I'm sure most are familiar with my low opinion of the use of methadone maintenance. I fully agree that methadone is effective and useful in many areas but if the plan is to maintain a person on a narcotic, why would you use methadone? Heroin is a far more benign and user friendly drug and it gives its user what they want.

Pete Guither over at Drug WarRant has spotted a report on what looks to be a suspiciously large number of drug busts -- 17, with 11 more warrants pending, all following a six-month undercover investigation -- in the sparsely populated Twiggs County in Georgia. Twiggs has 10,184 residents, at latest count -- the largest city, Jeffersonville, boasts a mere 1,028 residents. The county is so small, in terms of its population, that there is exactly one auto repair shop. Which raises the question, can a county that small really support 28 drug dealers? The same question came up in the Tulia scandal, where about 46 people, almost all of them black, were convicted and imprisoned for drug dealing based on the testimony of a rogue cop, who as it turns out had made it all up. Many of the names listed in the indictment have an African American sound to them. Comments from local officials also raise questions about the operation's timing. In issue #520 of the Chronicle, we reported that Congress had substantially cut funding for the federal grant programs that support these kinds of task forces and that law enforcement organizations were engaged in a massive lobbying/media campaign to try to get the funding back. Twiggs police clearly had that situation in mind when they spoke with the press:

Officials, however, are concerned about the future of such major operations. Special agent Martin Zon of the GBI's state drug task force said federal funding for the task force has been cut by nearly 70 percent in the newest budget. Once it takes effect in July, the budget cuts could hamper law enforcement efforts in the drug war. "We've been a recipient of these funds for many years, and in December we learned that these grants would be cut drastically," Zon said. "Our budget was cut by 70 percent, which cuts our ability to fulfill requests from places like Twiggs." Mitchum said he's also concerned that he may not have certain state resources to call upon in the future. "The task force is a big help to departments our size," he said. "We use their equipment, their personnel, their expertise. We wouldn't want to see their funding cut. It's really important they keep it."

If it is a case of law enforcement busting people as taxpayer-funded lobbying for funding, it would be nothing new -- Pete pointed out such a case in Kentucky last year, and I noted a 2006 press release from the California Attorney General's office that directly admitted it, in a previous blog post on that topic. There are other examples, too.

I have had chronic Pain for about 5 years now. I am a male only 38--but feel like 78--pretty much every day! My doctor has prescribed me M./S. Contin (a long acting pill that takes 4 hours to start working). So I have to set my alarm 4 hours before I have to get up so I can shower and shave etc...not a good life at all, robbing me of a lot of things I used to do and loved doing!!! The M.S. Contin DOES get to the point where it HAS to be increased to be affective again. But my doctor constantly makes excuses (NOT really valid ones) to keep me at my present dose...even though I have been on the SAME dose for 2 years now and it does NOT work nearly as well now! It seems that doctors here in Toronto, Ontario WILL provide pain relief...get you addicted to it...but NOT increase the dose...which HAS TO BE INCREASED, in order to STILL be able to enjoy LIFE like you/I had been doing before the Pain. Does ANYONE know of ANY doctor in Toronto that would and will understand the NEED to increase (ONLY when needed and/or signs showing the need for an increase in the dose itself). I have a great managerial position and LOVE my job....but when the Pain is present it takes away my need to be able to work efficiently, and it shows. Also--one of the worst--NOT being able to say * Yes or No * to invites, for the next day, or ANY day, because you do NOT know what the Pain will be like. Please...if anyone knows of an understanding doctor in Toronto...I WILL be forever grateful!!!

Voting to preserve and protect state medical marijuana laws should be a no-brainer for our elected representatives. It amazes me that its even an issue. The Hinchey Amendment has been voted on every summer starting in 2003, and will likely be voted on again next summer, probably in July. Would you like to make a difference regarding this and other drug laws? I’m the spokesman for a group of business owners, professionals, and individual voters building a grassroots movement to target federal, state and local lawmakers for the purpose of promoting medical, agricultural, industrial, environmental, economic and recreational marijuana policy reform and minimize the harm of laws prohibiting drug use. We solicit support such as memberships, donations, media exposure, visits to representatives offices, letters to representatives, phone calls to representatives and email to representatives. With your help we’ll educate the public, political and financial supporters and our government representatives about the benefits of marijuana and other drug issues to initiate drug policy changes designed to remove

You may recall the piece I did over the phony baby drug smugglers at federal prisons story.Today the story, which began as a top of the line ion scan that showed some contact with speed, has now morphed into a seizure of drugs in a baby's diaper (never happened) to drugs seized and a baby in peril from drug addicted and uncaring parents.

"Stickshifts and Safety Belts" + "Love You Madly" See also: Verified Petition for Temporary Restraining Order (PDF) - PRN Sues Kan. State Med. Board to Protect Abandonded Patients

For one brief glorious moment, we thought Barack Obama supported marijuana decriminalization. He said so in 2004 and his campaign reiterated it yesterday, only to subsequently retreat and pledge support for current marijuana laws.

At first, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that the candidate had "always" supported decriminalizing marijuana, suggesting his 2004 statement was correct. Then after the Times posted copies of the video on its Web site today, his campaign reversed course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.

"If you're convicted of a crime, you should be punished, but that we are sending far too many first-time, non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time, and that we should rethink those laws," Vietor said. The spokesman blamed confusion over the meaning of decriminalization for the conflicting answers. [Washington Times]

Indeed, as Pete Guither notes, no one is really sure what "decriminalization" actually means, which likely explains the Obama campaign's ultimate unwillingness to be associated with the term.

And that tells you everything you need to know about why meaningful debate of our marijuana laws is continuously excluded from mainstream politics. Since the relevant vocabulary words have no universally accepted definition, candidates attempting to discuss marijuana would be forced to use entire sentences or even paragraphs to express their opinions. This is not something they will do voluntarily.

Note, for example, that everything we know about the major candidates' drug policy positions has emerged as a result of someone explicitly asking them. The tortured evolution of Obama's views on marijuana occurred only because this information was demanded of him. First, Bill Maher forced Chris Dodd to discuss the issue, resulting in Dodd's endorsement of marijuana decrim. Then, Tim Russert asked other democratic contenders whether they disagreed with Dodd. The front-runners sheepishly raised their hands in opposition to even mild marijuana reform. Finally, when the Washington Times forced Obama to clarify his conflicting positions, Obama's campaign briefly endorsed reform before finally concluding that they opposed decrim even though they're still not sure what it is.

The conventional wisdom among my colleagues seems to be that Obama "gets" the drug war issue. Everything he says and does can be attributed to his presidential aspirations, I'm told, and we should be grateful that he at least flirts with criminal justice reform. That's fine as far as it goes, but I continue to question the fundamental political wisdom of refusing to talk about marijuana. It's an issue people care about. It's an issue that gets headlines. And it's an issue that's been handled about as poorly as one could possibly imagine for a long long time.

I believe that marijuana reform, properly and passionately framed by an eloquent and viable candidate, could prove to be far less toxic than the brilliant campaign strategists in Washington D.C. collectively assume. And it is nauseating to consider that this terrible war on marijuana users owes its survival as much to a flawed political calculus as to the actual beliefs and convictions of those who sustain it.