Monday, August 29, 2005

Information on the Utah Rave attack Keep up with the latest at Music Versus Guns (new site to deal with this attack), and UTRave (message board). 9:23:48 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

God help us from the so-called moralists Drug warrior Robert Charles has an Op-Ed in today's Washington Times. He spouts a lot of random nonsense that has absolutely no meaning at all, and then makes this suggestion: As Afghanistan staggers under a heroin trade that could end democracy, why not go to the heart of the problem and find common ground? Why not build on the absolute moral overlap between Sharia Law's opposition to heroin and our own moral opposition to drugs and drug-funded terrorism? In one way, he's right. There is common ground between the drug war moralists in this country and some of the extremism that can come from Sharia. Both would rather punish drug users than actually consider drug policy that might work. Is this what we're fighting for? So our extremists can unite with their extremists to impose a warped moral judgement on the rest of us? Oh, and by the way, Robert Charles is lying. As he full well knows, Drugs don't fund terrorism, prohibition does. 8:34:47 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Extradite? Link President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his government may ask the United States to extradite U.S. religious broadcaster Pat Robertson to Venezuela for suggesting American agents should kill him. [Note: Robertson made the threat after Chavez kicked out the DEA for spying.] There's a reasonably good argument that there's sufficient reason to consider Pat Robertson's statement a violation of U.S. law. Now I personally don't think that Robertson should be extradited to Venezuela (as much as the prospect appeals to me). But a country that would claim that Canada must extradite Marc Emery for selling plant seeds can hardly be on firm moral ground in refusing to extradite someone who calls for the assassination of a foreign leader on national television. 6:56:01 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Blind spot Shorter Mark A.R. Kleiman Jack Shafer is dangerous and wrong, and I'm going to prove it by completely agreeing with every point that he makes. How bizarre. Jack Shafer says that crack was a problem and that meth is a problem, but we don't help the problem by over-hyping. Mark Kleiman says that Shafer is full of it and that while we don't help the problem by over-hyping, we must recognize that crack was a problem and meth is a problem. Someone needs to teach Kleiman how to read an entire article. Kleiman says that Shafer's "whole thesis [is] that a non-problem is being hyped into a problem." OK, let's see... Shafer about crack: Lives were lost and families ruined, but as god-awful bad as crack was, it was rarely as bad as the press, government, and the rest of the drug-abuse industrial complex made it out to be. [emphasis added so Mark can see it] Where did he say it was a non-problem? Not there. In fact, he called it "god-awful bad." OK. Maybe it's when Shafer approvingly quoted Newsweek: "The truth is bad enough; there's nothing to be gained, and a lot to be lost, by hyping the dangers of drugs." [emphasis added so Mark can see it] Or maybe Shafer considers meth a non-problem: Before my in box floods with e-mails accusing me of endorsing methamphetamine, let me extend my strongly worded advice to all: Don't use this drug. Don't, don't, don't. Don't. Somehow Shafer's "whole thesis" reads a bit differently to me. 6:40:04 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Round-up Well, I just finished my six-weekend run of my show in Chicago. Was pretty busy over the past couple of days with strike and everything. Looks like a lot of interesting stuff happened in the past two days. Grits for Breakfast has the report on how the states do in incarcerating marijuana smokers. Unsurprisingly, Texas has the lead. Libby at Last One Speaks compliments me, and then proceeds to show me up with a bunch of great posts. Go read. Including: AARP piece on the DEA's war on pain relief. Tierney does it again. Marijuana Pipe Dreams D.E.A. officials have already shown they're quite capable of persecuting someone who uses marijuana to deal with AIDS, and they may well be even more eager to go after someone who encourages research into their least favorite drug. When it comes to marijuana research, the federal policy is "Just Say Know-Nothing." Surprise. Surprise. (Via Radley Balko.) Newsweek declares Colombia a Failed 'Plan' Liberals used to care? Jacob Sullum notes: The drug policy scholar Harry Levine has done some digging in The New Republic's new online archive and uncovered evidence that liberals used to get upset about marijuana arrests. For those of us who have become accustomed to a New Republic whose editors are at best indifferent to the injustices perpetrated in the name of a Drug-Free Society, even as annual marijuana arrests have reached record levels, these reminders of a time when they cared about such things are poignant. 5:55:07 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []