Drug War Chronicle, Issue #544 -- 7/25/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
"News and Activism Supporting Sensible Reform"

Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org to stop the drug war now!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

Video: David Borden in Televised Drug Legalization Debate
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/televised_drug_legalization_debate

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: IT'S EVERYBODY ELSE WHO'S CRAZY
A former State Department official who fought the Afghan drug
war has taken to the New York Times to tell why the failure of
the program is everybody else's fault not his.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/its_everybody_else_whos_crazy

2. FEATURE: THE VULTURES CIRCLE STURGIS, BUT ONE MAN FIGHTS BACK
With South Dakota's annual Sturgis Motorcyle Rally just a few
days away, state law enforcement is gearing up for unwary
travelers. Eric Sage was one of their victims last year. He's
not going this year, but he just filed a civil suit over his
mistreatment.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/sturgis_eric_sage_sues

3. FEATURE: GOING AFTER CONGRESSIONAL DRUG WARRIOR #1
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) has made a political career out of being
"tough on drugs." Now, in an election year where Obamamania has
already swept his district, a newly-formed political action
committee wants to make him pay for it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/mark_souder_schools_not_prisons_pac

4. STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and
you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

5. MEDIA: DAVID BORDEN IN TELEVISED DRUG LEGALIZATION DEBATE
StoptheDrugWar.org's executive director recently did a 25-minute
debate on drug legalization on a network that airs across Europe
and the Middle East. Video is online here.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/televised_drug_legalization_debate

6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Three cases of crooked cops in Florida this week, and a pair of
asset forfeiture abuse situations in St, Louis and Muncie,
Indiana.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/police_drug_corruption

7. DRUG TESTING: HAWAII TEACHERS BACK AWAY FROM RANDOM TESTING
PROVISIONS OF NEW CONTRACT
Last year, Hawaiian teachers agreed to a labor contract that
included random drug testing. Now, with one eye on costs and the
other on the Constitution, they are balking, and the Republican
governor is most unhappy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/hawaii_teachers_fight_random_drug_testin...

8. PROBABLE CAUSE: WASHINGTON SUPREME COURT RULES MARIJUANA
SMELL IN VEHICLE NOT ENOUGH TO ARREST ALL OCCUPANTS
If a police officer smells marijuana coming from a car, that's
not enough evidence to arrest everyone in it, the Washington
state Supreme Court has ruled.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/washington_supreme_court_car_marijuana_s...

9. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: WHOLE PLANT BETTER THAN ISOLATED
COMPONENTS IN PAIN RELIEF, ITALIAN STUDY FINDS
Research from Italy suggesting that whole-plant marijuana
extracts provide more effective pain relief than isolated
compounds from the plant should be welcome news for medical
marijuana supporters.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/whole_plant_marijuana_extract_pain_relie...

10. SOUTHWEST ASIA: FORMER US ANTI-DRUG OFFICIAL ACCUSES AFGHAN
GOVERNMENT OF COMPLICITY IN DRUG TRADE -- US AND NATO NOT DOING
MUCH EITHER, HE COMPLAINS
The man who until last month was in charge of US anti-drug
efforts in Afghanistan accuses the Karzai government of
involvement in the drug trade. He's not too happy with the US
military and NATO, either.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/american_anti_drug_official_accuses_karz...

11. DEATH PENALTY: MORE EXECUTIONS IN CHINA, SAUDI ARABIA
The resort to the ultimate sanction for drug offenders continues
apace in China and Saudi Arabia.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/death_penalty_drugs_china_saudi_arabia

12. CANADA: QUEBEC TO OPEN SERIES OF SAFE INJECTION SITES
Health officials in Quebec are planning to open a safe injection
site in Montreal, then Quebec City, and maybe more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/quebec_montreal_to_open_safe_injection_s...

13. AUSTRALIA: GROW LIGHTS NOW ILLEGAL IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
South Australia has now criminalized the possession of high
intensity lights, reflectors, and anything else that might be
used to grow marijuana. You now have to prove you weren't going
to grow pot to avoid prosecution instead of the state having to
prove you were.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/south_australia_outlaws_marijuana_grow_l...

14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/drug_war_history

15. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Needle Exchange Saves Lives. Why Are We Still Arguing About
It?," "A Revealing Remark From the Deputy Drug Czar," "The Drug
War Doesn't Reduce Drug Use. Drug Users Reduce Drug Use.," "In
New Orleans, You Can Get 5 Years in Prison for a Joint of
Marijuana," "Police Kill Dog During Drug Raid, Find No Drugs,"
"Barack Obama Proposes 'Shifting the Model' on the Drug War,"
"Video Highlights from Vienna Drug Policy NGO Forum," "Drug
Smugglers Use Hurricane for Cover."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

16. HELP NEEDED: DRUG WAR CHRONICLE SEEKING CASES OF INFORMANT
ABUSE
Drug War Chronicle is seeking information on serious police
misconduct or misjudgments in the treatment of informants.
Confidentiality will be protected.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/help_us_find_botched_drug_war_informant_...

17. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

18. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_no...

19. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
YOUR READER
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

20. RESOURCE: REFORMER'S CALENDAR ACCESSIBLE THROUGH DRCNET WEB
SITE
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/drug_reform_calendar

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

================

1. Editorial: It's Everybody Else Who's Crazy
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/544/its_everybody_else_whos_crazy

David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden

There's an article appearing in the upcoming New York Times
Magazine this weekend, pre-released online, that would be funny
-- if it weren't appearing in one of the world's most
influential publications, that is, and if it hadn't been written
by someone who until recently had great influence in an area of
policy that he so woefully misinterprets. In "Is Afghanistan A
Narco-State?," former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for
the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs Thomas Schweich blasts Afghans, Europeans, Democrats,
the media -- even the Pentagon -- for "preventing the
implementation of an effective counterdrug program"
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/magazine/27AFGHAN-t.html).

As Jacob Sullum points out in Reason
(http://www.reason.com/blog/show/127735.html), the answer to the
question of whether Afghanistan is a narco-state is "yes." But
what Schweich doesn't ask is, why does opium have this power to
corrupt governments, empower extremists, warp the economy of an
entire nation? After all, there is plenty of legal opium growing
around the world, for medical uses, that doesn't have this
effect. The answer is: Afghanistan's opium crop is illegal. But
because lots of people still want opium and its derivative
products like heroin, for their illegal uses, and are willing to
pay lots of money for them, there are others who are willing to
take the risk that engaging in illegal activity entails, in
order to earn the heightened profit that the illegality and risk
makes available. In other words, it is drug prohibition that has
turned Afghanistan into a narco-state.

Schweich points out that there are places where the opium crop
got pushed out before -- Guatemala, nearby Southeast Asia,
Pakistan -- and that's what he wants to see in Afghanistan. But
another obvious question that he fails to ask is, did this
actually reduce the supply of opium and opiates? Or did it
simply move the growing to other countries? (Hint: It moved to
AFGHANISTAN -- the country we're talking about -- RIGHT NEXT to
Pakistan.)

The other obvious question is, why did all those different
people -- all those different kinds of people -- fail to support
Schweich's agenda? After all, there couldn't be any good reason
not to support releasing large quantities of poisonous chemicals
into the air (for eradication); or not to try to wipe out an
enormous fraction of Afghanistan's economy and the livelihoods
of hundreds of thousands of people, at the very time when the
Taliban wants to win their loyalty, could there?

Maybe it's because these Afghans and Europeans and US military
officials aren't crazy. Maybe it's because they've actually
listened to what scholars have to say about this: eradication
doesn't work, it drives farmers into the hands of the Taliban,
security has to come first, you can't just tell a hundred
thousand people in the world's fifth poorest nation to give up
their primary income source with no viable replacement
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2007/mar/02/cnn_terrorism_analyst_peter...).
Could they have taken the positions they've taken, made the
decisions they've made, because they are intelligent and
informed and logical and practical?

To the Schweichs of the world, it's everybody else who's crazy
-- or wrong, or corrupted -- anyone but him. And no matter how
many times his policies fail to produce the desired result
_when_measured_meaningfully_, it's okay. Because that's a detail
that doesn't merit asking a question about -- certainly not in
an article written for the New York Times -- and he's busy
fighting drugs. Which obviously we have to continue to do, in
the way we have done before -- because -- because we just do.
Evidently no matter what, as far as the Schweichs of the world
are concerned.

================

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.