Wednesday, November 26, 2003

This could be good... Thanksgiving Day at 1:00 pm Eastern, C-Span is airing a debate that includes a drug policy debate between William Bennett (moralizing drug warrior and gambler) and Kurt Schmoke (former Mayor of Baltimore and drug policy reform advocate). Bennett's a smooth talker, doesn't get ruffled easily, and can make up "facts" on the spot to support anything he wants, but Schmoke's no pushover. Should be interesting. The lesson has already been learned with alcohol prohibition. We tried to engineer an alcohol-free society and ended up with huge criminal enterprises, government corruption, children lured into organized crime and random violence that took the lives of countless innocent people. - Kurt Schmoke, Mayor of Baltimore Drug-control programs are among the most successful public policy efforts of the latter half of the 20th century. - William Bennett, former drug czar Update/Correction: Schedule adjustment. The 1 pm Eastern program is a debate "Are we Sacrificing Civil Liberties to the War on Terrorism?" (also interesting) and the Bennett/Schmoke event is shown at 8 pm ET. 8:00pm ET: -The Role of the Supreme Court: Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, Alan Dershowitz and Barry Lynn discuss the question: "Is the Supreme Court Overstepping its Boundaries?" This event was held in October at Regent University in Virginia Beach.  -The Future of American Drug Policy: Republican activist William Bennett and Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel argue against marijuana legalization, and Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke argued for it. This event was held last month in New York City, hosted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.   10:51:07 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Banned Flyer update Yesterday, I mentioned that the University Residence Halls were preventing the posting of Hempfest flyers because they had a drawing of a hemp leaf, and that an appeal was in the works. Well, here's the denial of that appeal: I have reviewed the materials that you dropped off to me on November 20, 2003 that included a copy of the flier in question and a letter from your advisor, Peter Guither asking that I review the decision to deny the posting of your flier for a December 4th event called Hempfest. It is my understanding that the flier does not comply with the university's advertising policy (5.1.1.)... While I do not believe that your program will include illegal activity during the event, the advertisement depicts a marijuana leaf and there is no doubt that this is illegal. ...your goal as a Registered Student Organization is not being debated in this decision. Given your purpose and the current laws of this state, you have a challenging situation to further your cause within the guidelines and policies for the campus. I regret that I cannot resolve this as you have requested, but I find no reason to overturn the decision that was made. One of the strange parts of this for me is the fact that the people involved in making the decision are people I like. I've been involved with them on committees and in other settings and think that they do good work. But there's clearly a disconnect here. First, the university policy quoted is not only vague but extremely poorly worded. On-campus advertising of activities or events by non-University organizations or individuals or individuals [sic] which include alcohol or other drugs as a part of the promotion of the activity or event is prohibited. Alcoholic beverages (such as kegs or cases of beer) shall not be provided as awards to individual students or campus organizations. Advertising of University sponsored activities, whether held on or off-campus, which include alcohol or other drugs as a part of the promotion of the event is prohibited. To the extent that the policy is interpreted to prohibit political content, it would appear to me to be illegal (this is a public university). And that's how this decision interprets the policy. The sad thing is that this student group (M.A.S.H.) is trying to educate students (in an educational instution no less) and tell them the truth about the many aspects of the Hemp plant that have been buried in the government propaganda war against marijuana. Ironically, the university is preventing the flyer because they have bought in to the propaganda that a five-sided leaf = substance abuse, and is therefore discouraging efforts by their students to educate and become better educated. I guess we've got a lot of work to do. 9:19:06 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Is the media catching on? From an editorial in the Aberdeen (SD) American News: In a strange effort to protect the American public, the federal government has taken a hard stand against using marijuana for medicinal purposes.... Is the motivation to protect American consumers or is it to allow pharmaceutical companies sufficient time to develop a synthetic version of cannabis in pill form? Yep. This, of course, gives me the perfect opening to promote once again the merchandise in the Drug WarRant store, where you can get T-shirts with the above design and lots more merchandise (and other great designs) in time for great Christmas gifts! 12:00:17 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []