Legalize Drugs

[DdC]

Legalize Drugs By Terry Michael
CN Source: Washington Times July 23, 2006 Washington, DC  

An open letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch: stop reefer madness here, as well as in Dubai. Mr. Hatch, you have demonstrated willingness to act beyond ideology, when a practical approach makes more sense than "conservative" or "liberal" purity.

You did so recently, for an American victim of draconian drug penalties of the United Arab Emirates. This is an appeal for your leadership to stop the equally devastating American "War on Drugs."

Many officials admit behind closed doors that our drug policy needs radical revision. Few will say so publicly. This "third rail" of politics is exacerbated by the collusion of mainstream media, suspending usual rules of journalistic practice, publishing government propaganda without quoting critics of drug-war policy.

Our policies result in tremendous harm creation, about which much has been written, but I'll summarize here:

Denial of liberty. Our drug war constitutes an assault on individual liberty, privacy and choice, from both the left and right. Liberals fight for a woman's right to abortion and conservatives go to the ramparts to defend gun owners, but both agree to throw into prison an adult who smokes dried, leafy vegetation. With impunity, we can drink ourselves stupid and destroy our lungs with tobacco. But using a recreational substance as old as wine will get us jailed.

Waste of treasury. When our resources should be directed at lawful attempts to keep dangerous politicized religious fanatics from entering our country, we spend tens of billions futilely trying to interdict chemicals, most of which, in moderation, are demonstrably no more harmful to the body than alcohol and tobacco.

Government-created violent black market. Alcohol did not create Al Capone. Prohibition created Al Capone, with the mayhem, official corruption and murder that accompanied the 18th Amendment. And cocaine does not create drug cartels. America's War on Drugs creates drug cartels.

Government violence against its own people. With guns blazing, law enforcement agencies not only deny life, liberty and property to those who work in the government stimulated black market; they rack up untold "collateral damage," maiming and killing innocent bystanders, in countless stings gone bad.

Promoting disrespect for the rule of law. With millions of Americans scoffing at the China-like oppressiveness of the War on Drugs, our policies undermine respect for the rule of law and our democratic policy-making institutions. As the drug warriors clog our courts and fill our jails, we disrupt the lives of the poor and the powerless, who can't afford crafty lawyers and have no political connections.

Health harm creation. Perhaps most important, our policy is creating untold health harm to millions, particularly the young. We educate them about the responsible use of two potentially very dangerous, but legal, substances, but we try our best to keep them ignorant of the real effects, and side effects, of other psychoactives. While hundreds of thousands die each year from the short- and long-term health damage of alcohol and tobacco, no one succumbs to marijuana, and remarkably few die from other illegal drugs.

None of that argues for use of psychoactives of any kind, legal or currently illegal, particularly by young people with unformed intellectual and emotional lives. But it makes a powerful case for bringing other substances out of the shadows with decriminalization and legalization, and for spending some of those wasted billions on education, harm reduction, and, when needed, addiction treatment. The obsession of drug warriors with cutting off supplies of softer drugs has pushed thousands to try the bathtub gin of Neo-Prohibitionism, crystal methamphetamine.

So, Mr. Hatch, I am hopeful your efforts to save an American being abused in Dubai will cause you to re examine the drug-war abuse millions of Americans face here everyday.

I understand how difficult it will be to return to drug policy sanity. I had jury duty this summer and was sent out on a panel for a case of marijuana possession with intent to distribute. I wasn't chosen for the jury, but it made me realize how much the Drug War Industrial Complex has to lose if we change our laws.

Probably a third of the jobs in that courthouse would disappear. Thousands of lawyers, prosecutors, DEA agents, and prison guards would have to find productive employment. Local law enforcement offices would lose much of their federal funding for high-tech toys.

But America would be a less violent and healthier nation. Billions fewer tax dollars would be disbursed as welfare to the legal industries formed around the drug war. And official corruption, stimulated by the lucrative black market we have created with our policies, would diminish, not just in Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan, but right here in America.

Senator, it will take courage to lead in the battle to stop this war on America and its founding principles. But you have shown the wisdom to change your mind before.

Several decades ago, my Baby Boom generation laughed at "Reefer Madness." Then we made it public policy. It's time to stop the madness.

Terry Michael runs a program to teach college journalism students about politics, and writes at his "libertarian Democrat" blog.

Contact: letters@washingtontimes.com Website
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by Terry Michael
Re-claiming our Jeffersonian liberal heritage,
with a back to the future re-branding of the Democratic Party



Thursday :: December 15, 2005
Feingold: Sneak and Peek is About Drug Cases

Sen Russ Feingold, leading the charge for a filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal legislation, confirms what we suspected all along: The Sneak and Peek provisions of the Patriot Act are about drugs, not terrorism. A Sneak and Peek, if you are new to the jargon, is where a law enforcement agent enters a dwelling surreptitiously with a warrant, snoops around, and leaves without ever notifying the resident that a search has occurred. There has been a 75% increase in sneak and peeks since 2000.

When Orin Hatch introduced the Victory Act (to add to the Patriot Act) in 2003, it was sub-titled: To combat narco-terrorism, to dismantle narco-terrorist criminal enterprises, to disrupt narco-terrorist financing and money laundering schemes, to enact national drug sentencing reform, to prevent drug trafficking to children, to deter drug-related violence, to provide law enforcement with the tools needed to win the war against narco-terrorists and major drug traffickers, and for other purposes. Narco-terrorism. A big new word since 911.
Pete Guither @ drugwarrant.com

"DEATH TO THE DRUGGIES" February10, 1998
A Look at Prohibitionist Rhetoric and Its Consequences by Julian Heicklen

Senator Orin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 28 Senate co-sponsors have introduced Bill S. 3 that mandates that a person convicted of bringing into the United States "100 usual dosage amounts" of several illicit substances including two ounces of marijuana be sentenced to life without parole for a first offense and death for a second offense.



Articles On The Hatch - Feinstein Bill:

Drug War Bill Threatening Freedom of Speech
August 09, 1999

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Government's anti-drug propaganda is being ignored by a large percentage of the population.

The agency's data indicates that almost 70 million Americans have tried marijuana at some point in their lives and 18 million have smoked within the past year.
Given this data, one must ask "what are some in the government trying to hide?" The Hatch-Feinstein bill is trying to put an end to the already one-sided debate as to whether some or all drugs should be illegal.

Since it is evident that Americans are not listening to what their government says about at least some illegal drugs, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act has been drafted to just shut dissenters up.

As with all laws that attempt to regulate the Internet, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act will be impossible to enforce universally. Still, the law could be used to send certain high-profile dissenters to jail and strike fear into anyone who wants to distribute information some kinds of drug-related information.

The love of liberty is the love of others;
the love of power is the love of ourselves.
-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)



Bill Would Outlaw Internet Drug Information
By David Noack Dec. 20, 1999 david.noack@apbnews.com

The days of ordering bongs and pipes and other drug paraphernalia online, getting information on the medical uses of marijuana or instructions on growing hemp may go up in smoke if lawmakers have their way.

Free-speech advocates say the proposed law banning marijuana
information violates the First Amendment.

In addition, the legislation also says Internet service providers (ISPs) will be held liable for not removing a site featuring marijuana information if notified by top federal law enforcement officials and that "appropriate" federal government Web sites will have to display anti-drug messages.

"This provision would make it a federal crime, for example, to provide to medical marijuana patients information on how to cultivate marijuana, even in those states where it is legal for patients to grow marijuana under state law," says a NORML statement.

The group claims that if the bill is approved, Web sites ranging from major Internet booksellers such as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com to NORML's own Web site could be in violation.

Hatch calls bill weapon in drug war...



Now if we could only get Prohibitionists like Hatch to see carcinogenic asbestos as a dangerous drug... Instead of rewarding the Bush/Cheney Cancer Traffickers with no bid contracts and windfall profits, catering the Iraq war.

Oppose Senate Bill 1125
Rancho Mirage, CA July 5, 2003
Dear Senator Hatch, I write to express my strong opposition to S. 1125, the so-called "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act."



Hazards.org
New reports reveal how the global asbestos industry has manoeuvred to rob asbestos disease victims of compensation, has lied about the financial impact of claims on its profits and has used a dirty tricks campaign to continue to push its deadly product.

Trenches - Journal - Bush and Asbestos
As an oncologist, I see the deadly and tragic consequences of exposure to the carcinogen asbestos in my patients who suffer from lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Asbestos Claims Make Halliburton Hazardous By Christopher Edmonds
Special to TheStreet.com 12/10/2001
A recent trio of asbestos-related verdicts may be enough to push Halliburton (HAL:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) into a financial black hole. And, while few other oil service companies have Halliburton's potential level of exposure, the fear of costly litigation could be enough to push investors away from the sector.

Under Cheney, Halliburton Altered Policy on Accounting



Death sentence for marijuana offense
Richard Armstrong has been given a death sentence, though death is not the punishment handed down by the sentencing judge. Barring a miracle, he will die in prison for a marijuana conviction that occurred during the presidential administration of LBJ during the Vietnam War when he was a young man in his twenties and the Beatles were making their debut.



The very vicious prohibitionists are the very same corporatists, having no regard for Americans Health or Civil Liberties. Time after time we find them in closed door politics, targeting individuals and groups to either make stinking rich or rot in cages, altering data and weaseling out of responsibility when they're caught. Tax money spent fighting demons and people they contaminated for personal gain. Asbestos, Agent Orange, DDT, Napalm to Fossil Fools, Nukes and Pesticide poisons. Dioxins and food toxins in meat. Depleted Uranium and Teflon and Fluorides and several artificial sweeteners for the new cancer diet. White Powders and their side effect pills. Frankenfoods and Roundup Trees, Rush popping downers like m&m's is ok because of his pain. Air Force meth Go Go juice given for when they're dropping cluster bombs on children. Dodging these idiots in traffic jams with their micro waved brains getting fried on cell phones. Wake up and smell the caffeine, toking on the legally addictive nicotine joint. Just no Ganja or Hemp competition.

[Torkel]

A very informative post, brother DdC.

Thank you, brother.

Peace,
Torkel
_________________
Miller vs U.S. (230 F 2nd 486,489): "The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime."

Miranda vs Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 125): "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule-making or legislation which would abrogate them."

HAGANS vs LAVINE (415 US 533 N-3,note 5): "Once JURISDICTION is challenged it must be proven by the Plaintiff."

[Torkel]

A very informative post, brother DdC.

Thank you, brother.

Peace,
Torkel
_________________
Miller vs U.S. (230 F 2nd 486,489): "The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime."

Miranda vs Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 125): "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule-making or legislation which would abrogate them."

HAGANS vs LAVINE (415 US 533 N-3,note 5): "Once JURISDICTION is challenged it must be proven by the Plaintiff."