Skip to main content

Latest

Blog

Rudy Giuliani Hates Medical Marijuana, But He Loves OxyContin

Rudy Giuliani has again lashed out at medical marijuana on the campaign trail:
"I believe the effort to try and make marijuana available for medical uses is really a way to legalize it. There's no reason for it," the former New York mayor said during a town hall-style meeting at New Hampshire Technical Institute.

He also said there are better alternatives.

"You can accomplish everything you want to accomplish with things other than marijuana, probably better. There are pain medications much superior to marijuana," he said. [AP]
I've already written about the potent irony of Giuliani's opposition to medical marijuana, but if he won’t shut up about this, neither will I. If Rudy Giuliani won't stop talking trash about medical marijuana, and endorsing pharmaceutical alternatives, I won’t stop bringing up the fact that he worked as a hired consultant for OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma.

Giuliani has less than no credibility on this issue because he worked for a company that is in direct competition with medical marijuana. It's really that simple. His claims that medical marijuana is part of a broader legalization conspiracy are also ironic considering that Giuliani played a key role in keeping OxyContin legal after it was linked with widespread abuse. Giuliani personally met with former DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson and persuaded him to leave Purdue alone. Meanwhile, abuse of pharmaceutical drugs, particularly OxyContin, has become the fastest growing drug problem among America's youth.

To be clear, I don't believe OxyContin should be illegal. Patients must be allowed to choose medicines based on what works for them, whether it be OxyContin, medical marijuana, or tree bark. But the transparent hypocrisy of Giuliani's behavior is so over-the-top that it is just impossible to ignore.

Blog

Home State Blues, or What's an Itinerant Activist To Do?

Your itinerant Drug War Chronicle has been bouncing around North America for the last few years, spending significant amounts of time in Washington state, British Columbia, Mexico, Northern California, and my home state, South Dakota. The traveling is nice, but I’ve felt politically homeless, as if my presence anywhere were too fleeting for me to be able to do local or state-level politics, and that’s a frustration. So, as much as I would rather be elsewhere, I’m thinking I need to hunker down here in Dakotaland and try to get something done. It is not friendly territory. South Dakota is the only state where voters rejected an initiative to allow the medicinal use of marijuana. Although it was a close vote, 52% to 48%, it was still a loss. Medical marijuana bills (introduced by an acquaintance of mine) early in the decade went nowhere. The state has one of the fastest growing prison populations right now, thanks largely to its approach to methamphetamine use. Marijuana possession is routinely punished by $500 fines, and there is a good chance of jail time, too. (In fact, you may be better off being convicted of drunk driving, if my local court records are any indication.) And, most hideously of all, South Dakota is the only state I know of that has an “internal possession” law. That means when the police arrest you with a joint, they make you submit to a urine test, then charge you with an additional offense if you test positive. South Dakota judges also routinely sign drug search warrants that include forced drug tests. I know one gentleman currently serving a five-year prison sentence for “internal possession” of methamphetamine metabolites, and no, it wasn’t a plea bargain. That was the only charge they had. South Dakota’s drug reform community (which can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand) seems beaten down, but I think I’m going to reach out and see if I can’t get anyone interested in a four-pronged drug reform legislative package: Hemp. Our neighbors in North Dakota have passed a bill allowing farmers to grow hemp and are currently suing the DEA to force it out of the way. South Dakota farmers would like to make profits, too. Medical marijuana. Yeah, we lost a close one last year, and it’s never been able to get any traction in the legislature. But I think we should make them deal with it again. Our neighbors in Montana seem to be surviving medical marijuana. Marijuana decriminalization. Does South Dakota really think pot possession is more serious than drunk driving? Does the legislature understand the lifelong impact of pot conviction on its constituents? Our neighbors in Nebraska decriminalized pot back in the 1970s, and the cornfields are still standing. Repeal of the internal possession laws. Criminalizing someone for the content of his blood or urine is just wrong. Winning any of these will be an uphill battle, and perhaps even linking hemp to broader drug reform issues would spell its doom here. But I think it’s every good activist’s responsibility to do what he can to slow down the drug war juggernaut, so I’m going to give it a shot. What are you doing in your state?
Event

Drug Czar Walters' Press Conference on Operation Alesia, Marijuana Eradication Initiative

This is a rare chance to meet the other side head-on and show your discontent with wasteful, ineffective marijuana eradication programs and the Drug Czar and his policies generally. John P. Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will be in Shasta County, California to conduct a marijuana eradication site visit as well as to attend the kickoff of a Federal, State and local law enforcement marijuana eradication initiative, Operation Alesia, a three-tiered marijuana eradication initiative coordinated by the California National Guard's Counterdrug Taskforce and the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.
Latest News
Latest News
Latest News
Blog

Opposing the Drug War Doesn’t Make Us "Pro-drug"

As recently as Friday, ONDCP has continuously described drug policy reform organizations as "pro-drug groups":
For years, pro-drug groups have been alleging that "nothing can be done" about the world's illegal drug problem.
Nothing could more perfectly illustrate ONDCP's inability (or unwillingness) to acknowledge the stated goals of the drug policy reform movement. For starters, "nothing can be done about the world's drug problem" is the precise opposite of what we believe, and is an ironic accusation to receive from people who specialize in accomplishing nothing.

We've identified many things that need to be done with regards to the world's drug problem, starting immediately. It's true that we want the government to stop doing several things it currently does, but that doesn't mean we advocate illegal drug use or want nothing done. Our message is positive: drug abuse can be handled better than this.

Moreover, the difference between advocating something and opposing the arrest of its practitioners is plainly evident in the case of religion, sexual preferences, sky diving and so on. It is utter nonsense to equate opposition to the drug war with advocacy of drug use, and ONDCP's compulsion to falsely describe our motives merely demonstrates the difficulty of actually responding to our arguments.

Ultimately, the magnitude and diversity of the drug policy reform movement overwhelms any attempt to simplify our agenda. DPA's Ethan Nadelmann said it best at the 2005 International Drug Policy Reform Conference:
Who are we? We are people who love drugs. They say we like drugs. It's true. Especially marijuana. Marijuana has been good for us. God put it here for a reason and we need to find a way to live with it in peace. But we are also people who hate drugs. We have suffered from overdoses and addiction. But we know that drugs are here to stay, and prohibition and the criminal justice system is not the way to deal with it. And we are people who don't care about drugs. People who care about the Constitution, who care about 2.2 million Americans behind bars, who care about fundamental rights and freedoms.
Indeed, opposition to the drug war emerges from a thousand perspectives, but it is for precisely this reason that ONDCP still endeavors to boil down our position into one silly soundbite: "pro-drug groups." It is one thing to create caricatures of our movement and mock us in a blog that doesn't allow comments. It would be quite another to stand up and defend this catastrophic war before each and every constituency that suffers by its hand.

So for the record, no, we are not "pro-drug." We are pro-freedom. We are pro-justice. We are pro-health, pro-equality, and pro-constitution. And we will continue to stand for these values openly and despite the certainty of being called things that we are not.

Event
Event
Event

Madison (WI) NORML Meeting

Please join fellow friendly folks for this important meeting. It will focus on medical cannabis with very special guest Jacki Rickert and others.
Latest News
Latest News
In The Trenches

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #349 - Monday, 9 July 2007

On Friday, July 6, a pair of common sense Opinion items hit North American newspapers, with one being reprinted in numerous newspapers across the country. This creates an excellent opportunity for those who endorse smarter public policies for dealing with marijuana in the 21st century. Gone should be the days of Reefer Madness - the late 1930s attitudes which have remained entrenched in federal government marijuana policies for over 70 years now. Friday's Los Angeles Times featured an OPED authored by Tony Newman of the Drug Policy Alliance. He emphasized the need to either offer help and appropriate treatment options for Americans with true drug problems. And he also noted that we should not waste criminal justice or valuable treatment resources on Americans who are only casual drug users without a problem. Newman also illustrated the disparity in our society where certain people of note receive easy access for alternatives to jail - using Al Gore III, Noelle Bush and Patrick Kennedy as prime examples. Read Newman's LA Times piece here: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n802/a04.html Also on Friday, Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers Group released her latest column in which she aptly notes that the younger Gore's high-profile arrest offers Americans an opportunity to get real about drug prohibition, especially about marijuana laws. MAP has over a dozen placements of Parker's column. A continually updating link to her columns may be seen here: http://www.mapinc.org/author/Kathleen+Parker Please consider sending a Letter to the Editor to the Los Angeles Times sharing your personal support for Newman's OPED. And please consider also creating a letter in response to Kathleen Parker's column and then direct it to the newspaper closest to your hometown. If you elect to write to more than one newspaper, we strongly suggest at least some modification of your message so that each newspaper receives a unique letter. MAP has archived numerous clippings on the arrest and pending prosecution of Mr. Gore III. They may be easily be viewed here: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Al+Gore Letters of 200 words or less have the best chance of print unless otherwise noted in MAP headers. Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do it's what YOU do ********************************************************************** Contact: The Lost Angeles Times http://www.dailynews.com/writealetter Contact links for sending letters on Parker's column are displayed in the header for each of the MAP clippings. Learn more about how you can help deliver the messages of The Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org ********************************************************************** Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides Or contact MAP's Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how to write LTEs that get printed. [email protected] ********************************************************************** PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ([email protected] ) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form ********************************************************************** Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource === . DrugSense provides many services at no charge, but they are not free to produce. Your contributions make DrugSense and its Media Awareness Project (MAP) happen. Please donate today. Our secure Web server at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm accepts credit cards. Or, mail your check or money order to: . DrugSense 14252 Culver Drive #328 Irvine, CA 92604-0326. (800) 266 5759 . DrugSense is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the expensive, ineffective, and destructive "War on Drugs." Donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
Event

Kennedy Center: How Music Helped Me Escape from Prison

We are pleased to announce that the Prison Art Gallery, in conjunction with its parent organization the Prisons Foundation, will be presenting a three-hour show at the Kennedy Center. The show, entitled "How Music Helped Me Escape from Prison," consists of singers and musicians who put their interest in music to productive ends while behind bars. Everyone is invited to attend this free event.
In The Trenches

Drug Truth Update 07/09/07

Drug Truth Network Update: Cultural Baggage + Century of Lies + 4:20 Drug War NEWS Half Hour Programs, Live Fridays... at 90.1 FM in Houston & on the web at www.kpft.org. Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and at www.radio4all.net. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates in the US and Canada., Cultural Baggage for 07/06/07 Voices from US Social Forum, panel "How to end the drug war, today" Pt.2 + Aaron Dixon of Center House, Poppygate, Black Perspective & Drug War Facts MP3 MP3 LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_070607.mp3 Century of Lies for 07/06/07 Voices from US Social Forum, panel "How to end the drug war, today" Pt.1 MP3MP3 Link: http://www.drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/COL_070607.mp3 4:20 Drug War NEWS 07/09/07 to 07/15/07 now online (3:00 ea.): Monday 07/09/07 DTN Editorial: Drug War Is TREASON! Tuesday 07/10/07 Voices from US Social Forum: End the Drug War Today I of III Wednesday 07/11/07 Voices from US Social Forum: End the Drug War Today II of III Thursday 07/12/07 Voices from US Social Forum: End the Drug War Today III of III Friday 07/13/07 Poppygate + Saturday 07/14/07 Drug War Facts + "Legalize" Sunday 07/15/07 Black Perspective on the Drug War w/Phil Jackson NEXT Friday: ) - Cultural Baggage 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT. TBD - Century of Lies 2 PM ET, 1 PM CT, Noon MT & 11 AM PT. TBD Check out our latest videos on YouTube from US Social Forum via www.drugtruth.net/dtnvideo.htm Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Once we remove these charlatans from positions of power, other social changes will become much easier." - Reverend Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network Producer Dean Becker 713-849-6869 www.drugtruth.net
Latest News
Latest News
Latest News
Latest News
Latest News