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In The Trenches

LEAP on the Hill: Stories from the week of February 13, 2009

When preparation meets opportunity: Due to crazy scheduling, on Thursday morning Karen (my better half) dropped me off at the Metro at 06:45. Thus I was talking to the Capitol Police Officers at 08:00, when a tall gentleman walked around the metal detector which only Congressmen can do. I had been chatting with the officers about my issue and the Congressman made a comment on what I had just said. The next words out of my mouth were: "Ellsworth. Indiana. Former sheriff." Though my words were stilted and awkward, the Congressman did not mind and we had a 4 minute LEAP conversation. At the end he asked me to contact his office to set up a longer chat. Note: I have made an extra effort to know all the former police, prosecutors and judges in the Congress. FAMM produces a Congress Directory which has a foto of each Member. It is my Bible that I consult daily. It sure paid off this week. At the donut shop: The last of 8 meetings on Thursday was more important than the previous 7 combined. The aide represented one of the most powerful members of Congress. As I introduced myself, he said he had been a county deputy sheriff for several years. Two minutes later it was like we were colleagues back at the donut shop, swapping stories. Forty-five minutes later, he said he would ask his boss about the feasibility of ending Modern Prohibition. I have shared this information in more detail with my colleagues in DC. Striking Gold: Each week I send out 7-8 one minute emails to reporters and columnists whose article did touch or could touch Modern Prohibition. The response rate is about 25%, usually just saying thanks for the note. Last week I sent such a note to Kathleen Parker, after she wrote One Toke Over the Line about Michael Phelps and 'The Bong.' She wrote back thanking me and asking for a conversation. A few minutes after my chance encounter with the Congressman, she and I chatted for 45 minutes. The next day this chat resulted in the column she wrote that was read by XX millions of Americans, as she appears in 350 major newspapers across the country. To put this in perspective, about 12 million people heard or read or saw Misty and I go across America to help bring an end to prohibition. This took 7 months. I accomplished roughly the same # of contacts with one 45 minute interview! BONUS: A few hours later Ms. Parker was on Air Force One with three liberal columnists, flying with President Obama to Chicago. I have good information that Mr. Obama read her column. It was a double crown and double Swiss chocolate celebration at our house.
In The Trenches

VIDEO: Michael Phelps and marijuana

Dear friends:

MPP's John Berry made this 30-second video about Michael Phelps and the hypocrisy surrounding the reaction to the photo of him smoking marijuana. Take a look, and please forward it to your friends.

And if you haven't already signed MPP's petition pledging to boycott Kellogg's products until the company changes its decision to drop Phelps as an endorser, please visit MPP's action center here and fill out the easy online form. You can also call Kellogg's at (800) 962-1413.

Sincerely,
Kampia signature (e-mail sized)

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

In The Trenches

Update: Kellogg's on Michael Phelps

You Can Make a Difference

 

 

Dear friends,

Thanks to you, the campaign against Kellogg's for dumping Michael Phelps has gotten the media's attention.  We've been the subject of hundreds of news articles, as well as a segment on CNN.

Now is your chance to increase the heat! We've swamped Kellogg's with comments on their phone lines, and now we can make sure they listen by sending an email urging them to retract their statement on Phelps.

DPA Network has already contacted Kellogg's asking for a meeting, and I'll let you know what we hear. With thousands of drug policy reformers like you taking action, they'll have to respond.

Believe it or not, a South Carolina sheriff is considering going after Phelps himself and has already arrested eight people associated with the party last fall at which he was photographed. So it's more important than ever to stand with Phelps and make our voices heard.

There should be no more marijuana arrests for Michael Phelps or anyone else. And Kellogg's should renew their contract with him. Contact them today to keep this concern at the forefront of Kellogg's -- and the public's -- minds.

Sincerely,




Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance Network

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Drug War Logic 101

Pete Guither and Dave Borden already mentioned it, but I just can’t get enough of this quote from the Wall Street Journal:

"If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence," a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence "because these guys are flailing. We're taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now."

So let me get this straight. According to the U.S. government:

No violence = drug war is failing
Intense violence = drug war is going well

So when do we win the drug war then? When everyone’s dead?
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Sheriff Lott Gives up on Charging Michael Phelps

Duh…

Lott said his investigators couldn't find enough evidence to charge anyone — including Phelps — who attended the party with any crime. [The State]

Um yeah, it’s kind of hard to convict a guy of smoking a bong at a party 4 months ago. That’s just one of many reasons that literally everyone in the world thought this was a terrible idea. Lott’s press conference was supremely lame, as he played the role of a valiant public servant caught in an epic "damned if you do, damned if you don’t" conundrum. As if anybody was going to give him a hard time for failing to launch a massive investigation against a misdemeanor marijuana suspect who couldn’t even be legally extradited because the charge was so petty.

Anyhow, it’s probably safe to say the Michael Phelps mega-controversy will likely begin fizzling out from here, unless he gets caught free-basing bubble hash on YouTube.
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A Failed Drug Strategy Isn’t the Only Way DEA Wastes our Money

Looks like someone forgot to tell DEA about the economic crisis:

WASHINGTON — The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes.

The DEA paid a contractor an additional $5,380 to arrange Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart's trip last Oct. 28-30 with an outside company.

The DEA scheduled the trip as the nation was reeling from the worst economic crisis in decades and the national debt was climbing toward $10 trillion. Three weeks later, lawmakers slammed chief executive officers from three automakers for flying to Washington in private jets as Congress debated whether to bail out the auto industry. [McClatchy]

Of course, a DEA official assures us that this was all necessitated by a security threat:

Brown said the administrator couldn't have taken a commercial flight because she and other officials who were traveling with her were under "specific" threat in Colombia at the time. He wouldn't reveal details about the threat, saying only that it was of a "sensitive law-enforcement nature." He added that the threat prompted him to conclude that "a government aircraft would provide a level of security not available on a commercial aircraft."

Makes sense, but…

A U.S. official in Colombia, however, said that officials there weren't aware of any threat against Leonhart other than the general insecurity in the country due to the drug trade.

Interesting. Seriously, how much longer is going to take the Obama Administration to replace Michele Leonhart? Crap like this is nothing compared to the medical marijuana raids, but it serves as yet another reminder that DEA is a rogue agency that just does whatever it wants all the time.
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Editorial: La otra guerra de Obama

En calidad de comandante en jefe, ahora el presidente Barack Obama debe supervisar nuestras guerras en Irak y Afganistán. En calidad de presidente, también es responsable por otra guerra, una que ha durado más y ha sido más costosa en términos de dólares gastados y vidas perdidas – la guerra contra las drogas.
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California Dispensary Prices Getting Better

It appears competition is bringing the price for medical marijuana down. Hopefully the changes in policy by President Obama will increase production so prices will keep going down.
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Increasing Violence in Mexico is Not a Sign of Progress in the Drug War

Peter Guither routinely dissects drug war illogic in the public discourse over at the Drug WarRant blog. Last week he highlighted some illustratively blind comments in the Wall Street Journal by an unnamed senior US official who actually argued that increased violence in Mexico is a sign of progress in the drug war:
U.S. law-enforcement officials -- as well as some of their counterparts in Mexico -- say the explosion in violence indicates progress in the war on drugs as organizations under pressure are clashing. "If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence," a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence "because these guys are flailing. We're taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now."
The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb followed up:
The cops wanted a new metric by which to judge their success -- one that would not penalize them for an increased murder rate that necessarily follows from doing their job, i.e. eliminating a major drug trafficker.
Pete pointed out that Goldfarb and the official are "confusing success in an action with success in policy." Sure, we can take out any given drug trafficking organization if we try hard enough, but if the result is that different traffickers supply the same amount of drugs to people, while tearing the country apart at greater and greater levels with their fighting, it's poor strategy. And since people are dying in the Mexican drug wars at a rapid pace -- 8,000 have been killed in the past two years since President Calderón ratcheted things up by sending in the military -- I'd say yes, we absolutely should stop it, ASAP. If we're going to be at all logical about things, that is.
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