Bong Hits 4 Jesus -- A Guide to the Supreme Court student speech case.
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This is the White House-produced rock video in the 80's that finally convinced America to "stop the madness." With a message this compelling, it took very little effort to finish the job and America was drug-free by 1995. No longer needed, the drug war infrastructure was dismantled, and the soldiers returned home.
... or not.
If you haven't seen this before, you'll definitely get a kick out of it. I don't know if it's because the video hasn't aged well, but it sure seems like it was created by people who were on drugs.
In an OpEd promoting a medical marijuana law in Illinois, Montel Williams sticks it to the government:
Here's what's shocking: The U.S. government knows marijuana works as a medicine. Our government actually provides medical marijuana each month to five patients in a program that started about 25 years ago but was closed to new patients in 1992. One of the patients in that program, Florida stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld, was a guest on my show two years ago. If federal officials come to town to tell you there's no evidence marijuana is a safe, effective medicine, know this: They're lying, and they know it.
With the situation in Afghanistan continuing to fail dramatically, more players are coming to the realization that a solution may require something other than pursuing the same old drug war. What an idea!
The British MPs have been pushing for some time now for adopting the Senlis Council's proposal to buy the opium and turn it into medicine, and now Tony Blair may even be considering it.
The Prime Minister has ordered a review of his counter-narcotics strategy - including the possibility of legalising some poppy production - after an extraordinary meeting with a Tory MP on Wednesday, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.
Other stories indicated that NATO is interested as well.
The Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which is doing some great work out there, is not supporting the sudden interest in the Senlis proposal (Why 'legalising' Afghan opium for medicine is a non-starter), but misses the point. While I agree that the Senlis proposal is not a silver bullet, it provides a spring board to considering alternatives to the brute force drug war approach. And that's good.
And now today Glenn Reynolds approvingly links to radical ideas:
MICKEY KAUS ON AFGHANISTAN AND OPIUM:
"A simpler, more promising solution to the poppy harvest would seem to be Christopher Hitchens': legalize it and tax it. And, presumably, let the Afghans sell it to whomever they want. The price of heroin would fall. There would be more addicts. But fewer American British soldiers would have to die in Afghanistan--and we might actually win the war they're dying in."
Prioritizing the Drug War over the actual war seems like a dreadful mistake. When we interviewed Col. David Enyeart of Task Force Phoenix in Afghanistan a few weeks ago, he dodged the question of how much harm our policies there were doing, saying basically that it wasn't his guys who were involved in the drug-war stuff. But it seems pretty clear that it's a problem.
Forgotten? OK, sure, the politicians may avoid talking about it (except when they're passing harsher laws or eradication budgets), but it's hardly forgotten.
And I don't have much optimism about the direction this series will take. And unfortunately, they're probably congratulating themselves on how balanced it is...
The war on drugs has affected people from all walks of life. Listen to the stories of federal drug officials, and the personal experiences of a former drug dealer, a recovering drug addict, a former drug prosecutor and a mother who lost her son to drugs.
All walks of life? Give me a break. These are the worst of the hard-core drug warriors. "Dr." David Murray, Barry McCaffrey, Ginger Katz, and others. Where are the mothers of those who died from the drug war? The families who were torn apart by prison? The peaceful citizens who have had their lives taken away from them by unfair drug laws? The farmers who are poisoned by our chemicals?
Yep, NPR's giving us balance...
Part 1 addresses the great debate in the war on drugs: What should take priority -- controlling the supply of drugs through foreign operations, or controlling demand through prevention programs in the United States?
Right. That great debate which solves nothing... except to prevent discussion of the true great debate: Regulation vs. Black Market
In the entire description and connected pages, I could find no mention of a single drug policy reform organization or individual.
The degree to which the series seems to be overpopulated by ONDCP staff (and former staff) leads me to believe that NPR has joined the FDA and HHS as fully-owned subsidiaries of the drug war political establishment.
If you've got a blog you'd like me to visit, feel free to drop me a line.
There's a war going on. It destroys lives and families, spawns violence, suspends civil liberties, tramples on the infirm, locks up millions of peaceful citizens, costs billions, and subjugates reason with fear. This blog looks at the front lines of the drug war, with news, analysis, and the occasional rant.
