HOW TO FIGHT DRUG CARTELS

Two days ago, during a political discussion about border problems
toward the end of a Sierra Club outing to look for Taylor’s
checkerspot butterflies at the Beazell Memorial Forest in Oregon, I
mentioned that the Mexican drug cartels have won. There is
insufficient political and financial will to launch an effective
fight against those gangs.

I first heard this opinion from Charles Bowden in his book titled
“Dreamland: The Way Out of Juarez.” Bowden wrote that the society in
that city has gone through a metamorphosis and is now governed by drug cartels.

Today’s Arizona Daily Star online has an article titled: “Mexican
drug gangs assuming government roles.” If you want to read it, click
this link:
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_6f4c5a30-e69b-5626-8471-9b20caa59c25.html

The solution: legalize drugs and tax them, just like cigarettes and alcohol.

When the prohibition of alcohol was repealed, organized crime lost a
major source of income and the number of violent crimes plummeted. It
is obvious that present U.S. drug prohibition is not working.
Continuing ineffective action is costly and does not solve the
problem. It actually creates problems of overcrowded jails and
courts. The drug cartels’ domination spills over into the U.S.’s
southwestern communities and includes law enforcement corruption.

Living in the Southwest became much more risky during the past
decade. Oregon is way less dangerous than Arizona, only due to the
distance from Mexico.

Ricardo Small, Albany

Pubdate: Tue, 10 May 2011

Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR)

WAR ON DRUGS NO ANSWER

Thank you for the editorial, Insite’s proven benefits ignored in
political fray (SP, April 25). The safe injection site operates in
Vancouver with the support of local and provincial governments, but is
under continual assault by the federal Conservatives.

Insite has kept operating only through repeated victories in the
courts – victories based on clear evidence that it saves lives and
reduces drug use.

While some people foolishly believe that harsh measures are the only
way to deal with the drugs we have made illegal, that approach has
been tried in many places and had led only to more drug use, crime,
death.

Over the decades-long drug war, drug use rates have risen while drug
costs have fallen and drug purity has risen.

We are in the midst of an inquisition run by fanatics who believe that
drugs can be eliminated and drug users saved if only we can make their
world painful enough. There is simply no evidence to support this
belief. How many more people must die, spend their lives in prison, or
be corrupted and destroyed in the drug underworld before we bring this
insanity to an end?

Legalization and regulation is the answer.

Ken Sailor

Saskatoon

Pubdate: Thu, 5 May 2011

Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11.n285.a11.html

MARIJUANA NON-THREAT

Marijuana is medicinal, but it’s not for everyone. Pills aren’t for
everyone either.

Suffering with chronic pain in my pectoral muscle is not cancer, but
it’s not enjoyable for me to be hurting, either. If I take too many
pills to alleviate the pain, there’s a great chance of getting ill
(or even dying), but if I smoke too much marijuana, I will merely
relax and get a good night’s sleep.

Michigan residents who choose to use marijuana (legally for medicine)
are threats to no one.

Donna M. Paridee

Warren

Pubdate: Tue, 26 Apr 2011

Source: Detroit Free Press

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n259/a07.html

INSITE: SAVING LIVES IN VANCOUVER

Re: Injection Site Cuts Fatal Overdoses By 35, April 18.

I am a doctor at Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, and I would
like to address some misinformation about it. No one who works in
harm reduction thinks that it is a replacement for rehab or other
medical treatment. Harm reduction and treatment facilities work in
harmony to increase outreach to this vulnerable population and to
facilitate care. There is a role for both models of health-care delivery.

The injection site is a place for people to have a welcoming
interaction with the health-care system. Nurses patch wounds and give
vaccinations and the social workers help people find housing. For
some of our patients, this is their only place to access running
water, and only time that they are safe from sexual assault.

I work on the second floor, which is an in-patient medical detox.
Patients who use the site and are interested in recovery are admitted
for a 10-to 14 day stay in our unit under supervision of doctors and
nurses. After they finish their detox, patients can live in our
transition housing while they wait to move to a treatment centre.

I work in this field because I believe that addiction is an illness
that is both treatable and curable. If rehab is the cure for
addiction, why not ensure that people don’t die while they are
waiting for a treatment bed? If the federal government closes our
clinic, that will support the spread of HIV, increase hospital
admissions for endocarditis and condemn people to death.

Dr. Christy Sutherland, Vancouver

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Apr 2011

Source: National Post (Canada)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n000/a015.html

DRUG FIRMS AGAINST PATIENTS GROWING MEDICINE

Did you know the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved pill form
of marijuana (Marinol) only contains one of the compounds or
cannabinoids that are found in the marijuana plant? That compound is
tetrahyrdocannabinol or THC.

Recent research in marijuana has shown it has many therapeutic
compounds or cannabinoids in it, such as CBD, a nonpsychoactive
cannabinoid that has been clinically demonstrated to have analgesic,
anti-spasmodic, anxiolytic, anti-psychotic, anti-nausea and
anti-rheumatoid arthritic properties. Along with CBD, there are
other naturally occurring terpenoids (oils) and flavonoids (phenols)
that also have been clinically demonstrated to possess therapeutic utility.

If you are wondering why this information has not been in the
mainstream, you need look no further than Sunday’s Birmingham News
(“Doctors rethink ties to drug industry”). The drug industry is rich
and powerful. It pays doctors to promote its products and to not
promote products. The drug industry doesn’t want you to be able to
grow your own medicine. Where’s the profit in that?

Obviously, there is merit to marijuana helping to relieve symptoms
for various illnesses or 15 states would not have legalized it for
medicinal purposes, nor would the Veterans Administration have
relaxed its policies concerning marijuana.

This legislative session, Alabamians could have the chance to try
this medicine with a recommendation from their doctor. Let your
legislators know to vote yes for House Bill 386, the Michael Phillips
Compassionate Care Act.

Dawn Palmer

Tarrant

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND BE DONE WITH IT

So the new legislation “that would allow those caught with small
amounts of marijuana to avoid punishment altogether if they can
convince a judge that they used the drug out of medical necessity” is
supposed to be a “middle ground on marijuana?” Get real. This is yet
another excuse to put off what should have been done long ago:
legalization, not just for medicinal use, but for all citizens.

The fact of the matter is that marijuana is safer than alcohol or
tobacco, yet its use can cause one to lose their job, be expelled from
schools and universities, and even land in jail. We spend an enormous
amount of money to enforce marijuana laws, as evidenced by the 759,593
arrests for possession alone in 2009. That translates to huge sums of
money spent on unnecessary law enforcement and a prison population
filled with people who are hardly criminals (and are forced to survive
in a system that only creates more criminals). Regulation would also
bring in a new source of tax revenue, as well as taking a huge cash
crop away from drug cartels that terrorize Mexico and other parts of
the world.

So please, don’t insult our intelligence by telling us that the
proposed legislation is a “middle ground.” We shouldn’t even have to
establish a middle ground. The support for legalization is based in
fact, while its opponents have long used fear and lies at a great cost
to our society.

Joel Beller, Owings Mills

Pubdate: Wed, 30 Mar 2011

Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)

DESPITE MARIJUANA, BRECKENRIDGE IS PLENTY SAFE

Re. “Potheads ruining Breckenridge” by Lorie Willis, letters, March 21
I would like to thank Lorie Willis of San Antonio, Texas for her
pleasant description of Breckenridge. It is beautiful, and we do love
it here. I am concerned about a few points in her letter and would
like to share my opinion and some statistics with everyone.

Firstly it was said that Breckenridge is now unsafe due to marijuana
legalization. I went to www.neighborhoodscout.com to check the
statistics. Breckenridge scored a 74 out of 100 for safety with only
.64 violent crimes per year per 1,000 residents; where as a place like
San Antonio, Texas scored a 4 out of 100 for safety with 6.87 violent
crimes per 1,000 residents annually. Clearly Breckenridge is safer
than not only San Antonio but 74 percent of all cities nationwide!

Breckenridge residents voted over 70 percent in favor of legalizing
marijuana, up from over 60 percent in 2006 when asked at the state
level. Breckenridge residents have been consuming cannabis in high
numbers since the late 70s, and its their charm and stewardship of
this great land that attracted people like myself and Lorie to visit
and live. I would argue we shouldn’t let a misconception about our
cannabis use lead any of us away from the town of Breckenridge.

Support for legalization grows daily not only in Breck and Summit
County but in the nation and the world. As cannabis consumption rises
and alcohol abuse drops Breckenridge will only become safer and more
family friendly. As always stay classy, Breckenridge

Brian Rogers

Pubdate: Wed, 23 Mar 2011

Source: Summit Daily News (CO)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n000/a014.html

STOP PUTTING GARDENERS BEHIND BARS

It looks like the taxpayers of Illinois are going to be paying for
the room and board of another felony gardener. ( “Area drug agents
seize cannabis plants, suspect still at large” 3-10-11 ).

Have your local police solved all of your rapes, robberies and
murders? If not, why are they going after gardeners?

If you would regulate, control and tax cannabis, the state of
Illinois could make money off it instead of giving free housing to
non-violent gardeners.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

Pubdate: Mon, 14 Mar 2011

Source: Journal Standard, The (Freeport, IL)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n000/a013.html

CRIMINAL PROHIBITION MAKES CANNABIS WORTH FIGHTING FOR

In attempting to blame cannabis consumers for black market violence
(“Violence follows industry, cops warn,” March 9), RCMP Cpl. Peter
DeVries came tantalizingly close to understanding the problem.

DeVries remarked “because of its monetary value as a commodity,
marijuana is inextricably tied to serious acts of violence.”

Indeed, criminal prohibition makes the “street value” of cannabis
worth fighting for. Additionally, black marketeers have no recourse
to the law, and must settle their own disputes. Starbucks employees
are not found left for dead by Tim Hortons employees.

We do not know what percentage of cannabis cultivators and merchants
are violent criminals, because the market is unregulated, but a
survey of Canadian prisoners serving time for high-level cultivation
and trafficking found that about 70 per cent were otherwise law-abiding.

Just as alcohol consumers supported Al Capone, and cocaine consumers
supported Pablo Escobar, if you buy cannabis (rather than grow your
own) and you do not know its origins, then you might be supporting
violent criminals. If you still support cannabis prohibition, then
you most certainly are.

Matthew Elrod

Victoria

Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2011

Source: Province, The (CN BC)

Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n160/a10.html

Source: Province, The (CN BC)