Obama's 2014 drug budget came out Wednesday. (whitehouse.gov)
Modest Changes in Obama's FY 2014 Drug Budget
The White House released the FY 2014 drug budget Wednesday. Its "21st Century drug policy" still has some 20th Century priorities.
Drug Prevention
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New Group Seeks to Stop Marijuana Legalization [FEATURE]
Project SAM has emerged as a "third way" effort to blunt progress toward marijuana legalization by emphasizing public health and treatment. Its leaders include a conservative columnist, an addiction-plagued ex-congressman, and a professional neo-prohibitionist.
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Decriminalize Drug Possession, UK Experts Say
The UK Drug Policy Commission has issued a report calling for the decriminalization of drug possession, among other reforms.
Commission members Michel Kazatchkine, Ruth Dreifuss, and Ilana Szabo at London press conference
Making Sure Drugs Kill: Commission Blames Drug War for Spreading AIDS [FEATURE]
When it comes to slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS, the imperatives of the drug war are a hindrance, not a help, a new report from the Global Commission on Drugs finds. There is a better way, the group says.
Random Idiot Solves the Drug Problem
As calls for legalizing marijuana and ending the drug war become increasingly commonplace in the press, so too do the inevitable shocked responses from frightened individuals who aren't always up to speed on the subject.
At their best, these people sound like they just found out about drugs yesterday.
Drug war spending continues to exceed treatment and prevention spending (ONDCP)
Obama's 2012 Drug Strategy: The Same Old Same Old [FEATURE]
The 2012 National Drug Control Strategy is out. It looks much like the 2010 strategy or the 2005 strategy or the 2000 strategy. There are a few new wrinkles, but nothing much has changed.
Drug War Autopilot and Co-Autopilot: ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske with President Obama
Meet Obama's Proposed 2013 Federal Drug Budget [FEATURE]
The White House has released its proposed 2013 federal drug budget, and it looks pretty much like all the other federal drug budgets, only bigger.
New ONDCP Video Demonstrates Exactly Why Their Ads Don't Work
"Stoners in the Mist" is a fake documentary from AboveTheInfluence.com in which "Dr. Barnard Puck," clad in safari clothes, observes stoners and performs various experiments on them.
This is worth discussing only because it perfectly illustrates the lack of seriousness that still dominates the marijuana debate. I don’t know how anyone could watch this and conclude that the people who made it are a credible source of information about the effects of marijuana.
Among the highlights:
* A practically comatose stoner fails to notice when a tracking collar is placed around his neck
* Unable to move, two stoners sit on the same couch for 72 hours
* A stoned girl forgets her friend's name and has brownies in her hair
* Despite repeated attempts, a stoner is unable to grasp objects tossed to him at close range
* Categorical statements such as "we have learned through our intensive research that both male and female stoners tend to lack the motivation to maintain proper hygiene" are made.
At the risk of increasing their traffic, you have to watch it to appreciate how far-fetched and derogatory this video really is. It reminded me immediately of D.W. Griffith's racist classic The Birth of a Nation, which glorifies the Ku Klux Klan and depicts African Americans as incoherent slobbering rapists.
So yesterday, when an ONDCP staffer called SSDP and basically threatened to increase the childishness of his office's activities, we just laughed because there's really no lower level of discourse available to them. Two weeks ago, I witnessed ONDCP's David Murray indignantly challenge the seriousness of his critics, yet it is Murray himself who lobbies for more funding to produce utterly banal and sophomoric nonsense like "Stoners in the Mist."
So if the Responsible and Serious Youth Advocates at ONDCP can't figure out why they've alienated everyone, let me spell it out: it's because you're having your own made-up conversation about marijuana that no one else can participate in because it is completely fictitious and insane.
No, this is not a video about the effects of marijuana. It is a parting shot from an entrenched clan of spiteful, sniveling spin-doctors who continue to sling mud in desperation even as their puddle dries up.
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Crazy Anti-Drug Ad Tells Kids to Do Parkour Instead of Drugs
As I've discussed previously, Drug Czar is just one of the worst jobs you can have. You don't get to use cool weapons or go on missions or do anything exciting, ever. Your job is to convince adults that the drug war is good and convince young people that drug use is bad. It hasn't gone well for anyone, no, not at all.
If anybody needs a quick exhibit in why the government's anti-drug propaganda has become such a joke, you're in luck, because the Drug Czar's office continues to release some of the straight-up stupidest advertisements I've ever seen, and this is one of them right here
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Chronicle Book Review: Drugs and Drug Policy
A trio of academic experts have come up with a drug policy book you're going to want to read, even if only to argue with it. Especially to argue with it.