Archive for the ‘the drug "war"’ Category

Federal Government Funding Agit-prop

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Greenwald has been on fire analyzing the document dump the DoD was forced to make to The New YorkTimes — and Josh Marshall has had a bit to say as well — about all the retired military “analysts” spewing forth on the news networks for lo these past many years, who were directed and scripted by the Pentagon as to what the “correct” positions were. (All of which is probably illegal.) But tax-payer subsidized psy-ops is nothing new; the DEA has been doing it for years, as for example by publishing a “debate manual” (originally titled How to Hold Your Own in a Drug Legalization Debate) to use during exchanges with those advocating drug-policy reform. (But the DEA counsels avoiding any debate at all, if possible.)

We’ve been paying for the government to fund lies and propaganda defending its own tyrannical powers since well before Bush and 9/11.
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Posted in Glenn Greenwald, abuse of power, the drug "war", the war in iraq | 4 Comments »

Marihuana Causes… Drug Crazed Abandon

Friday, May 9th, 2008

“Drug Czar” John Walters, of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, finds that Reefer Madness was true after all! That office is about to release a report “finding” that: “using marijuana increases the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent…”

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Posted in the drug "war" | 5 Comments »

And to My Liberal Friends, See What A Carte Blanche Commerce Clause Gets You?

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Reason’s Jacob Sullum is dueling it out with Cully Stimson over drug policy in the LAT: Part I, Part II. Stimson decrees that drug laws “protect the public good,” public good, of course, being an abstraction that has neither rights nor duties. Those inhere in individuals. (And even if you do not believe in rights, legislating prohibitions on consensual behavior for “the public good” has historically been a great source for emiserating individuals under the aegis of lofty sounding, moralistic rhetoric.)

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Posted in abuse of power, federalism, police, the drug "war", your friend the state | 5 Comments »

The Wire writers speak out

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

I’ve heard nothing but good things about The Wire and will be checking out the first season shortly (yes I am way off schedule). Meanwhile, this piece by the show’s writers is certainly powerful and eloquent: (more…)

Posted in the drug "war" | 1 Comment »

Because Drug Users Deserve to Die

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Reason’s Radley Balko on why drug warriors — including those in the White House — don’t want to see an antidote to heroin overdose made widely available; it would reduce the number of people who end up in the ER and/or dying. Ameliorating fear by reducing overdose deaths is, doncha know, immoral. If an overdosed person can counter the problem at home, s/he won’t be put in touch with the medical system that will rehab them. Better, oh by far, to risk that they DIE.

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Posted in the drug "war", the war on drugs | No Comments »

Visual aid to US incarceration rates

Friday, February 29th, 2008

For a helpful visual aid on how the US compares to other countries on incarceration rates, check out Pete Guither’s Drug War Rant : (more…)

Posted in abuse of power, news seen elsewhere, police, the drug "war", the war on drugs | 1 Comment »

US reaches record high in number of incarcerated (and other shocking details of our prison system)

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Already the world leader in numbers incarcerated, the US can now boast (or cringe
in horror) that more than 1 in 100 Americans are living in prison, according to a Pew report cited today by the AP: (more…)

Posted in abuse of power, news seen elsewhere, police, the drug "war", the war on drugs | No Comments »

Reefer Sanity

Monday, February 18th, 2008

Pete Guither has the scoop: “[T]he nation’s largest organization of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members,” The American College of Physicians, has called for the govt to stop opposing the medical use of marijuana, and to “drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD…”

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Posted in the drug "war" | No Comments »