Posted on 01/08/2002 3:45:05 AM PST by Wolfie
2001: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
"House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002." - Reuters, May 1998
Welcome to 2002, Land of the Virtually Drug-Free. We are a people unanimous in our conviction to eradicate marijuana from the face of the earth. Or are we?
Despite 13 million marijuana arrests since 1970, several hundred billion dollars spent, and the development of the largest prison system in the history of the world, a record 34 percent of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized.
The 64th year of modern Marijuana Prohibition, 2001, was characterized by a widening of the gap between the hard-line drug policies of the United States and the increasingly tolerant approach of many governments abroad. In May, the United States was voted off the United Nations Drug Control Board and Human Rights Board on the same day. Meanwhile Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium decriminalized personal possession of marijuana, and polls showed a majority favoring outright legalization in Britain and Jamaica. Forty-seven percent of Canadians polled favor marijuana legalization.
Despite a campaign promise that he would allew states to decide on the issue of medical marijuana individually, the newly-elected President George Bush reaffirmed his commitment to hardline prohibitionism through the appointments of John Ashcroft as Attorney General, and John P. Walters as Drug Czar. In their own words:
"I want to escalate the war on drugs. I want to renew it. I want to refresh it, relaunch it, if you will." - Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, February 7, 2001
"What really drives the battle against law enforcement and punishment, however, is not a commitment to treatment, but the widely held view that ( 1 ) we are imprisoning too many people for merely possessing illegal drugs, ( 2 ) drug and other criminal sentences are too long and harsh, and ( 3 ) the criminal justice system is unjustly punishing young black men. These are among the great urban myths of our time." - John P. Walters, America's Drug Czar designate, Weekly Standard, March 6, 2001
The following tidbits, culled from the press over the past 12 months, illustrate the patterns of abuse, fraudulence and violence pandemic to American drug policy.
January 12 - The nephew of Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft received probation after a felony conviction in state court for growing 60 marijuana plants with intent to distribute the drug in 1992- a lenient sentence, given that the charges against him often trigger much tougher federal penalties and jail time. Ashcroft was the tough-on-drugs Missouri governor at the time.
January 19 - ( AP ) The Belgian government agreed Friday to decriminalize the use of marijuana, following its neighbor the Netherlands in granting legal tolerance to use of the drug.
The Belgian legislation, which is expected to be approved by parliament early this year, will legalize possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal consumption. It will not allow sale of the drug, unlike in the Netherlands, where "coffee shops" selling marijuana cigarettes are a common sight in many cities.
February 11 - President Jorge Batlle of Uruguay, becomes the first head of state in Latin America to call for the decriminalization of drugs and an end to the drug war. "During the past 30 years this has grown, grown, grown and grown, every day more problems, every day more violence, every day more militarization," the 73-year-old president told a radio audience recently. "This has not gotten people off drugs. And what's more, if you remove the economic incentive of the [drug trade] it loses strength, it loses size, it loses people who participate."
February 16 - ( AP ) More than half of the Swiss support loosening the laws banning marijuana, according to a survey by a drug and alcohol agency. The figures, released Thursday by the private Swiss Institute for Alcohol and Drug Problems following a study in November, say that 54 percent favor a softening of penalties for smoking, possessing and selling the drug. "Cannabis consumption is becoming normal," institute director Richard Mueller said.
March 9 - William J. Allegro, 32, of Bradley Beach, New Jersey is sentenced to 50 years in prison for growing marijuana in his home. "The court imposed this sentence because the court felt obligated to do so under the law," said Judge Paul F. Chaiet, a former prosecutor. "Mandatory sentencing provisions can create difficult results. In the court's view, this is one of those times where the ultimate results are difficult to accept."
Allegro's previous criminal record was made up of several non-violent offenses including a sale of marijuana.
April 18 - ( AP ) Kenneth Hayes and Michael Foley are acquitted by a Sonoma County jury on charges of cultivating and possessing marijuana. The two were men arrested for growing 899 marijuana plants for the1,200 members of a San Francisco medical marijuana club called CHAMP- Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems. Hayes ran the club.
Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins said "Our contention was that you can't be a caregiver under the definition of the statute to that many people. The jury felt otherwise."
April 20 - Christian missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter Charity are killed when their small plane is shot out of the sky by a Peruvian military jet, as part of a CIA-backed program that patrols the Amazon basin for drug couriers.
April 24 - In Oklahoma, Will Foster, 42, a medical marijuana patient who in 1995 was sentenced to 93 years in prison for growing 39 marijuana plants in his basement, is released on parole. Foster used the marijuana to relieve chronic pain caused by acute rheumatoid arthritis.
"My medical use of marijuana never interfered with my work, I ran a successful business," said Foster. "I was minding my own business taking care of my health and my family. What was I doing to anybody that got me 93 years?"
April 24 - The Boston Globe reports: A narrowly divided Supreme Court gave police sweeping authority Tuesday to arrest and jail those who break even minor criminal laws, such as failing to fasten a car's seat belt.
May 2 - The Louisiana Senate, voting 29-5, passes sweeping legislation to bring relief to an overflowing state prison system, ending mandatory prison time for possession of small quantities of drugs.
"We have lost control of the prison population," said Sen. Charles Jones, D-Monroe, lead author of SB239. "We are spending nearly $600 million a year on prisons." Jones said there are 35,000 inmates in Louisiana state prisons and 15,000 of them are there on drug-related charges.
May 5 - The United States is voted off the United Nations Narcotics Control Board. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States would continue its "strong support" for U.N. anti-drug programs despite its ouster from the 13-member board that monitors compliance with U.N. drug conventions on substance abuse and illegal trafficking.
Indeed, after the son of U.S. Rep. "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., was found flying an airplane loaded with 400 pounds of marijuana, he was freed on bail but then tested positive for cocaine three times. He wound up getting a mere 2 1/2 years in prison.
Former Education Secretary Richard Riley's son got just six months' house arrest for conspiring to sell cocaine and marijuana, though he had been indicted earlier on charges that can lead to life in prison.
August 26 - ( AP ) The number of adults behind bars, on parole or on probation reached a record 6.47 million in 2000 -- or one in 32 American adults, the government reported Sunday.
August 29 - ABC News 20/20 Downtown features a comparison of U.S. and Dutch drug policy, with an accompanying online interactive poll, asking "SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED?" 78 percent respond YES.
September 8 - Thirteen current and former Miami police officers were accused by U.S. authorities Friday of shooting unarmed people and then conspiring to cover it up by planting evidence. The indictment is just the latest scandal for this city's trouble-plagued police force. All of those charged were veterans assigned to SWAT teams, narcotics units or special crime-suppression teams in the late 1990s.
October 27 - The ( UK ) Guardian reports: A majority of Britons believe cannabis should be legalised and sold under licence in a similar way to alcohol, according to a new poll. Some 65 percent of those questioned, agreed it should be legalised and 91 percent said it should be available on prescription for sufferers of diseases like multiple sclerosis.
The poll, carried out by Mori for the News of the World, follows the Government's announcement that the law on the drug has been eased. While possession of cannabis will still be illegal, police will no longer be able to arrest those carrying it.
November 3 - The DEA raid the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, a medical marijuana distribution facility, arresting President Scott Imler. "They were as gracious as they can be when they are raping you," Imler says of the DEA agents.
The bust was a result of months of surveillance and years of investigation of the LACRC by the DEA.
City officials condemned the raid at a press conference last Friday that was attended by more than 100 center members.
November 9 - The San Jose Mercury News reports: Despite objections from former first lady Betty Ford and drug-treatment authorities, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of John Walters as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
November 19 - Former West Vancouver school superintendent Ed Carlin is furious with North Vancouver RCMP after a blunder during which the emergency response team raided a basement rental suite occupied by his son and three others in search of drugs and guns.
Red-faced cops took down the four young men at gunpoint and found Nintendo controllers in the home, but no guns or drugs.
December 7 - The Long Beach Press-Telegram reports: A Poly High School senior who played bass in the school orchestra took his life after being booked on marijuana possession charges, police said Thursday.
A police officer at Poly was notified at about 2 p.m. Wednesday that a bag of what appeared to be marijuana was visible in Andreas Wickstrom's car, parked in a campus parking lot.
"His mother was contacted and came down to pick him up. They were able to pick up the vehicle and return home about 5 p.m.," Blair said.
Minutes later, the boy's mother heard a noise, then "found her son in the bathroom, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A shotgun kept in the home was found beside him," Blair said.
Paramedics called to the home, in the 3900 block of Elm Avenue, pronounced him dead at 5:11 p.m., Blair said.
Andreas' aunt, Diana Haye, said he was humiliated by his arrest. "All he repeated to his mother on the way home was 'they treated me like a common criminal,' " she said.
December 24 - In North Carolina, the Lexington Dispatch reports about the dismissal of 65 criminal cases investigated by three county narcotics officers now charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to distribute drugs.
According to a federal affidavit issued in the case, law enforcement officers abused their authority in one or more ways, including writing fake search warrants, planting evidence and fabricating charges, keeping drugs and money seized during arrests, attempting to extort more money from the people arrested, and intimidating suspects and potential witnesses.
2001 in Drug Statistics - Estimated U.S. deaths in year 2001 attributed to tobacco: 400,000; alcohol: 110,000; prescription drugs: 100,000; suicide: 30,000; murder: 15,000; aspirin and related painkillers: 7600; marijuana: 0? ( unknown )
"The difference between a policy and a crusade is that a policy is judged by its results, while a crusade is judged by how good it makes its crusaders feel." - Thomas Sowell
Those are interesting statistics. Especially considering everyone I know that smokes pot also smokes cigarettes, drinks, and uses various prescription and non-prescription drugs. I'm sure when they die each category will get a mark except for marijuana use... we can't have that.
We had an article in the local paper crying about a local "kid" who was a victim of marijuana laws - all he'd done was have a little pot in his posession. I went back through my collection of papers and found the original article dealing with him. First, the kid was 22 years old. Second, police were responding to an alarm at 2am and saw a car being driven slowly in an industrial area. The plates came back as being stolen, the driver decided to try and evade and crashed the car. The stolen car contained stolen items from several businesses AND the 22 year old kid-passenger was carrying 1+ ounces of weed packaged in one gram packets. Of course, the local writer left all that out and it became yet another "poor kid gets busted for weed" article.
Interesting in that everyone I know that smokes pot does NOT smoke tobacco, consume only small amounts of booze, and use very few prescription drugs (other than occasional antibiotics).
Nevertheless, we can walk through any major hospital and find dozens of folks with booze-induced liver failure and tobacco-induced lung cancer or emphesema. But we will not find a marijuana ward. No pot patients at ANY hospital I have worked in. What do you make of that?
If twisted liberals ask questions in convoluted ways, they'll always get the answers they're looking for and percentages that appear to support their positions. How many times do we have to witness their spin techniques? Yeah, and 60% of the U.S. electorate wanted Gore.
Would everyone in the USA that wants to cede their way of life to a bad decision made by the stoned voters among the 20 million, or so, citizens of Belgium and the Netherlands please light up? That's insane. No?
What lesson do we really learn from this? If we don't prosecute drug offenders and, at least, revoke their right to vote, all of our elections will be decided by a bunch of addicts. Just like in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The drug culture has succeeded in making addicts out of enough of the populations of Belgium and the Netherlands to win elections. That's insidious. No?
They're trying to do the same thing here!
Our Forefathers ran away from the insanity that was Europe. Now, 500+ years later, the liberal drug addicts want us to emulate their drug policies. Ridiculous. No?
Bush should move to militarize the borders, immediately, then get to work eradicating the U.S. of it's domestic, illegal narcotics producers.
We're at war with the smugglers and our military should be authorized to win this war at our borders.
Would everyone in the USA that wants to cede their way of life to a bad decision made by the stoned voters among the 20 million, or so, citizens of Belgium and the Netherlands please light up? That's insane. No?
What lesson do we really learn from this? If we don't prosecute drug offenders and, at least, revoke their right to vote, all of our elections will be decided by a bunch of addicts. Just like in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The drug culture has succeeded in making addicts out of enough of the populations of Belgium and the Netherlands to win elections. That's insidious. No?
Asking questions in convoluted ways may be the domain of the twisted, but it is not exclusive to liberals.
The entire drug MESS could be cleared up with two relatively simple decisions by the FDA:
1. Legalize marijuana. It is less harmful than alchohol.
2. Give addicts to hard drugs a prescription for what they need. This is how it was done until about 40-50 years ago and it was an inexpensive and dignified way to handle addiction.
Addiction rates in this country did not skyrocket until the drugs were made ILLEGAL, thereby providing a source of profit for criminals, police and politicians. A replay of Prohibition.
You join the ranks of rascally totalitarians and get the cherished WOD Drum Major position. At every intersection you get to yell "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS"
What's that you're always saying about how drug laws "prevent unnecessary suffering"? I guess this kid's sending himself to hell must have been "necessary", eh?
4Totalitarianism, why is it you feel entitled to dictate how others should behave? You are the kind that gives otherwise concervatives a bad name. You are the ones peeking into other's bedrooms'. And for what? Does it give you a thrill to try to control other people?
and not that it matters but I used to treat addicts, and they were not your sterotypical street folk they were "white collar" users and you couldn't tell they had susbtance abuse problems because they had the means to conceal it.
They caused NO HARM to anyone other than themselves and they sought help on their own initiative. 'Seems to me this is what we all should hope for - a society that takes responsibility for themselves not for a Totaliatrian Nanny State.
But please tell me why you would throw someone in the slammer for nothing other than sitting in their own living room and smoking pot?
Just more liberal statistics.
Despite a campaign promise that he would allow states to decide on the issue of medical marijuana individually…
Oh yeah, in accordance with the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.
The tenth is about as meaningless these days as the second.
Those who only stand against the death of one amendment, while celebrating the death of another, are extreme hypocrites.
Pot's legal in Belgium. Big deal. Who wants to march in lock-step to societal meltdown with the stoned masses of Belgium? If the decision to legalize drugs was unanimous and I bet it wasn't, that's still only 10 million misguided souls.
Get real.
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