Thursday, December 29, 2005

What we've always known about the Drug Czar... He has no regard for the facts or the truth. Additionally, he is known for spinning the data to completely support administration policies. I've already talked about the recent GAO report that took the Drug Czar and administrative policies to task for their lack of evidence that the drug war in Colombia is actually accomplishing anything. Here's an article that really goes after the Czar: "GAO: Data too fuzzy to measure drug war" by David Adams. The following passages show just how shoddy the Drug Czar's "reporting" is: Critics of U.S. drug policy point to the GAO report as evidence that positive pronouncements by the drug czar's office cannot be trusted. "What this report shows is that we need to take the government's claims with a grain of salt, and a whole shaker in places," said John Walsh, a drug expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA, a private policy watchdog. Walsh and others accuse the drug czar's office of putting an overly favorable spin on the fuzzy data, as well as ignoring less positive news. The drug czar's office sat on a November 2004 report it commissioned by the Rand Corp., a California-based nonprofit research organization, which found that drugs were more available than ever and that prices had in fact fallen. The drug czar's office turned around and commissioned a second report from the Virginia-based Institute for Defense Analyses, which found prices were rising. "They (the drug czar's office) lack credibility unless they can explain such a wide difference," said Peter Reuter, a University of Maryland drug expert who directed Rand's research. He noted that the Rand report was well documented and peer reviewed. Reuter said he was also "generally skeptical" of data in the IDA report. Accurate data takes months to compile, he said. Other critics point to the IDA's lackluster record in drug research, noting that it was dropped by the drug czar's office in the 1990s after alleged flaws in its methodology. Carnevale, who worked in the White House under three administrations and continues to support the war on drugs, accused Walters of trying to "simplify" data to meet preconceived beliefs. "He thinks the cocaine market is on the brink of collapse," he said. "We are spending all this money so the price (of cocaine) must go up." Officials in the White House drug czar's office did not return phone calls this week. Nice to see this kind of scepticism -- something that's only really surfaced strongly in the media in recent years -- thanks to John Walters' outrageous behavior. 5:23:10 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Fun things to do when flying... Here's a great thing to do for stress relief: Take several condoms and fill them with flour. Squeezing them is as good as those expensive items you can buy (as well as being a fun phallic gag). Unfortunately, however, they actually increased the stress level for freshman Janet Lee at Bryn Mawr College. In the space of a few hours on Dec. 21, 2003, Janet Lee landed in a Philadelphia jail cell, where she would remain for three weeks, held on $500,000 bail and facing 20 years in prison on drug charges. All over flour found in her luggage. The big questions are: How is it that field tests conducted twice came up with results showing that the powder was a mix of opium, amphetamines, and cocaine? How is it that officers and prosecutors believed that someone would mix those drugs together and then carry them in that quantity in un-swallowed condoms in their luggage through airport security? Isn't this just odd enough for them to question the field tests before a defense attorney got involved and asked for expedited laboratory tests (which, of course, verified that it was flour)? What bright person is going to get going on this and start marketing flour-filled-condom stress-relievers? I think it would be a big hit -- everyone should carry them on flights. Lee has filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against city police. Good. 5:10:10 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Back to the Drug War I had a great week off with relatives, including a very good evening of talking about the drug war with my folks. It's nice to know that they're proud of the work I'm doing here, and outraged by the excesses of the drug war. Don't assume that your parents and friends won't support your views on drug policy -- they're a great group to talk to and can help you get comfortable with the notion of talking about reform. Now I'm back, but my broadband is out of order, so I'm blogging from Starbucks (An extra big thanks to the friends that gave me Starbucks gift cards for Christmas!) A couple of quick notes: Teresa Aviles dropped by while I was gone. I wrote about her and Isidro here. She's got a book out now: "So Many Tears" (available here) I've been reading a couple of other books over break, and I hope to talk with you about those soon. Mexico and Colombia. The more I read about these countries, the more I see outright criminal destruction funded and promulgated by the U.S. Is there any other way to look at it? See Cartel wooing Mexico's military: Analysts finding signs of corruption and Paramilitaries and Palm Plantations: A Murderous Combination in Colombia. 4:50:36 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []