Drug WarRant

Rochester, New York, police apparently never heard of the First Amendment’s right to assemble. ‘Drug free zones’ proposal for Rochester neighborhoods

Rochester City Council member Adam McFadden is proposing a law that would create drug free zones in the city of Rochester. It would mean that police officers would have the authority to arrest anyone who is loitering in front of a home, a businesses or on a street corners…no questions asked.

Number of babies born with drug addition rising – that’s right – drug addition (same mistake is made in the body of the article).

It’s not just the spelling. The whole article is a joke.

So this is how science is conducted?

Cannabis causing strokes in young people, Irish medic says

When the blood vessel was examined by a neuropathologist, they found that the lining had “grossly thickened” and blocked off the artery resulting in the stroke. Prof Harbison said that this echoed findings in another of his patients, a heavy cannabis user who had had a blood vessel outside the brain biopsied after surviving a stroke. […]

“There is a level of concern that there is an association with particularly heavy users. We are seeing people coming in with strokes where we cannot find any cause but their cannabis use. This case and the other case leads you to think that there is a direct organic effect to it,” he said.

Well that explains it then, doesn’t it? If you can’t find another cause, and two of them are heavy cannabis users, you got yourself some cannabis deaths.

As science, it certainly seemed to impress Kevin.

Harmless? Cannabis linked to strokes and deaths in Ireland, Irish medic tells inquest: http://t.co/mnNmVu1qLg

Having a government shutdown while the DEA goes to work is like not having enough money to buy food for your children while still buying bullets to shoot yourself in the foot.

The Economist has been holding a week-long debate on the question of “Should Cannabis be Legal Everywhere” between Ethan Nadelmann and Neil McKeganey, moderated by Josie Delap.

There’s certainly no doubt among the internet community as to who is winning this particular debate, as the vote has been consistently 93% to 7% in favor of Nadelmann each day.

The usual character has shown up to make his scare argument about marijuana big business, use non-sequiturs about alcohol, and promote his book.

There’s still an opportunity to go over there and add your 2 cents to the discussion.

Many years ago, this used to be my hometown paper. Things sure have changed.

Don’t imprison this cancer patient – Quad City Times Editorial Board.

Investigators turned up no evidence of a widespread dope-dealing operation foisting marijuana into the hands of Quad-City kids. All of the evidence points to a cancer patient desperate for relief.

Yet prosecution continues under an unforgiving Iowa drug law that is far behind the rest of the nation. Twenty states, including Illinois, have legalized medical marijuana. Three more have decriminalized recreational use.

The same facts in a different state would leave Mackenzie labeled a homeopathic pioneer. In Iowa, he’s deemed a criminal so dangerous, county authorities have spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in investigation, raids and court appearances that will lead to even higher incarceration costs upon conviction.

All of this is being spent on the same defendant jailed for two months, until Scott County authorities suddenly realized they might be on the hook for his medical bills. Then he was released without bond.

This hypocrisy will continue as long as Iowa lawmakers ignore mounting evidence of marijuana’s medicinal qualities and its recreational harmlessness.

Pretty harsh words for an editorial, and very nice to see.

It’s bound to open up a few more eyes. The people need to wake up and realize that they will no longer put up with this kind of prosecutorial abuse, or the laws that allow it to happen.

Disappointing, though probably not surprising… US Supreme Court Rejects Marijuana Reclassification Appeal

The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear an appeal from medical marijuana advocacy groups who had challenged the DEA’s decision to maintain marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the category reserved for the most dangerous substances.

The court denied in summary order a petition for a writ of certiorari from the groups, led by Americans for Safe Access, which had sought Supreme Court review of a DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the DEA’s ruling that a change in marijuana’s classification required the Food and Drug Administration’s recognition of acceptable medical uses for the drugs.

Advocates of rescheduling marijuana have been trying to do so for more than four decades, but have been thwarted by DEA delays and intransigence. This was the third formal rescheduling effort to be blocked by DEA decision making.

It’s clear that the Court is going to defer to the government whenever possible in this area, and as long as the DEA has some kind of internal appeal process (no matter how dishonestly self-serving and delay inducing), the Supremes won’t interfere.

I gave up expecting any kind of judicial integrity from the court following the opinion in Raich. And, after all, this is a court that has as a prominent member someone who still believes in the literal devil.

With the executive branch having too many reasons (politically and financially) to keep demonizing marijuana, and Congress still being too spineless to do anything, it seems clear that continuing the push for reform through the states and through the grass roots is still the best approach to achieving reform.

Note: Kevin and I had a little discussion about the marijuana schedule issue last night.

Kevin: US Supreme Court rejects the reclassification of marijuana – read why reclassification is a lame issue anyway: http://t.co/qtQnyOLQrR

Me: @KevinSabet Tell that to Peter McWilliams… oh, you can’t— he’s dead.

Kevin: @DrugWarRant I didn’t say marijuana has no medical properties. It’s a matter of how we deliver them, but then again you’d rather misconstrue

Me: @KevinSabet McWilliams died, in part, because he wasn’t allowed to say the words “medical marijuana” in fed court, hence Schedule matters.

Thanks to all those who came out for my talk today on the Drug War’s Assault on Justice. We had a nice discussion afterward.

And thanks again to the sponsors:
Bloomington-Normal Coalition for Peace and Justice
Common Action Free School
Amnesty International Chapter IWU
Center for Engaged Citizenship IWU
Center for Human Rights and Social Justice IWU
Political Science Department IWU

I’m hoping that we’ll be able to put together a similar event at Illinois State University in the near future.

…

“Spring Awakening” — the musical for which I was Music Director/Conductor/Pianist — closed Saturday night with a fabulous show to a full house with a complete and immediate standing ovation. What a joy it was to be part of this project – so much creative work by these amazing students. It’s truly invigorating… and I’ll miss it.

Researchers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have achieved a major breakthrough in understanding traffic accidents and fatalities.

This came following a slew of studies attributing increased liklihood of traffic fatalities to a variety of activities: increased chance of death to teenagers driving with other teenagers in car; those who text 27 times as likely to die in crash; marijuana smokers twice as likely to be involved in fatal accident, etc.

According to lead researcher Sindjen Smythe with the NHTSA, “We were getting a ridiculously long list of activities that supposedly caused fatal crashes, to the point that it was starting to seem meaningless.” Smythe said that the last straw, and the moment that led to the new study was learning that “people who liked fried chicken were more likely to die in crashes. That made no sense. This caused us to change our approach and try to find a common thread in all these studies.”

That led to this groundbreaking study which did, in fact, find the common thread. Co-researcher Meghan Ashlington explains: “It wasn’t the love of fried chicken that was the problem, but rather that some idiots would try to eat fried chicken while executing complex driving maneuvers. A smart person, we discovered, simply didn’t do that. Smart people would still get tired, but they’d pull over and take a nap. Idiots wouldn’t. Smart people sometimes texted, but generally only when they was no traffic around them, and if they smoked pot, they understood their own limits.”

Yes, the common thread through all the studies was, in fact, that it was idiots who are much more likely to die in accidents, regardless of the circumstances. Unfortunately, sometimes they also take others with them. And, of course, sometimes accidents are just accidents. But in terms of preventable accidents, idiocy was the undeniably clear common factor.

“This is incredibly important research that could revolutionize traffic enforcement,” according to Ted Jamison with the Department of Justice’s National Policing Initiative. Jamison recommended that states immediately start developing roadside intelligence tests to measure levels of idiocy and get unsafe drivers off the road. “This will be a much more accurate measure of fitness to drive than all the piecemeal systems we have in place today combined,” said Jamison.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has been focusing a lot of their efforts pushing for per se standards for cannabis and driving. When asked for their reaction to this new study and how it might affect their policy approach, they responded that they had read the study, but didn’t understand it.

Fox News: Nick Carter: I am drug free but alcohol addiction is ‘still a problem for me’

FOX411: How long have you been sober?

Carter: This is the thing: I am completely 100 percent drug free. I have, on occasion, been having drinks. The thing about it is, I still realize that it’s an issue, and it’s still a problem for me. It’s something that’s not easy. I still have to go to therapy. I still have to get to the bottom of the reason why I have resorted to alcohol.

No, Nick Carter, you are not 100% drug free. You will never be 100% drug free. Nobody will. It is possible that you have given up consuming one or more specific drugs. That’s an entirely different thing.

“Spring Awakening” is up and running (through Oct 5) and consuming most of my time, so little posting here. But you guys in comments have been doing an amazing job keeping it going.

On October 6, I will be giving a major presentation:

“Drug Wars Assault on Justice – a talk with Pete Guither”

Sunday, October 6 at 4:00 pm
Hanson Student Center
Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, IL

Sponsored by:
Bloomington-Normal Coalition for Peace and Justice
Common Action Free School
Amnesty International Chapter IWU
Center for Engaged Citizenship IWU
Center for Human Rights and Social Justice IWU
Political Science Department IWU

I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been sketching out a fairly long list of the ways the drug war damages justice, with specific examples. Feel free to make suggestions in comments.