The New York Times printed an exceptional editorial reviewing the the outcomes of the Drug War.  The closing paragraph truly captures the problem:

Over all, drug abuse must be seen more as a public health concern and not primarily a law enforcement problem. Until demand is curbed at home, there is no chance of winning the war on drugs.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Our government has been ineffective because it punishes drug users instead of helping them get better...

The small town of Gerard Missouri had a drug problem — specifically, a meth problem — until a man claiming to be a federal agent showed up and began racking up drug collars in the rural community of just 1,100 residents.

That is until a reporter from the local weekly newspaper discovered that the "agent," Bill Jakob, was just a wannabe cop playing a DEA agent. The fiasco has led to multi-million dollar lawsuits by those "arrested," the dismissal of three of Gerard's five police officers, and a potential impeachment of the mayor

This week I begin a multi-month sentence for cannabis, even though I never did that diary series on the quirks of cannabis history like I promised, or even  interviewed/diaried the Siegelman jury member acquaintance interview that I promised OPOL that I'd do. But here I am, out of time, and will have to put those off it seems.

[ah! procrastination, how insidious a demon thou art!]

more below the jump...

This is per the White House so you know this must be of huge importance....as well as completely and totally true.

Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House.

What a bunch of fucking liars. They never give up.

And no, there's really no being polite about this. It's not like this hasn't been debunked a hundred times.

This is a heartbreaking and horrific story, and even more shameful is how it has been ignored wholly by the media. Not surprisingly, the San Diego State drug bust story has generated lots of publicity and media attention, probably because it reinforces the idiotic, status-quo messages about cannabis prohibition, drug dealing, and drug-related scandal. [I did not find this story on dkos, but if it is, someone let me know and I'll post that as well]

But what about Rachel Hoffman? Her story is much more tragic. If you can bear to read it, here is what happened in a
nutshell, just this past month: a 23 year old Florida State University graduate was busted for
pot possession of LESS THAN AN OUNCE, in her car during a stop for a SPEEDING ticket. At the request (or strong-arming)of the Tallahassee Police Dept., she acted as a drug buyer/informant during a drug sale involving ecstasy, crack, and a gun. She was killed during that transaction, simply because a trained narcotics undercover officer wasn't doing what Rachel Hoffman was askedto do.

ghost-written by Rebecca Saltzman, Chief of Staff, Americans for Safe Access and crossposted at Medical Cannabis:  Voices from the Frontlines

This week, presidential candidate Barack Obama made strong statements indicating he would end the DEA raids on medical marijuana providers. These statements are in line with the nation’s views on medical marijuana - a 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 80% of Americans approve of cannabis for medical use, and other polls show that a majority supports it in every region of the country, irrespective of age or party affiliation.

    Sometimes writing these essays are a chore and seem demanding, then there are other times when they seem to write themselves, this is one of the latter. I have written extensively about America’s war on drugs and all the ills and problems that it has caused. First of all let me state that I am not a conspiracy theorist. I do not believe that racism is involved in every aspect of life in America, at least it hasn’t been in my life. However, there are times when it plays a major role in how we interact with one another. The war on drugs and the death penalty are probably two of the most egregious ways in which racism does play a role in America. The recent results of a couple of studies highlight the disparity in our criminal justice system that can not be explained by any other means.

By Jag Davies, Policy Researcher, ACLU Drug Law Reform Project

What do you get when you combine the use of heavily armed paramilitary units for routine police work with a lack of prosecutorial and judicial oversight?

There is a small but growing interest in re-examining the use of opioid pain medicines. The movement is not as popular and widespread as the medical marijuana movement, but nonetheless very important. Opioid pain medications are the only option available for many perfectly normal and law-abiding citizens to live a normal life. The issue of "addiction" in pain treatment, as it is known in popular circles, has been pretty much deconstructed. Research has demonstrated that even continuous large doses of pain medication do not lead to large addiction rates in chronic pain patients. Even if it did, the drugs are the only way for many people to escape physical agony on a daily basis.

Medical use of Cannabis.one issue.
Prohibition is another.
All under the guise of a peoples health issue.

Dr Zombie has written an excellent diary this morning. Please go check it out, and then get in on the discussion.

There's nothing more craven than politicians looking to score drug war points.

Here's a story caught by NORML and picked up by Wonkette

When someone wrote Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and asked why medical marijuana should be illegal, this was his response:

Thailand's Samak and Charlerm are promising a 4,000 dead drug war sometime soon, and with the US giving all the money for weapons and IMET training now that there is a "democratic government" we can assume it will go much higher.

http://www.reuters.com/...

I saw the film about a month ago, and still can't get it out of my head.  It's a masterpiece.  And, as the primaries merge into Oscar season, I can't help but ruminate on the message(s) of the film, and the mess that over 35 years of the drug war have made of our country.  In that sense, there is no question, at least in my mind, that "No Country" is indeed the best film of the year, and perhaps the best movie yet made about the War on Drugs.  

If you haven't seen it yet, be warned:  SPOILERS AHEAD!

    The thing that makes the war on drugs so insidious to me as a black man is not the fact that it has increased the number black felons or that it has turned our neighborhoods into war zones. No to me the one factor that has caused the most damage to us as a people is how it has removed us from the process of democracy. I think that this was its original intent and it has not failed to deliver. The United States is the only democracy in the world that does not allow its citizens the right to vote after they have served their sentences. In America, it is once a criminal always a criminal. To understand the racist nature of these laws all one has to do is to examine their historic beginnings.

A – ranting I will go.... Hi-ho the Iowa/Iraqi war, a – ranting I will go....

I realize in the grand and grave environment in which we live, matters pertaining to cell-phone use and restriction thereof, do not rate particularly high in priority, but I wanted to ‘let it out’ and I think the underlying principle does have more weight to it.

To wit, my new personalized bumper sticker:

Keep your ineptitudes off of my laws!

As long as we're looking at things this way (see Yup, Ron Paul is still racist), we might as well be honest and remind everyone that all the mainstream Democratic candidates are racist.  After all, they not only do not disavow, but they actively support the institution that is arguably the most racist since slavery.

The drug war.

    It is unfortunate that it took the Supreme Court to do what the Congress should have done a long time ago and that is to allow Federal judges to consider the disparity between powder cocaine and crack when sentencing offenders. Rather than showing leadership and courage, the Congress even with a Democratic majority refused to act on the huge disparity in sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine for fear of appearing soft on crime. Once again political expediency outweighed moral conviction and the Congress failed to act. I don’t know about you but the Democratic majority was long on promises and has been short on delivery.