Drug WarRant

Video: Drug Czar says LEAP “Is Wrong”

An 8 minute interview with Gil Kerlikowske. Lots of lies and deception, and all the stuff we have come to expect from the drug czar.

I’m taking a group of 18 college students to New York tomorrow for a week of theatre and walking tours over Spring Break. We’ll be seeing Diary of a Madman with Geoffrey Rush, How to Succeed in Business with Daniel Radcliffe and John Laroquette, the much-talked-about Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, Good People with Frances McDormand, and probably The Book of Mormon. I’ll be taking them on walking tours of Coney Island/Brighton Beach, Lower Manhattan/Chinatown/Little Italy, Chelsea/Meatpacking District/Village, East Village, Midtown, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Roosevelt Island. I’m also really looking forward to eating at a lot of my favorite places.

I plan to continue posting while I’m gone as I can, but may not have much time.

UMass professor drops bid to grow medical pot (see update)

Sad. It’s what they do. They tie you up in processes and legal steps and hope that you just die or get tired before you get satisfaction.

A University of Massachusetts-Amherst professor says he’s dropping his nearly decade-long fight to persuade the government to let him grow marijuana in bulk for medical research.

Horticulturist Lyle Craker wanted to cultivate marijuana to boost research into the plant’s potential medicinal benefits. But he’s been rebuffed — even as more than a dozen states have legalized medical marijuana.

Craker, 70, said he saw no end in sight to the legal wrangling, given the likelihood of an appeals process that could run several years, or even decades. He was frustrated, too, that he never got a hoped-for boost from the Obama administration.

“I’m disappointed in our system,” he said. “But I’m not disappointed at what we did. I think our efforts have brought the problem to the public eye more. … This is just the first battle in a war.”

Update: Thanks to Rick in comments, it appears that this report is premature. Go ahead and read the comment. They’re not giving up yet.

Obama, Calderon Pledge Cooperation On Drug Wars

Yawn.

Seeking to repair damaged relations, President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon agreed Thursday to deepen their cooperation in combating drug violence […]

During a joint news conference at the White House, Obama praised Calderon for his “extraordinary courage” in fighting the violent drug cartels that have been responsible for deaths on both sides of the border. Obama pledged to speed up U.S. aid to train and equip Mexican forces to help in those efforts, but he also acknowledged that the U.S. must stem the flow of cash and guns to Mexico that have aided the cartels.

Sócrates Rizzo: PRI Presidents oversaw drug trafficking

During an interview session the former PRI Governor admitted that previous PRI presidents held strong control over drug trafficking routes that prevented the attacks on civilians and the violence that Mexico is undergoing today.

Although an open secret in Mexican society and a charge occasionally leveled publicly by the country’s two other major political parties, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), this is the first time in recent history that a former or current PRI politician has admitted publicly that this arrangement existed.

“Somehow the problems with drug trafficking were avoided, there was a strong State control and a strong President and a strong Attorney General and a tight control of the Army.”

“Somehow they (drug traffickers) were told: ‘You go through here, you here, you there’, but do not touch these other places,” he said in his speech.

The former Governor added that this strategy allowed the State to ensure the social peace that has been lost in the war on drugs launched by the PAN administration of Felipe Calderon.

Unless we’re willing to either legalize and take the profit out of trafficking (or wave a magic wand and make demand go away), the Mexican government really only has two choices:

1. Wink and let the traffickers get rich without interference
2. Take them on head-on with force… and the traffickers still get rich, except now lots of people are dead and the country destabilizes.

Once we legalize, then you can crush the cartels successfully.

Extra drug tests added to try to stop medical marijuana patient from winning the race. Iditarod Expands Drug Testing After Last Year’s Pothead Victory

The top finishers all tested clean, according to Iditarod officials, including champion Lance Mackey, who believed jealous competitors called for the drug tests in hopes the throat-cancer survivor and well-known medicinal cannabis smoker would test positive.

Reyes Family: “Militarization of Drug War in Mexico to Blame for Extortions, Kidnappings and Murders”

The recent kidnapping and murder of three family members related to a slain human rights defender in the state of Chihuahua has drawn more scrutiny to the Mexican military’s role in policing and fighting the drug war. Lost in the national and international media’s reporting of the story are claims that soldiers on the ground in and around Ciudad Juarez are involved with committing assassinations and kidnappings to silence those who accuse them of corruption.

Members of the Reyes Salazar family have criticized the military for a number of illegal acts, including extortion, harassment, and murder. In the last three years, six family members have been killed. All of the incidents involve suspicious circumstances that happened after the family began denouncing the Army for human rights abuses.

You’re not paranoid. They really are out to get you.

In This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories, there’s an extraordinary (I hope) case where police, prosectors, and judge all conspired to allow perjured testimony to be used.

Harper’s Faith-Based Drug War by Neil Boyd

The Harper Conservatives are under fire for their extraordinarily expensive legislative initiative, Bill S-10. Among other things, the bill seeks to spend at least hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on prison building, in order to impose a mandatory minimum term of six months in jail for anyone who grows more than six marijuana plants. […]

The mistake we make is to believe that the Harper Conservative agenda is based on fact, data relevant to public health, or the best available empirical evidence. That’s not what they care about. Stephen Harper is an ideologue, publicly committed to increasing imprisonment for a greater range of criminal offences and personally in favour of the death penalty. […]

Bill S-10 is about a belief in a particular world view – one that is hostile and emotionally driven in its intent, having more in common with George Bush’s Texas than our longstanding Canadian values of tolerance and compassion. We should not pretend that this legislation has anything to do with evidence – or with making our country a safer place in which to live.

Bolivian President Evo Morales snubs US drugs agents – Bolivian President Evo Morales has refused to invite US anti-narcotics agents back into the country.

Since the arrest last week of Gen Sanabria by DEA agents in Panama, some opposition politicians have been calling for the return to Bolivia of the American agents to help the Andean country in its fight against drug trafficking.

But President Morales said the DEA was “an instrument the US uses to blackmail those countries who don’t comply with imperialism and capitalism”.

He said that even though Bolivia was only a small country, its government, armed forces and police would not bow to the DEA.

“The fight against drugs is driven by geopolitical interests,” he said.

I haven’t heard yet any reaction from Calderon’s visit with Obama yesterday, but it doesn’t really matter. Nothing good could come from it, because neither one of them can really discuss a solution. All they can do is complain about failing to throw enough gas on the fire.

Stories from Reuters and Houston Chronicle

Calderon last week accused the United States of damaging efforts to beat back drug cartels, just days after one of the worst attacks on U.S. officials in Mexico left one Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent dead and another wounded.

Instead of seeking to reassure Washington, Calderon uncharacteristically blasted the U.S. ambassador to Mexico as “ignorant”, and lashed out at ICE, the CIA, and the Drug Enforcement Administration for their role in the drugs war.

This was a calculated effort to excuse Calderon’s own failures in this drug war, since Mexico is getting tired of the violence, and despite putting his whole administration’s credibility behind attacking the drug war, he has nothing to show for it.

Mexican sensibilities also have been jangled in recent weeks by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s suggestion that the drug gangs might somehow ally with Islamic terrorists. A senior official in the U.S. Department of the Army riled feelings yet again by describing Mexico’s violence as an “insurgency” that might require direct U.S. action.

And, of course, the U.S. is frustrated because they can’t do anything that would actually, you know, make a difference, because they’re stuck in the prohibition mind-set.

Whenever they’re frustrated, they play the terrorism card and try to show how big a dick they have. Direct U.S. action? The U.S. military is an anachronistic behemoth that does little today but serve the greed of the military industrial complex while bankrupting the U.S. It doesn’t even realize that it can’t effectively deploy against terrorists or drug traffickers. Sending in the U.S. military to deal with the drug traffickers in Mexico would be like sending an elephant to get rid of the moles in your garden.

In preparation for today’s talks, the Obama administration on Wednesday also sent Congress a request for $10 billion in funding for programs to reduce U.S. drug consumption, long blamed by Mexican authorities for fueling the violence.

Ah, yes. The other truly American solution. Throw money at the problem. But when the actual solution isn’t on the table, that’s all you’ve got. Either the destructive use of supply-side drug war, or the ineffective and poorly targeted demand-side efforts.

“At some point it becomes deeply frustrating on both sides,” said Eric Olson, a security analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., where Calderon also will meet today with select members of the public. “A lot of us are scratching our heads and asking what is going on. Things were going so well.”

If that’s true, Eric, then a lot of you are idiots.

Despite the various irritations, analysts said, today’s presidential chats are unlikely to produce any fireworks, at least in public. The U.S.-Mexico relationship, and the crime crackdown, is too important for both governments.

Rather, the meetings will entail “maybe some private venting and air-clearing, public solidarity and recommitment,” predicted John Bailey, an expert on Mexican national security issues at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

“Sounds like the same agenda: do more about reducing drug consumption and arms trafficking,” Bailey said. “Obama can’t do much about either. But he can help Calderon’s political standing in Mexico.”

Illinois keeps trying to do the right thing. They’ve gotten close on medical marijuana a couple of times in the legislature, but couldn’t quite close the deal (there’s no referendum process in Illinois).

Yesterday, the House Agriculture and Conservation committee passed the Illinois Industrial Hemp Act 11-2. Next, it goes to the full house. (Hemp is defined in the bill as having a THC content below 0.3%)

Another teen has fallen victim to the dangers of Equasy. Lauren Bryant, 16 was found on Sunday afternoon and died on the way to the hospital.

Sure, the rich protect their use of equasy even as they work to imprison those who use ecstasy, a drug no more dangerous. In fact, Professor David Nutt was fired from his job advising the UK government for daring to point out that equasy is as harmful as ecstasy.

While they shudder in horror at the notion of a 16-year-old using marijuana (something that couldn’t kill them), these same people actually encourage equasy for their youth (it was, in fact, a birthday present from her family that ended up causing Lauren’s death).

Children are dying. Attractive white children even. Children who live far from the inner city.

How can we possibly outlaw marijuana and ecstasy while these jodhpur-wearing country-club trash continue to defend and protect their equasy?

No matter what you do to try to stop the supply of drugs, people will find a way to get around it, over it, under it, or through it.

Why? Because it’s so unbelievably profitable.

Here’s yet another drug smuggling submarine that was found in Colombia.

Just over 100 feet long and made out of fiberglass, capable of traveling 9 feet below the surface undetected. Authorities estimated that it may have cost $2 million to build.

Think about that for a moment. A criminal enterprise so lucrative that you’ll spend $2 million on a tool for committing the crime.

Here’s a nice spot over at the Economist to get a sense of some of the commenting of Malcolm Kyle, one of our regulars here. Malcolm really does a great job challenging the readers in comments sections at all sorts of media outlets.

It’s not just Obama that fails the question test. Check out this excellent piece at UKCIA News Blog: David Cameron shows his ignorance about cannabis

Democracy is a great idea, but the problem is it gives us politicians who can be the most dishonest peddlers of misinformation on the planet. David Cameron showed just how badly politicians can mislead when he answered a question about cannabis law reform this week.

When asked: “Why is marijuana illegal when alcohol and tobacco are more addictive and dangerous to our health, but we manage to control them? Wouldn’t education about drugs from a younger age be better?”

He answered:

“Well there’s one bit of that question I agree with which I think education about drugs is vital and we should make sure that education programmes are there in our schools and we should make sure that they work. But I don’t really accept the rest of the question. I think if you actually look at the sort of marijuana that is on sale today, it is actually incredibly damaging, very, very toxic and leads to, in many cases, huge mental health problems. But I think the more fundamental reason for not making these drugs legal is that to make them legal would make them even more prevalent and would increase use levels even more than they are now. So I don’t think it is the right answer. I think a combination of education, also treatment programmes for drug addicts, I think those are the two most important planks of a proper anti-drug policy.”

The article does a nice job of fisking that.

For those of you who may have missed it…

Jury nullification is an important tool for dealing with bad criminal laws that lawmakers (for whatever reason) don’t want to change. Judges and prosecutors are hostile to it and would prefer that jurors not know their rights and responsibilities in this area.

Is Advocacy of Jury Nullification a Crime?

Now someone has been arrested specifically for passing out information about jury nullification. This will be a case to watch since it is about silencing opposition.

Meanwhile, in our drug war next door…

28 in Mexico Killed in Attacks

It’s so routine it hardly seems worth reporting. Sigh.

An interesting legislative stunt in Minnesota…

Legislators want medical marijuana farming in Minnesota

A bill introduced in the Minnesota Legislature on Thursday would make it legal for farmers to grow medical marijuana and sell it to dispensaries in states where marijuana can be legally used for medicinal purposes. The Medical Marijuana Production and Export Act would direct the state government to develop a strict licensing plan for the potential grower and cites a positive economic benefit for the state’s agricultural sector.

It appears to me to be some kind of protest bill, because I can’t imagine it ever actually happening (at least until marijuana is legalized nationally). You can imagine that the feds would go ballistic over the idea of exporting medical marijuana across state lines, and the mental image of Minnesota shipping medical marijuana to California is pretty hilarious.

I always thought that Montanans had quite the independent streak. They thumbed their noses at the Feds when it came to speed limits. They considered themselves kind of frontiersmen who didn’t need the government telling them everything. Their conservatism was really more closely related to a form of libertarianism, I thought.

That may be true of the population, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be true of their GOP leadership.

I don’t know if you’ve been following this, but the GOP has apparently found the most pressing thing they need to do in Montana state government is to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law which was passed by the people 62 percent to 38 percent!

HELENA – Republican legislative leaders strongly condemned Montana’s medical marijuana program Thursday, as they spoke to reporters at the midsession break, while Democratic leaders denounced repeal attempts as another GOP effort to defy the will of voters.

At a Capitol news conference, House Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, talked about his bill to repeal the law, and Senate President Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo, spoke strongly against medical marijuana, although he stopped short of saying it should be repealed. […]

Milburn’s House Bill 161 would repeal that law. The bill has cleared the House on a mostly party-line vote and now faces action in the Senate.

As usual, out of control scare tactics are being used. Note, though, the subtle dig by the Missoulian reporter:

At the GOP news conference, Peterson asked if Montanans want one-third of high school kids with medical-marijuana cards.

Official state statistics show that 51 people under age 18 have been issued medical marijuana cards as of Feb. 1, or 0.18 percent of the 28,362 people with cards.

If they’re unhappy with the number of medical marijuana cards in the adult population, then the discussion that the Montana GOP should be having is to get government out of the business of running a drug war, and just legalize marijuana. They can then set an age limit of 18 if they wish. Save the kids, reduce government, promote individual responsibility, thumb your noses at the feds. Isn’t that what you really want, Montana?

Link

Thousands of U.S. agents and local police officers arrested and interrogated suspected associates of Mexican drug cartels across the United States on Thursday in response to the killing of a U.S. anti-narcotics agent in Mexico last week. […]

DEA officials said the sweep netted more than 100 suspects – most of them low-level – in Atlanta, Oakland, St. Louis, Denver, Detroit, San Antonio, San Diego, Chicago and New Jersey, as well as in Colombia, Brazil and Central America. […]

The DEA action, widely reported Thursday in Mexico, is intended to send a strong message to Mexican mafias that U.S. agents are off-limits, officials said.

“We’re doing what we always do. But a message was sent.”

Really?

So, these “cartels” who haven’t been deterred by the entire might of the Mexican army, who hire and dispose of mules and foot-soldiers with no regard to their lives, who slaughter rivals and innocents with a sadistic glee… What, they’re now going to quake in their boots because the DEA rousted a bunch of Americans with Mexican-sounding names… and questioned them?

“We’re sending a strong message.” >>translation>> “Uh, I got nuthin.”

Last week I talked about the powerful and well-written editorial in the Seattle Times…

MARIJUANA should be legalized, regulated and taxed. The push to repeal federal prohibition should come from the states, and it should begin with the state of Washington.

So what was the reaction to that editorial? Yesterday, the Times editorial page editor commented on that reaction.

It is rare we publish an editorial on a hot topic and receive near universal praise. But that is what happened last week when we came out in support of Washington state legalizing cannabis.

The fact that a lot of people support the drug being legal is not surprising. Most people I know have long supported legalization of marijuana.

Knowing people who support it and public opinion about a newspaper supporting it are different things.

When people take the time to e-mail or call me about an editorial, it is usually because they do not agree with the editorial page. This editorial was different. The compliments rolled in, the discussion in the comments section of the editorial is nearing 600 and is interesting and thoughtful — which is not always the case — and so far the editorial has been recommended by about 3,000 people on Facebook.

Those numbers are nice to see, but only a minor part of the story. What the editorial has shown is that a broad cross-section of Washingtonians supports legalizing cannabis, or at least are ready to discuss the issue seriously.

Editorial boards across the country, sit up and take note.

It is possible, however, that there was someone who wasn’t as pleased with the editorial.

The Stranger has learned that immediately after the Seattle Times ran an editorial last week supporting a bill to tax and regulate marijuana, the newspaper got a phone call from Washington, D.C. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy director Gil Kerlikowske wanted to fly to Seattle to speak personally with the paper’s full editorial board.

The meeting is scheduled for next Friday, an apparent attempt by the federal government to pressure the state’s largest newspaper to oppose marijuana legalization. Or at least turn down the volume on its new-found bullhorn to legalize pot.

Bruce Ramsey, the Seattle Times editorial writer who wrote the unbylined piece, says the White House called right “right after our editorial ran, so I drew the obvious conclusion… he didn’t like our editorial.”

Yep. I’d love to be in that room. What could Kerlikowske possibly have to say to that editorial board that has clearly researched the issue in depth, made a considered decision to run the editorial, and received near-universal acclaim for running it?

I’m not the only one who’d like to be in that room.

The Marijuana Policy Project is asking the Seattle Times to live-stream the meeting.