Drug WarRant

… and shoot your dog.

Kerlikowske said one of the key parts of the Obama administration’s strategy to combat drug abuse is to “remove the stigma…and to help people understand you can recover.”

“I think it is what we might call a teachable moment when someone passes – particularly as someone as highly thought of and such an incredible performer as Whitney Houston,” Kerlikowske said. “We can use this as a moment to help people understand. There are millions of Americans that are suffering from this problem…so we can use this as a chance to move forward.”

That’s right, the government is here to remove the stigma and that’s why they’re raiding medical marijuana dispensaries and sending DEA agents to bust down doors, and funding drug wars around the world that end in thousands of deaths.

Yes, death can be a teachable moment, and a time to move forward. But Kerlikowske’s the last one to look to for lessons or direction.

Tony Bennett stands by his call to legalise all drugs

Following last night’s (February 12) Grammy win for his duet with the late Amy Winehouse, ‘Body and Soul’, crooner Tony Bennett has stood by his call to have all drugs legalised.

He made the original comments at Clive Davis’ Saturday night pre-Grammys party in the wake of Whitney Houston’s death. Speaking to Rolling Stone, the 17 time Grammy winner said he had received a “mostly positive” reaction to his comments, adding that legalisation would: “get rid of all the gangsters that make people hide.

Good for Tony.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy something from a real class act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIrcxGdyUdk&feature=related

Don’t have time to write about it now (and I will be at some time), but…

Read this: Killing Whitney Houston by Jack Marshall at Ethics Alarms

and this: Don’t let Whitney Houston become the next Len Bias – a response by Mark at Nobody’s Business (along with a comment by Jack there).

Apparently nobody considered that drug smugglers might have access to a jack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGfWgiOSMZQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Via Transform

Guatemala prez to propose legalizing drugs

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said Saturday he will propose legalizing drugs in Central America in an upcoming meeting with the region’s leaders.

Perez Molina said in a radio interview that his proposal would include decriminalizing the transportation of drugs through the area.

“I want to bring this discussion to the table,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a crime to transport, to move drugs. It would all have to be regulated.”

Central America is waking up very forcefully to the fact that they are the unwilling battleground for the war that the U.S. is fighting, and there isn’t enough money coming from the U.S. (or likely to) to make that worthwhile.

It’s like the U.S. went to the rest of America and said “Hey, we’d like to fight a war, but we don’t want to do it at our place. We just vacuumed. OK if we use your living room? We’ll give you a few bucks for the inconvenience.” And it sounded like a good deal at first until their children started dying.

Now, the countries to the south are all starting to get sick and tired of it. Ready to put up lawn signs saying “No drug war here. Try further north.”

Cowboy Cop Makes the Conservative Case for Marijuana Legalization at CPAC

“The reactions have been almost 100 pecent in favor of what I’m doing,” Wooldridge, who claims he hasn’t smoked marijuana in thirty years, tells me. “I’ve had about three people in the last two days out of about 200 who do not like it.” Particularly with this conservative crowd, Wooldridge debates his naysayers in terms of conservative principles. “Personal freedom, personal responsibility, and limited government are what conservatives believe in,” he says. “And that’s what I believe in. And thats what we should do with marijuana policy. I say, ‘Give me a conservative reason to keep it going,’ and they dont have any.”

Howard is a powerful force. His ubiquitous cowboy hat and “Cops say legalize” shirt make a statement everywhere he goes, but he also knows how to make a statement himself that resonates with the listener.

This is something that I have taught in my elevator argument workshops. I was thrilled to have Howard attend one of them, but, of course, he’s been doing this kind of thing for much longer.

It’s about making a quick argument that cuts right to the interests of the person listening and not getting bogged down with arguments that are irrelevant to, or distract from, that single purpose.

We all can take a little bit of Howard and apply it to our activism.

With traffickers having the resources to create tunnels this sophisticated, the government can only hope, at best, to stop a tiny portion of what comes through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G9uBskG574&feature=player_embedded

Of course, there’s always the chance that the authorities will stumble on one of the tunnels.

No investigation when suspected drugs found at home of official

I agree with Radley Balko on this one…

On the one hand, my default position would be that no one should lose her job, her reputation, or her freedom over marijuana. I’d also imagine most people would be sympathetic to someone who recently lost a spouse in a car accident. It would also appear that in this case, the police found the pot after entering this particular woman’s home illegally.

On the other hand . . . according to the source in the story, if this had happened to your average resident of Tennessee, they at the very least would be subject to a criminal investigation.

But there was no investigation. Which is likely because this woman was—and still is—the director of the Tennessee state agency “whose mission is to eradicate marijuana.”

Speaking of Balko, his latest piece is out at Huffington Post: The New Panic Over Prescription Painkillers

War against drugs has failed on many fronts, Chicago police chief and Cook County executive agree

Drug enforcement measures in place for decades have filled jails with poor and minority offenders, marred police officers’ credibility in the neighborhoods they patrol and fractured communities, Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle agreed at a forum Wednesday night.

Chipping away…

Tea Party Warrior: Report Medical Marijuana Clubs to the IRS and Get Rich

The “Tea Party” aspect seems a bit irrelevant to this story, but the key thing is that drug warrior Paul Chabot seems willing to do just about anything to sink further into the slime of the drug war. Fortunately, his treachery is blunted by his idiocy.

Fun with headlines:

Headline: Fire at Santa Rosa marijuana grow operation kills six pets

Implication: Grow op causes fire that kills pets

Truth:

“The fire literally destroyed every room in the living area,” Basque said. “The living room, kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms — it was all destroyed.”

Firefighters found 75 to 100 marijuana plants growing in an attached garage. The residents had a license to grow the plants, Basque said.

Though the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Basque said it did not start in the garage.

I guess “Fire in house kills six pets” wasn’t interesting enough.

Breaking News: Medicinal Cannabis Laws Have No Discernable Adverse Impact On Adolescents’ Pot Use

Again, no surprise here.

Getting gramdma to try pot (fun video)

I’ve got a friend who had to get some stats with Google Analytics as part of his web assignment, so he asked some friends to visit his page just so he would get a few readings of visitors. I’m hoping that if a lot of you visit, it will throw his numbers off from his wildest estimations.

It’s a silly little practice page: The Basement is Weird You can just click on it and leave if you want (no ads or anything). The video is cute, though.

This is an open thread.

The ONDCP’s Above the Influence ad campaign seems to be getting almost desperate to find “coolness” — at least that’s the impression I got from the “Rise Above” ad below, which appears to be trying to tap into the Parkour fad.

Here we have a youth avoiding the dangers of alcohol and other drugs by jumping off rooftops onto neighboring buildings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF1nzKXfgAA&feature=player_embedded#!

I think it’s a pretty cool thing as well and wish I had the guts and skill, but is that really what the ONDCP, as a government agency, wants to promote to youth?