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THE STORY THE MEDIA WON'T TOUCH WHY DO WE HAVE A WAR ON DRUGS, ANYWAY?
About 200 million people worldwide use illegal drugs BRITISH DRUG EXPERT SAYS ECSTASY NO MORE DANGEROUS THAN RIDING A HORSE The CIA: perhaps our biggest drug dealer
INFO HOW THE WAR ON DRUGS IS HURTING YOUR BUSINESS NORML'S REPORT ON POT AND CANCER GROUPS MEDIA MARIJUANA NEWS NARCO NEWS BULLETIN
The Exile Nation: An oral history of the war on drugs |
Drug war: really a war against blacks Earnings from Afghan opiium soar 133% in one year About 200 million people worldwide use illegal drugs Recovered history: Johnny St. Valentine Brown, the drug expert who wasn't Pentagon privatizing its international war on drugs Daily Show asks Rick Scotrt to pee in cup Police who tell the truth about drug war are being fired Some Latin American presidents talk of legalizing both pot and cocaine California Medical Assn calls for legalization of pot British governent ignores official advice to decriminalize drugs Retired LA deputy police chief: drug prohibition far worse than alchohol prohibition House GOP bill would take away free speech on drug issues Whistleblowers link drug cartels to cops, public officials One in five your Americans should be in prison according to the disastrously failed war on drugs NAACP calls for end of war on drugs Philadelphia saves $2 million a year by not prosecuting pot smokers... Half of federal prisoners are there on drug charges Senate committee report: Latin American drug war has failed The war on drugs bars five million citizens from voting Global leaders call war on drugs a failure Portugal's eased drug laws are working Obama blows another $300 million on the drug war... Wachovia gets off easy for involvement in major drug laundering Top Brits call drug war a disaster Police commissioner on why cops lie Former British drug chief calls for across the board legalization 2010 BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL STUDY FINDS ALCOHOL MOST DANGEROUS DRUG ANTI-POT CROWD IS A LITTLE DESPERATE, GETS RUSSIA TO OPPOSE PROPOSITION HEMP: THE ECONOMIC SLEEPER IN THE CALIFORNIA POT VOTE USE OF DRUGS HIGHEST SINCE 2002 LEADING BRITISH PHYSICIAN CALLS FOR DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT BACKS DRUG LEGALIZATION BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL STUDY FINDS ALCOHOL MUST DANGEROUS DRUG  OBAMA SIGNS ANTI-BLACK COCAINE SENTENCING BILL  AUGUST 2010 BANKS FINANCED MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS THE EFFECT OF DECRIMINALIZING DRUGS IN PORTGUAL: DRUG USE & CRIME DOWN JULY 2010 PLUSES AND MINUSES OF OBAMA'S NEW DRUG POLICY THE CRUEL FAILURE OF THE DRUG WAR JUNE 2010 STING JOINS CALL FOR END OF WAR ON DRUGS APRIL 2010 DESPITE OBAMA'S PROMISE, DEA RAIDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA CENTER MARCH 2010 DRUG WAR CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF DISASTROUS FAILURE ALLEGED TEEN AGED DRUGGIE FACES MORE TIME THAN MURDERER JANUARY 2010 DRUG MONEY KEPT GLOBAL ECONOMY FROM TANKING FORMER POLICE CHIEF ON WHY ALL DRUGS SHOULD BE LEGALIZED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS OVERTAKE ILLEGALS AS KILLERS BRITISH HOME SECRETARY SACKS ADVISER WHO TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS DECEMBER 2009 WOMAN JAILED FOR BUYING COLD MEDICINE FOR HER GRANDKIDS BRITS FIND KICKING THE DRUG WAR HABIT WORKS FOR HEROIN NOVEMBER 2009 VANCOUVER'S CHIEF OF WAR ON DRUGS DECLARES IT A FAILURE OCTOBER 2009 WAVE OF DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION SWEEPING THROUGH LATIN AMERICA THE DEADLY COST OF THE DRUG WAR SEPTEMBER 2009 MEXICO AND ARGENTINA MOVE TOWARDS DECRIMINALISING DRUGS MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS MOVING INTO U.S. FORESTS AUGUST 2009 MEXICO DECRIMINALIZES SMALL AMOUNT OF DRUGS TWO EX COPS CALL FOR DRUG LEGALIZATION PARENTS: KEEP YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM FDA APPROVED DRUGS UN DRUG OFFICE SAYS USERS NEED HELP NOT PRISON JULY 2009 MEXICO MAY MOVE TOWARD MORE SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY 19 MILLION TONS OF DRUGS DUMPED INTO NATION'S WASTE STREAM EACH YEAR JUNE 2009 WHAT PORTUGAL CAN TEACH US ABOUT DEALING WITH DRUGS MAY 2009 THE ECONOMIST'S CASE FOR DRUG LEGALIZATION THE CASE FOR HEROIN MAINTENANCE APRIL 2009 THREE FORMER LATIN AMERICAN PRESIDENTS CALL FOR END OF DRUG PROHIBITION POLICIES STREET PRICE OF DRUGS HAS PLUMMETED
IN BRITAIN MARCH 2009 THE ECONOMIST'S CASE FOR DRUG LEGALIZATION FEBRUARY 2009 LOCAL HEROES: JURY FREES MARIJUANA USER 75 YEARS AGO AMERICANS WERE MUCH
SMARTER; THE STORY THE MEDIA WON'T TOUCH A COP'S EYE VIEW OF THE DRUG WAR DECEMBER 2008 IF WE HANDLED POT LIKE CIGARETTES. . . . HAWAIIAN POLICE TO IGNORE VOTER REFERENDUM ON POT U.S. DRUG CZAR SUPPORTS MEXICAN DECRIMINALIZATION PLAN BRITISH STUDY SAYS POT LESS RISKY
THAN ALCOHOL, OCTOBER 2008 AN EX-ANTI-DRUG WARRIOR ON WHY WE NEED TO LEGALIZE DRUGS RECOVERED HISTORY: PARALLEL BETWEEN DRUG & ALCOHOL PROHIBITION AUGUST 2008 BIG CITY COPS PUSH POT ARRESTS TO HYPE THEIR STATS JULY 2008 WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DOCUMENTS FAILURE OF U.S. DRUG POLICIES
MAY 2008 CO-CREATOR OF 'THE WIRE' EXPLAINS THE FAILURE OF THE DRUG WAR THE ISSUE THAT'S KILLING US BUT WE CAN'T DISCUSS Sam Smith If Obama is elected, by next January we will have had three presidents in a row who - if our laws had been equitably enforced - might easily have been convicted felons. Obama has admitted drug use including cocaine, and there is a high likelihood that both Bush and Clinton used cocaine as well as pot. Being a convicted felon is not a constitutional bar to the presidency but in many states the three could would not be allowed to vote or run for state or local office. The issue comes to the fore thanks to Scott McClellan's new book. A story in the Atlanta Constitution recounts: "McClellan tracks Bush's penchant for self-deception back to an overheard incident on the campaign trail in 1999 when the then-governor was dogged by reports of possible cocaine use in his younger days. "The book recounts an evening in a hotel suite 'somewhere in the Midwest.' Bush was on the phone with a supporter and motioned for McClellan to have a seat. ;The media won't let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,' I heard Bush say. 'You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember.'" Clinton, for his part, ran Arkansas at a time when it was one of America's leading little narco republics. He looked the other way as Papa Bush ran an arms for drugs operation out of Mena as part of the Iran-Contra disaster. The IRS warned other law enforcement agencies of the state's 'enticing climate.' According to Clinton biographer Roger Morris, operatives go into banks with duffel bags full of cash, which bank officers then distribute to tellers in sums under $10,000 so they don't have to report the transaction. Sharlene Wilson, according to investigative reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, served as "the lady with the snow" at "toga parties" attended, she reported, by Bill Clinton. She told a federal grand jury she saw Clinton and his younger brother ''snort'' cocaine together in 1979. Investor's Business Daily reported, "Sally Perdue, a former Miss Arkansas and Little Rock talk show host who said she had an affair with then-Gov. Clinton in 1983, told the London Sunday Telegraph that he once came over to her house with a bag full of cocaine. ''He had all the equipment laid out, like a real pro.''' In the 1990s, Genifer Flowers told Sean Hannity's WABC talk radio show: "He smoked marijuana in my presence and and offered me the opportunity to snort cocaine if I wanted to. I wasn't into that. Bill clearly let me know that he did cocaine. And I know people that knew he did cocaine. He did tell me that when he would use a substantial amount of cocaine that his head would itch so badly that he would become self conscious at parties where he was doing this. Because all he wanted to do while people were talking to him is stand around and scratch his head." Two Arkansas state troopers swore under oath that they have seen Clinton ''under the influence'' of drugs when he was governor. One-time apartment manager Jane Parks claimed that in 1984 she could listen through the wall as Bill and Roger Clinton, in a room adjoining hers, discussed the quality of the drugs they were taking. And in 1984, Hot Springs police record Roger Clinton during a cocaine transaction. Roger says, "Got to get some for my brother. He's got a nose like a vacuum cleaner." The issue here is not what these men did. After all, in a sane land, their drug use would be considered foolish but legal. The issue is that we stand a good chance of entering a third presidential administration marked by massive hypocrisy, cruelty and destructiveness in the matter of drugs. Obama shows every sign of following in the same masochistic path that has not only failed in its goal, but coincidentally began the dismantling of constitutional government and encouraged manic and self-defeating foreign adventures. You can not understand what has happened to this country over the past three decades without putting the war on drugs near the top of the list. Nothing has so changed the way we think and function as has our callously unexamined approach to drugs. My bedtime viewing of late has been the Netflix compilation of "The Wire," which I have come to think of as among the best literature of our times, a Shakespeare for an America in disintegration. The series touches on all forms of urban collapse - in politics, religion, labor unions, the police, the media - but the unbreakable link is a drug trade fostered by some of the worst laws and policies ever conceived. Seldom has a country so deliberately destroyed so much of its being for so little gain. But if you check the awards "The Wire" has won they are mainly from critic and writers groups and from the NAACP. The pop honors have been strikingly absent as were the ratings. This is not surprising, because under our cultural rules, the drug war is not something to discuss and argue about. It is to be accepted, funded and promised to be continued by whoever is running for public office. Significantly, two of the major enablers of this madness have been the media and a liberal elite that has increasingly blended its values with those of the conservative elite, the most notable exception being those of a demographic nature. It's no longer so much a matter so much of what you do but what ethnicity or gender gets to do it. There are, of course, exceptions such as civil libertarians and populists fighting lonely battles that used to be central to Democratic Party beliefs. But on the whole, such matters simply don't matter that much. Which is why neither Obama nor Clinton have discussed the drug issue or cities other than in passing. In the case of drugs, there is another factor that is never mentioned, which is that among the media and elite liberals there has been more than a little use of the same substances for which they are willing to send the less prominent to prison. You see just the tip of this phenomenon when a presidential candidate's drug use threatens to become an issue. The great mediators of public discourse quickly declare this topic fit only for the lower sorts and move it off the table. Such a willingness to punish others for what one does or what one's friends do is bad enough when it is merely an opinion expressed. When it results in prison time, it is despicable. The liberal hypocrisy on the drug war was an early signs that I was no longer a liberal. I was stunned by the liberal enthusiasm for Clinton, and claims that he was our first black president, even as he sent an ever larger number of young blacks to prison for doing what he had done. This is not small stuff. Far more young American men have died as a result of the drug war than have died in Iraq. More young black men have died as a result of the drug war than died in Vietnam. Yet we not meant to talk about it. In the wake of its support of the drug wars, liberals have gone on to support such awfulness as the Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind. In many ways, liberalism hasn't died; it's just evaporated. A progressive populism of the sort that
John Edwards was reintroducing is the sane and logical alternative,
one that provides the most for the most and under which you don't
have to graduate from Yale or Harvard Law School to have equal
rights as a woman or a black. It is obscene to speak smugly of
Obama's rise and yet be indifferent to the tens of thousands
of those whose skin is of the same hue but will who spend the
next four years in a cell rather than in the White House because
they tried to smoke or snort their way to happiness just like
two past presidents, and one potential one, all in a row. CO-CREATOR OF 'THE WIRE' EXPLAINS THE FAILURE OF THE DRUG WAR ED BURNS, REASON As for the war on drugs, I don’t think we’ll ever recover from the mind-set we’ve gotten into to fight it. The educational system is an absolute and total disaster. And that of course is fueling the drug war, because there are so many kids who have no alternative but to spend their time on the corners. The failure is institutional because no one sets out to lose these wars. This is dangerous stuff, self-defeating stuff. Education has no relevance. It doesn’t mean anything to these kids because they can’t connect to it. They spend those eight years or nine years in school because they have to. Of course, they have to learn something. And what they learn is how to sit quietly in a corner and make the school become a kind of training ground for the corners. The administration and the teachers basically become surrogate cops. And the kids play through these fantasies with the stand-in “cops” until they’ve tested their mettle enough to go up on the corners and try it with the real guys. We’ve had 20, 30 years of this stuff, and 20, 30 years of spending billions of dollars on failed systems. And if you go to one of the private schools and see these kids in action and then go to an inner-city public school, you can see the chasm. There’s separation even in the way of being, in the way they think, in how they operate. It’s profound, but it’s nothing new. We’ve been doing this for a long time. ONE IN SEVEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISTRICTS DO STUDENT DRUG TESTS WITHOUT ANY CAUSE REALITY CHECK: POLITICIANS AND THE DRUG WAR HEDGE FUNDS GOOD FOR LAUNDERING DRUG MONEY FREE DRUG SAMPLES DON'T REACH POOR PATIENTS COAST GUARD'S FALSE DRUG VICTORY HOW AMERICA LOST THE WAR ON DRUGS BEFORE THE MADNESS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS 70 YEARS AGO, AMA TOLD CONGRESS MEDICINAL MARIJUANA WAS OKAY PUNISHMENT FOR CRACK USE STIFFER THAN FOR MANSLAUGHTER A TOP COP IN BRITAIN CALLS POT ARRESTS SOARED FAR MORE UNDER CLINTON THAN BUSH THE TOP TEN REASONS MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGAL WASHINGTON POST RUNS ARTICLE SLAMMING WAR ON DRUGS STUDY FINDS POT - UNLIKE ALCOHOL AND COCAINE - NOT ASSOCIATED WITH VIOLENCE FEBRUARY 2008 BRITISH SCIENTISTS RANK ALCOHOL & TOBACCO MORE DANGEROUS THAN POT MEDICAL NEWS TODAY - A new UK study suggests that the current UK drug classification system of A, B, and C of the Misuse of Drugs Act is flawed and should be replaced by an evidence-based system of potential harm that would place alcohol and tobacco higher than cannabis and ecstasy. The study is published in The Lancet. Their proposed system of classification asesses harm in an "evidence-based fashion". They use three main factors to determine the potential harm that a substance causes: (1) Physical harm to the user, (2) Tendency to induce dependence in the user, and (3) The effect of its use on families, communities and society in general. . . They asked two independent expert panels to score 20 different substances using this new system. . . The two panels found the method easy to use and came up with very similar harm scores for each drug. In order of overall harm, the 20 drugs were given the following ranking . . . (1) Heroin (most harmful). JANUARY 2008 BRITISH POLICE OFFICIAL CALLS FOR LEGALIZING HEROIN, COCAINE SUN, UK - Ecstasy is safer than aspirin, top cop Richard Brunstrom claimed yesterday. He also repeated his call for Class A substances like heroin and cocaine to be legalized. The North Wales chief constable claimed such a move was "inevitable" - and could happen in 10 years. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article640451.ece DECEMBER 2007 ANOTHER RECORD YEAR OF MARIJUANA ARRESTS NORML - Police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report. This is the largest total number of annual arrests for pot ever recorded by the FBI. Marijuana arrests now comprise nearly 44 percent of all drug arrests in the United States. "These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds in America. . . Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent, 738,915 Americans were charged with possession only. The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. for 2006 far exceeded the total number of arrests in the U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Annual marijuana arrests have nearly tripled since the early 1990s. http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7370   NOTE: CIGARETTES NOT A TARGET OF THE DRUG WAR IN DRUG ENFORCEMENT, IT'S NOT THE USE BUT THE USER THAT COUNTS Sam Smith THE REVIEW HAS OPPOSED the nation's drug policy for four decades. One reason has been that it is the sort of law that works one way for some people and another way for others. It's not just the cocaine - crack punishment disparity. Consider the huge difference between the percent of blacks and whites imprisoned on drug charges despite similar usage. Or the immune cocaine culture in Hollywood and executive suites compared to tough ghetto enforcement. Or Bill Clinton and George Bush using cocaine and the media not even mentioning it while it's become an open issue in the Obama campaign. Now we have another example from your nation's capital. In this town where the mayor, Marion Barry, was arrested and pilloried for drug use, we now find that the city's baseball team's new catcher among those listed in the George Mitchell report of those illegally using steroids. According to the Washington Post: |||| The report said that Radomski sent performance-enhancing substances to [Paul] Lo Duca's home and to the clubhouse of the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom Lo Duca played from 1998 to 2004. Lo Duca's name, address and telephone number were listed in the address book seized from Radomski's Long Island home in December 2005. Neither Lo Duca nor his agent, Andrew Mongelluzzi, returned messages yesterday. The Nationals, who signed Lo Duca to a one-year, $5 million contract earlier in the week, issued a statement last night declining to comment on the report in general and on their own players specifically because they "have not yet had an opportunity to fully review" the Mitchell report. . . The details of Lo Duca's alleged involvement came from the raid of Radomski's home. They included a note from Lo Duca to Radomski in which Lo Duca said his cellphone had broken and he needed Radomski's contact information. On another note -- written on Dodger Stadium stationery -- Lo Duca scrawled, "Thanks, Call me if you need anything! Paul." ||| And from the report itself: |||| According to the notes of an internal discussion among Los Angeles Dodgers officials in October 2003 that were referred to above, it was reportedly said of Lo Duca during the meetings: Steroids aren't being used anymore on him. Big part of this. Might have some value to trade . . . If you do trade him, will get back on the stuff and try to show you he can have a good year. That's his makeup. Comes to play. |||| If the report is true then the Nationals have just signed for $5 million Marion Barry lite. . . a lawbreaker and - since a lot more kids want to be ball players than want to be mayor - an even worse role model for the young. Will the Nationals cancel Lo Duca's contract? Will the media pillory him like they did Barry? Will he replace Barry as the cheapest laugh in town? Don't count on it. Of course, the argument will be made that steroids are far less dangerous or criminal than cocaine, but that is in part thanks to a sports media that has issued the sentencing guidelines for major league violators, namely, somewhere between not much and so what, that's life. If you are not a major leaguer and use the stuff, it can be a bit different just as it is in the case of cocaine depending on who's taking it. Here is some legal advice from the web site Elite Fitness: |||| Under federal law and the laws of many states, selling steroids, or possessing them with intent to sell, is a felony. An individual who sells steroids, or possesses with intent to sell, is punishable by up to five years in prison under federal law and up to seven years in prison under New York state law. Of course, whether an individual serves any prison time at all depends upon numerous factors including but not limited to the person's past criminal history, the strength of the prosecution's case, the person's role in the offense, and how effectively the case is either negotiated or litigated by defense counsel. An experienced criminal lawyer can make the difference. While most steroid investigations by law enforcement target sellers, either big-time or, lately, even small-time, arrests for personal possession do occur. Often, these arrests arise out of car stops for traffic violations and the steroids are found during a search of the car. For example, I recently defended a case where a police officer found a few syringes after stopping my client for speeding and discovering he had a suspended driver's license. In New York, the possession of hypodermic instruments is a misdemeanor, and my client was arrested on the spot. . . It is important to know that under the Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990 which applies across the country, steroids are in the same legal class as amphetamines, methamphetamines, opium and morphine. Simple possession is a federal offense punishable by up to one year in prison and/or a minimum fine of $1,000. Further, most states have enacted their own laws modeled after the Control Act. |||| Somehow we have a feeling that Paul Lo
Duco doesn't have to worry about this. The hypocrisy of our drug
laws and their enforcement is rampant but it is not likely that
Major League Baseball and its accomplices in the sports media
will be much bothered by this. WHAT WE COULD BE WORRYING ABOUT INSTEAD OF DON IMUS ACCORDING TO THE Department of Health & Human Services, the highest rate of illicit drug use is among persons reporting two or more races (13%). American Indians are second at 12% following by blacks at 8.7%, whites at 8.1% and latinos at 7.2 percent. Asians had the lowest rate at 3.1%. Bearing this in mind, now consider some facts from the Justice Policy Institute. In white liberal Montgomery County, MD, blacks are incarcerated on drug charges 22 times as often as are whites while in neighboring Prince Georges County, where blacks comprise two-thirds of the population, the discrepancy is four times. Here are the number of times more frequently blacks are incarcerated on drug charges than is the case for whites in other places around the country: 24 - Waukesha County, WI All the political correctness in the world won't compensate for figures like this. And liberals are as much to blame as conservatives, consistently refusing to add drug law reform to their agenda, looking the other way at the immensely discriminatory aspects of the drug war and ignoring the obvious threats to constitutional rights that, if dealt with in the context of drug laws, might have slowed George Bush's later assault on these rights |NOVEMBER 2007 DRUG WARRIORS RAISE COCAINE PRICE, CAUSING VIOLENCE TO INCREASE THE AMERICAN DRUG TRADE VS 'AMERICAN GANGSTER' EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON, NEW AMERICA MEDIA - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's survey on the sex and drug habits of Americans last June tossed the ugly glare on who controls and uses drugs in America. The survey found that whites are much more likely to peddle and use drugs than blacks. Non-Hispanic whites had a higher percentage of using cocaine or street drugs (23.5 percent) than blacks (18 percent). Other studies have found roughly equal rates of drug use by blacks and whites. But what made the CDC survey more eye-catching is that it didn't solely measure generic drug use, but singled out the use of cocaine and street drugs - the kind of drugs depicted in "American Gangster." WASHINGTON POST RUNS ARTICLE SLAMMING WAR ON DRUGS [In the nearly 40 years that the Review has written critically of federal drug policy, this is the first time we can recall the Post ever running anything close to this] MISHA GLENNY IN WASHINGTON POST - Thirty-six years and hundreds of billions of dollars after President Richard M. Nixon launched the war on drugs, consumers worldwide are taking more narcotics and criminals are making fatter profits than ever before. The syndicates that control narcotics production and distribution reap the profits from an annual turnover of $400 billion to $500 billion. And terrorist organizations such as the Taliban are using this money to expand their operations and buy ever more sophisticated weapons, threatening Western security. IJULY 2007 THE STUDENT AND DRUG EXCEPTION TO THE FIRST AMENDMENT JACOB SULLUM, HIT AND RUN - The Court seems to be opening up a "drug exception" to the First Amendment, albeit limited (so far) to students in school. It's true that high school students do not have the same free speech rights as adults, but the Court has held that they do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." They have a right, for instance, to wear anti-war armbands. In that case, the Court held that student speech may be suppressed only if it will "materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school." A "mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint" or "an urgent wish to avoid the controversy which might result from the expression" is not enough to justify censorship. But fear of drugs apparently is. http://www.reason.com/blog/show/121041.html INTERESTING WORDS IN JUSTICE STEVENS' DISSENT, drawing a parallel between drug and alcohol prohibition: JUSTICE STEVENS - But just as prohibition in the 1920's and early 1930's was secretly questioned by thousands of otherwise law-abiding patrons of bootleggers and speakeasies, today the actions of literally millions of otherwise law-abiding users of marijuana, and of the majority of voters in each of the several States that tolerate medicinal uses of the product, lead me to wonder whether the fear of disapproval by those in the majority is silencing opponents of the war on drugs. Surely our national experience with alcohol should make us wary of dampening speech suggesting - however inarticulately - that it would be better to tax and regulate marijuana than to persevere in a futile effort to ban its use entirely. U.S. MAYORS CALL FOR MASSIVE CHANGE IN DRUG POLICY DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE - The United States Conference of Mayors has passed a resolution calling for a public health approach to the problems of substance use and abuse. The resolution was sponsored by Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City. The resolution proclaims the war on drugs a failure, and calls for "a new bottom line in U.S. drug policy, a public health approach that concentrates more fully on reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social problems of their own." The mayors urged greater access to drug treatment such as methadone and other maintenance therapies, elimination of the federal ban on funding sterile syringe access programs, and establishment of prevention policies based on needs assessed at the local level. National drug policy should focus on reducing social problems like drug addiction, overdose deaths, the spread of HIV/AIDS from injection drug use, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and the enormous number of nonviolent offenders behind bars. Federal drug agencies should be judged - and funded - according to their ability to meet these goals. http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/062707uscm.cfm FROM THE RESOLUTION This Conference recognizes that addiction is a chronic medical illness that is treatable, and drug treatment success rates exceed those of many cancer therapies According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 112,085,000 Americans aged 12 or over (46.1% of the US population aged 12 and over) have used an illicit drug at least once The United States has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners, incarcerating more than 2.3 million citizens in its prisons and jails, at a rate of one in every 136 U.S. residents - the highest rate of incarceration in the world 55% of all federal and over 20% of all state prisoners are convicted of drug law violations, many serving mandatory minimum sentences for simple possession offenses A study by the RAND Corporation found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.46 in societal costs, a reduction that would cost 15 times as much in law enforcement expenditure to achieve The National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study shows substantial reductions in criminal behavior, with a 64% decrease in all arrests after treatment, making public safety a primary beneficiary of effective drug treatment programs Federal, state, and local costs of the war on drugs exceed $40 billion annually, yet drugs are still widely available in every community, drug use and demand have not decreased, and most drug prices have fallen while purity levels have increased dramatically According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, only 35% percent of the federal drug control budget is spent on education, prevention and treatment combined, with the remaining 65% devoted to law enforcement efforts Over one-third of all HIV/AIDS cases and nearly two thirds of all new cases of hepatitis C in the U.S. are linked to injection drug use with contaminated syringes, now the single largest factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S Virtually all independent analyses have found ONDCP's drug prevention programs to be costly and ineffective: the Government Accountability Office recently found that both the National Youth Anti-Drug Media campaign and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program have not only failed to reduce drug use, but instead might lead to unintended negative consequences Blacks, Latinos and other minorities use drugs at rates comparable to whites, yet face disproportionate rates of arrest and incarceration for drug law violations: among persons convicted of drug felonies in state courts, 33% of convicted white defendants received a prison sentence, while 51% of black defendants received prison sentences Women are the fastest growing prison population in the U.S., increasing by over 700% since 1977, to 98,600 at the end of 2005. Drug law violations now account for nearly one-third of incarcerated women, compared to one-fifth of men Cities across the country have experienced a rise in violent crime and must prioritize scarce law enforcement resources, yet the nation's police arrested a record 786,545 individuals on marijuana related charges in 2005 - almost 90% for simple possession alone - far exceeding the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined JUNE 2007  FOR CANDIDATES APRIL 2007 STUDY CALLS BRITISH WAR ON DRUGS A FAILURE OBSERVER, UK - Government attempts to persuade thousands of young people to stay away from drugs have failed and done nothing to curb the soaring popularity of illegal substances, a devastating report will warn this week. The number of young people using cocaine and cannabis has increased rapidly over the past 20 years despite high-profile campaigns. . . according to an in-depth examination of official efforts to tackle Britain's chronic drug problem. It is also expected to claim that Britain's 'unusually severe drug problem compared with that of our European neighbors' is linked to social and economic deprivation, that punitive laws have had little effect and that police efforts to disrupt the drugs trade have also failed. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2057565,00.html MARCH 2007 BRITISH STUDY CALLS FOR MASSIVE CHANGE IN DRUG LAWS TIME - Britain's drug policy has failed and should be replaced with a system that recognizes drinking and smoking can cause more harm than some illegal drugs, according to an independent study published Thursday. Shifting the focus of drug education to primary school children from secondary students and the establishment of "shooting galleries" - rooms where users can inject drugs - are among the recommendations of a two-year study into drug policy and alternative solutions by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, or RSA. FEBRUARY 2007 TOP BRITISH POLICE OFFICER CALLS FOR PRESCRIBING HEROIN FOR ADDICTS JASON BENNETTO, INDEPENDENT, UK - Heroin should be prescribed to long-term addicts to prevent them from committing crimes to feed their habits, the head of Britain's police chiefs has suggested. Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, also admitted that current policing tactics are failing to combat a "hardcore minority" of heroin addicts. He called for a political consensus on the issue of heroin prescription on the NHS, and a more "realistic" approach to tackling long-term drug abuse. Mr Jones argued that by prescribing heroin the police would be able significantly to reduce overall crime and prevent deaths from overdoses. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2283951.ece JANUARY 2007 THE HIGHEST CITIES DONNA LEINWAND, USA TODAY - The San Francisco metropolitan area has a higher percentage of people who are regular drug users than any other major metropolitan area in the USA, a study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found. Nearly 13% of San Francisco residents reported using some type of illicit drug, such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin, in the previous month, according to data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health 2002-05. The national average is 8.1%. Other areas with drug-abuse rates higher than the national average included Seattle, 9.6%; Detroit, 9.5%; Philadelphia, 9.1%; and Boston, 8.5%. Cities with the lowest drug use: Houston, 6.2%; and Washington, Dallas and Riverside/San Bernardino, Calif., all at 6.5%. . . SAFER THAN ITS MOST POLICED CITY  Since San Francisco is the city with the greatest illicit drug use and DC is one of those with the least (but the most cops), we thought we'd check and see how the war on drugs was keeping us safe. Turns out that in 5 of 7 categories of crime - including all categories of violent crime - it was safer to be living around those awful Frisco druggies. [ Area Connect chart ]  NOVEMBER 2006 STUDY FINDS POT NOT A GATEWAY DRUG GREEN STATE PROJECT - Marijuana is not a "gateway" drug that predicts or eventually leads to substance abuse, suggests a 12-year University of Pittsburgh study. Moreover, the study's findings call into question the long-held belief that has shaped prevention efforts and governmental policy for six decades and caused many a parent to panic upon discovering a bag of pot in their child's bedroom. . . The Pitt researchers tracked 214 boys beginning at ages 10-12, all of whom eventually used either legal or illegal drugs. When the boys reached age 22, they were categorized into three groups: those who used only alcohol or tobacco, those who started with alcohol and tobacco and then used marijuana (gateway sequence) and those who used marijuana prior to alcohol or tobacco (reverse sequence). Nearly a quarter of the study population who used both legal and illegal drugs at some point - 28 boys - exhibited the reverse pattern of using marijuana prior to alcohol or tobacco, and those individuals were no more likely to develop a substance use disorder than those who followed the traditional succession of alcohol and tobacco before illegal drugs, according to the study, which appears in this month's issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. . . While the gateway theory posits that each type of drug is associated with certain specific risk factors that cause the use of subsequent drugs, such as cigarettes or alcohol leading to marijuana, this study's findings indicate that environmental aspects have stronger influence on which type of substance is used. That is, if it's easier for a teen to get his hands on marijuana than beer, then he'll be more likely to smoke pot. This evidence supports what's known as the common liability model, an emerging theory that states the likelihood that someone will transition to the use of illegal drugs is determined not by the preceding use of a particular drug but instead by the user's individual tendencies and environmental circumstances. BLUE RIBBON CANADIAN BOARD SUGGESTS EITHER LEGALIZE DRUGS OR LAUNCH ALL-OUT WAR AGAINST THEM DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - A very establishment advisory group to British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell has advised the Liberal leader that if he wants to deal with crime and illegal drugs in the province, he has two starkly contrasting choices: legalize it, or unleash an all-out drug war. . . The BC Progress Board is a group of 18 businessmen and academics selected by the provincial government to provide advice on economic and social issues. . . The board identified illegal drug use and the drug trade as one of four motors driving crime in the province. The others were deficient child rearing and services, mental illness, and the "impoverished and unstable lifestyles" of many people living in inner urban areas. In its second recommendation to Premier Campbell, the board said that "the provincial government must address the problem of the illegal trade in drugs in a clear and consistent manner." The first option it listed was to "lobby the federal government to legalize the trade, perhaps limiting access to products to adults in the same way that access to alcohol and tobacco is limited." That would allow the government to treat drug use and abuse as public health -- not criminal justice -- problems and would allow the government to obtain revenue from taxing the sales of drugs. But the BC Progress Board was careful to note that it was not endorsing drug legalization, merely providing options for the provincial government. The board's second recommendation on drug policy made that perfectly clear. . . BRITISH HEALTH SERVICE TO GIVE HEROIN TO ADDICTS GUARDIAN WRAP - A Home Office trial is permitting up to 400 addicts to take the drug at two supervised clinics, one in Camberwell, south London, and the other in Darlington, Durham. Howard Roberts, deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire police, argued that it was cheaper to give heroin addicts the drug in the long term to curb thefts. An average heroin addict steals property worth GBP45,000 a year; giving the addicts drugs in the trial costs GBP15,000 a year. . . Meanwhile yesterday, the government's chief scientific adviser on science, Professor David Nutt, proposed that ecstasy and LSD should be downgraded to Class B drugs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,1954762,00.html 45,000 CITIZENS IN PRISON FOR USING DRUG WEAKER THAN CIGARETTES OR VODKA NORML - Nearly one in eight drug prisoners in America are behind bars for marijuana-related offenses, according to data released by the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. The BJS study reports that 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses. There are now approximately 33,655 state inmates and 10,785 federal inmates incarcerated for marijuana offenses. The BJS report did not provide specific data on what percentage of US prisoners were serving times for marijuana possession crimes versus marijuana cultivation and/or trafficking. The BJS failed to include estimates on the percentage of inmates incarcerated in county jails for cannabis-related offenses. A previous BJS report based on 1997 data indicated that in 1999 approximately 39,000 US prisoners were serving time for pot violations. A 2005 study by the Sentencing Project think-tank in Washington, DC suggested that approximately 68,500 Americans are either incarcerated or on probation for marijuana-related offenses. According to data compiled by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and released in September, nearly 787,000 Americans were arrested for violating marijuana laws in 2005, the highest annual total ever recorded. Among those arrested, approximately 88 percent -- ­some 696,074 - Americans ­ were charged with marijuana possession only. Norml.org MAY 2006 ANOTHER WAY THE DRUG WAR KILLS DAVID BORDEN, DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - Often people object to drug legalization, at least for drugs other than marijuana, because, as they say, "drugs kill." It's true that drug abuse or even experimental use of illegal drugs can be deadly. But the phenomenon is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. A rash of overdose deaths in cities as wide-ranging as Atlanta and New York and Chicago makes the point. Fentanyl, a synthetic opiate that is 80 times as potent as morphine, has hit the streets, either mixed in with heroin or sold as heroin. Not realizing this, users have taken what they thought was the heroin they were used to, instead getting something massively more potent. More than 20 people have died from fatal overdoses in a fentanyl outbreak in Detroit since this weekend alone -- deaths that might have been prevented, advocates and family of victims have pointed out -- if the word had been spread as would have been done if a single bird flu case had cropped up. Instead, it took this week's dramatic tragedy to finally spur authorities into action. The fentanyl situation is clearly a consequence of drug prohibition, something that would virtually never happen under a system of regulation. Not surprisingly, this angle has been essentially absent from the media's discussion of the incidents. It's time for the media and for opinion leaders to acknowledge the consequences of prohibition as such. Until they do, the drug debate will continue to languish in its current, highly simplistic state. Baltimore's former mayor, Kurt Schmoke, recognized this and attempted to educate the public on the nuances of the drug issue. Schmoke pointed out that what is commonly viewed as the "drug problem" is really three separate problems: crime, addiction, and AIDS. Crime, he said, arguably calls for a health-based approach, but addiction and AIDS clearly call for public health approaches. Thousands of Americans die from drug overdoses every year -- the recent rash of them in some cities is only a particularly gripping case of this. While legalization might not prevent all such overdoses, the fentanyl outbreak shows how prohibition makes overdoses much more likely. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/437/makingsure.shtml THE LOW PRICE OF DECRIMINALIZING DRUGS STEVE CHAPMAN, CHICAGO TRIBUNE - Recently, Mexican President Vicente Fox vetoed a bill passed by the Mexican Congress that would have removed criminal penalties for people caught with small amounts of marijuana or other drugs. This came after the Bush administration vigorously complained, predicting it would encourage Americans to pour southward as "drug tourists." But that option is off the table for the moment. So Americans who want to get high without fear of going to jail will have to go some other place where cannabis can be consumed with impunity. Such as Nebraska. As it happens, no fewer than 11 states on this side of the border have made the decision not to bother filling their prisons with recreational potheads. Among them are not only such states as California and Oregon, which you might expect, but states such as North Carolina and Mississippi, which you might not. About 100 million Americans live in places where pot has been decriminalized. POT FOUND NOT TO DAMAGE DEVELOPING BRAIN NORML - Moderate-to-heavy adolescent cannabis use does not appear to be damaging to the developing brain, according to clinical trial data published this week in the Harm Reduction Journal. Researchers at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and the New York University School of Medicine found "no ... evidence of cerebral atrophy or loss of white matter integrity" attributable to cannabis use in the brains of frequent adolescent marijuana users compared to non-using controls, after performing magnetic resonance imaging scans and other advanced imaging technology. "It is concluded that frequent cannabis use is unlikely to be neurotoxic to the normal developing adolescent brain," researchers determined. Investigators further added that their findings, though preliminary, "have implications for refuting the hypothesis that cannabis alone can cause psychiatric disturbance such as schizophrenia by directly producing brain pathology." http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/3/1/17 Why do we have the war on drugs, anyway? The angry American reaction to Canada's move towards sanity on drug laws raises a question that is seldom asked, let alone studied by academics or the media. Given that the drug war has been a demonstrable failure why does it continue to be so strongly supported by the American political and legal establishment? One reason that few want to touch is corruption, in both the moral and legal sense, which is to say the corruption that comes from political pressure - with its rewards and punishments - and the corruption that comes from hard cash. For example, the Drug Policy Alliance notes that the war on drugs includes a $9 billion prison economy, not to mention more billions in homeless shelters, healthcare, chemical dependency and psychiatric treatment, etc. Each one of these industries - as well as the employment of cops, judges, probation officers, etc - would be severely hurt should America decide to give up its war on drugs. This doesn't justify the madness but it is important to remember that we have created a multi-billion dollar economy based on our failed drug policies. Notes DPA, the beneficiaries of the drug war include: "Prison architects and contractors, corrections personnel, policy makers and academics, and the thousands of corporate vendors who peddle their wares at the annual trade-show of the American Corrections Association - hawking everything from toothbrushes and socks to barbed-wire fences and shackles. "And multi-national corporations that win tax subsidies, incentives and abatements from local governments -- robbing the public coffers and depriving communities of the kind of quality education, roads, health care and infrastructure that provide genuine incentives for legitimate business. The sale of tax-exempt bonds to underwrite prison construction is now estimated at $2.3 billion annually. . . "Corporations that appear to be far removed from the business of punishment are intimately involved in the expansion of the prison industrial complex. Prison construction bonds are one of the many sources of profitable investment for leading financiers such as Merrill Lynch. MCI charges prisoners and their families outrageous prices for the precious telephone calls which are often the only contact inmates have with the free world. Many corporations whose products we consume on a daily basis have learned that prison labor power can be as profitable as third world labor power exploited by U.S.-based global corporations. Both relegate formerly unionized workers to joblessness, many of which wind up in prison. Some of the companies that use prison labor are IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, and Boeing. But it is not only the hi-tech industries that reap the profits of prison labor. Nordstrom department stores sell jeans that are marketed as 'Prison Blues,' as well as t-shirts and jackets made in Oregon prisons." Far more serious, however, is the role that illegal corruption plays. If one is to believe the media and scholars, it would appear that the drug industry - by UN estimate a $400 billion global business - is the only commercial sector in the country that doesn't buy politicians. In other words, the drug trade is the only honest trade when it comes to politics. Of course this is nonsense, but try to find the news story that even raises the possibility that some, if not many, of our politicians are beneficiaries of the drug trade either directly or through well laundered sources. To be sure, there are periodic reports of cops on the take, but any suggestion of political involvement is absent. Further, the collateral beneficiaries of the drug trade - of which money-laundering banks would be a prime example - are exempt from examination as well, unless their misdoings occurred in some foreign land like Mexico or Colombia. To cover such a story is exceedingly difficult and rarely rewarding. When the Review tried to report some of the connections between Bill Clinton and the Arkansas drug trade we discovered that even many journalists just didn't want to hear about it. It was so much easier to describe the story as "just about sex," one of the biggest media myths of the 20th century. Mike Rupert, a detective turned writer, gives one example of the stories begging to be covered with the same energy as, say, the misdeeds of Jason Blair. In an interview, he was asked, "Who benefits most from an addicted inner-city population?" Rupert's reply: "It's not just who benefits most; it's how many people can benefit on how many different ends of the spectrum. We published a story in my newsletter, From The Wilderness, by Catherine Austin Fitts, a former Assistant Secretary of Housing [and Urban Development]. She produced a map in 1996, August of 1996 - that's the same month that the Gary Webb story broke in the San Jose Mercury News. It was a map that showed the pattern of single family foreclosures or single family mortgages - HUD-backed mortgages - in South Central Los Angeles. But when you looked at the map all of these HUD foreclosures, they were right in the heart of the area where the crack cocaine epidemic had occurred. And what was revealed by looking at the HUD data was that, during the 1980s, thousands of middle-class African American wage-earning families with mortgages lost their homes. Why? There were drive-by shootings, the whole neighborhood deteriorated, crack people moved in next door, your children got shot and went to jail and you had to move out. The house on which you owed $100,000 just got appraised at $40,000 because nobody wanted to buy it and you had to flee; you couldn't sell it, so you walked on it. And what Catherine's research showed was that someone else came along and bought thousands of homes for 10 to 20 cents in the dollar in the years right after the crack cocaine epidemic." HUD, easily the second most corrupt government agency next to the Pentagon, is an extraordinarily comfortable ecosystem for would-be collateral beneficiaries of the drug war, but these days it's hard even to get the legal things at HUD covered in the press. There is, of course, a rousing business in corruption at the lower levels. For example, Drug Facts reports that half of all police officers convicted as a result of FBI-led corruption cases between 1993 and 1997 were caught for drug-related offenses. But far more significant corruption remains buried. One way to get a hint of how the drug trade may have corrupted our political system is to look at other countries. For example, the UN Drug Control Program reported in 1998, "In systems where a member of the legislature or judiciary, earning only a modest income, can easily gain the equivalent of some 20 months' salary from a trafficker by making one "favorable" decision, the dangers of corruption are obvious." An World Bank survey in 2002 found that bribes are paid in 50 per cent of all Colombia state contracts. Another World Bank report estimated the cost of corruption in Colombia at 60 per cent of the country's debt. Marijuana plays a central role in the cruel and corrupt fantasy game called the drug war because (a)so many people use it and (b)it takes up more space than other drugs. Thus there are plenty of criminals and stuff to go after to give the appearance you are actually doing something. In contrast, all the cocaine America needs in a year could be stuffed into a few 18 wheelers. You can't have a profitable war on drugs with such a tiny target. The war on drugs is, in fact, a war to sustain the drug industry and its collateral beneficiaries. America's drug czar is also the country's biggest drug lord, because without his phony battle, the artificial economy of prohibition would collapse and with it the industry he falsely claims to be fighting. While clearly, many of the drug warriors in politics and the law are driven by myopic, infantile evangelism, we must bear in mind that for many others, fighting drugs is as much as business as dealing them, a cash business never reported to the IRS. It is long past time to discover who amongst our leaders are merely stupid and who are themselves drug war criminals. |
