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Drug WarRant
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Friday, May 28, 2004 |
Art that grows on you...
STOCKHOLM ( Reuters) - A Swedish art exhibit featuring cannabis plants may have to be canceled after police confiscated the plants in a
drugs bust. The exhibition, due to open on Saturday in the university town of Lund and titled "Counterclockwise Circumambulation," was partially destroyed when
police cut the plants to take them away as evidence, artist Sture Johannesson said. The plant is grown in the region for its fibers and Swedish media said
Johannesson's hemp was not the type used by smokers. He could replace
the plants, but said they had already begun to grow back. "They will have to
come back on a regular basis to prune," he said on Friday.
More on the exhibition here. It sounds interesting, ironically inspired by a banned exhibition poster from the 1960s.
9:50:21 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Thursday, May 27, 2004 |
Nation's Prison Population Increase Largest in Four Years
The Bureau of Justice Statistics will be releasing a report this afternoon regarding prison population in the U.S. from June 2002-June 2003 (the most recent period studied).
Some "highlights:"
- The nation's prisons and jails held 2,078,570 men and women on June 30, 2003, an increase of 57,600 more inmates than state, local and federal officials held on the same date a year earlier
- From July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003, the number of state and federal prisoners grew by more than 2.9 percent, the largest increase in four years. The federal system increased by 5.4 percent, and state prisoners increased by 2.6 percent.
- An estimated 12 percent of all black males in their twenties were in jails or prisons last June 30, as were an estimated 3.7 percent of Hispanic males and 1.6 percent of white males in that age group. Sixty-eight percent of prison and jail inmates were members of racial or ethnic minority groups.
- The 50 largest jail systems housed a third of all jail inmates. Nineteen of these operated at or above their rated capacities.
- Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate (number of prisoners with a sentence of more than 1 year per 100,000 residents) at 803, followed by Texas (692), Mississippi (688), Oklahoma (645) and Alabama (612). Maine has the lowest with 148, followed by Minnesota (150), North Dakota (175), Rhode Island (187), and New Hampshire (193). [Local readers: Illinois is at 341.]
[Thanks to jackl]
Update: The full report is now available on the BJS site.
8:17:20 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Bill O'Reilly's shifting marijuana story
O'Reilly is against open societies. World O'Crap notes that Bill needs to stop going to Doors' concerts.
Basically, Bill seems to believe that we need to keep arresting 750,000 people for marijuana each year -- otherwise inconsiderate men will blow smoke in 9-year-old boys' faces at a Doors concert without fear of O'Reilly.
7:38:42 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Wednesday, May 26, 2004 |
Former Drug Czar changes tone... ?
 In yesterday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) comes this commentary by Barry R. McCaffrey and Mitchell S. Rosenthal.
Driven in large measure by harsh drug laws, our prison population has
grown from 200,000 to two million over the past 30 years. Now, the tide
is turning and, by legislation or referendum, one state after another is
changing these laws. But not New York, where the hardline Rockefeller
laws remain the nation's most draconian.
The laws enjoy little public or political support. Just about all
interested parties -- legislators, advocates of various persuasions, and
all sectors of the criminal justice system -- favor change.
Wow! This is from Barry McCaffrey, former Drug Czar under Clinton and one responsible for much of that prison population and for setting the stage for Walters (our worst Czar ever). Sure, after McCaffrey left his office, he expressed some concern about the drug war -- too little, too late. And now, what is he doing?
At Phoenix House, we have been treating drug-abusing offenders (in
prison and out) for nearly 40 years. We were among the first to show
that treatment, not incarceration, is a more effective, less expensive
way to curb drug use and drug-related crime.
OK, treatment. Definitely preferable to prohibition (and a big switch from his emphasis as Drug Czar). So what does he have in mind for reform?
- Reform should ensure the treatment of as many nonviolent offenders as
possible.
- Sentences for drug offenses should be reduced, but not to the point
that they no longer provide a meaningful incentive for defendants to
accept long-term residential treatment.
- In-prison treatment should be mandated for offenders with a history of
drug abuse who are not appropriate candidates for community-based
treatment -- or are unwilling to accept it.
- Although other, less restrictive treatment options may occasionally be
appropriate, mandated treatment for offenders should involve no less
than 12 months of residential treatment, followed by 6 months of
outpatient aftercare.
- Penalties for quitting treatment or failing to comply with a treatment
regimen should be imposed swiftly and automatically....
Ahhh, now I get it. This is about lobbying for his new business. And it's still all about prohibition, just with enforced, mandatory, lucrative treatment thrown in. And who is this Rosenthal who co-wrote the article?
Gen. McCaffrey, former director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, is a director of Phoenix House, of which Dr.
Rosenthal is president and founder.
Crystal clear.
However, they had one statement that, if you remove the fact of their naked greed in re-shifting prohibition to support their business, resonates strongly.
There is little doubt that the Rockefeller laws are ineffective. There
is no question that they are unfair. To acknowledge their flaws is not
to sanction drug use. Addicts do not, because of their addiction, belong
in prison.
.. and citizens do not, simply because of their drug use, belong in prison, nor are they by definition addicts requiring treatment.
9:20:37 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Kari Rein - One small step toward justice
My original post back in January...
From the Oregon Register-Guard:
[Kari] Rein, 42, and her husband James Jungwirth, 41, a U.S. citizen, have lived in Williams, near Grants Pass, for 15 years. They run an herb and seaweed
harvesting business and have a 14-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son.
11 years ago, Rein was convicted of growing six marijuana plants for personal use and received probation and community service. The judge at the time said he was confident it was for personal use,
"And I'm also satisfied that the two of you are people who are capable of
being productive and are being productive in society," the judge continued,
"and I don't think at this point that jail really serves any benefit to
anyone."
Here's the tragedy --
Kari Rein is an immigrant, and immigration officials now (11 years later) want to send her back to Norway.
According to Rein's attorney, immigration officials say the conviction
qualifies as an aggravated felony and mandates deportation under 1990s
immigration rules that have received souped-up enforcement since the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Six pot plants over a decade ago, and you send a wife and mother away from her home? Does this government have ANY sense of morality?
This week's news:
Oregon governor pardons woman facing deportation to Norway
Kari just found out on Monday. This really is great news. I'm sure Kari and her family are very excited. And I am personally relieved that in this case justice triumphed, but I'm still outraged that it even became an issue.
And I got pissed off one more time with the statement made by the governor's office:
"In this case, Kari Rein met all the qualifications," said Mary Ellen Glynn, a spokesman for the governor. "She has expressed remorse. She was no threat to public safety. She has been a model citizen prior to this event and since that time."
What I wanted to hear from the governor's office was "Well, duh! It would be monumentally stupid not to pardon her in these circumstances." Instead, it's this self-righteous "Well, at least she's shown remorse for her horrible crime of growing six plants eleven years ago."
A pardon isn't enough. She should get an apology, and have her legal fees paid back to her.
7:05:57 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Tuesday, May 25, 2004 |
Guest Drug WarRants
A reminder that Guest Drug WarRants are always welcome. Here's a new addition - a piece on drugs and sports.
11:47:40 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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The "first" American "Stoned Age"
David Gross sent me a note that I thought I'd share with you:
A lot of people don't know that cannabis had a real rennaissance in the
United States before the sixties... the 1860s, I mean.
To American marijuana enthusiasts, Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1836-1870) is our
pioneer. He was the first to explore the cannabis high methodically and
adventurously and to come back to tell the tale. His book "The Hasheesh
Eater" is both thorough and thoroughly bizarre.
Terence McKenna called him "part genius, part madman," and said of his
writing that "Ludlow lies halfway between Captain Ahab and P.T. Barnum, a
kind of Mark Twain on hashish."
In recent years, biographers have learned more about Ludlow. One of the
songs he wrote is still sung today at graduation ceremonies as the Union
College alma mater. He worked for a time as a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher,
and an editor, as well as an author. He traveled across the continent as a
reporter on the American West, interviewing Brigham Young in Utah,
exploring Yosemite, and introducing East-coast readers to the young Mark
Twain. And he did all this before his thirtieth birthday. (So much for
"amotivational syndrome.")
I've spent the last decade researching the life and works of this cannabis
pioneer, and I've recently put out a new edition of his master-work "The
Hasheesh Eater" (which had been out of print since the 1970s):
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Monday, May 24, 2004 |
America in the Great Stoned Age
Via Hit and Run, Nick Gillespie in the Washington Post reviews a new book by Martin Torgoff: Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000
Each year, police make more than 700,000 marijuana-related arrests in the United States. Some 80 percent of public school districts still teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program even though the General Accounting Office has declared it ineffective. In 2003, comedian Tommy Chong went to federal prison for the high crime of selling bongs via the Internet. In such a climate, it takes courage to say anything positive about illegal drugs (or, as the federal government moralistically prefers to call them, illicit drugs).
So Martin Torgoff's Can't Find My Way Home is a brave book, simply because it seeks to "chronicle . . . the use of illicit drugs in America without sensationalizing, apologizing, moralizing or demonizing." It's also a generally successful effort, in many ways as pleasantly and richly intoxicating as a double hit of Humboldt County, Calif.'s finest. ...
Throughout, Torgoff drives home the point that not only have nearly half of Americans tried at least one "illicit" drug but also that such substances "have long since become part of a deeply personal and complicated prism of American life. . . . From politics to the arts, drugs have shaped the American cultural landscape . . . [and] entered the mainstream of American social experience."
7:10:00 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Montel on The O'Reilly Factor tonight to discuss marijuana
Unresolved Problems Segment
Montel Williams on medical marijuana
Bill speaks to talk show host Montel Williams about medical marijuana and how that usage could lead the way for the drug being fully legalized.
I can't watch it, so someone let me know how it went (or point me to transcripts).
Thanks to Scott for the tip.
6:50:16 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Sunday, May 23, 2004 |
Sunday reading
A recap of some interesting articles from today and earlier this week --
 A nice little piece on Valerie Corral in today's Los Angeles Daily News: Tiny Pot Protagonist Beat Ashcroft In Court
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- What do you do when you sue U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and win? Fifty-one-year-old Valerie Corral, a sinewy 5-foot-tall great-granddaughter of Italian immigrants, throws back her head, laughing, her hands reaching to the clouds, hips wiggling, feet stomping.
"It's my happy dance!" she says, throwing her arms around her husband, Mike.
She has also planted an acre of marijuana.
On suspicionless drug testing, from Newsweek: Guilty Until Proven Innocent:
In advocating student testing, the White House has cited research showing testing to be an effective deterrent for soldiers, airline pilots, tugboat captains and a host of other professions. ... Critics say the research is bogus—and that the testing is an outrageous violation of student privacy and civil liberties.
But when asked whether her office knew of any scientific studies that supported its contention that drug testing students actually works, [Deputy Drug Czar Andrea Barthwell] responded simply, “No.” That, say critics, is proof that Bush’s new proposal is built not on solid evidence but the shaky ground of political ideology. ...
Others contend that drug-testing kids may in fact exacerbate the problem it’s meant to solve. ...
Hans York, a father of three and a deputy sheriff in Wahkiakum, Wash., sued his local school after it tried to force his son Aaron to submit to a testing program before joining the drama club. For York, having an official monitor his son for "normal sounds of urination" was not only a violation of his privacy, but sent him the message that he’s guilty until proven innocent. Says York: “As a guy who puts on a gun every day to go to work, I can tell you that a lot of the dialogue stops when you become the police.”
Rep. Mark Souder (R-Indiana) is one of the most vicious drug warriors and the architect of the outrageous and racist HEA provision that denies federal financial aid to someone who was caught with marijuana when they were young (murderers and rapists not affected). He has invoked Jesus Christ as "justification" for some of his views, a technique that didn't sit well with David Guard who wrote in the Decatur (IN) Daily Democrat.
In his struggle to preserve the lion's share of the Higher Education Act's ban on federal financial aid to students with even minor drug convictions, Rep. Mark Souder ( R-Ind. ) is touting his evangelical Christian background as evidence of the compassion of his proposed "fix" and the general righteousness of the Act's extremely controversial "drug provision." His logic should leave Christians of all denominations perplexed.
Congressman Souder's interpretation of Christian values with regard to this issue is bewildering to persons with even a basic understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. ...
When fighting the war on drugs, Rep. Souder should be careful to not let disadvantaged students become casualties, and refrain from insinuating that the teachings of Jesus Christ support unjust, prejudiced policies.
Fortunately, there is still time for him to see the light and end this illogical, harmful crusade. I invite Congressman Souder to join the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, and the more than 70 other major national and state organizations representing the education, public health, criminal justice, and civil rights fields in support of full repeal of the HEA's "drug provision."
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) shows that you can be a Republican from Texas and be smart on drug policy. He has a new commentary on the attack on pain medicine: The War on Drugs is a War on Doctors
Doctors are not slaves, and they will not continue practicing medicine forever if the federal government insists on monitoring, harassing, fining, and even jailing them. Congress should take action to rein in overzealous prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and stop the harassment of legitimate physicians who act in good faith when prescribing pain relief drugs. Doctors should not be prosecuted for using their best medical judgment, nor should they be prosecuted for the misdeeds of their patients.
In Williams 'scandal' is a smoke screen, Dave Joseph writes about the "outrage" surrounding the Dolphins' Ricky Williams testing positive for marijuana:
"How could he have done this to his teammates? How could he risk missing games? What are his young fans to think?"
You've got to be kidding, right? Here's a team changing offensive coordinators in May -- a team without definitive answers at wide receiver and offensive line and with a draft pick that served time for DUI -- and people are worried if Ricky might have inhaled?
Get a grip. Or some rolling papers. ...
Think about this: The penalty for smoking pot in the NFL is the same as for cooking crack, shooting heroin or taking steroids. How irresponsible and insulting. ...
Williams hasn't done anything to hurt himself or the Dolphins. Blame the NFL, antiquated laws, a society that believes Reefer Madness is an accurate portrait of the effects of marijuana. But Williams isn't a problem with the Dolphins.
Ironically, in the end, it was Williams who made the most sense in this cloud of controversy.
Asked if there was a message he'd like to send to children, Williams said: "They just have to look at the way I carry myself, look at the way I play the game, look at the way I practice, and look at what I do in the community."
Everything else is a smoke screen.
11:15:40 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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