Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sunday reading Nice OpEd counterpoint in the Hartford Courant between LEAP's Jack Cole and Capt. Thomas Snyder of the Connecticut Statewide Narcotics Task Force. Of course, Jack wins hands down in my book, but let's take a look at a couple of Snyder's points: In the past 30 years the following are the drugs that SNTF has removed from the streets of Connecticut: Cocaine: 3,060.73 kilograms; heroin: 65.86 kilograms; marijuana: 35,373.51 kilograms; crack: 62.39 kilograms; pills: 323,100; other: 2.95 kilograms. Yes, and shoplifting has taken more than $13 billion worth of product out of the stores each year, and yet I still don't seem to have any problems finding something to buy at WalMart. You know why? The companies who supply the product simply make more! Then there's this point by Snyder: Fact 3: Illegal drugs are illegal because they are harmful; How long has he been in this country? Doesn't he know how laws are made here? [Thanks, Allan] Vin Suprynowicz has a delightful style to his writing... We try to eradicate the most lucrative crops in Latin America -- coca and marijuana -- and pretty much the only cash crops in Afghanistan -- poppies and hashish. We fail utterly. And then we wonder why these people a) hate us, b) go communist, and c) think we're clowns. The opiates have legitimate medical uses. The plant is one of God's great gifts to man, and is in high demand everywhere. The only reason the trade is dominated by criminals is that we enforce a system in which no one but criminals are allowed to take part in the trade. Don't eradicate the opium. Outbid the Taliban for it. Put them out of business. Buy it, stockpile it, corner the market, sell it on streetcorners in Baghdad to calm those people down, earn the U.S. taxpayer some return on all this loot you've been frittering away over there. Idiots. [Thanks Michael] Pat Rogers has a significant post on the failure of our international foreign policy as it relates to the drug war: U.S. national security 'creating chaos and instability' Grits for Breakfast finds something unusual -- a prosecutor who demands that the police come up with enough legitimate evidence to prosecute before taking the case. ... and now for something completely different ... Rock And Roll Hall Moves To Adopt A Zero Tolerance Drug Policy Taking Its Lead From Baseball, Rock And The Roll Hall of Fame Plans To Expunge The Careers Of Any Inductee Who Used Illegal Performance Enhancing Drugs. Pat Boone And Anita Bryant Will Most Likely Be Only Members Of Hall Left 12:23:50 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []