Drug War Chronicle, Issue #591 -(urls + 2 full editorials)- 6/26/09

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #591 -- 6/26/09
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. FEATURE: AMERICAN NIGHTMARE -- WILL FOSTER AND JUSTICE,
OKLAHOMA STYLE
When he got a 93-year sentence for a small medical marijuana
grow in Oklahoma, Will Foster became a poster child for drug war
abuses. A national campaign helped free him, and he headed for
the friendlier climes of northern California, which released him
from parole after three years. But Oklahoma wants him back, and
now Foster has been in jail in California for the past 15 months
fighting extradition. He needs your help.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/will_foster_extradition_oklahoma_medical_marijuana

2. FEATURE: UN DRUG CZAR ATTACKS LEGALIZERS -- LEGALIZERS SAY
"IT'S ABOUT TIME"
As the United Nations issues its annual World Drugs Report,
UNODC head Antonio Maria Costa finally notices his
anti-prohibitionist critics and fights back. The critics are
glad to engage. More importantly, Costa's attack signals that
the legalization movement is gaining momentum.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/unodc_costa_world_drug_report_legalization

3. FEATURE: ENDING THE DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG OFFENSES -- NOW IS
THE TIME, SAY HUMAN RIGHTS, HARM REDUCTION GROUPS
At least 16 Asian nations and an equal number of others,
including the US, apply the death penalty to certain drug
offenses. It's time for that to stop, said human rights and harm
reduction organizations, and they are using UN anti-drug day to
pressure both the international community and offending
countries to act now.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/death_penalty_drug_offenses_human_rights_anti_drug
_day

4. DRUG RAIDS: MARYLAND SHERIFF CLEARS DEPARTMENT IN SWAT
ASSAULT ON MAYOR'S HOME -- MAYOR SUES SHERIFF, SEEKS
RESTRICTIONS ON SWAT
A Prince Georges County, Maryland, SWAT team raided a mayor's
house last summer, shot his two dogs, and manhandled the mayor
and his mother-in-law because they thought they were marijuana
traffickers. They weren't, and the cops have acknowledged as
much. Now the county sheriff has investigated the incident and
concluded his boys did nothing wrong. The mayor disagrees -- and
he's going to court.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/calvo_drug_raid_sheriff_investigation_prince_georg
es

5. SENTENCING: ATTORNEY GENERAL CALLS FOR ELIMINATION OF
CRACK-POWDER COCAINE DISPARITY
With movement to reduce or end the sentencing disparity between
federal crack and powder cocaine offenses growing, the Obama
administration has come down firmly in favor of eliminating the
disparity altogether.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/attorney_general_holder_eliminate_crack_cocaine_se
ntencing_disparity

6. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: STRIP SEARCH OF JUNIOR HIGH GIRL FOR
DRUGS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, SUPREME COURT RULES
There has been some concern that the US Supreme Court would let
an Arizona school district get away with strip-searching a
junior high school girl while looking for some ibuprofen
tablets. It didn't.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/supreme_court_strip_search_savana_redding_unconsti
tutional

7. MARIJUANA: BARNEY FRANK INTRODUCES FEDERAL DECRIMINALIZATION
BILL
You go, Barney! Congressman Barney Frank has introduced a bill
that would decriminalize the possession of up to nearly a
quarter-pound of marijuana and the not-for-profit distribution
of up to an ounce. It's a start.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/barney_frank_introduces_marijuana_decriminalizatio
n_bill

8. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
More drug corruption in Philly, more fallout from the Kathryn
Johnston killing in Atlanta, and yet another crooked border
guard.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/police_drug_corruption

9. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: REVISED NEW HAMPSHIRE BILL PASSES
LEGISLATURE, AWAITS GOVERNOR'S APPROVAL
Attempting to appease the opposition of Democratic Gov. John
Lynch, the New Hampshire legislature has approved a medical
marijuana bill that forbids patients from growing their own --
they would have to go to a "compassion center." Will that be
enough to satisfy the governor?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/new_hampshire_legislature_passes_medical_marijuana
_bill

10. LATIN AMERICA: COCA CULTIVATION, COCAINE PRODUCTION DOWN
LAST YEAR, UNODC SAYS
Coca and cocaine production are down slightly in South America,
thanks largely to Colombia's continuing manual and aerial
eradication campaigns, the UN reports. But despite the billions
spent to suppress the trade, a gram of coke now costs about half
of what it did 20 years ago.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/coca_cocaine_production_2008_UN

11. EAST ASIA: KOREAN ACTRESS STIRS DEBATE, OUTRAGE BY CALLING
FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
South Korean authorities and public opinion take a hard line
toward marijuana, so when a leading actress speaks out for
legalization, the outrage is palpable.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/south_korea_actress_kim_bu_seon_legalize_marijuana

12. ALERT: MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEFENDANT BRYAN EPIS WANTS YOU TO
TAKE POLITICAL ACTION
Bryan Epis was the first medical marijuana provider to be
prosecuted by the federal government, and he is one of dozens of
people whose fate is still caught up in the federal system
despite recent policy shifts by the Obama administration. Bryan
is asking all of us to take action to help those who have risked
much to help patients.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/bryan_epis_action_alert

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/591/drug_war_history

14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"LEAP Confronts the Drug Czar at a Press Conference," "Supreme
Court Upholds Fourth Amendment in Strip Search Case," "United
Nations Argues for Decriminalization," "United Nations Admits
That Drug Legalization is Gaining Support," "You Don't Need Drug
Laws to Punish People Who Steal," "Police Raid Innocent Elderly
Couple, Blame It on the Weather," "Police Applaud Themselves for
Raiding Innocent People and Killing Dogs," "Marijuana Debate on
CNN," "Is DEA Illegally Forcing Agents to Serve in Afghanistan?"
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

15. PLEASE: DON'T SHOOT!
The killing of Tarika Wilson, an unarmed mother holding her
child, and the maiming of that child, is an inevitable
consequences of the overuse of SWAT teams and the growing
paramilitarization of the drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/please_dont_shoot

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/591/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

17. STUDENTS: INTERN AT STOPTHEDRUGWAR.ORG (DRCNET) AND HELP
STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester
fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

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

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

1. Feature: American Nightmare -- Will Foster and Justice,
Oklahoma Style
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/will_foster_extradition_oklahoma_medical_marijuana

Will Foster became a poster child for the mindless cruelties of
the drug war more than a decade ago. The Tulsa small businessman
and medical marijuana user -- he suffers from degenerative
arthritis -- was raided by police with a warrant for a
methamphetamine lab back in 1993. Police found no meth, but they
did find a small marijuana garden. The unfortunate Foster was
quickly sentenced to a mind-blowing 93 years in prison.

It took a growing national movement and, ultimately, an Oklahoma
Supreme Court decision to get that sentence redressed. After the
state high court threw out his sentence, Foster was resentenced
to 20 years, twice denied parole, then finally paroled to the
more medical marijuana-friendly state of California, where he
moved in temporarily with "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal, who had
testified in his defense in Oklahoma and then befriended him.

And they all lived happily ever after, right? Wrong. Although
Foster settled into a law-abiding life in Northern California,
picking up a new family along the way, and successfully
completed what the state of California considered an adequate
parole period, that wasn't good enough for the state of
Oklahoma. Upset that California officials hadn't kept him on
parole as long as they would have, Oklahoma parole officials
demanded that he return to that benighted state to finish his
parole and when he, perhaps understandably, declined, issued a
warrant for his arrest for violating the terms of his parole.

Nothing came of that until Foster had his ID checked in a police
encounter, but then, the pending Oklahoma warrant popped up, and
Foster was jailed in California to be returned to Oklahoma to
finish the rest of his sentence. With nothing to lose, Foster
fought the warrant by filing a writ of habeas corpus and winning
its dismissal in the California courts in 2006.

Once again, Foster was a free man, but Oklahoma still wasn't
done with him. Oklahoma parole officials then offered to
reinstate him in the interstate compact, which governs the
supervision of parolees who parole to states other than the one
in which they were sentenced, but then added that they had made
a mistake when originally calculating the length of his parole
period. His parole didn't end in 2011, but in 2015, they said,
demanding he sign a document to that effect. Again, perhaps
understandably, Foster declined that offer, and again, the state
of Oklahoma issued another warrant for his arrest for violating
the terms of his parole.

By then, Foster had moved to Santa Rosa, California, about 50
miles north of San Francisco, and made a home with a local
woman, Susie Mueller, and her three daughters. There, he had a
medical marijuana grow, all completely legal under state law and
county guidelines. But he also had a vindictive ex-girlfriend,
who told law enforcement officials he was operating a major
marijuana grow operation.

The next thing Foster and Mueller knew, DEA agents and Sonoma
County sheriff's deputies were kicking down their door, the
couple was arrested on state marijuana cultivation charges, and
Mueller's youngest daughter was taken into custody as an
endangered child.

"It was terrible," said Mueller. "They did a full-on raid and
arrested him over seven mature plants, and they arrested me and
took my daughter away. They thought because he knew Ed there was
something big going on. They said if I told them where the other
grows were, they wouldn't arrest me and take my daughter. I told
them that's all there was and that he was within the guidelines,
and they said 'take her kid,' and they arrested me."

A hard-nosed Sonoma County prosecutor delayed months before
dropping the baseless charges, and Foster sat in the Sonoma
County Jail the whole time. But even after the charges were
dropped, Foster remains behind bars, fighting the extradition
warrant back to Oklahoma. It's now going on 16 months of
imprisonment for him.

"In their warrant, they said I violated the terms and conditions
of parole in Oklahoma, then fled Oklahoma to escape justice,"
Foster said Wednesday in a phone call from the jail. "But I
haven't been back in Oklahoma since I left in 2001. I
successfully finished parole here, I beat back that earlier
extradition effort, and they're still coming after me."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger routinely signed off on
the Oklahoma warrant without knowing all the facts, Foster said.
"The governor has not been given all the information. Oklahoma
didn't tell him I had finished parole, had an earlier
extradition attempt thrown out, or that they had tried to extend
my parole six years after the fact," he pointed out.

Neither the California nor the Oklahoma governors' offices nor
Oklahoma parole officials responded to Chronicle inquiries about
the Foster case.

Now, with his options running out, Foster and his supporters are
pursuing two strategies, one political and one judicial. The
first is aimed at the two governors, urging them to revoke the
warrants. The second is to file another writ of habeas corpus,
which Foster said he would do at the end of this month.

"I am asking the governor of Oklahoma to recall the warrant and
commute my sentence and let me live in peace in California and
just leave me alone," he said. "I'm asking Gov. Schwarzenegger
to not honor the extradition request. There is case law
suggesting that he does not have to grant extradition; he can
deny it and recall his warrant."

Ed Rosenthal is leading the campaign to free Foster. On his blog
is complete information about how to contact
(http://edrosenthal.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-will-foster.html)
the two governors to ask them to recall the warrants.

"Every human being whose life is disrupted because of the
marijuana laws deserves our attention, but Will's case is
important first because people already know about the terrible
injustice done to him back in Oklahoma, and second because it's
just so weird and egregious," said Rosenthal. "People just shake
their heads and say this shouldn't be happening. We're trying to
get him out, and we're trying to bring this injustice to the
attention of people who don't already know about it," he said.

"Apparently, Oklahoma has a lot of money to burn on this
vindictiveness," he noted. "This is a sad and stupid case."

It's costing cash-strapped California, too. The cost for
imprisoning Foster for the past 15 months is now in excess of
$100,000, and that doesn't include the cost of the bogus
marijuana cultivation prosecution.

"I'll be filing a habeas writ on June 29," Foster said, "and the
state will have 15 days to respond. There will probably be a
hearing in 30 days."

It's unusual for habeas writs to be granted, and Foster is
uncertain about his prospects for victory, but is prepared for
the long haul. "If I don't win there, I can drag this out for
years. I could go all the way to the California Supreme Court,
and then into the federal courts. But that would require that I
continue to sit here in jail," he said.

Susie Mueller visits Foster in jail almost every day. "This is
heartbreaking for me, it's very emotionally difficult because he
shouldn't be in there," she said. "But I'm really devoted to
him. I go almost every night, and we talk for an hour and play
tic-tic-toe and go over the case."

In one of the strange ironies of Foster's ordeal, Mueller said
she had gathered signatures for petitions seeking his release
when he was imprisoned in Oklahoma a decade ago. "I met him at
work here in Santa Rosa and didn't even realize he was that Will
Foster," she laughed. "What a coincidence."

"Ed and Susie are the best advocates a guy could have," said
Foster. "I'm so grateful for all they're doing."

For Foster, Oklahoma's efforts to punish him further are not
about justice, but vengeance. "I beat them on the sentencing, I
beat them on the first extradition warrant, and they want to
teach me a lesson," he said. "They want to impose their
authority."

Right now, the decision to extradite Foster back to Oklahoma is
up to the two governors and their extradition specialists. An
outpouring of public support in favor of allowing Foster to
remain in California as a free man could make the difference.

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

2. Feature: UN Drug Czar Attacks Legalizers -- Legalizers Say
"It's About Time"
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/unodc_costa_world_drug_report_legalization

As the world marks the end of the first century of drug
prohibition -- the first international anti-drug convention was
signed in Shanghai in 1909 -- the global anti-drug bureaucracy
finds itself on the defensive. Faced with a rising chorus of
critics, the bureaucracy fought back this week as the United
Nations Office on Crime and Drugs (UNODC) issued its World Drugs
Report 2009
(http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2009/WDR2009_eng_web.pdf).
That the UNODC finally feels compelled to confront -- instead of
ignore -- its critics is a sign of progress.

In addition to its usual quantifying of marginal changes in drug
production and consumption levels and exhortations to try harder
to fight the drug menace, this year's report was remarkable for
its preface, penned by UNODC head Antonio Maria Costa, and, in a
reversal of tone if not policy, some approving mention of
Portugal's eight-year-old experiment with decriminalization.

On decriminalization in Portugal the report noted that:

"Portugal is an example of a country that recently decided not
to put drug users in jail. According to the International
Narcotics Control Board, Portugal's 'decriminalization' of drug
usage in 2001 falls within the Convention parameters: drug
possession is still prohibited, but the sanctions fall under the
administrative law, not the criminal law. Those in possession of
a small amount of drugs for personal use are issued with a
summons rather than arrested. The drugs are confiscated and the
suspect must appear before a commission. The suspect's drug
consumption patterns are reviewed, and users may be fined,
diverted to treatment, or subjected to probation. Cases of drug
trafficking continue to be prosecuted, and the number of drug
trafficking offenses detected in Portugal is close to the
European average.

"These conditions keep drugs out of the hands of those who would
avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging
treatment, rather than incarceration, for users. Among those who
would not welcome a summons from a police officer are tourists,
and, as a result, Portugal's policy has reportedly not led to an
increase in drug tourism. It also appears that a number of
drug-related problems have decreased."

The report then goes on to say that "while incarceration will
continue to be the main response to detected traffickers, it
should only be applied in exceptional cases to users." Combined
with Costa's "people who take drugs need medical help, not
criminal retribution," in the preface, it suggests that the
UNODC would not oppose decriminalization, but the report doesn't
say that. Instead, it advocates for drug courts and drug
treatment.

When it comes to legalization, in the preface, Costa
acknowledged his anti-prohibitionist critics and attempted to
confront their arguments. His comments are worth quoting at
length:

"...Of late, there has been a limited but growing chorus among
politicians, the press, and even in public opinion saying: drug
control is not working. The broadcasting volume is still rising
and the message spreading. Much of this public debate is
characterized by sweeping generalizations and simplistic
solutions. Yet, the very heart of the discussion underlines the
need to evaluate the effectiveness of the current approach.
Having studied the issue on the basis of our data, UNODC has
concluded that, while changes are needed, they should be in
favor of different means to protect society against drugs,
rather than by pursuing the different goal of abandoning such
protection.

"Several arguments have been put forward in favor of repealing
drug controls, based on (i) economic, (ii) health, and (iii)
security grounds, and a combination thereof.

"The economic argument for drug legalization says: legalize
drugs, and generate tax income. This argument is gaining favor,
as national administrations seek new sources of revenue during
the current economic crisis. This legalize and tax argument is
unethical and uneconomical. It proposes a perverse tax,
generation upon generation, on marginalized cohorts (lost to
addiction) to stimulate economic recovery. Are the partisans of
this cause also in favor of legalizing and taxing other
seemingly intractable crimes like human trafficking? Modern day
slaves (and there are millions of them) would surely generate
good tax revenue to rescue failed banks. The economic argument
is also based on poor fiscal logic: any reduction in the cost of
drug control (due to lower law enforcement expenditure) will be
offset by much higher expenditure on public health (due to the
surge of drug consumption). The moral of the story: don't make
wicked transactions legal just because they are hard to control.

"Others have argued that, following legalization, a health
threat (in the form of a drug epidemic) could be avoided by
state regulation of the drug market. Again, this is naive and
myopic. First, the tighter the controls (on anything), the
bigger and the faster a parallel (criminal) market will emerge
-- thus invalidating the concept. Second, only a few (rich)
countries could afford such elaborate controls. What about the
rest (the majority) of humanity? Why unleash a drug epidemic in
the developing world for the sake of libertarian arguments made
by a pro-drug lobby that has the luxury of access to drug
treatment? Drugs are not harmful because they are controlled --
they are controlled because they are harmful; and they do harm
whether the addict is rich and beautiful, or poor and
marginalized.

"The most serious issue concerns organized crime. All market
activity controlled by the authority generates parallel, illegal
transactions, as stated above. Inevitably, drug controls have
generated a criminal market of macro-economic dimensions that
uses violence and corruption to mediate between demand and
supply. Legalize drugs, and organized crime will lose its most
profitable line of activity, critics therefore say. Not so fast.
UNODC is well aware of the threats posed by international drug
mafias. Our estimates of the value of the drug market (in 2005)
were groundbreaking. The Office was also first to ring the alarm
bell on the threat of drug trafficking to countries in West and
East Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the Balkans. In
doing so we have highlighted the security menace posed by
organized crime, a matter now periodically addressed by the UN
Security Council. Having started this drugs/crime debate, and
having pondered it extensively, we have concluded that these
drug-related, organized crime arguments are valid. They must be
addressed. I urge governments to recalibrate the policy mix,
without delay, in the direction of more controls on crime,
without fewer controls on drugs. In other words, while the crime
argument is right, the conclusions reached by its proponents are
flawed. Why? Because we are not counting beans here: we are
counting lives. Economic policy is the art of counting beans
(money) and handling trade-offs: inflation vs. employment,
consumption vs. savings, internal vs. external balances. Lives
are different. If we start trading them off, we end up violating
somebody's human rights. There cannot be exchanges, no
quid-pro-quos, when health and security are at stake: modern
society must, and can, protect both these assets with
unmitigated determination. I appeal to the heroic partisans of
the human rights cause worldwide, to help UNODC promote the
right to health of drug addicts: they must be assisted and
reintegrated into society. Addiction is a health condition and
those affected by it should not be imprisoned, shot-at or, as
suggested by the proponent of this argument, traded off in order
to reduce the security threat posed by international mafias. Of
course, the latter must be addressed, and below is our advice.

"First, law enforcement should shift its focus from drug users
to drug traffickers. Drug addiction is a health condition:
people who take drugs need medical help, not criminal
retribution. Attention must be devoted to heavy drug users. They
consume the most drugs, cause the greatest harm to themselves
and society -- and generate the most income to drug mafias. Drug
courts and medical assistance are more likely to build healthier
and safer societies than incarceration. I appeal to Member
States to pursue the goal of universal access to drug treatment
as a commitment to save lives and reduce drug demand: the fall
of supply, and associated crime revenues, will follow. Let's
progress towards this goal in the years ahead,and then assess
its beneficial impact on the next occasion Member States will
meet to review the effectiveness of drug policy (2015).

"Second, we must put an end to the tragedy of cities out of
control. Drug deals, like other crimes, take place mostly in
urban settings controlled by criminal groups. This problem will
worsen in the mega-cities of the future, if governance does not
keep pace with urbanization. Yet, arresting individuals and
seizing drugs for their personal use is like pulling weeds -- it
needs to be done again the next day. The problem can only be
solved by addressing the problem of slums and dereliction in our
cities, through renewal of infrastructures and investment in
people -- especially by assisting the youth, who are vulnerable
to drugs and crime, with education, jobs and sport. Ghettos do
not create junkies and the jobless: it is often the other way
around. And in the process mafias thrive.

"Third, and this is the most important point, governments must
make use, individually and collectively, of the international
agreements against uncivil society. This means to ratify and
apply the UN Conventions against Organized Crime (TOC) and
against Corruption (CAC), and related protocols against the
trafficking of people, arms and migrants. There is much more our
countries can do to face the brutal force of organized crime:
the context within which mafias operate must also be
addressed...

"To conclude, transnational organized crime will never be
stopped by drug legalization. Mafias coffers are equally
nourished by the trafficking of arms, people and their organs,
by counterfeiting and smuggling, racketeering and loan-sharking,
kidnapping and piracy, and by violence against the environment
(illegal logging, dumping of toxic waste, etc). The drug/crime
trade-off argument, debated above, is no other than the pursuit
of the old drug legalization agenda, persistently advocated by
the pro-drug-lobby (Note that the partisans of this argument
would not extend it to guns whose control -- they say -- should
actually be enforced and extended: namely, no to guns, yes to
drugs).

"So far the drug legalization agenda has been opposed fiercely,
and successfully, by the majority of our society. Yet,
anti-crime policy must change. It is no longer sufficient to
say: no to drugs. We have to state an equally vehement: no to
crime. There is no alternative to improving both security and
health. The termination of drug control would be an epic
mistake. Equally catastrophic is the current disregard of the
security threat posed by organized crime."

While Costa's preface can only be read as an attack on the
anti-prohibitionist position (while essentially calling for
decriminalization of drug use), it also marks an engagement with
the anti-prohibitionists. And they are ready to engage right
back at him.

"The UN drug czar is talking out of both sides of his mouth. On
the one hand he admits global drug prohibition is destabilizing
governments, increasing violence, and destroying lives," said
Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance
(http://www.drugpolicy.org). "But on the other hand he offers
facile arguments dismissing the need for serious debate on
alternative drug policies. The report erroneously assumes that
prohibition represents the ultimate form of control when in fact
it represents the abdication of control," Nadelmann added.

"The world's 'drug czar,' Antonio Maria Costa, would have you
believe that the legalization movement is calling for the
abolition of drug control," said Jack Cole, executive director
of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://www.leap.cc) and
a retired undercover narcotics detective. "Quite the contrary,
we are demanding that governments replace the failed policy of
prohibition with a system that actually regulates and controls
drugs, including their purity and prices, as well as who
produces them and who they can be sold to. You can't have
effective control under prohibition, as we should have learned
from our failed experiment with alcohol in the US between 1920
and 1933."

LEAP wants to keep the conversation going, and it wants citizens
around the world to let the UNODC head know what they think.
"We're asking people to go to http://www.DrugWarDebate.com where
they can send a message to the world 'drug czar' to educate him
about the effects of policies he is supposed to be leading on,"
said Cole. "Now is the time for action. It's clear that
prohibitionists are concerned about reformers' rapidly growing
political clout when they attack us on page one of their annual
report but didn't even mention us in last year's."

After ignoring anti-prohibitionist critics for years -- the
legalization movement wasn't even mentioned in last year's
report -- the global anti-drug bureaucracy has come out
swinging. Costa has made his best case for smarter, better drug
prohibition, and his arguments deserve to be addressed
seriously.

But as successful nonviolent social movement leader Mohandas
Gandhi famously observed: "First they ignore you, then they
ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." It appears
that the anti-prohibitionist struggle is now in its penultimate
stage.

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

...

___________________

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 -- Cacoa Powered... (at sfo 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 cacoa 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.

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