We all know Bush‘s Department of Justice was known for implementing its political agenda and not enforcing the laws. From firing attorneys with differing opinions, to unfairly going after democrats, to wasting time and money prosecuting Tommy Chong, the Bush Department of Justice wasn’t known for... Justice.
Yesterday I posted a poorly written diary asking President Obama (cause we all know he reads the Daily Kos</sarcasm>) to rescind a grant issued to the Drug Free America Foundation Inc. This grant is being used to push lies and distortions about drugs, with the biggest distortion and outright lies about Marijuana.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Drug Free America Foundation, I will give you a quick summary...
Melvin Sembler founded it in the 1970s, under the name Straight Inc. It started as a drug treatment program, and evolved into an anti-drug advocate. Straight Inc was responsible for the Just Say No policy, and worked closely with the Reagan Administration. Melvin Sembler was a close friend and political ally of George Bush Sr. Eventually, when allegations came out about Straight Inc torturing its patients with Rape, Sleep deprivation, and other horrendous charges, they disbanded, and reformed as the Drug Free America Foundation in the 1990s. Melvin has close connections to the Republican National Committee, the Scooter Libby Defense Fund, 2008 Mitt Romney Presidential Campaign, Feedom’s Watch, George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and numerous others... dare I say, evil organizations. When Bush Jr. was "elected", Melvin was appointed Ambassador to Italy. You can read more about Melvin’s life here: http://www.alternet.org/...
The Drug Free America Foundation is privately funded, but recently launched a website, True Compassion, http://www.truecompassion.org/ , funded by the Department of Justice. Their claimed goal is to "call a deeper understanding of the extent to which we pay as a society for the drug addiction and abuse around us - the price in human life, the price in a child's future forever altered, the price in a dream deferred." Yet, all they do is push distortions and lies about the realities of drugs, specifically Marijuana. All the website appears to have are three, high budget, anti-drug commercials, two of which focus on Marijuana. According to one ad, every medical professional agrees Marijuana is a dangerous drug... The other ad shows a father getting in a car accident cause he smoked pot in the morning... If you like watching well produced, misleading propaganda, I suggest watching both.
My diary posted last night was more of an angry, rushed rant, which apparently turned more people off, and not bringing to light this real crux of the issue here. The Bush Justice Department funded a political allies advocacy group, with little regard for the truth... Nothing unexpected from the Bush Administration, but something that can be corrected by the Obama Administration.
Grant No. 2005-JL-FX-0128 by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice was awarded fraudulently. The final product produced by the grant does nothing to address the stated goals of the grant. If Obama is looking to save some money in our Federal Budget, this would be a quick and easy place to start. Hopefully someone in the current Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute those involved in awarding this grant.