Monday, January 5, 2004

A pain-full administration From Alternatives, in Salem Oregon, check out an important editorial about pain medicine: Chronic Pain - The Hidden Epidemic by Rick Bayer, MD. While the science of pain control has progressed, the politics of pain control remains in the Dark Ages. This doctor's editorial particularly takes the current administration to task for their drug policies and what that means for suffering patients: To fix the problem of untreated and under-treated pain in chronically ill patients, we must vote out the Bush/Ashcroft party and re-examine our nation's War on Drugs.  What are we gaining besides over-funding the doctor-busting narcotics agencies while laying off police who actually protect us from violent criminals? Why are we willing to sacrifice civil liberties, healthcare, education, a clean environment, and solid infrastructure in a self-destructive pursuit of a "drug-free America"? We need drug education and drug treatment--not another war.  We can no longer be passive when drug warriors threaten the practice of compassionate scientific medicine and make the chronically ill do without necessary medication.  For the compassionate, I ask you to inform yourself, contact your representatives, and vote.  For those who need more convincing, I ask you to consider that anyone is only one accident away from a life with chronic debilitating pain. 7:39:59 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

My current favorite editorial line... Oh, it's good to be the king.  You float high above the law and plunder your subjects with impunity. Yesterday's Rocky Mountain News skewers the DEA and their arrogance for disobeying a judge's order to return marijuana and paraphernalia to a medical marijuana user. "The feds can't just steal the marijuana and therefore make it federal property," [attorney Kristopher Hammond] said. But they try, and they convince local law enforcement officials that even they don't have to obey Colorado law. As Hammond puts it, "It's no secret that the federal government claims to be for states rights - until the states do things they don't like, such as enacting a medical marijuana statute." He's asking the judge to cite the DEA with contempt.  We hope the judge does just that.  If he doesn't, or if the DEA brushes off the citation as if it were a gnat, perhaps Hammond should try again in federal court. Even if it isn't found in contempt, the DEA is clearly guilty of violating the old mob dictum: "Never steal anything small." 7:31:55 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

60 Minutes transcript now online You can now read the entire transcript from the 60 Minutes program on mandatory minimums: More Than They Deserve. A sample: "Judges throughout the country, of all political persuasions, feel that they have to have discretion so that they can do justice in the individual cases," says Martin, who is resigning from the bench. "It is unjust. It's taking people who are low-level violators and putting them in jail for 15-20 years. I had a situation where a defendant was an addict. He sat on his stoop. People came to him and said, 'Do you know where I can buy some crack?' He told them about an apartment where there was crack being sold. For this, the people who sold it every once in a while gave him some crack for his own personal use. The guideline range for that man was 16 years in jail. That doesn't seem to me like justice." The online story is not exactly a transcript of the show, and is a little nicer to the one drug warrior represented (Congressman Bill McCollum) than Bradley was on the show. Note this exchange in the article... [Bradley:] If you look at the government's own figures, it had 12 million illegal drug users in 1991. Now, there are 19 million, so it's gone up after a decade of tough sentences by 7 million drug users. "If we didn't have those tough sentencing laws, you'd have a whole lot more people than 19 million on drugs," says McCollum. "It would be worse today if we didn't have them. Far worse." On the show, Bradley follows this with a expression of disbelief that this record could possibly be considered a success, and McCollum repeated his idiotic and unsupported assertion that it would have been worse without the drug war. 7:22:43 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Goose Creek's Principal McCrackin Sent to His Office The Associated Press announced that Principal George McCrackin of Stratford High School in Goose Creek had resigned (see my original story). Several hours later, the AP headline was revised to a indicate that he had been "reassigned"... Following a November drug sweep in which police with guns drawn ordered Stratford High students to the floor, Berkeley County School District officials announced Monday that Principal George McCrackin had resigned. "I realized it is in the best interest of Stratford High School and of my students for me to make a change," McCrackin said. District Superintendent J. Chester Floyd said he had had several conversations with McCrackin and that the decision to reassign him came last weekend. "These past 60 days have been extremely challenging and pressure filled, particularly for Mr. McCrackin," Floyd said. "His decision reiterates his commitment to doing what's best for the school and the students at all times." Floyd has not decided to what position McCrackin will be reassigned, but he said McCrackin would probably spend time in the coming weeks preparing for two lawsuits filed by students stemming from the incident. So basically, he has resigned as principal so he can move to an office and work on his lawsuits. Probably safer for the kids... 6:56:38 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []