Drug WarRant

That’s right! Forget basketball, or music, or chess. Join the fun club where the main activity is taking drug tests. Pass them and you get to stay in the club and earn discounts from local businesses.

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McFarland hopes that with this program students can see the rewards and benefits of staying drug free. One way he hopes to promote this is by schools and local businesses to give these students perks, such as some much off a meal, extra credit towards a class or test or a pass on one day of conditioning if the student plays a sport.

Every student who signs up for the Drug Free Club will receive an ID card. To continue to stay in the club, students must be able to pass all of the drug tests that will be given in that year.

This really sounds a bit creepy to me. A drug free ID card?

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Here at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, we are proud to work alongside veterans who lend their talent and energy to the important task of reducing drug use and its consequences across the country.

I have a feeling that our veterans who are regular commenters here may have a slightly different perspective…

Resolution:

NAACP SUPPORTS ALLOWING STATES TO DECREASE PENALTIES FOR LOW-LEVEL DRUG POSSESSION

WHEREAS, as a result of the “War on Drugs” and mandatory minimum sentences imposed largely at the federal level, the prison population has exploded in the past few decades; and

WHEREAS, one crucial result of these misguided and misplaced policies has been the disproportionate over-confinement of racial and ethnic minorities: more than 60% of the people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities; and

WHEREAS, two-thirds of all persons in prison today for drug offenses are people of color; and

WHEREAS, more than 700,000 people annually are arrested in the United States for the possession of marijuana; and

WHEREAS, even though numerous studies demonstrate that whites and African Americans use and sell marijuana at relatively the same rates, studies also demonstrate that African Americans are, on average, almost 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession, and in some jurisdictions Blacks are 30 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites; and

WHEREAS, there are also extreme economic consequences to the present day enforcement of marijuana laws; nationally, states spent an estimated $3.61 billion enforcing marijuana possession laws in 2010 alone; money that could be spent on education, job training, and other valuable services; and

WHEREAS, several states throughout the U.S. have departed from current federal law to develop more well-tailored and effective guidelines and sentencing ranges for small, low-level marijuana use which are moderating some of the more extreme federal policies and their repercussions; and

WHEREAS, these state laws are at times at odds with federal laws; and

WHEREAS, legislation has been introduced in the 113th Congress, H.R. 1523, with strong bipartisan support, which would prohibit the federal enforcement of marijuana laws in states which have lesser penalties.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP supports H.R. 1523 and encourages its swift enactment; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the NAACP Washington Bureau shall contact Members of the Congress and urge the swift enactment of H.R. 1523.

H.R. 1523 is the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2013.

It amends the Controlled Substances Act to provide that provisions of such Act related to marihuana shall not apply to any person acting in compliance with state laws relating to the production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, or delivery of marihuana.

Congress needs to listen to the NAACP on this.

According to Tom Angell, of The Marijuana Majority:

“For obvious historical reasons, many civil rights leaders who agree with us about the harms of marijuana prohibition still remain reluctant to see the states chart their own courses out of the failed ‘war on drugs.’ Having the NAACP’s support for a states’ rights approach to marijuana reform is going to have a huge impact and will provide comfort and cover to politicians and prominent people who want to see prohibition end but who are a little skittish about states getting too far ahead of the feds on this issue.”

Andrew Sullivan has an outstanding column based on his appearance with David Frum on CNN to talk about marijuana.

Marijuana and Moralism

I know Ross will differ on the substance, but I doubt he will argue that my support for marriage equality stemmed from mere libertarianism (which would have led me to oppose all such marital benefits for everyone) but from a deep moral sense that we were (and are) violating the dignity of the homosexual person and perpetuating enormous pain for no obvious reason.

Now, the argument for legalizing marijuana is not quite the same. It’s much more based on the simple argument of personal liberty. But it has its moral components as well. The grotesquely disproportionate impact of Prohibition on African-Americans is an affront to any sense of morality and fairness, just as the refusal to research cannabis for its potential medical uses – to prevent seizures in children, for example – seems immoral to me. Some might argue that the right response to this is decriminalization, not legalization. But keeping marijuana illegal profoundly constrains the potential for medical research on it, sustains a growing and increasingly lucrative criminal industry, and does nothing to keep it from the sole cohort for whom it could do harm: teenagers.

Andrew has been a passionate and articulate voice for marijuana law reform for some time. It’s always nice to see him taking on the David Frums and Ross Douthats of the journalism world.

Students learn ‘drug free is way to be’

Wednesday afternoon, deputies visited Southside Elementary School and came with an armored vehicle, a horse, two motorcycles and a helicopter. Public Information Officer Natalie Barton said they bring their specialized vehicles because children love them and it grabs their attention, which allows deputies to spread the anti-drug message.

Hey, kids! Look at all these cool weapons. Using a tank against your friends is lots more fun than doing drugs.

It’s interesting how Mr. Sabet’s “friends” end up being so… passionate.

I’ve been having a fun exchange with “Brian C,” who purports to be merely an interested reader checking out Kevin’s book, and yet feels the need to go to extreme lengths to criticize my review.

Yesterday, the voters in Portland, Maine legalized the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for recreational purposes. The measure passed overwhelmingly with 70% of voters in favor.

Note: it doesn’t legalize the sale or growing of marijuana, so it’s only a partial “legalization,” but still, pretty impressive.

Note: The police say they will continue to arrest people for possession based on state laws, and yesterday, Kevin Sabet’s Project SAM set up shop in Portland.

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Meanwhile, in Colorado, 65% of voters approved the new marijuana taxes – a 15% excise tax and a 10% sales tax. While those taxes are significant (and significantly higher than alcohol taxes), and I’m concerned that the state do what it can do encourage legal channels at the beginning rather than discouraging them, still I think that smart producers will still be able to achieve a price point that will satisfy purchasers who would like to buy legally. And the taxes will help the political future of legalization.

Literally.

Traffic Stop Nightmare

This is just too, too much.

Go read it, and come back.

Fortunately, the comments there are pretty much unanimous — the police, the doctors, and the judge involved in this all deserve to be put away.

This is the kind of complete loss of… humanity… that comes from the drug war.

Update: Turns out this same scenario has happened before here. 4 On Your Side reveals another traffic stop nightmare

Again, Leo the K-9 alerts on Young’s seat.
Young is taken to the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, and just like Eckert, he’s subjected to medical procedures including x-rays of his stomach and an anal exam.

Again, police found nothing, and again the procedures were done without consent, and in a county not covered by the search warrant.

Here’s an interesting tidbit:

The doctors from the Gila Regional Medical Center have been turned over to the state licensing board. It’s possible they could lose the ability to practice to medicine.

And then…

And the police officers will be answering to a law enforcement board.

Yeah, we know how those work.

The November 2013 issue of ‘The Nation’ is stuffed full of articles about marijuana and legalization. It also marks that magazine’s official endorsement of marijuana legalization for the first time. Katrina vanden Heuvel explains:

If Clinton, Bush and Obama, ex–pot smokers all, were deemed responsible enough to lead the world’s most powerful nation, largest economy and strongest military (with thousands of nukes), why are we still arresting young men and women—especially young African-Americans and Latinos—for doing what these men did? Why do countless people languish behind bars for nonviolent drug crimes? And why is pot still classified as a dangerous drug?

This is especially astonishing when you consider that almost half of all Americans—myself included—admit to having at least tried pot. As a parent who has had the substance use-and-abuse talks with my 22-year-old daughter, I’ve had a hard time explaining why she can freely purchase cigarettes, which can certainly kill her, but not marijuana, which will surely not.

If you follow the link above, you’ll be able to access a large number of the articles in this edition. However, some of them are only available to subscribers or those who have purchased the issue. If you have a Kindle (or a Kindle app) you can purchase the digital issue for just $1.99.

I’m still working my way through the articles. Overall, I think it’s a pretty good mix.

I do have a little quibble with Carl L. Hart’s article: Pot Reform’s Race Problem. He starts out by pointing out that scientists, and agencies like NIDA, have mostly ignored the racial aspect of the drug war in their studies. True.

But then he goes on to say that the reform community has ignored the race issue as well. He specifically mentions NORML and MPP (and I don’t know what their actual record is) while giving a partial positive nod to DPA (for which he is a board member).

I call on our allies to break their silence on this issue and make racial justice a central part of the fight against pot prohibition.

The way he words it makes it seem that he is claiming that the entire drug policy reform community is silent on this issue (though the wording makes that vague and it may just be me reading that into it). However, my 10+ years of writing about this issue gives me a little different perspective. My recollection is that it has been the mostly white drug policy reform community that has ironically been a leader in promoting awareness about racial disparities in the drug war, even back when many African-American advocacy organizations were still calling for greater drug war enforcement in their communities (fortunately, that has changed in recent years).

Additionally, it’s odd that Mr. Hart fails to mention the great work that has been done in this area for years by both LEAP and the ACLU.

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Feel free to talk about any of the articles in comments.

Ross Douthat has a particularly odious OpEd in the New York Times: Pot and Jackpots

Yes, he’s talking about marijuana and casinos.

But both have been made possible by the same trend in American attitudes: the rise of a live-and-let-live social libertarianism, the weakening influence of both religious conservatism and liberal communitarianism, the growing suspicion of moralism in public policy.

And both, in different ways, illustrate the potential problems facing a culture pervaded by what the late sociologist Robert Bellah called “expressive individualism” and allergic to any restrictions on what individuals choose to do.

So he feels that he needs to express his concerns, and (as a conservative concern troll) the concerns all liberals should have regarding the impact of such a thing as marijuana legalization.

But liberals especially, given their anxieties about inequality, should be attuned to the way that some liberties can grease the skids for exploitation, with a revenue-hungry state partnering with the private sector to profiteer off human weakness.

This is one reason previous societies made distinctions between liberty and license that we have become loath to draw — because what seems like a harmless pleasure to the comfortable can devastate the poor and weak.

Ah, yes, because the poor and the weak have been doing so well under prohibition. It’s just been a walk in the park for them, dodging SWAT teams and drug dealers and having parentless children.

Ross is a conservative trying to get liberals to take his bait — tap into their often reflexive anti-libertarianism, and appeal to their concern for the poor and the weak — but he’s done so in a manner that’s a bit too obvious.

However, there are liberals (and I can think of some who we’ve discussed here) who actually would be quick to take the bait – the arrogant do-gooders who think that the unwashed masses are incapable of making their own decisions, and therefore should have a strong well-off person make those decisions for them. Interestingly, if someone made the exact same argument about women needing men to protect them from themselves, those same liberals would probably be appalled.