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The Obama That Wasn't There
I need to talk about that empty chair. You know the one I mean.
I adore Clint Eastwood. I've enjoyed most of his movies and I've always completely ignored his distaste for liberals.
The expression “straw man argument” has never been strong enough to describe how the right wing has discussed Obama (and Clinton before him—it’s not entirely about Obama being black). The right wing has spilled enough ink to fill the Exxon Valdez and blasted out billions of words discussing, hating and fighting someone who does not exist.
And they can’t figure out why they aren't more successful swaying people to their point of view.
What sane person would vote for a Muslim, socialist who admires terrorists and wants to destroy the country, throwing the USA into a North Korean-style nightmare of
totalitarianism and poverty?
totalitarianism and poverty?
How can 51% of the nation’s voters embrace that?
The answer is, of course, they don’t.
The Muslim, socialist, terrorist-loving Kenyan doesn't exist.
The Muslim, socialist, terrorist-loving Kenyan doesn't exist.
Obama isn't perfect. He refused to punish Bush-era torturers. He is secretive, invoking state secrets privileges to prevent detainees from getting fair trials. He’s all about warrantless searches. And you don’t want to get me started about his prosecution of the drug war!
But as Obama once said (and he was quoting someone else) “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”
But as Obama once said (and he was quoting someone else) “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”
Everything Obama gets wrong, the other side applauds and would do with even more energy and thoroughness. They solemnly promise it. They ignore the fact that Obama does it because it doesn't fit on the empty chair.
And Romney is stuck with these people. He’s hitched his wagon to the Republican star. Forty years ago he would have been comfortable playing Richard Nixon on TV. Now he is forced to become a pale mimic of Rush Limbaugh. He sucks at it, but what can he do?
Romney craves a title that reflects his station in life. Queen Elizabeth II wouldn't be allowed to confer an Earldom on him, even if she could be persuaded to do it. The best Romney can do is “president.” If he has to kiss the collective behind of a bunch of unhinged ideologues to accomplish that…well, it’s just the price of doing business.
And this strategy might have worked if the Republicans were still the party of Richard Nixon. Instead, he is up to his eyeballs in a bunch of people who spend all their energy shaking their fists at an empty chair.
Harmless, but Public Enemy #1!
It started with Richard Nixon.
When he publicly launched the war on marijuana 40 years ago, the decision was not grounded in facts or reason. Actually, it was just the opposite.
The president handpicked a national commission in 1971, and tasked it with taking a hard look at the substance. Chaired by Raymond Shafer, the Republican governor of Pennsylvania, it was no left-leaning group. They approached the subject objectively and produced a comprehensive report. Their conclusion? The harms of marijuana are quite limited, and the use of marijuana by adults should not be considered a criminal offense.
Nixon promptly ignored their findings and moved forward with his plan to make marijuana Public Enemy No. 1. Since that time, marijuana prohibition has become an industry, and the actors whose jobs are dependent on that industry are fighting tooth and nail to keep it going.
Read more:Amendment 64: Should pot be legal in Colorado? Yes - The Denver Post
So pot is virtually harmless AND it's Public Enemy #1. Yeah, that makes tons of sense.
BUT! OMG! Think of the children:
"Moreover, there is now evidence that regulating marijuana might be better for teens in Colorado. Since our state established a tightly regulated legal medical marijuana market in 2009, marijuana use among high school students has dropped 11 percent in the state, according to surveys conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, where marijuana is entirely unregulated, it increased 11 percent."
Why is Marijuana Illegal?
I don’t use any recreational drug nor do I ever intend to. My ideas are fairly radical in that I think all recreational drugs should be legal. I think the highly addictive drugs should be restricted to behind the counter at the pharmacy and perhaps an upper limit imposed on how much you can buy per month. I think compounds and substances that can credibly be classified as poisons (arsenic, strychnine, etc.) should be illegal to buy or possess without filling out some paperwork.
Since I am a devotee of scientific evidence, all of the above opinions can be changed and have changed over the years.
All that said, I am going to narrowly focus on marijuana. Marijuana prohibition has become a cancer on our society that only continues to metastasize year after year, destroying more and more people for no good reason. The reason I am horrified by the criminalization of marijuana is precisely because I am devoted to evidence. There is very little evidence that marijuana is harmful to either individuals or to society. There is a huge amount of evidence that criminalization is causing widespread death and devastation.
Whatever the reason it was classified along with heroine, it is not because it is a dangerous drug. It is not because it is addictive. It is not because it is poisonous and will kill you—there is no known lethal dose. It will not make you violent. It makes you relaxed and friendly much like the early stages of alcohol use.
A glass of wine will warm and cheer you. A bottle of beer can enhance enjoyment of many activities, but everyone knows drinking to excess can lead to addiction, physical damage, violence and crime, even death from alcohol poisoning. Yet a drug called alcohol can be purchased at any grocery store. So can cigarettes, which cause physical damage leading to death and are highly addictive.
None of that is the case with marijuana. So what makes marijuana so special? Why is it illegal to the extent that it is classified with ecstasy, which has a well-documented lethal dose?
Marijuana is not physically addicting. It is sometimes psychologically addicting to the point that if the user is deprived, they will be unhappy. Its loss will be a psychological wrench. This author feels exactly the same way about coffee. If I were suddenly deprived of it, I would be miserable. However, there won’t be any life-threatening convulsions (as with withdrawal from heroine) or any other symptoms of physical addiction other than a manageable headache.
With marijuana withdrawal, there isn’t even the headache.
So why is marijuana illegal?
Marijuana first started to get government attention in the 1930s. Frustrated by the inability to keep alcohol illegal (alcohol was criminalized between 1919 and 1933) perhaps the guardians of moral purity cast around for other mind-altering substances that didn’t have wealthy and politically powerful defenders.
Marijuana was cheaper than alcohol because it literally grows anywhere like, well, a weed. It was very popular among Mexican immigrants and African-Americans. In the 1930s there could not possibly be two less powerful groups of people.
In the 1950s marijuana, in some states, was heavily targeted for prohibition and law enforcement. Possession and sale could bring stiff mandatory minimum prison sentences.
Then came the counterculture of the 1960s. Marijuana was still popular with Blacks and Mexicans but it also became popular with young white people. In the 1960s Blacks and Mexicans were invisible. Society, for the most part, considered them beneath notice. The white hippies were not. Now there were three groups using marijuana who were not wealthy and had no political power. In 1973 Richard Nixon reorganized a handful of federal agencies and created the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In 1975 the Supreme Court ruled that it was not cruel and unusual punishment to sentence someone to 20 years in prison for sale and possession of marijuana. They were wrong. While it may not have been unusual, it was blindingly, mountainously and viciously cruel.
Pot as Porn
There are about 100 people in this room. The number of people who have exposed their knees in public is probably pretty close to 100%. The number of these people on average who have smoked pot at sometime in their lives is around 41%. The percentage goes to 54% if you exclude the elderly.
I have no idea how they capture these numbers. Who is going to confess to a Federal crime over the phone to a pollster?
The last person to be arrested in the US for exposing their knees to public view probably died a half century ago. In 2010, 750,591 people were arrested for mere possession of marijuana. In spite of the most horrific and destructive campaign to eradicate drug use; in spite of unbelievably cruel and lengthy punishments, that number has more than doubled since 1980. Pot is not getting less popular. It is getting MORE popular.
In spite of its popularity, it’s still uncouth to discuss it in polite society. If someone advocates for the legalization of marijuana, people cast their gaze in another direction. They blush and snicker. Anyone who wants to legalize pot obviously just wants to get high. They are dopers, bums, slackers, disgusting, without ambition, are of weak moral character and can be dismissed out of hand. All they want out of life is a case of Ramen noodles and to continue living in their mothers’ basements—and of, of course, they are automatically criminals.
The people who smoke pot or advocate for its legality are libertines, roues, soiled doves, people of low moral character, given to telling coarse jokes and dousing themselves in cheap perfume. Pot smokers are not received in polite society. One does not advocate it in front of the ladies. Unless you condemn it emphatically, you will not speak of it. No, wait. That’s how they viewed sexuality in the 19th century. Today we view the exposure of skin like this, while this is how marijuana use and legalization is viewed.
So only potheads, libertarians and other lowlifes advocate for legalization. It has nothing to do with this:
Kathryn Johnston, an 88-year-old living in Atlanta, Georgia, was shot by plainclothes police as they entered her home with a no-knock warrant after cutting the security bars. This warrant was obtained using fraudulent information as the basis for the narcotics raid. Ms. Johnston fired a warning shot, fearing a home invasion, and was shot multiple times in response.
Or this:
I have no idea how they capture these numbers. Who is going to confess to a Federal crime over the phone to a pollster?
The last person to be arrested in the US for exposing their knees to public view probably died a half century ago. In 2010, 750,591 people were arrested for mere possession of marijuana. In spite of the most horrific and destructive campaign to eradicate drug use; in spite of unbelievably cruel and lengthy punishments, that number has more than doubled since 1980. Pot is not getting less popular. It is getting MORE popular.
In spite of its popularity, it’s still uncouth to discuss it in polite society. If someone advocates for the legalization of marijuana, people cast their gaze in another direction. They blush and snicker. Anyone who wants to legalize pot obviously just wants to get high. They are dopers, bums, slackers, disgusting, without ambition, are of weak moral character and can be dismissed out of hand. All they want out of life is a case of Ramen noodles and to continue living in their mothers’ basements—and of, of course, they are automatically criminals.
The people who smoke pot or advocate for its legality are libertines, roues, soiled doves, people of low moral character, given to telling coarse jokes and dousing themselves in cheap perfume. Pot smokers are not received in polite society. One does not advocate it in front of the ladies. Unless you condemn it emphatically, you will not speak of it. No, wait. That’s how they viewed sexuality in the 19th century. Today we view the exposure of skin like this, while this is how marijuana use and legalization is viewed.
So only potheads, libertarians and other lowlifes advocate for legalization. It has nothing to do with this:
Kathryn Johnston, an 88-year-old living in Atlanta, Georgia, was shot by plainclothes police as they entered her home with a no-knock warrant after cutting the security bars. This warrant was obtained using fraudulent information as the basis for the narcotics raid. Ms. Johnston fired a warning shot, fearing a home invasion, and was shot multiple times in response.
Or this:
The Drug War Must Advertise
Recently, I saw a film version of Murder must Advertise, In the course of the story there are four or five murders for our sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, to solve. Set in England in 1933, at the heart of the story is the illegal drug trade. In this instance it's a bunch of dark villains selling cocaine.
Cocaine use is depicted as causing unauthorized laughter. People who take cocaine laugh too hard and too loud. Cocaine users wear funny costumes and dance on tables. There is a suggestion that the women are loose. Though the “dope users” are living wild and crazy, not one single person dies of using cocaine. All of the people who are killed during the course of the story, die because cocaine was illegal.
People do die of cocaine use. It constricts the blood vessels and if you have an underlying heart condition cocaine can trigger a heart attack. It's much worse if you combine cocaine and alcohol. But death by cocaine or even a combination of cocaine and alcohol is actually quite rare.
The exact lethal dose of cocaine is known. Somewhere in the bowels of the CDC archives you can find a document which will tell you how many grams of cocaine per kilogram of body weight you have to ingest to keel over dead. (It's about 1.5 grams for an ordinary sized person)
What is the lethal dose of pot? (grams of marijuana or THC per kilogram of body weight)
People do die of cocaine use. It constricts the blood vessels and if you have an underlying heart condition cocaine can trigger a heart attack. It's much worse if you combine cocaine and alcohol. But death by cocaine or even a combination of cocaine and alcohol is actually quite rare.
The exact lethal dose of cocaine is known. Somewhere in the bowels of the CDC archives you can find a document which will tell you how many grams of cocaine per kilogram of body weight you have to ingest to keel over dead. (It's about 1.5 grams for an ordinary sized person)
What is the lethal dose of pot? (grams of marijuana or THC per kilogram of body weight)
There is NO KNOWN LETHAL DOSE OF MARIJUANA. There are no deaths which have been attributed to marijuana. None. Websites that list the bad effects of marijuana are pathetic. They are larded with weasel words like “associated with” and “studies suggest that.” They mention that smoking pot will make you cough. “It is suggested” (by whom?) that marijuana “may” cause memory loss. It may slightly lower your IQ. May. Might. The more honest sources admit that bad effects are only seen with heavy use—excuse me, there is no “use” of marijuana. No matter how rarely it is ingested, is only abused.
So why is it illegal?
Is it because it causes unauthorized giggling? Giggling you don't have coming to you?
I didn't count the number of alcoholic beverages Lord Peter Wimsey consumes in the course of Murder Must Advertise. More than a dozen, I would guess. “Care for a spot of brandy, eh wot, Old Chap?” The movie is soaked in booze.
How many people die of alcohol every year? More than 75,000 in the US. How many people die as a result of the manufacture and sale of this perfectly legal substance?
How many people die of alcohol every year? More than 75,000 in the US. How many people die as a result of the manufacture and sale of this perfectly legal substance?
ZERO.
The makers of Budweiser and Coors do not have gangs roaming the streets cutting each others throats to gain turf. They do not try to sneak their products into high schools. Their employees do not carry machine guns. They do not bump each other off or rub each other out. No drone strikes are contemplated on the Coors brewery in Boulder, Colorado.
The parking lot of the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis, Missouri does not look like this:
Those people represented by the chalk outlines did not die from the harmful toxicity of marijuana or even cocaine. They died because of the cruel, meaningless and barbaric “war” on drugs.
Here are the short term bad effects of marijuana according to the DEA: “The short term effects of marijuana use include: memory loss, distorted perception, trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of motor skills, decrease in muscle strength, increased heart rate, and anxiety.” These “bad effects” sound like two Benadryl washed down with a cup of coffee.
Here are the short term consequences of the drug “war” (click on this link only if you have a strong stomach)
Here are the short term bad effects of marijuana according to the DEA: “The short term effects of marijuana use include: memory loss, distorted perception, trouble with thinking and problem solving, loss of motor skills, decrease in muscle strength, increased heart rate, and anxiety.” These “bad effects” sound like two Benadryl washed down with a cup of coffee.
Here are the short term consequences of the drug “war” (click on this link only if you have a strong stomach)
The Moral Depravity of Normal
Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of bears were maintained for baiting. In its best-known form, arenas for this purpose were called bear-gardens, consisting of a circular high fenced area, the "pit", and raised seating for spectators. A post would be set in the ground towards the edge of the pit and the bear chained to it, either by the leg or neck. A number of well-trained hunting dogs, usually pit bulls, would then be set on it, being replaced as they got tired or were wounded or killed. In some cases the bear was let loose, allowing it to chase after animals or people.—Wikipedia
In this morning’s newspaper (yes, I still occasionally read the dead tree version of the news) there is a column on page 2 called “Matter of Record.” The header at the top reads “The following felonies were filed in the … County Court Clerk’s Office:” It doesn't say over what period of time these felonies were filed. Were these just from yesterday? This week? Is this an end-of-month report for May? It doesn't say.Anyway, there are 18 felonies listed. Guess how many were drug related? Just make a guess. I’ll wait.
In this morning’s newspaper (yes, I still occasionally read the dead tree version of the news) there is a column on page 2 called “Matter of Record.” The header at the top reads “The following felonies were filed in the … County Court Clerk’s Office:” It doesn't say over what period of time these felonies were filed. Were these just from yesterday? This week? Is this an end-of-month report for May? It doesn't say.Anyway, there are 18 felonies listed. Guess how many were drug related? Just make a guess. I’ll wait.
Those of you who guessed 8 were correct. There were 4 assault and batteries, 4 thefts, a weapons charge and one driving under suspension. You will notice that there were twice as many drug arrests as any other individual crime. (All the black offenders will get prison time and all the white ones will get community service, but that’s a whole ’nother post.)
One of the drugs charges says “possession of controlled and dangerous substances, yadda, yadda, comma, DUI.”
DUI is a real crime. If you get behind the wheel of a car high on marijuana, heroine, alcohol or over-the-counter cold medicine, you have turned the car into a deadly weapon. That’s a serious crime, easily equivalent to the weapons charge or the assault and batteries. I am completely happy for the police to remove a DUI from any street where I or anyone else might be driving, walking or living next to.
Possessing something that will cause unauthorized giggling is not a crime. Yes, it’s illegal. It can get you put in prison for the rest of your life. It can get you killed by the police or criminals. The attorney fees, bail bond, court costs and fines can bankrupt you. The felony charge can make you utterly unemployable and ineligible for college grants and loans.
But unless there is a victim, there is no crime.
The person with the “controlled and dangerous yadda, yadda” in their pocket was not committing a crime. The two guys who tried to strangle their wives are criminals. The guy who tried to sell stolen goods to a pawn shop is a criminal.
The four women with pot in their pocket (or whatever it was) are NOT criminals.
They are victims. They are victims of a drug war that has, is or will destroy their lives more horribly and completely than a heroine addiction, or Oxycontin abuse or even alcoholism which is perfectly legal.
The idea of marijuana destroying these peoples lives more completely than a single felony drug charge is laughable on the face of it.
One of the drugs charges says “possession of controlled and dangerous substances, yadda, yadda, comma, DUI.”
DUI is a real crime. If you get behind the wheel of a car high on marijuana, heroine, alcohol or over-the-counter cold medicine, you have turned the car into a deadly weapon. That’s a serious crime, easily equivalent to the weapons charge or the assault and batteries. I am completely happy for the police to remove a DUI from any street where I or anyone else might be driving, walking or living next to.
Possessing something that will cause unauthorized giggling is not a crime. Yes, it’s illegal. It can get you put in prison for the rest of your life. It can get you killed by the police or criminals. The attorney fees, bail bond, court costs and fines can bankrupt you. The felony charge can make you utterly unemployable and ineligible for college grants and loans.
But unless there is a victim, there is no crime.
The person with the “controlled and dangerous yadda, yadda” in their pocket was not committing a crime. The two guys who tried to strangle their wives are criminals. The guy who tried to sell stolen goods to a pawn shop is a criminal.
The four women with pot in their pocket (or whatever it was) are NOT criminals.
They are victims. They are victims of a drug war that has, is or will destroy their lives more horribly and completely than a heroine addiction, or Oxycontin abuse or even alcoholism which is perfectly legal.
The idea of marijuana destroying these peoples lives more completely than a single felony drug charge is laughable on the face of it.
The drug war is the bear baiting of our time. Centuries ago, people would pay to watch someone torture a bear. It was cruel, bloody, disgusting and morally depraved. And perfectly normal and ordinary. Bring the kids. We’ll all have a good laugh.
The drug war is our modern, perfectly normal, ordinary, moral depravity.
Pot as Porn, Cont.
Pot is embarrassing. It is something that you giggle, snicker and wink at. This is supposed to be a CNN story about a couple of people elected on a pro-legalization platform. Listen to this woman titter as she tries to talk about it. She's practically blushing. You'd think they were discussing boobies:
[Scroll down for the video] http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/04/cnn-contributor-youre-an-idiot-to-vote-only-for-who-lets-you-roll-up-a-blunt/
My earlier rant on this subject is here:
Pot as Porn
[Scroll down for the video] http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/04/cnn-contributor-youre-an-idiot-to-vote-only-for-who-lets-you-roll-up-a-blunt/
My earlier rant on this subject is here:
Pot as Porn
Why is Marijuana Illegal?
I don’t want to be complicit in my own oppression. I’m going to fight it however I can, even if my impact is less than the words I use to describe it.
The drug war oppresses and damages us all.
I don’t want to smoke pot. I don’t want to smoke opium. I don’t want to pop Adderall, Oxycontin, or Xanax. I don’t want to shoot meth or heroine. Yet the drug war is out there like poison in the water waiting to destroy the innocent along with the guilty.
The drug war has militarized the police and it has brutalized and corrupted the justice system. The drug war has repealed the fourth amendment to the constitution which is supposed to keep us secure in our persons and property. The fourth amendment is invalid if someone suspects you have a few flakes of pot in your pocket.
The use of SWAT teams has exploded. Special Weapons and Tactics used to be reserved for special situations—quasi-military situations, calling for a quasi-military response. SWAT teams are supposed to be for bank robberies gone wrong with a dozen hostages in danger and maybe a ticking time bomb somewhere in the mix.
Now SWAT teams are battering down the doors of private citizens on a daily basis. A SWAT team could be on your lawn tonight because of a typo on a search warrant or because someone made a malicious phone call.
I hope they don’t ever come to your door with high-powered rifles and battering rams. I hope not. But it would be nice to have a better guarantee than hope.
The oppression caused by the drug war is not because it prevents me from taking drugs. The oppression is the brutality and cruelty of how our system makes “war” on drugs. The oppression is from the lost and ruined lives. It’s from the fines, fees and lengthy prison sentences generated by the prosecution of petty behaviors that do not have unwilling victims.
The oppression is in the deaths of thousands per year—not caused by the drugs, but by the “war” on drugs.
Cocaine is dangerous. It’s highly addictive and causes about 1000 sudden heart attacks per year. A lethal dose is about 1.5 grams—a little more than ¼ teaspoon. Altogether, about 5000 people die every year from cocaine.
For every person who dies of cocaine poisoning ten more die because cocaine is illegal. They are killed by law enforcement. They are killed by dealers. They are killed in prison. They are killed by other addicts.
There might be hundreds of thousands of people who lives are ruined just by the addiction itself. For every person whose life is ruined by addiction, 100 more have their lives ruined by law enforcement, the justice system, prison. They are casualties of the war on drugs, not the drug itself.
And marijuana isn’t addictive. Marijuana doesn’t even have a lethal dose. Nobody knows how much marijuana it would take to kill you. Nobody has ever died of it.
Thousands, possibly millions, have died because marijuana is illegal. None of have died of the marijuana itself.
If you make heroine available to lab rats they will compulsively self-administer the drug. That is how the addictive properties of a drug are usually studied.
Lab rats will not self-administer marijuana. They will self-administer cocaine or opium, but not pot.
The DEA website says that pot is addictive, but that is not based on laboratory studies. That is based on a non-scientific definition of the word “addiction.” Using the DEA’s criteria, chocolate is addicting. So are football and video games.
Withdrawal from heroine or Oxycontin causes seizures, vomiting, muscle cramps and other forms of extreme physical discomfort. Withdrawal should be undertaken under medical supervision. (Keep in mind that opioid withdrawal is far less dangerous than withdrawal from perfectly legal alcohol.)
Withdrawal from pot will cause anxiety, paranoia, nervousness and other mild emotional systems. But even the DEA admits that those symptoms are present only after very heavy use, which is rare among users.
Light use among heroine addicts is not common because heroine is physically addictive. The user must increase the dose to have the same effect and there is a significant physical penalty if the user skips a regular dose.
There is no similar penalty if a user stops smoking pot for a while. Light use is common. Quitting is easy.
Why is marijuana in the same classification as heroine? Why is marijuana even illegal? Why was it made illegal in the first place?
And why have we allowed the justice system become a source of oppression rather than protection?
Have You Heard the Joke about Legalizing Pot?
Yes, I laughed myself sick over it.Classifying pot in the same category as heroine would be a lot funnier if the cost in human misery weren’t so high. Straining to justify that classification with lies and exaggeration would be hilarious if a million people a year – every year – didn’t have their lives ended or destroyed by over-zealous enforcement of bad laws.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse goes to great lengths to explain all the horrible things that marijuana does to your lungs. That’s a big joke, of course. Inhaling any smoke is very bad for you. It has zero, nothing, nada to do with pot as a drug. The DEA does the same thing.
The DEA “fact” sheet is unintentionally funny in several places. Under the question “Q. Does marijuana harm anyone besides the individual who smokes it?” they go into great detail about driving under the influence. Huh? What has that got to do with marijuana? Driving under the influence of ANY drug is already illegal and should remain so. You don’t get to use alcohol or drugs to weaponize a car. The worst stoner in the world doesn’t think that’s a good idea. Since the public harm section of the fact sheet is shockingly thin, in the last paragraph they add that 40% of males arrested for crimes test positive for marijuana … which means they got high sometime in the last six weeks. They don’t even bother to try to demonstrate a connection between crime and marijuana.
Just laugh and move on.
The truth is that you could go down to Walmart and fill your shopping cart with drugs that cause more harm, have more side effects than Marijuana.Tylenol causes cancer. A lethal dose of aspirin is 150 mg per kg of body mass. Benedryl, Sominex and Alka-Seltzer Plus Allergy all contain diphenhydramine which has the same withdrawal symptoms as “withdrawal” from marijuana – irritability, sleeplessness, anxiety, etc. The side effects of Benedryl include drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headache and muscle weakness. Benedryl is “addictive” in the same way marijuana is (you get used to using it and don’t like to stop) and has some of the same effects. It’s fairly benign but it will cause cardiac arrest in large doses of around 1000 mg. Yet you can legally fill the trunk of your car with it.
Marijuana has no lethal dose. Why is it illegal? What, specifically is it about marijuana that makes it so frightening?
Is it the laughter?
A lot of lies have gotten told about Marijuana, especially since the 1970s when Nixon made it federally illegal. Why didn’t Nixon & Co. lie about aspirin or Benedryl? Perhaps it’s because they are produced by powerful and wealthy drug manufacturers who can make hefty campaign contributions.
Perhaps not.
I think the major reason is because pot makes you giggle. I know that sounds vapid, but I think that’s it. Prudery. Puritanism. Unauthorized giggling is self-indulgent. It’s “vice.” Vice is bad. The Seven Deadly Sins are all about enjoying things you shouldn’t be enjoying.
In the Netherlands, for the last 20 years, you can legally buy marijuana and hashish in government regulated coffee shops. They have seen no increased use, no sudden spike in DUIs, no hordes of giggling zombies marching down the street. Marijuana is used in the Netherlands at about the same rate it is used in the US where you can go to prison for the rest of your life if you are caught with a few flakes of pot in your pocket.
Tell me again why we cling to these vicious and cruel anti-drug laws? I keep waiting for a punch line.
Perhaps not.
I think the major reason is because pot makes you giggle. I know that sounds vapid, but I think that’s it. Prudery. Puritanism. Unauthorized giggling is self-indulgent. It’s “vice.” Vice is bad. The Seven Deadly Sins are all about enjoying things you shouldn’t be enjoying.
In the Netherlands, for the last 20 years, you can legally buy marijuana and hashish in government regulated coffee shops. They have seen no increased use, no sudden spike in DUIs, no hordes of giggling zombies marching down the street. Marijuana is used in the Netherlands at about the same rate it is used in the US where you can go to prison for the rest of your life if you are caught with a few flakes of pot in your pocket.
Tell me again why we cling to these vicious and cruel anti-drug laws? I keep waiting for a punch line.
"All Drugs are Evil!"
I’m a huge fan of British detective shows. Recently I was watching an episode of “Inspector Morse” in which the entire plot revolved around drugs and teen suicide. The drug in question for this show was fictional and clearly intended to be similar to Ecstasy. A young girl, high on the drug, decides she has lived the most perfect evening of her life, has nothing left to look forward to, and kills herself. This girl is the daughter of one of Morse’s close friends and Morse takes it hard.
The investigation leads them to discover rave culture, fractals, “house” music and all kinds of strange and unsettling things. At one point in the story the “Drugs Squad” person is trying to assure Morse that “these are quite nice drugs, not like heroine or crack.”
Morse responds: “Nothing evil? All drugs are evil!” John Thaw is a wonderful actor. He says the line with resounding Shakespearian authority. He’s the kind of actor who can deliver a line like that and make it reverberate through your brain.
Now keep in mind that Chief Inspector Morse and his sidekick, Detective Inspector Lewis, visit a pub at least once per episode. Morse claims he needs beer to help him think. Neither Inspector Morse nor the actor who played him ever saw a dram of alcohol they didn’t like. In 2002, John Thaw died of esophageal cancer caused by a life of chain smoking and hard drinking.
All drugs are evil.
Really?
All drugs? Or just the ones that are illegal or culturally unusual? Would alcohol be evil if they passed a law banning it? Do you think either Morse or Thaw would have stopped drinking if they had?
No, of course, not. Every person is entitled to freely and legally drink themselves to death if they so choose.
It is said that one man’s drink is another man’s poison. In the case of John Thaw, the drink and the poison were the same thing.
Is alcohol evil?
No.
Are all (illegal or culturally unusual) drugs evil?
Of course, not.
Drugs do cause great harm, but only humans can be evil because we can make moral choices. We can poison someone and that would be evil. We can choose to poison ourselves and that may be evil.
And the war on drugs is evil because of all the tremendous devastation it causes. The war on drugs destroys more lives than the drugs themselves ever could. Drugs can’t be evil, but people can and sometimes are. With the drug war our society is being unknowingly and thoughtlessly evil. This evil is not caused by the drugs but by custom, by politics and by unrealistic, unscientific cultural assumptions.
The young girl who kicks off the story may have killed herself because she had a wonderful time as a result of an ecstasy-like drug. But do you know what she used to poison herself?
Aspirin.
Marijuana "Fact Sheet" #1
I was perusing the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics website (now you know what I do for leisure fun) and happened across their “fact” sheet.The sheet starts off well enough informing us of marijuana’s Latin name, where it grows, and a few words about its history.
Then it goes off the rails.
http://www.ok.gov/obndd/Education/Marijuana_Fact_Sheet.html
“The new marijuana in the market place is not the 1 percent to 2 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the psychoactive ingredient that produces the "high". Today's new cultivation methods are producing a drug with up to 30 percent THC, or 3,000 percent higher than the old 1960's-1980's available marijuana. “
This is from the actual people doing the testing: “In 1976, an analysis of DEA seizures found an average THC content of between a half and 1 percent. In 2011, that figure was nearing 12 percent, with some samples containing THC levels above 20 and 30 percent, said Mahmoud ElSohly, director of the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project, which conducted the analyses.”
Notice the “some samples” qualification. Yes, there is very strong pot out there. There has always been better and worse grades of marijuana. That is still the case.
This “fact” statement ignores three additional facts. One is that the higher grade marijuana is three or four times as expensive. Second, very strong pot constitutes only a very small percentage sold in the US. Third, it is commonplace to smoke less when the pot is strong. Since there’s no addiction involved, people have no compulsive need to ingest more and more and as they do with alcohol.
The fact sheet continues:
“Some people argue marijuana should be legalized for both medical and recreational use. But medical studies show how dangerous this idea would be.”
I will break out each claim in this paragraph:
1. “New data has shown that marijuana smoke has a higher concentration of carcinogenic substances than tobacco smoke. It is linked as a cause of lung problems such as bronchitis and emphysema,…”
This is irrelevant. Inhaling any kind of smoke is very damaging to the lungs. That would include smoke from camp fires, sticks of incense, and fire places. There are all kinds of different ways to ingest marijuana that don’t involve inhaling smoke.
2. “…and studies confirm damage to brain cells, nerve cells…”
This statement appears to be based on a single study conducted in 1980 which has never been replicated. A much larger study done in 1990 found no cell damage and metastudy done in 2003 found no cell damage.
Including this statement in a “fact” statement without any qualifying language means we are reading propaganda, not a sincere effort to inform. If the OBN was actually interested in disseminating facts they would say “some studies find brain/nerve damage while several other more recent studies show none.” The problem with putting it that way, though, is it doesn’t sound nearly as frightening.
3. “…and reproductive organs which have lead to still births and birth defects.”
This statement appears to simply be false. According to the NIH, marijuana is not associated with still births and birth defects:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699761/
And the truth is, you shouldn’t take ANY drug you don’t need while you are pregnant. Alcohol has horrible and very well documented effects on a developing fetus. Everyone should be informed of that, but it’s not worth law enforcement or SWAT teams.
4. “In addition, acute memory loss and lowered immune systems also have been traced to marijuana smoking.”
This is only true with very heavy use and the effect is temporary. Even if the effect were permanent, this is such a mild effect it is hard to imagine why it would be worth law enforcement intervention. Benedryl has similar mild effects.
None of the “dangers” listed appear to be very dangerous at all. Some of them are irrelevant or false.
This isn’t a fact sheet, it’s advertising copy.
The Drug War Isn't Working!
A few days ago Andrew Sullivan had a post on The Dish about marijuana & the drug war and included this comment “I have always maintained that marijuana is not for minors. And if it were legal and regulated, we’d be better able to keep it from them.”
Mark Kleiman responded on his own blog and he based his reply on the unspoken assumption that is in virtually every argument in favor of marijuana prohibition. The assumption is NEVER examined or even acknowledged. The assumption is that the drug war works. It prevents the streets being littered with addicts and zombie stoners. It is believed without question that if we ended the drug war it would cause a drug-apocalypse where every playground would be Needle Park.
http://www.samefacts.com/2012/08/drug-policy/wishful-thinking/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RealityBasedCommunity+%28The+RBC%29
How, precisely [would we keep drugs from children]? What’s the mechanism? What about legalization for adults would make it harder for minors to get cannabis?
But the truth is likely to be even worse. How do you make something way more available to adults and not have it become more available to minors as well? Yes, many kids today have better access to cannabis than adults do. But (despite frequent assertions to the contrary) nowhere near as much access as they have to alcohol, which is dirt-cheap and available from the wino outside any liquor store, or (in most cases) at home.
The drug war is NOT working. It does NOT keep marijuana out of the hands of children. Pot is cheap, plentiful and EVERYWERE. I could go to the local high school at lunch time and fill a shopping bag with the pot the kids have in their pockets and purses.
Legalization would not make it easier for kids to get pot because it would be impossible to get any easier.
Marijuana isn't harmless.
Marijuana isn’t harmless. No drug is harmless. As I have pointed out before, Tylenol causes liver damage. A hundred aspirin is lethal.
Marijuana impairs you. It interferes with short term memory. It clouds judgment and disconnects clear thinking and logical reasoning. A lot of people feel clear thinking and logical reasoning are so difficult they are hardly worth attempting. But thinking clearly and logically while high on marijuana is almost impossible.
People smoke marijuana for the same reasons they drink alcohol. It makes you feel good for a little while. Even a very good life can sometimes be annoying, nerve wracking and exhausting.
Some people take a break from all that by reading romance novels or watching Transformer movies. Some people—and sometimes they are the same people—take a break by getting high.
I don’t look down on that. Nobody needs to be so tough that they don’t need to escape sometimes from bosses, bills, broken washing machines and annoying relatives.
There’s no harm in that.
The harm comes when life is so overwhelming that being high is a constant cushion, not just an occasional break.
Someone who is drunk all or most of the time is an alcoholic. There’s no clear word for someone who abuses marijuana because in our culture even rare or occasional use of marijuana is always defined as abuse to justify its illegality. So someone who has a single glass of wine after dinner is not an alcoholic and someone who takes a few puffs of marijuana every evening is not an abuser. I will arbitrarily use “pot head” to designate an abuser, equivalent to “alcoholic.”
Alcoholics and pot heads seek a permanent vacation from life. Of course, life can’t be lived that way. You do have to please your boss, you do have to pay the bills, call the washing machine repairperson and deal with annoying relatives.
Taking an occasional break is good for you. Taking a permanent break will wreck your health and your life.
But let’s assume that you have decided that all the bumps and dings of life are far too painful for you to deal with. You need a deep cushion around you at all times to protect you from all that pain and discomfort. And you enjoy being high.
In front of you there is a big bottle of Jack Daniel's and a big bag of sinsemilla (the most potent and highest grade marijuana). All things being equal, which should you choose?
Well, it’s a no-brainer. This is from David Nutt, a British researcher (NHS means “National Health Service” the famous British socialized health care system).
“A good measure of harm is the costs to the NHS. Hospital admissions for cannabis number less than 1000 per year whereas alcohol now accounts for 1000x as many – over a million last year of which 13,000 were aged under 18yrs. The role of cannabis in causation of schizophrenia is still controversial – the ACMD in their 3rd cannabis review estimated that to stop one case of schizophrenia one would have to stop 5000 young men or 7000 young women from ever smoking cannabis. Some studies are now suggesting cannabis may help patients with schizophrenia. In contrast, that alcohol causes liver disease is as incontrovertable as is its contribution to the massively accelerating death rates from liver disease in the UK. The frightening contribution that alcohol use makes to domestic violence, child abuse and road traffic accidents were some of the reasons why alcohol scored as the most harmful drug to UK society today in the ISCD scale of drug harms, published in the Lancet last year.”
Alcohol has a lethal dose, marijuana does not. Alcohol is physically addictive, marijuana is not. Alcohol will damage your liver, marijuana will not. Alcohol can lead you to violence, marijuana does not. Marijuana smoke is worse than tobacco smoke. Okay, maybe you should use a vaporizer. You shouldn’t drive when you are high on either marijuana or alcohol. Obviously.
Either drug will do a perfectly good job destroying your life and the lives of those around you whether you become an alcoholic or a pot head.
If your morality is based around reduction of harm and not prudery, it is obvious marijuana should be legalized and, in fact, should never have been criminalized in the first place.
Cruelty is Customary
There’s no rational or science-based reason for marijuana to be illegal.
It’s illegal because it’s customary. We have an unbroken tradition of demonizing marijuana going back more than 60 years. Far longer than the memory of our grandfathers and therefore throughout eternity.
That’s how customs are built. Once, a very long time ago, it seemed like a good idea. Now it’s just … the custom.
It’s the way of our people.
The problem with this custom is that it is based in the ignorance and racism of the 1930s. The ignorance is still around almost as much as the racism, but breaking a custom based on ignorance and false beliefs is virtually impossible.
I don’t really care if it’s tilting at windmills. Certain things need to be said.
The United States of America has a drug policy that is cruel and destructive. And damned expensive, both in dollars and human lives and all for …
nothing.
People get frightened when you suggest ending the drug war. “It will put drugs in the hands of children” they say. “There will be legions of stoned-out zombies roaming the streets killing people at random.” (Seriously. Someone actually used that as an argument once on a message board.) We spend so much money. We spend so many lives. We burden law enforcement. We clog the courts and prisons. It’s GOT to be working. It’s GOT to be saving us from a terrible fate. Look at what it costs us!
The drug war is NOT working. It does NOT keep drugs out of the hands of anybody who wants them. The price of heroine is now half what it was in the 1990s [pdf]. Cocaine used to be a rich person’s drug. Not any more. It’s cheap and plentiful. Marijuana in the hands of children? Marijuana is easier for them to get than beer. It’s in their hands. All who wish to smoke pot are doing so. The drug war has not prevented that and never will.
The drug war ruins the lives of nearly a million people EVERY YEAR in the US alone. Drugs? About ten to twenty percent of people who smoke marijuana abuse it to the point that it interferes with their lives. About twenty-percent of people who use drugs in general are addicted or (in the case of marijuana) habituated. Eighty-percent of all people who use drugs of all kinds merely have a pleasant evening once in a while.
Millions of people die of alcohol-related accidents and diseases every year.
But that’s customary.
It is the way of our people.
Cheap and Easy Pot
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What are the real costs of the “war” on drugs?
In this blog, over the last few months, I have talked mainly about the social cost of the drug war. For this author that is the real cost. Money is just slips of paper or colorless, odorless, bank transfer figures. Human lives are solid and real.
But the drug war costs money. Cold, hard cash. Unimaginable amounts of it and I have a pretty good imagination. According to drugsense.com (who gets its info from whitehouse.gov) the federal government spent more than $15 billion dollars in 2010 fighting the “war” on drugs.
That’s every year, by the way. $15 billion every year. Sometimes more sometimes less, but about that.
What are we getting for our money?
The Drug War keeps pot out of the hands of children?According to “Monitoring our Future” (an Obama Administration initiative) the percentage of teenagers who say getting marijuana is “fairly easy” or “very easy” [pdf] has remained steady in the 80%-90% range. So we spend $15 billion per year and get zero impact on the availability of marijuana to minors. Zero.
The Drug War prevents kids from using drugs?Between 1991 and 2011 the percentage of 12th graders who used marijuana “in the last year” went from 23.9% to 36.4% [pdf]. We are paying $15 billion per year so that teenagers can get drugs more easily and use them more often.
But that $15 billion is just federal law enforcement. It just covers the arrests. Then there are the prison sentences. Hundreds of thousands get arrested every year for marijuana-related offenses. Not all of them go to prison, but cultivation and sale of marijuana often carries more severe penalties than manslaughter or burglary.
According to the Marijuana Policy Project [pdf]: “Federal government figures indicate there are more than 41,000 Americans in state or federal prison on marijuana charges right now, not including those in county jails. That’s more than the number imprisoned on all charges combined in eight individual European Union countries.”
Keep in mind that it costs an average of $40,000 per year to keep someone in prison which adds more than $1.6 billion the total.
Also from the MMP: “According to estimates by Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron, replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation would save between $10 billion and $14 billion per year in reduced government spending and increased tax revenues.”
Most people believe that spending these billions per year is saving us from the zombie apocalypse where drugged-out maniacs will go door to door smashing your windows and raping your cats.
But the truth is, all that money is buying us NOTHING but misery.
In this blog, over the last few months, I have talked mainly about the social cost of the drug war. For this author that is the real cost. Money is just slips of paper or colorless, odorless, bank transfer figures. Human lives are solid and real.
But the drug war costs money. Cold, hard cash. Unimaginable amounts of it and I have a pretty good imagination. According to drugsense.com (who gets its info from whitehouse.gov) the federal government spent more than $15 billion dollars in 2010 fighting the “war” on drugs.
That’s every year, by the way. $15 billion every year. Sometimes more sometimes less, but about that.
What are we getting for our money?
The Drug War keeps pot out of the hands of children?According to “Monitoring our Future” (an Obama Administration initiative) the percentage of teenagers who say getting marijuana is “fairly easy” or “very easy” [pdf] has remained steady in the 80%-90% range. So we spend $15 billion per year and get zero impact on the availability of marijuana to minors. Zero.
The Drug War prevents kids from using drugs?Between 1991 and 2011 the percentage of 12th graders who used marijuana “in the last year” went from 23.9% to 36.4% [pdf]. We are paying $15 billion per year so that teenagers can get drugs more easily and use them more often.
But that $15 billion is just federal law enforcement. It just covers the arrests. Then there are the prison sentences. Hundreds of thousands get arrested every year for marijuana-related offenses. Not all of them go to prison, but cultivation and sale of marijuana often carries more severe penalties than manslaughter or burglary.
According to the Marijuana Policy Project [pdf]: “Federal government figures indicate there are more than 41,000 Americans in state or federal prison on marijuana charges right now, not including those in county jails. That’s more than the number imprisoned on all charges combined in eight individual European Union countries.”
Keep in mind that it costs an average of $40,000 per year to keep someone in prison which adds more than $1.6 billion the total.
Also from the MMP: “According to estimates by Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron, replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation would save between $10 billion and $14 billion per year in reduced government spending and increased tax revenues.”
Most people believe that spending these billions per year is saving us from the zombie apocalypse where drugged-out maniacs will go door to door smashing your windows and raping your cats.
But the truth is, all that money is buying us NOTHING but misery.
And 9% were white…
There will be a cease fire on the war on drugs for a while. The election is coming up and—this will shock you—I have some things to say about it. I will try to post interesting drug-war related links from time to time.
“African Americans comprise 14% of regular drug users, but are 37% of those arrested for drug offenses.”—Drug Policy AllianceIn most cases it’s not deliberate. It flows out of the ugly underbelly of our cultural psyche.
New York has a “stop and frisk” policy that has come under fire lately. The police were given the task of stopping and frisking anyone who “seemed suspicious." Unsurprisingly, the 85% of suspicious persons were brown.
According to the ACLU:
In the first six months of 2012, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 337,434 times
298,919 were totally innocent (89 percent).
179,449 were black (53 percent).
107,812 were Latino (32 percent).
31,891 were white (9 percent).
The vast majority of criminals in New York—and the US generally—are white, but color is an automatic cause for suspicion.
Then the downward spiral starts:
“And that’s just the first step. Once someone is arrested, it’s up to the prosecutor to decide what to charge them. And blacks and Latinos routinely face far more serious charges for the same offense than whites. They also get to decide whether to charge them in state or federal court (federal laws carry harsher penalties). In one study in California, of 2200 cases referred to federal court for crack, not a single one of the defendants was white. Not one.”
All of them were brown. 100%. Every. Single. One.
So it’s no shock that drug laws fall disproportionately on people of color.
Is all this deliberate racism? Racism, of course. Deliberate? Not in most cases, but that’s only in my (not so) humble opinion.
Enter the war on drugs. Marijuana was first criminalized in the late 1930s. I think the main reason for that was Victorian prudery about “intoxication.” Disappointed that alcohol could not be permanently outlawed, the blue-nosed defenders of public morality needed a new target.
Marijuana was perfect. Unlike alcohol, it had no powerful defenders. It was mostly used by blacks and Latinos who had zero power. If criminalizing marijuana made their lives more miserable and put more of them in prison, in 1938 that was a happy bonus.
It still makes the lives of people of color more miserable and puts more of them in prison but society no longer views that as a bonus. It’s a scandal. It’s a horrifying injustice.
Legalizing drugs would improve the lives of people of color simply by virtue of the fact that fewer of them would be in prison.
“In the twenty-five years since the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the United States penal population rose from around 300,000 to more than two million.[11] Between 1986 and 1991, African-American women's incarceration in state prisons for drug offenses increased by 828 percent.[12]” —Wikipedia
828%. Read it and weep.
828%. Read it and weep.
Off-topic, but it needs to be said:What can we do about endemic racial bias? It’s all unconscious. It has to become more conscious. People need to learn to challenge their own thoughts and assumptions. I don’t want to get into white shaming here. Every single person makes evaluations about the people around them all day long, every minute. It’s almost instantaneous and completely unconscious. That person is safe. That person is not. That person is good. That person is not. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a skill you need. All I’m asking—all we can ask of ourselves and each other—is TAKE A SECOND LOOK.
For an in-depth discussion of this topic I highly recommend Ed Brayton’s blog:
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 1
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 2
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 3
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 4
For an in-depth discussion of this topic I highly recommend Ed Brayton’s blog:
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 1
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 2
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 3
America’s Racist Criminal Justice System, pt. 4
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