“Time for a Change,” Says 9-Year Veteran
By Eric Sterling, AlterNet
The “War on Drugs” was launched by President Richard Nixon 40 years ago this week. In 1980, at the end of its first decade, I began a nine-year career as a “captain” in the war on drugs. I was the attorney in the U.S. House of Representatives principally responsible for overseeing DEA and writing anti-drug laws as counsel to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime.
Obama’s Drug Czar Says He Ended “War on Drugs” Two Years Ago
Cops Hand-Deliver Report to Drug Czar’s Office While Czar Refuses to Meet
WASHINGTON, DC — In conjunction with this week’s 40th anniversary of President Nixon declaring “war on drugs,” a group of police, judges and jailers who support legalization released a report today showing how the Obama administration is ramping up a war it disingenuously claims that it ended two years ago.
Following the report’s release at a press conference this morning, the pro-legalization law enforcers attempted to hand-deliver a copy to Obama administration drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, who is a former Seattle chief of police. Instead of making time to listen to the concerns of fellow law enforcers who have dedicated their careers to protecting public safety, he simply sent a staffer to the lobby to receive a copy of the cops’ report.
Forty years after Nixon declared war on drugs, it’s time to give peace a chance.
By Jacob Sullum | June 15, 2011
Forty years ago this Friday, President Richard Nixon announced that “public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse.” Declaring that “the problem has assumed the dimensions of a national emergency,” he asked Congress for money to “wage a new, all-out offensive,” a crusade he would later call a “global war on the drug menace.”
The war on drugs ended in May 2009, when President Obama’s newly appointed drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, said he planned to stop calling it that. Or so Kerlikowske claims. “We certainly ended the drug war now almost two years ago,” he told Seattle’s PBS station last March, “in the first interview that I did.” If you watch the exchange on YouTube, you can see he said this with a straight face.
In reality, of course, Richard Nixon did not start the war on drugs, and Barack Obama, who in 2004 called it “an utter failure,” did not end it. The war on drugs will continue as long as the government insists on getting between people and the intoxicants they want.
By J.T. Junig, MD, PhD
I’m curious what readers think about needle exchange programs, dosing rooms, and other means of harm reduction. Should we provide clean syringes and needles for drug addicts at taxpayer expense? Should the needles incorporate filters to protect people who dissolve and inject Suboxone—at the same time when many patients wait in line to get into a buprenorphine program in order to use the medication properly?
I would also appreciate comments from anyone who is making use of needle exchange or similar programs—and from any readers who are diverting Suboxone. Set up a free, anonymous e-mail account and let me know why you are doing what you are doing—instead of using the medication properly and leaving the using days behind. If you are nervous about leaving an I.P. address on the Psych Central site, send me an e-mail—to [email protected] .
“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” a high-powered commission whose members include former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warns today.
The state made it easy with a website with helpful links to assist its deputized citizenry in identifying marijuana and signs of grow operations, reports Greg Campbell at dscriber.
“Did you know marijuana is being illegally grown in Utah?” the site, with a keen grasp of the obvious, ominously warns. “Have you ever been hiking or camping and seen what looks like an illegal marijuana growing operation? We have created this website to make it easier for people to report this illegal activity, so we can crack down and keep these illegal drugs out of our state and off our streets.”
Yeah, it seemed like a great idea. That is, until NORML posted a story about Utah’s misguided efforts. Within 24 hours, pot-friendly visitors flooded the site with fake tips.
On May 12, 2011 an historic case will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. As many of you know, Canada permitted the operation of a “safer injection site” for those using unlawful injection drugs under
supervision. This facility, which is known as “Insite” was originally a scientific experiment permitted pursuant to section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The Harper Conservative government declined to allow Insite to continue to operate after the initial exemption ran out despite overwhelming evidence that it
reduces overdose, saves lives, reduces unsafe injection practices and a host of other good results. Accordingly various people and organizations went to court.
The battle was won at trial, won again on appeal and now heads to Canada’s highest Court. There are a number of arguments being advanced including that it is drug prohibition itself that causes the most harm to those dealing with the disease of addiction and that, therefore, the prohibition laws violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and are invalid.
You can watch the arguments live, commencing at 9:30am EST, streamed over the web:
http://scc-csc.insinc.com/web/scc_live_stream.php?lan=EN&resolution=HI
Please see the Supreme Court of Canada website for more information about the case:
http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/case-dossier/cms-sgd/sum-som-eng.aspx?cas=33556.
Kirk Tousaw
Executive Director
Beyond Prohibition Foundation
www.whyprohibition.ca