Under this banner the Canadian press announced the UN drug control agency was demanding that Canada close down insite,Vancouver's safe injection site.As recently as one month ago I was at a meeting where just this issue was argued in front of a UN representative,who assured us that the UN had no interest in forcing independent countries into making decisions based on threats from outside.There was no doubt at that time where the pressure originated and the recent arrest of marijuana advocates who have operated in town for years unobstructed shows the US is flexing it's powerful hold on drug war politics and trying to regain lost ground in their war on drugs.Every time it begins to look like there may be some will to actually try some new approaches to drug addiction and the decriminalization of marijuana.The UN or the drug czar or some other do as i say not as i do group comes along and starts shouting that the sky is falling.This recent UN announcement is a slap in the face to every one that attended the recent conference.There is either no communication among UN people or we were lied to.This is exactly the kind of thing we were given assurances would not happen.The Olympics is putting extra pressure on the city government to clean up the cities image.That's much more important than saving 600 lives from over dosing or preventing addicts from spreading AIDS or hep C.

You know you've hit rock bottom when the United Nations is complaining about you:

Leniency towards drug-abusing celebrities is sending out the wrong message to children and young people, the United Nations drug control agency said today.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) warned that allowing famous people to get away with drug crimes had a damaging effect on impressionable youngsters and undermines faith in the criminal justice system. [The London Paper]

It's always cute when drug war supporters read between the lines and catch on that the massive international drug war hasn't stopped the party. Unfortunately, this realization often leads to bizarre proposals like biological warfare or mass-arresting famous people.

This absurd scheme, like every other dubious drug war idea, will fail for all the same reasons it failed before. The drug war is simply not effective against wealthy privileged people. Those with the resources available to conceal their law-breaking from the prying eyes of police will continue to party in private. You can't deputize the paparazzi to pop Paris for pot and you can't railroad rockstars in drug war kangaroo courts. Just try it, and the number of 90210 zipcodes in the StopTheDrugWar.org membership database will soon crash our servers.

It would be vastly more effective, though still futile, to ask that the press kick its habit of turning every wasted starlet into front-page news. The relentless trainwreck that passes for entertainment media on both sides of the pond is just as nauseous and predictable as its subjects, thus the apple can't be expected to fall far from the tree.

It's all fun and games until LA SWAT raids Paris Hilton's house on a tip from Tara Reid and is forced to shoot a chihuahua in self-defense.

The Vancouver Province,newspaper letters editor ran two letters over the recent Supreme court ruling exonerating a local trafficker due to improper police procedure.The first was the typical world's g

Why is the U.S. government spending $1 million to bring drug charges against a man who's already going to die behind bars?

Colombian rebel leader Ricardo Palmera is already serving a 60-year prison sentence. Convicted in a hostage-taking conspiracy, he has no chance of parole and is likely to die in prison.

But U.S. prosecutors are about to begin a monthlong trial, which could cost more than $1 million, seeking to prove that Palmera and his guerrilla allies are drug traffickers. [AP]

So what's the point? AP explains it as well as I could:

For the U.S., however, the outcome matters a great deal. The Bush administration has taken a hard line against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, branding them not just a terrorist group but a violent drug cartel. A courtroom win would reinforce that stance.

As Pete Guither points out, the story's headline "US Seeks Symbolic Drug War Victory" couldn't more perfectly describe what's going on here. We are spending $1 million to stamp the "drug trafficker" label on a guy that's already been branded as a terrorist. In the absence of actual tangible progress in the war on drugs, these sorts of symbolic endeavors are the lifeblood without which the morale of the great drug warrior army might wither and disperse.

And when all is said and done, the only fact of any significance to emerge from this will be that drug prohibition provides income for violent paramilitary armies to buy guns and bombs for their political wars. Even when the desired verdict is handed down, the drug war is nothing other than an exhibit in its own futility.