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The Arrogance of Power...

Drug Czar Defies Nevada Election Officials
Refuses to Disclose Money Spent Against Marijuana Initiative
JANUARY 28, 2003 - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- White House "Drug Czar" John Walters today refused to report how much money he spent campaigning against question 9, Nevada's November 2002 marijuana initiative. Walters' refusal came in response to a written request from Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller that he explain his failure to file campaign finance reports as required by Nevada law. In a Jan. 27 letter to Heller, Walters' office claimed he was "immune" from Nevada's campaign finance law "as a federal officer acting within the scope of duties, including speaking out about the dangers of illegal drugs." Heller's Jan. 14 letter to Walters, issued in response to a complaint filed by the Marijuana Policy Project, reminded Walters that Nevada statutes require "the reporting of contributions and expenses for every person or group of persons organized formally or informally who advocates the passage or defeat of a question or group of questions on the ballot at any election."

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 10:58 AM

 

And now for a little tongue-in-cheekiness...
Crank Hypocrisy - Government's two-faced message on speed
By Joel Miller - Reason Online
When it comes to the government and its war on drugs, sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left is peddling. This is especially true regarding the use of amphetamines. From the Drug Enforcement Agency we hear that speed can lead to "addiction, psychotic behavior, and brain damage...Chronic use can cause violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, insomnia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, delusions, and paranoia." Sounds like terrible stuff, right? Not if you listen to the U.S. Air Force. As it happens, American flyboys are given dextroamphetamine—a drug the DEA compares to methamphetamine and which military personnel affectionately refer to as "go pills"—to help them fight battle fatigue and stay knife-edge sharp during their long and difficult shifts. During the war in Afghanistan, "Pilots were allowed to 'self-regulate' their own doses and kept the drugs in their cockpits," reported the unfortunately named Andrew Buncombe for the London Independent. "When they returned, doctors gave them sedatives or 'no-go pills' to help them sleep. Pilots who refused to take the drugs could be banned from taking part in a mission." All well and good—use was so uneventful that most Americans were probably unaware that our airmen were popping pills more potent than aspirin. But then came the event.

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 10:45 AM

 

Amphetamines Cited in U.S. Bombing That Killed Canadians in Afghanistan
U.S. pilots who mistakenly dropped a bomb that killed four Canadians in Afghanistan had been issued amphetamines before the mission to stay awake . . . The Air Force-issued ``go pills'' may have impaired the pilots' judgment, said David Beck, lawyer for Maj. William Umbach. He also said the pilots were given antidepressants upon returning from their mission. . . . Beck said Tuesday that the Air Force issues amphetamines to help pilots stay awake during long missions. . . . ``The Air Force has a problem. They have administered `go pills' to soldiers that the manufacturers have stated affect performance and judgment,'' Beck said. . . . Among the expected witnesses is Col. David Nichols, the pilots' commander, who warned his superiors months before the accident that communications problems would eventually cause ``friendly fire'' deaths of allied troops, according to Beck.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 1:33 PM

 

Prosecutors Enlist in Drug Czar's Anti-Marijuana Campaign -- Will Prioritize Marijuana Cases, Lobby Against Reform
The drug czar's Office of National Drug Control Policy (http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov) has teamed up with the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) as part of its escalating war on marijuana. In letters sent to every prosecutor in the country on November 1, NDAA president Dan Alsobrooks and the drug czar's Deputy Director for State and Local Affairs, Scott Burns, hoisted the battle flag against pot, signaling prosecutors that they should make the prosecution of marijuana crimes a high priority and urging them to fight efforts to reform the drug laws. . . . the push against marijuana brushes right up against the line separating law enforcement from lobbying. While Alsobrooks, in his cover letter, attempted to portray the push as a matter of public safety, he also made it clear that the effort was inspired by attempts to reform the marijuana laws. "Attempts to legalize or criminalize controlled substances, and particularly marijuana, are springing up around the country," Alsobrooks warned: We can, and have stopped their efforts at the national level, but will lose all if the states yield individually." Writing that the drug czar's office had asked NDAA to aid in its battle against marijuana, Alsobrooks urged prosecutors to read Burns' letter containing "important information about marijuana" and to "consider ways that you can bring this message to your communities." . . . "The truth is that marijuana legalization would be a nightmare for America," Burns warned, using suspect numbers to suggest that Dutch coffee shop policies led to a huge increase in teen marijuana use. But as Dr. Peter Reuter has shown in his book, "Drug War Heresies," the increase in Dutch teen marijuana use occurred only a decade after the Dutch began tolerating marijuana sales, when a wave of commercialization swept the coffeehouse industry. And as Reuters pointed out, Dutch teenage use levels remain lower than in the US. . . . The drug czar and his boss, President George W. Bush, are deadly serious as they fight what they fear is a losing battle against reform. They are seeking allies in powerful positions. And they are willing to resort to lies, misinformation, disinformation and distortion to do so. This isn't your father's drug war.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 8:26 AM

 

The Road to Mérida: Interviews with Participants in the "Out from the Shadows" Campaign
One of the goals of the "Out from the Shadows" conference series is to elevate the voices of anti-prohibitionist advocates throughout the world. Out from the Shadows Mérida will feature a wide array of impressive and knowledgeable leaders from Latin America, and over the next several weeks we will be interviewing them and other Out from the Shadows participants for the Week Online. . . . Are we fighting drugs? they asked. I told them the DEA is effectively the most powerful cartel in the world. The United States is the great drug consumer, and the DEA only persecutes those whom it doesn't control. We know how the drugs flow north, and we know this war on drugs is a farce. And we know that the government of the US tells the government of Mexico -- all the governments of Latin America -- what to do. . . . Menéndez: I believe we should legalize and depenalize drug consumption and the drug trade. That is how we reduce the violence and corruption of those huge black market profits; that is how we reduce the robbing and killing by addicts who need to buy their drugs. But legalization must be accompanied by a strong campaign of education and prevention and rehabilitation for addicts. But even when we educate people about the dangers of drug consumption, we violate their rights if we forbid them from using drugs. Just as an alcoholic can drink without fear of persecution, so it should be for drug users. . . . But this is a $600 billion a year business and too many people profit from things they way they are. That is why I say the war on drugs is a big fake, a simulation to fool the people. The drug war will continue with all the suffering it brings. And you have so many people in prison up there! And now you can't afford to keep them there. Now you have to choose: More schools or more prisons? What a stupid question. Education is the key to human freedom, not more prisons. . . . Malamud-Goti: I had been challenging the drug war from a political philosophical standpoint, and I realized that a philosophical approach was not working. So I looked for something empirical. I found that drug repression in Bolivia has been lethal and destructive, and its results paradoxical. The criminal law is used to repress deviants, but when you have something as high-yielding as coca in Bolivia, the criminal law is powerless to stop it. So the Bolivian and US governments -- the US funds most Bolivian anti-drug activities -- try to repress coca and they create the paradox of a powerful mass movement, a political opposition. Evo Morales [leader of the Chapare coca growers' federation] is a national hero now and a powerful political figure. I don't think that is what the drug war anticipated. . . . Then there is the paradox of competing anti-drug agencies. You would think the more drug fighters, the more efficient the drug war, right? In Bolivia, while the DEA was supervising the repression of coca, the CIA was profiting off drug laboratories and using the proceeds to hire Argentine and other Latin American military officers to teach the Contras all those lessons they learned in the dirty war.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 7:54 AM

 

The Coming Canadian Drug Revolution
(Alejandro Bustos, Narco News, January 14, 2003)
By the spring of 2003, possessing or cultivating up to 30 grams (1.1 ounces) of marijuana may no longer be a crime in Canada. . . . At least that’s what Martin Cauchon, Canada’s justice minister, is telling Canadians. . . . The comment by the justice minister prompted Canada’s Supreme Court to delay the hearing of a case challenging Canada’s marijuana laws. . . . The move to decriminalize marijuana follows a remarkable serious of events in Canada over the last four months. . . . In September, a Canadian Senate committee advocated legalizing marijuana. . . . A few days after publicly supporting safe injection sites, the same House of Commons committee co-chaired by Torsney called for the decriminalization of the possession and cultivation of up to 30 grams of marijuana for personal use. . . . The influential national newspaper the Globe and Mail, however, praised the move to decriminalize possession of marijuana. Other newspaper like the Ottawa Citizen, meanwhile, have been advocating for an end to the current war on drugs for years. . . . Roger Grimes, the premier of Newfoundland, has called on Ottawa to move beyond decriminalization and to push for full-out legalization of marijuana.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 7:36 AM