Drug Czar Conforms to the War on Drugs
June 25th, 2009 by Rick
The UN 2009 World Drug Report was released and our very own Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, endorsed it within his own statement. Although decriminalizing the publicly supported recreational drugs is exactly what was done in certain cities in Europe, the U.S. Drug Czar failed to mention the word “decriminalization,” yet seemed to be in support of the ideas that led to the successful statistics of Portugal and Switzerland.
Basically, Kerlikowske wants to stop blindly throwing people in jail without really seeking to help them with their addiction. More money is planned to be spent on programs for juveniles and family courts. On top of this the U.S. vows to pump more money into bringing down the most hardcore drug traffickers throughout the world, ironically starting in countries that we’ve already had a heavy presence in, for decades.
The U.S. plans to reduce the amount of weapons the cartels obtain, put a dent in the drug profit and slow the flow of the chemicals needed to make some of these drugs. Over a billion dollars will be put into more research and studies that won’t be published unless it aids the negative antiquated psychobabble rhetoric accustomed with the war on drugs.
It seems that Kerlikowske had more of a free reign while in Seattle as Chief of Police, but now he seems to be doing the bidding of the Obama Administration which is business as usual, when it comes to the drug war.
Obama MMJ Policy: Slow Progress
February 11th, 2009 by Alex
Aaron Houston, the director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, has written a great article detailing his proposed steps for the implementation of President Obama’s policy on medical marijuana.
Aaron’s ideas are both sensible and relatively realistic to implement:
- Wash the DEA of Bush administration leftovers
- Accurately classify marijuana as have medicinal benefits
- Foster new & continue existing marijuana research projects
Seems doable right? I really hope so.
Aaron goes on to explain that, despite the “low key” language of the White House spokesman, this new administration is implementing a drastic ideological change not seen in almost 2 decades of policy.
First, Obama believes that science trumps all, even political agenda. Second, Obama believes that federal resources shouldn’t be used to undermine state-level laws.
It’s great to see the first rain drops of the impending change storm finally touch the ground. Now let’s see Michele Leonhart ousted from the DEA, then dispensary owners and patients alike won’t have to keep looking over their shoulders.
Why I Won’t Miss John Walters
November 11th, 2008 by Perry
Only weeks left in office, and John Walters, Bush’s Director of National Drug Policy, is working harder than ever on the propaganda machine.
Days after a former pothead was elected president, Walters began a campaign with a new slogan about how there’s not that many jobs out there for potheads. Nevermind that the premise is so dumb it actually seems like its satire.
Progressive Moves Planned For Drug Policy
November 7th, 2008 by Perry
With the recent power shift in the White House, pundits are expecting a departure from the last eight years of drug policy, which has seen an aggressive revival of Reagan’s War on Drugs through Bush and his cabinet’s abuse of executive authority.
Obama is already committed to abstain from using federal resources to raid state-legal marijuana dispensaries. Furthermore, for the drug czar position, there has been mention of Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton.
While all of us over at theFreshScent would have preferred maybe someone a little more liberal, like Cheech Marin, I think it’s time to save our “boos” for the time being. Bratton has shown support for medical marijuana before, not only in interviews, but also by respecting Jerry Brown’s wishes in reducing the crackdown on dispensaries.
With several elections still undecided or still re-counting, the Democrats are likely to pick up 22 new seats in Congress, 17 of which belonged to medical marijuana opponents in the last Congress. And every single Democratic incumbent who lost Tuesday was a medical marijuana opponent.
Drug Czar is Latin for Douchebag
September 24th, 2008 by Perry
Most of you can’t name the director of National Drug Policy, a title commonly referred to in the media as “drug czar,” but his decisions affect millions of Americans and all medical marijuana users. Which is too bad, because as it turns out, John P. Walters is a fucking liar.
Days before the FBI released its annual crime statistics report he went on record on CSPAN and said,
We didn’t arrest 800,000 marijuana users. That’s [a] lie.
No Walters, you douche incarnate. FBI stats showed that the government arrested more than 872,000. That figure represents the highest number ever and at the projected rate, the government is supposed to hit 1,000,000 per year by 2010.
