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Tag: war on drugs

  • HUGE!!! DRUG BUST in chicagoooo….. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    The “most significant drug importation conspiracies ever charged in Chicago” says the US Attorney.

    Federal authorities have disrupted a massive cocaine operation that was bringing 1,500 to 2,000 kilos of cocaine a month to Chicago from the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico, in what law enforcement is calling the most significant drug conspiracy ever to be broken up in Chicago.

    Thirty-six people in Chicago and Mexico were indicted.
    …
    Authorities, led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, are seeking to seize $1.8 billion in cash.

    The whole story by Natasha Korecki in the Chicago Sun Times.

    And so what? This will result in: 1) More money spend on prison (and yes, I see how this is not a good example of my general position on immigrants), 2) more violence (and police death) in Mexico, and 3) somebody else bringing in the drugs to supply the heroin and cocaine needs of Chicago and the Midwest.

    Notice how there isn’t even talk about this 1) will make our streets safer, 2) lower drug use, or 3) increase the street prices for the drugs. The last point is downright bizarre, because no drug bust everseems to increase price (except in the very shortest of terms). Even I can see how if you disrupt a major supplier, supply should go down, and prices up. But that never needs to be the case.

  • Conversations with Carlos Watson

    Stanford Franklin and I will be on MSNBC’s Conversations with Carlos Watson tomorrow, Wednesday. We’ll be talking about drug legalization and our op-ed. The show is from 11am-12 noon, Eastern Time. I think we’ll be on from 11:15 to 11:45. Check us out!

  • The Failed Drug War: Overdose Deaths

    Here’s a good example:

    The Netherlands has about 120 drug overdose deaths per year. This is a rate of 0.75 per 100,000.

    Meanwhile the US, with all our money and prisons and police and people who wish to “send the right message” has this problem:

    The mortality rates from unintentional drug overdose (not including alcohol) have risen steadily since the early 1970s, and over the past ten years they have reached historic highs. Rates are currently 4 to 5 times higher than the rates during the “black tar” heroin epidemic in the mid-1970s and more than twice what they were during the peak years of crack cocaine in the early 1990s. The rate shown for 2005 translates into 22,400 unintentional and intentional drug overdose deaths. To put this in context, just over 17,000 homicides occurred in 2005.

    That’s a rate just under 7 per 100,000. So if we adopted dutch policies toward drugs (the dutch rate wasn’t always so low, by the way) and could get our rate down to that seen in the Netherlands, we could save close to 20,000 lives per year. But we choose not to.

    Somehow, according to prohibitionists, saving lives sends the wrong message. “If drugs don’t kill, how will people know they’re bad?!” I’ve heard the argument many times. It’s pretty dumb. First of all, if drug don’t kill, they’re not so bad. Second, since our drugs do kill, why do we still lead the world in drug abuse?

    How do you save lives? Some of it is shockingly simple. For starters:

    1) Give out Narcan.

    2) Pass good Samaritan laws protecting those who call ambulances for people who overdose.

    3) Treat drug abuse like a health problem.

  • Pot farm starts forest fire

    Buzzkill.

  • Just Say Yes

    The Washington Post has an op-ed written by me, Peter Moskos, and Stanford “Neill” Franklin.

    It’s Time to Legalize Drug

    Drug manufacturing and distribution is too dangerous to remain in the hands of unregulated criminals. Drug distribution needs to be the combined responsibility of doctors, the government, and a legal and regulated free market. This simple step would quickly eliminate the greatest threat of violence: street-corner drug dealing.

    We simply urge the federal government to retreat. Let cities and states (and, while we’re at it, other countries) decide their own drug policies. Many would continue prohibition, but some would try something new. California and its medical marijuana dispensaries provide a good working example, warts and all, that legalized drug distribution does not cause the sky to fall.

  • Amsterdam Party People (II)

    This just in over the transom:

    Went to Loveland Festival in Sloterpark yesterday and a great time was had by all except [name removed] who was found by security to have two pills [of ecstasy] on him. Without saying a word, the security guy brought him to cops who took him to the station. After 90 minutes of waiting (no cell phone use), a cop came over, talked to him, and said two pills with no record, you’re free to go. No record was made of the incident. That could have gone worse.

  • Taxing Weed

    Oakland votes to tax medical marijuana.

    It’s expected to raise about $300,000 a year and passed with 80 percentof the vote.

  • The future with legal marijuana

    There can be a future with legal and regulated drugs.

    A drug deal plays out, California-style:

    A conservatively dressed courier drives a company-leased Smart Car to an apartment on a weekday afternoon. Erick Alvaro hands over a white paper bag to his 58-year-old customer, who inspects the bag to ensure that everything he ordered over the phone is there.

    An eighth-ounce of organic marijuana buds for treating his seasonal allergies? Check. An eighth of a different strain for insomnia? Check. THC-infused lozenges and tea bags? Check and check, with a free herb-laced cookie thrown in as a thank-you gift.

    It’s a $102 credit-card transaction carried out with the practiced efficiency of a home-delivered pizza

    The story by Marcus Wohlsen and Lisa Leff in the Seattle Times.

    [Thanks to Sgt. “they served him to me with his pants around his ankles” T.]

  • That’s the way it was

    That’s the way it was


    Walter Cronkite died Friday. He was 92. On his 90th birthday he told the Daily News, “I would like to think I’m still quite capable of covering a story.”

    He was known for knowing a failed war when he saw one. Not just Vietnam. He was against the War on Drugs and a friend of LEAP.

  • Amsterdam Party People

    Amsterdam Party People

    This account of the party scene in Amsterdam is from a person who enjoys such things. He’s lived in Amsterdam for the past 17 years.

    The Sensation dance party, Wicked Wonderland, held in the city’s largest football stadium. The dress code was all white. The party goes from 10pm to 6am. Tickets cost about $100 (69 euros).


    The placed is filled with thousands–probably tens of thousands people–dancing. [Update: there were 40,000 people on each of the two sold-out nights. Public transportation was excellent, night train schedules were posted in the bathrooms, and special free busses were running between 1 and 5am when the metro is shut down] Top DJs spin. It’s an upscale rave. Does that mean people are taking drugs? Of course.

    Nobody overdoses. Nobody dies. A good time is had by all. Many if not most of the people are high on marijuana and/or ecstasy. There’s also a full bar.

    [click on the picture to get an idea of the scale of this event. It is HUGE.]
    Because of our war on drugs, there’s no equivalent to this DJ-music party scene in the US. It’s actually illegal. Nobody can make money on such a large scale event because they all get shut down by police. It would be like closing down Yankee Stadium in the 1920s because people were drinking at baseball games.

    In Europe, this party scene is a job-creating industry. This one sounded like fun.

    Sensation White was the best or at least the most impressive dance music party I have even been to. It was at the Arena, but they did it up really nicely. The stage was in the center with four thrust parts going into the four corners. That meant that your section of the audience was broken up and smaller and there was stuff close to you.

    They did the place up so well with details and hiring hundred’ of models to work there. Everyone was actually dressed all in white, and the atmosphere was superb. And so many hot 20 somethings. Mmmmm. And 30 somethings and 40 somethings too. It was an exciting mix actually. And it sounded good. There, it’s official, a stadium set-up can sound perfect. I want nothing less in the future, please.

    Unlike two years ago where police in plainclothes were harassing party goers and arresting joint smokers (for what I’m not sure), this year they were present, helpful and in the background.

    It should be noted that two years ago the Amsterdam police were not actually going so far as to take people to jail for drug use. But they were taking people out of the party and giving them citations. Taking any action for marijuana in Amsterdam is pretty much unheard of. Much less “harassing” people who otherwise were not causing trouble. This year was more laid back.

    We did one e before getting on the metro and I had two more in my shoe. In the other shoe I had a joint and left a decoy joint in my pockets. When I took it out at the frisking, they said it wasn’t allowed. “Why?” I asked.

    You are allowed to have 5 grams [about 1/5 of an ounce] of weed in a bag and roll your own. But not a pre-rolled joint because, “We don’t know what is in it.”

    “You can go outside and smoke it right now if you want,” a second security helpfully offered.

    I thought that was very reasonable, but let them take it. I smoked the secret one over the evening in their classy, not stuffed, not smoky smoking room. The football stadium had windows the opened!

    I wrote back and said I was shocked that anybody in Amsterdam would have to resort to a “decoy joint.” It’s “just not mokum,” I said. His reply:

    On one hand it is ridiculous that I would bring a decoy roach. And it’s not Amsterdam. On the other hand, I think it’s still nice that I can bring a decoy roach just to see what the police/security will do and not be worried that anything bad will happen. Of course I know they are not going to make me take off my shoes, so drugs get in.

    Is this man a blight on society? A junkie? A long-haired hippy freak? Quite the contrary. This man, who may or may not be my brother, is a husband, a father, and employees lots of people. He is a businessman.

    Were it not for the permissive and successful drug policy of the Netherlands, he would not be in Amsterdam providing jobs and paying taxes. He never would have visited in the first place.