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You Can't Win the Drug War if Alcohol is Legal

Did you hear about this wild booze riot in Michigan? The massive unruly crowd hurled bottles at the cops, who had to launch tear gas grenades just to break the thing up. Pete Guither observed hilariously that no one ever throws bongs and rolling papers at police. He's right, they don't.

Advocates for drug policy reform are fond of pointing out the hypocrisy of permitting limitless consumption of riot-inducing alcohol, while banning silly things like marijuana that make people draw pictures or eat nachos. And that's a legitimate point to make, as far as it goes. But it is rarely observed that the legality of alcohol, by its very nature, plays an important role in undermining other drug enforcement efforts.

For decades, illicit drug users have found cover amidst throngs of raging drunks. Alcohol is just stronger than most other recreational drugs. A decent percentage of alcohol users can just be counted on to go berserk at their preferred dosage, leading to screaming, fighting, vandalism, clumsy sex, and so on. It's not just stupid to arrest pot smokers in the midst of all this, it's impossible.

The pot smokers are the ones that get away when a party is raided. They're the ones chatting at a table in the corner while your drunk girlfriend is dancing on the bar. They're the ones that get home without incident on a Saturday night. You'll never find them puking or punching each other, so you'd better test their urine or catch 'em in a cloud of smoke, otherwise you'll never know what's up.

It's not a crime to be wasted as long as you found your buzz in a bottle not a bag, thus police have no authority to act simply because everyone in your house looks messed up. Instead, drug arrests happen primarily through the intrusive and time-consuming methods of sting operations and widespread consent searches. You can put bodies behind bars this way, but not nearly enough to win the war.

As long as it remains legal to get utterly obliterated on booze, the enforcement of other drug laws won't just look stupid and hypocritical. It won't even work.
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You Have My Permission to Name a Marijuana Strain After Me

I know, I'm a D-list pot celebrity at best, but at least I won't throw a raging hissy fit:
Tom Cruise's attorneys are looking to take legal action over a new strain of medical marijuana that has been put on the market under the star's name.

The "Tom Cruise Purple" brand, which features a picture of the actor laughing on the vials, is currently being sold in licensed marijuana clubs in Northern California. [sfgate.com]
Thanks to Prop. 215, it might even be possible to sue in California courts for trademark infringement over the name of a marijuana strain. But all you can really do is go after the clubs offering it, which can in turn just change the name to something else like TCP. Regardless, if Tom Cruise really wanted to screw these people, he would have been well advised to keep his mouth shut rather than make the strain famous by complaining about it.

Until all of this plays itself out, aspiring marijuana breeders should just name their strains after me, which I assure you is totally ok. Call it "Scotty Mo Skunk" or something like that. I won't complain unless it sucks.
In The Trenches

4:20 Drug War News Update: 04/07/08

NOTE: Updates will be back on track on April 10th. Drug Truth Network Update: 4:20 Drug War NEWS from 90.1 FM in Houston and dozens of radio affiliates in the US and Canada & on the web at www.kpft.org. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates in the US and Canada. 4:20 Drug War NEWS 04/07/08 to 04/13/08 now online (3:00 ea:) Select online at www.drugtruth.net Sun - Aaron Smith of Marijuana Policy Project at Cannabis Convention Sat - Dr. Michael Aldrich at Cannabis Therapeutics Convention 2/2 Fri - Dr. Michael Aldrich at Cannabis Therapeutics Convention Thu - Becky Decaraster - Berkeley Patients Group at Cannabis Conference Wed - Jeff Jones at International Cannabis Therapeutics Conference 2 of 2 Tue - Jeff Jones at International Cannabis Therapeutics Conference 1 of 2 Mon - Don Duncan of Americans for Safe Access Next - Century of Lies on Tues, Cutural Baggage on Wed (Now With Transcripts): - Cultural Baggage 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT & 9:30 AM PT: TBD - Century of Lies 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT & 9:30 AM PT: TBD Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and at www.radio4all.net. Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker: Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Prohibition is evil." - Reverend Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network Producer Dean Becker 713-849-6869 www.drugtruth.net
In The Trenches

LEAP on the Hill: Stories from Week of March 28, 2008

[Courtesy of LEAP] My better half said: Yet another conversation in the hallway starting with my hat, ended in the elevator, crowded with mostly female staffers. Blah, blah, blah (spoken quietly), then raising my voice so all would hear, …."When it comes to drugs, as my wife and better half said; the state, thru its police department, can not stop personal stupidity." There was a murmur, light chuckle, and all smiles as the door opened. Karen is indeed the author of the phrase, BTW (Ubrigens) Ask the Governor what she thinks: In meeting with a hard-core drug warrior office from Michigan this week, I employed my new line, ‘can your state afford the free federal money to arrest dealers, when, back home, the state might have to spend 60 million to build a new 500 bed prison to keep them @ 30,000 per year times xx years?’ It was a ‘Kodak’ moment to get the aide to admit that the office had not considered the ‘downstream,’ state costs of the ‘free’ fed money. As I suggested he have the Congressman call Governor Granholm (D-MI) and ask if she had money in her budget to house the extra dealers, he did not dismiss my idea. His facial expressions and other non-verbal language told me that I had punched the idea into his brain. A little Crown that night to celebrate and another small step on this long journey. PS: I was on the Hill a lot these past two weeks & thus the Stories are late. Congress was in recess and that is the best time to receive extra time with staffers. Apologies.
In The Trenches

HEMP MEDIA RELEASE: Police MardiGrass Invitation and Police Proper Ganders!

HIPPIES INVITE THE POLICE TO SMOKE THE PEACE PIPE and NIMBIN APRIL FOOLS DAY RAID, WAITING FOR THE TRUTH TO COME OUT “The last two evenings in Nimbin have seen mini convoys of up to six police cars cruising the deserted main street of Nimbin’s tiny village. The cost must be prohibitive but the propaganda to justify targeting Nimbin is the real joke”, said Michael Balderstone, Hemp Embassy President. “Instead of this waste of money we need Senior Police to join us at MardiGrass for sane discussion on alternative strategies for dealing with cannabis use. But will anyone take us, the users, seriously?” “It is not the Police’s fault, they are the meat in the sandwich, ’just doing their job’ so to speak, but we need their support in making legal changes, as has happened in the UK. Policing Nimbin with a National Party local MP has been costing a fortune for years, you’d think the Labor Party might be a fraction different.” “One option is a trial of a decriminalised supply of cannabis and at MardiGrass this year Dr. Alex Wodak from St. Vincents Hospital will be presenting a model for regulated and taxable cannabis supply. He will be supported by Paul Wilson, Professor of Criminology at Bond Uni. There are several working models overseas to consider and in the MardiGrass “Beyond Prohibition Forum’ we will have visitors from those countries to give us first hand accounts of how it works”. “We are especially inviting the law makers, the politicians, to come and hear these ideas borne of necessity out of desperation from worlds politicians rarely see. We also invite parents to the MardiGrass forums and it is worth remembering the Al Capone era in America ended when mothers marched against prohibition. Of course everyone is welcome, but we would especially love to see the gag taken off government employees like police and health professionals so they could join in the Forum”. At some point even the most hard headed must come round to seeing some merit in sitting down and talking a different approach to Nimbin’s unique situation. A few facts to consider please: A fast growing indigenous population in Nimbin would rather smoke yarndi, than get drunk. The local police would rather they did too! Dealing or stealing? Nimbin’s ‘refugee camp from the war on drugs’ sees all sorts of disadvantaged people finding their way here to ‘the last bus stop’ hoping to score a smoke, which is their favourite pain reliever. The catch is, they have little money and no land to grow their own so they join the growing throng of street “dealers” trying to catch the eye of someone visiting Nimbin to buy pot. They get a small cut, probably a smoke, for organising the deal. A huge risk just for a joint shows how desperate they are. It’s impossible for the police to bust all these people who rarely possess anything. Many backpackers come from countries where cannabis use is regulated. The current situation is teaching young people bad habits to say the least. No wonder disrespect is a boom industry. We notice young people in and out of jail lose their fear of it and even enjoy the gangster rap with police. Jail offers credibility in some cases, as well as study opportunities and a reliable bed and food. MardiGrass program details growing on www.nimbinmardigrass.com On April Fools Day the police ( with Lismore City Council inspectors} came with their media unit and supplied all the footage for channels Seven, Nine & Ten’s news stories that night, but the raid netted so little the story barely made it into the Sydney or Brisbane news. “The police media release announcing the raids came out at 11.41am. At 11.30 the search began in Nimbin. They arrived in riot gear, screaming and yelling like it was Nim Bin Ladin’s very own cave. They were in full battle dress and surrounded Nimbin’s two primary off the street (which is covered by cameras live to the copshop) tourist attractions, the Nimbin Museum and the HEMP Embassy, and cordoning them off for searches until well after the many school buses had unloaded. Hippies love their children and are angry about this insensitivity. Unable to answer back the battle dressed riot squad were fair pickings for some cheeky Nimbin kids who have grown up in a “criminalised cannabis culture”, other kids were shocked and scared at the show of force in their village. Many in the village think it is just anti-terrorist training on harmless hippies.” The pages and pages of Property Seizure Forms of what was confiscated in their raid is all tabled on www.hempembassy.net “Many of the items were not prohibited and will be returned when the police discover they are not illegal. Many of the food items were just that, with no cannabis in them.” “The cash collected, around five thousand dollars from so many sources was clearly no big deal. The Hemp Bar Activist’s Kiosk run by volunteers has no bank account but gets donations for drinks, etc. It apparently had ice cream containers full of ten and twenty cent coins. Perhaps this is the ‘large quantity of cash’ seized by police from our study of money listed on their Property Seizure forms.” “The eight arrests were in fact mostly Cannabis Cautions. We reckon five cautions for personal amounts, two small cannabis charges and one young Aboriginal male who was in breach of bail conditions by being in Nimbin. EIGHT ARRESTS! BIG DEAL!” “The five kilos of cannabis they claim to have seized was in fact mostly cookies making up the weight. FLOUR AND WATER! The “plants” they seized were in fact one tiny straggly male plant no one had noticed in the back yard of the HEMP Embassy! The cannabis ‘suppositories’, (ouch!), seized from the Hemp Bar we hear are tobacco plugs!” Further details of the raid with pictures and movies www.hempembassy.net Embassy… ph 02 6689 1842 ah 66897525
Event
In The Trenches

4-4-08 Just Say Know Weekly News

JUST SAY KNOW appreciates and commends the efforts of the drug policy reform organizations below and we thank them for their contributions to our drug policy reform work. Please visit their websites and support them to the best of your ability.

 

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is an international grassroots network of students who are concerned about the impact drug abuse has on our communities, but who also know that the War on Drugs is failing our generation and our society. SSDP mobilizes and empowers young people to participate in the political process, pushing for sensible policies to achieve a safer and more just future, while fighting back against counterproductive Drug War policies, particularly those that directly harm students and youth.

 

Stop the Drug War (DRCNet) calls for an end to drug prohibition (e.g. some form of legalization), and its replacement with some sensible framework in which drugs can be regulated and controlled instead. Founded in 1993 by executive director David Borden, DRCNet has from the beginning called unambiguously for an end to prohibition; we are the largest "full-purpose" national membership organization with a wide range of programs to hold that position.

 

Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States.

 

NORML: Since its founding in 1970, NORML has provided a voice in the public policy debate for those Americans who oppose marijuana prohibition and favor an end to the practice of arresting marijuana smokers. Email: [email protected]

 

Drug Truth Network is a media production organization, based at KPFT Radio Houston, TX. Cultural Baggage, hosted by Dean Becker, is the only nationally distributed radio program focused on discussing the war on drugs. Dean produces 9 radio shows each week about the harms of the drug war. Their shows are broadcast on more than 50 affiliates in the US and Canada. Call your favorite radio station and ask them to include these innovative radio programs.

 

SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation): SAFER is working with students, organizations and other individuals around the country and abroad to spread the message that marijuana is safer than alcohol and should be treated as such.

 

FULLY INFORMED JURY ASSOCIATION (FIJA): Click here to learn about a powerful tool most people don’t know about that can be used to shut down prosecution of non-violent “drug offenders” on a case by case basis. It’s called Juror Nullification.

 

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Just Say Know

Visit Our Web Site:

If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link:    http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home

If you’re using any other web browser use this link:    http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html

 

Please pass this message on to ALL your contacts and ask them to join our mailing list using the form on our website. THANK YOU! We never share email addresses from our mailing list with anyone.

 

Just Say Know works on your behalf toward drug policy reform, preserving and re-instating your legal rights. Since cannabis “offences” account for approximately half of all drug arrests, we believe taking away the ability of criminals to profit from cannabis will be an important initial step in drug policy reform. How? Just like it was done with alcohol, remove the prohibition and regulate legal adult use, especially the legal ability to grow your own. As soon as alcohol prohibition ended, the crime and violence caused by alcohol prohibition ended. The year alcohol prohibition was repealed violent crime fell by sixty five percent. Drug policy and enforcement tactics are out of control and removing your Constitutional rights at an alarming rate.

 

Your financial contributions are greatly appreciated. If you can afford it, please donate today. To make a donation reply to this message with “donation” in the subject line and an associate will contact you by return email. If you wish to remain anonymous you can. Donations of any size are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your consideration. Don’t hesitate to contact us by replying to this message, we appreciate your comments, questions and concerns. Together we will make a difference!

 

The drug war is being used as an excuse to remove your Constitutional rights, steal your property, waste 69 billion tax dollars per year and a long list of other harms to citizens and society. There’s a mountain of evidence supporting the need for policy reform that will make citizens, their families, their livelihood and their property more secure. The right; to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and other Constitutional rights have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.

 

Tell your friends about the "Enough is Enough" petition to stop the reckless overuse of SWAT tactics and save the lives of civilians and police alike. This petition is sponsored by: StoptheDrugWar.org Click here for details.

 

 

In The Trenches
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The Sentencing Project -- Disenfranchisement: News/Updates 4/3/08

[Courtesy of The Sentencing Project] Florida: Anniversary Restoration Reveals "Pile Up" One year ago, Florida changed its disenfranchisement policy for residents with felony records, but as fall elections get closer, nearly 96,000 citizens still await eligibility notice of rights restoration from the clemency board, according to the Wall Street Journal. Reporting on Florida's backlog of restoration requests, the Journal stated, "The fate of these votes is especially sensitive in Florida, where George W. Bush claimed the presidency by a mere 537 votes in 2000." Last April, the executive clemency board moved to restore voting rights to individuals convicted of non-violent offenses who have completed their prison term, probation and parole, and paid court fees and child support. Thus far, nearly 75,000 citizens' rights have been restored. Activists, however, say a whopping 400,000 people seeking eligibility to vote may have been rejected - with no explanation. As various churches across the state host informational sessions on the year-old change, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition rallied this week at the state Capitol to ask the Legislature to create a more efficient, paperless restoration process, the Associated Press reported. Kentucky: House Approves Disenfranchisement Amendment The Kentucky House approved a proposed constitutional amendment seeking to automatically restore the voting rights of most citizens with felony records the Associated Press reported. The bill, HB70, would allow for offenders to vote once their sentence is completed. The proposed change would not apply to those who committed such offenses as murder or a sex offense involving a minor. The bill must pass the Senate before making it onto the ballot for voters to ultimately decide. The Courier-Journal reported that the Louisville branch of the NAACP will distribute voter registration forms and information about applying for restoration of rights to churches and businesses to increase turnout during the May 20 primary election. Branch President Raoul Cunningham said even though it's too late for formerly incarcerated individuals to have voting rights restored before the April 21 registration deadline, there is time before the November general election to do so. National: A Case to Justify Voting in Prison David Schraub wrote an opinion piece entitled, "Should Prisoners Be Allowed to Vote," for The Moderate Voice which explores, in detail, the history and philosophy behind punishment and disenfranchisement. He wrote: "Allowing prisoners to vote would not give them any more opportunity or make it any more likely that they will commit more crimes. Indeed, if anything it may make it less likely: insofar as criminal activity is positively correlated with marginalization from general social practices, integrating people into socially mainstream acts (such as civic participation) should be a bulwark against recidivism. Deterrence, too, [is] inapplicable - I have trouble imagining the prospective criminal for whom prison is not a deterrent, but loss of voting privileges is." - - - - - - Help The Sentencing Project continue to bring you news and updates on disenfranchisement! Make a contribution today. Contact Information -- e-mail: [email protected], web: http://www.sentencingproject.org
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We can't even smoke tobacco

Friday's paper was full of stories about drug addicted babies.By Sunday,The Province editorial was about just that.On Friday,The doctor felt compelled to phone into the Vancouver media with a story from Prince George.I guess she was bored.She started out saying it was mostly crack and went right on into the use of morphine to bring heroin addicts children down.She threw in that they were getting better at seeing the signs of addiction in babies and that that might be part of the reason for the 10 fold increase in the last 10 years.It's obvious to me exactly why these mother's are ducking the health care system as it's often asking for help that results in these mothers having to fight child services to get their kids back.When you consider that a lot of the addicts on our streets are from the child welfare system.That is the very last place that a child should wind up.I've seen a lot of really sick things that have happened in addict homes but I know a whole lot more from the children's aid society.The newspapers are eating up this "new"group that's preaching abstinence to any and every one that will listen.They've gotten more press out of one so called meeting of experts than all the harm reduction meetings in the whole year.I write letters to the papers but when they don't print them it feels like having a door slammed in your face.I'm afraid we're entering into another of those backward periods where the forces of intolerance can spout the most obscene prattle and people are listening.There's little doubt that our mayor has joined the side of the great unwashed and has been stringing us in the reform movement along all the time.Not surprising as he's never met a voter he won't try to please when in their presence.The health officer for the school district has announced that kids are using less drugs and alcohol.Of course sedentary lifestyle and obesity are worse than ever.Maybe they'll make sloth illegal and health food and exercise mandatory.Or manipulate the statistics to say something else?It'll be illegal to possess tobacco in federal prisons on may 1'08.It's already illegal to smoke in any public building or within 15 feet of any door or window.Let's just trade tobacco for pot and call it even.Big brother is watching just about everyone.
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Skunk Weed Causing Outbreaks of Mad Brit Disease

With British Prime Minister Gordon Brown poised to reclassify marijuana as a more serious drug subject to stiffer penalties, the United Kingdom appears to be in the grip of an outbreak of Reefer Madness that would make Harry Anslinger blush. Bizarrely, much of the British concern about marijuana is centered on the dreaded "skunk." The Daily Mail, which makes the New York Post look like the New York Times, has been a leading proponent of skunk mania. In an article headlined Cannabis: A deadly habit as easy for children to pick up as a bag of crisps, after blaming marijuana for the problems of British youth culture and prohibition-related violence, the Mail breathlessly reports that skunk isn't your father's marijuana. (Haven't we heard this one before?)
The other problem for the Government and others who urged the then Home Secretary David Blunkett to downgrade cannabis in the run-up to 2004, is that the drug on sale to young people on the streets today is very different from the one ministers thought they were downgrading. Doctors believe that this new strain has the potential to induce paranoia and even psychosis. Some of those we met who work with young criminals link the advent of the new drug with the growth and intensity of street violence. Uanu Seshmi runs a small charity in Peckham, where gun crime is rife, which aims to help boys excluded from school escape becoming involved in criminal gangs. He has seen boys come through his doors who are "unreachable" and he blames the new higher strength cannabis sold on the streets as "skunk" or "super skunk" for warping young minds. "It isn't the cannabis of our youth, 20 or 30 years ago," he told me. "This stuff damages the brain, its effects are irreversible and once the damage is done there is nothing you can do.
This new strain of marijuana? Skunk? Odd, since it's been around since the 1970s (read the description of Skunk #1) and is just another of the countless indica-sativa hybrids. Thankfully, we have "drug experts" like Mr. Seshmi to raise the alarm about its irreversible effects. There's more from the Mail, which apparently has made reclassifying cannabis its moral crusade of the day. In another article, How my perfect son became crazed after smoking cannabis, the Mail consults an unhappy mum whose child ran into problems smoking weed. Last fall, the Mail was warning of--I kid you not--"deadly skunk". Here are some more skunk headlines from the Mail in recent months: "Son twisted by skunk knifed father 23 times," "How cannabis made me a monster," "Escaped prisoner killed man while high on skunk cannabis," "Boys on skunk butchered a grandmother," and "Teen who butchered two friends was addicted to skunk cannabis." While one expects such yellow journalism from the likes of the tabloid press, even the venerable Times of London is feeling the effects of skunk fever. Under the headline Cannabis: 'just three drags on a skunk joint will induce paranoia', the Times managed to find and highlight some guy named Gerard who doesn't like that particularly variety of pot:
I smoke around six joints of regular cannabis every week, mostly at the weekends. What I like about smoking hash or weed is that it keeps me calm and gives me a more amusing outlook on life. With skunk, it’s a completely different story. Just three drags on a skunk joint will induce paranoia on a massive scale. I’m not talking about the difference between a beer and a vodka shot. I’m talking about being unable to get out of bed in the morning because you feel paralyzed, about being incapable of holding a conversation. I would like to think I’m a pretty lucid guy, but after smoking skunk I find myself struggling to string a sentence together. In the skunk haze of my student days, I would sometimes find myself unable to leave the house at all. It’s like a mild form of dementia. Once, a friend passed me a skunk joint before going to a birthday party. After just a few drags, I went into a room full of people, barely able to talk. I headed straight for the bar and drank as much alcohol as possible to counteract the effects. It helped, but using one vice to neutralize another is not exactly ideal.
My advice to Gerard (and it's something he apparently still has the brain cells left to figure out by himself despite smoking the evil skunk): If you don't like it, don't smoke it. But more broadly, what does the Times piece tell us? Nothing except this guy doesn't like skunk. Honestly, I don't understand this British mania over skunk. Something similar is going on in Australia, only down under, it's not skunk but the dreaded "hydro" that is causing murder, mayhem, and madness. Blaming a particular cultivation technique is about as stupid as blaming one variety of cannabis. I think this is something I'm going to have to write about in a feature article this week. I'll consult cannabis cultivation experts, media critics, and the latest science to try to get a handle on this.
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Forced Drug Injections

It has been reported that the United States Totalitarian Dictatorship has been using forced drug injections to facilitate its torture sessions as a method of extracting incriminating evidence from its victims captives detained under the color of the so-called war against terrorism.
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