Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Remember when Presidential candidates thought the drug war didn't exist? For a number of Presidential campaign cycles, the drug war got about as much coverage as philately. Other than the Granite Staters' tireless work questioning candidates about medical marijuana and the obligatory "Did you ever smoke pot" debate question with all the candidates lying about whether they did/whether they did successfully/whether they enjoyed it, the drug war was absent. These days, however, the topic is even more popular among the candidates than numismatics. Now we've got John Edwards criticizing the war on drugs. America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to "the so-called war on drugs," presidential candidate John Edwards said here today. "We're not going to build enough prisons to solve this problem," he told a crowd of about 800 at Grinnell College. And Hillary Clinton even traveled an almost perceptible distance away from the extremes of wishy-washy-ness. She also supports using U.S. funding to support proven harm reduction efforts - including needle exchange - to help hard-to-reach populations, and will continue to support new evidence-based prevention methods as additional scientific research helps us understand how to best address this epidemic. It's almost as though some politicians are starting to get the idea that supporting the drug war as it currently exists doesn't really help them. 11:29:15 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

1400 more Drug War Victims Thailand. This is beyond tragic. At a brainstorming session, the representative from the Office of Narcotics Control Board yesterday disclosed that some 1,400 people were killed and labelled as drug suspects though they had no link to drugs. "The government's drug policy was unclear. Operation staff hence did everything to achieve the goal of reducing the number of drug traffickers," the representative said. "The death toll was highest in February when the policy was first implemented. The number of deaths came down in the next two months." 12:06:01 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Those damned humanitarians I don't subscribe to Stratfor, so I couldn't read the entire article, but the teaser is a whopper: The RC-26B's Importance in Fighting Drug Traffickers Nov 27, 2007 The RC-26B aircraft has been vital to U.S. counternarcotics operations along the Mexican and Canadian borders. The aircraft, however, is becoming increasingly popular for use in humanitarian missions and counterinsurgency operations, which could threaten its use in the fight against drug traffickers. How dare they divert precious drug war resources! 12:03:47 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Odds and Ends Interesting Cannabis Thread over at Daily Kos. Grassroots liberals understand that the lack of leadership within the Democratic Party on changing marijuana laws is sending some of their young people to the Ron Paul camp. Drug War cheerleader and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is officially gone as of this morning. Don't let the door... Mark Kleiman is a "legalizer." Link Marijuana should be legalized for personal use and free distribution, Mark Kleiman told delegates at the 2007 conference of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. "Not everybody has a green thumb, so you could get your pot from your friend," Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA, said in a later interview. "Do I think people would sell it? Of course they'd sell it and I couldn't care less. I don't want the billboards." The goal of drug policy should be to limit the damage from drugs -- such as disease, accidents, crime and social functioning -- not to wage "cultural warfare" on drug users, Kleiman said. As always, Stop the Drug War has some interesting posts. Scott Morgan's Does Marijuana Make You Better at Sports?, David Guard's Republicans Try Marijuana at Higher Rate Than Democrats Scott also highlights probably the most inane drug response by a Presidential candidate (McCain): Look, I've heard the comparison between drugs and alcohol. I think most experts would say that in moderation, one or two drinks of alcohol does not have an effect on one's judgment, mental acuity, or their physical abilities. I think most experts would say that the first ingestion of drugs leads to mind-altering and other experiences, other effects, and can lead over time to serious, serious problems. Setting aside the incredibly vague use of the word "drugs" (a term that includes alcohol and caffeine), I don't know what's more bizarre -- that he believes this, or that he thinks the country is stupid enough to believe this. 9:31:43 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []