Wednesday, August 23, 2006

How prohibition works [Via Hit and Run] In my lifetime, I have eaten in restaurants in Chicago thousands of times, yet I don't remember ever seeing foie gras on the menu. The people of the Windy City are great eaters, and they love their deep dish pizza, polish sausage, italian beef, ribs, and a whole lot more. But Chicago foie gras? You won't find it at the Taste. Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of places that had it -- it's just that most people don't go to those places. That didn't stop the Chicago city council from deciding to prohibit foie gras. That's right, a law against goose liver. The ban went into effect yesterday, and the results could have been predicted. CHICAGO, Aug. 22 -- On Tuesday, this city's lawbreakers were serving foie gras. The illicit substance could be spotted in places it was rarely seen when it was legal: buried in Chicago's famed deep-dish pizza, in soul food on the South Side, beside beef downtown. In one of the more unlikely (and opulent) demonstrations of civil disobedience, a handful of restaurants here that never carry foie gras, the fattened livers of ducks and geese, featured it on the very day that Chicago became the first city in the nation to outlaw sale of the delicacy. "This ban is embarrassing Chicago," said Grant DePorter of Harry Caray's Restaurant, which dreamed up an appetizer of pan-seared foie gras and scallops ($14.95) and a Vesuvio-style entree pairing foie gras and tenderloin ($33.95) just to buck the new ordinance. "We really don't think the City Council should decide what Chicagoans eat. What's next? Some other city outlaws brussels sprouts? Another outlaws chicken? Another, green beans?" [...] Jerry Stout, a lunchtime diner at Connie's Pizza, said city leaders should have more pressing matters to worry about than fattened duck liver. Hardly a foie gras connoisseur -- he could not remember whether he had ever tasted it before -- Mr. Stout, 54, tried it on his pizza and said he would recommend it because of its mild flavor. Now I'm not going to take a position on animal raising ethics here, but clearly, if people have a problem with foie gras, they can educate and influence people not to eat it. That might actually work. But prohibition? Just look how people responded to the prohibition of something as irrelevant to them as goose liver! Prohibition not only has disastrous side effects, but... it doesn't work. Prohibition not only doesn't work, but... it can be counter-productive. Prohibition is... a disease, that infects and corrupts everything it touches. 6:45:35 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Let's be Frank (Not the Frank who lost in Alaska.) Via the Transform Drug Policy Foundation blog, I have discovered the UK's version of our anti-drug websites. It's Frank! Of course, whenever I come to a site like this, the first thing I do is check to see whether they are misleading or lying. So I went right to the Cannabis information page and found Cannabis, like tobacco, has chemical 'nasties' which can cause lung disease and cancer with long term or heavy use. Lying. But I did find interesting that they had "self control tips" like: To reduce the risk of overdoing it, try to space out the days between using cannabis. Don't buy more than you need thinking you will save some for tomorrow - you probably won't. You'd never find such advice on a U.S. anti-drug site. But here's the best part. They have a new game you can play on the site -- Dope Dash. You have to run to avoid hash boy, bong girl, and skunk zombie who are chasing you and trying to blow pot smoke into your face! Make sure you grab a couple of tasty hot dogs while you're on the run and watch how the pot blurs your vision and affects your coordination. Eventually, you'll get too stoned and have to retire to the couch (there's that damned couch again!) If you last a couple of minutes or more, you get to be on the leader board, where, if you've got no better name to use, you could always give your name as DrugWarRant com and send some visitors this way. 8:28:47 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Murkowski gone Good news, and a bit of a shocker. Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski, who has waged a one-man war to re-criminalize the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana in that state (despite the Alaska state constitution and Supreme Court rulings).... ... has lost in the primary! I don't know anything about the other candidates for the general election there, but having Frank out of there has got to be great news for us. 8:10:51 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Ophidia - the anti-drug A timely parody from the DARE Generation 12:11:40 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []