Drug War Chronicle, Issue #532 -- 4/18/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532
A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
New Offer: Clergy Against the War on Drugs Video
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/clergy_against_the_war_on_drugs_video
Students: Intern at DRCNet to help stop the drug war now!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
Enough is Enough: Stop the Deadly SWAT Raids:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/raidpetition
Table of Contents:
1. EDITORIAL: YET MORE UNINTENDED AND IMPOSSIBLE-TO-PREDICT HARM
CAUSED BY DRUG PROHIBITION
There are many unintended consequences of prohibition which have
yet to be brought to light, and many impossible-to-predict harms
from prohibition we have yet to see. This week we learned about
a new one.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/many_unpredicted_consequences_of_the_drug_laws
2. SALVIA WATCH: TWO MORE STATES AND ONE CITY ACT AGAINST THE
PLANT, AND NORTH DAKOTA MARKS FIRST BUST
Salvia mania continues across the land, as state and city
legislators pass laws without waiting for evidence and North
Dakota makes its first-ever bust for the plant -- a felony.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/salvia_divinorum_north_dakota_south_carolina
3. THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: ON THE LEFT, THE GREENS AND
THE NADER CAMPAIGN
With the leading Democratic and Republican contenders hewing to
the mainstream, on drug policy we take a look at what the
alternatives have to say. Last week, it was the Libertarians;
this week, it's the Green Party and the Nader candidacy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/2008_presidential_campaign_green_party_nader
4. OFFER: NEW CLERGY ANTI-DRUG-WAR VIDEO
Clergy are speaking out against the war on drugs! Donate $16 or
more (or whatever you can afford) and we'll send you a copy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/clergy_against_the_war_on_drugs_video
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Problems in the crime lab in Tucson, a small-town Georgia cop
gets caught redhanded, and a Georgia sheriff's deputy follows in
his father's not so illustrious footsteps.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/police_drug_corruption
6. MARIJUANA: BARNEY FRANK INTRODUCES FEDERAL DECRIMINALIZATION
BILL
Thanks to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), there is a marijuana
decriminalization bill before Congress. It would decriminalize
up to 100 grams. But don't hold your breath waiting for it pass
anytime soon.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/barney_frank_introduces_federal_marijuana_decriminalization_bill
7. HARM REDUCTION: MORE THAN 300,000 HIV/AIDS CASES LINKED TO
INJECTION DRUG USE
Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, more than 300,000
people -- or 30% of all cases -- have contracted the virus
through injection drug use. The good news is that in 2006, they
only accounted for 17% of new cases; the bad news is that means
6,000 still caught the bug through dirty needles.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/300000_hiv_aids_cases_injection_drug_use
8. MARIJUANA: NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE P***** STIFFER DECRIM
PENALTIES, BILL HEADS TO GOVERNOR'S DESK
Getting caught with under an ounce of marijuana costs you $100
in decriminalized Nebraska, but fines would triple under a
measure just passed by the state legislature.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/nebraska_legislature_p*****_increases_marijuana_decrim_penalties
9. ADDICTION: SMALL PERCENTAGE OF DRUG USERS DEPENDENT ONE YEAR
AFTER FIRST USE
Contrary to some popular narratives about drug use and its
consequences, the vast majority of first-time drug users are not
strung out a year after they first tasted the forbidden fruit --
no matter which drug it was.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/most_first_time_drug_users_not_dependent
10. ASIA: BEIJING POLICE BEGIN PRE-OLYMPICS DRUG CRACKDOWN
With the Olympics coming to Beijing in August, Chinese
authorities are beginning a crackdown designed to make the city
"drug-free" for the s****ting event.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/chinese_police_pre_olympic_drug_crackdown
11. AUSTRALIA: SOUTH AUSTRALIA BANS BONGS
Possession of bongs will be illegal under new legislation passed
by the South Australia parliament. There may be unintended
consequences.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/533/south_australia_bans_bongs
12. LATIN AMERICA: BRAZILIANS DON'T SAY "LEGALIZE IT"
Sup****t for marijuana legalization remains low in Brazil,
although it is slowly rising, a recent poll has found.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/brazil_poll_criminalize_marijuana
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/drug_war_history
14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE SPEAKEASY
"Drug War 101: Don't Let the Cops into Your House," "Barney
Frank Introduces Marijuana Decriminalization Bill," "If Progress
in the Drug War is Measured in Dead Bodies, It's Going Well,"
"The Drug War Exacerbates Deadly Brazilian Mosquito Plague,"
"Job Op****tunity: Kill People For a Mexican Drug Cartel," "Job
Op****tunity: Grow Marijuana for the Canadian Government," "New
Study: Most Money Has Cocaine Residue On It," "Clinton Proposes
Fixing Stupid Crack Law, While Creating Stupid Meth Law,"
"Defenders of Paramilitary Policing Don't Know What They're
Talking About," "Please Burn the Byrne Grants," "British Prime
Minister Ignores Experts, Set to Increase Penalties for Pot
Smokers," Phil Smith is "Headed Down Mexico Way (Again)."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
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/532/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
16. 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/532/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
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/532/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/532/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/532/drug_reform_calendar
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org
to sign up
today!)
================
1. Editorial: Yet More Unintended and Impossible-to-Predict Harm
Caused by Drug Prohibition
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/532/many_unpredicted_consequences_of_the_drug_laws
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
Four years ago, I opined about an issue that had come up in
California
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/337/angles.shtml),
one
affecting the schools and with which the legislature was
grappling. According to NPR affiliate station KQED in Los
Angeles at the time, many school systems had stopped providing
locker space to students, because some administrators see
lockers as facilitating the problems of guns and drugs. Of
course, drug selling is a principle reason for carrying a gun to
school, although only because drugs are illegal.
Unfortunately for California schoolkids, as a result of the
locker closures, some young people had developed posture
problems, with resultant chronic pain, as a result of having to
carry all of their books around all day. KQED interviewed once
such student from North Hollywood. He typically carried about 30
pounds of books with him, which was 19% of his body weight,
nearly twice the maximum recommended by the American
Chiropractic Association. As a teenager he had become a regular
user of Tylenol in order to manage the pain.
The reason I chose that story for my editorial that week was the
unpredictable nature of it. There are a lot of things that are
easy to predict about drug prohibition laws, based on historical
experience. We know that prohibition causes crime, and builds up
organized crime entities, by putting a lucrative industry with
its hundreds of billions of dollars of annual revenues into a
criminal underground. We know that prohibition causes
preventable deaths, especially of the addicted, by ensuring that
users of the banned drugs obtain them from that underground,
which lacks the regulation and quality controls that legal
industries have. We know that prohibition has a corrupting
effect on youth, and others -- the guns and the drug trade in
the schools issue that legitimately concerned California
administrators is a frightening example -- by providing job
op****tunities for those who are attracted to the those
moneymaking op****tunities and the associated glamour.
But who would have guessed the drug war would lead to teen back
pain? Lest any should dismiss that issue as unim****tant by
comparison with the harms of drugs, and of guns in the schools,
remember that the guns and drugs didn't go away as a result of
the lock closures. Did anyone really think they would, for that
matter? Back pain is an issue that can deeply affect the life of
a sufferer, young or old, and which for many can go uncorrected
for a lifetime. Lockers are part of a school's infrastucture.
When drug policy leads us to start dismantling infrastructure,
that is a sign of a policy problem.
This week our blog re****ted on another unpredictable public
health problem from the drug laws, a more dramatic and gruesome
one. In Brazil, the drug war is exacerbating a deadly plague
carried by mosquitoes
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2008/apr/16/the_drug_war_exacerbates_deadly_).
The problem is that one in four people in the city of Rio de
Janeiro live in the poverty-stricken "favelas," or shantytowns,
where pools of water are common during the rainy season, which
attracts the mosquito population. But access for authorities to
the favelas is hampered by Rio's raging drug war, hampering
efforts to contain the disease
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/531/rio_de_janeiro_police_kill_14_in_drug_raids).
Of course, these drug wars are happening only because drugs are
illegal, prompting the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro
to call for legalization last year
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/476/brazilian_governor_says_legalize_drugs_to_reduce_crime).
After 14 years in drug policy, it's not so very often that I
learn a new angle. Yet I have no doubt that there are many
unintended consequences of prohibition which have yet to be
brought to light, and many impossible-to-predict harms from
prohibition that we have yet to see.
================
later
bliss
--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco
Ningen banji Human beings do
Samazama no Every single kind
Baka a suru Of stupid thing
--- 117th edition of Haifu Yanagidaru published in 1832
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