Drug War Chronicle, Issue #547 -- 8/15/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547

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

Update and Appeal: StoptheDrugWar.org Media Coverage This Year:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/stopthedrugwardotorg_media_coverage_this...

Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org to stop the drug war now!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: THE COCA WARS ARE FUTILE, WHEREAS DRUG
LEGALIZATION IS A WIN-WIN
A recent article in Time made important points about the
difference between the coca plant and its legal uses, vs. the
international cocaine trade and efforts to fight it in Bolivia.
Unfortunately, the article stopped there and didn't ask the next
logical -- and desperately needed -- question.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/editorial/drug_legalization_is_a_win_win...

2. FEATURE: PROSECUTORS WANT FIVE YEARS FOR NORTH DAKOTA MAN WHO
BOUGHT $32 WORTH OF SALVIA DIVINORUM ON EBAY
Kenneth Rau is the first person in the US to face prison time
for possessing salvia divinorum. Prosecutors have offered him
five years in prison if he cops a plea. Otherwise, he faces up
to 20.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/kenneth_rau_salvia_five_years

3. UPDATE AND APPEAL: STOPTHEDRUGWAR.ORG MEDIA COVERAGE THIS
YEAR
Thanks in part to growing web site traffic, StoptheDrugWar.org's
media coverage is increasing in both frequency and importance.
Financial support from our readers makes up a critical part of
our budget -- please read this update and then make a generous
donation to ensure that this work can continue.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/stopthedrugwardotorg_media_coverage_this...

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/547/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A tough week for jail and prison guards, and some Virginia
deputies could find themselves in trouble.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/police_drug_corruption

6. MARIJUANA: MENDOCINO COUNTY COALITION MOVES TO FURTHER
RESTRICT CULTIVATION
The people who managed to overturn Mendocino County's
groundbreaking Measure G, which barred prosecution of anyone
growing fewer than 25 plants, are feeling emboldened. Now, they
have hatched a new scheme to further tighten the screws.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/mendocino_county_marijuana_yes_on_b

7. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS: RALPH NADER SAYS FREE THE DOPERS, JAIL
THE CORPORATE CROOKS
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader unveils a strong
drug policy platform and suggests the government should target
corporate criminals instead of drug offenders.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/ralph_nader_says_end_drug_war_prosecute_...

8. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS: BOB BARR CRITICIZES HIGH-PROFILE DRUG
RAID ON MARYLAND MAYOR'S HOME
Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr uses the raid
on the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, to issue a
broader critique of drug law enforcement.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/bob_barr_criticizes_police_raid_berywn_h...

9. OFFER: UNIQUE AND IMPORTANT NEW BOOK ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
"Dying to Get High," by sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard
Webb, is a groundbreaking work that provides an in-depth
portrait of one of the country's most well-known medical
marijuana collectives.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

10. EUROPE: FORMER BRITISH ANTI-DRUG OFFICIAL NOW CALLS FOR
LEGALIZATION
Britain's prohibition establishment suffered a high-ranking
defection when a former Tony Blair drug policy coordinator went
over to the other side in an online comment that has excited
considerable British media attention.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/former_british_drug_official_julian_crit...

11. EUROPE: FRENCH POLICE START SALIVA-TESTING DRIVERS FOR DRUGS
French police are cracking down on drugged drivers, and they
unveiled a new tool in their kits this week: saliva testing.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/france_drugged_driving_saliva_test

12. PRESS RELEASE: FIRST GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON METHAMPHETAMINE TO
FEATURE 80 SPEAKERS FROM 16 COUNTRIES
For all the mouthing off by government officials about
methamphetamine abuse, it took an NGO to take the obvious step
of getting everybody who's working on the problem together to
talk about it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/first_global_methamphetamine_conference_...

13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/drug_war_history

14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"The War on Drugs in 100 Seconds," "Another Top Drug War
Official Calls for Legalization," "Stephen Colbert's Latest
Outrageous Attack on Medical Marijuana," "Bob Barr Condemns
Violent, Dog-Murdering Drug Raid," "Mexican Cartels Have Begun
Kidnapping Americans," "Mayor Calvo Says Botched Drug Raids Are
Commonplace," "TV Networks Refuse to Allow Discussion of
Marijuana Laws," "The Real Reason SWAT Teams Kill Dogs and
People," "Cartoon: Dogs as SWAT Team Target Practice."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

15. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT, WASHINGTON, DC
The Marijuana Policy Project is hiring a Membership Coordinator
and a Membership Assistant to work out of the organization's
Washington, DC office.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/job_opportunities_mpp_washington

16. 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/547/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

17. 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/547/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_no...

18. 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/547/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

19. 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/547/drug_reform_calendar

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

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

1. Editorial: The Coca Wars are Futile, Whereas Drug
Legalization is a Win-Win
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/547/editorial/drug_legalization_is_a_win_win...

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

An August 5 article in Time Magazine, "Bolivia's Surprising
Anti-Drug Success"
(http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1829782,00.html),
observed that legal coca cultivation and the illicit cocaine
trade are not the same thing. Despite increased tolerance for
coca growing by the Bolivian government under President Evo
Morales -- who came up through the ranks of the coca grower
community himself to become Bolivia's first indigenous chief
executive -- reporter Jean Friedman-Rudovsky notes that
interceptions of illicitly grown coca destined for cocaine labs
are up by 30%% from 2007, and 11 tons of coca paste have been
intercepted this first part of the year alone, more than in all
of 2005 (the year before Morales took office), according to the
country's Anti-Narcotics Special Forces (FELCN).

The point is an important one. Coca is a crop grown for
generations in Bolivia and other Andean nations, and it is one
that is economically needed. Cocalero leaders from Bolivia and
Peru spoke eloquently to their situation, their needs -- and
their rights -- at our Latin America conference convened in
Mexico in 2003
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/programs/out_from_the_shadows).
Coca-based tea and candies and even soap given out by conference
attendees made the point directly -- coca is not cocaine,
cocaine's origin in the coca leaf notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, the article stopped there, and didn't ask the
logical next question: Will Bolivia's increased drug control
achievements actually reduce the global supply of cocaine?

If history and economics are guides, the answer is "no." From
1995 to 2000, for example, Bolivian coca cultivation declined
from 51,000 hectares to only 8,000, according to State Dept.
estimates. Growing went from 117,000 to 41,000 in neighboring
Peru at the same time. But Colombian coca growing rose from
54,000 to 139,000 hectares -- not completely erasing the
Bolivian and Peruvian reductions, but mostly erasing them.
Meanwhile, US retail cocaine prices, adjusted for purity and
inflation, are just a fifth of what they were in 1981, the year
the DEA's price-tracking program started.

For the shift in coca growing from country to country to be so
much greater than the overall change can only mean that demand
is the dominant factor at work, not enforcement. For cocaine
prices to drop so incredibly too, shows that eradication,
interdiction and domestic policing all combined aren't even
making a dent -- suppliers simply anticipate the losses by
sending more, and they can afford it.

Bolivian farmers deserve better than harassment over a
traditional crop they economically need, making the Morales
administration's tolerance of coca growing just. But supply-side
anti-drug efforts are futile in term of the ultimate goal, and
people around the world affected by cocaine and the illegal
trade deserve better too. Only global legalization can stop the
violence and corruption that characterize the illegal drug
trade. Addicted users will also feel freer to seek help when
they are not considered criminals, and will be less likely to do
harm to themselves or others in the meanwhile. Ending drug
prohibition is a win-win proposition.

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

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."