Drug WarRant

The sports world treats marijuana use too harshly by Patrick Hruby at Sports on Earth.

I love seeing drug policy reform articles in media aimed at other interests, because it helps reach new audiences, and certainly the sports crowd is one we’d like to get motivated.

It’s one thing for voters and politicians alike to make and cling to bad laws. That’s kind of what both groups do. It’s another thing entirely for what seems like the whole sports world — the same oft-progressive place that gave us Jackie Robinson standing up to segregation, Billie Jean King battling sexism and Muhammad Ali just saying no to the Vietnam War — to blithely and counterproductively follow suit. […]

Marijuana policy across sports should follow suit. The Houston Texans and Florida Atlantic can’t force the federal government to decriminalize pot. But they could be less uptight within their own organizations. So could leagues and governing bodies. There’s no need to test athletes for weed (most employers don’t); no need to punish them for use (leave that to the actual legal system); no need to play part-time Crockett and Tubbs when even Attorney General Eric Holder admits that federal prosecutors have no plans to go after marijuana smokers in states that permit recreational use. At the very least, the sports world could adopt a don’t ask, don’t tell approach — one that pays lips service to traditional anti-marijuana laws and social mores while recognizing those same laws and mores are rapidly shifting. […]

Once upon a time, racially integrated competition was unthinkable. So were openly gay athletes. Things change. Marijuana already is legally considered medicine in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Three years ago, an ABC News poll found that 8 of 10 Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use. Just last month, a Gallup poll found that 58 percent of the country favors legalization for recreational use as well — the first time ever that a majority of the country has supported legalization, and a 10 percent rise in a year’s time. Again, things change. Sports should, too. The alternative is shortsighted. Behind the curve. Just plain dumb. Enough with the Reefer Madness. The real problem with the Texans’ trio isn’t that they (allegedly) smoked pot; it’s that they did so a decade too soon. For Florida Atlantic’s sake, I hope Pelini robbed a bank.

It’s time for the sports world to stop their own additional misguided war against marijuana.

NoMoreDrugWar Photo Project

During the drug policy reform conference, they took pictures of people posing with their own anti-drug-war message. Nice idea.

Radley Balko’s been tearing up the joint with a new six-part series on Utah, of all things. Worth checking out. How A Botched Drug Raid in Utah Sparked An Unlikely Movement — the first five parts are out.

Science for stoners: What is marijuana ‘abuse?’

Interesting article, pointing out that as we approach legalization, new discussions will be had regarding use and abuse of marijuana and that defining abuse may not be so easy, nor will it necessarily fit in the same way as seemingly natural comparisons (like with alcohol) want it to fit.

‘Joint war” against drugs declared — a coalition of hard-line countries in the war on drugs.

If Gallup Says Most Americans Want to Legalize Marijuana, Gallup Must Be Unreliable, by Jacob Sullum

Writing at The Huffington Post, anti-pot activist Kevin Sabet tries to piss on this parade, but his aim is not so good.

Nice Reuters Column: The militarization of U.S. police forces

So I ended up in a twitter exchange with Peter Hitchens…

It started with a note from Evert Rauwendaal…

@TransformDrugs @DrugWarRant Oh dear. Peter Hitchens in Australia to talk about the morality of drug taking http://t.co/7zg52v0UcA

Peter Hitchens noticed and chimed it.

@EvertRauwendaal @TransformDrugs @DrugWarRant Why’Oh dear’ ? Worried about the open expression of dissenting views , are we?

I tried to answer his question.

.@ClarkeMicah @EvertRauwendaal @TransformDrugs It’s not the expression of moral opinion, but the desire to impose the same on everyone else.

Hitchens replied, attempting to turn the tables…

@DrugWarRant Exactly.The imposition of your selfish moral opinion would endanger the health of millions, to suit a selfish few.

Up is down. Freedom is slavery. Tyranny is liberty.

So to Hitchens, it is free choice (legalization) that is the imposition of a moral opinion on the world. Once you believe that, then you believe that people as a whole are incapable of free choice and must be dealt with like livestock, with some self-appointed farmer (or guardian of morals) to care for them.

You see this delusion in people who have strong convictions that not only are their particular moral views the only correct choice, but that it’s acceptable to use power and violence to make others also “moral.”

Of course, that’s nonsense. Power and violence don’t make morality. They just make power and violence. (And it’s typical that they are uninterested in, or unwilling to believe, any information that shows either the failure of power and violence to achieve the stated moral goals, or the damage from that power and violence.)

There’s always someone with a moral opinion that they want to impose on others. There have been a ton of them out there, between people like Hitchens and the huge variety of religious prohibitions, such as

• No eating pork
• No dancing
• No playing pool
• No working on Saturday (or Sunday)
• No drinking alcohol or using certain other drugs
• No showing your face
• No watching movies
• No premarital sex
• No cooking a goat in its mother’s milk
• No tattoos
• No nudity
• No blasphemy
• No wearing clothing made of more than one kind of cloth
• etc., etc., etc.

Although some of these were grounded in practicality (not getting sick from eating undercooked pork), for any them (or any like them) to be enforced by the state for moral reasons (as opposed to scientifically supported public policy) is absurd in any kind of free society.

Which may be why you so often see advocates of legislated morality turning language on its head, like Hitchens with his tweet to me, or those who perversely demand religious freedom when what they’re really calling for is religious tyranny.

It’s startling to me how often these days tyranny against others is being described as a liberty right. In religious circles it turns up all the time as freedom to practice their religion… by imposing state-sponsored prayer on all children, by objecting to the teaching of science in schools that conflicts with their personal religious beliefs, by requiring that all people follow their own prohibition against making images of their religious leader, etc.

I have no problem if your religion requires you to not look at red hair, but that makes it your responsibility to avoid situations where you might see it, not my responsibility to wear a hat. Making me wear a hat in order to allow you the positive right of living in a red-head-free world is a complete bastardization of the notion of liberty.

Similarly, calling for the right to live in a drug-free world as a moral imperative is just as flawed. And this is why Evert Rauwendaal was right to say “Oh dear” at the notion of Peter Hitchens’ approach to drug policy, which is modeled on Professor Harold Hill’s discussions of pool.

Student Injured by K-9 Officer (via Radley)

An 11-year-old male student has been treated for “minor injuries” sustained following a bite from a Brazil Police Department K-9 officer at the Red Ribbon Awareness week kick-off event at the Clay County Courthouse Thursday, officials said. […]

McQueen said a very small amount of illegal drugs were hidden on one of the juveniles to show how the dogs can find even the smallest trace of an illegal substance. He added all this was done “under exclusive control and supervision of members of the court and law enforcement.” […]

“As I got closer to the actors, Max began searching the juveniles,” according to the officer’s report. “The first male juvenile began moving his legs around as Max searched him. When the male began moving his legs, (this is what) I believe prompted Max’s action to bite the male juvenile on the left calf.”

There’s a well-trained dog: bite children if their legs move.

I guess the standard red-ribbon week activities like having the students wear different colored socks to school one day with the slogan “Sock it to drugs” just wasn’t enough any more.

Malta

Asked whether he would discriminate between hard drugs and soft drugs, Fr Cordina said that in terms of social responsibility, there is no difference between them.

“The abuse of hard drugs is easier to detect due to its overt symptoms. Yet marijuana is known as the silent killer. It affects the mind, leaving the abuser constantly high. People who abuse of it may abandon their families and their responsibilities.”

Update: Statement of the day from Uruguay —

#Uruguay rep on #marijuana reform: “we’d rather breach intl #narcotics conventions than intl #humanrights law” #reformconf

Exactly. I’ve long felt that that’s the easiest (and most true) approach to dropping out of the conventions. The simple fact is that the drug war, as conducted under the conventions, is a horrific violation of human rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is supposed to have supremacy over all other U.N. documents and treaties.

The big 2013 International Drug Policy Reform Conference is going on now in Denver.

I wish I could be there (for many reasons), but work prevents me from leaving at this time. Still, I’m enjoying hearing tidbits from the conference on Twitter and Facebook…

Ethan Nadelmann: The International Innovations plenary at 12:15 @ReformConf today is unprecedented, w/ top officials from 4 countries & key rep from NZ

Transform: Czech drugs tsar: Its time to start raising the issue of convention reform at the UN #reformconf

Czech drugs tsar: Russia and China will be the obstacles to convention reform, not the US. US up for discussion at least #reformconf

Release Drugs: Czech Republic in official discussions with US about possible amendment to int conventions – would need int consensus. #reformconf

Reform Conference: Such a powerful group of #parents telling their stories why they’re fighting to end the war on drugs. #ReformConf

Dan Riffle: I miss @KevinSabet and @RafaelONDCP. You’d think if they care about real #drugpolicyreform they’d be at the biggest drug policy #reformconf

Carlene Variyan: In a very sad, but important session at #ReformConf on situation in prisons. Canadian system’s bad, but I’m realizing how much uglier in USA

Maria Villanueva: *Sorry I stopped twitting, I was crying* #ReformConf

#ReformConf “This war, and much of the violence in Mexico, started here in the USA. My son & his friends are victims of it” -Javier #Sicilia

RX MaryJane: Slapped in the face by what the drug war in the US is doing to the people in Latin America. Tragic. #reformconf

Forfeiture Reform: Why has the Drug War gone on so long? Federal grants/asset forfeiture gave law enforcement an investment in prohibition. #reformconf

Anybody else getting interesting reports from the conference?

Shackled and pregnant Wis. case challenges ‘fetal protection law’

… seems to me there needs to be fetal (and mother) protection from drug warrior busybodies.

In cases like Beltran’s, “the woman loses pretty much every constitutional right we associate with personhood,” said Lynn Paltrow

We’ve seen so many permutations of this, from mothers having their newborn taken away because of a false “poppy seed muffin” drug test, to responsible medical marijuana users having their children removed.

All without any evidence that the children themselves are being harmed, but rather the assumption by government bureaucrats that they know what’s best for the child.

Another in the long list of destructive drug-war side-effects.

[By the way, the comments at this article are not particularly instructive — tends to devolve into a bunch of the standard ignorant red vs. blue bashing.]

Nick Gillespie has a nice piece in Time: 8 Things We Won’t Miss When Pot is Legal Everywhere

Legalizing pot won’t create a problem-free country any more than tearing down the Berlin Wall solved all the problems in East Germany or ending de jure segregation fixed race relations in the U.S. But it would reflect the will of an increasing number of citizens who realize the government has better things to do than tell us what we can and cannot put into our bodies. And it will also consign many terrible things about contemporary America to the dust heap of history.

We could probably add a few to the eight he lists.