Drug War Chronicle, Issue #550 -- 9/5/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550

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

Offer: Unique and Important New Book on Medical Marijuana:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN AIR-CONDITIONED
DRUG SMUGGLING TUNNEL?
Every now and then authorities discover an electrified,
air-conditioned tunnel underneath our border with Mexico or
Canada, presumably built for drug smuggling. How many such
tunnels go undiscovered? And does it take more than one
successful smuggling operation to pay for a tunnel's
construction?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/how_much_to_build_a_drug_smuggling_tunne...

2. FEATURE: VENEZUELA, US GOVERNMENTS SPAR OVER DRUG FIGHTING
Washington and Caracas traded barbs over Venezuelan cooperation
(or the lack thereof) with US drug fighters this week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/US_Venezuela_cocaine

3. CHRONICLE BOOK REVIEW: "ON SPEED: THE MANY LIVES OF
AMPHETAMINE," BY NICOLAS RASMUSSEN (2008, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
PRESS, 352 PP, $29.95 HB)
With "On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine," historian of
science Nicholas Rasmussen has written a fascinating and
enlightening history of America's favorite stimulant, and the
role of drug companies, the medical profession, and consumers in
making it that way.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/book_review_on_speed_nicholas_rasmussen_...

4. 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/550/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A cop with a pain pill habit gets in trouble. So does yet
another jail guard.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/police_drug_corruption

6. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS: BOTH MAJOR PARTY TICKETS INCLUDE
FORMER DRUG USERS
With the nomination of Sarah Palin as the Republican
vice-presidential candidate, both major party tickets now
include acknowledged former drug users. But there is little sign
either party is going to do anything groundbreaking on drug
policy reform.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/palin_obama_drug_marijuana_use

7. DRUG USE: PRESCRIPTION PILLS UP, COCAINE AND METH DOWN,
MARIJUANA HOLDS STEADY
The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health is out. While
some drugs are less popular than last year, others are more
popular, and overall use levels remain largely unchanged.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/survey_drug_use_2007

8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL EXTENDS
MORATORIUM
The Los Angeles City Council has extended its year-old
moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries for another six
months.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/los_angeles_extends_medical_marijuana_di...

9. MARIJUANA: FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS, LOWEST PRIORITY INITIATIVE
TURNS IN MORE SIGNATURES
A lowest law enforcement priority initiative for adult marijuana
possession offenses in Fayetteville, Arkansas, seems set for the
November ballot as organizers hand in nearly a thousand
additional signatures. They needed 300 valid ones.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/fayetteville_lowest_law_enforcement_prio...

10. MARIJUANA: SAFER TAKES ON THE NFL, CITES "HYPOCRISY" OF
PLAYER'S HUGE FINE FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION
The marijuana reform group SAFER is accusing the NFL of
hypocrisy over a huge fine imposed on one player for minor
marijuana possession while the league makes hundreds of millions
from alcohol advertising. It has an online petition you can
sign.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/SAFER_NFL_Kevin_Faulk_marijuana

11. AUSTRALIA: DRUG RESEARCHER SAYS ECSTASY SAFER THAN BINGE
DRINKING, CAUSES FLAP
A leading Australian drug researcher has dared to suggest young
people might be better off taking small doses of ecstasy rather
than getting stinking drunk on a regular basis, and that has
excited cries of blasphemy!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/ecstasy_safer_than_alcohol_australian_sc...

12. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICAN DRUG VIOLENCE TAKING TOLL ON PRES.
CALDERON'S POPULARITY
Mexican President Felipe Calderon called out the army to put the
hurt on drug trafficking organizations. But with a rising
prohibition-related death toll, as well as public impatience
with common crime, his policies may be putting a bigger hurt on
himself.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/mexico_calderon_drug_violence

13. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Victim's Rights in the War on Drugs," "Palin Pick Makes Medical
Marijuana a Problem Issue For McCain," "Police Raid Wrong
Address, Hit Innocent Man With the Butt of a Shotgun,"
"Prosecutor Getting Nervous in the Ryan Frederick Case,"
"Republicans Promise to Continue the Drug War," "BREAKING:
People Smoke Pot at Outdoor Concerts," "$20,000 Bond for One
Ecstasy Pill," "How Much More Public Support Does Medical
Marijuana Really Need?"
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

14. 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/550/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

15. 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/550/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_no...

16. 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/550/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

17. 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/550/drug_reform_calendar

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

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

1. Editorial: How Much Does It Cost to Build an Air-Conditioned
Drug Smuggling Tunnel?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/550/how_much_to_build_a_drug_smuggling_tunne...

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

Awhile back I attended a small lunch-time forum on the subject
of immigration and the US-Mexico border. Seated at the table was
a man in a military uniform, not one of the speakers, but
clearly eager to say his piece. After the presentation was over,
he put up his hand, told us he was an officer with Southcom --
the branch of the Armed Forces dealing with areas to the south
of the United States -- and that his military education and
experience told him that walls don't stop people. Walls just
slow people down, he said -- you can go over a wall, you can
through it, you can go around it, or you can go under it. And
militarily he understood that a wall spanning our border would
not slow people down enough to stop the kind of traffic that we
have crossing the border, not unless we simply shoot people to
kill on sight, which he was unwilling to do.

Whatever one thinks about immigration, or attempts to block it
at the border, the reasoning has clear implications for the
so-far ineffective attempts at drug interdiction. If it is
either impossible or at least difficult to stop people at the
border -- and since we haven't managed to do it so far, it must
at least be difficult -- how difficult must it be to stop the
flow of drugs? After all, people have a certain height and width
and depth, and they need oxygen and occasionally food and water
and space to move. Drugs can be packaged in any shape or size,
they don't require maintenance over the period of time involved
in trafficking them, and a fairly small volume of certain drugs
can be worth a small mint. It's fairly safe to say that drugs
are not going to be kept out of this country, no matter how hard
we try. It is simply not going to happen.

The idea of going "under" a wall or border to get somewhere got
press this week. In the Mexican state of Baja California, near
the border across from the California town Calexico, Mexican
police arrested eight men who were digging a sophisticated
cross-border tunnel. According to the San Diego Union Tribune
(http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20080902-1549-bn02tunnel.html),
the tunnel has "its own elevator, lighting and ventilation
systems," and starts from an otherwise ordinary white house in
an upper-middle class neighborhood near the border fence. Some
reports say it has electric rail for container transport too.

While the technology and professionalism involved in the
tunnel's design and construction may sound remarkable, the
project was by no means unique. According to the US Immigration
and Customs Bureau (ICE), at least 75 have been found since the
1990s
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/2676766/Air...).
They're not limited to our southern border
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/398/patriot2.shtml),
either.

My two questions are: How many successful drug smuggling
operations are needed in order to pay for constructing and
maintaining such a tunnel -- might it only need to be used once?
-- and how many more tunnels are there that have never been
found? I have a feeling that there are many undiscovered
smuggling tunnels, and that the cost of building one with
air-conditioning and electric transportation is low compared
with the likely rewards. The proof that the cost is low is
simply the fact that they keep building them over and over. They
wouldn't keep building the tunnels if it weren't a
cost-effective strategy.

Don't expect the drug trade to slow anytime soon, at least not
because of law enforcement. And don't let the pictures of the
latest tunnel or drug seizure fool you into thinking it might.
======================

And removing cannabis from the status of illegal drug
is something that would save immense amounts of money for the
American taxpayer which is good thing in this period of severe
inflationary pressures.

<http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/fed-data/costs/costs05.htm>
___________________
It's time to correct the mistake:
truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

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.