– Jacob Sullum at Reason does some thorough fact checking on Fox News buffoons Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly. But while parts of the Fox empire are still living in a fantasy world when it comes to the drug war, not all of it is.
– The L.A. Times printed a lengthy profile of Marc Emery earlier in the week, but some important details about the political nature of Emery’s prosecution were left out of the finished piece.
– Another child will be born into this world without a father because of the drug war. And Pete Guither links to a follow-up from the case in Georgia where another father-to-be was gunned down by drug cops last year. Now one of those drug cops has been arrested for making false statements.
– Washington’s Good Samaritan Law (only the second in the nation after New Mexico’s) took effect on June 10.
– David Borden discusses why the DEA’s recent “Project Deliverance” was a waste of your taxpayer dollars.
– The drug Sativex, which is made directly from marijuana plants by British pharmaceutical firm GW, has won regulatory approval in Britain for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Meanwhile in the United States, the federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug with no medical use.
It is disastrous to see that after almost 60 years little headway has been made with illicit substances. We are not winning and will not win the war on drugs. Newspapers should take the pragmatic approach, highlight this issue and end the killing. It is no wonder that mainstream media is losing on the integrity front as cited by The Committee for Media and Newspaper Integrity.
http://newspaperintegrity.com/index.php
Of course, because marijuana is the “devils weed” and magically bad, while vodka, wine, beer and whiskey are blessed by Jesus. How is this not obvious? Duh!
(sarcasm)
As always, the motive is pure profit, and therefore fascistic in nature. It has as its primary motivation, racism and social control through force of law. Henry Anslinger, knowing that his job as a main government enforcer of alcohol prohibition was coming to an end, lobbied congress and testified under oath that use of marijuana is a direct cause of rapes, robberies and murders committed against whites by negroes and mexicans.
The private prison industry spends tens of millions of dollars every year, lobbying the US Congress and State legislatures to increase incarcerative penalties for possession and cultivation of marijuana. As does Government agencies themselves who are protecting their prohibitionist industry.
It isn’t difficult when a majority of the Nation agrees with the premise of prohibition vis-a-vis marijuana, with that testimony by Anslinger and many others over the decades still being used and repeatedly affirmed as a primary statement of propaganda concerning marijuana use, and the purposes of maintaining its prohibited status.
The second purpose is, as long as that black market exists, government entities such as the CIA as well as multinational corporations have a totally unregulated and hidden source of revenue for illegal political and paramilitary activities, both domestic and abroad. The easiest way to generate a huge amount of undelcarable and unregulated cash flow is with illegal, black market activities. Every businessman knows this already. Pot, cocaine, heroin etc IS cash flow.
@3
I agree wholeheartedly.
There are strains in American politics that on one level seem irrational and tribal – almost religious – but on deeper examination seem to serve a well crafted purpose.
Those strains – hard/soft on crime, anti-drug crusading, the sacrosanct defense budget – seem to share at their core a fear of ‘other’ and embody a violent response to ‘other’. They seem almost emotional responses, and are certainly used to manipulate emotions of the public/voters.
Yet there are clearly those exploiting these emotions – either advancing politically or economically. Did the exploitation derive from the fear that already existed or was it manufactured? If the former, then needing to maintain the fear becomes a part of maintaining the business. I think the latter may be a bit to conspiratorial, but hey…
Please mail in any signed I-1068 petitions in your possession today Monday June 21.
http://sensiblewashington.org/.....in-monday/
do the crime…do the time.
One (As much as I hate Alex Jones, he nailed this one.)
Two
Three
The best way to expand and maintain a totalitarian police state, is to provide an enemy, and a source of fear. Propaganda is always a primary tool of Statecraft no matter what Americans think they know about a particular event or subject.
Examples:
1910: “Marihuana is the most frightening and vicious drug ever to hit New Orleans.” -New Orleans Public Safety Commission
1920s: “Makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” -H.J. Anslinger, Bureau of Narcotics
1930: “Marihuana is responsible for the raping of white women by crazed negroes.” -Hearst Newspapers Nationwide
1932: “Hasheesh goads users to blood lust.” -Hearst Newspapers
1935: “Marihuana influenced negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows, and look at a white woman twice.” -Hearst Newspapers
1937: “Marihuana is the most violent drug in the history of mankind.” -Congressional Testimony, H.J. Anslinger, FBN
1938: “Marihuana is more dangerous than heroin or cocaine.” -Anslinger, Scientific American, May, 1938
1938: “If the hideous monster of Frankenstein came face to face with marihuana, he would drop dead of fright.” -Anslinger, FBN, quoted in Hearst newspaper
1937-50: “Negro entertainers with their jazz and swing music are declared an outgrowth of marihuana use which possesses white women to tap their feet.” -statements to Congress by Anslinger, FBN
1945: “More harmful than habit-forming opium, inducing fits of temporary insanity.” -Newsweek, 1-15-45
1946: “Marihuana is an important cause of crime.” -Bureau of Narcotics, Newsweek, 11-18-46
1948: “Marihuana leads to pacifism and Communist brainwashing.” -Anslinger, before Congress
1973: “Marijuana increases breast size in males.”
1974: “Permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana.” -Ronald Reagan, LA Times
1974: “interferes with reproduction, disease resistance, and basic biological processes.” -Daily Oklahoman, 11-19-74
1980: “Marijuana leads to harder drugs.” -Reagan Administration
1985: “Marijuana use makes you sterile.” -Reagan Administration
1980s: “Marijuana leads to heroin; marijuana causes brain damage.” -the 17-week D.A.R.E. Program
1986: “Marijuana leads to homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and therefore to AIDS.” -Carlton Turner
1990: “Marijuana makes you lazy.” -Partnership for a Drug-Free America
1992: “Marijuana is ten times more dangerous than 20 years ago.” -Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton
Humans are subjects of the information they have available, they desire it, they cannot make decisions without it, and there are entire industries devoted to creating and distributing it.
Find the most vehemently vocal opposition to anything, track back their sources of that information and who is paying for that information, and you will find the people who stand to make money or gain political power over that thing.
Scratch a lie, find a thief. Always.
@7 Those “news” quotes are funny and terrifying at the same time. SO batshit crazy and obviously just made up, but SO SO many stupid people (still) believe that stuff. The racist stuff turns my stomach, but the other parts about how it makes people so violent are FUNNY considering, like many ideas, reality is the exact perfect opposite of that “belief”. It’s alcohol that makes you violent, marijuana will be more likely to make you mellow and relaxed. Ask the cops. Ride alone on 50 domestic violence incidents. How many were fueled by alcohol alone. How many were fueled by marijuana alone. Not saying marijuana has NO faults at all, but since we allow alcohol and tobacco there obviously isn’t any scientific rational non-magical reason for this nonsense…so it’s money. You use magic and superstition to scare the stupid masses into supporting your position. It’s an age old politic trick done since before the Roman Empire existed. And it still works (obviously).
@ 6. Uh oh, Chongo!
do the crime…do the time.
In the majority of cases, you don’t even have to do the crime to be arrested, have your property confiscated by the Government, or merely shot dead. There are hundreds of documented cases where “drug raids” were the excuse to confiscate a piece of property desired by a politician or politically connected individuals for their own purposes.
If someone like a child or an old woman gets shot in the process, oh well. Thats how conservatist political methodology functions. You can’t make an omelet without imprisoning and murdering a few million chickens every year. Police have every right to shoot you dead for any reason they see fit if they so desire.
Or your dogs.
Or your kids.
@9
ok, fuck it then…lets make everything legal.
oh, and this comment:Police have every right to shoot you dead for any reason they see fit if they so desire. qualifies you as a nut.
Heaven forbid you ever need help from those evil policemen…
Thanks.
Logic and reason always take a backseat to profit and gain. Hearst knew that making cannabis illegal (including hemp) would keep his stranglehold on the paper and newsprint industries.
Today, keeping cannabis on the Schedule One list allows the cotton, wood fiber and pharmaceutical industries maintain their stranglehold on products that can benefit humanity. Smoking homegrown weed for relief from MS keeps you from spending your last dime on a worthless pill from Big Pharma.
The threat to America is not Al Qaida, it’s not the Taliban; they are merely game pieces. Our enemies aren’t living in a cave outside of Tora Bora; they live on Wall Street.
Corporations nurture the criminal element. Corporate laws are nothing but puppet theater. Corporate money comes from corporate crime.
Corporations nurture religious extremism. Nothing pays more than a devout religious fanatic. Say it’s all God’s Will and the coin will rain down like manna from Heaven.
Corporations destroy natural resources. You gotta tear down to build up and clean costs money. Exploration, exploitation, extermination then exit. There’s gold in them thar hills.
The real threat to America is Wall Street. Only when the Corporations are taken down will Americans truly be free.
@ 10. Uh oh, Chongo!
ok, fuck it then…lets make everything legal.
Ah, a strawman. Not surprised at all. Its the oldest anti-debating method known to man. It is also universally recognized as a false method that serves no real purpose other than to inflame or distract.
We aren’t talking about everything here asshole. We’re talking about marijuana. Saying otherwise makes you look like a complete fool who is unwilling to actually concentrate on the specificities of the question at hand.
Heaven forbid you ever need help from those evil policemen…
Spoken like a true party member. Get in line citizen. You will be subjected to the will of the State, with, or without your consent.
Russia, China, North Korea and Cuba are brimming over with people of this mindset.
I have seen Police misconduct and illegal behavior in action, up close and personal. Youtube and other video sites are full of examples of this. If you like, I will provide said examples.
Otherwise, piss off.
@10
oh, and this comment:Police have every right to shoot you dead for any reason they see fit if they so desire. qualifies you as a nut.
Um, no, it qualifies him as someone who’s familiar with the Jonathan Ayers and Trevon Cole cases that I linked to above. In the Jonathan Ayers case, where Georgia police shot and killed an innocent man while not even in uniform (!), those officers will face absolutely no disciplinary action. Their actions were deemed completely acceptable – yet they shot a pastor whose wife was pregnant with their first child – simply because he’d given a ride to a woman who was suspected of being a cocaine user.
Most police officers are very honorable people, but the rules have been set up in such a way that the bad ones are never held responsible for their recklessness.
@12
so you hate the police…well shit man, instead of all the diatribe, just come out and say it!
and its not the police that people north korea or china or cuba fear, its the socialist government.
and ya, I have seen police abuse up close and personal – so what. as the saying goes, there are some bad apples in every bunch.
the next time you are getting your ass kicked or your wife is raped, instead of calling up the police, maybe you can call up I-1068’s office and see if they can help.
@13
you said: Most police officers are very honorable people, but the rules have been set up in such a way that the bad ones are never held responsible for their recklessness.
You know what Lee, I think there is some truth in that statement. However, I also think that its set up that way because some groups target the police for everything they do, right or wrong. If you want an example of that, just check out the reaction by some groups(the usual suspects) at the jaywalking deal in Rainer Valley
@ 14
so you hate the police…well shit man, instead of all the diatribe, just come out and say it!
I never said I hate the Police. Not even once. that is your own presumption based on what I did say, and your own fallacy.
and its not the police that people north korea or china or cuba fear, its the socialist government.
And what is law enforcement other than the primary agent of the States will?
One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.
But the police (through the Police Guild) refuse to acknowledge the bad apple for fear of spoiling the brand. They would rather keep the brand, and the power that comes with it, intact than accept that they have a problem and deal with it.
Having cops go rogue or shoot a few spectators here and there falls under ‘acceptable losses’ or collateral damage. If a SWAT team busts into your home and shoots you because they transposed your address – well, sucks to be you.
The police refuse to accept they have a problem. They see it as a sign of weakness. They know that local governments will back them up and the insurance will pay out a few gold coins when they screw up. As long as they can wear cool looking armor and play with state-of-the-art guns, a few dead civilians is a small price to pay.
@15
You know what Lee, I think there is some truth in that statement. However, I also think that its set up that way because some groups target the police for everything they do, right or wrong.
That’s true, but that’s sure as hell not what we’re doing here. And if you can’t figure out the difference, then there’s little reason for any of us to take what you say seriously.
Deathfrogg is exactly right that police officers are given incredibly wide discretion on their ability to shoot people in the line of duty – to the point where some know they won’t be held accountable for being reckless. This is a problem. It’s not a hatred for police, it’s the recognition of an imbalance in our institutions.
While we are looking at who profits from the status quo, let’s not forget the news media.
Let’s set aside, for the moment, the “breathless” local TV announcers standing in front of a home trying to make yet another police raid into the crime of the century.
Instead, let’s note the considerable amount of print & TV advertising done by the liquor industries – both before major holidays and at any sporting event. The pot market doesn’t hold out much hope for equivilent advertising dollars (at least not initially), and the liquor markets see it as considerable potential competition.
Is it any wonder that the news media doesn’t seriously investigate and report on the flawed “status quo” which helps prop up one of their major advertisors?
@19
The pot market doesn’t hold out much hope for equivilent advertising dollars (at least not initially), and the liquor markets see it as considerable potential competition.
I might be in the minority among drug law reformers, but I don’t think that the legalization of marijuana will change the alcohol vs. marijuana buying patterns as much as many people might think. I think you’re right that the liquor industry is worried about it, and the recent book from Steve Fox, Mason Tvert, and Paul Armentaro argues the same thing, but I think that people tend to use alcohol and marijuana in very different situations and that people’s overall use patterns won’t change much at all.
It’s not like the Dutch drink less alcohol than everyone else. :)
Ain’t that the truth!
OTOH, they do have much better beer than our stuff.