Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Stupid Sheriff Tricks Quote of the day from new Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes: Drug enforcement is another area Hughes plans to invest a lot of resources in. He says, "The drug war is a war we'll never win and it's time to attack it on a daily basis and concentrate on drugs." Whaa? 11:09:40 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

These are the kind of people... The Drug Czar's "blog" (yes, I went there again and I'm giving them yet another link to increase their stats...) excitedly lists some names: Congratulations to the newest members of the President's Drug Free Communities Support Program Advisory Commission! Ooh, i can't wait! So I looked at the list -- don't really know any of them, but it looked like the usual cast of characters: politicos, treatment pimps, etc. Then I saw one that was listed as "Freelance Writer." Interesting. I wondered what kind of freelance writer would want to get involved in the PDFCSPAC. So I did a little looking. Shouldn't have been surprised at what I found. Camille Q. Solberg is a politically active Republican whose father was a political appointee under George H.W. Bush. She's President of the Coalition for the Preservation of Traditional Marriage and Outreach Chairman for the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women. She's married to John Solberg, Executive Director of the Rawhide Boys Ranch - a juvenile boot camp and treatment center. (source, source) And the freelance writing part? Apparently that refers to articles like this love letter to President Bush published in the Christian News, where she actually "reported" the event as if John Solberg wasn't her husband: About 1,500 people attended the Fond du Lac event, including the publisher of Wisconsin Christian News, Rob Pue and his wife. This event differed in that local residents had a chance to ask the President questions. John Solberg, Executive Director of Rawhide Boys ranch asked the President about his Faith Based initiative. Gee, I wonder if that was spontaneous... I don't know how common the name Solberg is, but it seems I've heard it before. Ah yes, Mary Ann Solberg is the ONDCP Deputy Director. Mary Ann's from Michigan. Camille and John are from Wisconsin. Coincidence? The point is that these are opportunistic ideologues -- and that is generally their entire qualification for the position. On the other hand, I'm confused so far by the choice of the academic in the group -- Keith M. Humphreys is an Associate Professor at Stanford School of Medicine, and while not exactly on our side, oddly seems somewhat qualified (although I really don't know much about him). 10:07:37 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Yawn The media seems to have just figured out that Obama used cocaine when he was young. Catch up, folks. That's old news. The issue is whether Obama, as an elected official, will act to deny other youths the opportunities he had and push for continuing the drug war, or if he will act to end a policy regime that incarcerates black males at a rate 6 times higher than South Africa during apartheid. And that we don't know. 7:35:27 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Everybody Hates Drug Dealers? Over at Blame the Drug War, Tanya has an interesting post that takes me to task for part of my FAQ page, where I am somewhat unsympathetic to drug dealers. She's got a point -- one that's been raised with me before. And I must admit that I was mostly going for a bit of comic effect with that particular item -- essentially pointing out that the only ones benefitting from the drug war are those who profit from it. I think the problem is in definitions (and the fact that the government sees no distinctions in "dealers"). As Tanya correctly notes, someone passing a joint could be called a drug dealer, and I'm clearly not referring to them. Maybe I should title that section: "I am a violent drug trafficker who is only interested in huge profits from the black market and don't care who gets hurt in the process. Why should I support drug policy reform?" Any other suggestions on differentiating the helpful, peaceful neighborhood drug dealer who wants fair compensation for providing a useful item vs. the violent criminal trafficker? It's true that we often demonize the drug dealer in drug policy reform discussion, because one of the key points is that drug legalization will reduce the violence that is related to black market drug commerce. And it's also true that I want to put most illegal drug dealers out of work by legalizing drugs (perhaps so that the best of them can then use their expertise to move into the legal market). I would hope that to be a goal of the helpful, peaceful neighborhood drug dealer as well. 10:52:13 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []