Drug WarRant

Apparently President Obama told the other nations of this hemisphere that legalization is not a “silver bullet.” I’m sure it made the translators wonder if the President of the United States actually understands the English language.

When something is not a “silver bullet,” that means that it isn’t a one-shot quickie solution to everything, not that it isn’t something worth doing. Nobody was talking about silver bullets except the President, and he’s now implying that we shouldn’t do something to change what’s going on unless it’s a silver bullet.

Well what does that say about American exceptionalism, anyway? When our revolutionary soldiers were told that the British were coming, did they say, “Well, shoot. We don’t have any silver bullets. Guess there’s nothing we can do about it.”? Of course not.

And it’s not like the President has been dispensing many silver projectiles himself. Take a look in Afghanistan. He’s shooting blanks.

Even worse, the silver bullet is a really bad analogy to use when talking about a situation where tens of thousands of people have died because of our bad policies. We need less bullets of all metallic varieties, and legalization actually reduces the bullets.

Put your gun away, Mr. President. What we need now is brains, not bullets.

So, Obama had to convince the other countries in the hemisphere that he knows what’s best for them when it comes to international policy related to drugs.

I’m guessing this wasn’t part of his strategy…

Secret service agents sent home after Colombia prostitution allegations
Members of president’s security detail recalled from Cartagena following claims of heavy drinking and use of prostitutes

… including George Will.

I noted in my discussion of George Will’s latest column that he seemed to be all over the place. My friend from Seattle even called me to ask “what the heck George Will was trying to say.”

It was apparently a real challenge for headline writers as well. Columnists generally don’t write their own headlines – those are chosen by the paper. Here’s a taste of the range of headlines that they came up with for the same column in papers around the country:

• Legalizing Drugs May Be Worth It
• 80/20 ratio is a significant factor in U.S.
• Drug legalization is coming, but at what cost?
• Weighing ups and downs of drug legalization
• Weighing pros and cons of drug legalization
• To legalize or not to legalize: That is the question when it comes to illicit drugs
• Should the US legalize hard drugs?
• Take the wind out of drug dealers’ sails
• U.S. weighs cost of legal pot versus enforcement
• Drug legalization makes a lot of economic sense
• Understanding the 80/20 ratio
• New strategy could hurt drug cartels
• Drug legalization has pros, cons
• We may find out whether legalization worth the cost
• The prices of making drugs illegal
• Drug policy calls for further review

PBS video: Obama Colombia Visit Renews Call to Retool U.S. Drug Policy. Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Policy Alliance and Ray Walser of the Heritage Foundation square off.

The interesting part of this is that Ray Walser starts off much as expected, but is unable to hold to a hardline approach.

Watch how the Heritage Foundation representative completely avoids off any strong defense of prohibition, agrees that a discussion of legalization is legitimate, and refers to legalization as “a long process.”

A good article by Jim Wyss of the Miami Herald: At summit, drug talk likely to be hot but hidden

The whole article is worth reading, but I want to highlight one small item:

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told The Miami Herald that legalizing drugs is tantamount to legalizing murder to bring down the homicide rate.

“I do not support that,” he said.

Really? This is the Attorney General of the United States. The top law enforcement officer and lawyer for the government. And he doesn’t know the difference between murder and marijuana?

We’ve talked about this at length before — there are fundamental differences between laws dealing with consensual crimes and laws dealing with crimes of violence against others. Laws against murder don’t create a massive black market with violent trade routes and corruption. Laws against murder don’t end up incarcerating millions of non-violent citizens.

Laws against murder take violent criminals off the street. Laws against drugs fuel the development of violent criminals. When you arrest a drug dealer, you automatically create a job opening to meet the demand. There is no demand for being murdered.

If the Attorney General of the United States doesn’t understand these basics, then the rule of law is truly dead in this country.

One of the things prohibitionists often like to point to is that currently legal prescription drugs are subject to lots of abuse (they’ll usually call it an “epidemic”). In their minds this is somehow supposed to be some kind of argument against legalizing currently illegal drugs.

For example, Kevin Sabet tweets:

Ironic that major Rx Abuse conference in FL now as pundits debate the legalization of even more drugs.

Well no, Kevin. Rx abuse isn’t about legal drugs.

Assume that someone would like to use some Vicodin recreationally. It’s a prescription drug, but no doctor in the country can prescribe it for recreational use, or they will likely be sent to prison for a whole lot of years. And no person can possess it for recreational purposes without also being sent to prison if caught.

I hate to break it to Kevin, but that’s not an example of legalization, nor does it serve as any kind of guide to what might happen with actual legalization of drugs. It, in fact, preserves every aspect of prohibition, except for certain medical situations which, even then, might be second-guessed by non-medically-competent DEA agents. This means that all recreational use of prescription drugs must be handled through illegal diversion, with all the big money and corruption that the black market naturally entails.

Show me a drug where a doctor is legally allowed to write a prescription for recreational use, and then you’ll have a useful analogy.

In a similar vein, Zach Beauchamp, in Drug Warrior Non Sequiturs, does a nice job taking down Walter Russell Mead for making the same incorrect assumption.

Beauchamp properly points out that Portugal’s decriminalization is a better guide to understanding the effects of legalization than so-called “legal” prescription drugs.

Naturally, Keith Humphreys completely misses the point (intentionally or otherwise):

Zack Beauchamp makes an extremely common analytic error in a post on drug policy. In an effort to refute Water Russell Mead’s argument that we can learn something about drug legalization from the legal opioid pain medication industry, Beauchamp responds by citing data from Portugal.

I am not going to get into the substance of their debate here. I am writing only to point out that Portugal hasn’t legalized drugs, it has decriminalized them.

This is rich. Keith lambastes Beauchamp for a semantic perception, which Keith falsely calls an “analytic error.” And yet… note that Keith, in the same paragraph, refers to the “legal opioid pain medical industry,” ignoring the fact that such a limited form of “legal” is certainly not “legalization.”

Even better… Beauchamp never actually says that Portugal’s system is legalization.

Should be an interesting weekend, as the President goes to Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas. The administration has been working for the past few months to downplay and sidetrack the huge issue that will be in the room – why Latin American countries are forced to endure massive violence in order to support the U.S.’s futile attempt to prevent people from voluntarily buying drugs.

This press conference yesterday spells out the President’s schedule, and also points out both the fact that the administration doesn’t want to talk about the real issues drug policy and the fact that others do.

In the press conference, Dan Restrepo talked about a variety of issues that the President will discuss, including a short bit about how much the administration is spending on the drug war and treatment. But the first question from the press got right to it:

Q: My question is about drug policy. Although it’s not on the official agenda, several regional leaders, including the Colombian President himself, has said they intend to take the drug policy debate to the next level at this summit and of course it surrounds the call by many leaders to urge decriminalization of certain drugs and also to have a focus on U.S. consumption and reducing U.S. demand for drugs. I’m wondering, what will be the U.S. position and how in-depth do you plan to talk about this at the summit? Thank you.

MR. RESTREPO: Josh, as you know, this is not a new issue in the Americas, nor is this an issue where there is a consensus among the countries — the rest of the countries of the Americas. There are — and as you’ve seen it in the course of the public debate over the last several weeks in the region — real differences of opinion on the question of legalization and decriminalization.

U.S. policy on this is very clear. The President doesn’t support decriminalization. He does think this is a legitimate debate, and it’s a debate that we welcome having because it helps demystify this as an option. I think that Cartagena provides a real opportunity to build on the conversation that Vice President Biden started in Honduras for the countries of Central America last month, where how is it that we can work collectively in the Americas more effectively to address the real challenges of crime and violence that societies — that too many societies are facing right now. There is no magic bullet in that debate as the challenge of — as the consumption of drugs spreads through the Americas, the response and the responsibility to address this challenge also needs to spread. And we need to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to build the kinds of rule of law institutions necessary to defeat these transnational criminal organizations.

I think very much — you’re right that the conversation — this will be part of the conversation in Cartagena. And we welcome the opportunity to go more in depth as to how collectively the countries of the Americas can more effectively address this challenge. And as to consumption in the United States, I think I touched on that in the introductory comments in terms of the investments and the national drug control policy changes that this President has made to address and to enhance treatment prevention and education as ways of driving down drug use and demand here in the United States.

A couple of questions later:

Q: Dan, you say that President Obama welcomed to have the debate on drugs, and even the Latin American President, President Santos, he seems to be open to the idea to decriminalize the consumption of drugs. So the question is — I mean, since you say that the U.S. position is very clear in this regard, what is the — I mean, what is the purpose? What is the penalty to have this dialogue, this debate in Cartagena when already one of the main players in this issue, the United States, doesn’t seem to be able to consider any future change in the government strategy?

MR. RESTREPO: I think that the important thing to bear in mind here is this is a shared responsibility, and it is one that you have an increasing number of capable partners in the Americas who can help confront this challenge. And I think the President very much looks forward to a discussion in Cartagena about how we can do better as a group to address this challenge. […]

And this is not a debate where one country is standing in a very different place than all of the other countries. There is a variety of views on the issue of decriminalization in the Americas. The United States is among the countries who does not see this as the solution and does not see it as a viable option because of the problems that come with it, and because it won’t end transnational organized crime, but that we are — that the leaders of the region will have an opportunity to further discuss this issue and see how we can enhance our cooperation is a positive thing that should help improve the lives of people across the region.

Dancing as fast as he can.

The questions aren’t going to go away.

Spanish town votes for growing cannabis to pay off £1.25m debt

The settlement’s 800 adults, who live 160km (100 miles) south-west of Barcelona, voted in favour of the scheme to rent out 7ha (17 acres) of land to a cannabis consumers’ association.

Mayor Bernat Pellisa – who claims the scheme will create new jobs and reduce organised crime – believes the town council can pay off the debt within two years.

Speaking before the vote on Tuesday, he said: ‘It will have positive social and economic effects.

‘We want to put an end to organised crime, put an end to the black market and the underground economy.’

Some 56.3 per cent of the population voted in favour of allowing cannabis to be grown in the referendum.

Apparently the lawyers are arguing about it.

But if one town gets out of debt through legal cannabis, you can bet others will follow.

In George Will’s previous nonsensical column, he ended by saying:

“A subsequent column will suggest a more economic approach to the “natural” problem of drugs.”

It appears that he’s now come out with it: The 80/20 ratio: rethinking America’s drug-control strategy

The first half of the article could well have been written by Mark Kleiman – in fact, it’s mostly cribbed from his book.

The one thing that Will really messes up on (because it’s what Kleiman always gets wrong) is the notion that alcohol companies market to the 20% of heavy users who consume the lion’s share of product, and that the future of drug legalization will end up with imaginary unrestricted drug companies doing the same thing. The false assumption is that economic self-preservation advertising will be directed at directly causing problematic use.

Part of what Kleiman gets wrong is in not understanding the difference between brand marketing and product marketing. Alcohol companies have no interest in advertising their product (ie, “use alcohol”) to heavy users. They already have them in their pocket.

It’s like when I advertise theatre productions. I don’t need to aim my advertising at the theatre-lovers in town – I just need to inform them that we’re doing theatre and what the dates and times are. They’ll be there. I do, however, need to advertise to the casual theatre-goer and get them to come to the theatre. Sure, they’re harder to reach, but that’s the only way I’ll maximize my audience.

So do alcohol companies do any marketing to heavy users? Sure. Brand marketing (in fact, brand marketing makes up the vast majority of their efforts). That’s where they get you to drink Bud Light instead of Miller Light (not in addition to). It isn’t changing the use of alcohol, only what brand is getting the larger share of the market.

So George Will starts out with an interesting set of figures, but one dealing with a flawed premise.

Then, he steps forward with his promised economic approach. Yes, the following mish-mash is his actual writing. It’s like you can see the wheels turning as he tries to transform Kleiman’s theses into arguments against legalization, but then can’t actually come up with a very good reason to oppose legalization. As he continues to sort through the facts, he finds himself kind of defending legalization, in a back-handed way. Finally, with some disdain, he indicates that it’s probably inevitable. It’s really quite curious:

People used to believe enforcement could raise prices but doubted that higher prices would decrease consumption. Now they know consumption declines as prices rise but wonder whether enforcement can substantially affect prices.

They urge rethinking the drug-control triad of enforcement, prevention and treatment because we have been much too optimistic about all three.

And cartels have oceans of money for corrupting enforcement because drugs are so cheap to produce and easy to renew. So it is not unreasonable to consider modifying a policy that gives hundreds of billions of dollars a year to violent organized crime.

Marijuana probably provides less than 25 percent of the cartels’ revenues. Legalizing it would take perhaps $10 billion from some bad and violent people, but the cartels would still make much more money from cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines than they would lose from marijuana legalization.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized “medical marijuana,” a messy, mendacious semi-legalization that breeds cynicism regarding law. In 1990, 24 percent of Americans supported full legalization. Today, 50 percent do. In 2010, in California, where one-eighth of Americans live, 46 percent of voters supported legalization, and some opponents were marijuana growers who like the profits they make from prohibition of their product.

Would the public health problems resulting from legalization be a price worth paying for injuring the cartels and reducing the costs of enforcement? We probably are going to find out.

I’m one who tends to be pretty open about the fact that different reform groups have different agendas and viewpoints and that’s OK. I rarely chastise a group or leader merely because I differ with their views or strategy.

I am, however, quite surprised and displeased with the quotes from Allen St. Pierre from NORML in this article. If accurate, they don’t serve St. Pierre or NORML (or any of us) very well.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director for NORML, which seeks to reform marijuana laws, says the president might have political as well as legal motivations for reversing his initial position on medical marijuana. St. Pierre argues that current laws prohibit the Obama administration from turning a blind eye to state’s medical marijuana legalization.

“In essence, the administration is sort of hamstrung,” St. Pierre says.

Most definitely not true. The original Holder memo was correct. The government does have significant discretion in how it uses its funds to enforce laws. And it could still enforce current laws without going out of its way to intimidate medical marijuana operations in the states.

The Obama administration has not been just doing what’s necessary. It’s been taking an active role in escalating the crackdown.

St. Pierre says letting states regulate marijuana as they please would burn up a lot of the president’s political capital, adding that Obama has to take action or he risks earning a reputation in 2012 election as soft on drugs.

I don’t think Obama has a chance in hell of being perceived as soft on anything. This is the guy who claims the power to assassinate American citizens with no judicial review. Even Bush wouldn’t go that far.

There may be political capital involved in the medical marijuana decisions, but it’s the definition of “capital” that means “cash,” not the implied “capital” meaning political will and votes.

It appears, unfortunately, that Allen is speaking as a supporter of candidate Obama and/or the Democratic Party, rather than in his role as executive director of NORML.

If Allen is reading this, I’d love to hear what he was thinking.