Monday, May 8, 2006

Liberal netroots progressive on drug policy? I have often complained that neither side of the political spectrum has been willing to consider reform in any serious way, despite the fact that drug policy reform is a benefit to both traditional conservative and traditional liberal goals. While that's still true in the traditional party structure, the internet is changing everything. We're already seeing that the blogosphere has the burgeoning capability of revolutionizing political structures (particularly on the left), with the power of sites like Daily Kos (and Markos' successful Crashing the Gate. And we have Glenn Greenwald (who has demonstrated a strong anti-drug-war viewpoint -- see here and here) taking the internet and the publishing world by storm, with the unprecedented runaway pre-sales of his book How Would a Patriot Act, which was marketed only on the blogs. This could lead one to believe that the issues that become part of the conversation on the internet have the potential to demand a much larger hearing. This brings us to a post at Eschaton today that struck me as remarkably important. Atrios, responding to Kevin Drum, noted: But I think the "liberal netroots" does have a fairly clear consensus on a number of issues. I'm not going to claim every liberal blogger or blog reader agress with everything on this list - that'd be ridiculous - but nonetheless I'd say there's a pretty obvious general consensus on the following: ...and included in that list was: Leave the states alone on issues like medical marijuana. Generally move towards "more decriminalization" of drugs, though the details complicated there too. "Obvious general consensus." Of course, such a weak statement has been obvious to us all along, but to see this listed in one of the top-read liberal blogs as being part of the obvious general consensus of the liberal netroots is pretty impressive. This has to have been due, in no small part, to the constant efforts of all the drug policy reform organizations and individuals who have worked so hard to educate the internet community (and has made the internet almost exclusively the dominion of reform). Now of course, there is also strong drug policy reform sentiment among the conservative blogosphere, although in recent years many of the former freedom-loving conservative factions (such as conservative libertarians) have all-too-willingly ceded power to the big-brother, big-government social conservatives. Additionally, the conservative blogosphere has not yet shown an ability to challenge the traditional party platform and structure. But I still have hope there as well. 11:40:09 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Study fails to find damage to developing adolescent brains from pot Link NEW YORK, May 8 (UPI) -- In a preliminary study, U.S. researchers failed to find damage to the developing adolescent brain had occurred in those who had used marijuana moderately. Lynn DeLisi and colleagues from the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and New York University School of Medicine used diffusion tensor imaging to scan the brain of 10 young people who had smoked cannabis during adolescence. The participants were between 17 and 30 years old, and they said they had smoked at least two to three times a week for one or more years during adolescence and had no personal or family history of mental-health problems. The study subjects were matched for sex, age and social class of parents with 10 controls who had not smoked marijuana regularly as teenagers. DeLisi and colleagues found no significant differences in brain integrity and brain volume between cannabis smokers and non-smokers, but the study authors warn more research is necessary, both in a larger group of people and to see the effects of heavier use. The findings are published in Harm Reduction Journal. It's important to note that this is preliminary and not comprehensive enough to rule out damage to adolescents completely, but this is interesting -- particularly as the drug warriors are currently fond of claiming exactly this kind of damage. It's also important to note that the drug warrior argument that marijuana causes damage to adolescent brains is a red herring -- marijuana legalizers generally do not favor unrestricted use of marijuana by adolescents (some kind of age restrictor is usually advocated). And legalization actually would likely reduce the use of marijuana by adolescents, given the experience in other countries and the better ability to create age restrictions for legal products. 7:55:42 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []