, the guidance counselor on South Park).

No on Question 3 spokesman (and former ONDCP official) Kevin Sabet told The Boston Globe, “It’s funny and upsetting, I guess, at the same time.” No, it’s just funny.

Yeah, Jacob’s right. It’s just funny.

According to the Boston.com article, they even first blamed medical marijuana supporters for their mistake:

The group sent out a press release saying proponents of medical marijuana were tampering with the democratic process through “underhanded efforts.” But, Sabet said, the committee made a mistake.

Go check out the spoof website. It’s a real blast!

[Note: I really didn’t plan on even mentioning Kevin’s name for awhile, but he just keeps popping up everywhere as the voice of prohibition.]

Vancouver’s Downtown EastSide (DTES) area has long been a place of death, largely from AIDS and drug overdoses, but in recent years, the Insite facility (which allows for a safe, controlled environment for drug use has been making a difference. One of the differences is that people are living longer.

This should be no surprise. The studies in Switzerland of programs where the government supplied heroin to addicts found a huge increase in lifespan.

Life-expectancy jump astounds

At the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1996, life expectancy in the DTES was more than nine years lower than the B.C. average.

By 2006, DTES life expectancy rose to just 5.3 years below the provincial average.

Now, unpublished Vancouver Coastal Health research from 2011 shows DTES life expectancy has jumped to 79.5 years, about two years below the average.

It’s rare to see such a shift in a population’s life expectancy, said medical health officer Dr. John Carsley.

He and his colleagues are trying to judge how much of the change can be attributed to gentrification and how much is due to improved health treatment, nutrition, housing and education.

“I think we all agree that it is some healthier people moving to the DTES, and there has been a substantial decrease in overdose deaths and HIV deaths,” Carsley said Thursday.

Carsley said he believes the new data supports arguments that harm-reduction services offered in Vancouver’s controversial supervised injection site – which was allowed to stay open with a 2011 Supreme Court ruling that said it has “been proven to save lives with no discernible negative impact” – will be extended to other locations.

The more you bring drug use out of the shadows, with education, clean needles, controlled doses, increased safety, and access to other services, the more you save lives.

Prohibition, on the other hand, merely drives people into the shadows, and is a leading cause of drug death.