Sunday, February 1, 2009

Jury nullification in Illinois? This is interesting On Wednesday in La Salle County Circuit Court, several jurors shook hands with an emotional Loren J. Swift after finding him not guilty of a marijuana charge that would have sent him to prison. [...] The five-woman, seven-man jury deliberated about two hours, giving the verdict at 1:30 p.m. The 59-year-old Swift, of rural Streator, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. The state police drug task force arrested him Oct. 26, 2007, at his home, saying they found 25 pounds of marijuana and 50 pounds of marijuana plants. He spent 49 days in custody before posting $10,000 bond. His record included a conviction in 2003 for possession of a small amount of marijuana. [...] During the trial, Swift testified he smoked marijuana to relieve physical pain, as well as to cope with posttraumatic stress syndrome. Looks like nullification to me. Good for them! 11:50:17 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Just another lazy, unmotivated, loser stoner 8-gold-medal-winning Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. For some strange reason, he apologized for it (probably because of endorsements) Radley Balko has the letter Phelps should write, but won't. It's a great letter - go read it. It ends... Go ahead and tear me down if you like. But let's see you rationalize in your next lame ONDCP commercial how the greatest motherfucking swimmer the world has ever seen . . . is also a proud pot smoker. 11:45:03 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Superbowl Memories The Drug Czar's office has done a fair amount of advertising in the most expensive venue there is - the Superbowl. Hey, why not? It's not real money - it's just the taxpayers' dime. They started in 2002, just months after 9/11 -- looking to capitalize on that sweet deal: fear and terror. They ran two ads that year: the first, was a listing of prices of items a terrorist might use (specifically including box cutters to make sure the audience would get the connection) with the tag: "If you buy drugs, it might come from you." White House ONDCP - Drug, Anti-Terror | Super Bowl Ads | SPIKE.com The second, run the same year, was even more offensive, conflating the "harmless fun" of smoking pot with killing judges. White House ONDCP - Drug, Anti-Terror 2 | Super Bowl Ads | SPIKE.com Of course, as we all know, it is prohibition and the drug war that makes drugs profitable to criminals and is more likely to channel funds to terrorists. But it sure is fun for our government to demonize its own citizens. The ads were met with almost universal derision. Pot smokers suggested a "Buy American" campaign. Arianna Huffington and others developed spoof ads using the still silly, but much more realistic, notion that using gas funds terrorism... ... the ad cuts to different people in their SUVs: "I gassed 40,000 Kurds," "I helped hijack an airplane," "I helped blow up a nightclub," and then in unison: "We did it all by driving to work in our SUVs." I think that the extreme nature of the ads (and certainly the ONDCP was going for shock value, particularly in the Superbowl) ultimately negated any effect that they could have. Nobody believed them, except for the hardline drug warriors who were pretty pleased with themselves. (The DEA got on the bandwagon in 2003 with their first exhibit of Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists and You) The ONDCP tried to get a little more mileage with it in 2003 with this haunted subway trip, but they specifically avoided use of the word "terrorists," instead talking about the terrible things that drug money does. It was essentially the same concept as the one above, but substituting cartels for terrorists. White House ONDCP: Subway Ride | Super Bowl Ads | SPIKE.com It was clear that they had no confidence in that message working (they had been slammed for their ads for a full year at this point), so they partnered it with an ad going in a completely new direction of absurdity: smoking marijuana makes you pregnant! White House ONDCP: Knocked Up | Super Bowl Ads | SPIKE.com Right. More ONDCP Superbowl ads available at Spike TV 12:17:22 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []