Monday, January 29, 2007

Drug War Victim: 80-year-old Isaac Singletary Another old person with a gun, living in a dangerous neighborhood. 80-year-old Isaac Singletary used to bring out his gun to scare off drug dealers, so when a saw a couple of low-lifes were on his lawn, he came out with it again and told them to get off his property. Except they were undercover narcotics officers so they shot him. Isaac managed to get a shot or two off in response, but the officers were able to finish him off. See also The Agitator and the comments from Mary, Kaptinemo and Allan in this earlier thread. 9:31:08 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Drug War Funding Shortage a Good Thing James Gierach rocks in this OpEd in the Daily Southtown (Chicago): County cuts could mean less drug-war money -- and that's not such a bad thing ... These examples tell the folly of "staying the course" and hoping to win the drug war. It's a bad policy that endlessly costs and gets us nowhere. "Oh, but what about our drug courts, our drug-diversion program, our drug-treatment? What about drug testing, drug drops and drug counseling? What about our undercover drug cops, our confiscation programs, our prosecutors, our public defenders, our drug education programs and our sheriff's police? Oh, my D.A.R.E." the addicted public officials and employees cry. The drug war is a cash cow for drug dealers and a patronage pig for public officials. Fly over the Cook County Jail and take a bird's eye look at the drug-war prison sprawl. New jail after new jail -- a patronage dream. Eight out of every 10 inmates who enter the Cook County Jail are there for a "drug crime." Better to build pyramids or cathedrals. "Addicted public officials." That sure hits true. Really nice job, James. 9:06:30 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Magical Mushrooms Mark Kleiman has an excellent post on last year's study that demonstrated the enormous power for psilocybin mushrooms to generate meaningful mystical experiences in churchgoers who had no previous experience with hallucinogens. The results have potentially large importance for both law and policy. Though psilocybe mushrooms grow wild in much of the country and are fairly easily cultivated, the psilocybin they contain is a Schedule I controlled substance, contraband except for specially-approved research purposes, and therefore so are the mushrooms themselves. But the Supreme Court recently held (Gonzales v. O Centro) that the use of hallucinogens in religious ceremonies is protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and must be permitted unless there is a particularized showing of harm. It is well-established fact that psilocybin is neither addictive nor physically toxic, though it is not without psychological and behavioral risks, especially when used haphazardly. If taking a dose of psilocybin under controlled conditions has a better-than-even chance of occasioning a full-blown mystical experience, it seems fairly hard to argue that forbidding such use doesn't interfere with the free exercise of religion. How the courts will deal with those who want to seek out primary religious experience on an individual rather than a congregational basis remains to be seen. In other news, Kleiman manages to bring his usual strong analysis of the failings of government prohibition, without his all-too-common unsupported put-down of reformers, in this LA Times article about the situation in Mexico. Despite the praise, the U.S. drug war "is nowhere on the political agenda," said Mark Kleiman, a professor and director of UCLA's Drug Policy Analysis Program. Kleiman argues that lack of political attention to drug policy is a good thing. "Politicians are incapable of dealing with it," he said. Despite high-profile arrests and record annual seizures, he said, a steady supply of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine has been available in the U.S. since President Nixon famously declared drugs to be America's "public enemy No. 1." 8:45:42 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

More responses to the John Hawkins piece One thing I'll say about about John Hawkins piece In Defense of the Drug War at Right Wing News -- it's drawn a tremendous amount of fire from the libertarian and conservative (read: not authoritarian) circles (it's less likely that many of the liberal sites have noticed it). Read this exceptional and insightful analysis by Lee at Right-Thinking from the Left Coast: My response to In Defense of the Drug War. Also, a couple of nice pieces at Code Monkey Ramblings (here and here). Also, Mona has a little good fun at my expense at Unqualified Offerings and JohnJ over at RightLinx responds to me both in his post and in comments. (In addition to the ones I listed below). 1:01:21 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []