Followups-set-to-talk.politics.drugs-space-bar-failing!
Drug War Chronicle, Issue #506 -- 10/19/07
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
More DRCNet Stories Are Going Big Thanks to Your Donations --
will you help us continue it?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/more_drcnet_stories_are_going_big_thanks_to_your_help
Students: Intern at DRCNet to help stop the drug war!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
Table of Contents:
1. EDITORIAL: THE ARROGANCE OF STUPIDITY
I'm not one to say that people who disagree with me about
legalization are automatically unreasonable for it. But insult
me for my legalization views, and I have a few things to say
about the foolish arrogance that represents.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/the_arrogance_of_stupidity_about_drug_legalization
2. NORML DOES LA: THE 2007 NATIONAL CONVENTION
The 2007 National NORML conference took place last weekend in
Los Angeles. Here's a re****t from the scene.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/national_norml_conference_2007
3. EUROPE: BRITAIN'S NORTH WALES POLICE BACK CHIEF'S CALL FOR
DRUG LEGALIZATION
The North Wales police chief's call to legalize drugs is
stirring controversy, but his own department has now signed on
to his stand.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/north_wales_police_adopt_legalization_call
4. VIDEO: US GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGES DRUG OFFENDERS TO CHOOSE THE
ARMY INSTEAD OF COLLEGE
A new YouTube video from SSDP gets the word out about
hypocritical drug laws and looks for the victims of one such law
in particular.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/us_government_encourages_drug_offenders_to_choose_army_not_college
5. AND STILL MORE... YET ANOTHER BIG DIGG HIT LAST WEEK
INCREASES OUR WEB SITE TRAFFIC
Massive increases to our web site traffic have increased our
costs, and we need your help to pay for it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/massive_increases_to_our_web_site_traffic_have_increased_our_costs
6. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE SPEAKEASY
"New Study: Marijuana Might Cure Brain Tumors," "Someone Tell
the Drug Czar That Hemp Isn't a Drug," "Digg and Reddit Users
Want to Legalize Marijuana," "US Government Encourages Drug
Offenders to Choose the Army Instead of College."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
7. STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an intern****p at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and
you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
8. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
*** and drugs! *** and drugs! That's our law enforcement
corruption theme this week as a gaggle of hormonally-challenged
Southern cops let it all hang out above and beyond the call of
duty.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/police_drug_corruption
9. LAW ENFORCEMENT: WITH VIOLENT CRIME ON THE RISE, NEW ORLEANS
POLICE ARE ARRESTING THOUSANDS OF DRUG OFFENDERS, TRAFFIC
VIOLATORS
With violent crime on the increase in New Orleans, police are
busy arresting traffic scofflaws and drug offenders, and
prosecutors are spending more than half their time prosecuting
drug offenders. A local watchdog commission says that's dumb.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/new_orleans_drug_traffic_arrests_violent_crime
10. HARM REDUCTION: SAN FRANCISCO SAFE INJECTION SITE
DISCUSSIONS UNDERWAY
Could San Francisco become the first American city to host a
safe injection site? The obstacles are many, but discussions are
getting under way.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/san_francisco_discusses_safe_injection_sites_harm_reduction
11. MARIJUANA: POT POLITICS ON DISPLAY IN LOCAL RACES IN
CINCINNATI AND NEW YORK STATE
Marijuana policy is an issue in some local races this year. This
week, it popped up in the Cincinnati mayoral campaign and a New
York county district attorney race.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/marijuana_politics_campaign_cincinnati_utica_new_york
12. AUSTRALIA: DRUGS ARE "EVIL," SAYS PRIME MINISTER
Australian Prime Minister John Howard is trying to dumb down the
debate over drugs with simplistic sloganeering this week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/australia_john_howard_says_drugs_evil
13. DRUGGED DRIVING: EXPERTS SAY MARIJUANA DUI LIMIT SHOULD BE
SIMILAR TO ALCOHOL, NOT ZERO TOLERANCE
A team of leading researchers on marijuana and impaired driving
are recommending that governments not adopt "zero tolerance"
drugged driving laws. Such laws ensnare many drivers who are not
actually impaired, they found.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/no_zero_tolerance_drugged_driving_duid_laws_experts_say
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/drug_war_history
15. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
16. JOBS AT MPP: MICHIGAN CAMPAIGN MANAGER, DC
MEMBER****P/GRANTS/VIP PROGRAM FELLOW
The Marijuana Policy Project is hiring a campaign manager for a
2008 medical marijuana initiative in Michigan, and a full-time
fellow in its Member****p and Grants & VIP Outreach departments.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/jobs_at_the_marijuana_policy_project
17. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Sup****t the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_available
18. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
YOUR READER
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available
19. RESOURCE: REFORMER'S CALENDAR ACCESSIBLE THROUGH DRCNET WEB
SITE
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/drug_reform_calendar
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org
to sign up
today!)
================
1. Editorial: The Arrogance of Stupidity
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/506/the_arrogance_of_stupidity_about_drug_legalization
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
As regular readers of this column are aware, I'm a legalizer,
and I'm sure about it. I am absolutely convinced that on all
counts prohibition does far more harm than good, and that the
evidence for this is overwhelming.
For example, I consider the effects of sending hundreds of
billions of dollars per year into the criminal underground --
only one of prohibition's many adverse consequences -- to be so
serious in its impact on crime and violence and corruption as to
be unfathomable. I cannot imagine how any realistically
conceivable increase in drug use following legalization -- a
hypothetical -- could come close in the harm it might cause to
rivaling the incredible, well-demonstrated damage done today by
just that one aspect of prohibition. Even if prohibition didn't
make the drugs more dangerous themselves (which it does), I just
couldn't see that happening. Not surprisingly, since I founded
an organization devoted to working for legalization.
Still, I'm not so arrogant as to deny the possibility that
people who oppose legalization might have legitimate reasons for
holding the views that they hold. Not for marijuana -- sup****t
for marijuana prohibition is a truly bizarre aspect of our
modern society, one that I believe will ultimately be viewed as
such. But some of the other drugs that are illegal now do pose
serious dangers for some of their users. Not for most of their
users, despite popular belief; and the dangers have been greatly
increased beyond what they would otherwise be by the conditions
that prohibition has created. But there's enough potential
danger connected with drugs like cocaine or heroin for the
impulse to prohibit them to be understandable -- misjudged, in
my opinion, but understandable -- it's not completely strange
that many people agree with prohibition of those drugs, even
though I think they're quite wrong.
Those of us who see things this way are in pretty good company
-- there are legislators, judges, doctors, editorial columnists,
former Cabinet members, even some heads of state, counted within
our set of strong and fervent allies. In Britain over the past
couple of weeks the set has grown larger. Richard Brunstrom,
Chief Constable of North Wales, called drug prohibition
"immoral" and recommended legalization in a re****t he submitted
to the national "Home Office." His police force has backed him
up on it. And this week the former prison chief added his voice
to the sup****tive mix as well.
They are by no means the first Brits to say these things. For
example, the current head of the Conservative Party in the UK,
David Cameron, is a legalizer, as was the late Mo Mowlam,
Britain's "drug czar" equivalent in her time. The UK-based
Economist magazine, a widely-read global publication, used to
opine for legalization almost non-stop, and still sometimes does
so. So to reads the words of Brunstrom's opposition, the
country's Association of Chief Police Officers, I have to wonder
at the arrogance; ACPO president Ken Jones released a statement
calling legalization "arguably a counsel of despair."
Despair? Really? Despite all the extremely smart people in the
country who've expressed pro-legalization viewpoints to date,
who have explained why they see it making things better, not
worse? I completely recognize ACPO's right to take a
prohibitionist position, and despite my views I'm not one to say
that it automatically makes them unreasonable. But Jones'
particular choice of words make me think he is either not
familiar with the ins and outs of the issue, nor of the well
known sup****t that exists for legalization, or that he is
unwilling to acknowledge them.
On this side of the ocean, upstate New York saw some similar
illogic emanate from drug warriors in a District Attorney race.
After the Democratic candidate, Jonathan Sennett, called for
marijuana decriminalization -- not even legalization, just
decriminalization, of marijuana no less, he said it's no more
dangerous than alcohol or tobacco -- his two opponents attacked
him on it. One of them, a former Manhattan prosecutor named
Vincent Bradley, actually said it was "inappropriate" for a DA
to say that marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco.
Well actually, if one judges by the mortality data, tobacco is
enormously 4mmore0m dangerous than marijuana. Not that tobacco
should be illegal either, of course. But the facts about what
the two substances do are the facts about them, and
acknowledging them is not irresponsible. I've already explained
what I think about 4mmarijuana0m prohibition, and there are a
number of blue-ribbon commissions whose findings back me up. So
I think that Bradley's and Jones' comments are clear-cut case of
the arrogance of stupidity. Not because I disagree with them,
but because they have taken their positions so arrogantly in the
face of many impressive people who completely disagree with
them.
We in the anti-prohibition movement can take a few insults.
Indeed, the more of them get thrown our way, the more successful
we know we are growing. Don't be too confident, Ken Jones, more
Britons have heard of Richard Brunstrom now than have heard of
you; and don't be too confident about your drug strategy, Vince
Bradley. Our message is getting out, and it beats your message,
hands down.
================
later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)
--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.
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