Drug WarRant Saturday, November 8, 2003 When you're a viper... You should read What A Wonderful Wasted World by John Gleeson for the Winnipeg Sun ...That's where a little history can help -- in the form of a jazz story. Something to let Grandma know that Reefer Madness is really Hello, Dolly. That, yes, Satch was a viper, and his wonderful world was wasted, but it was wonderful all the same. In the years after the Second World War, Louis Armstrong was bigger than popes or presidents.  More than a jazz legend, he was the world's most beloved entertainer -- a symbol to war-ravaged Europe of America's goodness, courage and indomitable cool. No wonder that at the height of the Cold War the U.S.  State Department tried repeatedly to send Armstrong and his All Stars to the Soviet Union to play; he was such an American turn-on. He was also a daily marijuana smoker from about age 27 until his death in July 1971, one month short of his 70th birthday. "We always looked at pot as a sort of medicine, a cheap drunk and with much better thoughts than one that's full of liquor," Armstrong told biographer Max Jones in his last years, when he decided to "tell it like it wuz." Armstrong, of course, couldn't tell it exactly like it wuz.  He had to deny he was a present user, but he was unequivocal in his praise of "gage," as he called marijuana. "We did call ourselves vipers, which could have been anybody from all walks of life that smoked and respected gage," Armstrong said.  "One reason we appreciated pot, as y'all calls it now, was the warmth it always brought forth from the other person. "If we all get as old as Methuselah our memories will always be of lots of beauty and warmth from gage.  Well, that was my life, and I don't feel ashamed at all.  The respect for it will stay with me forever.  I have every reason to say these words and am proud to say them.  From experience." Armstrong's experience with marijuana warrants public exposure, because it counters so many clinical stereotypes. Read the article for more about this extraordinary life. The article concludes: You can say Armstrong did it to feel good -- call it recreational if you like. Or you can point to the unimaginable poverty of his childhood, the racism of his time, and say he used it as a crutch to take the edge off life's pain. You can risk ridicule and say he did it because it helped connect him to the truth as a man and an artist. You can definitely say it's too bad he smoked so much -- he died of heart failure and, like the late Israel Asper, might have lived on for another decade if he didn't smoke like a chimney. But no one can say the mature Armstrong should have been denied his daily muggles -- any more than you could deny Asper his daily packs. They came and went in clouds of smoke. End of jazz story. 10:50:17 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Stupid cop tricks Toronto: Fareed Ahamad, 41, was charged with trafficking in November, 2001, even though the drug transaction was not his idea, he did not make any money and he believed he was helping a disabled man who appeared to be in pain. An undercover cop, using a wheelchair for disguise, asks someone on the street to buy him some drugs. The good samaritan, guilty at most of poor judgment, goes into a restaurant and purchases $20 of crack for the apparantly challenged man, and is arrested for his trouble. Fortunately, last week the judge threw out the charges. Unfortunately, it took two years for the stupid cop trick to be corrected. [Thanks to Tim Meehan for the tip] 12:43:45 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Friday, November 7, 2003 Terrorists Take Over South Carolina School. Yes, I've given this post an alarmist heading, but it is deserved... Gun-Wielding Cops Conduct Drug Sweep At School: Drug Sweep Finds No Drugs (video available at this link) Surveillance video from Stratford High School in Goose Creek shows 14 officers, some with guns drawn, ordering students to lie the ground as police searched for marijuana. Students who didn't comply with the orders quickly enough were reportedly handcuffed. Police didn't find any criminals in the armed sweep, but they say search dogs smelled drugs on a dozen backpacks. Another report: "Armed police stormed a high school and ordered children to the floor at gunpoint so they could conduct a drugs search, it emerged today. Officers ran into the South Carolina school, screaming at pupils to lie face down, before rifling through their bags. No evidence that a crime had been committed. The search was for marijuana. Guns were drawn. Students were put in real jeopardy of their lives. Everyone involved in this terrorist act should be fired, at the very least. There's something wrong in this country, when pot smokers are accused of aiding terrorists, and actions like this one are considered acceptable by the government. More on this at Keith Gottschalk's Talk Radio Refugee, Crescat Sententia, RandomActOfKindess, TalkLeft, and others. Update: State investigating high school drug sweep GOOSE CREEK, S.C. - State police are investigating why officers charged into a crowded high school hallway with guns drawn in a drug sweep. Charleston-area prosecutor Ralph Hoisington asked the State Law Enforcement Division to look into possible police misconduct in the operation.... "I don't think there's anything wrong at all with law enforcement addressing a problem in a high school, but I have serious concerns about the need for restraining students and drawing weapons," Hoisington said. "I don't want to send my child to a school and find out guns are drawn on them. I certainly don't want them hogtied as part of a sweeping investigation."... Graham Boyd, director of the drug policy project for the American Civil Liberties Union, says the search was illegal. "You absolutely cannot bring police with guns drawn into a school," Boyd said.... Boyd said police have to have individual students suspected of drug activity, then any action taken must target those suspects. He said investigators should have called individual suspected students to the principal's office to check their bags for drugs. Good. 10:25:39 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Carry a big Thai stick. Amnesty denounces 'murder spree' in Thai war on drugs. In a report released today, Amnesty, the human rights group, criticises the lack of a credible investigation into the bloodshed unleashed by this year's official war on drugs. At least 2,252 people were killed in a three-month anti-drug campaign, yet Thaksin Shinawatra, prime minister, "appeared to condone such killings" with repeated public statements that death was an appropriate fate for drug dealers. "The stated policy of the royal Thai government has allowed the killing of more than 2,000 people by unknown assailants with impunity," the report said. The U.S. government reacted immediately to the horrifying report by taking two dramatic actions... 1. U.S. to seek free trade agreement with Thailand President Bush recently announced the United States intends to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Thailand. Eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers is expected to increase U.S. exports -- particularly of agricultural goods... ... but presumably not all agricultural goods. 2. The United States is supplying advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMs) to Thailand... "We have no comment on arms deliveries to Thailand," a tight-lipped US Embassy spokesman said when asked about the air-intercept missiles being delivered. 12:29:33 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Thursday, November 6, 2003 Great quote If the "War on Drugs" cannot be successfully waged while our Bill of Rights remains in force, the problem is not with the Bill of Rights -- it's with the War on Drugs. (from Tuesday's editorial "End the Dragnets" in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a fourth amendment case currently in the Supreme Court.) 1:30:02 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Wednesday, November 5, 2003 Something to do this afternoon if you're in New York Is the War on Drugs based on science or myth? Find out at an exciting book forum: "Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use", by Jacob Sullum "A welcome departure from the choreographed outrage of the War on Drugs" --Washington Post Book World Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine and Todd Seavey of the American Council on Science and Health will discuss Sullum's latest book, in which he argues that drug use should be viewed the same way as drinking, with an emphasis on temperance rather than abstinence. Wednesday, November 5, 2003 at 6:00 p.m. in Greene Hall room 101, Columbia Law School. (Reception to follow.) Presented by the Columbia College Libertarians and the Columbia Law School Libertarians 1:32:27 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Cynical, but oddly appropriate to the drug war... Ayn Rand writing in Atlas Shrugged (via FreedomSight): Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We WANT them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with. 1:24:29 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Rock the Vote: Have you used marijuana? Howard Dean: Yes John Kerry: Yes John Edwards: Yes Carol Moseley Braun: I'm not going to answer Dennis Kucinich: No, but I think it ought to be decriminalized Al Sharpton: I grew up in the church. We didn't believe in that. Wesley Clark: Never used it Joseph Lieberman: I never used marijuana, sorry. Transcript. 1:01:51 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] The DEA won't ease your pain. In today's Village Voice: The DEA's War on Pain Doctors by Frank Owen Some in the medical community call it "a war on pain doctors," others "a government jihad" or "state-sponsored terrorism." However you describe the current campaign, which according to pain-patient advocates began under Janet Reno, but which they say has increased in intensity under John Ashcroft, the DEA's hardball tactics--storming clinics in SWAT-style gear, ransacking offices, and hauling off doctors in handcuffs--have scared physicians nationwide to the extent that legitimate pain sufferers now find it increasingly difficult to get the medicine they need. Doctors' offices today display signs that say "Don't ask for OxyContin" or "No OxyContin prescribed here." And medical schools advise students not to choose pain management as a career because the field is too fraught with potential legal dangers. "The war on drugs has turned into a war on doctors and pain patients," says Dr. Ronald Myers, president of the American Pain Institute and a Baptist minister who operates a string of clinics for poor people in the Mississippi Delta. "Such is the climate of fear across the medical community that for every doctor who has his license yanked by the DEA, there are a hundred doctors scared to prescribe proper pain medication for fear of going to prison. The DEA is creating a situation where legitimate pain patients now have to go to the streets to get their medication. It's a health care catastrophe in the making..." ...some doctors believe that the DEA, having conspicuously failed to stem the tide of illegal drug use in this country, is coming after physicians to ratchet up the agency's prosecution count. (This year alone, two federal reviews lambasted the DEA for its poor performance in fighting illegal drug use, one report giving the agency a zero on a scale of one to 100.) The entire article is excellent, and a real indictment of the policies of the DEA. I have an earlier post on the subject here. Is there something just a little out of whack with the DEA? They've got a public relations problem, so they're going around in full riot gear busting terminally ill medical marijuana patients, doctors, and bong makers. My suggestion? Next year reduce their budget by $1,897.300,000. 12:45:32 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Tuesday, November 4, 2003 Three approaches to education... New Bedford, Massachusetts: Mayor, White House discuss solutions. Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. has really gotten in bed with the Drug Czar, including developing a plan for volunteer drug testing of all middle and high school students. (Of course, the voluntary part would not actually mean that it would be voluntary to the students, but just to their parents, and it's assumed the funding would come from tax funds.) In a telephone conversation last week, John P. Walters told the mayor that personnel would be dispatched to work with the city in finding ways to aggressively deal with New Bedford's serious drug problems. In addition to working with the Drug Czar on testing kids, the Mayor has had a relationship with Walters in a number of ways, including extablishing a new DEA office (soon to expand) and other programs. I think I can cross New Bedford off my list of places to live. Polk County, Florida: Polk County school district receives federal grant to begin drug testing All High School athletes will now have to pass a drug test before competing. The $250,000 project is funded by the Department of Education. Get this: the program will test athletes for marijuana use, but not performance enhancing drugs like steroids. (Apparently the steroid test is too expensive.) What lunacy! Wouldn't it be nice if the Department of Education would give a school district $250,000 for books? Freeport, Illinois: Freeport to participate in nationwide study: Youth problems to be addressed through prevention; leaders to work in broad-based group. The difference here is this program (part of Communities that Care), appears to take the approach of targeted plans to meet the needs of a particular community's youth, including developing programs that get young people involved in positive activities (as a partial method of preventing drug use, teen pregnancy, etc.). It's also not run by the federal government. Now I'm not very familiar with this program, other than what I've read on the web (I'd love to hear from someone with first-hand knowledge), but it seems to me at first glance that this is an approach that makes some sense (certainly more valuable than drug testing!) 12:24:44 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] The lengths some people will go to promote Reefer Madness... Now that the UK is looking to downgrade cannabis, the loonies are coming out. No, not potheads -- but drug warriors grasping at straws to scare people. The Sunday Telegraph ran CANNABIS USE CAUSES 'HUNDREDS OF DEATHS A YEAR', CORONER WARNS. Yes, Hamish Turner and others have "proof" that marijuana is killing people right and left. Of course their proof consists of statistics like: "in 2000, 12 per cent of the 3,400 people killed in road accidents showed traces of cannabis." Traces. Of a drug that over 5 million people in Britain regularly use and that stays in your blood for days. Yep, that's a causal link, all right. Of course, they probably also found traces of chocolate and tea and other dangerous substances. But my favorite in the article: Cannabis also contributed to the death of Dragan Radoslavjevic, 42, from Paignton, Devon.  He died earlier this year after using a power tool to drill a hole in his head. An inquest in Torquay heard that he suffered from depression and relied on drugs such as cannabis and heroin. [my emphasis] Considering over 40% of Americans have tried marijuana, it looks like we are way overdue for a huge rash of self-inflicted deaths by power drill to the head! Anybody got a 1/2" skull bit I can borrow? 12:22:02 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment [] Sunday, November 2, 2003 Compassionate Government BUSH TO TEENS: RELIGION HELPED MEND MY WAYS President Bush, speaking Wednesday at a youth center in Oak Cliff, gave an unusually candid assessment of religion's role in leading him from his wayward youth. "Sometimes, and a lot of times, the best way to help the addict, a person who is stuck on drugs and alcohol, is to change their heart," Bush said. The 1,538,813 Americans arrested for drug abuse violations last year were unavailable for comment. Update:Added the AP Photo by Charles Dharapak from the dedication of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship's Youth Education Center. 2:41:07 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []