Drug WarRant

Here is a letter that moved me.

My name is B.C. and I am an artist of many media. Right now I am an independent musician, and recent college graduate from the Houston Texas Area.

I used to be very anti-marijuana, until I got mad at my girlfriend for doing it, and decided to research it to give her a definitive answer on it’s ill effects. I found none. Instead I found your website, and the answer to why marijuana is Illegal. This is what sparked my education into such a helpful plant, one that I had viewed with such negativity for most of my life. Now I can say I am a full fledged scholar in the ins and outs of the plant, and one by one I have changed people’s thoughts on marijuana, and especially the drug war in general.

It helped me first hand medically when I had hernia surgery last year. The doctors told me my groin would be swollen black and blue for the next two days and put me on hydrochodon, for the next few months. Instead I convinced my parents who were taking care of me (who are adamantly anti marijuana), to let me smoke an indica strain that i had brought home. I showed them all the evidence at my disposal and they relented, eventually seeing the first hand effects of my swelling disappearing immediately, the sudden resurgence of appetite, and my general attitude not be so high strung and moody. I only used half of my original prescription, and never needed to refill. My Dad stopped drug testing his employees after that, and my mom was a firsthand witness to the medical effects.

Besides health benefits, my music became more open and creative, and I finally have a goal and a message inside. To let people be who they are, enjoy their life, and to get people to question the status quo. I have posted my first music video on youtube (link below), and think your readers might get some enjoyment out of it.

One at a time, we change people’s lives and make a difference, and the ripple effect can be profound.

Here is B.C.’s music video. Surreal and compelling.

A couple of people have requested the ability to edit their own comments after posting — you know, that horrible thing where you see that blatant typo right after you post.

Well, I’ve just purchased Ajax Edit Comments and added it to the site. It should allow you to edit comments for a short time after posting, or to request to delete the post, etc., and it even has a spell checker.

I imagine that this will have its own issues that we need to find and fix, and there are a ton of settings that I have for Ajax Edit Comments that I can try different approaches (more time, different options, different layouts, etc.).

Feel free to experiment in the comments on this post, and let me know how it works for you.

Senate Judiciary Committee to Confirm DEA Head Nominee Tomorrow

Barring unforeseen massive scandal in the next 24 hours, Michele Leonhart’s nomination to be Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrator will be confirmed Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The nomination is opposed by the drug reform, medical marijuana, and hemp movements, but insiders say it is all but a done deal.

In short, Ms. Leonhart’s actions and ambitions are incompatible with state law, public opinion, and with the policies of this administration. At a minimum, Senators should ask Ms. Leonhart specific questions regarding her past record and her intentions moving forward.

Today’s the day.

This is our best chance to get Congress and President Obama to establish an important commission that could provide recommendations on how to reform our marijuana laws, as well as other criminal justice issues.

The Senate is considering a bill that would establish a national commission to make recommendations on improving the criminal justice system — but Congress is dragging its feet. They need to hear from reformers around the country in support of this bill. Send a message to Senate leadership now!

Take Action

In 2009, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and 15 Republican and Democratic cosponsors introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, legislation that would create a bipartisan Commission to review and identify effective criminal justice policies and make recommendations for reform. The House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee have passed the bill, which now has 39 Senate cosponsors, but the bill still awaits final passage during these last few weeks of the Congressional session. If NCJC doesn’t pass this year, it will all have to be done over again in 2011.

Today is the National Call-In Day for Passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. Please call the following Senators to ask them to prioritize and support Senate passage of the NCJC Act, H.R. 5143 and S. 714, this year:

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), 202-224-5556
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 202-224-3135
• the two US Senators from your state — call (202) 224-3121 or click here to look them up.

The following is a message for your call to the Senators’ offices:

I am calling to ask the Senator to prioritize and support immediate Senate passage of the House-passed National Criminal Justice Commission Act, H.R. 5143/S. 714, because:

• Having a transparent and bipartisan Commission review and identify effective criminal justice policies would increase public safety.
• The increase in incarceration over the past twenty years has stretched the system beyond its limits. These high costs to taxpayers are unsustainable, especially during these tough economic times.
• The proposed commission would conduct a comprehensive national review — not audits of individual state systems — and would issue recommendations — not mandates — for consideration.

This is an open thread.

PAMELA ANDERSON has urged BARACK OBAMA to legalise drugs.

The ex-Baywatch star, 43, said: “I sent a letter to Obama, who I think is a great president, asking him to liberalise all of them.

“I think people would use fewer drugs if they were legal.”

The actress, who was speaking on an Italian TV chat show, will appear on the cover of Playboy in January – her 11th time in 22 years.

I guess I’ll be able to hang it up soon.

Naturally, they want to blame drug war violence on the wrong thing.

New pot law blamed as violence escalates

Since recreational marijuana use was decriminalized in Massachusetts last year, pot-related trafficking and violence have escalated across the state, frustrated law enforcement officials tell the Herald.

Smoking weed is not a victimless crime, they say.

“We knew it was going to be a nightmare for public safety and law enforcement. An ounce of marijuana can make a thousand joints,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said.

Of course, all the violence they noted had to do with turf wars — caused by marijuana still being illegal, not by decriminalization.

And… An ounce of marijuana can make a thousand joints.

Who are these morons?

There are a little over 28 grams in an ounce. That would mean you’d have to make over 35 joints per gram.

That wouldn’t satisfy a hobbit.

The drug warriors who have been fighting this immoral war for decades have dug themselves so deep into the muck that they’ve lost the ability to even see that they’re standing chin-deep in feces.

There are more bizarre elements of the drug war than you could count, but many of the more absurd derive from the fact that the drug warriors are unable to actually enforce the drug laws.

If that happened to rational people, they’d question whether the drug war is legitimate, but with prohibitionists, they just look for ways to subvert the principles of American law to assist them — whether it’s employing snitches, dismantling the fourth amendment, or even forcing people to do their job for them.

The latter is the basis for this latest DEA action:

Congrats to our Allan Erickson for getting Letter of the Week honors over at DrugSense/MAPinc.

Further, Kevin Sabet, as part of the ONDCP, is mandated by law to lie.[…]

If science and truth were the standard, cannabis never would have
been made illegal in the first place.

Link

PHOENIX (AP) — A measure that would legalize medical marijuana in Arizona pulled ahead for the first time Friday, with both supporters and opponents saying they believed the proposal that went before voters on Election Day would pass.

Proposition 203 was ahead by 4,421 votes out of more than 1.63 million votes counted. The measure started out losing by about 7,200 votes on Nov. 2 and the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.

Only about 10,000 early and provisional ballots remain to be counted in the state, and all are in Maricopa County.

If the measure passes, Arizona would be the 15th state with a medical marijuana law.

“We were optimistic that this is what the result was going to be today, and we’re thrilled that it came to reality,” said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. “Moving forward it’s our responsibility to help implement a program that Arizona can be proud of.”

Opponents of the initiative, including all Arizona’s sheriff’s and county prosecutors, the governor, attorney general, and many other politicians, came out against the proposed law.

It’s been quite a long wait for the results.

A fun article by Bill McClellan in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It would be great if our state went to pot

These things start in California and move east. I saw it with blue sneakers. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, sneakers came in two colors: black and white. One day a kid moved in from California. He wore blue sneakers. My friends and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing we had ever seen. Blue sneakers! Oh, how we laughed at him.

Within six months, we all had blue sneakers.

It’s going to be the same with pot.

We have two choices. We can let California legalize pot in 2012 or 2014 or 2016, and then we can eventually follow, or we can take the lead.

There is precedent for the latter. When Prohibition ended, who was ready? We were. That is, Anheuser-Busch was. The day Prohibition ended, August Busch Jr. read a proclamation on KMOX. “We’re back!” The brewery sent a case of Budweiser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

For the next 75 years, we were the beer capital of the country, if not the world. […]

I was afraid California was going to beat us with marijuana. It did not. Opportunity knocks.

This is something our Legislature should work on. Republicans ought to embrace it. The Obama administration opposed the California proposition. Isn’t that enough to make us want to do it? Down with the feds and their nanny state! Up with states’ rights!

Somewhere in rural Missouri is the next August Busch. If we give free enterprise a chance, we might have another 75-year ride. A new Napa Valley. Taxes and jobs and tourism like we’ve never seen.

A pipe dream, you say? Sort of.

IPS News

Two Georgian women are facing the death sentence in Malaysia in a case that human rights campaigners say has highlighted worries over the continued imposition of capital punishment for drugs offences.

Babutsa Gorgadze, 26, and Darejan Kokhtashvili, 37, were arrested last month in Malaysia after they were found with more than 10 kilos of methamphetamine.

Under strict Malaysian laws the pair, both mothers, are now facing mandatory death penalties if convicted and efforts are under way by Georgian authorities to stop the pair being sentenced to death if convicted.

Human rights campaigners say the case has brought into focus the dangers of imposing capital punishment for drugs crimes. The case took a new turn this week when Georgian media reported the husband of one of the women had confessed to Georgian police that he had been behind the drug smuggling, and that the women had gone to Malaysia unaware that they were carrying illegal narcotics.

I’m opposed to the death penalty in any situation, for a whole number of reasons, not the least of which is my lack of belief that it can be administered fairly or without murdering innocent people.

I’m even more opposed to it, if that’s possible, as a deterrent/punishment in drug cases, where it makes absolutely no sense that society should feel so threatened by the prospect of a voluntary transaction.

It’s clearly not a deterrent, as evidenced by the fact that Malaysia, Singapore, China, Iran, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia manage to find large numbers to execute each year.

Additionally, if your enforcement goal is to get the “big fish,” then a policy of execution is counter-productive. The big fish will put layers between themselves and harm’s way, using unsuspecting mules or desperate losers to take the risks (again, making the notion of deterrence ridiculous).

To add insult to stupidity, apparently in some countries these “crimes” are also tried differently.

Rights groups point to a high proportion of foreigners sentenced to death for drug offences in some countries and also question the fairness of trials for drug crimes, pointing to the fact that in some countries drug cases are referred to special courts where accepted standards of fair trial may not be met.

The specific legal paragraph of Malaysian law under which Goradze and Kokthashvili have been charged breaks international legal standards as it assumes the defendant is guilty unless they can prove their own innocence, according to Amnesty International.

So where is the international community on this? Well of course, organizations like Amnesty International and the International Harm Reduction Association are doing their best to get the word out.

But the lead international body has been complicit even as it mouths objections.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has also said it is opposed to the death penalty for drugs crimes.

The UNODC has made that statement several times, but never with authority or conviction. It regularly bullies countries into being tougher on drug offenses and then when there is some negative press about executions, they dutifully express their opposition. If i was one of those countries, I swear I would be able to see the UNODC wink at the end.

A report by IHRA released earlier this year also showed how abolitionist states helping fund efforts to battle the international drug trade are, in some cases, actually helping bring about executions for drug crimes.

The group cited case studies where such programmes supported by UNODC and funded by, among others, the European Union and states such as Sweden, Australia, and the UK had ended in the execution of convicts. […]

Rights groups argue that there is now a question mark over international organisations’ complicity in subsequent human rights violations when these operations are carried out and that all similar drug enforcement projects must be closely examined prior to funding.

Recently, there has been some favorable movement in the international arena as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, whose mandate is derived from the UN Human Rights Council, issued a report dramatically challenging the drug war as it is being waged internationally right now in terms of its violation of basic human rights (full report available here and it’s worth reading).

The current international system of drug control has focused on creating a drugfree world, almost exclusively through use of law enforcement policies and criminal sanctions. Mounting evidence, however, suggests this approach has failed, primarily because it does not acknowledge the realities of drug use and dependence. […]

The primary goal of the international drug control regime, as set forth in the preamble of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), is the “health and welfare of mankind”, but the current approach to controlling drug use and possession works against that aim. […]

Currently, there is a lack of coordination and discussion between the actors involved in drug control and human rights at the international level. Law enforcement approaches are ingrained institutionally in the international drug control regime, as drug control is housed within UNODC, which leads the United Nations efforts on organized crime. This association between law enforcement and drug control, in part, precludes adoption of a human rights-based approach and interaction with the human rights bodies of the United Nations.

As you can see, this isn’t specifically about the use of the death penalty in drug offenses, but rather the larger human rights picture — the philosophy of dealing with drug policy — which demands a radical shift, where things such as the complicity of the UNODC with state executions would simply no longer exist.

Interestingly, the UNODC and INCB (International Narcotics Control Board) recently issued a joint statement to respond to the UN Special Rapporteur report. They addressed none of the concerns, but merely re-stated their belief that what they do works.

The international drug control mechanisms were to set up to protect human health by preventing drug abuse and drug dependence and ensuring access to drugs for medical and scientific purposes. These control measures, which have been developed over the last 100 years with the consensus of Member States, have protected millions of people from falling into addiction to drugs. The present drug control system has been successful at the international level in preventing diversion of drugs from licit channels to illicit uses.

Law enforcement and criminal sanctions play a key role in enforcing these drug prevention conventions and strategies, targeting principally the organized crime groups making profit out of the misery of millions. Such enforcement measures however should be part of a balanced approach to tackling both supply and demand issues.

Pathetic.