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Drug WarRant
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Friday, September 2, 2005 |
Long Weekend
I'm doing some camping in Wisconsin and Iowa, with no internet access (or TV or radio...), so talk amongst yourselves (I should be back Wednesday).
Consider this an open thread and a place to pass on any interesting developments in the war on drugs while I'm gone.
9:00:24 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Thursday, September 1, 2005 |
Let them Pay and Learn
 Via Libby at Last one Speaks comes Pueblo Family Gets $230K For Mistaken SWAT Raid
PUEBLO, Colo. -- A Pueblo family who said masked police officers broke into their home without a warrant will get a $230,000 settlement from local, state and federal officials. [...]
The settlement called for the city and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to pay the family $100,000 each. The state will pay $30,000.
Via TalkLeft comes more on the Utah rave permit
The permit in question now fuels pending legal action against Utah County. Brian M. Barnard, attorney for Childs and the concert promoters, High Point Productions and Uprok Records, said he'll file a civil-rights suit in federal court. While Barnard has not yet filed a formal complaint, he's confident the law is on his client's side. [...]
"I don't think there's any question that the sheriff misapplied the ordinance and acted improperly," Barnard said, adding that the raid was discriminatory and an act of censorship. "If individuals break the law, punish them. But don't assume that everyone who goes to a rap, hip-hop, or electronic music concert is a criminal." The Sheriff's Office did not return phone calls.
If enough towns start having to pay huge settlements, maybe they'll start to wonder if these gung-ho SWAT style task forces are really worth it.
8:54:43 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Wednesday, August 31, 2005 |
Over 2 million teens about to die!
Via Jacob Sullum at Hit and Run...
The government's new "cool" anti-meth web site prominently links to Meth is Death, which lists these "facts":
- 1 in 7 high school students will try meth.
- 99 percent of first-time meth users are hooked after just the first try.
- Only 5 percent of meth addicts are able to kick it and stay away.
- From the first hit to the last breath, the life expectancy of a habitual meth user is only 5 years.
So let's do the math. According to census figures, there are 17 million high school students. That means that 2,428,571 of them will try meth and 2,404,285 of those will be instantly hooked. Five percent will be able to kick the habit, but the rest (2,284,070) will die in five years.
If this had any grounding in reality, it really would be an epidemic of unprecedented proportions.
But of course, none of those numbers are real (in fact, even the website contradicts itself constantly). It's just more hype. More meth madness.
Remember, meth is a problem. [Note to Mark Kleiman: I am not claiming that meth is a non-problem.] But meth madness propaganda is potentially more dangerous. Just as crack hysteria caused a series of laws in the 80's that led to the incarceration of horrific percentages of our black population, meth hysteria could do similar damage in the future. (Not to mention that fact that nobody who does drugs is likely to believe any real cautions from a government that lies so obviously and consistently.)
7:02:37 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005 |
Gonzales and Tandy show off in Operation CYA
So it's been about a month since the administration got raked over the coals by some representatives for not spending enough time dealing with meth, and it got picked up in the media.
Just enought time to come up with a catchy operation name, whip up a fancy logo, and tell all the drug task forces around the country to hold off on any meth lab busts they have so it can all be part of Operation Wildfire.
And today they announced:
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Karen P. Tandy today announced the results of the DEA-led "Operation Wildfire," the largest nationally coordinated law enforcement initiative designed to target all levels of the methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution chain in the United States and continue the fight against the spread of methamphetamine. This unprecedented law enforcement effort involved over 200 U.S. cities and resulted in the arrest of 427 individuals.
Notice that the release is missing the usual DEA language talking about how many months of investigation were involved (probably because it was less than one).
For a thrown together effort, Tandy really laid it on thick:
"This historic enforcement effort illustrates our commitment to extinguishing this plague and protecting innocent Americans from the harmful ripple effects meth leaves behind."
As usual, Walters was also around to pretend that the efforts would actually change something.
"The enforcement actions announced today provide a shock to the system of meth trafficking and production," ONDCP Director John Walters said.
Too bad these people don't have real jobs. Their boss would see through this PR BS in a heartbeat.
That Operation Wildfire name is catchy though. And oddly appropriate for the DEA. It conveys the sense of an unplanned out-of-control force that indiscriminately destroys everything in its path.
9:36:32 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Monday, August 29, 2005 |
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 | Related | permalink |
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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 | Related | permalink |
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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 | Related | permalink |
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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 | Related | permalink |
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