Thursday, April 26, 2007

An embarrassment for the Drug Czar White House letter: U.S. cocaine prices drop despite billions spent on drug war The street price of cocaine fell in the United States last year as purity rose, the White House drug czar said in a private letter to a key senator, seemingly contradicting U.S. claims that US$4 billion (euro2.9 billion) in aid to Colombia is stemming the flow. The drug czar, John Walters, wrote that retail cocaine prices fell by 11 percent from February 2005 to October 2006, to about US$135 (euro99) per gram of pure cocaine. That's way below the US$600 a gram pure cocaine fetched in 1981, when the U.S. government began collecting data, and near the level it has been at since the early 1990s. During the same period, analysis of data collected by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration showed that after a drop in 2005, levels of purity "have trended somewhat toward former levels," Walters said. Walters made the disclosure in a January letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican co-chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. The Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank, obtained the letter and made it available to The Associated Press. Oops. ... Grassley, in an e-mailed statement, said the letter is "all the proof that anybody needs" that the White House drug office "has gotten quite good at spinning the numbers, but cooking the books doesn't help our efforts to curb cocaine and heroin production and consumption." The numbers cited by Walters contradict upbeat appraisals made by U.S. officials as recently in March _ two months after Walters' letter. Wait a second. I think I just heard... Was that the sound of someone calling Walters a liar? Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, said despite the existence of the new estimates, senior U.S. Embassy officials provided him with older, more upbeat data during a March visit to Bogota. More lying? So far, this story has shown up in Taiwan and France. Wonder when it'll hit here? And what this will do to funding for the Colombian drug war? Update: Huffington Post has it. 9:27:47 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

... and now for something completely different I'm in a Terry Gilliam-drawn heaven. I have just received a wonderful gift from my Amazon wish list -- the complete, 16 DVD megaset of Monty Python's Flying Circus, with every episode in the series history, plus two bonus discs: Monty Python Live! Wow! It'll be some great fuel, Phil. Thanks so much! 8:14:10 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Some of Kathryn Johnston's murderers indicted New York Times A Fulton County grand jury has indicted three current and former police officers who were involved in botched drug raid that led to the death of an elderly Atlanta woman in November. Officer Jason R. Smith, who is on administrative leave from the Atlanta Police Department and Gregg Junnier, who retired from the force in January, face the most serious charges. Mr. Smith is charged with four counts of murder, two counts of making false statements, two counts of burglary, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment under color of legal process and perjury. Mr. Junnier is charged with three counts of murder, two counts of burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation and making false statements. Officer Arthur Tesler, who is also on administrative leave, is charged with violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process. No indictments, however, against the people who created the policies and procedures that set up the tragedy. 2:50:34 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Marijuana Stories Check out the following three stories about marijuana. Consider which ones are the most important, and then consider on which one the Drug Czar decided to focus. Studies Validate Smoke-Free Marijuana on the use of vaporizors. Two new studies, one from the University of California, San Francisco, and the other from the University at Albany, State University of New York, provide strong evidence that technology now allows medical use of marijuana with the rapid action and easy dose adjustment of inhalation, but without the respiratory hazards associated with smoking. Marijuana May Fight Lung Tumors In lab and mouse studies, the compound, known as THC, cut lung tumor growth in half and helped prevent the cancer from spreading, says Anju Preet, PhD, a Harvard University researcher in Boston who tested the chemical. While a lot more work needs to be done, "the results suggest THC has therapeutic potential," she tells WebMD. Moreover, other early research suggests the cannabis compound could help fight brain, prostate, and skin cancers as well, Preet says. U.S. marijuana even stronger than before: report WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday. OK, so maybe that was too easy. Obviously, the drug czar skipped one and two and went directly to three. Of course, as Scott Morgan notes, the ONDCP had to promote the massive dangers of pot that is, on average, twice as potent as the old pot, while somehow ignoring their earlier claims of it being 10, 20, or 30 times as potent. And, of course, there are the two big points that make the drug czar's hysteria irrelevant: When it's more potent, people smoke less. (Nobody sits down with a six-pack of Bacardi 151 rum.) If you're concerned about potency levels, the best response is to legalize and regulate. And then the Drug Czar lies: John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy and President Bush's "Drug Czar" expressed serious concerns regarding this trend, "This new report serves as a wake-up call for parents who may still hold outdated notions about the harms of marijuana. Evidence now tells us that the higher-than-ever potency of today's marijuana translates into serious health consequences for teens. Among teens who are receiving treatment for drug abuse or dependence, more than 60% report marijuana as their primary drug of abuse. Additionally, we are now seeing more mentions of marijuana during visits to emergency rooms than ever before. A growing body of research now tells us that marijuana poses a serious threat to the health and futures of young people. Oh, yes, it is a lie. Plain and simple. He'll tell you that it's not, but he's lying. The definition of "lie" : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive : to create a false or misleading impression The drug czar knows that the information he gives about treatment and emergency room visits have nothing to do with potency, so by continually implying that they do, he is lying. (I've gone through the numbers before, you can see some of them here, or pick up a copy of Lies, Damed Lies, and Drug War Statistics). I know that we come to expect as normal that our government (and particularly the ONDCP) is going to lie to us. But we should never get complacent about it. And the press should stop letting them get away with it. 9:13:01 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []