Drug Policy Alliance Network News and Alerts

What's Up in Upstate NY? ReconsiDer Knows

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:36:58 -0500

In New York, sometimes the City (as in New York City) get's all the attention. But those of us who care about drug law reform in NY--especially getting rid of the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws-- ignore Upstate NY at our peril. Luckily, Nicky Eyle and the good folks at ReconsiDer are hard at work. They've recently launched an online outpost of reason in a sea of drug war insanity--the ReconsiDer blog. The blog covers drug policy around the world, in the US, and, of course, in NY. ReconsiDer works to

Educate the public about drugs and drug policies, including the problems caused by using criminal sanctions to regulate the distribution of drugs and alternatives to the use of criminal sanctions as regulatory policy instruments that are being employed by other democratic nations around the globe. (from the ReconsiDer website)

That sounds good to me. Check 'em out.

Posted by gabriel sayegh

We Are A Nation of Cowards

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:36:37 -0500

Today, newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in his first public speech, called us a "nation of cowards" when it comes to talking about race. And he's right. I had some hope after the whole Reverend Wright debacle, culminating in Obama's eloquent speech on race in the United States, that maybe the topic of race would be broached, and the 50 gazillion pound elephant in the room could begin to move towards the exit. But that didn't happen. Hell, I thought it might even happen after Katrina, after Wolf Blitzer so eloquently spoke of those left behind as "so poor...and so black." Nope. Nothing.

As the nation's top law enforcement official, AG Holder has an upper hand and the podium (literally) to start this conversation on race. It is especially relevant because he oversees the criminal justice system -- and it is painfully obvious there is a lack of racial equity within that system. And being that I work in drug policy, I have a pretty good starting point for this conversation. Hint: it rhymes with shrug shore.

As drug policy advocates, the statistics highlighting the racial disparity created by the shrug shore confront us daily. There are plenty of statistics we use to illustrate the point, which you can find succinctly listed at Drug War Facts. But while that paints a picture with broad strokes, sometimes we fail to realize that real people make up these statistics.

It honestly would be irresponsible for AG Holder to kick the elephant (ie. calling us a "nation of cowards"), but not bring up the shrug shore. While the shrug shore is only one example of the institutional racism that underlines many of our foundations, it is a profound starting point (or at least one of many). Holder is, after all, the person responsible for prosecuting people convicted of shrug shore offenses. By not utilizing his position to address the issue of race, he is really the biggest coward of all.

Note: while it is true that the shrug shore affects whites and people of color alike, there is such a stark disparity of impact that there is an urgent need for the shore to be understood through the institutional racism that the shrug shore breathes, and ultimately reinforces. This, of course, is not the only lens (one of many) through which to view the shrug shore, but to me, it is certainly one of the more obvious ones.

Posted by Evan G.

Control of Framed Issues

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:36:15 -0500

One of the principle problems in trying to effectuate change in the model of drug prohibition is that for the past thirty-nine years, since Nixon declared (some) drugs public enemy #1, drug prohibitionists have dominated the language and concepts behind our nonsensical approach to drug policy.

That the main stream media accepts these concepts without scrutiny, and in facts furthers them by publishing them without any requirement of proof, without any true questioning of it.

The latest piece of drivel I read from the drug prohibitionists was in Monday's (February 16, 2009) Seattle Times. It was a call to the Obama administration, concerning the possible selection of Gil Kerlikowske as Drug Czar, and how to handle drug policy. It was written by Kevin A. Sabet, a former senior adviser to drug czars in the Clinton and Bush administrations. The quotable:

"Embrace innovative ideas that have been shown to work. Drug policy is rarely a bone of contention among Democrats and Republicans. Everyone believes in prevention, law enforcement and treatment. And legalization remains (rightfully) the stuff of dreams (nightmares, really, when you take into account the heavy social costs that would result from a free, commercial market for illegal drugs)."

Let's break this down line by line, as the Seattle Times published this without telling this hack to get things straight.

"Embrace innovative ideas that have been shown to work." Decriminalization and regulation have been shown to work. Tobacco use prevention programs have been shown to work. By this first sentence, it would appear Mr. Sabet thinks we should move away from prohibition, which is now centuries old in concept, a century old in implementation, and a complete and utter failure.

"Drug policy is rarely a bone of contention among Democrats and Republicans." That much is mostly true, they're both equally bone-headed, and contend with each other to be the largest idiots on the planet in terms of drug policy. If our implementation is like calling a cop to treat somebody who has a flu, our policy development is like having a real estate lawyer plan the corrective surgery of your gaping chest wound - except even the real estate lawyer would most likely try to get expert opinion from a surgeon first (if nothing else, than just as a means of preventing counter suit).

"Everyone believes in prevention, law enforcement and treatment." Hold up a second, Mr. Sabet. You just jumped the frame - "everyone" does not believe in this. A bunch of isolated politicians in Washington D.C. and everyone on the public roll of our current policies believes in these three pillars. Really, though, they only believe in the middle ground. Prevention services are ridiculous, as the (rightly) maligned DARE program shows. Further, treatment isn't available to everyone - in fact, without law enforcement involvement, treatment is hard to come by, a counter-intuitive approach to treatment. Finally, the one you put in the middle - law enforcement, demonstrates how you're using language to bamboozle readers. An honest assessment of this sentence looks more like this:

'Everyone with a stake in the current policies, INCLUDING MYSELF, believe in INTERDICTION, INVESTIGATION, ARREST, PROSECUTION, INCARCERATION, oh, and if there's any money left over, treatment and prevention.'

The final sentence:

"And legalization remains (rightfully) the stuff of dreams (nightmares, really, when you take into account the heavy social costs that would result from a free, commercial market for illegal drugs)."

Mr. Sabet reveals the power of the frame here. He doesn't even need to justify any of these statements, he just makes them, without any evidence, without any backup, and the Seattle Times has no problem publishing it.

Legalization is the stuff of dreams? Tell that to the ex-Presidents of Latin America. While they didn't out and out say full scale legalization, they did recommend it for cannabis, and for the remainder to pursue a European Approach. The European Approach, for the most part, is decriminalization. Which leads to legalization. Which leads to regulated markets.

Which leads to the next part of Mr. Sabet's dishonesty: "nightmares, really, when you take into account the heavy social costs that would result from a free, commercial market for illegal drugs."

Whom is advocating a completely free, open commercial market for all substances? Where does this market exist for currently decriminalized substances, like hydrocodone, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, alcohol, etc.? As far as I can tell, all of them have some kind of regulation to them, and of them, only alcohol causes a large degree of social costs.

Yet Mr. Sabet isn't talking about regulating alcohol, or criminalizing it. Nor should he. The evidence has been in for decades: prohibition and free market are two ends of a spectrum. It is doubtful that either extreme end of the spectrum are appropriate for anything. Some measure of regulation keeps the consumer safe, keeps the companies that sell products safe, and everyone informed. How's that for a novel approach? Trusting people to use information, and respecting their rights to their personal liberty.

But Mr. Sabet doesn't have to address any of the above points I'm making, nor will the Seattle Times call him to task on it. Much like jumping on the bandwagon of "crack babies" in the 90's (a fabrication), the media exploits the lies of the drug war for its own gain, and become part of the "everyone" that Mr. Sabet talks about the beliefs of.

We have to seize control of the frames, if we're ever to change the battlefield to where reason, justice, and compassion rule the day, instead of the dogma of D.C. We must change the frame, not because people aren't on our side, but because before we can get the politicians to adopt more reasonable solutions, they have to start seeing drug use and abuse through the correct lens: public welfare and safety.

Want more proof? After writing the above, I paid a visit to the Seattle Times, and read the reader response. Guess how many of "everyone" supported Mr. Sabet's position? Zero. Every single comment left online called the 'drug war' for what it is: a fraud. Most had points similar to the ones I've made. Some suggested that Mr. Sabet start taking meds to control his delusions.

So while the media continues to use the distortions and outdated frames, the people are wising up. For this to translate to action requires that we give politicians the tools so that they can wisen up our drug policies to match the understanding that both experts and majority of the public have.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

California's Cost of Losing Prop 5

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:35:43 -0500

California is in a budget crisis. According to reports, 20,000 government employees are to be laid off. State tax refunds paid with IOU's. 42 billion in budget shortfalls. No word yet on how many prison guards will be laid off, or how many probation officers, but my guess is that there won't be any let go. Or any prisons shut down just yet.

You know what they say about addicts? That they have to hit rock bottom before they can get treatment. Evidently, what is allegedly true for drug addicts is actually true for drug war addicts. I'd call that projection by the drug warriors.

And California is most definitely addicted to the drug war - locking up tens of thousands of addicts, drug users, and nonviolent drug dealers a year, at a cost of billions of dollars. That's billions in prison expenditures that have not decreased drug use, billions in law enforcement and prosecution expenditures that have not decreased drug use, and billions in lost tax revenues between keeping California's #1 crop, cannabis, illegal, and taking able-bodied people, primarily minority males, from the workforce.

I hate to say the Drug Policy Alliance told you so, but as a staff member of DPA, we made plenty of information available about Prop 5. So, California: we told you so. Prop 5 wouldn't have prevented most of this - but even at face value, at least some of the 20,000 people to be laid off in the next couple of weeks would have kept their jobs instead, California could have kept its public works, and a good many people would be staring at their overpaid tax money returned to them, instead of an IOU from Arnold.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Untested Rape Kits and Drug Policy: A Mark of Barbarity

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:35:04 -0500

An older report from the Human Rights Watch brought anew by a story in the Washington Post by Kathleen Parker entitled "Snap, Crackle, Pot" in which Mr. Howard Wooldridge of LEAP talks about untested rape kits.

A major contributing factor to untested rape kits? Labs being too busy testing for drugs, and cops too worried about enforcing drug laws.

Even if you believe drug use as immoral, unethical, or otherwise 'evil' behavior, I'm hard pressed to think of a single person that would, as an individual choice, say it's better to analyze someone's urine to detect the presence of prohibited substances than a rape kit to find out the identity of an attacker.

But by all means, prove me wrong in the commentary - then please keep your integrity by going around and telling rape victims that people getting high is worse than what's happened to them.

This is yet another example of how policy is completely divorced from the human experience, and I cringe every time I think about this travesty. I cringe, unless, of course, I'm not in the middle of being fuming mad.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Really? With Seth Dawson

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:34:08 -0500

I can't help but piggyback on this item, because of the hilarity of Evan's post with the embedded SNL skit. So I don't get a plagiarism suit, please bear in mind that the entire concept comes from Seth Myer's SNL skit.

As Washington State ponders decriminalization of marijuana possession (an action I always find somewhat bemusing - why not the distribution and/or cultivation of a small amount - wherever is this non-criminal cannabis to come from?), Seth Dawson leads the opposition to such a measure.

Why? According to the Associated Press State & Local Wire, released on February 11, 2009 Wednesday at 2:09 AM GMT, it's because... wait for it...

"[T]he bill drew fire from anti-drug forces who argue marijuana is a gateway drug that can lead users to more serious drug abuse ... Seth Dawson of the Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention ... said decriminalizing marijuana would send the wrong message to teenagers, and could lead to an increase in the number of marijuana users who get hooked on harder drugs."

Gateway Theory? Really, Seth Dawson? Because the last time I checked, 'Gateway Theory' was demonstrated as false (at least, according to the Journal of Psychiatry, Institute of Health, and the RAND studies). I mean, really, can't we come up with something based in reality instead?

I mean, really, because forgive me if I'm wrong, but alcohol is legal and isn't being cited as needing to be criminalized to prevent the wrong message to teenagers. You cited that cocaine abusers shared a trait of having past marijuana use. What about alcohol? In fact, the combination of cocaine and alcohol is so common, they've even done extensive studies on cocaethylene, a substance that exclusively forms when cocaine and alcohol are co-administered.

Really, and while we're at it, Seth, you want to talk about the latter half of your association's description? Namely, the violence prevention part? Because last time I checked, alcohol is much more associated with violence than cannabis is. I mean, really, how many jokes are there about someone hitting the bong and then beating their significant other, or their children? Swap the bong hit for either cheap beer or cheaper bourbon, and suddenly we've got the makings of a best selling comedy book entitled "1,000 Jokes You Don't Tell in Polite Company," --really.

So if you want to forward more junk theory, Seth Dawson, really, let's try this one on for size: without court-referred substance abuse cases for marijuana, the enforced treatment centers that fund your budget will shrink to nothing. You're only interested in keeping cannabis illegal because you're just another money-grubber on the state rolls trying to protect your interests at the costs of citizens' liberty and tax money. How's that for junk theory? I mean really!

[Please insert as much sarcastic humor as possible into this post, it's meant as comedy, but sometimes that doesn't translate well into plain text.]

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

California Bill to Tax, Regulate Marijuana

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:33:53 -0500

California could become the first state to tax and regulate marijuana.

With the state facing the worst budget deficit in generations, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill earlier this week to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Marijuana is California's number one cash crop worth multiple billions each year. Assemblyman Ammiano's bill would regulate that market like beer, wine and liquor while barring access to those under 21.

Hundreds of drug policy reformers in California are supporting his commonsense plan by writing letters to their local papers.

Annual revenues from fees and excise taxes could be in the billions, and Californians could save another billion a year that they now spend on marijuana prohibition. Plus, this bill will put an end to tens of thousands of marijuana arrests made each year statewide.

Marijuana reform has a new champion in Sacramento. Supporters can help by telling their local paper that they support Tom Ammiano's landmark bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.

Last November, DPA put Proposition 5 on the California state ballot, a proposition that would have rehabilitated California's broken prisons and cut spending by at least $2.5 billion. While we didn't win, with the help of hundreds of supporters we educated California on the need for real prison reform.

As the state now faces an imminent federal takeover of the entire prison system, California elected officials know that we were right in calling for real reform, and that the solutions we fought for last year are the same ones the state needs now.

DPA will continue working in Sacramento to keep the pressure on, promoting real prison reform and working for the taxation and regulation of marijuana.

Medical Marijuana Bill Passes New Jersey Senate

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:33:30 -0500

Last Monday, the first-ever floor vote on medical marijuana in New Jersey was successful, passing in the New Jersey Senate by a vote of 22 - 16. This important legislation will help to relieve the suffering and improve the quality of life for seriously ill people in New Jersey.

The “New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act” is now one step closer to helping New Jerseyans whose symptoms are not relieved by currently available medications. Medical research has shown that marijuana can offer relief from terrible symptoms such as pain, nausea, muscle spasms, loss of appetite and wasting associated with cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other life-threatening illnesses. Thirteen states have shown the compassion and common sense to allow seriously ill patients access to medical marijuana, and New Jersey could be next.

Thanks to drug policy reformers in New Jersey who contacted their legislators in support of this bill, sick and dying people in this state suffering from serious illnesses were able to celebrate a real victory. While DPA and patient advocates have taken a historic leap forward toward making medical marijuana a reality in New Jersey, there is still much work to be done. Together we'll keep up the momentum by working for passage of the bill as it moves on to the New Jersey Assembly for consideration.

DPA Leading the Fight Against a Ban on Salvia in Maryland

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:32:02 -0500

Policymakers in Maryland have an opportunity to choose reason over prohibition this legislative season when considering Senate Bill 9 (R-Colburn), a bill that would classify Salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic herb which is currently legal to use in Maryland, as a Schedule I substance. If passed the bill would impose misdemeanor and felony penalties, including prison terms of up to 20 years for selling salvia.

Salvia has been used for spiritual purposes for centuries by native people of central Mexico. Recent studies have also suggested it may be useful in treating addiction, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

With psychoactive effects ranging from mild euphoria to out-of-body hallucinations (depending on dosage), salvia has gained popularity among recreational users in the U.S. since the late 1990’s, when it became readily available on the internet and in smoke shops. A federal survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 1996 found that 1.8 million people aged 12 and over had used Salvia divinorum, including nearly 756,000 in that year alone.

While 13 states currently have laws either banning or regulating the possession and sale of salvia, U.S. Congress has yet to schedule it as a controlled substance. In the gap, use by recreational users, many of whom appear unprepared for salvia’s potentially strong effects, has caught the attention of policymakers and law enforcement.

Police in Maryland describe a trend of young people buying Salvia from shops on the boardwalk in Ocean City, then coming into contact with law enforcement while under the influence.

"Without exception, every user has said, quote, 'That stuff should not be legal,' " testified Ocean City Police Capt. Robert Bokinsky at a Jan. 27 preliminary hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Republican lawmakers also point to adverse reactions among users, as documented on Youtube, in justifying a ban on Salvia.

"It's nothing short of disturbing," said Sen. Richard Colburn (R- Wicomico), the bill’s sponsor. "Watch it for yourselves. See how they lose all coordination, experience emotional swings, dizziness and nausea. Now, imagine that person is your child or grandchild."

Supporters of the bill also express concern over the ready availability of salvia, with particular regard to young people. They suggest that Maryland should follow the lead of states that have already banned it.

"It's considered by most scientists to be more potent than LSD, and it's readily accessible to anyone in the state of Maryland who wants to purchase it," said Del. Jeannie Haddaway (R-Talbot), who is sponsoring a similar bill in the House. "All around us, states are restricting it or banning it, and in Maryland you can still get it. Young people who may not have ever tried drugs before can legally purchase this and not realize how potent this is, or what the effect is going to be."

Naomi Long, director of the Washington, D.C.-metro office of the Drug Policy Alliance warns, however, that banning salvia won’t stop young people from accessing it, suggesting that it will only drive it underground.

"Drug dealers do not card," Long said. "Our young people are able to access marijuana exactly because it's out the realm of regulation."

Long urged policymakers to reject the bill in its current form and recommended they find a middle ground. She pointed to the success of tobacco regulation and education in reducing the number of young users.

"We didn’t have to criminalize tobacco or create long prison sentences for cigarettes to achieve these amazing results," she told the committee. "The decrease was due to quality, comprehensive education al all grade levels about the health consequences of smoking and strict laws about sales to minors."

Long has been leading the Drug Policy Alliance effort to stop the bill, including distributing a policy brief to legislators, submitting written and in-hearing testimony, and issuing a news advisory to media which received considerable coverage.

Her work appears to be paying off. Several committee members expressed strong doubt of the bill’s effectiveness in addressing the public health and safety concerns associated with salvia use, citing to the lack of success with other drugs.

"How are we going to win this one when we're miserably failing at the other ones?" asked Sen. James Brochin (D- Baltimore County).

Long is cautiously hopeful about the fate of SB 9 and salvia in Maryland.

"The members in both House and Senate committees asked great questions and seemed to lean toward taking a more deliberate, less punitive approach. They were especially sensitive to salvia's medical value and the past, negative experiences of other war on drugs policies," she explained.

"However, there is at least one more salvia bill that will be introduced this session, so we are still working hard to make sure salvia is left unscheduled. Several actors, including the States' Attorney's office, want to do something with salvia this year, so most likely a bill will make it to the Governor's desk. The question is ‘will it be more of the same tough-on-crime rhetoric, or something that actually makes a positive impact on communities?

Long points out that the debate over salvia is creating an opportunity to discuss broader drug policy.

"One legislator approached me after the hearing and suggested a hearing on whether or not criminalizing drugs is the answer to deal with drug problems. That is the debate we always seek to foster with the bills we support; I just didn't realize that opposing a bill would help spark that conversation!"

Breaking News: Obama's New Drug Czar

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:51:17 -0500

I wanted you to be the first to know -- we just confirmed in the last hour that President Obama selected Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to be his drug czar.

While we’re disappointed that President Obama has selected another law enforcement official instead of a major public health advocate, we’re cautiously optimistic that this nominee will support the president’s drug policy reform agenda.

What gives us hope is that Seattle has been at the cutting edge of harm reduction and other drug policy reform developments including:

    * Being among the first cities to implement syringe exchange programs;
    * Legalizing medical marijuana ten years ago (statewide);
    * Categorizing marijuana arrests as the lowest law enforcement priority; and
    * Implementing innovative overdose prevention strategies.

Kerlikowske is clearly familiar with drug policy reforms, and has not been a forceful opponent. Although a police chief may not be an ideal pick, given President Obama's call for "shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach," we remain hopeful that he has the potential to provide much needed national leadership in implementing the president's campaign commitments.

We look forward to working with you to ensure that he fulfills President Obama's promises to treat drug abuse as a public health issue, lift the federal ban on funding syringe access, eliminate the disparity between sentencing for crack and powder cocaine, and stop the raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

It's a potentially transformative moment. Together, we’ll make sure Kerlikowske follows through.

Sincerely,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance Network

Rocky On the Ropes? The NYTimes Thinks So

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:51:33 -0500

I'm taking a quick break from duties in Hartford, CT, to make sure you see this editorial in the NY Times today, about the Rockefeller Drug Laws. The editorial is in response to a report released last week by the NY State Commission on Sentencing Reform. The report was roundly criticized, both by the Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, and by yours truly, for its lackluster recommendations re the Rockefeller Drug Laws. After two years, the Commission agreed that judicial discretion should be restored in drug cases, but couldn't figure out how to do it and ultimately recommended maintaining prosecutorial discretion in the meantime.

Says the Times:

The New York Legislature finally seems poised to overturn the infamous Rockefeller drug laws. The impending change comes too late for the tens of thousands of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who wasted away in prison because of mandatory sentencing policies when they should have been given treatment and leniency. But after years of building support for reform, legislative leaders now have it within their power to make wholesale changes in this profoundly destructive law.

Indeed. These reforms won't happen without vigorous advocacy. That's where we come in.

Posted by gabriel sayegh

An Aside About the Associated Press and Cannabis

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:51:08 -0500

This from the Associated Press, February 7, 2009 Saturday:
"Whiff of change in US medical marijuana policy"
(DEVLIN BARRETT) SECTION: WASHINGTON DATELINE

Just real briefly, from this short article on the new Whitehouse's potential to stop enforcement of anti-marijuana laws in states that allow for medical use of cannabis:

"At age 47, Obama is part of a generation that had plenty of exposure to pot."

I take exception to this statement. Homosapiens has had plenty of exposure to 'pot,' cannabis being an intricate part of human existence dating back as early as 8,000 B.C. (and possibly earlier). Drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper, which by the D.E.A.'s standards would make it a controlled substance (there is a detectable amount of T.H.C. in any hemp product, just not enough to get anyone high).

By trying to analyze as a generational attribute, the Associated Press writer here commits a fallacy of distortion: during World War II, there was a "Hemp for Victory" project that encouraged U.S. farmers to grow hemp. Henry Anslinger had to use the misnomer "marijuana" to scare Congress into passing anti-cannabis legislation, because if he used the words 'hemp' or 'cannabis' his fear-mongering would have been laughed out of the legislature.

Simply put - it's not a generational thing. It's an honesty thing. President Obama is part of a new culture that's no longer interested in lying about reality - people have been ingesting cannabis since the Neolithic Era. Nothing done in the last 10,000 years has managed to stop it - why waste federal resources trying?

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Kellogg's Cutting Off Nose to Spite Face

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:50:35 -0500

As Malakkar wrote on Friday, Kellogg's will not renew its sponsorship deal with Michael Phelps because of his marjuana consumption. It seems they will let this contract expire because they don't realize exactly who buys their products. Although the Seth Myers' video above plays into the stoner stereotype, everything that is said is true to a point (and I especially enjoy his last sentence).

Bloggers on the internets, including Ethan Nadelmann who wrote on the Huffington Post, have called for a boycott on Kellogg's, urging them to reconsider their stance.

Kellogg's makes a lot of tasty treats, but I think the sacrifice is worth it -- although I will miss my cheeze-its.

So "Just say No to Kellogg's". Call them at 800-962-1413 and 269-961-3799 to tell them what you think.

Posted by Evan G.

The Elephant in the Desert

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:49:49 -0500

"We're not having the right debate and we're certainly not covering it enough."
Dan Rather reporting from Afghanistan

Like thousands of others, I have become a constant viewer of the Rachel Maddow show. Ms. Maddow's depth of policy understanding, wry sense of humor, and ability to get any guest she wants make her one hour commentary on the day's news required viewing. We have lucked into a pundit that is beginning to wield a tremendous amount of influence with both our policy makers and her viewers. Which is why I feel that the drug policy community must call Ms. Maddow out on her coverage of Afghanistan. Please take a moment to watch this interview with Dan Rather.

It's hard to argue with the conclusion that in regards to Afghanistan, we have three choices:

1. End the war completely and bring our soldiers home
2. Deploy a troop intensive counterinsurgency, and attempt to create a legitimate government and a legitimate source of authority
3. Counter-terrorism, a much smaller, more targeted mission where we're not trying to build up a state, only eliminate the enemy.

After eight years in Iraq at about 10 billion tax payer dollars per day, I cannot find one shred of pragmatic sense in pursuing number 2. As Ms. Maddow points out at the beginning of the piece, long term occupation of Afghanistan has been the fall of nations since Alexander the Great. With our economy in free fall and an Argentina-style economic collapse an emerging reality, it has got to be number 1 or number 3.

What Ms. Maddow doesn't mention here or in other segments about Afghanistan is that we cannot simultaneously fight a war on terror and a war on drugs. Consider the following commentary from Lee Rosenberg, a software developer who became motivated by the war in Iraq to start speaking out about politics and the direction the country is going in:

    To get some perspective on how entrenched the heroin trafficking industry is in Afghanistan, it amounts to over half of the country's entire GDP. Compare that to Mexico, where drug trafficking makes up less than 10% of the country's GDP - yet is still far too powerful for the Mexican government to dismantle. The only real counterargument to the accusation that Afghanistan is a narco-state is that Afghanistan really isn't a state at all, just a loose federation of warlords, many of whom profit from drug production. It's an open secret among intelligence officials that even Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, profits from the trade.

    The Taliban are enriching themselves by either providing protection for the drug trade or just participating in the trade themselves. In some cases, we've seen the Taliban being paid for their services directly in high-powered weapons, which have fueled the last several "spring offensives" against coalition troops. The reason that this time of year is when the Taliban strikes has little to do with weather, but because the early spring is when the opium is harvested, processed into heroin, and sent to the west, leaving the Taliban flush with cash, weapons, and plenty of free time that had recently been spent protecting fields.

    Our eradication efforts do little more than anger local farmers and encourage corruption. Local officials who are tasked with carrying out the eradications (the law still requires that Afghan forces carry them out) are easily bribed or threatened by the drug traffickers and the Taliban. A recent report on a local group of Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan by the Canadian Globe and Mail found that half joined the effort to fight the international coalition because their family's livelihoods had been destroyed through opium eradication efforts. For another 25%, it was anger over heavy-handed military tactics, such as aerial bombings, being used by the coalition.

How about the following as a counter-terrorism tactic that doesn't involve killing:

    One potential avenue for improving our approach in Afghanistan involves allowing for the legal production of opiates by Afghan farmers. It's been estimated that dozens of countries around the world are lacking in supplies of opiate-based medicines. Without a simultaneous reduction in demand for illegal heroin, this approach certainly won't end the illegal drug trade, but it could help limit some of the massive profits being made by the Taliban in certain areas of the country. The European Union even passed a resolution encouraging the international coalition to look at this option, but the approach was strongly rejected by the U.S. State Department under Condoleezza Rice.

    As of the end of 2008, it was believed that the Taliban controlled up to 70% of the country once again. They've been able to do this primarily through the opium trade. Our mistaken belief that this illegal industry is a form of defiance akin with the anti-Western sentiments of al-Qaeda has been instrumental in allowing that to happen. Afghans have never participated in the opium trade in order to bring down the west. They participated in the trade in order to make a living in one the world's most destitute places. But our inability to understand the difference has created a situation where our paranoid beliefs have become self-fulfilling prophecies. The Taliban, which has itself evolved from an ultra-religious entity to a more generally nationalist one, now does see the drug trade as a way to poison the western world.

It's hard to watch someone as smart and influential as Ms. Maddow take a sustained interest in an important issue and leave such a big part of the picture out. If she were to draw the connection between the Taliban and opium production as well as the war on drugs' irreconcilable conflict with the war on terror, Hillary Clinton's state department not only would listen, Richard Holbrooke may come on the show for a real debate about our strategy and our options.

Perhaps you could take a minute to send Ms. Maddow an email at Rachel@msnbc.com and ask her to take a look at the elephant in the desert the next time she does a segment on our soon to be escalated war in Afghanistan.

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

Michael Phelps and the Tyranny of Expectation

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:49:29 -0500

Call me nuanced, but I don't recall Michael Phelps agreeing to be a role model. I googled it and came up with nothing except other people volunteering Mr. Phelps to be a role model.

There's a lot of discussion about Mr. Phelps ever since a picture of him allegedly smoking cannabis from a 'bong' surfaced a week ago. Now he's apologizing for letting everyone down, for making 'a mistake.' Further, sponsors like Kellogg are dropping him for his alleged behavior, because it doesn't reflect the 'role models' that Kelloggs wants to associate with. The public outcry is over Mr. Phelps failing to provide a good 'role model' for our children (since all drug law seems to revolve around children) by making this 'mistake.'

It's a pretty common 'mistake' - on any given year, close to 10% of the U.S. population, by most estimates, at least tries cannabis. While the numbers don't actually pan out, it would appear that everyone in the U.S. tries marijuana every decade. However, this isn't true because of repeat users. Or people repeating their 'mistakes,' if you will.

Yet somehow, we expect Michael Phelps to be immune to this, or at least above it. The reaction to this incident indicates a level of hypocrisy and a level of tyrannical thinking in our society - a significant portion of our population doesn't expect Mr. Phelps to act his age, or like a normal human who can succumb to peer pressure, or experiment, or enjoy themselves with something the majority considers taboo. Instead, a large portion of our society expects perfection from Mr. Phelps, like he's a contemporary Jesus.

Sorry, Mr. Phelps, but you're no Jesus. Not trying to knock Mr. Phelps - he's a great swimmer. Actually, he's an amazing athlete. Arguably one of the best swimmers, ever. That is what he trained to be. What he did not train to be is a role model for our children - we chose that position for him. He did not train to be a saint - we've got a Pope and bishops and so on who train for that. He did not train to be more than human - and so the only reasonable thing to expect from him is to act like a human.

He's a swimmer, people. He's an athlete. Expecting him not to be human is asinine. And, considering that more people die from alcohol than cannabis, until any athlete from any sport is cited as making a mistake from imbibing booze, I refuse to consider smoking cannabis a 'mistake.' The true 'mistake' here is unreasonable expectations, and a phony addiction to the concept that cannabis is somehow worse (psychologically, physically, socially) than alcohol, when the reverse is true.

In fact, the only way in which cannabis is worse than alcohol is by legal and judgmental standards, which points more to their flawed nature, rather than to perceived flaws in people who choose to use cannabis.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

DEA - the Publicly Funded Malpractice Agency

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:49:10 -0500

I may be seen as radical and extreme, but let's just face facts:

1) An estimated 6,000 people have died along the U.S.-Mexico border last year, most of which was allegedly a result of drug trafficking violence.

2) An estimated 0 people died from medical marijuana use in California last year.

So why is the Department of Justice ordering and DEA carrying out raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California, when there is not a single marijuana overdose, ever, and tax-paying dispensaries operate within valid state laws?

Please, everyone, dial 202-456-1414, and let the President know that we don't need to waste time and energy, and the time to reign in these raids is now.

Simply put, in triage form, even taking the anti-marijuana arguments seriously (despite their lunacy), the DEA's actions still cannot be justified - they're applying band-aids to a boo-boo, while the patient is bleeding out from an mortal leg wound. You would sue a doctor who did this for malpractice, and try to ensure he or she never worked in medicine again. Yet there is no call for accountability for the DEA.

Please call. Be the voice that demands accountability from our 'drug warriors.'

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

State Department Ignores Obama: Head Still Stuck In Sand

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:48:33 -0500

In Saturday's Late Edition of the New York Times, there is a story about the State Department's presence in Vienna during the U.N. Drug Policy Summit. The story talks about the State Department being at odds with President Obama's recent announcement that he would be working on lifting the ban on funding to organizations that participate in syringe-exchange programs.

So what does the State Department in Vienna have to say about it?

"State Department officials said that they were resisting the harm-reduction language because it could also be interpreted as endorsing legalized drugs or providing addicts with a place to inject drugs."

The New York Times does correctly point out - "But the Vienna plan does not require any country to adopt policies it finds inappropriate."

Regardless of the information provided by the Times, the State Department is just plain wrong. It's a tired old argument - that by providing harm reduction, somehow the activity itself is being endorsed. Using this absurd logic, seatbelts and helmets encourage motor vehicle collisions, hand sanitizer encourages touching contaminated surfaces, and fire extinguishers encourage arson.

I mean, really, can we all just grow up a little bit? People using needles to inject drugs don't need encouragement to do what they're already doing - the state condoning or rejecting a certain activity clearly hasn't had any impact in their life. But time and time again, access to clean needles has shown to make a significant impact on reducing HIV transmission rates, and that's not just harm reduction for the needle user, but for everyone.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Connecticut Wants to Pull a Massachusetts

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:48:08 -0500

Fresh off the heels of the overwhelming passage of Question 2, an initiative to decrimialize an ounce or less of marijuana in Massachusetts, top state legislators in Connecticut are making a play of their own. Recognizing that arrest for possession of small amounts of marijuana puts an enormous strain on law enforcement and criminal justice resources, state Senate majority leader Mark Looney and Senator Toni Harp, chairwoman of the appropriations committee, are seeking to recreate Mass's new rational policy in Connecticut.

Connecticut's bill would decriminalize marijuana possession by responsible adults and decrease the penalty from a misdemeanor to an infraction (not a criminal penalty) and a fine -- similar to a speeding ticket.

You can also vote on the issue here (hint: a great majority of voters chose the correct answer). Although the results are obviously not scientific, it is telling that the poll is overwhelmingly in favor of marijuana decrim (I let the cat out of the bag).

With a looming state deficit, lawmakers are relying on a fiscal argument to further their bill. While that does make sense, and a report by Harry Levine and Deborah Small document that low-level marijuana possession arrests cost between $1,500 and $2,500 per arrest and court costs, more and more people realize that marijuana possession should not be a criminal offense.

Let's hope that Connecticut lawmakers will recognize that marijuana possession should not be a criminal offense, and that the collateral consequences from being convicted, or even arrested, can last a lifetime. It is time that legislators start realizing what millions of Americans already know: it is impossible to arrest your way out of this issue, and criminalizing people for what they put into their bodies without harm to others has never worked.

Posted by Evan G.

Standing in the Corner at the Change Prom

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:47:03 -0500

I don't expect Obama to rectify the past eight years (or, if we're talking about drug policy, the past forty) in seven days. And every day brings a new cause for optimism: water boarding is torture, Guantanamo is closing, cleaner emissions standards are coming, etc. Yes we can.

But when marijuana reform tops the list of ideas proposed by the public on change.gov and change.org, it deserves more than a curt, one sentence dismissal. When was the last time an issue polled positively with 75% of the public and our elected leaders refused to touch it? Should we be worried that our new vice president, who possesses an endearingly mild form of turret's syndrome (recall his description of Obama during the primary season: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,") was one of America's staunchest drug warriors and the first to call for the creation of a drug czar?

The data is in: America likes marijuana. It's inspiring, it's relaxing, it relieves pain, and it makes music sound really good. Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the United States, more valuable than corn and wheat combined. Using conservative price estimates, annual domestic marijuana production has a value of $35.8 billion. So why does it look like marijuana will be once again relegated to the role of fat ugly girl with the goiter that no one will dance with at the prom? As 75% of the country seems to know, marijuana is cool!

I hope you called or emailed Obama about the DEA's raid last Thursday on a California medical marijuana farm. I hope you are one of the thousands of people who wrote or voted marijuana up to the number one issue the Obama administration should address.

I'm not saying that marijuana is as important as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, health care, unemployment or our prison crisis. There's a lot of pressing issues out there. Maybe Obama is thinking, "come on, people, I have real things to worry about!"

But marijuana is not a minor issue. Its contribution to the states' tax base alone make it worthy of an invitation to the Change prom. The thousands of prisoners rotting in jail and prison because of prohibition make her a contender for Prom Queen. I want to hear Obama's frank, sober, comforting voice talking openly about this issue. Legalized marijuana will stimulate the economy, our minds, and our bodies. Yes we can.

Finally, I haven't had time to digest this late breaking news into a new blog post, but I will: Obama's half brother was arrested for marijuana possession in Kenya.

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

Success: New Directions for New York

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:29:08 -0500

On January 22 - 23, 2009, the Drug Policy Alliance and the New York Academy of Medicine brought together over 300 conference participants representing community advocates, researchers, service providers and legislators from all over the state in order to build a public health and safety approach to drug policy.

At Thursday night’s event, New York State Assembly Speaker Silver released his very first policy position paper, making his commitment to reform clear. "This evening, I am proud to tell you on behalf of my Assembly Majority colleagues that this year -- 2009 -- is the year we finally enact real reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws," said Silver. "This is the year when we begin to transform drug policy in the state of New York."

His sentiments were echoed by the incredible number of elected and appointed officials from New York State and City who participated on Thursday night and Friday as either featured speakers or conference participants.

"Although the event is over, it really marks a beginning," said gabriel sayegh, Director of the State Organizing and Policy Project, who called the conference a "truly remarkable gathering." He worked with 15 sponsor and 71 partner organizations to spread the word. "Together, we can take New York City and State in a new direction: one focused on public health approaches to drug policy."

The Drug Policy Alliance and the New York Academy of Medicine are committed to helping bring about this new direction in New York’s drug policies. Find out more about the New York Academy of Medicine’s ongoing research and policy work on substance use issues at www.nyam.org.

Empowering Judges to Protect Communities

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:30:14 -0500

Harsh and unfair prison sentences are tearing apart families and communities in New Jersey.

The state criminal justice system is seriously out of balance. There's too much emphasis on costly, ineffective mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.

If you live in New Jersey, you have an opportunity to protect people from this unjust system -- by telling the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee that you want a hearing for a bill that would restore judicial discretion.

This bill would allow judges to decide the appropriate sentence for some nonviolent drug offenses. Its companion bill in the Assembly already passed.

Governor Jon Corzine has said he will sign the bill if it gets to his desk. This is our moment. You can help make sentencing reform a reality in New Jersey if you act now.

Sincerely,
Roseanne Scotti
Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey

Obama and Drug Policy in 2009

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:28:26 -0500

This year marks an historic turning point for all Americans.

Less than a generation ago, African-Americans were denied the right to vote in some states. Now the White House, built by slave labor in the 18th century, is home to America's first Black president.

With hard work, struggle and organizing, it seems anything is possible. Drug policy reformers now have more opportunities today than could have ever before been imagined.

In 16 years, America has gone from a president who said he smoked marijuana but "didn't inhale" to a president who "inhaled; that was the point." President Obama has even admitted to using cocaine when he was younger, and the American people don't seem to be holding it against him. He is open about his struggle, like that of millions of Americans, with addiction to one of the world's most powerful drugs: nicotine.

Obama agrees with many of us in the drug policy reform movement about treating drug use as a health issue and not a criminal justice one. The official White House website now calls for eliminating both the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity and promoting AIDS prevention by lifting the federal ban on funding syringe access programs. That's a remarkable change from the last eight years, and worth noting that these two reform items have been DPA's top goals in DC for the last two years.

Since President Obama took office, however, we have already seen setbacks. Recently, the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in California, putting the lives of cancer, HIV/AIDS and other patients at risk.

As you may know, on the campaign trail President Obama promised to end the Bush administration's cruel and costly raids on medical marijuana patients and caregivers in states where marijuana is legal for medical use. He's in the process of replacing Bush officials who are the source of the problem, but that takes time.

At DPA, we look forward to working with supporters like you to urge President Obama to protect at-risk patients, and follow through on his vision for treating drug use as a public health concern and spending less federal money supporting the prison industrial complex. It is our job to seize this encouraging moment and hold his administration's feet to the fire -- and make 2009 the best year yet for drug policy reform.

Change in New Mexico, New Jersey

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:27:08 -0500

Like many states, New Mexico is one in a fiscal crisis. Now is the time to start saving millions of tax dollars by embracing treatment instead of incarceration. On the opening day of the New Mexico legislative session earlier this month, the Drug Policy Alliance began a fight to cut state spending with more compassionate, more effective drug policies.

DPA New Mexico’s ambitious legislative agenda includes proposals addressing treatment for heroin users and for pregnant women, racial profiling, and measures to help people with convictions regain the right to vote and to help them get jobs. We will also convene a statewide taskforce in New Mexico to examine the costs of the state’s current drug policies and create recommendations for change.

DPA is also engaged in protecting the health and safety of communities in New Jersey, a state in which the criminal justice system is seriously out of balance. An emphasis on costly, ineffective mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses is tearing apart families and communities across New Jersey.

DPA soon hopes to pass a bill through the State Senate restoring judicial discretion, allowing New Jersey judges to decide the appropriate sentence for some nonviolent drug offenses on a case-by-case basis. The companion bill in the Assembly has already passed and Governor Corzine has said he will sign the bill if it gets to his desk.

Other efforts in New Jersey include fighting the spread of blood-borne diseases, as the state is still without a comprehensive HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C prevention strategy. Some cities have established syringe access programs, but many have not, leaving many people at risk. DPA New Jersey is advancing a bill that would permit the non-prescription sale of limited numbers of syringes in pharmacies across the state.

Going to Jail for Justice?

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:26:14 -0500

"Marijuana prohibition just makes no sense on many, many levels -- both for pragmatic and moral reasons -- and it's time for it to end."

Andrew Carroll's a smart young man!

He's lucky, too, that he's white; and lucky that he possesses enough class privilege to move across the country as part of the Free State Project, and engage in civil disobedience, calling attention to the travesty that is our country's drug policy. Not that white guys of some means don't get targeted by the drug war, too ... it's just that, well ... their odds of faring in our racist criminal justice system are significantly better.

On January 11, he (amidst friends, fellow protesters, and video cameras) carried out a carefully planned and advertised act of civil disobedience on a train platform in Keene, NH: he possessed a small amount of marijuana. You can watch his arrest on YouTube:

(part 1)
(part 2)

He was charged with a misdemeanor and called to appear before the court again on March 3. I'll keep my eyes out for ways we can support this fellow ... but in the meantime I can't think of any better way to honor his passion and courage than to take action of our own.

Posted by Vera Leone

New Directions New York, January 22nd and 23rd, 2009

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:56:00 -0500

Back this week, fresh from the New Directions New York conference joining together health service professionals, politicians, and advocacy groups. There were even some law enforcement people present - though they were definitely in the minority.

Most notable highlights, in no particular order:

Dana Diamond of Exponents, sharing her own personal story of tragedy and recovery. She works now to ensure that no one else ever has to wake up in a hospital with nothing but bad news, and no one to have for support.

The Chief Constable of West Vancouver, Kash Heed, giving a speech concerning law enforcement approached to drug policy. During the entire time, he had a display onscreen, stating simply, "You Can't Arrest Your Way Out Of This Problem!"

Pilar Maschi, of Critical Resistance, with a heartfelt talk about how she has been targeted by drug laws. She lives in fear of losing her child. Drug laws aren't designed to keep families together - they're racist, discriminatory, and ultimately an assault on the family. She soundly rejected the notion that only nonviolent "offenders" should receive treatment and help. She also blasted the labeling of people into the category of "offender," or "ex-con," etc.

The Speaker of the House for New York State, Sheldon Silver, stating that New York has to change its approach, citing Governor's Patterson State of the State address decrying Rockefeller Drug Laws as a shining example of the worst public policy to have survived for such a long time.

Thursday evening - a lively round of boos from the Critical Resistance People aimed at Martin Horn, the Prison Commissioner for New York. His statement? "When I say I don't want more prisons and prisoners, you all don't believe me, but I get paid the same whether I look over 5,000 prisoners or 10,000 - and I'd much rather look over less." Gabriel Sayegh, Director of State Organizing and Policy Project for DPA, played the role of peacekeeper, preventing further discord.

District Attorney David Soares, sitting on a public safety panel, citing the previous night's confrontation and instructing the crowd to throw vegetables at fellow panelist Terrance Wansley (100 Black Officers That Care) instead of himself.

Terrance Wansley, stating that everyone was welcome to throw vegetables at him, because he is a vegetarian and food is getting expensive.

CAMP: Citizens Against Marijuana Prohibition. A.K.A. their own worst enemy. These folks couldn't seem to understand that they were among sympathetic people, and instead of asking short questions (as per the format), instead introduced long, extensive commentaries/tirades concerning growing marijuana that wasted time, and breath. Their participation in the Q & A session just wasn't constructive (including trying to browbeat a sympathetic State Assemblyperson).

Ethan Nadelmann, at the closing plenary/straight-table discussion. After announcing Thursday night that he might be the most radical person at the table, he followed up the next day by setting himself on fire (again) blasting the folly of drug prohibition.

Jill Reeves of Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL), stating that her only problem with her heroin use was that she couldn't get a regular supply of it, and that she liked heroin so much, she wished she could do it more often. Overheard in the crowd - "That's gangster!"

Naturally, this is just a sample of highlights. It was a tremendous effort, and the conference was an incredible experience. For those that missed out? -Either bad luck, or poor choice. Hope it was the former.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

It's True Because the Government Says So

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:55:21 -0500

Fresh from Forbes.com, a story about a small town north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, with drastic rates of heroin overdoses.

My favorite section? Easy:

"There have been some successes, which John Walters, the U.S. drug czar under former President George W. Bush, liked to highlight, such as the decline in youth drug use during the Bush administration. Additionally, the price of a pure gram of cocaine has skyrocketed while purity has dropped."

The intrepid reporter followed up with some facts -- oh, wait a minute, no, the reporter didn't. Why not? Instead of fact checking a questionable statement, it was duly reported, allegations unchecked, so now it looks like cocaine purity going down, and prices going up, are facts that are vetted. Forbes.com treated this hogwash as true because ONDCP says so. But there's about 5,000 dealers in NYC, with some pretty pure cocaine at prices that have not significantly changed since the early 90's.

--But hey, who are YOU going to believe? Your government, or your lying wallet (that is, if you illicitly purchase cocaine in the United States).

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

El Paso Mayor Vetoes City Council's Call for Federal Discussion on U.S. Drug Prohibition

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:31:34 -0500

El Paso’s city council unanimously passed a “Solidarity and Peace Resolution” earlier this month, in a step to assert cross-border solidarity with El Paso’s sister city, Ciudad Juarez, and to draw attention to the impact of drug prohibition on both communities. Separated only by the barely-existent Rio Grande river, El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico share the fallout at the frontline of the war on drugs -- but not equally.

While El Paso describes itself as the “third safest city of its size” in the United States, Ciudad Juarez is arguably one of the least safe cities in Mexico -- a direct result of the violence associated with cross-border drug trafficking. Of Mexico’s more than 5,700 drug-related murders in 2008, more than 1,600 occurred in Juarez. Since the beginning of the year, 30 homicides have been reported.

In a mostly symbolic gesture, El Paso city council members drafted the resolution to express solidarity with those affected by violence in Juarez, and to condemn the actions of those who perpetrate violence. Councilmember Beto O’ Rourke felt the resolution lacked impact and amended it to include language asking the federal government to consider an "open, honest, national dialogue on ending the prohibition of narcotics."

While the city council passed the resolution unanimously (and drew national media attention in the process), El Paso Mayor John Cook swiftly vetoed the resolution. Pointing to the section calling for a debate on drug prohibition, Cook said the amendment was contrary to his personal beliefs and also warned that the “narcotic legalization language … would curtail my ability to get support from our federal delegation for other worthwhile suggestions contained in the resolution.”

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-El Paso) confirmed in a letter to the council that federal funding could be jeopardized by the resolution, and urged the council to uphold Mayor Cook’s veto.

"While this resolution is well-intentioned, I believe its passage would be counterproductive to our efforts to enact an ambitious legislative agenda at the federal level," Reyes wrote.

Five Texas legislators from the region wrote in a separate letter that state funding could also be compromised.

"There will be state agencies, state legislators and others in state government who will see this resolution as the city of El Paso supporting the legalization of drugs. Funding for local law enforcement efforts and other important programs to our community are likely being put in jeopardy, especially during a time when state resources are scarce," the letter warned.

In a 4-4 vote, El Paso’s city council upheld Mayor Cook’s veto. Those who changed their position pointed to the lack of support from officials at the state and federal levels.

101-Year-Old Woman Almost Evicted from her Own Home

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:31:06 -0500

On December 19, 2008, Mamie Singleton, 101, was issued a notice to vacate her house within five days. Under a Syracuse nuisance abatement law, she was ordered to leave her home of 45 years because her nephew, who had stayed periodically in the upstairs apartment, had used the residence to sell cocaine and marijuana.

Thankfully, Judge Anthony Aloi felt the spirit of the law would not be carried out by evicting Singleton and ordered a stay of eviction on December 23. Aloi pointed to the fact that Singleton’s nephew had been arrested for the offense nearly a year ago, and had already begun serving his sentence in jail.

An agreement was reached by the family, community leaders and police chief Gary Miguel to allow Singleton and her primary caregiver and granddaughter, Mary Reaves, to stay in their home. Under the agreement, the upstairs apartment must remain vacant for six months, and Singleton’s nephew and another man are banned from being on the property. Singleton’s niece, who was implicated in the nuisance offense, is allowed to be at the house to provide care services to Singleton during the day.

Obama White House: Eliminate Sentencing Disparity; Repeal Syringe Ban

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:28:42 -0500

I'm sure people are wondering if President Obama is really going to change our nation's drug policies? Only time will truly tell, but it's very encouraging that the official White House website now calls for eliminating both the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity and the federal syringe ban. That's very telling, and a remarkable change from the last eight years. It's worth noting that these two reform items have been DPA's top goals in DC for the last two years.

From the White House website's civil rights section:

*Eliminate Sentencing Disparities: President Obama and Vice President Biden believe the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.
* Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, President Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. The President will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.

Posted by Bill Piper

New Twist in Drug Law Interdiction and Enforcement

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:25:46 -0500

Should be filed with "guilt by association," "the logical extension of forfeiture laws," and "what's our jurisdiction?"

A breaking story from the Associated Press, which duly reported without a sense of irony, about the U.S. now using a new law to prosecute people on board alleged "drug subs." The new law?

"The Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008 was signed into law in September. The statute makes it a felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, to travel through international waters in the vessels, technically known as self-propelled semisubmersibles."

There's a little additional language, dealing with flag/nationality requirements, and prima facie showings of avoiding detection, but basically, the U.S. just banned international waters for anyone that's 1) piloting a vehicle that can submerge, and 2) isn't doing so as a member of any particular nation. We'll leave out the ridiculousness of this blatantly-unconstitutional jurisdictional problem for the time being, to directly address the AP.

"But under the new law, no physical evidence is necessary. Just being on board a drug sub is proof enough."

This is where our media is biased, but pretending to be neutral. It's not a "drug sub," it's a semi-submersible. The drugs are an allegation. The "sub" has been presumed guilty, and now, based upon that presumption, a conviction attaches to anyone who was aboard it.

Pretty good strategy, I mean, it's not like the "sub" can mount a defense. Next, we'll just have to figure out how to import this to vehicles -- "drug trucks" "drug cars" "drug motorcycles" just think of how many convictions can be had, without any need for evidence! If you thought conspiracy law freed up law enforcement from needing evidence (they just needed snitches), just think how much more free they'll be once they can automatically convict vehicles, then use that to secure a conviction against a person - no more need for snitches, just people in vehicles!

As a final note, there's a subsection to the law, 2285(f), that exempts anyone working for or at the direction of the U.S. government. I wonder why they included that clause?

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

DEA and UMass Both Wrong on Pot

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:36:31 -0500

From today's Associated Press, a story about the D.E.A. denying Professor Craker (University of Massachusetts) a marijuana growing license, specifically stating that the current monopoly on government-approved production of marijuana by the University of Mississippi was acceptable because the university lab provided an ample supply of sufficient potent marijuana.

Professor Craker had argued in a suit that the marijuana provided was not of sufficient potency for the studies he needed to conduct. An administrative law judge agreed with him, but the D.E.A. doesn't really care what judges think if they're not handing out large sentences to criminal defendants (by contrast, I've never heard of the D.E.A. ever challenging a drug-law sentence for being too stiff).

Mississippi and Massachusetts. Whether D.E.A. or Professor Craker, when it comes to high-potency marijuana, they both must be smoking truckloads of the government-sanctioned marijuana. Neither state is known for the quality of its marijuana. Neither state has ever had a single strain of its marijuana win a Cannabis Cup.

There's one state that has time and time again taken the Cannabis Cup. There is a state that is known for providing high-potency marijuana. The state that is known for this: California (though Kentucky is becoming a close second). There's one county in this state that is known throughout the entire world for the quality of marijuana grown there: Humboldt. You want to study high-potency marijuana? Try some Humboldt County marijuana. Everyone else in the U.S. (no offense to Kentucky, they're getting close) are just pretenders.

Which is to say, of course, that perhaps Dr. Craker would be better off if his proposed facility to produce high-potency marijuana was based in Humboldt County, California.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Protecting the Health of All New Jerseyans

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:27:24 -0500

New Jersey citizens are still at risk for contracting deadly diseases because our state is still without a comprehensive HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C prevention strategy. Some of our cities have established syringe access programs, permitted under the Blood Borne Disease Harm Reduction Act. But there are still many people at risk -- so here is your chance to protect the health of all New Jerseyans.

Take action now. This is your opportunity to tell your Senators that you support Senate Bill 631, which would permit the non-prescription sale of limited numbers of syringes in pharmacies across New Jersey. Our fight won't move forward unless you tell Senators that you care about saving lives in New Jersey.

Together, we can fight the spread of blood-borne diseases and ensure a healthier New Jersey but only if you act now.

Sincerely,

Roseanne Scotti
Director
Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey

Ideas for Change

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:26:16 -0500

Your work for drug policy reform makes a difference -- and you're not alone. Together we are a part of a growing movement, with millions of other Americans who care about this issue.

Right now you can make your voice heard by signing into Change.org and voting for ending the drug war, promoting marijuana policy reform and decriminalizing hemp.

As a drug policy reformer, you're in great company. Change.org is the central website for informing and empowering movements for social change in the United States, and drug policy reform ideas have already been voted to the top of their priority list.

On January 16, Change.org and the Case Foundation will host an event at the National Press Club to announce the top 10 rated ideas and then launch a campaign behind each idea, to ensure that each winning idea gets the full consideration of the Obama administration and Members of Congress.

Voting closes next Thursday at 5:00 PM, so be sure to act now and join the groundswell of Americans supporting a change in the direction of our country's failed drug policies. This is your chance to join together and celebrate the success we've had as a movement.

Learn More About Change.org's Ideas for Change in America

In the wake of the 2008 Presidential election, this citizen-driven project was created to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama administration and 111th Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies.

Ideas for Change in America is a project of Change.org, an online community and media network for social issues, in partnership with more than 50 leading organizations. Change.org aims to help people who care about working for change find information and opportunities to translate their interest into effective action by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.

From November 24 - December 31, 2008, Change.org accepted more than 7,783 submissions for ideas and over 288,694 votes from people across America. The second and final voting round runs until January 15.

On January 16, Change.org and the Case Foundation are co-hosting an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to announce the top 10 rated ideas (and right now two of these are drug policy related!) and then launch a national campaign behind each idea to mobilize the collective energy of the millions of members of Change.org, MySpace and partner organizations. This effort will ensure that each winning idea gets the full consideration of the Obama administration and Members of Congress.

Designed to Divide: the Drug War in Tulia, Texas

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:25:11 -0500

Every month at Busboys and Poets, a progressive boosktore/cafe near U St. in Washington, DC, an open discussion called ACTOR (A Continuing Talk On Race) is held, with varying (though never overwhelming) levels of attendance. Last Sunday's meeting was filled to capacity, though, as it was combined with a popular film series. We gathered to watch a preview of Tulia, Texas, a documentary which tells the powerful story of a small town in the Texas panhandle, and what happens as the drug war unfolds in their community.

The film takes you through the incredible, yet outrageously common, story of the drug war as it plays out in Tulia. A few years ago, more than half the Black population of this rural small town was arrested at once, and charged with distributing just enough powder cocaine (a substance more prevalent in the town's white community) to ensure long sentences.

The racist statements made by jurors and police in Tulia are sometimes shocking. But what's worse is that this is not an idiosyncratic case of evil, racist people (although they may be that) -- it's an evil, racist, oppressive criminal justice and economic system that is implemented by those in power (namely, in Tulia anyway, white folks). Many of the defendants took plea bargains once they saw their peers receiving 60- and 90-year sentences. Thirteen remained locked up for four years in Tulia, before being ultimately released when the undercover cop (upon whose uncorroborated word all of the cases were based) was found to be a complete whack-job: wanted in other states for theft, writing notes about drug buys on his leg, reporting some deals when he and/or the accused could not possibly have been where he says they were, according to timesheets, and in one case, a bank transaction in another state. He would later be charged for perjury, but seeing as how he's white and all, the jury found it much easier to identify with him than with the Black folks tried earlier: the undercover cop was sentenced to probation.

The drug war has created a thousand Tulias, and worse, in every state, and it's time to stop it. After the film, Bill White, one of the co-counsel defense attorneys from DC, joined DPAâ€™s DC Metropolitan Area Director Naomi Long, along with Sanho Tree of the Drug Policy Project at IPS and the Sentencing Project's Kara Gotsch for a panel discussion on the drug war. Someone put it thusly: "Ultimately, we're not going to get a policy change without a public outcry."

Indeed. Well, we live in hope. Spread the word about this remarkable, thought-provoking film coming to PBS on February 10, and see if you can have your own continuing talk on race along with it. One of the questions for our group discussion afterward dealt with the prospects for Tulia. "Will the residents of different races ever be able to trust one another?" Well really, will people of different racial identities anywhere ever be able to trust one another? I don't know. I hope so. I think white folks have a lot of work to do in terms of getting in the way of racist violence (direct and structural) and a lot of reparations to make. Maybe if we can continue to talk (and listen actively!) with one another we can get somewhere.

Posted by Vera Leone

Plan Colombia is Really About Drugs (Really!)

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:24:48 -0500

From the files of "someone should have briefed the general before speaking..." a story in the January 9, 2009 Home Edition of the L.A. Times.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos was interviewed by a reporter about the success of Plan Colombia.

I don't need to analyze what was said, since it's the usual "say anything that can be equated to success so give us more money" drivel that is symptomatic of the drug war in general.

I just did a word count. Number of words about Plan Colombia and drugs: 117. Number of words about Plan Colombia and counter-insurgency successes: 533.

I think the numbers speak for themselves. Let us not fool ourselves about what this plan actually is about.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

New Year's Present from the Drug War: Another Body

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:24:04 -0500

Mr. Grant was with his friends on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), returning to the East Bay from the Embarcadero. He would never make it home. Mr. Grant died of a gunshot wound at the Fruitvale (Oakland) BART station. He was shot in the back by a BART transit officer, while being held down by two other BART transit officers. At present, there are no allegations by any side that drugs are involved. Yet drug prohibition has its hands in this homicide. There are many prongs to this tragedy, of which drug prohibition is only one particular track, but it is one I know well, and wish to share.

The side of drug prohibition that's given little scrutiny is the fact that during the course of the announced "War on Drugs" by President Nixon in the early 70's, our police forces have transformed into paramilitary-like outfits. Some of this was done out of perceived necessity - policing has become a profession perceived as very dangerous (though by the numbers, carpentry is much riskier). Most of the transformation was done in the spirit or pursuit of the "war" on "drugs."

Justifications came in: "drug gangs" were "better armed" than the police. Clearly an arms race is necessary under such a perception. To enforce drug law, raiding homes became a regularity, rather than an unusual occurrence. With a populace that is predominately armed, that meant that police needed superior firepower. Both the "drug gangs" and home raids also meant that police needed better protection - body armor. Any psychologist will tell you: weapons and armor are visual cues for aggression.

The increasing assortment of tools that separate the police from the populace also reinforces the "us versus them" mentality, long since evidenced by the renown "Code of Silence" that police departments historically have used to squash outside or independent investigations of police misconduct.

The U.S. makes "war" on some drugs, and on crime (indeed, these two concepts are often bled together so that prohibition's consequences are seen as drug use/distribution consequences, rather than the result of policy decisions), which encourages aggression against "criminals."

Finally, there's a stereotype for a "drug dealer" in our society: a young black male that's out late at night. Taken in context, there's an automatic assumption that young black males that are out late at night are criminals, and can be treated in an aggressive fashion.

Guess what Mr. Grant was? Innocent. Not even alleged to be a criminal. As a 22 year old black male, however, he certainly fit the "criminal" profile, so now he lays dead. He is not a victim of drugs or a drug raid, yet he still is a victim of one of many collateral consequences to drug prohibition - police militarization.

So, this New Year, your present from the Drug War: more "collateral damage," with illegal drugs just as cheap (if not cheaper) and available as ever.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Reopened for Questions

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:19:56 -0500

For a second I thought that team Obama was going to shut down Open for Questions after being inundated with drug policy and particularly marijuana questions and concerns. Their flip response- "President-elect Obama does not support the legalization of marijuana"- was unsatisfying and did not fit the web 2.0 context of the exercise. Peter Guither over at Drug WarRant submitted this for round two:

"76% of likely voters think the drug war is failing. Yet suggestions from opponents of the drug war are often dismissed. Will you appoint a blue-ribbon commission to look at all aspects of drug policy, including examining alternatives to prohibition?"

which is respectful and sets very low expectations: shades of the Nixon created National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse to study pot and come to the conclusion- once again- that we need to reschedule and perhaps legalize it. The assumption being that Obama, unlike Nixon, will listen to the Commission.

I have to marvel in round two as I did in round one at the sheer number of marijuana questions:

    "The people of this country want marijuana decriminalization, when will marijuana be decriminalized? Why continue to spend billions of dollars to prohibit marijuana when evidence shows that the war on drugs is, as you said, "an utter failure"?"
    Free your mind, Guantanamo

    "The Drug War has been an incredibly expensive failure since it's inception. Meanwhile, millions of our citizens have been incarcerated for using drugs. I think we need to end this folly. What do you think, Mr. President?"
    Matt, Livingston, MT

    "Why do you believe that marijuana should not be legalized? How is the prohibition of Marijuana any different than the prohibition of alcohol? 100,000 Americans die every year due to alcohol but none to Marijuana"
    James, CA

    "Will you consider legalizing cannabis/marijuana/hemp so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"
    DJ C, Chicago, IL

That's just page one- they go on and on- the marijuana questions are like a smell you can't get rid of. Please take a moment to sign up and submit or vote for a question. This story already had legs in round one; if marijuana ends up the number one question again, we're likely to see more national media coverage.

I think Obama is smart not to use any political capital on pot right now. The stupified Republicans are salivating for something- anything- they can hang on him.

So appoint a Commission and wait for the report. Maybe even Biden can play a constructive role and atone for his contribution to the war on drugs. It should be the same report we've already heard- Obama knows that- but it will supply the necessary distance team Obama needs to push this particular ball forward.

21 days and counting....

Finally, a hat tip to former DPA'er Alex over at Drug Law Blog for a must read California-centric list of the top ten drug law stories of 2008.

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

Perversion of Justice

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:18:57 -0500

Hamedah Hasan writes, "This experience has taught me that not one choice, action, or lack thereof is without consequence. This includes making laws without a sense of redemption -- that diminish the worth of human lives and attack the very foundation of the family unit."

She would know. In 1991, she was sent to prison, for what would be a 27-year jail sentence, for a first-time nonviolent drug-related offense. Escaping an abusive relationship, she went to live with cousins who were involved in the drug trade, and when they were all arrested she had no information to offer the cops, being only peripherally involved in her cousins' work. Because of her lack of involvement, and because they all had information with which to barter for lighter sentences, Hassan received far and away the longest sentence -- something like double that of those really involved.

Filmmaker and Unitarian Universalist minister Melissa Mummert created an award-winning short documentary with Hassan about her case. I was skeptical when I first heard about the film. A white lady in grad school telling a Black lady's story ... but in her commentary Ms. Hasan spoke a bit of their process together, and the obvious mutual respect between the two, so I am really interested in seeing it.

If you can, take a few minutes and watch the preview on the film's website: www.perversionofjustice.com. After you do, think about ordering the film and organizing a local screening. . People like to get together and watch movies anyway, so why not try it? Might even become a local tradition.

Hamedah is -- unbelievably -- still locked up. Holidays may be hard times for all kinds of folks, but can be especially difficult for those behind bars. You can write to Ms. Hassan at:

Hamedah Hasan
#13847-047
FCP Victorville
PO Box #5100
Adelanto, CA 92301

Posted by Vera Leone

What Do We Do with Things We Don't Understand? Ban Them!

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:18:21 -0500

Ohio is one step away from making Salvia Divinorum illegal. This would make it the 6th state in the country to ban it outright, consequently providing awesome economic opportunities for black market entrepreneurs. On Wednesday, the House of Reps voted 92-4 to approve the bill. The Senate passed it a day earlier, 33-0. With the House's passage, the bill goes on the Governor's table, where there is no indication that Gov. Ted Strickland will not sign it.

I don't like salvia. Most people do it only once, as the effects are not exactly pleasant. And even on YouTube, those videotaped smoking salvia (these videos are partially to blame for lawmakers knowing what salvia is and becoming really, really scared of it) are more for the entertainment of the people around him or her than for the actual user. I would post some examples, but the videos are all stupid and not worth your time -- however, many of those same idiotic videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of hits (pun intended). However, there is one guy who parodies salvia user videos, and is actually quite funny.

These videos, as well as the unsubstantiated anecdotes of a "causal" link between salvia and danger to others, have put the legality of salvia in a precarious position for some people who use it for spiritual reasons. There is also evidence that salvia treat pain as well as pyschological disorders. Oh yeah, all the literature on salvia suggests that it isn't addictive, either.

Regardless if you love it or hate it, the scientific possibilities suggest that rendering saliva a class I substance (no redeeming medical value) severely impedes substantive research into its medicinal potential. That is, after all, what they do to things they don't understand.

Posted by Evan G.

California, Humboldt Fairies and Compassionate Judiciaries

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:25:23 -0500

It's been a good year for medical marijuana. Michigan became the 13th medical marijuana state, Massachusetts passed a decriminalization measure, and yesterday a medical marijuana bill made it out of subcommittee in New Jersey.

It's easy amongst all of this progress to forget about California, the mother of medical marijuana, whose voters passed the first such initiative in 1996. The institution here has been under various attacks, and recent legal developments put California at a crossroads in the continuing statewide implementation of the first medical marijuana law in the country.

On November 24, 2008, the California Supreme Court gutted the Compassionate Use Act's (CUA) caregiver defense in People v. Mentch. This defense extended the exemption from state prosecution for marijuana cultivation and consumption beyond the patient to those they designated as their primary caregiver. Under the statute, a primary caregiver is someone that has "consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety" of the patient.

Mr. Mentch argued that in counseling five medical marijuana patients about the best strains for their ailments, among other services, he qualified for the primary caregiver instruction at his trial for possession and cultivation of marijuana. The DPA submitted an amicus brief signed by Dr. Marcus Conant urging the need for counseling on strains and methods of ingestion, and Mr. Mentch's lawyer persuasively argued that Mr. Mentch was performing a vital service for patients unintiated to medical marijuana use.

The Supreme Court held that the primary caregiver must have a relationship to the patient "independent of the administration of marijuana." They "have no doubt our interpretation of the statute will pose no obstacle for...[the] spouse or domestic partner...[or] the child caring for his parent."

It's nice to make a decision with no doubt, but there are plenty of reasons to doubt the court's judgment. Medical marijuana patients are not likely to be married to or have children that are cultivators and experts in marijuana. A spouse or child cannot pick up a sick patient's medicine.

The practical effect of the holding eliminates what threadbare protections growers of marijuana had under state law (we like to believe that our dispensary marijuana arrives from the Humboldt fairy) and forecloses options for patients too sick to pick up their medicine.

It's worth noting that the statutory language of the CUA is horrible. Subsequent medical marijuana bills in states like New Mexico have removed the inexplicable ambiguity laden in the CUA's caregiver language. I understand that the drafters of the CUA were under a lot of political pressure to write an initiative that would pass, but fail to see how the caregiver language offered any help in that regard. This is the part where a rational and compassionate judiciary comes in and resolves the CUA's ambiguity in a meaningful way- in the same jurisdiction as the Humboldt fairies.

Now up to bat in California's 4th Appeals district is Qualified Patients Association v. Anaheim, which asks whether it is illegal for cities and towns to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. This is an important question. Beyond certain enclaves in the Bay area and southern California, medical marijuana is not welcome in many of our cities and towns, an inexplicable posture in fiscally strained times when the estimated aggregate annual sales tax revenue paid by the approximately 400 dispensaries in California is $100 million.

The marijuana community has been feeling a lot of- what should I call it?- hope lately. Obama has said that he will stop DEA raids on legitimate medical marijuana operations but has already made clear that his administration will not be one of "tax and relax" where the U.S. government finally sees the light with regards to recreational marijuana.

After the tortured logic that our highest court applied in People v. Mentch, there is reason to worry. When it comes to medical marijuana access it's becoming apparent that California giveth, and California taketh away.

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

So, Um, How Much Coke Is There? And How Does It Get Here?

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:24:56 -0500

Depending on the need for a story, evidently, cocaine in the United States is held to a different standard.

According to the L.A. Times, 12/16/08 Home Edition, if we're to believe the federal government, in a recent National Drug Threat Assessment report, cocaine availability is down (despite increased production) because of interdiction efforts along the Eastern Pacific Seaboard (someone forgot to mention this to the various coke dealers in New York, street availability and prices haven't changed).

However, if the Justice Department is to be believed, then the federal government is saying that the cocaine is coming across the Mexican/U.S. border in the Southwest, according to the Associated Press. "The Justice Department report attributed the decline to a number of factors, including crackdowns on Mexican cartels and large cocaine shipments; efforts to eliminate coca crops; better U.S. border security; and an increased cocaine market in Europe."

Funny, they failed to mention Eastern Pacific Seaboard seizures. Both reports manage to keep to the official "party" line - that less cocaine is making it across the border, so there is less availability in the U.S.

Someone ought to notify the local dealers nationwide that they don't actually have the cocaine they think they have, at least, not according to the federal government. The police ought to be notified as well, since all those people they're arresting everyday for suspected cocaine sales and possession don't really exist either.

If anything else, it leads us to a distinct conclusion: ludicrous policy leads to ludicrous reports.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Medical Marijuana Closer to Reality in New Jersey

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:22:58 -0500

Emails and faxes sent by DPA Network's supporters to legislators helped bring New Jersey one step closer to becoming the 14th state to allow access to medical marijuana.  Thanks to people like you, seriously ill patients suffering from debilitating diseases have renewed hope that they will no longer have to live in fear of arrest and prosecution for using the only medicine that relieves their terrible symptoms and improves their quality of life.

Take action now if you are a New Jersey resident to keep this legislation moving forward.

The Senate Health Committee held a hearing on S119 yesterday and voted the bill out of committee by a 6-1 margin with 2 abstentions.  This is your chance to tell the legislators who voted yes that you appreciate their support of New Jersey’s Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

While we have taken an historic leap forward toward making medical marijuana in New Jersey a reality, there is still much work to be done.  The bill now moves to the full senate for a vote and together we can convince Senate President Richard Codey to post S119 on the agenda.  In addition, the companion legislation in the Assembly (A804), still needs to go through the committee process.

Together, we can build on this legislative victory and ensure that seriously ill patients have safe access to medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation but only if New Jersey residents act now.

Sincerely,

Roseanne Scotti
Director
Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey

P.S. Don't live in New Jersey? Send this page to the New Jerseyans you know and encourage them to take action!

Opportunity in California's Meltdown

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:55:55 -0500

Yesterday California’s newly sworn-in legislature convened to tackle the state’s budget crisis. It’s a big job. California’s deficit is set to exceed $28 billion by June 2010. Threatening to add still billions more to the shortfall, a three-judge panel may soon order an expensive overhaul of the dangerously overcrowded prison system.

The good news? California’s fiscal meltdown – and looming prison takeover – is forcing our representatives to face up to prison overspending. State leadership, which foolishly opposed serious DPA-sponsored reform when it was on the November ballot, is now running with it.

Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, would have safely reduced incarceration spending by $1 billion each year (and spent that small fortune on proven recidivism-reduction measures instead: treatment and rehabilitation). According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office (LAO), Prop. 5 would have also reduced California’s prison construction spending by at least $2.5 billion.

During the Prop. 5 campaign, California politicians (and wannabes) rushed to align with the prison industrial complex: from Dianne Feinstein to Jerry Brown. So eager to identify as "tough on crime," these politicos have turned their back on consideration of even serious policy reform proposals – like Prop. 5.

But just days after the election – and after standing with four former governors to oppose Prop. 5 – Governor Schwarzenegger asked state legislators to do just that when he introduced Prop. 5-like parole reforms as part of his budget solution. The LAO raised the ante, proposing more reforms familiar to Prop. 5 proponents, including sentencing changes, parole reductions and good-time credits.

This about-face proves what we already knew – that the prison industrial complex’s defeat of Prop. 5 was truly a pyrrhic victory. Now, having wasted the opportunity to support reform on the November ballot, the legislature needs to be held accountable for pushing prison spending reform through the legislative process.

Let’s wish the incoming legislature – with 30 percent new membership – more luck than the last.

Drug Policy Week in Review

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:52:18 -0500

California police chiefs asked the DEA in 2006 to subvert California law on medical marijuana.

The latest government data indicated that over the past 15 years teen cigarette use declined while marijuana use increased to the point where teens use them pretty much equally now.

Obama asked America what the most important issues facing the country were and with all the questions in the world that could be asked, 16 of the top 50 were on drug policy (mostly marijuana) -- including the number one question!

Our government's Merida Initiative is underway to help the Mexican government fight their drug war -- $1.6 billion over three years, with $400 million going to Mexico this year for a combination of law enforcement training and equipment, and technical advice. More severed heads to follow.

Jim Ramstead, the candidate being floated as the next drug czar, was the sole sponsor of an earmark providing $235,000 to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a branch of a national anti-addiction group which believes that recruiting people into the Assemblies of God ministry will cure their addiction.

Barry Cooper's KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. Less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster's attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster's secret mobile office nearby.

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

The Number One Question via Democracy 2.0

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:51:05 -0500

You've got to hand it to the Obama team: web 2.0 was not just a campaign strategy for them. The latest online move within the most transparent administration ever at Change.gov was a poll called "Open Questions" that asks you- you!- what the most important issues facing the president-elect are.

The really cool, web 2.0 part of this exercise? Other users voted submitted issues up and those receiving the most votes were placed in the highest prominence. Call it democracy 2.0.

The number one issue on yours, mine, and Joe the Plumber's mind in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression?

"Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

As Chris Bowers of Open Left noted, "This should be a question that the incoming administration has to answer. It is, after all, not a small problem, not an issue on which there is consensus, and has not been addressed elsewhere. The Internet has long provided an outlet for issues and questions ignored by gatekeeper media. It is nice to see that "Open for Questions" is proving no exception."

Mr. Bowers is right that there is not a consensus here, but it's hard to think of an issue that falls more squarely upon generational lines. During the primary campaign, Obama talked alot about moving beyond the politics of the 1960's and the long hangover it left. He talked of moving beyond the belief that how one views the sixties is a shortcut to their political ideology.

I believe Mr. Obama is right- we have moved beyond the sixties litmus test. I spent some of my college years and beyond following the southern jamband Widespread Panic. The nucleus of Panic's fan base is the deep south, and those fans can be found in some proportion at most of their shows. Here are a few things I can tell you about that fan base: they're from conservative states and were raised in conservative households. Many hated Clinton. They drove SUV's, hunted, and watched a lot of college football. Their attitudes about race and homosexuality were not typically progressive. And they smoked massive amounts of marijuana.

In marijuana Mr. Obama can find proof of his campaign contention that we've moved beyond the politics of the sixties. It's right there on his website: 16 of the top 50 questions were on drug policy. Regardless of the outcome, how can he not respond?

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

Meet Pablo

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:49:16 -0500

Meet Pablo, the adorable and dead mascot of the new anti-cocaine advert (that's how they say it there) from the U.K. that uses wit in an attempt to promote the dangers of cocaine use. This advert fails, but at least it's a funny fail, unlike the war on drugs itself. Thanks to Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the U.K. for the articulate analysis of the Pablo campaign. Here are the other adverts in the series.

So, sleep tight my fellow Americans, apparently there is still a country that uses anti-drug advertising in an comparably ineffective way. Only, at least the U.K.'s adverts are funny -- sort of.

I'm not sure, but are cocaine users supposed to feel guilty that Pablo was used as a drug mule and then killed? Whether it is animals or desperate men and women exploited as couriers, the fact remains that prohibition caused the black market profitability that fuels drug mules. While this is a terribly sad situation caused by black market de-regulation, cocaine users in no way should feel guilty for Pablo's death because they did not create it. Add to the fact that some of these ads feature hands penetrating the lining of Pablo's stomach where he was cut to retrieve the drugs, a gruesome situation is heightened by its failed attempt at associating blame.

Ultimately, these adverts intimate a dichotomy without nuance: YOU, the user, are to blame for Pablo's death; the only road out of perdition is to not use drugs. Basically, drug users kills puppies. But we all know that isn't true...Cops do!

But look on the bright side, without Pablo's death, there would be no somewhat funny anti-drug commercials* to watch while you eat dinner -- and then summarily throw it up**.

While this isn't as bad as the brain snorting commercial I posted a little back, it is an entire waste of the 1 million sterling (some will scoff at the low amount) that could be, for example, donated to some animal shelters.

*Unfortunately, that is only for the U.K., or if you read this blog while eating dinner.
** Fortunately, that is only for the U.K., or if you read this blog while eating dinner.

Posted by Evan G.

Alive We Want Them Back

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:48:42 -0500

Jonathan Magbie died in jail because his jailers couldn't provide proper health care.

He was locked up in the first place because he was a paraplegic who smoked cannabis to alleviate his suffering -- and when he came before the judge, arrested for his illegal drug use, he spoke his truth to power: he would continue smoking his medicine despite the consequences. For his integrity, he was given a ten-day jail sentence, which in the DC jail system meant a death sentence for someone in his condition. The normal sentence for a first-time offense like this was probation. The medical officials at the jail called the judge to inform her that they weren't equipped to handle his case; she refused to change his sentence.

Magbie needed a special ventilator to breathe at night; when he eventually fell ill, without it, the paramedics would be forced to wait 30 minutes to fill out the proper paperwork to get him to a hospital (after lord knows how many hours before they were called in the first place). He died in the hospital later that night.

I'm so tired of waxing righteous on stories like this. Drug prohibition is filled with so much ugliness, so many wrongs, such horrific abuse of state power. Last week the lawsuit that Magbie's mother filed was settled in DC -- and some provisions made to ensure that this kind of death is avoided as much as possible in the future.

There are a few ways to look at this, as an outsider, as a tired outsider. When I'm in my hopeless shoes, I look at this case, this one jail, this one ruling, and feel like it's a small drop in an ocean of state murder.

But when I'm in my grounded shoes, I feel like it's time to stop my whining and let this be a sobering moment for all of us in the social justice movement. We need to get organized, build power, and take down this stinking drug war that is killing members of our community.

There's a saying that I heard from the mothers of the disappeared when I was visiting Chile recently. It's too late to bring back some of our loved ones. But it's time to demand:

"Vivos se los llevaron y vivos los queremos!"
"Alive they took them and alive we want them back!"

Posted by Vera Leone

Czar Walters Thinks Dead People are a Measure of Success

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:48:11 -0500

Today is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of the 18th amendment. For those of you (and me) who fell asleep during high schools civics, the 18th A. banned alcohol in the United States -- a constitutional provision that led to death, disease, and deregulation!

If you don't remember prohibition, history tells us that it didn't work so well, so it was repealed on December 5th, 1933 by the 21st amendment.

Question: Hypothetically, if Prohibition was enacted by the 15th amendment, and repealed by the 18th amendment, do you think the drinking age would have started out at 15 and then risen to age 18?

Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann has a thoughtful and articulate reflection of alochol and drug porhibition today in the Wall Street Journal here.

ONDCP Director (Drug Czar) John Walters also has a piece alongside Ethan's piece here. As you would expect, it is filled with meaningless rhetoric. But what really grinds my gears (besides having an incompetant fool in charge of, let's face it, the world's drug policies) is that Walters has the nerve to think that the war on drugs "has been a success -- although that success is one of Washington's best kept secrets."

Apparently Walters is in a position to define his own success, mainly by saying youth drug use has gone down during his tenure -- although this demographic's drug use fluctuates widely and the measurements of use have been criticized by a number of organizations.

Furthermore, consider that in 2005, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 22,000 people died from drug overdoses -- surpassing the 17,000 homicides for that year. Deaths from prescription drugs increased over 160% for that same period as well. While Mr. Walters and his office concentrate on preventing drug use in youth, these statistics indicate that he is cherry picking and setting his own benchmarks for "success".

Maybe Mr. Walters should go and tell the friends and family of those 22, 000 people who died that his policies are winning the war on drugs, when science-based public health programs effectively, and more cheaply, could have contributed to prevent such overdoses. With so many people needlessly dying each year, it is ridiculous for Mr. Walters to claim success, or as he intimates, victory, in fighting the war on drugs.

Posted by Evan G.

Victory in Common Sense, 75th Anniversary

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:47:22 -0500

That's right, 75 years ago today, Alcohol Prohibition came to a close.

Called "the Noble Experiment," more of a misnomer; it was an experiment in suppressing the sovereign rights of U.S. citizenry over their own bodies. There's nothing noble about forcing people, through punishment, to live according to someone else's morality. Especially when it comes to restricting what they do with their own bodies.

Unfortunately, common sense in one area does not necessarily translate to common sense everywhere. Somehow, the lessons of Prohibition have not left their mark on the American People. There's a great capacity to forgive and forget, and in this particular case, bad policies were forgiven, and now forgotten, even as bad policies stare in our face everyday, as (some) drug prohibition continues on.

As Ethan Nadelmann stated in the Wall Street Journal today (paraphrased): the devil you do know scares you less than the devil you don't.

I can vouch for that. When I was locked up in federal prison for Conspiracy to Distribute LSD, I had a case manager quip during a 'progress' meeting: "I haven't seen an LSD case in almost a hundred years!"

Yes, LSD cases are rare. Since the heyday of prosecution in the 70's, LSD has fallen off the map of priorities to the federal government. LSD cases have become more and more rare through the 80's and 90's, even to today. Even more rare was for me to hold my tongue: "hard to imagine [not seeing an LSD case for a hundred years] that, considering it's only been illegal for 36 [at the time] years."

The point being that the prison staff member couldn't imagine a world where LSD wasn't illegal, and similarly, in his head, it always had been. He couldn't think in terms of the drug war being a rather novel (not to mention fruitless) approach towards handling certain substances in a society.

People might hate the comparison, but it's like being in the Antebellum South, and imagining a world with interracial couples being a norm, rather than exception.

The bottom line? Common sense won over prejudice. An experiment in repression clearly demonstrated to be a failure was abandoned. It might be because they called it an "experiment" rather than a "war" that it was repealed. No matter what the case, however, it is a common sense that we need to import to these modern times.

So while a lot of people will be celebrating today, I will not. Over 500,000 people remain in prison because of prohibition - just not alcohol prohibition. I'll celebrate when they're let free - not just because they're unjustly punished, but because our society will finally be one major step closer towards truly being the land of the free.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Let's End Drug Prohibition

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 10:15:22 -0500

Today is the 75th anniversary of that blessed day in 1933 when Utah became the 36th and deciding state to ratify the 21st amendment, thereby repealing the 18th amendment. This ended the nation's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition. When repeal came, it was not just with the support of those with a taste for alcohol, but also those who disliked and even hated it but could no longer ignore the dreadful consequences of a failed prohibition. They saw what most Americans still fail to see today: That a failed drug prohibition can cause greater harm than the drug it was intended to banish.

California's Prison Crisis: Asking the Wrong Question

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 10:13:50 -0500

I've been attending the California prison law suit brought by mentally ill prisoners who have alleged that the care they received in prison is so poor it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The cast of characters in this particular drama is as follows: the plaintiffs are the prisoners and the defendant is the state of California. There is a three judge panel hearing the case, and they are very much on the side of the plaintiffs, often ignoring or swatting away any objections offered by the defendants.

The original action was brought on April 5, 2001. Along the way, one of the federal judges hearing the present case decided that the only way California would improve its prisoner treatment was if he assigned an outsider to take control.

The narrow question that the prisoners must answer in the positive in the three to four weeks of testimony is: does the overcrowding of California's prisons cause the constitutionally deficient care the prisoners receive? California has about 172,000 inmates, almost double its prison capacity. Plaintiffs seek to limit the population of California's 33 prisons to 104,000, requiring the release of 52,000 inmates to county jails, treatment centers and parole. If the judges are convinced by the plaintiffs, they will order a cap on the maximum prisoner population and could leave it to the state to figure out what to do with the excess prisoners.

Testimony from the plaintiff's and the defendant's witnesses converge on several points. California has one of the most overcrowded, overburdened prison systems in the country. According to one witness for the defense, every year around 140,000 prisoners go into the system, and 140,000 come out of the system. The average stay of an inmate is less than a year.

Condensing all of the testimony and evidence into the narrow quesiton presented by the court poses a challenge for both sides. Today Judge Henderson told the plaintiff during his cross examination that his lengthy questioning of the witness was "torturing us."

However one views the massive evidence and testimony, the real missed opportunity here seems to be the questions not being asked.

If all goes according to plaintiff's plans, the judges will find that prison overcrowding is the cause of the horrible, non-existent care that the inmates receive. Let us assume for a moment that such a decision will not be appealed to the Supreme Court (it will). The three judge panel will order the state of California to cap its prison population at 104,000.

California will then decide how to decide who to let out. Should they release those prisoners who are least likely to commit another crime? It turns out that the prisoners who commit "low level" offenses like property crimes are far more likely to commit another crime than a second degree murderer.

Is the criteria for release who is most likely to return to prison or who has committed the least objectionable crime?

Which brings me to my point: a very high percentage of prisoners that commit property and other low level crimes do so to satisfy their addiction to drugs. They commit crime because they cannot afford to satisfy their addiction. So, many "low level" offenders commit more crimes because they crave more drugs.

We the taxpayer are supporting a system that finds it wise to spend over $40,000 per year on someone because they committed a crime to feed a drug habit. How much would it cost to maintain that "criminal" on a regime of his addicted drug and provide him with job counseling? How much would be saved in property crimes prevented because the "criminal" did not have to steal to get a drug, not to mention the exorbitant costs of incarceration? How many lives would be saved by sparing thousands from the prison system?

In Switzerland, crime by heroin addicts has fallen 60 per cent since an initiative to allow health clinics to administer controlled doses of the drug began 14 years ago, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. Swiss voters just passed a landmark law to provide free heroin to registered addicts.

Imagine if the federal judiciary could convene a three judge panel that asks a slightly broader question: "Is drug prohibition, three strikes, and the imposition of three years of parole on every released prisoner the cause of the prison overcrowding crises in the state of California?" Starting with the proposition that from 1982 to 2000, California's prison population grew at a rate of 500%, I think the plaintiffs would have a strong case.

Posted by J. Gibson Verkuil

Victory in Common Sense, 75th Anniversary

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 10:13:18 -0500

Commemorating World AIDS Day

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 15:52:54 -0500

"In the criminalization of both drugs and sex, the state claims for itself the right to police consensual adult behaviors and punish willing participants."

Author Wendy Chapkis, professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine, is reading from her book Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine at Bluestockings in the East Village this evening at 7 pm. What I would give to be in New York tonight!

Having previously tackled research on prostitution and published Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor and Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance, Chapkis turns to the war on drugs. I've only read the introduction - but I'm hooked and can't wait to read the whole book. She is one of those smart, fearless writers who doesn't pretend to be objective. It always makes me angry when researchers pretend they're unbiased - there are always cultural lenses at play, always feelings and perspectives and ideas that make up who you are as a human. Those aren't erased just because you're researching something; there's no clean slate to start from. By admitting who you are and where you're coming from in the first place, your research - your story - stands on more honest footing and is easier to understand. Folks in Chapkis' community have struggled with medical marijuana issues for years, and helped get Prop 215, California's Compassionate Use Act, passed in 1996. They went on to found a medical marijuana cooperative for patients and caregivers to help seriously ill folks grow their own medicine.

Her book investigates the struggle with the federal government for the right to use marijuana, and portrays the chronically ill - many dying of AIDS - and their caregivers fighting for their rights. She's a phenomenal writer, and dedicates this book "to the many WAMM [Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana] members who died during the decade in which this account was crafter, as well as to all those still active, still defiant, still demanding alternatives to war."

So. Get out and celebrate World AIDS Day today. Fight for a better future.

If you're in New York, go to tonight's event!

If you're in DC, join DC Fights Back.

If you're somewhere else ... well, I'm sure there's something. If nothing else, join the Facebook event Don't Be (RED)ICULESS on World AIDS Day - buy less and give more!

Posted by Vera Leone

USA: Worse Than The Thunderdome

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 15:52:28 -0500

The U.S. is no longer happy with just being the world police, we now must be the world police, judge, jury, and executioner.

According to the Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2008 Sunday Home Edition, Mexico is now extraditing suspected drug smugglers at a record rate to the United States, for prosecution here.

While the U.S. does send suspected criminals to Mexico for prosecution, it is not nearly at the same rate. From the Times story:

"Mexico extradited 83 suspects to the United States last year and has handed over about 70 so far this year, according to U.S. figures. Fifty-one more cases await approval by Mexican judges. In return, U.S. authorities say that they have sent 26 wanted suspects to Mexico this year, a record."

Clearly, our ratio is worse than the Thunderdome in the Mad Max movie: there two men entered, and one man left. For the U.S.? It's closer to three suspects enter (and might even reach five) for every suspect that leaves.

While the numbers are relatively small, somehow I doubt this practice will help change the fact that the U.S. imprisons more people, at a higher ratio, than anyone else in the world. Not to mention that our conviction rates at the federal level are larger than accepted margins for human error - meaning that we have to accept at this point that we lock up innocent people in pursuit of our prohibition policies for some drugs.

All of this comes on the heels of another study by a Washington D.C. think-tank, this time the Brooking's Institute, stating that our policies are an absolute failure. Why are we so hell-bent on exporting this failure? Probably because it's easier to justify a failed policy, so long as "everyone else is doing it too."

And yes, that was tongue-in-cheek. I am, after all, a child of the 80's, growing up with ludicrous anti-drug ads.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Former DPA Intern Helps Defeat Student Drug Testing at her High School

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 15:49:44 -0500

When former DPA intern Jessica Matuozzi learned from her younger brother that his high school --her former high school-- was considering a random student drug testing proposal, she didn't take the news sitting down. This busy NYU college student took the time away from writing midterms to collect materials and prep to speak at the Bernards Board of Education meeting back in her hometown in New Jersey. Her voice was especially important as New Jersey High School Principal Chris Steffner, who travels the country promoting student drug testing, came to her high school to try to persuade the board to move forward with testing.

I asked Jess if she could write up a blog post reflecting on the experience. Here is what she had to say:

Two weeks ago Chris Steffner came to my high school -- a public school in New Jersey -- to advocate for random student drug testing at my school's board meeting. I raced back to my home town to deliver the urgent message that random student drug testing is wrong for my high school, and it's wrong for young adults.

During the public comment period, I emphasized that my school is comprised of a small community of people in which, as is the case at many high schools, everybody knows everybody else's business. I cannot overestimate the degree of psychological trauma a student would face if labeled by his peers and his teachers as a "drug user," a "bad influence," or "one of the bad kids." You and I both know that if a teenager is repeatedly treated as a deviant, or someone who is not to be trusted, s/he will begin to act that way.

Research shows that students who participate in extracurricular activities are less likely to develop substance abuse problems. In addition, after-school programs offer students who are abusing drugs productive activities as well as contact with teachers, coaches, and peers, who can help them identify and address problematic drug use. Yet, random student drug testing relies on the punishment of removing students who test positive from these programs, giving them more time to engage in the very thing that random student drug testing seeks to prevent - more drug use.

I believe that there are more effective ways to keep teens out of trouble with drugs. We should continue to engage students in after-school programs that grow their self-esteem and keep them out of trouble. We should continue to cultivate trusting, respectful relationships among students and teachers - young people who enjoy the confidence of their parents and teachers, and who are expected to assume responsibility for their actions, and the most likely to act responsibly. We might also think about incorporating science-based drug education into the school curriculum that, instead of using ineffective and dishonest scare tactics, recognizes and seeks to address the reasons why young people might choose to use, or not use, drugs.

The public comment period went extremely well -- only two people testified in favor of random drug testing, and they weren't even residents of my town. Community parents were overwhelmingly opposed to random drug testing, and over twenty of them got up to say so. We await the board's decision in hopes that they will vote against random student drug testing, and for students' health, happiness, and constitutional right to privacy.

The really exciting news is that we just learned today that the Bernards Board of Education voted down the student drug testing proposal!! This is really something to be thankful for. We'll send more details next week.

Posted by Jennifer Kern

The D.E.A. and F.A.M.: Fallacies Against Marijuana

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 15:49:31 -0500

Taken directly from their website, the non-sequitur approach to drug prohibition:

'The legalization movement is not simply a harmless academic exercise. The mortal danger of thinking that marijuana is "medicine" was graphically illustrated by a story from California. In the spring of 2004, Irma Perez was "in the throes of her first experience with the drug ecstasy" when, after taking one ecstasy tablet, she became ill and told friends that she felt like she was "going to die." Two teenage acquaintances did not seek medical care and instead tried to get Perez to smoke marijuana. When that failed due to her seizures, the friends tried to force-feed marijuana leaves to her, "apparently because [they] knew that drug is sometimes used to treat cancer patients." Irma Perez lost consciousness and died a few days later when she was taken off life support. She was 14 years old.'

So, because some kids tried to use marijuana as medicine to treat someone for an ecstasy overdose, that's a danger of thinking of marijuana as medicine? I'm pretty sure that no matter what medicine was used, outside of a charcoal tablet or something to that effect, Irma was not going to be "helped" by any medicine. Does that mean it's dangerous to think of cough syrup as medicine? Because she would probably have died if her friends made her drink cough medicine as well. That's the danger of guifeisen for sure! Ban! Ban! Ban! Guifeisen doesn't cure ecstasy overdose, ergo it's dangerous to think of Guifeisen as medicine!

Okay, enough of my mimicry. The D.E.A.'s next fallacy is one known as "ad hominem" or attacking the person, instead of the argument. It also has a bonus prize of hidden premise:

'A few billionairesâ€”not broad grassroots supportâ€”started and sustain the "medical" marijuana and drug legalization movements in the United States. Without their money and influence, the drug legalization movement would shrivel. According to National Families in Action, four individuals â€“ George Soros, Peter Lewis, George Zimmer and John Sperling â€“ contributed $1,510,000 to the effort to pass a "medical" marijuana law in California in 1996, a sum representing nearly 60 per cent of the total contributions.'

If a few billionaires fund the medical marijuana movements, so what? What exactly does that prove? As for the broad grassroots support, the hidden premise is that they don't exist because there isn't funding from them. A better read is that the grassroots support for medical marijuana are often patients, which the D.E.A. regularly calls, "criminals." Does anyone really wonder why they're not making their identities, much less their financial activities, known to the federal government? If someone who can lock you up is calling you a criminal, do you really want to give them your name?

Taking things a step further, without the coerced extraction of funds from the federal taxpayer, the D.E.A. and ONDCP, and hell, almost every last drug warrior (even D.A.R.E. programs and the Partnership for a Drug Free America take federal [pork] disbursements) and their prohibition policy would "shrivel." At least the 'legalization movement' as they call it rely on voluntary contributions.

Finally, 1.5 million in 1996 as a significant figure? How about the billions spent yearly on drug prohibition, with only millions of prisoners to show for it? Or the 130 million spent by ONDCP to promote drug prohibition (though, to be fair, it was probably only 90 million in 1996, outspending these "billionaires" by a factor of 60)? A majority of this money is spent against marijuana, the same substance that has no known overdose, ever. Water can't even claim that kind of safety.

There's more, but really, need I say it (I probably will in a later blog regardless)?

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

ONDCP: 130 million for Burrito Tasters and Remote Control Operators

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 15:48:32 -0500

ONDCP is going to spend 130 million dollars on media in 2008 (total expected budget).

What have they spent a majority of this money on? Ineffectual advertisements to somehow diminish the rates of marijuana consumption in the U.S. The two items in the headline are examples of this ineffectual advertisement, posted to their blog.

Why anyone would spend so much money to combat a chemical that has never induced an overdose, and is of questionable harm, is itself a separate topic. What is not a separate topic is that these media buys, a large portion of the ONDCP budget, have no indication of doing anything outside of funneling money into media stations. That money could be much better used, say, in funding needle exchanges, which save lives daily.

Or, 130 million towards training for the use of and distributing Narcan could probably stop up to half of the yearly overdoses in the United States.

The opposition to Narcan and needle exchanges often decry helping out "junkies." I have no problem with people opposing the helping out of junkies - but only respect consistency. It is because of a perceived need to "help" the public welfare that drugs are (ostensibly) illegal in the first place. If you're against Narcan distribution and needle exchanges because they "help junkies," you're a hypocrite to support the drug war.

Don't think the opposite is true though - those of us that support needle exchanges are most often against the drug war, precisely because it fails to protect anyone from anything, and instead punishes people who either 1) don't really have problems outside of ones created by prohibition, 2) have problems not related to prohibition and need help, not punishment, or 3) are merely around someone in situation #1 or #2.

So while people are outraged by multi-billion dollar bailouts with no consequences or demands to multi-billion dollar financial firms, keep in mind that since 1988, the federal government has been in effect bailing out the media by handing free money over to publish, print, transmit, and send ineffectual propaganda to the American public. All without much outrage by the U.S. public. Recently, that propaganda has focused on marijuana, which has never caused one overdose on record, despite propaganda from another federally-funded agency: the D.E.A. I'm outraged.

Up Next: The D.E.A. and Public Support for Non-Sequitur Arguments Against Marijuana

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Methadone Could Help Cocaine Addicts, Study Suggests

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:56:12 -0500

Methadone, a drug used for many years to treat heroin addiction, also appears to work well against cocaine addiction, a new Canadian study suggests.

Report Calls for Fresh Approach to Latin America

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:55:53 -0500

With the election of Barack Obama, the United States has a fresh chance to reinvigorate its relations with Latin America, according to a new report that recommends Washington overhaul its drug policies at home and pursue a rapprochement with Cuba. The report, compiled by prominent former policy-makers from the United States and Latin America and scheduled for release on Monday by the Brookings Institution, called on the new administration to put Latin America at the center of its foreign policy radar screen.

Court Ruling Will Limit Solo Marijuana Providers

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:55:34 -0500

Someone who supplies marijuana to a patient who has a doctor's approval for it can be prosecuted for dealing drugs, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday in a narrow interpretation of California's medical marijuana law. Advocates on both sides of the case agreed that the unanimous ruling will encourage Californians to obtain medical marijuana from patient cooperatives, which are authorized by a 2003 state law, rather than from an individual supplier.

Obama's Drug Czar?

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:34:20 -0500

You have an opportunity right now to influence one of the most important choices President-elect Obama will make. The media is reporting that he is considering nominating Republican Congressman James Ramstad (MN/3rd) to be his “drug czar”. It’s easy to understand why. Rep. Ramstad is in recovery from substance abuse (alcohol) and has a long track record in support of increasing access to drug treatment. Ramstad, however, is still mostly wedded to the failed punitive drug war policies of the last 30 thirty years.

For instance, Ramstad has voted against medical marijuana five times. He has voted against making sterile syringes more available to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS three times. Even though his colleagues are increasingly supporting sentencing reform, including eliminating the crack/powder sentencing disparity, he hasn’t stood up on the issue.

In other words, Rep. Ramstad does not appear to be committed to the kind of change President-elect Obama has said he will bring to our nation’s drug policies.

Obama needs to hear from you, and is making it easy for you to contact him through his website. Will you take a minute today to urge Obama to choose a drug czar who will champion reform?

The Drug Policy Alliance believes our nation’s next drug czar should be chosen based on the following criteria:

    *      Are they committed to enacting and supporting evidence-based policies? ONDCP should make decisions based on science, not politics or ideology.
    *      Are they committed to reducing the harms associated with both drugs and punitive drug laws? We need a new bottom line for U.S. drug policy.
    *      Do they think drug use should be treated as a health issue not a criminal justice issue? To paraphrase former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, we need a surgeon general not a military general or police officer.
    *      Do they welcome and encourage debate and research? We need a drug czar who is open-minded and willing to consider every alternative.
    *      Are they committed to reducing the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars? Our country’s next drug czar should be fully committed to major sentencing reform.

Who President-elect Obama chooses as his drug czar will affect everyone. DPA is working over-time to influence that decision but we need your help. Please let Obama know that you want him to nominate a drug czar who supports marijuana law reform, syringe availability and treatment-instead-of-incarceration.

Sincerely,

Bill Piper
Director, National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance Network

Report Back from the HRC Conference

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:55:39 -0500

Drug Policy Alliance staff and allies recently gathered at the biennial Harm Reduction Coalition conference in Miami, FL. The forum served as an exciting exchange of cutting-edge information, empowering ideas and successful strategies for incorporating harm reduction into direct community services, public policy and individual life choices.

The Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC) is a national advocacy and capacity-building organization that promotes the health and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by drug use. The coalition recognizes that the structures of social inequality impact the lives and options of affected communities differently, and the conference encouraged a dialogue between individuals from many different disciplines, backgrounds and personal experiences, including drug users and those with a history of drug use.

“The most helpful aspect of the conference was the roundtable discussion on overdose prevention policy, which had a good mix of service providers, advocates and a few people who inject drugs,” said Office of National Affairs Legislative Associate Grant Smith, who presented on the need for a serious federal response to the overdose crisis, including the need for better overdose surveillance data. “It was especially helpful to hear feedback on ideas for federal advocacy around overdose prevention.” Smith will work with others at DPA on introducing a bill next year that would set up a federal grant program, improve federal data collection on overdose mortality/emergency room visits, and task a federal agency for the first time with reducing overdose death.

More information can be found at the HRC website, www.harmreduction.org.

Our Plan

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:55:21 -0500

I want to let you know what DPA's national game plan is. We just completed a two-day planning session, and I'm excited about our prospects for change. Your part is going to be crucial if we're going to make drug policy reform a focus of the incoming Obama administration.

First, we're going to rein in and redefine the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). We're going to start by working -- both publicly and behind the scenes -- to influence who President Obama chooses as his Drug Czar. Our goal is to get someone who supports treatment, not incarceration; science, not religious moralizing; and civil liberties, not punitive policies. We're also going to do some legislative judo, flip the agency's budget on its head, and refocus it on health and human rights. Imagine a Drug Czar that is required by law to reduce the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars -- or required to implement policies that protect people's privacy.

Second, we're going to build on the momentum from this year and work to push several issues across the finish line in Congress. With some of our strongest congressional allies now holding positions of leadership, we're already mobilizing to eliminate the crack/powder sentencing disparity, repeal the federal syringe ban and undo the Bush administration's Reefer Madness.

Finally, we're going to launch a national campaign to highlight the fact that America cannot afford drug prohibition. We couldn't afford it when times were good and we certainly cannot afford it now that deficits are rising, tax revenue is shrinking and the economy is teetering. This campaign will involve educating the public on cheaper and more effective alternatives to the war on drugs as well as convincing legislators that they can save money by cutting drug war waste. A good start would be killing those stupid anti-marijuana ads (you know, the ones that say if you smoke marijuana you're going to get your fist stuck in your mouth, shoot your best friend in the face, and disappoint your dog: all ads paid for with your tax dollars).

There are a lot of details for this national game plan that still need to be worked out but I wanted to share it with you as soon as possible. The next year may very well be the most important year in drug policy reform history. We have an unprecedented opportunity to reduce the problems associated with both drugs and drug prohibition, put a national spotlight on costly and inhumane policies and bring the war on drugs crashing down. I'm so glad you're with us.

Sincerely,
Bill Piper
Director, Office of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance

Canada's West Coast Leads the Americas in Drug Policy Reform

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:54:54 -0500

Special thanks to Gillian Maxwell, community activist and spokesperson for the Insite Community Safety Campaign in Vancouver, BC for her input on this article.

British Columbia has been leading the hemisphere in drug policy reform for years. The most recent civic elections confirm this point, and demonstrate the power of effective policy advocacy and public education.

In 1998, there was an HIV epidemic declared and an urgent need for new drug policies based on harm reduction. Service organizers and public health officials did as much as they could. According to Vancouver community activist Gillian Maxwell, “the severity of the situation necessitated a lot of actions very quickly.” She continued, noting, “a lot of education went on over an intense few years.” Thanks to their education and advocacy efforts, the first safer injection facility in North America was opened in 2003 – and despite federal government pressure, Insite remains open. Elected officials in British Columbia are accountable to a well-informed public.

Gregor Robertson, mayor-elect of Vancouver, supports Insite and even wants to revamp the city’s Four Pillars approach to drug policy – prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement – with interactive, peer-led education programs that can help prevent future drug addictions. Robertson won by a landslide against his leading opponent who was running on a Law and Order platform that would have seen no further investment in safe injection facilities.

The new mayor-elect in nearby Victoria is also supportive of harm reduction efforts. Dean Fortin, who has served on the city council in Victoria, will work to find a permanent location for the city’s syringe exchange program, and see that it has sufficient funding.

Joining the Victoria city council this year will be longtime medical cannabis activist Philippe Lucas, who wrote the British Columbia Green Party platform on substance abuse and marijuana. Elections in other parts of the province bode well for drug policy reform, too – like in Grand Forks, where former Marijuana Party leader Brian Taylor is the new mayor-elect.

¡Evo Hermano, el Pueblo Esta Contigo!

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:53:05 -0500

It was really cold last Tuesday night outside the Ward Circle building at American University. My housemate and I shivered in our puffy coats, and tried to re-enact the emperor penguin scenes from Planet Earth while waiting in line to hear Bolivian President Evo Morales address a crowd of students, staff and folks in the DC community. By the time we'd run through our entire Arctic documentary repertoire, the speech was starting and the event staff was walking down the line of hundreds of would-be audience members telling us to check the website tomorrow at 3 pm when the video would be posted (which it wasn't, by the way. Unless you've found it? Let me know!) After trying to drum up some crowd cheers, we left, empty-eared.

So it was cold, and I was (selfishly) sad. I wanted to see and hear for myself the man who had the wisdom, guts and popular support (his approval rating, based on the last referendum, is more than three times that of President Bush) to tell the U.S. DEA to get out of his country. I wanted to be part of the group of U.S. Americans who welcomed him with applause, and showed him that we're not all [insert imaginative, offensive language] like our erstwhile president and his administration. I wanted to thank him, too, for withdrawing Bolivia's troops from the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) and let him know that we're super close to closing this school of torturers, dictators and mass murderers. It occurs to me that the SOA and the DEA are two hands of the same monster, and used to further the same ends: protection of U.S. corporate economic interests, oppression of the majority of the world's population, especially the poor, people of color and increasing women.

Morales time and again has stood up to the biggest political-economic bully there is, and survived. I think this is concerning to said bully, and speaks to its loosening grasp of control and domination. Looser though it may be, just like here at home, one way that control has been gathered and cemented is through the war on drugs. According to Morales, the DEA, prior to his giving them the boot, was involved in all kinds of activities beyond its already specious purview in fighting the war on drugs. He reported agents spying on political affairs, financing criminal groups involved with killing Bolivian government officials, seizing airports in regions of the country where the fascist elite opposition to Morales has been the breeding ground for coup attempts, financing these coup attempts ... it is clearly very dangerous to be an indigenous president with immense popular support countering the U.S. hegemonic interests in Latin America.

It's no surprise that the Washington Post article about his recent visit blames him for the worsening relations with the U.S. And no great shocker, either, that the vitriolic racism spewed from the small crowd of anti-Morales protestors outside his press conference at the OAS on Wednesday is glossed over, and its fascist spewers characterized as "activists." But later that day Morales sat down for a brief interview with Indian Country Today and spoke of what grounds him in his collective struggle for justice. "In indigenous culture, equality is so sacred," he said. "It's a profound difference between our model life in indigenous communities and the model of life put forward by a capitalist society."

A profound difference indeed. And one we're, hopefully, growing ever closer to recognizing and seeing in our every-day work. We want to end the war on drugs. Yes. But why? For lots of different reasons, I'd wager, but equality might just be a point of unity in our politically and spiritually (and in so many other ways) disparate movement. It's good to be reminded that in our pursuit of equality we have allies all 'round the world, and that together, we're much stronger than we may yet know.

Posted by Vera Leone

A Chance At Dynamic Change

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:52:48 -0500

Ever so rarely, a good idea is drawn up: let's try something out, and give it an end date. The end date is just in case the idea doesn't work out so well, but vested interests form that would normally keep the bad idea alive. This is not waxing poetic, this is talking about the Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP.

In all likelihood, John Walters is on his way out. The murmurs are already in place. Who is going to replace Walters? The real question is, however, does he really need to be replaced? Can anyone point to what ONDCP's accomplishments have been, in real terms, that indicate success towards its mission?

From where I'm standing, they've ran very unsuccessful campaigns against marijuana, have successfully lobbied against some ballot propositions (which in all likelihood, to quote Olbermann, will be called "Why Daddy went to prison" sometime in the future, unless Obama is big on pardons), and generally have wasted taxpayer money while lives are lost to both the abuse of drugs, and the harms of drug prohibition policies.

So the link to my opening? ONDCP sunsets in 2010. That's right, the "Drug Czar" has the potential to be dissolved, like the office was hit with a bucket of water, or a dose of reality.

Let us learn from the Obama campaign: organize now, organize later, organize at all times. With a growing movement starting from now, perhaps we can put an end to this failure of an office. Getting rid of ONDCP would be one step towards ending the failure of strategy that represents prohibition, and movement towards proven, effective methods of dealing with the harms of certain drugs: harm reduction, prevention, education.

Time to put the war ideology and demagoguery to rest, it's been a miserable failure that's lived well past its shelf life.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

From Below and to the Not So Much Left

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:44:22 -0500

I am writing this from the highly sought-after hotel shared computer in Santiago, Chile where I have been living for the past week as a member of a delegation of SOA Watch activists from the United States. I was already beyond U.S. borders when it was declared that Obama won the election last week - I was, in fact, nervously watching states turn blue and red on the only television displaying CNN in the Toronto airport on election night.

Chile is not Colombia or Mexico or Bolivia, and therefore not, I think, a significant recipient of U.S. anti-narcotrafficking "aid." But wherever we go and whoever we meet, we are soon asked about Obama, what we think of him, whether he will be a friend of Latin America. Certainly Obama could not be less of a friend than President Bush has been, our analysis has to go deeper than that, no? Drug war funds in Latin America are used - behind a thinning veil - as a means of military control, as I think can be said for our own country.

My flight left the U.S. before the election was over, so I can not speak to the mood in my community, but at least in the lead-up, there was more engagement, more political energy than I had ever seen. That is a good sign, and something that social movements for sensible drug policies and those working for human rights in Latin America need to build on. Maybe what we can learn from our compaÃ±eros in Chile is something about the incredible coalition building I have been witnessing in this past week. Obama is going to have a full plate as he takes office, with countless causes and organizations asking him to take progressive action. Let us find ways to work together and demand that action with a unified, powerful voice, for the future of our own communities and with those struggling to resist U.S. policies around the world.

Posted by Vera Leone

Yes We Can... Can't We?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:43:49 -0500

Unfortunately, in California, the current answer, from the rejection of Proposition 5, is "no."

In the October 30th Rolling Stone, yet more publishing of the obvious:

"In the United States, the War on Drugs is a political slogan for a policy disaster that has cost taxpayers at least $500 billion over the past 35 years. In Mexico, it is a brutal and bewildering conflict â€” a multisided civil war that has taken 3,000 lives this year alone and brought the federal government to a state of near-collapse."

How many more must die before we can revisit this failure, and move towards a better approach? Using cops and the military has only led to more, not less, death. Drug policy was supposed to be about protecting the public - instead, we're victimizing them domestically and internationally.

We, collectively, are bathing in denial around the fundamental truth of this: the black marketing of drugs, similar to prohibition, fuels the economy of it, and fuels the violence.

For every dead person in this tragedy, we have nothing but our policies to blame. The money wasted on these futile policies would be better served administering to the public health - billions of dollars that could be re-routed to proven techniques of basic health care, education, and prevention.

We have a new president-elect, with a slogan of "Yes We Can!" We need to take this message to heart, and end our longest ongoing war, a war against ourselves - the misnomer (since it's really a war against our own families) "drug war."

Until we move past these prohibition policies, we can't say, "yes we can," with any honesty.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

New York Cutting Off Nose to Spite Face

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:42:54 -0500

As a sign of the (oh my god) economic times, New York Governor David Paterson has cut $8.6 million in funding for nonprofit community-based groups that provide drug treatment and counseling to those that served time in prison and are returning to society -- basically people on parole.

The Division of Parole is also cutting its entire treatment program for parolees -- this will not end well. But don't worry folks, they are providing an additional $2 million to the Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse that will more than make up for an $8 million shortfall. Yeah, that is sure to even things out for the estimated 2,700 participants that are far less likely to receive the help that they need.

When asked about the budget cuts, Erik Kriss, spokesperson for the department of corrections, lamented about the divestment of treatment but added that it had to "protect its own people." Hmm, you know who else had to "protect it's own people"? The California prison guards union.

These New York budget cuts are somewhat ironic. Cutting treatment funding will actually cost more money than it will save in the long run because more people needing treatment during re-entry will recidivate This will cost more money because the increased number of people violating parole will have to be incarcerated.

Treatment has shown to lower recidivism rates and increase community health and safety. Hopefully Paterson will figure out a way to reverse these cuts and approach drug policy through a public health lens, but it doesn't seem likely at the moment.

Posted by Evan G.

2008 Election Results

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:21:44 -0500

DPA Network experts discuss how special interests defeated the biggest sentencing reform in U.S. history on Election Day in California, and why California is still going strong with treatment-instead-of-incarceration despite the loss of Proposition 5 at the ballot box.

Election Results

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 17:54:33 -0500

Maybe you’re delighted by yesterday's election results; maybe you’re disappointed. Either way, you hold the key to overturning our country’s punitive drug policies. Part of what makes the Drug Policy Alliance special is the fact that our members span the political spectrum and sometimes agree on nothing more than a shared commitment to ending the disastrous drug war.

While President-elect Obama is not going to make ending the drug war his #1 priority, he has said that America should start treating drug use as a health issue instead of a criminal justice issue. He supports repealing the federal syringe ban and ending the DEA's raids on medical marijuana patients. He is also co-sponsor of Senator Biden's bill to eliminate the 100-to-1 crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity.

Moreover, many Democrats in leadership positions in Congress support drug policy reform, ranging from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Representative Dana Rohrabacher.

In the months ahead, President-elect Obama will choose a new Drug Czar for our nation, and members of Congress will put together legislation to overhaul his agency. We have an opportunity to re-shape drug policy for a generation.

My enthusiasm is tempered, though, by the defeat of Proposition 5 in California. We knew from early polling that a substantial majority of Californians favored this major reform of the state's prisons and drug sentencing policies. But a sordid coalition of the prison guards' union, the beer distributors' association, gambling interests, fanatical anti-drug groups and craven politicians raised $3.5 million in the last few weeks of the campaign to run deceitful TV ads across the state. Ultimately we could not compete with their lies and scare tactics.

But I know from experience that there’s opportunity to be found in every defeat. We built new coalitions and found new allies, injected new perspectives into the public debate, and increased our stature and ability to shape future policies. We also won respect throughout the state and the nation for taking on the Goliath of the prison-industrial complex.

I feel energized like never before, and so do my colleagues at the Drug Policy Alliance and our many allies in the growing movement to end the drug war. I hope you do, too.

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance

A Good Day for Marijuana Laws

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 14:50:16 -0500

Election Day was a success for marijuana initiatives across the country, thanks to the work of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and numerous state and local groups.

In Massachusetts, voters decriminalized the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. A campaign led by the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy and organized by MPP resulted in a 65 percent to 35 percent victory for the initiative.

In another state-level win, Michigan voters approved a medical marijuana initiative by a similarly lopsided margin. The campaign to pass that initiative was led by the MPP-backed Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care.

At the local level, two initiatives to make make adult marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority won big. One, in Hawaii County, Hawaii, was led by Project Peaceful Sky. The other, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was led by a coalition called Sensible Fayetteville.

DPA's grants program was able to help in Fayetteville earlier this year by funding the final effort to gather signatures so the initiative would appear on the ballot.

DPA congratulates its allies at the national, state, and local levels on the victories made possible by their hard work.

California and Prop 5's Defeat

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 10:53:51 -0500

My byline:

That's Not Change, That's More of the Same!

California voters have once again been bamboozled by the powers that be and ballot officials in California. Namely, the prison guard union, and questionable presentation on the ballot. I know because I am a California voter, and I've been filled to the brim with the "drug dealer's Bill of Rights" garbage. That, and when I first looked at Prop 5 in the ballot, the first words about it were how much it was going to cost me as a taxpayer.

Hardly a good introduction, considering that Prop 5 would actually save me money in the short and long term. In fact, in terms of first impressions, it was incredibly bad - we've got a tanking economy, and you want to introduce me to Prop 5 by telling me how much it's going to cost?

No more crying about our first impressions. Now it's time to get angry about how the media, namely the newspapers, and the advertisements, a.k.a. the standard lies spouted by the prison-industrial complex, still managed to sew fear and dismay into the hearts of California voters.

Arianna Huffington put it best: five governors that did nothing but exacerbate the prison overcrowding crisis got together to oppose the only policy suggested in the past eight years (since Proposition 36, to be exact) to do something to solve the problem. They "reached across the aisle" in a bi-partisan money groveling exercise to continue gleaning monetary support from the prison guard union.

The newspapers haven't been much better - a majority panned Proposition 5, even though, once again, it's the only policy promoted to do something about prison overcrowding. It's also the only policy promoted that would finally provide some serious drug prevention and treatment to adolescents in California.

The most serious indictment of all? That nowhere has anyone, in the media, or from our opponents, suggested any solutions whatsoever. We're on a train headed for a cliff, and rather than allow us to re-tool the track, or try to stop the train, the powers that be state, "keep things as they are."

So, it's now the day after elections. There won't be buyer's remorse on Prop 5, but mark my words, there will be regret. The California voting majority just looked at an attempted solution to our prison overcrowding crisis, a prevention and treatment program for juveniles that desperately need it, and chose to do nothing.

Doing nothing in the context of these two problems? That's just more of the same.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Are We Ready to Tax and Regulate?

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 10:53:24 -0500

The drug war did not have a prominent place in the presidential campaigns this year. But given how the federal coffers are being drained in response to the current economic mess, both candidates might be interested to see some numbers from a September Zogby poll of likely voters who were asked about the war on drugs.

A full three quarters of likely voters said the war on drugs is failing. Not only that, but 28% said the best single way to handle the war on drugs is "legalizing some drugs in the U.S."

The next president should take heed -- there's a lot of money to be saved here! Cutting back on budget-sucking, ineffective programs like eradication in South America, while taxing and regulating marijuana, would be a winning plan at a time when voters are really going to appreciate the government getting smarter about spending.

You can check out the poll question yourself on the Zogby site (PDF).

Posted by Megan Farrington

2008 Voter Guide

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:42:34 -0400

In less than two weeks I will walk into a polling booth and vote my conscience. I’m one of the lucky ones.

On Election Day (November 4th), an estimated 5.3 million Americans will be barred from voting because of a felony conviction (in many cases for a simple drug law violation). I’ll be voting on their behalf. And on behalf of the thousands of Americans, like my Uncle Tommy, who died last year because the government blocks access to sterile syringes. And for all the people who died from a drug overdose because their friends were too afraid of being arrested to call 911 for help. And for the 775,000 Americans who were arrested last year for nothing more than marijuana possession.

Where does your member of Congress stand on these issues? Check out our new voter guide to find out.

If there could be a ballot question that asked, “Should we end the war on drugs?” I would vote yes. I’m fed up with the mass incarceration of my fellow citizens, the reckless drug raids that leave innocent people dead, the rampant racial disparities, the wasted tax dollars, and the demonization of good people. There won’t be such a question on the November 4th ballot, although some ballots will have drug policy reform measures on them. And there will be the names of a lot of candidates seeking our vote. Some of the candidates support punitive drug policies; many others advocate common sense and reform.

I can’t tell you where every candidate in your area stands on drug policy reform, but I can tell you where your Representative in Congress stands on marijuana, syringe exchange, drug treatment, drug war funding and other issues.

It’s all in our 2008 Congressional Voter Guide. I hope you find it useful and interesting. You can find out your state’s election rules, registration information and voting process here.

If, like me, you’re one of the lucky ones and have a vote to cast, then stand up and vote on November 4th. If you’re barred from voting, make sure your friends and family vote. Let’s bring this drug war crashing down.

Sincerely,

Bill Piper
Director of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance Network

P.S. If you have friends or family members living in California, tell them to vote YES on Proposition 5, the biggest U.S. prison and sentencing reform since the repeal of alcohol Prohibition 75 years ago! Learn more at Prop5Yes.com.

Prioritizing Marijuana

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:41:06 -0400

At a time when public pennies need to be pinched, voters in municipalities around the country will be reviewing their law enforcement practices surrounding marijuana arrests. Proven success in cities like Seattle, Washington; Missoula, Montana; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Columbia, Missouri; cities across California and many others have laid the groundwork for upcoming initiatives. Setting adult marijuana arrests as the lowest law enforcement priority saves scarce public resources and frees up time for police and prosecutors to focus on protecting the public against serious and violent crime. Still more communities are considering initiatives to support patients’ access to medical marijuana, and the Drug Policy Alliance Network is supporting the hard work of folks in Maine to collect signatures for a ballot initiative next year which would improve the state’s already existing medical marijuana law.

Hawaii

Project Peaceful Sky is leading the campaign in Hawaii County that will give voters the chance to say yes to Ballot Question 1, the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance. Peaceful Sky board director Adam Lehmann spoke of the significant support for the initiative among residents of the big island, noting, “people are really tired of seeing money misappropriated away from education and healthcare to fund a military-style war on a plant.”

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Sensible Fayetteville, a coalition of groups that includes the Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas, is leading a similar initiative in this state’s third-most populous city. Voters in Fayetteville will have the chance to make adult marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority at the ballot box in November. Two years ago, a similar initiative was passed in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. DPA's grants program was able help fund this year’s final effort in Fayetteville to gather signatures, ensuring that this initiative would qualify for the ballot.

Massachusetts

Voters in the state of Massachusetts will decide whether to decriminalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana on the November ballot’s Question 2. The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, which the Marijuana Policy Project(MPP) helped organize, is sponsoring this initiative which has polled strongly, with support in mid-August reaching 72 percent. Question 2 would replace criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana with a $100 fine, with proceeds benefiting the city in which the offense took place.

Medical marijuana

Several locales are considering voter initiatives that would increase access to medical marijuana. Proposal 1 in Michigan, sponsored by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (MCCC), which MPP also helped form, would protect seriously ill Michigan residents suffering from illnesses like cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis from the threat of arrest and jail for simply trying to alleviate their pain. The law would allow these patients to use, possess, and grow their own marijuana for medical purposes, with their doctors’ approval, while maintaining prohibitions on public use of marijuana and driving under the influence of marijuana. The National Organization for Positive Medicine in Ferndale, Michigan, is sponsoring a separate local initiative which would allow for their organization to distribute medical marijuana. Berkeley, California is also considering a measure to broaden and regularize medical marijuana access, sponsored by Berkeley Patients Group and at least two city council members.

Drug Czar Attacks Prop. 5

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:39:31 -0400

President Bush’s Drug Czar and the powerful California prison guards' union are both turning their guns on the biggest U.S. drug policy reform since alcohol Prohibition was repealed 75 years ago.

Don’t let them get away with it. Tell everyone you know in California to vote YES on Prop. 5!

Proposition 5 on the California ballot would dramatically reduce the role of prison in dealing with drug offenders.

It’s also the only measure on the ballot in California that will save taxpayers billions.  (That’s not just our opinion.  It’s the conclusion of the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.)

But the Drug Czar and the prison guards' union don’t give a damn about soaking taxpayers to pay for a failed drug war.  And they could care less about giving people with drug problems a chance to get treatment and rehabilitation instead of a prison cell.

Now we just found out that the "lock ‘em all up" lobby is raising big bucks to defeat Prop. 5 from the casinos, beer distributors and drug war fanatics.

All that money is going for TV ads using the same old scare tactics that fueled the war on drugs in the first place. But on Election Day, we can show them how wrong they are -- if we get voters to the polls in support of Prop. 5.

No matter where you live, we bet you know at least a few Californians (or at least someone who does)! Will you help get out the vote for Prop. 5? Do it the easy way -- email this message!

Check out our TV ads and then share the link with your friends in California so they hear the truth about Prop. 5. Coming from you, the message will carry a lot of weight. You can help us counter the millions of dollars the prison guards’ union and their friends are spending on dishonest and scare tactic ads.

You’ll be in good company. Everyone from the League of Women Voters of California to the California Nurses Association to the California Federation of Teachers to the Consumer Federation of California supports Prop. 5.  So does former Secretary of State George Shultz.  They all know Prop. 5 will save money and save lives.

Sincerely,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance Network

P.S. Even if you don’t live in California, you can help put ads on TV! Check them out here and support the Prop. 5 ad campaign with a donation!

Voter Rights Win in Alabama

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:38:59 -0400

Communications specialist Tony Papa created this painting, "Vote," while serving 12 years of his 15-to-life sentence at Sing-Sing under New York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws.

29 October 2008 UPDATE:The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS), DPA Network’s partner organization on the ground in Alabama, settled a lawsuit on voting rights with the Alabama Department of Corrections, and our historic voter education effort is proceeding in Alabama prisons. TOPS co-founder and executive director Reverend Glasgow has resumed his non-partisan ministry to inform eligible voters currently incarcerated of their rights. Alabama joins only Vermont and Maine in allowing certain people to vote while incarcerated in state prisons. The lawsuit was filed after the Alabama Department of Corrections canceled Reverend Glasgow’s ministry following the Alabama Republican Party’s objection to his voter education activities. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, under Ryan Haygood, acted as counsel for TOPS in the lawsuit.

On Election Day, people across the country will miss out on casting a ballot because they don't even know they're eligible to vote. Earlier this month in Alabama, we began working to repair the democratic process with a groundbreaking voter registration project being conducted in partnership with TOPS.

The Alabama Constitution protects the right to vote for people convicted of nonviolent, low-level drug crimes but most of the 70,000 people in the Alabama criminal justice system who fall into this category have never been told they can vote. Even when they do know they're eligible, they have no easy access to the ballot box -- and as many as 10,000 eligible voters are currently incarcerated in Alabama's overcrowded prisons.

TOPS is going into prisons to register voters this fall, working to remedy this egregious example of how the war on drugs undermines our democracy. The group, however, is encountering strong Republican opposition. Two days after we began this historic voter registration drive, the Alabama Republican Party responded with a letter emailed to the Corrections Commission strongly opposing our efforts. In it, Party Chairman Mike Hubbard wrote, “I have concerns about potential issues with how this effort is being monitored to ensure no form of voter fraud occurs." He explained that the party supports voter registration in general, but not for prisoners, and asked Allen to outline the prison system's plans for preventing fraud.

Rev. Kenneth Glasgow plans to register as many eligible voters as possible inside Alabama prisons, and challenged Hubbard’s statement. "I think they're more worried about me being a Democrat than anything," said Glasgow, whose half-brother is noted Democrat activist Rev. Al Sharpton. Rev. Glasgow continued, “voter registration drives are an essential part of our democracy. This action by the GOP and the Department of Corrections smacks of voter intimidation. Our focus isn't politics, it’s restoration.” TOPS will return to jails and prisons in the coming weeks to make sure inmates mail in absentee forms, continuing a project advancing human rights and preparing prisoners to return to society. Alabama is just one example among many. More than five million people nationwide are disfranchised for all kinds of offenses, with nonviolent drug convictions making up a significant portion of that group. In some states, anyone with a felony conviction is barred from ever voting again -- even once their debt to society is fully paid. In many other states, the process of restoring your right to vote after a felony conviction is so wrapped in red tape that even the most determined would-be voter gets stuck.

Not only that, but widespread misconceptions keep eligible potential voters from ever even trying to register. For example, in New York state, a survey conducted by a voting rights organization found that many county registrars in New York believed that people who had been arrested -- not convicted, just arrested -- could not vote. Among arrestees themselves, an even greater percentage believed the same thing!

The historic work DPAN and TOPS are doing in Alabama paves the way to address larger questions about the intersection between voting rights and the criminal justice system. One of these questions takes on particular relevance given the close results of recent elections: Nationally, how many potential votes are lost because of draconian penalties for nonviolent drug offenses?

As we begin this conversation nationwide, the Drug Policy Alliance Network is excited to be part of Alabama efforts in advance of a presidential election that is projected to have very high voter turnout. We have a long way to go to restore democracy to our criminal justice system but we’re proud that Alabamians who didn't even know they could vote will be part of the large numbers of Americans who cast a ballot this Election Day. You can join us by supporting this historic work with a donation to DPA Network.

Who's Lying Now?

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:37:41 -0400

As I tend to mention (all too often?), I've spent time in jail. Six months. Not fun, but not always horrific either. What was always horrific? The health care - or lack thereof - on the inside.

While I was locked up - for only six months!! - one woman died at my facility (FPC Alderson) because while she was transferred through the prison system, the paperwork for her heart medication was not. When she complained of chest pain, the guards called her a liar. It was their default response to any inmate health complaint. Another of my friends had breast cancer that was going almost completely untreated. Another broke her arm in a compound fracture (that kind where the bone is literally sticking out) and because it was a Friday evening, she was told to suck it up and wait until Monday, when an extra shift would be on to take her to the hospital. We had one doctor for 1,000 women, and I'm quite sure absolutely no one was getting any kind of real substance abuse treatment while incarcerated.

California imprisons 170,000 people in prisons that were built for 100,000. That in and of itself is unconscionable, but what makes it worse is that there is no real health care - physical or mental - available to these folks, a great number of whom are nonviolent drug law offenders.

Up to 80 percent of those 170,000 people locked up in California have drug problems, of some sort. I'm not going to advocate for the state defining what problems folks do or do not have, or extol the virtues of mandated treatment. But personally, I'd prefer therapy, even bad therapy, to jail.

Regardless, that's a lot of folks in California who might benefit from treatment instead of incarceration. Proposition 5 would offer that - diverting funding from the prison system to treatment for young people and other nonviolent drug law offenders. It would also cut state spending by $2.5 billion - by rendering groundless plans to build more prisons. Guess who doesn't want to see funding diverted away from their pockets?

The prison industrial complex is a formidable foe. And it's putting forth a deceptively respectable face: the California Correction Peace Officers Association (CCPOA - the prison guards union). These guys are a union. Unions are good, right? Wrong. At least, wrong here.

The California guards make 40 percent more than their most well-paid counterparts in ten neighboring or similarly-sized states - a base salary of almost $75 thousand. And more than legislators. More than a lot of folks. What do you want to bet it's more than teachers?

The prison industry is acting not in the interest of Californians or working people. It's dumped $2 million into the No on Prop. 5 campaign, airing TV ads that outright lie about what the proposition would do. You can see our response here, and please, share the link! Tell everyone you can think of to help shut this industry down - we've waited too long for prison reform, in California and around the country. Join us in making real change on November 4. Vote Yes on 5!

Posted by Vera Leone

Solidarity Forever?

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:35:56 -0400

Now, I'm all for workers getting unionized. (Big fan of the Employee Free Choice Act - EFCA - which, when it passes, will make it a heck of a lot easier to start a union).

And, as much as my anarchist (and formerly incarcerated) soul rankles with the idea of cops and prison guards, they are workers, too. While they are, along with soldiers, the main perpetrators of direct state violence ... well, they also deserve unions. I guess. Maybe their learnings about solidarity and collective struggle will inform a self-critique about their roles within oppressive institutions. One can hope.

But seriously? Seriously. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, ("peace officers." yeah. I love that. in English? prison guards union) has given up on whatever small hope they had of recalling Governor Schwarzenegger (a noble cause, I'm sure, although somehow I suspect their concerns might not exactly be my concerns) so that they can focus on defeating Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act. CCPOA leadership has just handed the opposition to Prop. 5 $2 million, hoping to defeat it in next week's vote.

Prop. 5 is one of California's upcoming ballot initiatives - handy tools for the people to speak their mind when the legislature won't listen. While there are other significant propositions being voted on, Prop. 5 is huge - the most sweeping sentencing reform in U.S. history, and the most important drug policy reform since the repeal of alcohol prohibition was ratified in 1933. By providing drug treatment to young people and diverting resources to treatment instead of incarceration for nonviolent drug law offenders, this initiative would save the state $2.5 billion in what would have been prison costs.

California has a huge budget crisis, and an even bigger prison crisis - overcrowding at 170 percent capacity of the facilities already built (which, to my mind, should all be abolished). Prison abolition aside, many, many, many folks agree that the answer to this overcrowding is not to build more jails. Those who don't agree? Well ... (and here's a shocker!) those whose livelihoods depend on the prison industrial complex. Drug Czar John Walters is speaking out against it, and the prison guards have joined him in condemning the proposition.

Workers though they may be, I don't think the prison guards - or at the very least, CCPOA leadership - really get the concept of solidarity. And I'm making sure everyone I know in California knows about and votes Yes on Prop. 5. I don't know about you, but that new world we bring forth from the ashes of the old? I'd like fewer prisons, not more.

Posted by Vera Leone

Violence Across Borders

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:34:42 -0400

"They come across and kidnap, murder and carry out assassinations. They do not respect the border."

So said Drug Czar John Walters of Mexico's drug cartels, regarding their encroachment on U.S. territory to make attacks.

Violence in Mexico is making headlines every other day, it seems, and increasingly U.S. news outlets are reporting on how that violence is crossing the border from Mexico into the United States. Does anyone else see something wrong with that phrasing?

Let's not even get into what these particular borders once were, or how exactly it was decided where they ought to be. What's even more outrageous is that today's news headlines show no recognition of the structural violence that has been crossing that border since NAFTA was brought into existence Jan. 1, 1994 (and let's face it - well before then, too); no questioning of why it is so many people risk life and limb to cross that border every day; and an illogical refusal to consider even the basic premise of supply and demand when it comes to the drug war.

Amazing how Walters' quote sounds just like what folks all across Latin America have been always been saying of the School of Assassins (the US Army School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or SOA/WHINSEC). The SOA for the last sixty plus years has trained Latin American soldiers and police (many from Mexico) in counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics efforts, relying on curricula themed around the use of torture (as manuals released twelve years ago proved), extortion, kidnapping, and selective assassination - all tactics graduates would use against their own populations. All tactics now being used, to horrific effect, by drug cartels in Mexico.

And gosh, these American military techniques sure are working, huh? Colombia - which under Plan Colombia has received a more than $5 billion dose of the United States cure for its drug problem - produces as much coca as ever, just in different places than before. In the past two weeks alone, Mexico, which is preparing to receive the first Merida initiative funds (modeled after Plan Colombia's huge success), almost 400 people have been killed in violence surrounding the drug trade as traffickers journey north through the country from the producing region to our great nation of consumers. There have been more than 3700 drug trade/organized crime-related deaths this year in Mexico.

So, no, exporting the U.S. drug prohibition strategy is not working, not so much. It's no wonder Mexican President Calderon recently introduced legislation essentially decriminalizing drug possession for personal use. Drug prohibition doesn't work, and has disastrous "side effects" that make money for arms dealers, cartels, drug czars at home and repressive militaries around the world.

Posted by Vera Leone

Extraordinary Headlines! Be Afraid!

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:18:32 -0400

(don't read fine print)

"Crime spike linked to Proposition 36;
Researcher links crime to Prop 36"

This from Saturday's Ventura County Star (10/18/08), Local Section.

"UCLA's most recent report, issued earlier this week, does not cite Proposition 36 as the reason. But Urada said there probably is a link between the initiative and the rising number of arrests."

Probably a link? That's a little different than an actual link. The data analyzed was from 2001-2005, and noted a slight increase in property crime, a slight decrease in violent crime, and large increases in drug crime arrests.

There was no mention of the economy. Analyzing arrests is probably a better indicator of law enforcement priorities than actual crime rates. The DPA sponsored report, "The Vortex" illustrates that although drug use is consistent throughout all racial breakdowns, arrests are much higher for minorities than for whites. That doesn't mean race causes different drug usage rates, it means that there is a different law enforcement priority.

I fail to see the link that the Ventura Star so prominently displays as their headline. Further, towards the end of the article: "Since voters passed the initiative in 2000, the program has shown some marked successes, Urada said." Now there's some paradox. How can you have marked successes and still be increasing the crime rate?

That's a couple of links short of a full chain of thought. Ventura Star: try again. This time, with feeling and some rationale.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Wait, Those Anti-Drug Ads Didn't Work?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:17:20 -0400

Raise your hand if you're surprised: "Despite investing $1 billion in a massive anti-drug campaign, a controversial new study suggests that the push failed to help the United States win the war on drugs."

And: "there is also a small amount of evidence that indicates the anti-drug campaign may have had the opposite effect for some teens."

Gosh, there's a shocker.

ABC news reported on this earlier in the week - apparently Congress mandated a study of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which launched in the 90s. The investigators, working with Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study of American youth, evidently found that the more teens saw of these awful ads, the more of 'em started smoking marijuana.

Now, I know it's easy to hate on ONDCP for leading what is arguably the country's most destructive (30 years an running, folks!) war and propping up a prison industrial complex that disproportionately targets people of color, transgender folks and increasingly women. Lots of reasons to hate on them there. But to ice an already hateful cake, they waste literally billions of dollars solely on these stupid TV ads that actually made more kids start smoking.

Sigh.

Well, there's good news out there, too. And in this weird, contradictory universe we live in, part of it is actually funded by this very same federal government. Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico used some federal grant money to help produce this by-youth, for-youth educational video about meth. Check out the clip on youtube and if you're around Albuquerque, go to the screening next Thursday. It's good stuff - all true, all sides, helping young people make their own informed decisions about drugs.

Posted by Vera Leone

Drug Czar Continues to Waste Your Money (Surprised?)

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:16:14 -0400

Right out of the "this has already been reported, but it still pisses me off" file, it turns out that Office of National Drug Control Policy Director John P. Walters was among one of many senior Administration officials to use tax dollars to attend partisan events in key Republican districts.

Of course there were others, but I just like to focus on John Walters because, to be honest, he (kills puppies) makes my soul cry (although I'm sure he would make a great drinking buddy, just like G.W.B).

The Harris Statute (federal law) prohibits use of public funds for partisan activities, including the campaigning events Walters attended. And even though this has occurred in many Administrations (Clinton has been faulted with this abuse of power, too), it is alleged that the utilization by the Bush Administration in 2006 was especially grievous.

Walters participated in 19 out of 425 events attended by these officials. So, not only is the Drug Czar responsible for flushing of billions of dollars down the toilet, imprisoning or jailing hundreds of thousands (if not over a million) people this year - most on non-violent drug charges, destroying communities of color with racist arrest concentrations, infringing on everyone's civil liberties, destroying the trust between youth and their teachers and administrators with random student drug testing, invading our own autonomous right to consume things without hurting others, killing 92 year-old grandmothers (and covering it up), killing dogs, seizing properties to continue funding all the things aforementioned, but Mr. Walters is illegally campaigning on your dime.

I think I want to move to Petoria.

Posted by Evan G.

Blah Blah Blah Obama's Drug Use Blah Blah Blah

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:14:54 -0400

Former Oklahoma Governor and the McCain campaign's co-chair Frank Keating once again put his foot in his mouth, questioning Barack Obama's "disingenuous: admission of past drug use. I thought that was over, but apparently Keating likes to beat a dead horse, then make it into glue, fashion it into a horse replica, and then beat it again.

Seriously, will this end?

With subtle (or overt, depending on who you talk to) tones of racism, Keating brought up Obama's past drug use that occured 30 years ago. Keating appeared on Dennis Miller's radio show -- who is now a republican (who knew?) -- urging Obama to, among other things, come clean about his past drug use. Keating states that "[Obama] ought to admit... You know, I've got to be honest with you. I was guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the center." [emphasis added by me].

This already has been done. Obama put it in a book; the words are enshrined forever -- unless Sarah Palin gets her way (just kidding, I think?). I suppose it is a sign of desperation that Keating reverts to issues brought up, talked about, and then washed away long ago.

And in any event, I would rather have a politician be honest about the past things he regrets (notice I didn't say mistakes) that has the potential to help inform youth about life-situations. Although I don't agree with Obama's terms like "pothead" and "junkie", there is much merit in being honest about the situations and the learning experiences one went through.

Oh yeah, in the spirit of mud-slinging, let me introduce you to Cindy McCain.

Posted by Evan G.

Amy Winehouse Blamed for Overdose Death

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:12:53 -0400

Although the Daily Mail is the UK's version of the New York Post, and as such, grounds its reporting filter in purely abject fear-mongering, this article about a youth overdose death in England is still worth noting. But man oh man, does it highlight the absurdity of a prohibitionist view.

The unfortunate death of eighteen-year-old Christopher Preece, who overdosed from injecting heroin, has lead his family to blame drug-taking celebrities as the cause for their son's death. The family goes on to cite Amy Winehouse, Kate Moss, and George Michael as some of the celebrities that have gotten slaps on the wrist for their dangerous behavior, and thus setting a bad example for youth.

While I see the need to disperse blame, as a coping mechanism, for this unfortunate death, it is clear that celebrities should not be the recipients. Let's take, for example, the fact Reece injected heroin at night: his friends found him unconscious on the bathroom floor the following morning, but then DIDN'T CALL AN AMBULANCE UNTIL 6:30 THAT EVENING!!

Do you see where this is going?

Further, a study from Addaction, a UK charity attempting to stem drug and alcohol abuse, cites that only 1 in 10 youth (page 2) think that celebrities taking drugs is cool, even though 63% of parents fear the impact of drug-taking celebrities on their children. Clearly, there is a disconnect between youth and parental perceptions about celebrities, as well as drug-taking behavior in general.

Although the mom can't say what went through her son's friends' minds that prevented them from calling for medical help -- they could have believed they would have gotten in huge legal trouble -- what is clear is that they shouldn't have even thought that were going to get in trouble. However, even the UK's drug policies would lead people to believe they would.

Clearly, this episode highlights the need for a Good Samaritan policy, much like the one New Mexico passed last year. This legislation prevents prosecutions for drug possession of people needing or calling medical assistance in the event of a drug overdose. A policy like this could have saved Preece's life, not a celebrity's good behavior.

Just for fun, I've decided to post a picture of celebrities allegedly under the influence of some kind of narcotic. Although I hate to use this tactic, as I don't agree with the fear-mongering "meth makes you ugly campaign" but instead a four-pillars approach, it does illustrate that youth aren't idiots, and celebrities don't make drug abuse look sexy.*

Tell me, does this want to make you abuse drugs?

*many pictures omitted because of nsfw

Posted by Evan G.

Public Opinion Way Ahead of Politicians

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:12:08 -0400

The Great American Farce is finally, and overwhelmingly, being seen as such.

According to the newest Zogby Poll, 76% of U.S. citizens are saying the 'War on Drugs' is a failure.

Here at the Drug Policy Alliance, the fact that drug prohibition fails repeatedly to meet any goals is nothing new. Hell, Prohibition of alcohol didn't work, why does anyone think prohibition of any substance will?

What is new is that after 38 years since Nixon announced the modern rendition of drug prohibition, the citizens of the United States - now two generations of them - have seen enough. While they're not quite to the door we need them to be, they are at least looking at the door for what it represents: that we need to open up a new dialog about what to do about drugs.

From the poll:

27% thought legalization of some drugs was a better answer.
25% thought stopping drugs at the border was the better solution.
19% thought reducing demand (treatment, prevention) was a good option.
13% thought stopping production in countries of origin the solution.
8% thought ending the war on drugs was the best solution.
8% weren't sure or didn't have an answer outlined above.

Taken in context, at the very most, only 8% seem to think that the current strategy focus of the United States, namely incarceration and going after medical marijuana dispensaries, is the correct solution. Those are numbers lower than the President's approval rating, and everyone says that's abysmally low.

So, basically, the U.S. citizen has spoken. Will politicians take heed though?

Drug Raids: What a Mess

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:10:10 -0400

The Times-Picayune in New Orleans featured a story on September 29th, 2008, about rogue cops planting evidence on innocent people and making a bust. Most of the cops are later busted on unrelated charges, ranging from identity theft, to drugs, to unlawful use of state property or possession of stolen property.

I'm really not going to get into it.

What I am going to say is that this particular mess highlights the difficulties of prohibition model, criminal law enforcement style for a public health issue. The truth is that any cop, at any time, can successfully plant drugs. There generally is no civilian or objective oversight when searches take place. With one bit of sleight of hand, those responsible for carrying out the law perpetrate it's breaking, and innocents suffer.

When botched raids aren't killing innocent people, they're still setting innocents up for a fall.

This is another example of how prohibition fails, in every aspect, to serve the public welfare. In the very least, we need oversight for these raids, but quite honestly, giving up the law enforcement approach for domestic intervention on drug use issues is probably the end result of any approach that wants to be successful.

Drug Policy News Round Up - October 7, 2008

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 10:46:55 -0400

Three of Four U.S. Voters Say Drug War is Failing

Three out of four likely U.S. voters think the war on drugs is failing, and 27 percent think legalizing some drugs is the best alternative, according to a new nationwide poll released by Zogby Interactive Oct. 2. The dim view on the drug war's chances for success was shared by a majority of respondents from all political parties, albeit by more Democrats (86 percent) and independents (81 percent) than Republicans (61 percent).

Killing of Mexico Mayor Sends Message

Until he was gunned down over the weekend, Salvador Vergara Cruz was a man of some influence with a promising future in his political party. Mayor of an important resort town outside Mexico City, and a close confidant of his state's governor, Vergara apparently felt sufficiently at ease to travel without a specially assigned team of bodyguards despite receiving death threats from purported drug lords.

Three of Four U.S. Voters Say Drug War is Failing

The plague of alcohol and drug abuse has fallen upon Santa Cruz County as it has fallen on the rest of California. Though program providers scurry around, bouncing from case to case in what amounts to a sea of triaged decision-making, the number of people who need -- and want -- drug or alcohol treatment far outstrips the ability of county providers to help them.

Right to Vote
More than 5 million people convicted of felonies will be barred from voting in the upcoming presidential election. This is a mind-boggling number of people who will be disenfranchised. The most alarming aspect is that many of them are eligible to vote but don't know it.

The Increasing Popularity of Salvia

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 14:05:41 -0400

On NPR this morning: Salvia is an herb related to the mint family. But when processed, Salvia can also be a powerful hallucinogenic drug. Though legal in most of the US, it has been banned in 13 states including Virginia. With approximately 750,000 people reportedly having tried it in just the last year, we examine what's known about Salvia in the medical and scientific communities, and explore how it should be treated.

CA Supreme Court to Hear Pivotal Medical Marijuana Case Today

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 12:30:22 -0400

The California State Supreme Court will hear oral argument in People v. Roger William Mentch, a case that will likely serve to define the meaning and scope of the term "caregiver" under California’s medical marijuana laws.

Where Does Obama Stand on Drug Policy Reform?

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 12:29:22 -0400

This article in Slate examines Obama and Biden's record and rhetoric around criminal justice reform. They conclude that their support of beefing up some federal law enforcement programs shows a lack of understanding about how the tactics these grants engender affect communities.

Push to Register Felons to Vote Could Aid Obama

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 12:46:24 -0400

Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases working with election officials who can be both unfamiliar with the law and hostile to former convicts seeking to register.

A Move Toward Rational Drug Laws

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 10:03:09 -0400

New Jersey has a stupid and cruel drug law that has racially discriminatory side effects. A bill that would moderate its provisions is pending in the state Senate and appears to have a good chance of passage this fall.

Spotlight on Incarcerated Women: Conditions, Profiteering and Resistance

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:39:45 -0400

New York's Bluestockings bookstore was packed one night last week: bookshelves pushed to the walls of what was really a small space, what seemed like every available surface area covered with bodies (though maybe my perspective is skewed because I had to get up in front of the crowd and say hi from DPA). People wanted to hear about women's resistance to the prison industrial complex. Why?

For one, the number of women in prison has nearly tripled within the last two decades. In this gathering, we would learn more about the realities incarcerated women face, from journalist Silja Talvi (author of Women Behind Bars: the Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System) and former drug war prisoner Yraida Guanipa, who was incarcerated in Florida state prisons for almost 11 years. We'd learn about recent events and the growth of the private industry and profit behind bars, direct from Prison Legal News founder and editor Paul Wright, who was locked up for 17 years in Oregon. Books Through Bars-New York City co-founder Vikki Law would share more with us about what incarcerated women and their allies have done to resist inhumane treatment and conditions. She wrote Resistance Behind Bars: the Struggles of Incarcerated Women. Books Through Bars NYC and Prison Legal News were the beneficiaries of the evening's suggested $5 - $10 donations.

I joined DPA this summer because of the hundreds of beautiful, incredible women I met while locked up in FPC Alderson for my anti-SOA action a few years ago. Most of them were there for these drug conspiracy charges, which have inflated the prison population, creating a large pool of slave labor for UNICOR and terrorized our communities, particularly low income communities of color. These women are separated from their loved ones, branded criminals, denied jobs, prohibited from accessing public assistance, often for life. Here are a few sobering facts to set the context, and the importance of working to end the war on drugs and its disproportionate impact on women of color:

    * The FBI recently released the 2007 Crime Report, which shows us that there were 1.8 million drug arrests last year, more than three times the number of arrests for violent crimes. More than 80 percent of these arrests were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. That's a lot of drug arrests.
    * Before mandatory minimums, the average federal drug sentence was 11 percent higher for blacks than for whites. After mandatory minimum sentencing was imposed, federal drug offense sentences were 49 percent higher for blacks.
    * Human Rights Watch found that black women are 4.8 times more likely than white women to be sent to prison for a drug law offense. Also found that blacks arrested for drug violations increased at 3.4 times the rate of whites, despite nearly identical rates of drug use.
    * Almost the entire increase (91 percent) in women sentenced to prison in NY from 1986 to 1995 resulted from drug law offenses.

Seriously. This is messed up, ya'll. So back to last Wednesday ...

Silja spoke about the injustice in the very framing of women's experiences in prison, and read excerpts of her book, including pieces of Yraida's story. She showed a clip from a National Geographic documentary on 'dangerous' women in prison, in which we saw the gross mis-representation of women prisoners, their stories, and the violence done to them through the prison system.

Yraida was sentenced to 15 years in what was essentially a drug conspiracy case, although because no one else was caught, she ended up being charged with 'attempt to possess with intent to distribute.' She had recently given birth to her second child, and would soon go on hunger strike while locked up in protest for mothers' rights, in efforts to gain access to her 10-month-old son. She spoke about the lack of educational opportunities in jail, and working 12-14 hour days, seven days a week, for a private company which had contracted with the U.S. Patent Office to process new patents.

Paul focused on the economics: sharing about the Liehman Brothers and other profiteers who've made gobs of money from the prison industrial complex, noting that when you have a large group of folks suffering at the bottom, there is a select few elsewhere who are reaping the benefits.

Vikki shared a little more about the resistance of women in prison, and Yraida gave a super inspirational call to hope and action. There is so much we can do! And there's lots that needs doing, wherever you are, not the least of which would be building connections of resistance, inside and out, to support one another in our work to take down this system. Some starting places to get those creative juices flowing:

    * Check out Families for Freedom to learn about the prison crisis among immigrants in the U.S.
    * Get involved in solidarity support for the New Jersey 4, black lesbian women who were attacked in the street after not welcoming catcalls and sentenced for "gang violence."
    * Here in DC, a local chapter of Critical Resistance is starting up again soon.
    * And there's DC's new Visions to Peace project for youth creating alternatives to violence (all forms of it - including state violence), and I heard there was a rockin dance off fundraiser for them ...

Posted by Vera Leone

D.A. Thinks Drugs Aren't In Prison

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:39:00 -0400

I can't make this stuff up. I really can't.

Ventura County Star, 9/24/2008:
Proposition 36; Program for drug offenders debated

"It's a failure," District Attorney Greg Totten said. "Proposition 36 gave a whole bunch of opportunities to keep using drugs and avoid criminal consequences. ... It reduced the ability to incapacitate them through incarceration."

I'm quite sure that every warden in every prison in the United States will be surprised to find out that they've managed to incapacitate people from drug use by mere fact of incarceration alone.

I mean, it's not like there's drugs in prison or anything.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Approaches to Alcohol and Drugs in Scotland

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:47:44 -0400

A report published by a Scottish Parliament-backed think tank has called for radical new ways to tackle the damage done by drugs and alcohol.

Drug Prohibition Doesn't Work

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:43:55 -0400

It's time to stop drug prohibition and start looking at realistic ways to deal with drug use, abuse, manufacture and distribution. Regulation is one such path. People aren't killing each other over tobacco or alcohol, and both are medically proven to have detrimental effects. Neither are drinkers and smokers clogging our criminal justice system, or distracting our police force from violent offenders. We can change paths and try to help not hurt each other.

Getting Real About Drugs Is Best Harm Prevention

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:42:25 -0400

Honest drug information that respects teens enough to give it to them straight gets results. Dishonest information that tries to scare them with propaganda that conflicts with their real-life experiences leads to dismissal and failure.

Last Shot for a Bush Legacy?

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:38:36 -0400

In a recent interview Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed Senator Obama's call for a national dialogue on race, expressing her concern that the ugly bootprints of slavery still mark America's cultural and political landscape. Her remarks came only a month after the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination scolded U.S. officials for not doing enough to eliminate the vestiges of slavery, most notably America's punitive drug war policies. President Bush spoke in favor of reforming some of these policies when he first took office but quickly had to turn his attention to responding to 9-11. With Secretary Rice stepping out on race, will Bush finally push for legislative reform?

Preventing HIV Transmission Among Iranian Prisoners

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:37:42 -0400

Educational harm reduction initiatives that promote the effectiveness of strategies designed to reduce the risk of HIV transmission may decrease prisoners' high-risk behaviors. This finding provides initial support for the Iran prison system's current offering of HIV/AIDS harm reduction programming and suggests the need to offer increased education about the effectiveness of HIV prevention practices.

Treatment is Right Alternative for Vets

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:35:30 -0400

Once more people realize that incarceration for petty drug law violations is not an appropriate response to veterans' suffering from addiction and depression, then people will question the logic of giving long jail sentences to others in our society who also could be self-medicating for pain and trauma in their own lives.

Washington Post Editorial on Salvia: Waste of Ink

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:30:30 -0400

From an editorial in Regional Edition of the Washington Post on September 22nd:

"Given the rapid rise in its [salvia] use, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration should conduct a formal review to determine whether access to it should be restricted or banned.

"But the federal agencies should consider the 5,000 or so salvia videos posted on YouTube, many appearing to show disturbing effects, as a spur to take this substance seriously."

Really? That's the level of inquiry that should be used? Videos posted on YouTube, which cannot account for any controlled measures?

I mean, we don't actually know that salvia is being smoked. We don't know if they're pranks being pulled. They could be smoking tobacco for all we know.

I don't know what I should find more shocking: that a news outlet is calling for action based on unsubstantiated evidence (in the form of amateur media), or that even if substantiated, action is being called for to "protect" people, when not a single emergency room visit or overdose has been reported with salvia use. I mean, come on, don't we have more important stuff to worry about, like a crashing economy or murderous drug cartels along our southern border?

Or is the goal of the Editorial Board of the Washington Post to waste more money in our economy enforcing prohibition laws against people making YouTube videos? Better yet, is it the goal of the Editorial Board to make yet another black market for these murderous cartels, which will increase their income? It's not like they use that money to buy grenades and guns or anything, do they?

Washington Post: if you're not trying to make things worse, then stop printing such garbage. It's a waste of ink, raises hysteria, and does nothing to help reduce the harms of drugs and drug policies.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

On Election Day, Whose Voices Are Heard?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:40:33 -0400

On Election Day, people across the country will miss out on casting a ballot because they don't even know they're eligible to vote. Right now in Alabama, we're working to repair the democratic process with a groundbreaking voter registration project being conducted in partnership with The Ordinary People's Society (TOPS), an Alabama organization.

The Alabama Constitution protects the right to vote for people convicted of nonviolent, low-level drug crimes but most of the 70,000 people in the Alabama criminal justice system who fall into this category have never been told they can vote. Even when they do know they're eligible, they have no easy access to the ballot box -- and as many as 10,000 eligible voters are currently incarcerated in Alabama's overcrowded prisons.

TOPS is going into prisons to register voters this fall, working to remedy this egregious example of how the war on drugs undermines our democracy. But Alabama is just one example among many.

More than five million people nationwide are disfranchised for all kinds of offenses, with nonviolent drug convictions making up a significant portion of that group. In some states, anyone with a felony conviction is barred from ever voting again -- even once their debt to society is fully paid. In many other states, the process of restoring your right to vote after a felony conviction is so wrapped in red tape that even the most determined would-be voter gets stuck.

Not only that, but widespread misconceptions keep eligible potential voters from ever even trying to register. For example, in New York state, a survey conducted by a voting rights organization found that many county registrars in New York believed that people who had been arrested -- not convicted, just arrested -- could not vote. Among arrestees themselves, an even greater percentage believed the same thing!

The historic work DPA and TOPS are doing in Alabama paves the way to address larger questions about the intersection between voting rights and the criminal justice system. One of these questions takes on particular relevance given the close results of recent elections: Nationally, how many potential votes are lost because of draconian penalties for nonviolent drug offenses?

As we begin this conversation nationwide, I am excited to be part of our Alabama effort in advance of a presidential election that is projected to have very high voter turnout. We have a long way to go to restore democracy to our criminal justice system but I am proud that Alabamians who didn't even know they could vote will be part of the large numbers of Americans who cast a ballot this Election Day. You can join us by supporting this historic work with a donation to DPA Network.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Sayegh
Director, State Organizing and Policy Project
Drug Policy Alliance Network

Fayetteville, AR, to Vote on Marijuana Measure

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:39:47 -0400

Voters in Fayetteville, Arkansas, will have the chance to make adult marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority at the ballot box in November. This initiative is led by Sensible Fayetteville, a coalition of groups that includes the Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas, Inc.

A similar initiative was passed in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 2006. For the Fayetteville initiative, DPA's grants program was able help fund the final effort to gather signatures, ensuring that this initiative would qualify for the ballot. The effort in Arkansas coincides with other work DPA is supporting in the south -- efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi that are funded through the DPA grants program, and policy work in Alabama.

The measure would require city police and prosecutors to treat marijuana possession by adults as their lowest priority, and would require the city clerk to send an annual letter to state officials making the city's stance known. To learn more, read the full text at the Sensible Fayetteville website.

Bizarre Anti-Drug Commercial

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:35:46 -0400

Because I am an equal opportunity disparager and enjoy disturbing your Friday a little, I have posted an unnerving, and quite frankly, darren aronofsky-esque rip-off anti-drug commercial from New Zealand.

The ad is gross, and may possibly offend you. For that, I am sort of sorry, but at least you know of examples of anti-drug commercials airing in other countries. Although this commercial is 2 years old, it makes me miss the talking dog commercial -- I will not provide a link, I think I've posted it on every other of my posts (I love that talking dog).

I honestly don't know what to say about this commercial. It is effective in its shock value, but the most disturbing thing is that the guy left his credit card. Was that the real message? Do drugs and then lose vital pieces of plastic, go through the hassle of canceling it and then issuing you a new one, whereby you get confused when you call to activate it. Man, in that case, I'm off drugs forever; I got too many problems in my life, and I don't need a lost credit card to add to that Sisyphus-like pile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVRO_a6pQB8

Posted by Evan G.

GOP Halts Lawful Voter Registration in Alabama Prisons

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:35:04 -0400

DOTHAN -- Alabama-based Ordinary People's Society and their national partner the Drug Policy Alliance began an historic voter registration drive this week in prisons across Alabama. The drive was prepared with the full support of the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC). However, after Alabama newspapers reported on the registration drive, the state GOP voiced their opposition to the effort and pressured the DOC to end it. Yesterday, the DOC reversed their position and has barred advocates from registering eligible voters in Alabama correctional facilities.

"Voter registration drives are an essential part of our democracy, and this action by the GOP and the Department of Corrections smacks of voter intimidation," said Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, founder and executive director of The Ordinary People's Society, the group leading the registration drive." Our focus isn't politics, it's restoration. We're just doing what the Bible says, visiting people in prison and ministering to them. The chairman of the Republican Party and the chairman of the Democratic Party can go into prisons with us and monitor the registration process to make sure it's nonpartisan, if that's a concern."

In Alabama, nearly 250,000 people have been stripped their voting rights due to a felony conviction. But in a 2006 court ruling in Alabama, a judge found that only those convicted of felonies of "moral turpitude" lose their right to vote. The judge found that certain felonies - such as drug possession - do not constitute crimes of moral turpitude, and therefore individuals convicted of those crimes do not lose their right to vote, even during incarceration. Alabama's Attorney General, Troy King, concurred with the ruling. This change could have an impact on nearly 70,000 Alabamians, including nearly 10,000 currently incarcerated in state prisons on drug charges alone.

In 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Second Chance Act, which supports the process of people with felony convictions re-entering society by funding programs inside and outside prisons to increase civic participation upon their release. Bush, the country's top Republican, also has expressed support for the restoration of voting rights to people with felony convictions.

Posted by Evan G.

Drugs Are Dangerous ... Are You Sure?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:34:05 -0400

From the Associated Press, Business, September 18, 2008 Thursday, comes a story about the European Union stepping up its interdiction efforts.

Specifically cited statistics:

"Around 7,500 Europeans die of a drugs overdose ever year, according to statistics published by the EU's drugs monitoring agency in Lisbon, Portugal. The agency said in its report last year that the total number of people in the EU who use drugs, or have at some time taken them stands at 12 million for cocaine and 70 million for cannabis."

Or, roughly, less than 1 out of every 100,000 people that do drugs in Europe die from overdose.

I mean, really folks, are we kidding ourselves or what? With an OD death rate that low, how can we really argue that drugs are as dangerous as we're making them out to be... since by this rate taking drugs is safer than being around water (death rate of accidental drownings is 1.2 per 100,000).

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Rudy is Talking Out of His Patootie

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:31:25 -0400

Rudy Giuliani annoys me with his arrogance as well as the fact that he is a poor excuse for a human being. I think maybe he should stop talking publicly, or privately, about anything. Or maybe he should just stop talking period.

Deviating from his attack on community organizers, he turned his attack on Instite, Vancouvers safe-injection site. Insite provides drug users a place to inject and use drugs, under the supervision of nurses, as well as provides clean needles, condoms, and referrals to treatment. Guiliani -- of course mischaracterizing safe-injection sites as a place where drug users can get free heroin, which is, not surprisingly, an OUTRIGHT LIE -- suggested that cities like Vancouver and Surrey could benefit from quality-of-life policing which he unwarrantably credits for cleaning up New York city.

I don't know about you guys, but quality-of-life unfairly infantilizes people for petty offenses. Only instead of giving them a time out in the corner, they are given a time out in jail. I guess that's pretty sweet: 3 hots and cot for jumping a turnstyle to avoid paying subway fair -- all at taxpayers expense I might add.

You can read about marijuana arrest quality-of-life crimes when I blogged (second one down) about it several months ago.

The point of Insite is to encourage harm reduction practices amongst Vancouver's most vulnerable and marginalized drug users by reducing needle sharing and overdose deaths (out of hundreds of od's at the center, NO ONE has died). In this capacity, Insite has more than succeeded as studies(same as previous link) have shown (sorry guys, I was denied access to the original source.) You can also read more about Insite here and here (sorry about the Wiki reference, but it does have a lot of good sources).

Posted by Evan G.

A Question of Intelligence (or Honesty)

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:16:02 -0400

This is in response to Adrian Walker's editorial "A Question of Possession," about Massachusetts Question 2, an initiative to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.

Adrian Walker, has this to say about decriminalization of less than an ounce of marijuana:

"The arguments in favor of Question 2 are weak. If people are not going to jail for possession, what is the argument for making the law even weaker? Turning marijuana possession into a lesser offense than speeding will only encourage and embolden drug pushers and their customers. Why, exactly, is that a good idea? This is a bad solution to something that isn't even a problem."

Care to look here? You'll find the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, over 800,000 arrests (and when you're arrested, its pretty much guaranteed that you're going to jail) making Mr. Walker out to be a liar. Or incredibly stupid. I'm trying to not insult Mr. Walker's character - I will assume the latter case.

As for "drug pushers" (I still haven't encountered this mythical figure, can ANYONE point me to one? I mean, Chris Rock is right: people don't sell drugs, drugs sell themselves. People just make the stuff available for a price) - the law doesn't do anything about distribution. So, again, see the above reference to either an outright lie, or the product of gross stupidity.

Now, what is a good idea is for the police to stop paying so much attention to a bunch of pot smokers (more people arrested for marijuana possession alone than any other single offense other than DUI (all larcenies, property crimes and assaults are grouped in the UCR, giving them the appearance of higher incidents), and a hell of a lot more attention to people trying to hurt others.

What's the bad idea about that? Question 2 is about being realistic - there is no evidence that arresting for marijuana possession has one, single, measurable positive outcome, and a whole lot suggesting that it wastes resources, and perhaps most importantly, people's lives.

Mr. Walker is good at talking about people dealing with the problems that "drugs" "cause" in inner city neighborhoods. He's good at stating that suburbanites have no idea how much damage "drugs" cause. He's hopeless at understanding that a majority of this harm is caused by poorly conceived drug policies, not the drugs in and of themselves. Until Mr. Walker manages to come up with evidence to back his wide generalized statements, perhaps he should spend more time in research, and less writing unfounded garbage in the Boston Globe's local section.

Let Whomever Hath No Sin Cast Forth The First Stone

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:14:56 -0400

Not that I'm religious. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy in our policies, which are supposed to reflect a Judeo-Christian ethos.

From the New York Times:

US accuses Venezuelans of aiding drug traffickers

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Published: September 12, 2008

I'm sure the Venezuelans could come up with a great response:

Venezuela accuses U.S. citizens of aiding drug traffickers

After all, they're only doing it for the money, right? Where does that money come from? And why does the Associated Press keep acting like drug trafficking exists in a vacuum? It's not rocket science, it's not even that difficult. It's called DEMAND. It's the most important part of the equation, and yet it keeps getting ignored by these sensationalist stories.

So before more stories get published like this, which are utter trite garbage with no real analysis of the realities of drug prohibition, let's look at the whole picture for a change. Without U.S. demand, the U.S. wouldn't have to worry about Venezuelans aiding drug traffickers - drugs wouldn't be coming to this country.

This is especially important because ultimately, the message of most religions is that in order to effectuate change, you must change yourself first. Perhaps if we looked to ourselves, before trying to blame other countries and their citizens, we might get closer to handling the complex problem that drugs represent in our society.

Long Live Mark Leno

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:11:56 -0400

A majority of California’s 120 legislators understand the harms caused by excessive drug war policies. But voting one’s conscience can be difficult for even the most ardent advocates when weighing potentially significant negative political consequences that may arise in bids for re-election. Still, Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has stood firm on advancing some of the most progressive drug policy reforms in the state, and will likely continue his leadership in the state Senate beginning in 2009.

Currently, his AB 2279 is before Governor Schwarzenegger awaiting a signature or veto. This bill would prevent employers from discriminating against a legal medical marijuana patient and enable victims of employment discrimination to file a civil action in state court.

The need for this legislation became apparent after a California Supreme Court ruling earlier this year. The court ruled in Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications that an employee using medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation as permitted by California law may be fired solely because of his or her status as a medical cannabis patient. This ruling ignored the will of California’s voter-enacted Proposition 215 and the legislature via SB 420 (Vasconcellos, 2003) by invalidating the rights of more than 200,000 patients to be free from discrimination in employment.

While denying Ross -- and other employed medical marijuana patients -- protections from employment discrimination, the Supreme Court did invite the legislature to clarify its intent with respect to employment rights of medical marijuana patients, and that is exactly what Leno is doing.

Leno also authored AB 1796 in 2004, which removed significant barriers to reintegration for formerly incarcerated persons convicted of drug offenses by allowing them to access food stamp aid. He understood that those who have entered the criminal justice system because of a substance abuse or addiction problem should have the needed tools to once again become productive citizens, and to reintegrate into our society.

Leno spent six worthwhile years in the state Assembly and was a clear leader on drug policy reform issues. He recently won a heated primary election contest to represent San Francisco in the state Senate, and this champion of drug policy reform will continue his legacy of compassion and reason in the state Senate.

CA Attorney General Issues Medical Marijuana Guidelines

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:11:24 -0400

In August, California Attorney General Jerry Brown for the first time issued guidelines for the operation of California’s medical marijuana laws (as he is required to do under those laws).  The AG guidelines aim to fully clarify the legal landscape of medical marijuana law in California.

The guidelines are an important step in the full implementation of California’s medical marijuana scheme.  They advise patients on how stay within the confines of state law.  They advise law enforcement on how to approach encounters with medical marijuana patients.  They advise patients, law enforcement, and local communities on what is allowed and what is not allowed with regards to medical marijuana under California law.

Perhaps most importantly, the guidelines provide recommendations for operating medical marijuana dispensaries in accordance with state law. Specifically, the Attorney General -- the highest law enforcement official in California -- states that “a properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront may be lawful under California law.”  Until last month, the legitimacy of dispensing medical marijuana through a “storefront” has been an open question.  Now, at least certain types of medical marijuana dispensaries appear to have the Attorney General’s (and legislature’s) blessing.

The AG guidelines are recommendations and are not binding on any court.  However, they provide powerful direction to state and local law enforcement, judges, and other public officials.

In addition to recognizing the legitimacy of some storefront dispensaries, the AG guidelines also underscore several other vital protections.  For example, the guidelines recognize that law enforcement should not arrest and jail patients and caregivers who are operating within the confines of state law; that law enforcement officials should not seize medical marijuana belonging to legitimate patients and caregivers; and that if law enforcement officials seize medical marijuana, those officials should return the medicine to its rightful owner once it is determined that the patient or caregiver complied with state law.  Importantly, the Attorney General further directs “state and local law enforcement officers [to] not arrest individuals or seize marijuana under federal law” when there is no violation of state law.   Finally, the Attorney General makes clear that California’s medical marijuana laws are not preempted by federal law.

The AG guidelines also contain a provision requiring medical marijuana dispensaries to operate on a not-for-profit basis.  This provision will probably be disfavored by some.  However, a large number of collectives and cooperatives currently dispensing medical marijuana to patients meet this requirement and can now operate with more legitimacy and, hopefully, less state and local law enforcement interference.

The State of The State Is... Stuck

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:10:27 -0400

The California state budget is so late, it's setting records -- and there's no deal in sight. To put pressure on legislators, the governor isn't signing any legislation until there’s a budget. To put pressure on the governor, the prison guards are saying they will finance a gubernatorial recall election (again). It's total deadlock!

We have already waited years for our legislators to champion the systemic reforms necessary to stop letting addiction drive our incarceration rates (reforms that are in Proposition 5). And now they can't pass the annual budget?!

There’s no mystery about what needs to be done: we need Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA). Year after year after year, experts tell legislators that the state's policies toward nonviolent offenders, especially low-level drug offenders, are wrong, costly and counterproductive. The experts have said again and again that what we need to do is address young people's drug problems as early as possible and expand access to drug treatment and rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders both in the community and behind bars.

The sad truth is that Sacramento lacks the political will to implement these proven reforms because it would mean going against the entrenched law enforcement lobby. This is the same lobby that is now leading the fight against Prop. 5 -- precisely because the measure follows the experts' advice and, in so doing, violates law enforcement's "lock 'em up and throw away the key" philosophy.

Want some good news out of California this week? There are only weeks to wait! Prop. 5 combines decades of expert recommendations into one historic reform package -- and gives voters the power. We’ve waited long enough for Sacramento. It’s up to the voters on November 4!

DPA Joins Federal Legislative Campaign for Alternative to Zero Tolerance

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:09:22 -0400

The Drug Policy Alliance joined a letter of support (PDF) for the Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act (H.R. 3409, S.2111). The federal legislation would enable schools to use Title I funds, including Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities funds, to implement just and proven programs, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, to replace counterproductive, zero-tolerance discipline policies in our schools.

DPA recognizes that too many schools rely on punitive consequences such as expulsion, suspension or exclusion from extracurricular activities to respond to students who break school rules regarding alcohol and other drugs. Zero-tolerance policies ignore the welfare of young people in need of help, and counter-productively remove them from connection to caring adults at school and structure and supervision during the peak hours of adolescent drug use from 3 to 6 p.m.

It is time we open additional federal funding sources for positive and proven means of promoting school discipline while fostering a positive school environment. We also joined a letter of recommendation (PDF) to strengthen the legislation to allow support for a range of proven approaches, including restorative practices in schools.

This legislative effort aligns with one of the core tenets of our comprehensive model for schools outlined in our publication Beyond Zero Tolerance: a Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline (PDF). The three mutually reinforcing elements include: education, intervention/assistance and restorative consequences.

DPA joins the effort spearheaded by the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition of policy advocates, parent and student organizers, educators and lawyers in a campaign to promote local and national alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment and removal.

The Act is sponsored by Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL, 17th Dist.) in the House and co-sponsored by Sens. Obama (D-IL) and Durbin (D-IL) in the Senate.

Students Mobilize Against Random Drug Testing

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:08:12 -0400

Last month DPA launched a new group on the social networking site Facebook to oppose invasive and ineffective random student drug testing programs. Our goals are to raise awareness among high school and college students and provide more young people with the tools to take a stand against random student drug testing.

A tremendous amount of momentum has built up around this effort in a short time. The group already has 250 supporters, and is drawing attention both inside and outside the student community. Upon learning about the Facebook cause, school prevention expert Jeff Wolfsberg invited DPA’s Youth Policy Manager, Jennifer Kern, to discuss student drug testing on his student-targeted podcast, which is available online.

Let the students in your life know they can get involved by adding the Facebook Cause "Drug Testing Invades My Privacy" to their Facebook profiles. To kick off the campaign, we are offering free stickers to all who participate.

These efforts to raise awareness about random student drug testing could bolster other challenges to the practice in California. On August 5, the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to the Shasta Union High School District warning that their student drug testing policy may be unconstitutional based on the higher privacy protections of the California state constitution.

If the challenge moves forward in court, DPA will support the effort. We played a role in last March’s victory in Washington where the state supreme court ruled that student drug testing violates students’ rights under their Washington State Constitution.

CA Residents: Support Treatment on Demand, Not Incarceration!

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:06:50 -0400

Too many people suffering from addiction are being arrested and incarcerated before they can get help. No one should have to get arrested to get access to treatment.

Ask Governor Schwarzenegger to sign AB 1887, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Bill!

The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Jim Beall (D-San Jose), would require health insurance plans to cover mental and substance abuse disorders the same as other chronic health conditions like asthma and diabetes. Parents would not have to call the police to get their children the help they need. They could call the family doctor.

AB 1887 has passed out of the legislature and is headed to the governor’s desk after the state budget is passed. But don’t wait! Tell the governor that you support expanding access to treatment. It’s good public health policy and it’s cost effective!

Write and send your personal support letter, asking the governor to do the right thing and support working families struggling with alcohol and drug problems. One in four California families needs this help. This is not someone else’s problem.

Then find out more about the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act Proposition 5 on the November state ballot and what we are doing to expand access to treatment for young people and nonviolent drug offenders in California. Sign up for weekly campaign updates here.

Sincerely,

Margaret Dooley-Sammuli
Deputy Campaign Manager, Yes on 5
Deputy State Director, Southern California, Drug Policy Alliance Network

More Information:

AB 1887 Fact Sheet

Full Text of the Bill

Talking About Crime, Thinking About Race

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:03:41 -0400

Check out this recent post at the Kirwan Institute blog. Forwarded to me by a friend who's working in their research staff, this blog is "devoted to stimulate and sustain dialogue around issues of race, ethnicity, social hierarchy, democratic principles and other intersections of social justice." Important stuff!

Posted by Vera Leone

NBC: Let's Be Hysterical About Salvia.

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:02:58 -0400

Once again we face the hypocrisy of the main stream media's agreement reality versus experiential reality...

NBC News Transcripts
September 10, 2008 Wednesday
SHOW: Today 7:00 AM EST NBC

MATT LAUER, co-host:
"And now to an herb that may be as dangerous as cocaine and LSD. You may have never heard of it, but your kids definitely have. And as NBC's Chris Jansing tells us, it's legal and it's easy to find for anyone who wants a quick high."

CHRIS JANSING reporting:
"The shocking videos are all over YouTube. People lighting up and tripping out on the world's most potent hallucinogenic herb, Salvia
...
Experts compare a Salvia trip to LSD but shorter and more intense.
...
Hope and heartbreak on sale for as little as $5 a hit."

Not mentioned:

1) Not one single salvia overdose case. Ever.
2) Not one fatality directly linked to salvia. Ever.
3) Not one study showing any toxicity to the body. Ever.
4) Not one example of DUI with salvia. Ever.

a) Hundreds of overdoses of alcohol. Weekly.
b) Hundreds of fatalities linked to alcohol. Weekly.
c) Hundreds of studies demonstrating toxic effects of alcohol.
d) Thousands of DUI's with alcohol. Weekly.

And now a drug more dangerous than cocaine and LSD. You've heard of it, and so have your kids. It's legal and easy to find for anyone wanting a quick high. Alcohol: happiness and heartbreak on sale for as little as $2 a bottle.

Quite simply: we accept that alcohol presents problems. We don't panic, we deal with the problems it creates. Why is the mainstream media approach so dramatically different with Salvia?

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Humpty Dumpty Tactics and Methamphetamine

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:01:48 -0400

The Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 edition of the Kansas City Star had yet another story on the failure of the drug war:

There was a decline in methamphetamine labs busted two years ago, but the number of labs busted has steadily increased since then.

The lessened number of busts was attributed to less labs being present due to increased restrictions on the sale of pseudo-ephedrine, one chemical that can be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. The increase in labs is being blamed on the poor strategy used in the implementation of these restrictions - using paper logs, instead of instant electronic databases.

The solution suggested in the article, of course, is simply to move to electronic databases. Mainly because there lacks any analysis whatsoever of the fundamentals of methamphetamine production and consumption.

1) While there may be some truth to the decline in lab busts, imported methamphetamine of greater purity filled in the void created. Rather than helping the public in terms of drug dangers, the unintended consequence was that more dangerous methamphetamine became available in the illicit market. Good going there.

2) The labs are back because there is still a demand for methamphetamine. As long as demand is there, a supplier will be found. Where there is a dollar, there is a way.

3) We can't keep methamphetamine out of maximum security prisons, does anyone really think we can keep it out of the country?

So, the King has tried interdiction and enforcement. They have failed. Everyone knows they've failed. The solution being proposed? More interdiction and enforcement. Sorry folks, but Humpty-Dumpty can't be fixed like that. For the complex problem that drugs are in our society, it's high time (no pun intended) to try something new.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

ONDCP: Know Thyself

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:01:18 -0400

From the New York Times, a story on September 8, 2008, about the difficulties faced around developing drug policy for salvia divinorum, perhaps one of the safest compounds known to man.

"Though states are moving quickly, Bertha K. Madras, a deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said federal regulators remained in a quandary.

"'The risk of any drug that is intoxicating is high,' Dr. Madras said. 'You're one car ride away from an event that could be life-altering. But in terms of really good studies, there is just very little. So what do you do? How do you make policy in the absence of good hard cold information?'"

If history is any indicator, through hysteria, racism, or flat-out oppression. Cognitive liberty isn't big on the liberties that the U.S. public policy supports, despite being inferred by the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Need proof? Try "Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse," by David Nutt, Leslie A. King, William Saulsbury, and Colin Blakemore. The researchers assessed English law in how a chemical's danger for abuse and societal cost related to its legal status. Our laws are approximately in accord.

What did they find? Absolutely no correlation between harm and legality, since alcohol, being perfectly legal, ranks up there with heroin, cocaine, and street methadone. Down near the bottom of the harm scale was MDMA, LSD, and GHB - all of which are either schedule I or II in the United States. A color scale that should look like a red to blue (highly illegal to unregulated) slide going down instead looks like a rainbow slide going down.

Those compounds that got associated with elements of our society that were, at one time or another, deemed needing of oppression got the stiffest penalties.

Marijuana: Originally made illegal through the work of Henry Anslinger, and C.M. Goethe, who necessitated the use of a foreign word so that Congress didn't know they were also banning hemp. Mr. Anslinger used sensationalist stories of multiple murders committed by marijuana smokers, and Goethe blamed the sources to immigrant workers from Mexico, selling it to 'school children'(Lou Dobbs would be proud).

Opium: Hamilton Wright pressured Congress to adopt wide-sweeping antinarcotics laws. Opium smoking in America, Wright declared, had been introduced by the Chinese and "one of the most unfortunate phases of the habit ... was the large number of women who have become involved and were living as common-law wives and cohabiting with Chinese in the Chinatowns of our various cities."

Cocaine: Wright also incited latent racial fears about blacks to demonize cocaine. "It has been authoritatively stated," he said, "that cocaine is often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negros of the South and other sections of the country." [all quoted in D.F. Musto, The American Disease]

Crack law anyone? Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose, he didn't smoke crack at all. Yet his death from what was originally billed as a crack overdose lead to some of the most "racially neutral" disparity in federal sentencing that was enforced in a racist fashion. The racial breakdown of federal prison was completely made-over by this one law. This continues, despite there being not one iota of proof that crack is any different than cocaine.

Dr. Madras, while your words make sense, I challenge you to look back at your office, and yell at them a little louder, because ONDCP has been the cheerleader of these policies for two decades now. These drug policies are insane, founded on fear, hysteria, with absolutely no basis in reality. They have never shown a single indication that they are working. Further, they have never shown to be based on any science whatsoever - except when the science is methodologically flawed (Dr. George Ricaurte's studies on MDMA being a prime example).

So, Dr. Madras, consider this an invitation: I welcome debate at any time, with any member of ONDCP, about the nature of our current prohibitionist drug policy. We can discuss: 1) whether the policies reflect the true dangers of the drugs in question, 2) whether the policies are effective at achieving increased public safety, 3) whether or not children actually are protected by our policies, 4) whether our policies actually create more harm than good, based upon drug use percentages, cross-culturally examined, as well as incarceration and overdose rates, and finally HIV/Bloodborne pathogen transmission rates. That's just to get started.

Just... don't expect to win, unless you use hysteria and fear mongering, and ignore science and the facts.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

New Orleans Solidarity

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 16:27:42 -0400

Late last Friday morning, I stood with a group of displaced New Orleans residents, Washington, DC community organizers, day laborer union members and other folks in solidarity with the survivors of Katrina outside what was termed the Failed Emergency Management Agency building at 5th and C St SW near L'Enfant Plaza.

It was a grey day, and as Yvonne Byrd started speaking about Louisiana's incarcerated, the rain picked up in a little more earnestness - though luckily we were spared a downpour. The friendly activist next to me noticed my hunched note-taking and kindly shared his umbrella. Byrd began by reciting a Daniel Queen poem. From it I scribbled down: "where there is no justice, there should be no peace." A chilling reminder, especially contextualized in a city that has seen far too little justice.

She spoke about the rates of incarceration in Louisiana - the highest in the country, and disproportionately black. I later picked up an ACLU report on the Orleans Parish Prison, which completely confirmed her figures. It boggles the mind:

"With a pre-Katrina incarceration rate of 1480 prisoners per 100,000 residents, New Orleans had the highest incarceration rate of any large city in the United States - the incarceration rate was double that of the United States as a whole, a country with the highest national incarceration rate in the world."

As the local population decreased, the capacity of jail increased. OPP held waiting space for those prisoners meant for state and federal facilities (which were garnering the wrong kind of attention for their overcrowded conditions, while it would take the Katrina disaster to broadcast the human rights abuses occurring at OPP). Why take in all these extra prisoners? It probably didn't hurt that they were getting paid $25 per person per day.

The conditions were terrible, and the racial make-up chilling. Orleans Parish was only 67 percent black prior to Hurricane Katrina, but almost 90 percent of the OPP population was black. Byrd shared more about the juvenile justice system: while 16 percent of that population is African American, 58 percent of the juveniles diverted to adult prisons are African American.

And for what? How is it - why is it - that New Orleans leads the country in locking people up, especially folks of color? Does anyone else think it's crazy that you can get more than five years in prison for a having joint of marijuana there? Orleans Parish District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson, in her efforts to appear "tough on crime," has decided to charge marijuana users with felonies. While she's only held the office since last fall, the history of this kind of approach dates back decades. Well over half the felony convictions in her parish are drug cases.

The drug war is racist by design, and nowhere is that clearer than in New Orleans. Work to end the drug war, and listen and learn from communities struggling in New Orleans for justice. It's been three years since Katrina, and we still need to hold our elected officials - at every level - accountable to the demands of survivors and folks displaced. Check out these awesome organizations doing important work advocating for young folks and communities of color impacted by the drug war:

www.safestreetsnola.org
www.fflic.org

Posted by Vera Leone

Dear Martin Sheen

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 16:26:07 -0400

Don't hate on Prop 5. You and your family have struggled with addiction, and you should know better. You've become famous actors, so it's not real likely that y'all will be locked up for your alcohol/drug problems. Which is great, don't get me wrong: I don't think nonviolent drug law offenders, such as yourselves and millions of other Americans, should ever be incarcerated for what you (for whatever reasons) choose to put in your bodies.

In California alone, there are 170,000 folks locked up in prisons built for 100,000. That's not rehabilitation. That's seriously messed up. And it costs my friends in California $10 billion each year to maintain. That's messed up, too. Prop 5 would divert funding from this failed effort to address society's drug problems to programs - especially new ones for youth, which have never before been available - more focused on rehabilitation and treatment for substance abuse.

By all means, let's talk about whether drug treatment instead of incarceration is a good idea - there are those who rightfully argue, I think, that mandatory treatment is a continuation of the same racist, invasive drug war policies that are locking people up. That's an interesting, worthwhile discussion. But don't try to say that prison is better or more effective than treatment. That's crazy talk.

You're right on - or close enough - for so many other issues: dismantling nuclear weapons, closing the School of the Americas, ending the war and occupation of Iraq, eliminating the death penalty, protecting farmworkers rights and immigrants' rights, aiding Darfur, fighting for the environment ... and over the past seven and a half years, I have longed for a Bartlet administration like you would not believe.

But seriously? You've been talking about rehabilitation needing accountability, and equating that to locking folks up, as the co-chair of the No on Prop 5 Campaign. Seriously? Have you ever been locked up for more than a night or two? I was in jail for six months - admittedly a short stint - in a prison holding just over 1,000 women but built for somewhere around 700. Not as crowded as what ya'll have got going on in California, but still, no way women were getting any kind of meaningful support. That's never been what prison is about anyway.

More than 70 percent of those folks in California's severely overcrowded prisons will return. That's neither the 'accountability' you seek nor rehabilitation. Proposition 5 precursor Proposition 36, which you also opposed back in the day, has been proven a success. Do some research, Mr. Sheen, and rethink this. You're going to lose on November 4, and I'm gonna be sad that Jed Bartlet wasn't with us on this one.

Posted by Vera Leone

McCain, Palin & Pot

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:34:27 -0400

Last week I wrote from the Democratic National Convention. This week I’d like to share some insights regarding the Republican National Convention.

It's hard to know what to make of Senator McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. She's admitted to smoking marijuana -- but then again that's also true of every Democratic nominee for president since 1992, as well as Newt Gingrich, Clarence Thomas and lots of other prominent Republicans.  As for the current president, he never admitted it but others did so on his behalf.  We've practically reached the stage where smoking a joint at some point in one's life seems a prerequisite for anyone under the age of 65 aspiring to national office.

Alaska has legalized marijuana for medical use. So have 11 other states. Yet, the federal government continues to persecute patients and caregivers in those states.  I don't think Governor Palin has made clear what she thinks of this, notwithstanding the fact that she represents a state and a political party that believe strongly in the rights of states to regulate their own affairs.  It would be nice if some journalist posed this question to her.

I've yet to find much information about Governor Palin's views and record on drug policy. She  has said that marijuana should be illegal -- although presumably she's glad she never was arrested for her own use.  But she's also made clear that marijuana should not be a top law enforcement priority. That's good -- and probably politically wise given that close to 50 percent of Alaskans think marijuana should be legal.

As for Senator McCain, it's hard to be optimistic that he'll do much good on drug policy.  He has publicly mocked medical marijuana patients.  Back in 1999, he introduced a bill that would have banned methadone maintenance as an approved treatment for heroin addiction, notwithstanding the scientific consensus that it is by far the most effective treatment available. The only good news was his recent speech at the Urban League where he spoke in favor of diverting more nonviolent drug law offenders to treatment instead of prison.

What I find most interesting this week -- from a drug policy perspective -- has nothing to do with what's on the main stage.  Just down the road in Minneapolis, Republican Congressman Ron Paul is holding a shadow convention with 10,000 of his supporters.   No one ever stirred up the libertarian wing of the Republican Party the way he did during the primaries.  It was good to have him holding forth on ending drug prohibition the way that William Buckley, Milton Friedman, former Secretary of State George Shultz and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson have in years and decades past.

And then there's the campaign of Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr, a former Republican Congressman.  He used to be one of the Republican Party’s biggest cheerleaders for the war on drugs but he’s now embraced drug policy reform in a big way.  He and I were invited to debate one another at Fordham Law School last year but Bob Barr couldn't find enough ways to agree with me.

There's no question the Republican Party is evolving as its libertarian wing gains strength.  And it's our job at the Drug Policy Alliance to meld the libertarian sentiments on the right with the social justice passions on the left into an ever more powerful movement for ending the nation's longest and most costly war -- the war on drugs.

The War on Drugs in Cartoon Form

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:31:38 -0400

Happy Labor day weekend everyone!

Remember, this is your last opportunity to wear white before you are ridiculed by the fashionistas.*

* I will send someone a drug war facts book if they can provide a picture of Czar Walters or talking head "Chief Scientist" David Murray wearing white after this Monday.

Iranian Harm Reductionists Held Prisoner

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:30:07 -0400

Iran has captured the attention of harm reduction activists worldwide for its surprisingly progressive policies on syringe exchange and drug treatment, designed to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among injection drug users.

Now, two doctors who are deeply involved in HIV prevention and treatment work have been arrested and are believed to be detained in Evin Prison in Tehran. Dr. Arash Alaei and his brother, Dr. Kamiar Alaei, are known internationally for their efforts to raise the profile of HIV/AIDS issues with the Iranian government, and for their roles in creating harm reduction programs for prisoners and young people.

Arash Alaei was slated to speak at the International AIDS Conference earlier this month in Mexico City. But on June 22, he was arrested by Iranian police. The following day they took his brother Kamiar, seizing documents from both brothers.

Since President Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, he has withdrawn support for Iran’s highly respected syringe exchange projects promoted by Arash and Kamair, initiatives hailed by the United Nations as "courageous" and "visionary."

Six weeks after the brothers' detainment, Tehran officials released a statement about them:

"They held conferences on such topics as AIDS, which drew the attention of domestic and foreign organizations and NGOs," and "they would organize foreign trips for people and train them. They were aware of what they were doing, and their training was of the nature of a velvet revolution."

Supporters of drug policy reform and harm reduction around the world can support the brothers by calling on the Iranian government to release the Drs. Alaei. Sign a petition being circulated by Physicians for Human Rights at IranFreetheDocs.org. And if you're on Facebook, join the groupfounded by one of Kamiar's colleagues at Harvard to support the brothers.

Yes on 5: Martin Sheen Is Wrong

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:29:37 -0400

Last time I checked, Martin Sheen was an actor, not a policy expert. But that hasn’t stopped him from asking our elected officials to oppose Prop. 5. In a letter last week, Mr. Sheen urged our representatives in Sacramento to ignore all of the state’s public health advocates and side with him.

He’s asking a lot: the state’s leading addiction treatment and mental health groups all support Prop. 5.

I am disappointed that Mr. Sheen, a person who has struggled with addiction himself for years, is opposed to Prop. 5 — a measure that would significantly expand funding for drug treatment and drug courts, and focus resources on the underlying problems faced by so many nonviolent offenders in this state. For sure, Mr. Sheen has endured tough, personal experiences that have left him with strong views on addiction. His experience and perspective deserve respect; but they do not define good state policy.

He says Prop. 5 won’t help. He is wrong now—just like he was wrong back in 2000.

In 2000, Mr. Sheen opposed Proposition 36, the state’s ground-breaking treatment-not-incarceration law, claiming that it wouldn’t help people struggling with addiction. Voters disagreed, approving Prop. 36 with a 61 percent landslide. Since then, 84,000 people have completed Prop. 36 drug treatment. Without Prop. 36, most of them would never have been offered any help. At the same time, Prop. 36 has already saved taxpayers almost $2 billion.

Each and every Prop. 36 graduate has better life prospects, especially in terms of family and employment. I have the privilege of working with many Prop. 36 graduates and other people in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug problems. I partner with people in recovery to fight for something we are all passionate about: ending addiction and increasing resources to achieve that goal. That is why so many people in recovery support Prop. 5.

Prop. 5 builds on the success of Prop. 36, making treatment available to more nonviolent offenders and, for the first time, to young people in California. By increasing funding to treatment, Prop. 5 will help more people and save more taxpayer dollars.

Martin Sheen has his perspective. But even though he’s a Hollywood star, his vote won’t count any more than yours or mine will on November 4th. Remember to vote Yes on 5!

Sincerely,

Margaret Dooley-Sammuli
Deputy Campaign Manager, Yes on 5
Deputy State Director, Southern California
Drug Policy Alliance Network

Who's the Drug War's Next Victim?

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:28:19 -0400

Question: Who’s safe from the brutal tactics of the zero-tolerance drug war?

Answer: No one, apparently.

Recently, a D.C.-area sheriff's office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers in Maryland burst into the house of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo after they saw Calvo take a suspicious package inside. (The package, which contained marijuana, was intended to be intercepted by a drug smuggling ring that exploits unsuspecting addressees.) During the raid, they shot and killed the mayor's two Labrador retrievers. (1) In the ensuing investigation, it was discovered that the police did not even possess a "no-knock" warrant for the botched SWAT-style raid.(2)

In November 2006, the Atlanta area was shocked when 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was gunned down by narcotics officers who kicked down her door (an incorrect address was supplied by an informant) in another bungled "no-knock" drug raid. Protecting her home from the sudden intrusion, Ms. Johnston fired one round before being shot 39 times by police; they then handcuffed her and, as she lay dying, planted marijuana in her basement to cover up their mistake.(3)

Each year, SWAT teams across the country conduct an estimated 40,000 raids, many of them directed at people suspected of nonviolent drug law violations.(4) These brutal tactics -- heavily armed police in military-style attire breaking down doors and tossing flash-bang grenades -- have become routine. But it’s obvious such tactics are not justified for routine drug raids.

Send a note to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a national organization that unites mayors around policies and goals, and ask them to support an end to these tactics. Now that one of their own has been victimized, urge our nation's mayors to start a conversation in their communities about "no-knock" warrants and routine SWAT-style raids for drug investigations.

Take action now.

If you are as outraged as we are, please take another moment to forward this request to your friends and family.

Thank you so much for your support!

Sincerely,
Bill Piper
Director, National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance

P.S. Check out the resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors calling for a new bottom line in U.S. drug policy.

1. "FBI to Review Raid That Killed Mayor's Dogs," Washington Post, August 8, 2008
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080702161.html

2. "Prince George's Police Clear Mayor, Family," Washington Post, August 9, 2008
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/08/06/ST2008080603533.html

3. "Casualties of the Corrupt Drug War," FOXNews.com, November 20, 2007
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312240,00.html

4. "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids," Cato Institute, July 2006
    http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476

What Caused Australia's Heroin Shortage?

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:27:16 -0400

Dr. Alex Wodak is director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St. Vincent's Hospital in Australia, and is on the Executive Committee of the International Harm Reduction Association. Below, Dr. Wodak examines the possible causes of decreased heroin availability in Australia.

Heroin availability in Australia increased by about 7-8% a year from the early 1970s until it suddenly decreased by about 20-30% from early in 2001. More than 7 years later, heroin availability in Australia has still not returned to the level it reached in the 1990s. What caused Australia's heroin shortage? And what can be learned from this heroin shortage?

There have been previous heroin shortages. But few have been as deep or lasted as long and none have been studied as extensively. A series of papers in a recent edition of the International Journal of Drug Policy discussed rival explanations.

A study of the heroin shortage funded by the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund concluded that additional funding provided to drug law enforcement improved the effectiveness of supply control producing critical heroin seizures which disrupted major syndicates. Degenhardt and Hall argue that these factors thereby created the shortage. They dismissed a 79-89% reduction of Burmese heroin production from 1996 to 2004 as 'the least plausible explanation' for the Australian heroin shortage. Virtually all heroin reaching Australia at the time came from Burma. Burmese heroin also supplied Western Canada. Researchers found a sharp fall in the number of drug overdoses and needles and syringes handed out in Vancouver at about the same time as the heroin shortage started in Australia. However Degenhardt and Hall argued that the onset and severity of the shortage in Vancouver and Australia were not closely enough matched to suggest a common origin. Analysis of the quantity of heroin seized in Australia each year did not correlate well with the onset of the heroin shortage. Another contentious aspect of the Degenhardt and Hall study was the choice of a lower standard of proof.

The major lesson from this research is that the most severe, longest lasting and best-documented heroin shortage in the world cannot be confidently attributed, solely or largely, to improved domestic drug law enforcement. At best, domestic law enforcement may have made a small contribution compared to several other factors. Yet drug law enforcement continues to receive the overwhelming majority of government funding in comparison with demand reduction and harm reduction.

--Dr. Alex Wodak, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Prop. 5 Fights Back

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:25:44 -0400

Law enforcement groups opposed to California's Proposition 5, the most ambitious sentencing and prison reform in U.S. history, recently tried to get it thrown off the ballot. But we fought back, with the result that the California Supreme Court rejected their challenge and affirmed that the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act will appear on the November state ballot as Prop. 5.

The 34 district attorneys and two former governors (Wilson and Davis) involved in the suit all know that Prop. 5 has strong public support so they tried to keep it away from the voters. But their effort, built upon slick legal arguments that badly mischaracterize Prop. 5, has failed. Now the voters will decide whether to pass Prop. 5 and, with it, create new youth treatment programs, improve and expand treatment offered through the court system, and solve the state's prison overcrowding crisis.

This won’t be the last we hear from law enforcement groups. As California Political Week put it, "to top ranking officials from law enforcement, nothing is more important than the defeat of Prop. 5." The California District Attorneys Association is heading up the opposition with support from associations of sheriffs and police chiefs.

We’re working hard to make sure that the pro voices are even louder. Our fast-growing coalition of reform advocates includes the League of Women Voters, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the NAACP of California and a wide range of youth advocates and treatment experts.

You can help stop the lies and broadcast the truth about treatment for nonviolent offenders by making a contribution toward the "Yes on Prop. 5" campaign today. This will keep Prop. 5 on track to turn around thousands of lives and make history in California.

With your help and the help of our growing "Yes on Prop. 5" coalition, we will make ourselves heard above our opponents’ fear-mongering -- and win this November!

Short and Sweet: Common Sense to Drug Policy

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:47:48 -0400

From the Letters to the Editor of the August 21st L.A. Times:

"For those who doubt this wisdom [moving all chemicals in the Controlled Substances Act from Schedule I to II, allowing research and prescription based upon science], the next time you or a loved one becomes ill, call a cop."

-Gene Tinelli MD, Jamesville, N.Y.

Simple, eloquent, and directly to the point. Sums up all that is wrong with our drug prohibition policy - cops and politicians handling things better left to doctors.

At Least We Aren't in the Only Police State?

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:07:58 -0400

Let's not invade Iran. But seriously, Iran, you're not helping. Let these doctors go.

On June 22 of this year, Dr. Arash Alaei was arrested by Iranian police, and the following day they took his brother, Dr. Kamiar Alaei, and seized documents from the brothers. Arash and Kamiar are very active in the harm reduction movement in Iran and internationally, working for the prevention and management of HIV/AIDS. They are believed to be held in Evin Prison in Tehran, reportedly for plotting to overthrow the government. Amnesty International believes their arrest to be politically motivated, and has called for urgent action on their behalf.

Since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, he has withdrawn support for the progressive, highly respected needle exchange projects promoted by Arash and Kamair, initiatives hailed by the UN as "courageous" and "visionary."

Six weeks after the brothers' detainment, Tehran officials released a statement about the brothers:

"They held conferences on such topics as AIDS, which drew the attention of domestic and foreign organizations and NGOs," and that "they would organize foreign trips for people and train them. They were aware of what they were doing, and their training was of the nature of a velvet revolution."

It's important to keep perspective, and realize that as we point fingers at Iran for repressing its people, the same behavior (and worse) happens in the United States. Consistency is important. And as much as I call out the U.S. as a police state responsible for thousands of civilian deaths each year (at home and abroad), we've got to also stand up for our brothers and sisters across the world facing other kinds of state repression. Physicians for Human Rights is circulating a petition at IranFreetheDocs.org that calls on the Iranian government to release the Drs. Alaei. Sign it now! And if you're on Facebook, join the group founded by one of Kamiar's colleagues at Harvard to support the brothers.

No One is Safe

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:05:01 -0400

It's the day after Christmas in 2001. You're 21 years old. After finally putting your 18-month-old daughter to sleep, you're relaxing in your favorite recliner, nodding off in the flickering light of the television show you're only half-watching and the string of Christmas lights around your front window. When you hear the sounds of someone trying to kick in your door, you run to your daughter's bedroom; when someone does break in and kick down her bedroom door, you shoot. It turns out the man you shot is the (white) police chief's son, and as he dies of internal bleeding en route to the hospital you (a black man) are arrested, beaten so badly your bleed from your ear for a week, and are put on death row for five years (until a judge overturns what was a wrongful sentencing). The drugs the cops were looking for (using a warrant that named no one in your household) were never found. This is the case of Mississippian Corey Maye, who is still locked up.

Or: you are 57 years old, getting ready for work in mid-May 2003. It's shortly after six in the morning. A battering ram breaks down your door, and in gets tossed a flash grenade. You can't breathe, you're coughing, and the police don't believe you - they're looking for a stash of drugs and guns they'll never find. Taking no notice of your worsening condition, they handcuff you, and in little more than an hour, though you're finally on the way to the hospital, the heart attack caused by this traumatic violation takes your life. This was Alberta Spruill, a church volunteer and city worker in Harlem.

Or it's November 2006. You're a fierce 92-year-old woman, frightened by the sounds of someone prying off the burglar bars that cover your front door, but determined to protect your home: when your door is broken down you fire one shot at the intruders, before being shot 39 times, handcuffed and left to die while the police (who are the intruders, and as it turns out, have broken down the wrong door) realize their mistake and plant drugs in your basement. This was Kathryn Johnston of northwest Atlanta; two of the cops responsible for her death pled guilty to manslaughter last year, and a third was recently convicted of lying in the cover-up.

Imagine instead it's 2008. Coming home one night in late July, you find a large package which happens to contain marijuana.You are the white mayor of a wealthy DC suburb and as it turns out, also victim to a drug smuggling scheme that targets innocent addresses in the UPS system. You bring the box inside - only to watch as moments later SWAT officers break in and shoot your two beautiful Labradors. As the dogs lay there dying, bleeding all over your nice floors, you are held in the very same room, handcuffed for hours. The law enforcement officials don't - at that time - actually believe that you are the mayor of this suburban town, and to date have yet to apologize for the killing of your family's pets.

No one is safe. Last month's case involving Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo is one of perhaps 40,000 (yes, forty thousand) such raids each year. (see Cato Institute report, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America). What has made it so widely covered is simply the (white, class) privilege and power of the victims. Many, many lives are lost or ruined by these paramilitary operations. You're in extra danger if you happen to be poor and/or a person of color. Ellen blogged about these raids recently: check out her post and the Cato Institute's map of raid casualties.

This is not the world I want to live in. Take action now - check out our most recent action alert and encourage the U.S. Conference of Mayors to protect themselves and their cities from further unthinkable violence in what has honestly become a police state.

ONDCP Ruins My Zen, Also Never Stayed Up 'Til 2 AM in College

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:01:36 -0400

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has put up a blog "refuting" the myths and legitimacy of Rep. Barney Franks and Ron Paul's marijuana decrim bill on The Hill blog (which is Congresses way of staying hip).

The blog post isn't interesting; it just is the same old crap espoused by our friendly drug czar's office. Honestly, this drivel used to fill me with anger, but now it just bores me - I think this job has zenned (yeah, not a word) me out.

I will pull out some choice quotes though:

"Congressman Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced H.R. 5843, an ill-considered piece of legislation aimed at legalizing marijuana, a topic more often heard in college dorms at 2 oâ€™clock in the morning than in the hallowed halls of our Congress."

My thoughts:

Decrim:legalization as sun:chalk board -- okay, I hyperbolize (again, not a word), but there are obvious differences between decrim (which the bill does) and legalize (which it obviously doesn't).

Moreover, why is the marijuana decriminalization debate off-limits to college students who will one day fill the same positions that ONDCP does now? Hell, why is it off-limits to anyone? If marijuana prohibition has caused the arrests of 850,000 last year, 90% of whom for simple possession, why shouldn't Congress have a legitimate debate about the real consequences that affect almost 1,000,000 people per year in this country?

"Some pro-drug interest groups have argued that keeping marijuana illegal itself does damage, since people run the risk of arrest if they break the law. But in fact, marijuana offenders represent only a very tiny fraction of state prison inmates in the United States.

My thoughts:

Well, in the morning I am pro caffeine, and at night sometimes I'm pro alcohol; I guess that makes me pro drug. I am not pro nicotine but am addicted to, and can afford it, thanks in part to goverment subsidies.

In addressing the second part of that quote, I would like to note that being arrested places a huge cost on the individual. And by the way, ONDCP, having a misdemeanor conviction for marijuana, even if you didn't spend anytime in prison (but will probably in jail because that is where cops put you when you are arrested), really makes it difficult to get a job, is humilating, and can lead to being evicted from your home.

I am really starting to de-zen.

And finally my favorite quote, which is the last paragraph:

"Unfortunately, marijuana is often the blind spot of drug policy. While teen marijuana use is down sharply, adult use - with all the social, economic, and health consequences that go along with it - will not improve* until we start being more honest with ourselves about the seriousness of this drug. Too many of us are in denial, and it is time for an intervention."

* Notice they didn't say increase

My thoughts:

WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE BABY BOOMERS?!?!

Author's note: yeah, I know that last picture is counter-productive on so many levels, but when I have the opportunity to make fun of my parents' generation, I seriously will.*

*Hey baby boomers, there is a talking dog that would like a word with you

Drug Testing Invades My Privacy

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:00:26 -0400

Well ... it could, anyway. I am a student, and while grad school is perhaps worlds away from high school, I feel a certain affinity for my younger brethren who are trapped in an education system that not only lies to them about U.S. history but treats them like criminals (e.g., strip searching thirteen-year-olds looking for Ibuprofen). Random drug testing makes just as little sense.

It's invasive. It's wasteful. It erodes the already fragile trust existing between teens and school officials. It profits drug testing companies and promotes the criminalization of youth.

DPA has a project addressing random student drug testing, and other failed efforts surrounding drugs and youth. The Safety First project provides resources for parents, educators and students who are interested in reality-based approaches to drug education that stress the health, safety, and well-being of young people.

We just launched a new Facebook cause* to facilitate the sharing of information and strategies among students across the country. We aim to raise awareness among high school and college students, and provide more young people with the tools to take a stand against random student drug testing. Help spread the word! Anyone who joins the cause gets these awesome (free!) stickers:

*[just a heads up: these cause links only work if you're already logged in to Facebook]

It's Okay to Kill Someone, Just Don't Sell Her Drugs

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:31:27 -0400

In 2003, Robert E. Chambers, the so-called "Preppy Killer," was released from prison after serving a 15 year sentence. In 1986 he strangled Jennifer Levin in Central Park during what he described as rough sex. Well, now he's back in jail for possessing and selling cocaine. His sentence this time is 19 years and 4 months with a 5 year probation at the end.

I'm sorry, but what??? Killing someone gets you less jail time than selling drugs? Can someone with a J.D. or something please explain that to me? Because I just don't get it. What kind of message are the courts and policy makers sending to society when a murderer gets out of prison before a drug dealer? Here's what I take from it: this government cares more about limiting personal freedoms than it does about achieving justice for a victim. This justice system cares more about drug use than it does about human life.

What a sad day for America.

Posted by Ellen Parkhurst

Spray Afghanistan?

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 13:16:13 -0400

'cause it worked so well the first time.

The U.S. government has significant experience in spraying poison on other peoples' lands; sometimes, ostensibly, to fight the war on drugs. In Colombia they've used souped-up Roundup (in a combination of ingredients including a surfactant known as Cosmo-Flux 411 used to help it stick to and penetrate plants), spelling a deliberate disaster harmful to the environment and its people. The Washington Office on Latin America released a report six months ago confirming that aerial fumigation sucks. Chew on this:

    * An Organization of American States agency produced a report in March 2005 that absolved aerial spraying in Colombia of significant harm to humans or the environment (no small feat: Colombian biodiversity has been among the highest in the world - second most diverse country in terms of species/area). Touted heavily ever since by drug war zealots, the report has been widely criticized for not considering important environmental effects (i.e., deforestation: fumigating coca crops in one area leads to campesinos clearing more land and planting more coca elsewhere), focusing more heavily on less significant problems (effects on land animals) than on issues that are more pressing (destruction of licit crops; soil erosion) and most significantly, I think, an inadequate basis in field research.
    * Later that year, a French research team found glyphosate and Roundup toxic to human placental cells, at levels below typical agricultural dilutions: so fumigations impact human reproductive systems, too.
    * A picture taken by IPS Drug Policy Project Director Sanho Tree depicts a woman's arm displaying a rash typical of those caused by direct fumigations.

Aerial spraying doesn't even work - there's as much coca coming out of Colombia now as there was when the fumigations started eight years ago; the price, purity, and availability of cocaine on U.S. streets has remain unchanged.

So in Afghanistan, should we really look to the crops themselves as the "root of the narcotics problem" (as Thomas Schweich, former state department counter-narcotics bigwig, wrote in his disgustingly imperialist July 27th article in the New York Times)? It sure is easier than looking at where and why - or by whom - this problem was created in the first place.

Cristina Oguz doesn't think we should "blame Afghanistan alone for the heroin problem in the world." She's the country rep for UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and was recently quoted in an AP story: "It's true that this country is producing the raw material for heroin, the opium. But it is not possible to make heroin without certain chemicals, and these chemicals are not produced inside Afghanistan."

Norine MacDonald, Founder, President and Lead Field Researcher of international security/development think tank Senlis Council, agrees. She responded to Schweich's NYT article with a pointed critique of his favored approach to aerial eradication. Acknowledging the health and environmental harms that would stem from fumigations, and also noting that this practice would drive further support for the Taliban-led resistance, MacDonald advocated the Poppy for Medicine scheme Senlis developed. While her letter states "we can use market forces to successfully combat Afghanistan's illegal drug trade," and I would argue strongly against not only the framing, tone, and assumptions involved but even the conclusion itself, Poppy for Medicine is a world away from spraying Afghan farmers, their licit and illicit crops, and the Afghan countryside. I would much rather someone like MacDonald be at the helm of international policy in Afghanistan than Schweich, however much I disagree with her politics. His article and position betrays - along with what is either willful or pretended ignorance of Colombian and even Afghan realities - the sickening (yet unsurprising) racist, colonial perspective that consistently characterizes U.S. state department and drug policy, be it domestic or international.

As we work to end the war on drugs in our communities in the United States, let us not forget the consequences abroad. Military responses - including the use of chemical weaponry - don't work at home, don't work abroad, and they're morally wrong, in every possible sense.

Posted by Vera Leone

Letter to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on the Prison Reform Taskforce

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:08:47 -0400

This is a letter from community advocates and local organizations to Gov. Bill Richardson, asking him to consider recommendations on prison reform.

A Four-Pillars Approach to Methamphetamine

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:08:23 -0400

This report lays out the fundamentals of an effective national strategy for reducing the problems associated with both methamphetamine misuse and misguided U.S. methamphetamine policies.

DPA New Mexico Urges Comprehensive Prison Reform

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:07:18 -0400

Recent recommendations on prison reform from a New Mexico taskforce stop short of calling for comprehensive changes, but DPA New Mexico has jumped in with a letter to Governor Bill Richardson outlining additional steps the state can take to create real reform.

The Prison Reform Taskforce was convened this spring by the governor, bringing together a consortium of criminal justice leaders and employees from around the state. The purpose was to evaluate the New Mexico prison system's operations, services and programs, and make recommendations for reform.

DPA New Mexico did not sit on the taskforce, but monitored each meeting and provided community input and suggestions to help influence the final report. DPA New Mexico staff and members provided public comment to the taskforce requesting the inclusion of a number of concrete recommendations in its final report, such as the creation of a treatment pilot project at the women’s prison for women with heroin addictions and improvement of reentry services and policies.

The final report issued by the taskforce on June 24 (PDF) did take some of these considerations into account, but made largely incremental recommendations and completely left out a number of much-needed reforms.

To keep the pressure on, DPA New Mexico drafted its own letter of recommendations (PDF) for the governor to consider. Thirteen local community organizations and individuals working in the fields of substance abuse and criminal justice reform signed on to the letter, fully endorsing four proposals that were included in the taskforce’s final report and asking the governor to support six new recommendations.

The new recommendations include improving employment opportunities for individuals released from prison, creating statutory change for treatment instead of jail for drug-related offenses, and setting an overall goal for the reduction of recidivism, which would direct state resources to the successful reentry of people who are incarcerated.

The letter urges the state toward "greater systemic reform to reduce recidivism and make our communities safer."

Governor Richardson will now consider the recommendations, and reform advocates hope he will prioritize a number of criminal justice reform proposals for the upcoming legislative session.

DPA New Mexico is optimistic that the governor and state legislators will embrace the policies outlined in the letter, which are based on health, human rights, reason, compassion, and justice. DPA New Mexico will monitor outcomes resulting from the taskforce’s final report, and continue to advocate for comprehensive prison and criminal justice reform, particularly during the 2009 legislative session.

Marijuana Bill Packs Room, Makes Headlines

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:04:43 -0400

Congressional staffers and members of the press packed a hearing room on Capitol Hill Wednesday for Rep. Barney Frank's (D-MA) announcement of the first federal marijuana decriminalization bill in decades.

The bill, H.R. 5843, would remove federal criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, so that federal law enforcement agencies can concentrate on violent offenders and major drug traffickers.

Decrim Bill Press ConferenceThree members of Congress spoke at the press conference in support of the bill. Frank spoke of the misuse of resources represented by current marijuana enforcement practices, while Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) condemned the drug war's disproportionate impact on people of color.

Bill Piper, DPA's director of national affairs, highlighted the collateral consequences of marijuana arrests. Piper explained that people convicted of a marijuana charge often lose their jobs and are denied school loans and other forms of public assistance.

Last year alone, the police made almost 830,000 arrests for marijuana law offenses in the United States. Nearly 90 percent of those arrests were for possession for personal use.

CNN covered Wednesday's event with a story quoting Piper and other advocates. You can watch a CNN clip of Rep. Frank speaking on the bill here.

DPA supporters have been advocating for H.R. 5843 since it was introduced this spring. If you have not yet taken action, urge your member of Congress to support the bill.

A Life and Death Issue

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:01:23 -0400

Several months ago my colleague Naomi Long and I had an op-ed in The Washington Post calling for a repeal of the federal prohibition that blocks states from using their share of HIV/AIDS prevention money on syringe exchange programs. We had a hard-hitting conclusion: As many as 300,000 Americans could contract HIV/AIDS or hepatitis C over the next decade because of a lack of access to sterile syringes. This essentially makes the national syringe ban a death sentence for drug users, their partners and children.

Take action now to support a bill in Congress that would repeal the ban.

Last year my colleague Jasmine Tyler lost her father to HIV/AIDS that he contracted from injection drug use and it really hit our D.C. office hard. She had this to share: From the time he found out he was HIV-positive until the day he died in April of 2007, he suffered greatly and so did our family. Every day I know that the hell he lived through could have been avoided if only he had had access to sterile needles all the time. It’s too late to bring him back, but every other life that can be saved should be.

While our country spends billions of dollars on efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases, the U.S. prohibits the use of prevention funds to support syringe exchange programs. This robs cities, states and private organizations of the right to do what’s best for the people, and costs taxpayers a lot of money. It’s far cheaper to distribute syringes and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis than it is to treat people who contract those infectious diseases after it's too late.

Last year, District of Columbia Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and New York Congressman Jose Serrano successfully repealed a federal ban that prohibited D.C. from spending its own budget money on syringe exchange programs. This week Rep. Serrano introduced a bill that would repeal the national syringe funding ban. If enacted, it could save hundreds of thousands of lives and millions in taxpayer dollars. Please urge your representative to support this urgent, life-saving bill.

Take action now.

Want to do more? Set up a meeting with your representative when he or she is in your district during Congress's August recess. Learn how.

Sincerely,

Bill Piper
Director of National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance

More Information

--According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), of the 415,193 people reported to be living with AIDS in the United States at the end of 2004, about 30 percent of cases are related to injection drug use, either directly (sharing contaminated syringes) or indirectly (having sex with someone who used a contaminated syringe or being born to a mother who used a contaminated syringe).

--Each year, approximately 12,000 Americans contract HIV/AIDS directly or indirectly from the sharing of dirty syringes. About 17,000 people contract hepatitis C.

--The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Medical Association, National Academy of Sciences, American Public Health Association, and numerous other scientific bodies have found that syringe exchange programs are highly effective at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Moreover, seven federal reports have found that increasing access to sterile syringes saves lives without increasing drug use.

--Increasing the availability of sterile syringes through exchange programs, pharmacies and other outlets reduces unsafe injection practices such as syringe sharing, curtails transmission of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, increases safe disposal of used syringes, and helps injection drug users obtain drug education and treatment.

--The lifetime cost of treating just one person who contracts HIV/AIDS can be as high as $600,000. This cost is often borne by taxpayers. In contrast, syringe exchange programs can prevent thousands of new HIV/AIDS cases at very little cost. Funding syringe exchange programs saves both lives and taxpayer money.

--A federal appropriations rider in the annual Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies spending bill prohibits states from spending their share of federal prevention money on syringe exchange programs. H.R. 6680 would repeal that provision.

Legal Weed is OK!

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:00:06 -0400

Several months ago, I posted a blog about a small California brewery owner, Vaune Dillmann, that was threatened by the governemt because he created and used a bottle cap that read: "Try Legal Weed". The government had an issue with that bottle cap because it was "consider[ed] to be a drug reference, and [found] it to be false and misleading to the consumer in terms of what may or may not be in the properties contained with that product."

The entire reason Mr. Dillmann used this reference on his beer caps is because he lives in Weed, California. You get it now? It's a pun!

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (ATTT) didn't see it that way and threatened to shut down Mr. Dillmann's brewery if he didn't discontinue his bottle cap.

Silly, right?

But today I am pleased to learn that ATTT's threats have been averted, and Mr. Dillmann is free to continue using his bottle cap. It's nice to see that bastions of free speech still occur on bottle caps.

The letter coming from the governement found that "on the context of the entire label, we agree that the phrase in question refers to the brand name of the product and does not mislead consumers."

Hooray! Common sense has prevailed (the battle has been won, but it will take much more effort to win the war).

Hopefully, Mr. Dillmann can use all this publicity about this absurdity to his advantage.

Posted by Evan G.

An Appropriate Label

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:57:21 -0400

In case anyone out there has ever doubted the suitability of calling it the War on Drugs, please visit this website.

Doesn't get more warlike than death, collateral damage, acquittal, and double standards.

Posted by Ellen Parkhurst

D.E.A., Drug War USA: Bring on the Hessians!

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:56:39 -0400

Is Blackwater being contracted out by the D.E.A. to assist in medical marijuana dispensary raids?

The picture linked above was originally attached to the L.A. Times story. It has since been removed from their compilation of photos.

The treatment of the raid by the reporters (namely, their use of quotations to call into question people's medical status) was commented upon by Ellen earlier. I had briefly blogged about the D.E.A. coming in, stealing everything in sight, and leaving as an example of wasted law enforcement resources, and wondering if there weren't maybe some ultra-violent Mexican Cartels they could go after instead.

For this blog entry, I would like to comment on the possibility that once again, we have mercenaries operating on our soil, enforcing laws against sick people.

That's right: sick people. The D.E.A. has stated repeatedly that enforcing the Controlled Substances Act in raiding medical marijuana dispensaries isn't a high priority for them and doesn't use up a lot of resources.

No doubt part of this is true: they come in, they steal all the money and marijuana they can find, and then they leave without pressing charges on anyone. That way, no paper work to do. Of course, it is now very hard to distinguish the D.E.A. from a common thief. Should Blackwater be involved, it would mean that the D.E.A. was contracting civilians to take things from other civilians - we call this stealing, or legally: larceny, robbery, and burglary under color of law or authority.

I suppose we could look for the truth in this: if the D.E.A. is indeed contracting out medical marijuana raids, it doesn't use up much of their manpower resources. Their fiscal resources, however, surely would be used up - but then again, they are taking money and marijuana. I'm sure whatever the contract price is, they more than made up for it with what they seized.

The alternate reading of this, however, is that 1) they don't have the physical resources to pursue medical marijuana raids, so 2) it is such a high priority that they have to contract out to make sure the raids keep happening, despite the fiscal cost.

No matter what the reading, isn't it time we stop spending human resources and financial resources going after sick people and their medical supply? Let's say 10 people going to a medical marijuana dispensary are just going to get high for recreation, and just 1 is going for medicine. Would you refuse the one?

During the Salem Witch Trials, Increase Mather, then president of Harvard, denounced the use of spectral evidence: "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned."

Similarly, is it not better ten marijuana users get their marijuana, than one sick person be denied?

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Right Idea, Wrong Analysis

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:52:25 -0400

L.A. Times' Sandy Banks wrote an article on Saturday criticizing the DEA's raiding tactics. By DEA standards, the raid on Organica Collective was par for the course: they dressed to the nines in protective gear, handcuffed employees and patients alike, and confiscated everything they could. As Banks points out, all of this was completely unnecessary for a dispensary "with such a mellow vibe that its business card features a dove and a cross."

But Banks wasn't entirely on the money with her assessment of the raid. First of all, she puts the word patients in quotes. As in "the business has been growing so fast, dozens of new 'patients' sign up each week." They aren't "patients." They're patients. Big difference. Secondly, she claims she has "seen too many healthy-looking young people go in and out" of dispensaries. Maybe the reason they look healthy is because the cannabis they take gives them their appetite back so they can become healthy again after chemo or while they have AIDS. Or maybe their outward appearance is one of specious health. Hell, anyone who saw Randy Pausch in the last few months of his life experienced cognitive dissonance; he looked perfectly healthy, but in reality his liver had 10 deadly tumors (disclaimer: to my knowledge, Prof. Pausch did not use cannabis to treat his cancer).

Obviously Banks is implying that these patients don't actually have cancer or AIDS or glaucoma or MS, and maybe they don't. But really, that shouldn't matter. People get their doctors to prescribe them Klonopin when they don't have anxiety, Prozac when they're not depressed, Valium when they're not in pain. Should the DEA raid CVS or Duane Reade just because people are picking up prescriptions for drugs they don't "need?" Prescriptions are a private matter between doctors and patients, not a public matter between patients and paramilitary organizations.

Sandy Banks is right that the DEA doesn't need to get into full combat gear to raid a dispensary. (They also don't need to hire mercenaries, but that's a subject for Malakkar to blog about). However, Sandy Banks is wrong when she says "an orderly crackdown is overdue." Crackdowns are not what medical marijuana patients need; what they need is legalization on a federal level so that the DEA can stop wasting time and money by busting into and stealing from peaceful, crime-free operations.

Posted by Ellen Parkhurst

Too Many Stories!

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:51:34 -0400

I'm not going to bother to link to any of these stories... there are simply too many I've run across today. A brief summary:

Seattle Times: the local police don't think sick people should be smoking cannabis. However, under Washington State Law, they can't be arresting people who are using medical marijuana. Their solution is rather novel - allege illegal trafficking, grab everything in sight, and when it turns out that it is all legitimate, turn everything over to the federal government! Everything in this case turns out to be 12 ounces of cannabis flower bud (the part people want), and 2 pounds of cannabis leaves (the part only the desperate smoke). Grand total of just under 3 pounds of plant material. I'm glad the U.S. Attorney's Office and the D.E.A. have their priorities straight, it's not like tons of cocaine are entering into the U.S. via submarines and porous borders...

LA Times: DEA agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in Culver City, California, seizing all the money and marijuana they could get their hands on. No one arrested, no one taken into custody. Just smash & grab. Funny, we used to call people who did this "criminals," or "thieves," or "robbers," not "the law." People in the know, now know: DEA stands for 'Drugs and/or Dollars Extraction Agency.' I mean, it's not like there are people dying from cartel violence in Mexico or anything... oh wait, there are!

Washington Post: A mayor for Berwyn Heights just found out that he's no exception to the brutal raids of the police either, as they smashed into his home and killed his dogs. Why? Because he took a package into his house, a package addressed to his wife that contained 32 pounds of marijuana. Did the agents await him to open the package, and not report the drugs as proof that he was purposefully having marijuana sent to his home? No! The package was sealed when they busted in, and he was in his underwear. There are so many ways to properly investigate, but why bother when smashing down doors and shooting people's dogs is so much more fun?

Associated Press: And just in case you think it's nothing but raids, fret not! The Attorney General of Illinois wants a San Francisco coffee maker to stop referencing 'Meth' as a branding for their product. No, all you junkies, it does not actually contain methamphetamine. The fact that an attorney general, who swears to uphold the constitution, would ask someone to censor themselves, just shows how far along the path of insanity our drug policies have taken us: we can't even joke about drugs, because our drug policies are such a joke. And, as the Comedian of the Watchmen (Alan Moore) said, "Hey, I never said it was a good joke!"

It's a little overkill for just one day, hence no extensive analysis. Let's look at the above for a minute though, and reflect: does any of this make any sense whatsoever? When did sick people and slick ads become the #1 priority of the drug warriors? How far along this slippery slope do we have to stumble?

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Not Getting Hopes Up

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:50:01 -0400

In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, there is a report of a new bill introduced to decriminalize personal possession of marijuana (cannabis).

It's the first decriminalization bill to hit the House floor since 1978. The victory here is that they're starting to discuss it again, since it's highly unlikely to pass a House vote - in fact, it'll probably die in some weird terrorism or judiciary committee.

The bill itself is somewhat flawed: decriminalization of up to 100 grams for personal possession, and transfer of up to an ounce or 28.5 grams (plus or minus a half gram, depends on how nice the dealer is) so long as it is not for profit.

The problem? Where's that transferred ounce coming from? Not one mention of the fact that cannabis is a plant that grows. If growing is still illegal, where is the decriminalized cannabis coming from? Is it some find-it-and-it's-kosher approach to drug policy?

Perhaps it's for the best that this bill has a snowball's chance in hell: we need a bill that not only decriminalizes possession and transfer of possession, but cultivation as well.

In the meantime, I'm just not getting my hopes up that our drug policy will become a little more rational in an election year.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Legislation Removing Barriers that Prevent Federal Funding of Syringe Exchanges Introduced in Congress

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:49:09 -0400

This is exciting!

Tens of thousands have died because of this federal policy. But this is a start at righting the wrong that has gone on for far too long.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone who doesn't support this legislation hates babies. For real.

"Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) introduced bi-partisan legislation today to repeal a federal provision that prohibits states from using their share of federal HIV/AIDS prevention money on syringe exchange programs, public health programs that prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases. The legislation is a follow-up to a measure passed last year that repealed a federal provision preventing the nation's capital from funding syringe exchange programs. Experts believe as many as 300,000 Americans could contract HIV/AIDS or hepatitis C over the next decade if the ban is not repealed and sterile syringes made widely available." You can read the rest of DPA's press release here.

Posted by Evan G.

How Many Must Bleed in Culiacan to Feed Our Bad Drug Policy?

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:48:25 -0400

In today's (7/30/08) Washington Post, yet another article [no link, Washington Post requires an account to view the article on their website] on the violence in Sinaloa, a Mexican state allegedly buried in drug trafficking.

This time, civilians in the way of alleged narco-traffickers were slaughtered.

I'm tired of reading about these atrocities. I don't excuse the behavior of the murderers. Totally unacceptable. Equally unacceptable is the fact that this is a logical outcome of our drug policy, one that creates black markets.

In the talk of legalization, decriminalization, regulation, there isn't a lot of attention paid to this aspect: these civilians, a majority kids, died as a result of our policies which allegedly are supposed to protect the public. Our policies do not protect the public. Our policies create dangerous markets, unregulated products, violent dispute resolution, and do not stop drug production, distribution, or use whatsoever.

One day, when people look back, they'll wonder how we, as a whole, could be so blind to what is staring at us in the face: our prohibition policy in the United States is perhaps the greatest failure of public policy to ever be implemented for such a large period of time.

When I see the pictures of the dead in Mexico, I am reminded that one way or another, the entire world is connected in various capacities. Our drug policy here creates massacres abroad. We shrug it off, pretend like it has nothing to do with us. In reality, we're not individually responsible for what the particular murderers do. We do, however, carry the weight of why the conditions exist that encourage brutal people to act out against innocent civilians.

With a legal, regulated market for the various substances flowing through Mexico, gangsters would be replaced with farmers and businessmen, and domestically, dirty needles, HIV epidemics, and drugs on every corner and in every school would be replaced with treatment centers, tax bases, and disease control.

My fellow 500,000+ drug war prisoners keep me motivated towards reform. The dead in Culiacan remind me of the urgency of our mission to move towards sensible drug policy.

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

A User is a Criminal

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:46:23 -0400

So says Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis Jones, anyway. The ABC program 20/20 aired an episode the other day about Rachel Hoffman, the 23-year-old recent college graduate whom the Tallahassee police used as a confidential informant. Emphasis on the word "used." Rachel, who had only ever sold small amounts of marijuana to her friends, suddenly found herself pretending to be a serious drug dealer because the police pressured her into becoming a CI. She died two months ago during the sting (which failed, by the way), making her innocent victim number God-only-knows in America's failed War on Drugs.

ABC's Brian Ross asked Jones why he insisted on calling Rachel a criminal, when she had never been charged with a crime. Jones' response was simple: a drug user is a criminal.

To avoid being sassy, let's assume Jones means an illegal-drug user; after all, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and ibuprofen are drugs. Now, according to the World Health Organization, more than 42% of Americans have tried marijuana and 16% have tried cocaine (there were no statistics in that report on opiates or other drugs). Even if you assume that there's a 100% overlap of those populations, that is still a huge percentage of Americans to label "criminals." Also, let's look at whom Jones is calling a criminal: The Beatles, Lewis Carroll, Steve Jobs, Salvador Dali, Charles Dickins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Al Gore, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson, and according to some, even Jesus. As in Christ.

Bold move, Dennis Jones.

Posted by Ellen Parkhurst

What is Going On in Mexico?

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:44:18 -0400

... U.S. foregin policy, unsurprisingly, making matters exponentially worse. Check out the DPA news summary regarding recent increased violence in Mexico.

Congress passed the Merida Initiative at the end of June. This means $400 million for Mexico in 2008 and 2009, and $65 million for Central America in 2008. While significantly less than Bush's originally proposed $1.4 billion, it remains a continuation of our failed drug war efforts in Latin America. (I say failed, but really, I think the U.S. government is probably smarter than that - this has been money well spent, if meant for taking out leftist movements throughout Colombia and now more than ever in Mexico.

The fact is, this counter-narcotics aid package will not effectively combat drug trafficking. Military interdiction efforts never have - they simply push the production to new locations in what is termed the balloon effect. The Merida plan ignores U.S. demand as a root cause of the problem, and refuses to recognize poverty as a root cause of the trafficking. After 14 years of NAFTA, fifty million people in Mexico live in poverty, where even if you earn the minimum wage (many, many folks don't) that equals barely five dollars a day.

And its effects on human rights? I traveled to Colombia twice with the grassroots, non-profit organization Witness for Peace (WFP): in 2007 to look at the true cost of oil in the department of Arauca, and in 2006 to learn about human rights and labor rights in Barrancabermeja. WFP also has a program in Mexico, and quotes Amnesty International as having reported that over the last ten years, it has documented "abuses committed by military personnel in counter-narcotics operations in Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas and Coahuila." It's very likely that this "aid" would be used to target legitimate political expression, as many Mexican groups fear. A significant portion of the Merida money would support the military forces responsible for the notorious crackdown on teachers and community organizers throughout Oaxaca.

The thing is, we've seen this policy try and fail in Colombia (or try and succeed, at least in supporting el paraco Uribe, his ethnocide against native peoples in Colombia and the brutal repression of his political opponents). Why should we try it in Mexico?

Last week, the Senate appropriations committee proposed the next foreign operations bill with $400 million more for Merida. The House version adds $70 million on top of that - if passed, this bill would more than double Merida spending. Don't let it happen. Learn more from Witness for Peace and their partners on the ground in Mexico, and talk to your Congressfolks to stop this imperialistic misuse of your tax dollars. If you're concerned about drugs in the United States, military interdiction abroad won't help. Improved access to effective (and voluntary!) treatment at home might.

Posted by Vera Leone

Drug War Hysteria: Ibuprofen is the New Crack

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:57:41 -0400

She was thirteen. An honor student. She may or may not have given her friend Ibuprofen. She certainly didn't have any on her. School officials, acting upon the word of a scared child, had absolutely no right to look. What the hell were these school officials thinking?

The LA Times reported today that a circuit court overturned (in a 6-5 decision) previous rulings about an assistant principal violating a student's constitutional rights. He is now considered liable for damages. A young woman in eighth grade -

I'm sorry: I'm so angry, I can hardly write. It's not just her rights that were violated. Her body was violated - a visual violation by people looking for a chemical.

She was brought into the assistant principal's office and forced to strip off her clothes, including her underwear, exposing first her breasts and then her pubic area, on the erroneous suspicion that she was hiding Ibuprofen. At this Arizona middle school, students are prohibited from carrying drugs - even over-the-counter medication - into school.

She was searched by women, a nurse and a secretary. It's still abuse. I've been through these searches. Whether male or female, regardless of the sex of the person searching you, it's a violation.

I spent six months in prison for civil disobedience a few years back. Far and away the worst part of prison was the strip search. Whenever I had a visit, on my way back to the living range, I ran the random (and sometimes not so random) risk of having to strip off all my clothes, including undergarments - usually alternating, just in the way this girl was forced to strip - bend over and cough. Depending on the guard, and depending on the day, maybe one in three prisoners would be searched. As a survivor of sexual abuse, these post-visit strip searches were particularly traumatic. Given the percentage of incarcerated women who are also survivors (somewhere around 75%), these strip searches were traumatic for most women. The guards knew this, and some used their power punitively. Even for women on the outside, sexual abuse and sexual assault are far too common. And now middle school administrators think they can strip search students when looking for drugs?

It scares the hell out of me that because of the drug war, middle school administrators are behaving like prison guards. It horrifies me that an assistant principal, his administrative assistant, a nurse, five judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and two previous sets of judges all thought this was acceptable. Is nothing and no one - not even 13-year-old young women and their bodies - safe from the drug war zealots?

And what are we doing to our students by treating them in such a manner? Why are we doing things to 13-year-old girls that appear to be preparing them for prison?

While the principal might be exposed to a civil liability, it's not nearly enough. Everyone who stood by should be fired for failure to protect the student. Everyone who participated in this horrific violation - the nurse, the secretary, the principal - deserves nothing short of being expelled from our public schools immediately. They should be nowhere near our children, ever, let alone responsible for their protection.

Posted by Vera Leone

NCSL Summit in New Orleans

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:56:41 -0400

Thousands of people descended upon New Orleans this week to attend the 37th annual National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) summit. The conference serves as a melting pot of Legislators and their families, lobbyists (who all lament their bad rap), and advocates to discuss issues important to their states. DPA set up a booth (pictures to come), along with long-time allies Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), Republicans for Compassionate Access, and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), to discuss drug policy reforms with Legislators and others.

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect when I arrived -- I thought that we would have some fierce debates with skeptical lawmakers. However, most people that came up to us were receptive to our reforms., and agreed that the war on drugs was doing more harm than good. Even legislators in states that I would not expect to have progressive views (ahem, Kentucky) were with us on our issues.

We were excited that many people already knew about California's Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, affectionately know as NORA. Legislators also thought that treatment is far more effective and useful than incarceration (getting them to walk the walk is another story). All in all, this was a successful conference where we blanketed legislators with good ideas to take back to their home states.

Posted by Evan Goldstein

Actually Sensible Pot Policies

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:55:11 -0400

Somewhere in Argentina, a man is growing marijuana on his balcony, with the blessing of the Camara Federal, a court of appeals. They overturned his conviction, calling it unconstitutional.

In Italy, the Court of Cassation (think Supreme Court) overturned a local ruling that sentenced a reggae musician to 16 months in prison for possessing enough cannabis to roll 70 joints. They recognized the plant as a Rastafarian sacrament, and given the great quantity of weed smoked by members of this religion ... well, it seemed a plausible stash for personal consumption.

Austria does even better. There, 22 pounds can be understood as an amount for personal use - a public prosecutor recently dismissed a case against a man who'd harvested that much, in light of a new law decriminalizing cannabis for personal use, regardless of quantity.

The Swiss are voting on a similar initiative in late November.

So when Massachusettians (well, why not? It's better than calling them Massholes, a moniker I heard more than a few times living in Vermont last year) get to vote on a marijuana penalty reduction initiative on their ballots this November, let's hope they take their cues from our neighbors to the west and south, and not from the drug warmongers.

Posted by Vera Leone

ONDCP Wants Dirty Needles In Your Neighborhood

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:54:31 -0400

The Associated Press on July 22, 2008 ran an article on the San Antonio needle exchange person arrested January of this year for "drug paraphernalia." This article provides, once again, more proof that ONDCP is crazy, their addiction to the drug war requiring a schizophrenic denial of reality.

While Ellen has already commented upon this, I wanted to add my own take.

First, the evidence (also known as reality) disputed by ONDCP:

"Richard Wolitski, acting director of the division of HIV/AIDS prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said three major reviews of needle-exchange programs have shown that they 'decrease HIV transmission and do not increase the use of illegal drugs.' The programs also provide drug users a way to get into treatment programs, Wolitski said."

Never fear, ONDCP has a spin that would make a whirling dervish seem to stand in place. David Murray stated, "When it comes to the distribution of needles, we know that it carries an enablement of continued drug use ... And we fear, the evidence is strong, that it does not succeed in its effort to control the contagion" (of disease).

Where this particular evidence is stored is currently unknown - and last time I checked, addicts didn't let a dirty needle get between them and their habit. Internationally, needle-exchange programs are a widely accepted policy, known to reduce transmission rates of HIV and other blood-borne pathogens.

Despite what the experts on disease transmission and international standards state, ONDCP has a different idea: "Murray said needle-exchange programs don't address the core of the HIV/AIDS problem, which is the high-risk behavior associated with drug use, such as venereal disease and multiple sexual partners. He advocated instead funding treatment programs."

The Chief Scientist of ONDCP is advocating funding treatment programs? Perhaps he should be looking into his own back yard, before knocking on a neighbor's door - ONDCP shells out millions for ineffective anti-drug ads, money that has been demonstrated to be much more effective when used in treatment programs (look no further than the RAND Report on ). Ditto, but in the billions, for interdiction efforts, yet the ONDCP still supports those ineffective tactics.

Despite the research and generally held opinion by almost everyone outside the ONDCP, which maybe can be honestly debated (though I doubt it), let's just be pragmatic about this:

"When [Bill Day] started, he would get only 15 or 20 dirty needles a month because the addicts didn't trust him. In the six months before he quit, he said he got back more than 10,000."

That's 10,000 less dirty needles in the San Antonio streets. Only a crazy person would think this was a bad idea, but ONDCP and David Murray have long fit that description (do remember the classic "only 20,000 people are in all prisons in the U.S. for solely drug offenses," from his debate in Chicago with Ethan Nadelmann on April 14th of this year).

Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek

Join the Discussion - Reducing Harm?

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:53:20 -0400

I'm new here. New to the Drug Policy Alliance, new to drug policy, period. And until recently, I was only vaguely familiar with the phrase "harm reduction." So I'm still learning. In my first few weeks on staff, I began a regular Q&A discussion forum, and one of the questions I selected inquired about harm reduction strategies. I directed the questioner to peruse the harm reduction section of our website, and pointed them to one of our partner organizations, the Harm Reduction Therapy Center.

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is about advancing a sensible drug policy, based on human rights and science, and on compassion and justice. Sounds great, right? But as with any public policy, who would be writing it? Whose voices are heard, and matter, and who is doing the implementation?

You can read my post, along with a few pointed responses, here. While I resonate with many of the tenets of harm reduction as posted on the DPA page (Yes! - provide accessible, factual education, maximize the medical benefits of marijuana, and measure success in lives saved), a subsequent poster, rita, took issue with the very concept of harm reduction. And I think it is absolutely vital to the work of anyone wanting to reform (or abolish?) drug policy to listen to critical responses from folks directly affected by the drug war. So I took another look, and it's got me thinking.

Does incarceration address any of the harms related to drugs? I don't think so. Prisons - and the industrial complex supporting them - should be abolished, period. And how we could ever eliminate youth exposure to drugs, black market or otherwise?

In today's society, the reality is that many people, like rita, have been forced to enter drug treatment programs (which is fucked up). While that kind of forced intervention doesn't strike me as in the spirit of what we advocate in terms of harm reduction, it is the context in which we live. Should one favor treatment over incarceration, without also articulating the need for said treatment to be voluntary?

I think of harm reduction as one approach to help us get from where we are now (multi-billion-dollar drug war that does far more harm than drugs themselves) to where we want to be. What do you think?

Posted by Vera Leone

Specious Credibility

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:52:15 -0400

A 73-year-old San Antonian named Bill Day is answering "a calling from God" by giving out clean syringes to local users, an act which could buy him jail time. Day stands on one side of a debate going on in San Antonio about syringe exchanges. The Associated Press article about the debate quotes David Murray, the chief scientist of our favorite organization (the ONDCP), as saying, that syringe exchange "'carries an enablement of continued drug use, and...the evidence is strong that it does not succeed in its effort to control the contagion' of disease." He also said that "needle-exchange programs don't address the core of the HIV/AIDS problem, which is the high-risk behavior associated with drug use, such as venereal disease and multiple sexual partners."

I'm sorry, but aren't chief scientists supposed to know how to conduct research? Because if Murray had simply googled "syringe exchange study" he'd know that "between 1991 and 1997, the U.S. Government funded seven reports on clean needle programs for persons who inject drugs. The reports are unanimous in their conclusions that clean needle programs reduce HIV transmission, and none find that clean needle programs cause rates of drug use to increase."* Additionally, David Murray would learn that syringe exchanges provide far more services than simply handing out clean needles (proper condom use, HIV/Hepatitis testing, on-site medical care, vein care education, etc), and that "individuals in areas with needle exchange programs have an increased likelihood of entering drug treatment programs."*

Actually, to be honest, I think David Murray does know all of this. I think he is completely aware of the studies that are out there. He also knows that the average person won't take the time to google "syringe exchange study" like I did. As I read that article, I thought "David Murray is an idiot." But the truth is, he isn't an idiot; he's corrupt. He propagates lies, knowing full well that his position of power lends him the trust that he doesn't actually deserve. America has less tolerance for corruption (Richard Nixon) than it does for idiocy (George W. Bush), though. So who wants to be the Woodward and Bernstein of drug policy?

*http://www.drugwarfacts.org/syringee.htm

Posted by Ellen Parkhurst

Science Isn't Fair, Whines ONDCP Spokesman

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:49:11 -0400

Jim Anthony, Chair of Epidemiology at Michigan State University, recently released results from an ongoing study: Toward a Global View of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis and Cocaine Use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. Sarah Lynch discusses the study - and its 'expert' critics - for Time Magazine, in An American Pastime: Smoking Pot. Far and above the rates discovered in other societies, the rate at which Americans try marijuana and cocaine is staggering - often (much) more than twice rates found in other countries. The study's authors sum it up in the conclusion: "drug use is related to income, but does not appear to be simply related to drug policy, since countries with more stringent policies towards illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies."

It's funny how the authors of the peer-reviewed study are referred to as 'researchers' and the spokesman for the US Office of National Drug Control Policy as 'experts.'

Lynch reports that 'experts' criticize the study for only looking at lifetime incidence, not habitual drug use. ONDCP spokesman Tom Riley (aka the 'experts') is quoted as saying, "for drug policy, what you look at is regular use."

Oh, ok. Well, let's have a look at regular drug use, shall we? Let's consider: maybe the 42% of Americans who have tried marijuana (in contrast to the 20% of Dutch folks) really were just experimenting, and the draconian, racist drug policies enforced by our government have cut the rates of habitual pot smoking far below those found in, say, a country such as the Netherlands, where regulation and harm reduction prevail in the struggle for sensible drug policy. What does the 2008 World Drug Report say? Well ... maybe these researchers, too, were unfair. They published a chart, for Cannabis, showing Annual Prevalence of Abuse (let's not get into whether that's even possible in regards to pot), and the United States, at 12.2% of the population aged 15-64, is again more than twice the Netherlands (at 5.4%).

Maybe it's time to stop looking to government spokespeople as experts, and - at the very least - listen to scientists who spend their entire careers researching drug use and public health. Dr. Anthony also commented in Lynch's article. In light of this research, he questions, "whether Americans will want to continue supporting the incarceration of young people who use small amounts of marijuana." I, for one, do not. Do you?

Posted by Vera Leone

Did the Heroin Shortage Cause Amphetamine Use to Increase?

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:48:16 -0400

New research by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows that there is no link in NSW between the decline in heroin use and the rise in amphetamine type substance (ATS) use.

Bad Planning: Mexico's Mérida Initiative

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:07:11 -0400

In the last few weeks:

    *      Nearly six tons of cocaine were seized from a homemade submarine in waters off of Oaxaca.
    *      More than 20 people were killed in the span of a week in the city of Culiacán.
    *      A high-ranking member of the federal police force was murdered during lunch at a restaurant in Mexico City.

What is going on in Mexico?

Ever since Mexican president Felipe Calderón initiated a federal crackdown on drug trafficking in 2007, violence has continued to escalate. The crackdown has resulted in the arrest of some high-level figures in the drug trade, but as cartels are dismantled or left without leaders, violent power struggles erupt over who will take their place.

The U.S. Congress recently approved a $400 million drug war aid package for Mexico for 2008-2009, the first piece of a three-year funding proposal by the Bush administration known as the Mérida Initiative. This assistance will take the form of support for enforcement and interdiction efforts -- a model that has already failed spectacularly with billions of dollars spent on Plan Colombia.

DPA warned against the folly of a Plan Colombia-style approach when the Mérida initiative was first proposed by the Bush administration last fall. This spring, political leaders and influential thinkers on drug policy came together in Mexico to look for a better way.

The International Forum on Illicit Drugs, a two-day conference on alternatives to the Mérida initiative, took place in April in Culiacán, a city that has long been plagued by violence related to the illegal drug trade. Conference participants ranged from local political figures and experts to international drug policy figures, including DPA executive director Ethan Nadelmann. Attendees recommended that Mexico move away from the prohibition model of dealing with drugs, discussing the Netherlands as a model and calling for decriminalization of marijuana as a starting point for change. Detailed coverage can be found in the Drug War Chronicle.

Since the conference took place, Culiacán has made headlines repeatedly for eruptions of violence, including the killings of more than 20 people in one week in July. The continued escalation of drug trade-related violence affirms that supply-side efforts will not work. U.S. funding could instead be put towards expanded treatment access in the U.S., the primary consumer of Latin America's cocaine. A RAND Corporation study showed treatment to be dramatically more effective at reducing cocaine abuse than interdiction.

Reducing demand for drugs coming from Mexico would lower their price -- meaning lower profit margins and less power for cartels.

As Ethan Nadelmann said in the San Francisco Chronicle last fall, "Until policymakers start rethinking failed drug-war policies, the violence and corruption inherent in prohibition will continue."

Police and Public Health Partnerships: Evidence From the Evaluation of Vancouver's Supervised Injection Facility

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:22:07 -0400

In various settings, drug market policing strategies have been found to have unintended negative effects on health service use among injection drug users (IDU). This has prompted calls for more effective coordination of policing and public health efforts.

Reborn MLB Slugger Josh Hamilton Is One Lucky Former Drug Addict

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:21:49 -0400

Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton is the new golden boy of baseball. Hamilton's record-breaking performance in Major League Baseball's All-Star Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium on Monday is a living testament to that fact that people who struggled with drugs in the past can change their lives in a positive way. A few years ago, Hamilton, who developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs -- primarily crack cocaine -- was at a lowest point of his life when he was suspended from baseball for three years.

Heath Ledger's Tragic Overdose Death And What Can be Done To Prevent Others

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:21:31 -0400

Heath Ledger's haunting role as the Joker in the Dark Knight will hit the screens nationwide this weekend. The critics have been raving about Heath's "dark" Joker performance and there is already buzz that he might win an Oscar for the role posthumously. There is nothing we can do to bring back the life of Heath Ledger. But we can learn from the tragedy and pass compassionate and sensible legislation to save thousands of others like him.

Ballplayer Back on Track

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:17:49 -0400

Texas Rangers Josh Hamilton is the new golden boy of baseball. Hamilton's record-breaking performance in Major League Baseball's All-Star Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium last week is a living testament to the fact that people who struggled with drugs in the past can change their lives in a positive way.

NY Post Cover Story Unfairly Attacks Britney Over Smoking

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:17:28 -0400

The New York Post hit a new low on Tuesday when they deemed Britney Spears having a cigarette in the company of her son worthy of front page news. Wars rage on in Iraq and Afghanistan while Americans face losing their jobs and houses at home but The Post thinks Britney's cigarette trumps it all.

Police and Public Health Partnerships: Evidence From the Evaluation of Vancouver's Supervised Injection Facility

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:14:02 -0400

DARE Camp

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:57:24 -0400

According to The Washington Post, the sheriff of St. Mary's county in Maryland has reinstated DARE. This summer, dozens of St. Mary's middle schoolers attended DARE camp. Sheriff Timothy Cameron says he knows about the studies that suggest DARE is ineffective, but "his personal experience was that children learn a lot from the program." So let's play along, shall we? Here's what some of the campers had to say about their drug education and what they've learned:

   1. "'Today we're doing tug-of-war,' said 11-year-old Ayanna Weems... 'We've been learning in lessons why cigarettes and why alcohol is bad.'"
   2. "'Tobacco has 200 known rat poisons. It's important I learned this because it'll keep me drug-free and away from alcohol and weed,' wrote Tyler Cryer, 10."
   3. "'DARE rocks!' wrote Sydney Armitage, 9... 'If you like having fun while learning about fun things, this is the place for you.'"

Um, what exactly are these kids learning? Because:

   1. Tug-of-war? And also, the fact that alcohol and cigarettes are legal seems like it would create a conundrum in the "alcohol and cigarettes is bad" lesson.
   2. Tobacco's poison content has nothing to do with alcohol and marijuana
   3. Wait, learning about drug abuse = learning about fun things? Since when?

As I continue to read the article, I see that they have turned even that game of tug-of-war into a lesson about why you should never ever ever ever do drugs. "Retired sergeant Mickey Bailey explained that the winning teams usually picked the strongest, or 'right,' people. In life, Bailey said, it is important to choose friends in a similar fashion." Man, if I were on the losing team and I heard that, my self-esteem would take a hit.

Setting aside the tug-of-war issue, I'm not so sure I believe Sheriff Cameron's statement that DARE worked in this case. But I guess the only way to really find out is to sit, wait, and hope that at least some of those students stumble across this.