Sunday, November 5, 2006

Open Thread [Thanks, Blair] 10:41:44 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Marinol markets itself as Legal Marijuana Scott Morgan at StoptheDrugWar.org found this fascinating thing, and it deserves to be circulated: The makers of Marinol are actually marketing their product on Google as "Legal Marijuana." If you search for Legal Marijuana in Google, you'll see this: As Scott says: Drug warriors such as Andrea Barthwell and David Murray have argued strenuously that cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals such as Marinol and Sativex are completely different from marijuana. They've bristled at Rob Kampia's claims that Sativex is "liquid marijuana" and they've long used the availability of Marinol as an excuse to arrest patients who prefer cultivated marijuana instead. Of course, the drug companies want to use the law to insure that you use (and pay for) their marijuana, as opposed to the better stuff you can grow in your back yard. 10:18:27 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Buy lingerie, help farmers As an update to the Colombia government's mock attack on Kate Moss for destroying their country by using cocaine(!), I particularly like Kerry Howley's take at Reason Which goes something like this: We should buy lingerie to support Kate Moss, so she can afford to buy more cocaine, thus providing income to the poor farmers in Colombia. If the Colombian government chooses to turn the profits from their biggest export over to criminals, that's their problem. 10:07:31 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

We're funding the Taliban again OK, read this and explain to me why we're eradicating the poppies... Last week, British diplomats warned that an Afghan government program to eradicate opium poppy growing in Helmand province where 4,200 British troops are based, was likely to trigger heavy fighting. The Afghan government will begin the campaign against the drug lords as early as next month, destroying poppy fields across the province. Helmand Governor Engineer Daoud is determined to carry out a program of "targeted eradication against the big boys who are growing on government land," according to a British diplomat. Taliban funds come not from cultivating the poppies but from providing protection to the drug lords, he said. The Taliban will therefore attack anyone trying to wipe out the poppy crop. [emphasis added] So the Taliban are not profiting from the sale of the drug, but rather through our threats and efforts to eradicate it. Could we be any more stupid? Spend lots of taxpayer money to pursue a drug war that alienates the people, funds our enemies, and still doesn't make a dent in drug availability. This is policy as crafted by the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. * 2:43:15 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []