Sunday, August 13, 2006

Open Thread A great column by George Iliff in the TC Palm Arrests for marijuana use ruins lives needlessly John P. Walters, our current drug czar, has said that 16 million Americans regularly use marijuana. Thus, if the horrible effects claimed for this drug were true, we should be seeing our hospitals filled with desperately ill addicts. We should be seeing thousands of highway accidents due to crazed addicts driving under the influence. We should be seeing untold amounts of violence by the pot-heads. But this is not happening. Radley Balko's Agitator continues to be a must-read. He follows up on the Cheryl Noel story (and I'm behind on adding her to the drug war victims page -- if anyone has a photo of her, let me know). Also check out Militarizing Mayberry, More Bearcats and How Many Are There. Showtime does some fun promo efforts for their outstanding series "Weeds" and gets admonished by the ONDCP's Tom Riley. "There are more teens in treatment for marijuana than for alcohol dependence - Is that funny?" Hey, Tom -- most of those teens are in treatment not for marijuana dependency, but because they were referred there by the criminal justice system, and you know that, so - Is that honest? The video Get Off The Pot, George is currently ranked second in the Huffington Post Contagious Festival. Catchy and informative -- although the "Bushie gets off the pot" line seems a bit forced -- I think it would have been stronger using John Walters (and then "Johnnie" would have worked perfectly), but guess that the filmmaker probably felt that George Bush would be the more visible target for the general public to blame. This article in the Wall Street Journal gives an indication of just how dishonest the drug testing industry can be. Ruining innocent lives? Who cares? It's a new alcohol test that is being used by courts to take away jobs, driving licenses or children, but it can't tell the difference between beer and hand sanitizer. The urine-testing industry doesn't need federal approval for tests that aren't used to monitor federal employees and aren't sold over the counter. Testing firms say it is up to their clients -- the courts and licensing boards -- to decide how to use the results. [Thanks to a reader] 5:29:49 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []