President Nixon's declaration that drug abuse is "public enemy number one in the United States" in 1971 launched a "war on drugs" that has raged since the war in Vietnam.
Like the war in Vietnam then and in Iraq today, this war has proven to be much more complex than a simple "red versus blue" campaign. The soldiers are sworn law enforcement officers and organized crime members playing a dangerous game of "cops and robbers." The victims are varied, some helpless, destitute, or hardened criminals themselves, but all are civilians.
Like Iraq, there is another faction who would like to do away with the whole affair - drug policy "insurgents."
Leading the insurgency are advocacy groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, who challenge the Federal Government on judicial, legislative and executive fronts. This past year has beared mixed results for advocates, in part because of uncooperative executive and judicial branches at the federal and state levels but also at the advocacy level.
Since President Nixon ignored the findings of his own commission urging federal decriminalization of marijuana in 1971, twelve states have enacted medical marijuana laws, and many more localities have put the enforcement of marijuana prohibition as the lowest law enforcement priority. In April, Gov. Bill Richardson made medical marijuana into New Mexico law. Last week, Rhode Island's legislature rejected Gov. Donald Carcieri's veto of MPP's medical marijuana bill, solidifying the number of states in the union with medical marijuana laws. New York is waiting on its state senate and governor to take final action on a bill that passed the assembly by a 93-52 vote.
The list of losses are equally numerous. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court continued its history of stretching the "interstate commerce" clause of the constitution.
Gonzales v. Raich allowed the federal government to further curtail state rights by rationalizing since medical marijuana could be transported and sold across state lines.
Despite California's medical marijuana law prohibiting it, the Federal government can shut down state sanctioned "cannabis clubs." This allows state medical marijuana patients and growers to be prosecuted under federal law.
Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell vetoed a MPP sponsored bill last week, citing conflicts with federal law and "family values" of voters. On Monday, the Supreme Court set a dangerous precedent for further constraining student speech by virtue of its content in its "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case ruling.
The judiciary's actions have cleared the way for executive agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement departments to exercise excessive police powers and undue influence in public policy. Drug law enforcement has taken on a troubling para-military flare with officers in battle dress uniforms with guns drawn executing "no-knock" search warrants.
A hard nosed approach on crime may never draw the ire of the public, but a botched raid on and death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston should. Atlanta police suspected her apartment was being used to sell crack cocaine, obtained a warrant and plain clothes officers raided the house. Johnston, anticipating the raid as a home invasion, opened fire on the officers. They justifiably returned fire, but then went on to plant all the drugs that were found that day, whicn included three bags of marijuana. Officers J.R. Smith and Gregg Junnier pled guilty to a variety of charges relating to the incident in federal court. Like the war in Iraq, our "boots on the ground" have failed to speak the local language and only inflame violence not among Shiites or Shia, but Bloods, Crips and Banditos.
Not content to engage in mere enforcement, the DEA orchestrates and U.S. tax payers fund a variety of public relations campaigns demonizing drugs and drug users, as well as attempting to legitimize and further their bureaucratic interests. According to the DEA Web site, marijuana and its legalization advocates are endangering the country by blurring the lines between "fact and fiction." On its face, these Web sites are contrived and sometimes outright false, which is a fact that will not escape the critical eye.
Critiquing current drug policy and scrutinizing agencies such as the DEA is an important task for government reform. The unwise laws and mechanisms that enforce them conveniently demonstrate the heights of government corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, deliberate misinformation, and hypocrisy. President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has been criticized since its inception and exposed some darker elements within his administration. Similarly, the war on drugs accomplishes the same things, regardless of partisanship of an administration in peace time. Although the war in Iraq rages on, popular discontent is being voiced and put at the forefront in presidential debates now and in those to come. Marijuana advocates should further prod latent public discontent and foster new energy towards an issue not unlike the war in Iraq.
Call it a "decapitation attack" because it is precisely what the war on drugs needs to bring it to a peaceful and ultimately beneficial conclusion that America deserves. Until federal prohibition is dealt with, state level campaigns will be subject to asymmetrical warfare like true insurgents, and their detractors can continue to propagate misinformation.
Citizens from all over the political spectrum can recognize the futility of the war on drugs and disharmony of their ideological beliefs and the government's conduct. Marijuana advocates need to focus on taking public discontent to its numerical and national heights. Dismantling the war on drugs will not only be a wise public policy course but also bring accountability back to an out of control federal government.
http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v07/n754/a11.htm
Like the war in Vietnam then and in Iraq today, this war has proven to be much more complex than a simple "red versus blue" campaign. The soldiers are sworn law enforcement officers and organized crime members playing a dangerous game of "cops and robbers." The victims are varied, some helpless, destitute, or hardened criminals themselves, but all are civilians.
Like Iraq, there is another faction who would like to do away with the whole affair - drug policy "insurgents."
Leading the insurgency are advocacy groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, who challenge the Federal Government on judicial, legislative and executive fronts. This past year has beared mixed results for advocates, in part because of uncooperative executive and judicial branches at the federal and state levels but also at the advocacy level.
Since President Nixon ignored the findings of his own commission urging federal decriminalization of marijuana in 1971, twelve states have enacted medical marijuana laws, and many more localities have put the enforcement of marijuana prohibition as the lowest law enforcement priority. In April, Gov. Bill Richardson made medical marijuana into New Mexico law. Last week, Rhode Island's legislature rejected Gov. Donald Carcieri's veto of MPP's medical marijuana bill, solidifying the number of states in the union with medical marijuana laws. New York is waiting on its state senate and governor to take final action on a bill that passed the assembly by a 93-52 vote.
The list of losses are equally numerous. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court continued its history of stretching the "interstate commerce" clause of the constitution.
Gonzales v. Raich allowed the federal government to further curtail state rights by rationalizing since medical marijuana could be transported and sold across state lines.
Despite California's medical marijuana law prohibiting it, the Federal government can shut down state sanctioned "cannabis clubs." This allows state medical marijuana patients and growers to be prosecuted under federal law.
Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell vetoed a MPP sponsored bill last week, citing conflicts with federal law and "family values" of voters. On Monday, the Supreme Court set a dangerous precedent for further constraining student speech by virtue of its content in its "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case ruling.
The judiciary's actions have cleared the way for executive agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement departments to exercise excessive police powers and undue influence in public policy. Drug law enforcement has taken on a troubling para-military flare with officers in battle dress uniforms with guns drawn executing "no-knock" search warrants.
A hard nosed approach on crime may never draw the ire of the public, but a botched raid on and death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston should. Atlanta police suspected her apartment was being used to sell crack cocaine, obtained a warrant and plain clothes officers raided the house. Johnston, anticipating the raid as a home invasion, opened fire on the officers. They justifiably returned fire, but then went on to plant all the drugs that were found that day, whicn included three bags of marijuana. Officers J.R. Smith and Gregg Junnier pled guilty to a variety of charges relating to the incident in federal court. Like the war in Iraq, our "boots on the ground" have failed to speak the local language and only inflame violence not among Shiites or Shia, but Bloods, Crips and Banditos.
Not content to engage in mere enforcement, the DEA orchestrates and U.S. tax payers fund a variety of public relations campaigns demonizing drugs and drug users, as well as attempting to legitimize and further their bureaucratic interests. According to the DEA Web site, marijuana and its legalization advocates are endangering the country by blurring the lines between "fact and fiction." On its face, these Web sites are contrived and sometimes outright false, which is a fact that will not escape the critical eye.
Critiquing current drug policy and scrutinizing agencies such as the DEA is an important task for government reform. The unwise laws and mechanisms that enforce them conveniently demonstrate the heights of government corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, deliberate misinformation, and hypocrisy. President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has been criticized since its inception and exposed some darker elements within his administration. Similarly, the war on drugs accomplishes the same things, regardless of partisanship of an administration in peace time. Although the war in Iraq rages on, popular discontent is being voiced and put at the forefront in presidential debates now and in those to come. Marijuana advocates should further prod latent public discontent and foster new energy towards an issue not unlike the war in Iraq.
Call it a "decapitation attack" because it is precisely what the war on drugs needs to bring it to a peaceful and ultimately beneficial conclusion that America deserves. Until federal prohibition is dealt with, state level campaigns will be subject to asymmetrical warfare like true insurgents, and their detractors can continue to propagate misinformation.
Citizens from all over the political spectrum can recognize the futility of the war on drugs and disharmony of their ideological beliefs and the government's conduct. Marijuana advocates need to focus on taking public discontent to its numerical and national heights. Dismantling the war on drugs will not only be a wise public policy course but also bring accountability back to an out of control federal government.
http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v07/n754/a11.htm