Wednesday, February 22, 2006

More stupid legislators I am continually amazed at lawmakers' proud display of their complete and absolute absence of even the barest glimmerings of human intelligence. I have to assume that their parents still tie their shoes for them. Idaho lawmakers are taking their drug war all the way back to the womb. There's a proposal making its way through the Legislature that would make it a felony offense - punishable by up to five years in jail and a $50,000 penalty - for a pregnant woman to take certain drugs, among them marijuana, LSD and methamphetamine. It didn't take long for the Idaho State Journal to find the glaring problem with this: Pediatricians rightly worry that women using any of the above drugs will not seek prenatal care for fear of becoming a felon. One local doctor also says the best time to convince a woman to stop taking drugs is when she's pregnant or has just given birth. Drive them underground and that opportunity may never present itself. And what doctor wants to be the one calling the cops on patients? What if the doctor doesn't call? Will the Legislature also send him to jail for conspiracy, or harboring a fugitive? Perhaps we can rename State Senator Denton Darrington's bill. I'd call it "The Discourage Pregnant Drug Addicts from Getting Medical Help, Take Babies From Their Mothers, and Soak the Taxpayers With Increased Prison and Welfare Costs Act." Think it would pass then? 7:47:28 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Wall Street Journal - Intelligent Drug War Piece This is a must-read in the Wall Street Journal: Global View by George Melloan: Musings About the War on Drugs (alternate link) Economist Milton Friedman predicted in Newsweek nearly 34 years ago that Richard Nixon's ambitious "global war against drugs" would be a failure. Much evidence today suggests that he was right. But the war rages on with little mainstream challenge of its basic weapon, prohibition. [...] The drug war has become costly, with some $50 billion in direct outlays by all levels of government, and much higher indirect costs, such as the expanded prison system to house half a million drug-law offenders and the burdens on the court system. Civil rights sometimes are infringed. One sharply rising expense is for efforts to interdict illegal drug shipments into the U.S., which is budgeted at $1.4 billion this fiscal year, up 41% from two years ago. That reflects government's tendency to throw more money at a program that isn't working. Not only have the various efforts not stopped the flow but they have begun to create friction with countries the U.S. would prefer to have as friends. He goes on to describe the destabilizing effects of the war on drugs in Latin America, and then: Milton Friedman saw the problem. To the extent that authorities curtail supplies of marijuana, cocaine and heroin coming into the rich U.S. market, the retail price of these substances goes up, making the trade immensely profitable -- tax-free, of course. The more the U.S. spends on interdiction, the more incentive it creates for taking the risk of running drugs. In 1933, the U.S. finally gave up on the 13-year prohibition of alcohol -- a drug that is by some measures more intoxicating and dangerous to health than marijuana. That effort to alter human behavior left a legacy of corruption, criminality, and deaths and blindness from the drinking of bad booze. America's use of alcohol went up after repeal but no serious person today suggests a repeat of the alcohol experiment. Yet prohibition is still being attempted, at great expense, for the small portion of the population -- perhaps little more than 5% -- who habitually use proscribed drugs. What a breath of fresh air. Intelligence and logic applied to the drug war! Powerful piece. And he also sees to the heart of the problem of change... An army of government employees now makes a living from the drug laws and has a rather conflictive interest in claiming both that the drug laws are working and that more money is needed. Yep. But how do we dismantle that powerful army? 'Cause right now, we're living in occupied territory. 7:01:22 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []