Thursday, July 23, 2009

I love this drug czar! I am becoming a huge fan of Gus Kerlikowske. But, you say, how can that be? Kerlikowske opposes marijuana legalization. Of course he does. He's the drug czar and required to by law. It's the way he does it -- so deliciously ridiculous. "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said. [...] "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno ... This is pure gold. He said this in California! "Marijuana has no medicinal benefit." In California where everybody knows somebody who is benefitting medicinally from marijuana. You see, our old drug czar would have attacked this with subterfuge. He would have said something like "The FDA and other legitimate medical organizations will never accept smoked drugs as medicine. We have to turn to medical professionals for the proper development of drugs from cannabis, with properly controlled doses, not the false and damaging hope of a dangerous smoked drug just because it makes people feel good. What message are we sending to the children?" And some people would have nodded and thought that sounded reasonable. Not Kerlikowske. He goes into California and says that marijuana has no medicinal benefit. Well nobody really believes that anymore -- even the hard core drug warriors out there are trying to convince people that other existing drugs provide the same or better benefit as marijuana. By claiming no medicinal value, Kerlikowske looks like a doofus, and by extension, so does the entire U.S. marijuana policy. And that 'legalization not in his vocabulary' business, over and over again -- more fabulous stuff. It sounds stupid and totally childish. And not just to us. Of course, we need to ridicule him for this and take advantage of it. Point out the Emperor's New Clothes. But this is easy stuff. And we can make it work for us. When it comes to marijuana, I love Gus. However, that does not mean that I'm sold on him as drug czar in all areas. Not in the least. I'm very concerned with the damage that he may cause in the area of prescription drugs -- he's really big on pushing the abuse/overdose messages there (it seems to be a personal agenda for him) and I worry that the government may go even further overboard in terms of making it hard for doctors to prescribe what is necessary for pain management. But today, he's making me smile. 9:03:10 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

They don't like our drug war One new thing that we're seeing recently is leaders, former leaders, and press of foreign countries willing to speak out against the U.S. Drug War. Not only are they learning about the failures and destruction of the drug war, but in today's economy, they're losing faith that the U.S. will be able to continue to bribe countries into playing along. Check out this extraordinary editorial in the Guatemala Times: US failed war on drugs is killing Guatemala. Calderon in Mexico has the resources (from the US) money, man power and the equipment to chase the narco gangs out of Mexico. Out to where, nobody asks, never mind, Calderon is considered to be a monumental success in the war on drugs. The same applies to Uribe in Colombia; he also got his resources from the US. (Remember both Colombia and Mexico has a lot of OIL.) Where are the Narco Gangs re-surfacing? Everywhere where they can operate in a weak country that does not have the same resources as Mexico and Colombia, especially Guatemala, because we are right there across the border. We are paying the ultimate price for the idiotic, myopic and ill conceived anti drug war strategies designed by the US and implemented in Colombia and Mexico ( We wonder is it about drugs or is it about OIL resources?). Mexico gets billions to make war on narcos; Colombia gets billions to make war on narcos, result: massive narco migration. That is hailed as a success in the war on Drugs. Well it is no success for Guatemala and other countries who suffer the consequences. And they know exactly where they stand... Guatemala is in the middle, Guatemala does not concern the US because we are unimportant to them, we have no OIL. No economic interest, no security interest, no political interest. So the geniuses of the US Drug war give resources to Colombia and Mexico, but very little to Guatemala. Result: Guatemala will soon have more narcos then chickens. But who cares. Geopolitically Guatemala is disposable. The editorial concludes with an eminently fair and reasonable suggestion. We have a better suggestion: take the money away from Mexico and Colombia, have the narcos return to their countries of origin. Make an air bridge and import the drugs legally into the US. Mexico prospers, Colombia prospers, the US takes care of their problem and we are out of this idiotic war on drugs. That is what we call a successful strategy to contain the problem. What a powerful and... true... editorial. Only problem is, nobody's listening. 12:52:37 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []