Monday, December 11, 2006

DEA Guilty of Retaliation Via Scott Morgan comes this in the Miami Herald A federal jury in Miami found the Drug Enforcement Administration discriminated against Sandalio Gonzalez, the former second-in-command of the DEA's South Florida field office, by retaliating against him with a transfer to another job in Texas in 2001. This is significant for a number of reasons. It validates Gonzalez' earlier whistleblowing and verifies the DEA's method of dealing with it. Gonzalez was also the whistleblower in the House of Death scandal in Texas (the DEA probably really regrets the transfer). This court decision also is going to make more people pay attention to the House of Death. An interesting side note: speculation by Bill Conroy at NarcoNews as to why DEA head Karen Tandy cancelled her plans to testify on behalf of the DEA at this trial. 10:57:46 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

What a stretch! It continues to amaze me how much the Drug Czar and his puppets are willing to bend and mutilate data in order to attempt to make a case for the dangers of drugged driving. The drug czar's "blog" touts some supposedly important new information: But in West Virginia, the regular testing has enabled the CDC to determine that drugs are found in 25.8 percent of people killed in wrecks. That's similar to the percentage of victims found with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit -- about 27.7 percent. "These results suggest that drug use contributes substantially to driver impairment in West Virginia," the report says. President Bush has declared December National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. Notice how they attempt to conflate the drugged percentage with the above the legal limit alcohol percentage? OK, now note that this is a complete crock. And you don't even have to read the study. Just read the linked article with more than a 5 year old comprehension and you discover the following: In this study, drugs were found in 25.8 percent of those killed in wrecks. That includes passengers, pedestrians, drivers who weren't at fault, etc. There's no way of knowing how many of the drivers (or for that matter if any at all) were drugged. The most prevalent kind of drugs found were prescription drugs. There was no way to identify whether the prescription drugs were legally obtained or prescribed. The fact that marijuana was the most commonly found illicit drug is not a surprise at all -- it's the most commonly used and stays in the blood the longest. The fact that it came in well below prescription drugs just shows how prevalent prescription drug use is in the population. The study had no information about impairment, and therefore could not offer a single, solitary bit of evidence regarding the connection between drug use and fatal car accidents. Once again, the drug czar lies. And yes, I am at war with government officials who technically say truthful things with an intent to deceive. That practice is lying, pure and simple. 7:27:59 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

New Report: Laws don't curb teen marijuana use From Bruce Mirken with MPP: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new report from the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in Washington, D.C., challenges the key assumption underlying present U.S. marijuana laws: that marijuana must be prohibited for adults in order to deter teens from using it. When reformers propose regulating marijuana for adults in a manner similar to alcohol or tobacco, government officials typically argue that such a policy would encourage use by children, and such assertions are widely accepted by the press and the public. MPP undertook a thorough review of government data from the U.S. and around the world, as well as studies by think tanks and academic researchers. Key findings include: Marijuana prohibition has not prevented a dramatic increase in marijuana use by teenagers. In fact, the overall rate of marijuana use in the U.S. has risen by roughly 4,000% since marijuana was first outlawed. Independent studies by RAND Europe and the U.S. National Research Council have reported that marijuana prohibition appears to have little or no impact on rates of use. Since Britain ended most marijuana possession arrests in 2004, the rate of marijuana use by 16- to-19-year-olds has dropped. In the U.S., rates of teen marijuana use in states that have decriminalized adult marijuana possession are statistically equal to the rates in states that have retained criminal penalties. In the Netherlands, where adults have been allowed to possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana since 1976, the rate of marijuana use by adults and teens is lower than in the U.S., and teen use of cocaine and amphetamines is far lower than in the U.S. Indeed, some researchers believe it is the prohibition of marijuana that causes progression to hard drug use, sometimes called the "gateway effect." "The idea that prohibiting adults from using marijuana will keep it away from kids is a myth that isn't backed up by the data," said MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia. "We need laws that are based on facts and science, not faith-based myths." Full Report available for download Now lets see if the press picks up on it. The report release is timed to coincide with the traditional release time of government's annual "Monitoring the Future" report. Each year, the ONDCP cherry-picks some out-of-context set of numbers from that report and touts it as either a victory in the drug war or a sign that we need to spend more/arrest more, etc. With the new MPP report, the press will have the option of at least "balancing" those claims with the real in-context information in the MPP report. 8:59:34 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []