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Drug War Continues Targeting African Americans
The U.S. government now denies low interest education loans to persons with drug offenses but not persons who have committed violent felonies. (NY Times Thursday, May 3, 2001, “Students Find Drug Law Has Big Price: College Aid.”)
“Others complain that the law is biased against the poor, who rely on the aid, and blacks, who make up a disproportionate percentage of those arrested on drug charges. While about 13 percent of the people taking illicit drugs are black, the same as their proportion in the general population, blacks represent 55 percent of the drug convictions. . . . There’s every reason to believe there will be some racial disparity in the way this law operates.” [Comment: Among all the other problems it is causing, the War on Drugs is also providing another way for racists to deny equal education benefits to all.]

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 1:07 PM

 

Better Living Through Fumigation
(Kevin Nelson, Alternet.org, August 14, 2001)
The New York Times reports: A Colombian judge ruled Monday that the U.S.-backed fumigation of drug crops could resume in Indian lands in the Amazon. . . . Gen. Gustavo Socha, chief of the Colombian anti-narcotic police, said Monday's ruling affirmed the government's claim that the fumigation flights are not harmful. "They don't cause any harm to the health of people or the environment," Socha said. U.S. officials say the herbicide, manufactured by the U.S. company Monsanto and sold as common weedkiller under the name "Roundup," is safe.
[Comment: First of all, note that the judge OKed spraying on Indian lands, not on the property of whites. Also note the "Roundup is safe" comment. Yesterday on NPR a U.S. Congressman said the same thing citing the fact that "after a rain it is all gone." . . . What morons they are. Where do they think these toxic chemicals "go" after a rain?]
British chemical company ICI has pulled out of Plan Colombia's controversial fumigation campaign. The firm was supplying ingredients for toxic chemicals used in the U.S.-funded aerial spraying of coca-growing regions, but abandoned the scheme amid health concerns. Local hospitals in the Putumayo region, where the coca fumigation is taking place, have reported increases in skin rashes, diarrhea and stomach aches.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 12:55 PM

 

Erowid Library : 'Stairways to Heaven'
Fuller now looks more broadly at how Americans have looked to a host of drugs to open vistas to the Sacred and cement bonds with fellow seekers. . . . Stairways to Heaven presents a virtually psychedelic panorama of drug use in American religion past and present. Fuller shows that pharmacological and oenological religion, whether viewed as angelic or demonic, has not been a mere curiosity, but a frequent sidebar to American faith. while aspects of this story have been studied before, particularly in relation to William James, Aldous Huxley, and the drop-out, turn-on Sixties, this book gives the big picture and shows the connections. . . . The author explores the broader cultural contexts that influence the meaning and significance of both legal and illegal drugs such as peyote, jimson weed, hallucinogenic mushrooms, LSD, marijuana, wine, and coffee, which have stimulated ecstatic revelations of spiritual truth in the search for ecstasy. Plants covered in this treatment in communities of faith have been transformed into occasional spiritual and mystical experiences to permit momentary transcendence of our normal range of mental and emotional powers, allowing individuals to step outside the confines of their physical sense. A major addition to any library!

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 8:38 PM

 

Don't Do Drug Ads
(Cynthia Cotts, Village Voice, May 22, 2002)
U.S. drug czar John Walters announced a survey that shows the government's anti-drug ads have completely failed to slow down teen drug use. Over the past five years, the feds spent $929 million to spread the message, and what did they get? . . . This is a big story, one of many recent signs that the drug war is a failure. . . . Forbes exposed a clever scheme used by the government to encourage newspapers, magazines, and TV networks to support the drug war. If a media company agreed to incorporate anti-drug messages into its original content, the government offered financial credit, thus reducing the amount of advertising a participating company was required to provide. The feds were so keen on crafting the message, Forbes reported, that some networks submitted their scripts for advance approval. The Washington Post later revealed that the Times, the Post, and USA Today received $893,000 in financial credits from the drug czar's office, a/k/a the Office of National Drug Control Policy. . . . The Partnership has stopped taking tobacco and alcohol money, but it still accepts donations from pharmaceutical companies. According to the group's 1999 annual report, donors include the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Du Pont, Hoffmann-LaRoche, and the Pfizer Foundation. (Message to kids: Marijuana is bad. Codeine, Valium, and Viagra are good.) . . . For more proof that the U.S. drug war isn't working, just look to Europe. In March, a British government agency recommended reducing the criminal penalties for marijuana possession, because the drug "is not associated with major health problems." Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Luxembourg have recently decriminalized possession and use of most drugs.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 3:57 PM

 

Son Turns in Father for Growing Cannabis
(Dan Savage, Alternet.org, May 17, 2002)
There's so much wrong with the story of the Covington teenager who turned in his dad for growing pot that I hardly know where to begin. . . . If the police praise a teenager for turning in his parent, then turning in your parents for having pot in the house is praiseworthy. The mainstream media is terrified of deviating from the drug war script, but is it too much to ask the mainstream media to get its facts straight? . . . We were constantly told how bad it was in the Soviet Union," said Stroup, "and one of the things that was so awful about the Soviet Union was that Soviet kids were encouraged to report their parents to the police. A police officer was quoted in regards to the Covington story saying that the kid 'did the right thing.' Similar things were no doubt said about children in the Soviet Union who got their parents arrested. The result is, you've got a single father locked up, and a family fractured forever. It's hard to imagine why this should be the case. Who's been helped by this?" . . . "People who are good parents--good parents who happen to smoke marijuana--have lost custody of their children. Families have been torn apart." . . . The only trouble with the United States' war on pot is that pot is neither addictive nor dangerous . . . There were other options. But you called the cops, turned in your dad, and then watched as cops burst into your home, tore the place apart, and hauled your father--and your 15-year-old sister's father, and your seven-year-old brother's father--away. Your dad was a single parent; while you're old enough to be on your own, your seven-year-old brother isn't. So you not only forever fucked your relationship with your father, but you may have fucked your siblings out of a father. Nice work, Trev. Maybe the DARE people will send you a T-shirt.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 9:42 AM

 

Bush Medical Marijuana Policy 'Not Compassionate'; Activists, Local Governments and Patients Fighting Back
BERKELEY, Calif., May 8 /U.S. Newswire/ - A summary judgment last week stated that California medical marijuana dispensaries have no Federal constitutional right to distribute the drug to seriously ill people. The decision is the latest in an accelerating crack down by the Bush Administration on state-approved marijuana cooperatives in California and other states. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted the government's motion for a summary judgment and defendants have until May 24, 2002 to respond. Judge Breyer will make a final ruling on June 7, 2002 on the case. Tired of living in terror of the Bush Administration, grassroots activists across the country are looking for new ways to help patients, even if that means pushing distribution networks underground, while others will focus on civil disobedience at Drug Enforcement Administration or other Federal offices throughout the country.

. . . Read more!


posted by West 6:30 PM

 

Canadian marijuana reform concern to U.S.
(Cannada.com, May 13, 2002)
Who would have thought you'd live long enough to see this. Hearings by Canadian parliamentarians into legalizing marijuana. . . . The Senate committee concludes there is no convincing evidence that smoking pot leads to using harder drugs. . . . It says marijuana use does not induce users to commit other crimes, or engage in risky activity such as driving quickly. . . . Canada’s willingness to allow people to use marijuana for medical purposes, also seems to have raised the ire of the U.S. in a significant way. We’ve learned tonight that its drug czar is pressuring Canadian authorities not to loosen Canadian law and he's carrying a very big stick -- threatening trade sanctions if we don't do what he wants. . . . there are 15 to 20,000 marijuana growing operations in British Columbia alone and 95 per cent of the output is headed south. . . . The U.S. is closely watching the Canadian marijuana debate and is working behind the scenes to influence the outcome.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 1:12 PM