tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48881801280985662822024-02-20T16:13:19.173-08:00Marijuana Musings and Drug Law DiversionsBuford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-3145832244437703142014-09-27T16:56:00.002-07:002014-09-27T16:56:47.163-07:00The Myths of Rescheduling
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Myths of Rescheduling<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Talk
of rescheduling marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act has been rampant
lately, especially in light of recent statements by Attorney-General Holder and
then by his resignation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most agree that
the placement of marijuana in Schedule I, along with heroin and various
psychedelics, which prevents it from being prescribed or distributed through
commercial and pharmaceutical channels, is incorrect and should be
changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But quick action is unlikely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the shortcuts to rescheduling bandied
about today will not work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Three
myths are being proposed, but they are all faulty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But before dispelling those myths, an
understanding of the legal framework for scheduling is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My earlier post, “MJ, DEA, and APA” outlines
the legal and procedural requirement for that process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
first myth to be dispelled is that the Attorney-General may directly reschedule
a drug with the stroke of his pen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While
the DEA is administratively with the Justice Department, it functions under its
own statutory authority and the law gives the DEA Administrator sole authority
to schedule drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the A-G may
request (or possibly even order) the DEA to initiate a rescheduling process, he
may not usurp the Administrator’s authority and dictate what the determination
will be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the A-G disagrees with the
Administrator’s actions, he may ask the President to fire that Administrator
and appoint a new one (subject to Senatorial consent) more agreeable to him, or
he might restrict the agency’s funding in future budgets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Attorney-General’s control over the
scheduling process is only indirect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
second myth is that the Department of Health and Human Services can reschedule
marijuana through its own actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although current regulations (not statutes: an important distinction)
require the Secretary of HHS to provide a report on the “medical value” of
marijuana to the DEA in any proceeding to reschedule, this requirement is much
less than it appears for two reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, while HHS is required to submit the report to the DEA, it is not
conclusive or binding on the Administrator; he need only give it due
consideration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hearing is still
governed by the substantial evidence rule (see the earlier posting noted) and the
Administrator need only base his finding on substantial evidence, not a
preponderance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So long as the
Administrator has even a single credible (based on his determination) witness
that marijuana has no substantial medical use, then a court must uphold his finding
of continuing Schedule I placement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
HHS report has another, more serious flaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>HHS is required to report on the “medical value” of marijuana, but the
DEA is constitutionally barred from deciding medical value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For about ninety years – since 1925 – the Supreme
Court has held that the federal government cannot regulate the practice of
medicine, which includes determining what is or is not a medicine (most
recently in 2008).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few realize that the
FDA does not regulate medicine; it only approves labels for drugs; and if a
drug is sold without that approved label, the sale is deceptive and misleading
and the seller can be punished civilly and criminally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, the DEA cannot determine if a drug
is effective (or has medical “value”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The statute limits the DEA into determining whether the drug has “substantial
medical use”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, it can
only ask what doctors and patients, in fact, do with marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A medical “value” report would be irrelevant
to that determination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
third myth – that rescheduling will significantly contribute to marijuana law
reform – is partially true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rescheduling
would make marijuana more available to researchers and could lead to
improvement in therapies and the development of marijuana-based medicines, but
it would do little, if anything, to improve patient access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, morphine, Oxycodone, cocaine, and
amphetamines are all Schedule II drugs; but they all have FDA labelling
approval – all of which pre-date the CSA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Without FDA marketing approval, normal drug distribution channels would
still be closed<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/The%20Myths%20of%20Rescheduling.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal criminal laws against distribution or
possession are based on the identity of the drug, not its scheduling (cocaine
and methamphetamine are the best examples).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Rescheduling
would do little or nothing to correct the real costs of Prohibition – the fostering
of a violent black market, corrupt and abusive law enforcement, over-imprisonment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forty years of effort (the first rescheduling
petition was filed in 1972) have failed to overcome the almost overwhelming
legal obstacles to rescheduling, and have diverted effort and resources from
more direct efforts at reform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At best
rescheduling is a palliative, at worst, it hinders effective reform efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
route to reforming marijuana laws lies through the source of that disastrous
law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reform must come through Congress
and our efforts must focus on bringing that institution to act in the public
good. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/The%20Myths%20of%20Rescheduling.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> I
pose a question to those more knowledgeable about FDA law: If marijuana were
moved from Schedule I, could a practitioner or clinic with its own production
facility directly dispense marijuana to its patients even without an approved
NDA? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-72810574496754256872014-09-16T20:40:00.000-07:002014-09-16T20:40:06.631-07:00XXIst Amendment: Model for Reform?
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">XXI<sup>st</sup>
Amendment: Model for Reform?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="21.1"></a><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Section 1.</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is
hereby repealed.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="21.2"></a><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Section 2.</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of
the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in
violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="21.3"></a><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Section 3.</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided
in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof
to the States by the Congress<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 1933.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1933 the American people removed the
Prohibition of alcohol that they had imposed by the XVIIIth Amendment to the
Constitution only fourteen years earlier in 1919.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did so by ratifying the XXIst
Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today as the nation struggles
to get out from under the burden of drug Prohibition (especially that of
marijuana) can that amendment provide a model for accomplishing this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First, the good news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alcohol Prohibition was created by a
constitutional amendment, requiring another amendment to undo it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other the other hand, drug Prohibition is
only statutory and can be removed by the simple legislative process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second,
the model uses broad policy strokes, avoiding contentious legislative fights
over the details and fine print of reform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It avoids locking into place regulations that are either destructively
rigorous or so loose as to invite pandemonium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Its focus on federalism and local choices allows for experimentation to
allow the evolution of the most appropriate controls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Amendment has only two operative
sentences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first simply repeals the
Prohibition Amendment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second,
drawing on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, makes transportation of
alcohol across a state border in violation of that state’s laws a federal
crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(This interstate transport
provision is similar to the old Mann Act, making the interstate transport of a
woman across a state line for “immoral purposes” a federal crime, or the
presumption of interstate movement to enable FBI jurisdiction in kidnapping
cases.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These two simple provisions,
together with an excise tax on alcohol have provided sufficient regulation of
alcohol for over eighty years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Would the same two-step process -- first,
remove direct federal control, but provide federal assistance to states whose
laws differ from their neighbors -- be enough to end marijuana<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/XXIst%20Amendment%20Model%20for%20Reform.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Prohibition as well? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the
general plan would be effective, the broad scope of the federal anti-drug laws
add some complexities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The second part would be easy
enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A simple statute would make a
federal crime of transporting drugs into or through the territory of a state if
possession, transportation, distribution of that drug is a violation of that
state’s law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An exemption should
probably be created to allow travelers with medical marijuana permissions under
home state laws immunity for carrying small amounts for personal use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only problem would be to determine the
penalty level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The greatly reduced level
of enforcement would justify closing down the policing part of the DEA and
assigning the remainder to ATFE, which has over eighty years of enforcing
similar alcohol provisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first part – repealing the current
federal anti-marijuana laws -- is more problematic for two reasons. First,
marijuana Prohibition has metastasized throughout the federal code.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana possession or sale is penalized,
even if not directly criminalized, in laws affecting eligibility for public
housing, both student aid and aids and grants to educational institutions,
banking regulations, the tax code, employment drug testing, and many
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Close research of the federal
code will be necessary to insure that the repeal language is broad enough to
include all of these civil, indirect, or implicit restrictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Broad legislative factual determinations and
statements of legislative intent to remove all penalties should probably be
included for regulatory and judicial guidance in applying the repeal law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The other side of the coin is that some
federal regulation will need to be preserved, and possibly even
strengthened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana is, at base, an
agricultural commodity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>USDA and EPA
regulation of water use, fertilizer and pesticide use and run-off control,
erosion control of croplands, and USDA inspection of crops to be consumed are
essential. Since so many current marijuana farmers have been operating outside
the law, heightened efforts may be necessary to bring them into compliance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since almost all marijuana is ingested,
by smoking, eating, drinking, transdermally, or anally, it should be subject to
existing regulations for food products under the FDA, FTC, and USDA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the amount of insect parts or rat feces in
grain products are limited, so should those in marijuana be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana edibles should be subject to the
same purity, processing, packaging, and labelling standards as other edible
products are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A primary use for marijuana today, and
one of the strongest drivers for law reform, is medical use; but medical use is
also the area in which the need for continued federal regulation is
strongest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the goal may be for the
DEA and NIDA to fade away and ultimately go extinct, FDA regulation of medical
uses of marijuana will remain strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, this regulation should recognize a distinction between use of
the unaltered plant and the use of extracts, derivatives, and synthetics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The use of unaltered plants could be simply
and adequately managed if Congress moved those uses from the Controlled
Substances Act to the Dietary Supplements Act<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/XXIst%20Amendment%20Model%20for%20Reform.docx" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recognized strains with stable genetics
should be given protection under either trade name recognition or plant patent
protection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Derivatives and extracts
should remain under the full scope of the Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some extract processing incorporating the use
of flammable or explosive arguments require the imposition of the FDA’s best
manufacturing standards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These should all be required to
complete the New Drug process, but that process presents a severe problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The chemistry of marijuana is well known, and
many of the therapeutic uses have histories now decades long; and this history
prevents patenting of molecules or procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Without patent protection, no private party will invest the millions
(often several hundred millions) to pursue a New Drug Application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some kind of fast-track process will be
necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either Congress must provide
it or the FDA can act administratively as they have done in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the governing law was changed to require
prescriptions for many drugs and again when it was changed to require proof of
efficacy, the FDA used administrative panels to authorize the use of drugs (the
GRAS and GRASE lists) based on the history of their use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same could be done for many, but not all,
uses of marijuana and extracts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The XXI<sup>st</sup> Amendment provides
a model for reforming federal marijuana law, but only a model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The current law is much more complex than
that of 1933, and a more sophisticated approach is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the basic federalism approach of
delegating regulation to the states, which can once more be the laboratories of
democracy, provides an approach that is both effective and cautious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The approach is relatively quick and
nopn-disruptive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should start
applying it now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/XXIst%20Amendment%20Model%20for%20Reform.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> While
marijuana is the logical first step, and may be an essential one, the same
approach should work for other drugs as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/XXIst%20Amendment%20Model%20for%20Reform.docx" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
See my earlier post “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marijuana: Drug or Herb? “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-69171953611536841192014-05-08T21:16:00.003-07:002014-05-08T21:16:31.784-07:00Droning On
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Droning
On<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Drones
(unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs) have been prominent in the news lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amazon rolled out its plan for
almost-instantaneous home delivery using drones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The NY Mets got in trouble with the FAA for
using a drone to take overhead pictures during spring training (their response
was that pop flies went higher than the photo drone), and a California medical
marijuana dispenser proposed using drones to deliver his medical herbs to
patients’ homes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drones are one of those
technologies that have potential for major social and economic advances, and in
the short run, they can radically change the War on Drugs, speeding the move to
the end of Prohibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Many
of the world-changing technologies affect transportation or communication –
printing, railroads and steamships, telegraph, and motion pictures are good
examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The contrasts between the life
of a pre-Gutenberg European and a nineteenth century American, eating beef
shipped from the West and dressed in New England clothing while reading a
morning paper from a high-speed steam press is startling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But these first generation technologies
underwent transformations even more amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">First
they went from being bulk carriers to serving individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The telegraph, with central offices and
trained intermediaries for every transactions was replaced by the telephone
under the direct control of the user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trains were superseded by automobiles and trucks and 1,000-passenger
ocean liners by smaller, faster, more flexible airplanes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies were shoved aside by radio and
television.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Leaps
forward became gigantic bounds when they combined with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Movies were a combination of photography and
electric lights and motors; and in turn, television combined radio and
movies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When these early jumps joined
with the leaps of the late twentieth century – computers, space flight, and the
internet – the leaps became revolutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Modern weather forecasting was a child of the telegraph, but only when
it was combined with satellite visualization, hurricane airplanes, computerized
radars, and broadband communications did it become a truly reliable part of
daily life and business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The modern
smart phone bears little resemblance with Grandma’s black, wired to the wall,
one-to-a-house rotary dial model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
tv dinners zapped in microwave ovens far surpass the canned foods developed for
Napoleon’s armies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Drones
stand on top of four legs of these modern revolutions: transportation,
communication, networking, and space technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Amazon proposal is a good example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amazon would receive orders by mobile
telephone or the internet and process payment through networking computerized
banks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Final delivery to the purchaser
would be by drone guided by satellite-based GPS navigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other recent examples are wide-spread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Photographers are using drones for everything
from the Mets publicity pictures mentioned above to new angles on wedding
spreads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Farmers use them to inspect
their crops and herd livestock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon
they will replace manned aircraft for crop straying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wildlife biologists do animal and habitat
surveys quicker and more accurately than by hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They could often replace television news
helicopters which have horrible safety records.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Drones are beginning to appear in law enforcement contexts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The full scope of their use is almost
unimaginable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Drones
could cause major changes in the War on Drugs in the next few years, making it
less dangerous and violent and hastening the end of Prohibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drones actually have a long history in drug
trafficking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 1980s stories
surfaced of Mexican drug smugglers using radio-controlled model airplanes to
move kilogram-sized loads of cocaine across the Rio Grande into Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They could not be spotted on radar and could
not be seen or heard from more than a few hundred feet away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They could land on very small open spots and
then left to sit until the receivers were sure they had not been detected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With radio controllers on both ends of the
flight they could be sent back for reuse, but were cheap enough to be
disposable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Over
time those model airplanes have morphed into both large military drones with
payloads measured in tons and small computerized tools that can go anywhere;
both have the capability to remove most of the risks of drug trafficking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drug traffickers face risks at three times:
when crossing the American border, while carrying drugs in transit, and while
making an actual sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drones could
minimize all three of these risks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Just
like the model airplanes, large military-style drones (costing less than the
jet airplanes or even large trucks now used) could cross the U. S. borders from
Canada, Mexico, or anywhere along the sea coast with little risk of detection;
and if detected or intercepted, the smugglers – not at the scene – would avoid
arrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those same drones, flying low
below radar coverage, away from major roads, and landing in isolated areas,
could ghost shipments within the country as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Street-corner
sales, both to the consumer and small-scale wholesale is where the small drones
will come into their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Flying just
above street-light level and below rooflines, they will be practically
undetectable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guided from a third- or
fourth-floor window, they can deliver to a single customer almost instantaneously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the extent payment can be mediated
electronically via cell phone, no actual seller-buyer contact will be
necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These transactions will
eliminate undercover purchases and sting buys since the purchaser would have no
contact with, or ability to identify, the seller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even street surveillance by police would be
of little use.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
gains to police from the use of drones will be of much less utility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are already using large drones for
border inspection, but those will be of less value against smuggler drones than
they currently are against surface transportation or manned aircraft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since small drones will move drug dealers off
of the streets, small police drones will have little to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use against grow-houses or processing plants
are indoors and will continue to require the police to follow warrant
procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Drones
should appear in drug transactions quickly, and their use will expand even
faster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will have the effect of
shifting the advantage from the police to the drug marketers, making
enforcement harder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The War on Drugs
will be even more futile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
effect of introducing drones into the drug market will grow from a buzz to a
drone to an uproar – a blare that will help trumpet the end of Prohibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-4376755838359854582014-04-06T09:05:00.001-07:002014-04-06T09:05:14.315-07:00Is it Time for Hemp?
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Is
it Time for Hemp?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack has suggested that the United States assist the Ukraine
by purchasing hemp seeds, but wouldn’t letting American farmers grow their own
be a better idea?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Go
to any supermarket and read the labels carefully: a surprising number of foods
contain hemp seeds or hemp oil – even hemp milk for that bowl of cereal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the drug store look for cosmetics,
shampoos, and soaps containing hemp-seed oil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Entire shops sell only hemp clothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A few years ago, a car fueled only by hemp-seed oil circumnavigated the
United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But none of that hemp was
grown by American farmers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was all
imported from Canada, Europe (including the Ukraine), and China.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Why
don’t American farmers grow this versatile crop?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s because Congress has made it illegal,
treating it like a dangerous drug, and growing it could land the farmer in
federal prison for a long stretch of years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In 1937 Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, which included all parts
of the plant <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cannabis Sativa</i> in its
definition of marihuana; but in response to the complaints of fine-art paint
manufacturers who used hemp seed oil instead of linseed and bird seed
manufacturers complaining that caged canaries would not sing without hemp seed
in their diet(the fore-runners of today’s rock musicians?), congress allowed
their importation of sterilized hempseeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That exemption, which also included allowance of the importation of
processed hemp products, was continued in the current law, the Controlled
Substances Act of 1970.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is
that American canaries can eat hemp bird seed, American food processors can
include hemp in their products, American clothiers can sell hemp garments, and
American cars can run on hemp fuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only
the American farmer is barred from participating in that market.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Are
hemp and marijuana the same thing? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
the federal government recognized, both hemp and marijuana are variants of the
same species, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cannabis sativa,</i>
(marijuana also includes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">C. indicia</i>,
but that plant is rarely used for food or fiber) just like Saint Bernards and
Chihuahuas are both members of the same species, </span><span class="st1"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #545454; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Canis lupus familiaris</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference between hemp and marijuana is
primarily the content of THC, the primary psychoactive chemical in
marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hemp contains less than 0.5%
THC, while marijuana has anywhere from 6 to over 20 per cent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The old saying is that one would have to
smoke a joint as big as a telephone pole in less than fifteen minutes to get
high from hemp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have found no record
in over three thousand years of history of anyone getting high from consuming
hemp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
government’s insistence on conflating hemp and marijuana is based on the claim
that law enforcement officers will not be able to distinguish a hemp field from
a marijuana patch and their efforts would be hampered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem with that argument is that the
two plants require totally different cultivation methods, making their growths
highly distinctive from as far away as they can be seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hemp is planted as close together as possible,
forcing them to grow high with little or no branching, to produce the longest
fibers possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana plants are
widely spaced and pruned relatively low to encourage branching for maximum
flower production.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The collateral fear
expressed is that a marijuana patch would be hidden by placing it in the center
of a field, surrounded by the taller, more thickly planted hemp stalks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, marijuana grown that way would be
useless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plants would be pollinated
by the hemp, producing seeds and lowering the THC content to a uselessly low
level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over two hundred years ago, the
great biologist Carl Linnaeus recognized that hemp and marijuana (then called
“Indian Hemp”) were the same species and observed that the cultivation methods
prevented hemp from being psychoactive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The police can quickly learn to tell the two varieties apart, just as
they have no problem preventing millions of gallons of ethanol from being
diverted to bootleggers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Hemp
has a long and central, if largely unsung role in American history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>British law required most farmers in the
American colonies to grow hemp to supply the royal navy; George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson were hemp farmers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were circulated on hemp paper,
and all U. S. currency was printed on hemp from the Civil War into the
1930s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">U.S.S. Constitution</i>, “Old Ironsides”, was rigged with miles of hemp
rope and acres of hemp sails, as were all the China clippers, New England
whalers, and almost all other sailing ships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even during World War II, the federal government exempted hemp growers
from the drug laws to ensure the navy would have the ropes it needed for that
war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Secretary
Vilsack should not only buy sterilized hemp seed from the Ukraine, he should
fight to change the law so that he could buy fertile seeds as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The law should be changed so that American
farmers can regain their place as leaders in the production of this versatile
crop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-29043784642599347082014-03-25T08:07:00.003-07:002014-03-25T08:07:33.867-07:00Capping or Branding?
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Capping
or Branding?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Once
upon a time long ago (no, not the Stone Age, only 1978) I took a course in
Chinese legal systems at Harvard Law School, and one item in particular has
stuck with me ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Professor
Jerome Cohen told us that, in contrast to Anglo-American legal traditions that
spoke of someone being branded a felon, the classical Chinese idiom referred
instead to capping him as a felon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
differences are profound.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Chinese thinking was that people were not intrinsically bad or good, and that
bad behavior was the result of improper learning and life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While those whose acted badly had to be
removed from society for the protection of others, their confinement should be
used to re-educate them, teaching them to be proper and useful members of
society, and it should last until, but only until, that goal was reached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they showed themselves to be
rehabilitated<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/Capping%20or%20Branding.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
they would be released, shedding their prison garb (including the cap), and
with the cap removed, rejoin society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Professor Cohen’s analogy was a misbehaving school boy, forced to sit in
the corner, but who, his lesson learned, would shed his dunce cap and rejoin
the class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even after the Communist
revolution of 1949, the Mao government, rather cynically, continued to pay lip service
to this tradition by calling their brutal and repressive prisons “Reform
Through Labor” camps. (Perhaps it was not totally cynical; after Mao’s death
almost every one of the next generation of leaders had spent some time toiling
in one of these camps.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
English tradition, which later migrated to America, did not separate the act
from the actor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compatible with the
Christian view that Man was inherently sinful in nature, bad acts were seen as
the visible sign of that internal evil and the purpose of the law was to remove
the evil-doer to prevent his further harm to others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first, that removal was accomplished by
outlawing him: all protection of the law would be denied to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone providing food or shelter to the
outlaw would themselves be punished, and any person could legally kill the
outlaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His only hope of survival was to
leave the kingdom. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the legal system
developed, outlawing was replaced by capital and corporal punishment, which
included flogging and amputation as well as public abuse in pillories or
stocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These punishments were usually
accompanied with branding or mutilation so that, for the rest of his life, the
felon’s appearance would warn others of his inherent criminal and sinful nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An A (arsonist), R (rapist), T (thief), or B
(burglar) would be branded on his cheek or forehead; or an ear or nose would be
cropped off as a more general warning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">By
the time the American colonies were founded, England was moving away from
corporal punishment to imprisonment, soon combined with banishment to penal
colonies, although corporal punishment continued to a small extent in some
American states until the twentieth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the idea of criminal behavior as a symptom of an inherent character
flaw continued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American criminals
continue to be symbolically branded even after they have completed prison
sentences and been released from judicial supervision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Hester Primm’s big red A in Hawthorne’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Scarlet Letter</i> is a literary example
of this kind of thinking.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even today in
many states former convicts are barred from voting, denied student aid, cannot
get public housing, and find themselves barred from many jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if their faces are not scarred their
pasts have branded them for life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">But
America began to take faltering steps from branding to capping at an early
date. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the Founding
Fathers and a leading medical practitioner of the time, advocated a new design
for prisons that he called “penitentiaries”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These would be places where a convict would have quiet and solitude to
meditate on his sins, become penitent for them, and reconstruct himself as a
new man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the middle of the nineteenth
century most juveniles and some women were not flogged or imprisoned, but were
sent to “reformatories” where they would be taught to lead proper lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gradually some of these ideas were
incorporated into prison doctrine: inmate education, pre-release programs,
parole, half-way houses; but the programs remained primarily punitive and
conviction remained a permanent stigma, not a lapse that could be remedied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Convicts are still barred from voting, from
jobs, from housing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">However,
the last half-century, combining the War on Drugs and “tough on crime” has
swelled the prison system to the breaking point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Total federal and state inmates have almost
reached the two-million mark, the highest rate in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This American Gulag is peopled primarily by
Black males and non-violent drug offenders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Over half the federal prisoners are confined for simple commercial drug
transactions, and these, like other prisoners are disproportionately men of
color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost one-third of all black men
in America are under the supervision of the criminal justice system: on
pre-trial detention or release, on probation or parole, or in jail or prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the stigma of that incarceration remains
for their entire lives – just like a brand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This
prison complex has become so blotted and inhumane that it can no longer be
supported.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, one of the most
hard-nosed of the tough-on-crime jurisdictions first realized this failure, and
Texas has become a leader on penal reform – albeit under the force of federal
court orders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Community-based and
education centered programs aimed at rehabilitation have emerged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The federal government has also began backing
away from some of the worst excesses of the War on Drugs and the New Jim Crow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal Prosecutors have been ordered to
avoid filing charges that require mandatory minimum sentences, and the Attorney
General is starting to examine clemency for those previously sentenced under
those laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has also started to
question state laws that disenfranchise felons who have completed their
sentences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legalization of marijuana in
Colorado has led to wide-spread calls to retroactively purge the criminal
records of those who have previously been convicted for offenses now legal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Change
is in the air, and ending drug Prohibition is a prime driving force of that
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The humanization of brutal,
scarifying prisons is now under way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps we are finally beating our branding irons into plowshares to
till the fields of rehabilitation so that those who act badly can finally shed
their felon’s caps and rejoin society. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/Capping%20or%20Branding.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An interesting word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rewriting shows its roots: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">re-habilitation </i>would be installing new
habits.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-41552605859068537042014-03-12T13:48:00.002-07:002014-03-12T13:48:42.541-07:00To End the War on Drugs
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">To
End the War on Drugs<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">My
friend and colleague Dean Becker has been reporting on the War on Drugs for
fifteen years, first on radio and more recently on television as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have attended a conference on Drug War
policy in the last several years, you have probably seen him with his
microphone and camera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This work has
resulted in an archive of over 40,000 pages<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/To%20End%20the%20War%20on%20Drugs.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">[1]</span></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dean has taken excerpts from that archive and
made them the basis of his new book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
End the War on Drugs: A Guide for Politicians the Press and Public<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/To%20End%20the%20War%20on%20Drugs.docx" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">[2]</span></span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over 115 interviews are quoted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
book is a great read for almost everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those new to the issues of drug law and reform will find most of the
issues laid out in ways easy to understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Old timers in these issues will become acquainted with the names they
have been hearing for years and also learn more about them individually and
about what has motivated them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
structured with short excerpts (from a few paragraphs to a few pages) that, as
well as contributing to the overall flow of Dean’s argument, stand alone so
that the book will be welcoming to browsers to pick their way through it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sets of excerpts are tied together with
essays by Dean that provide context and organization and tell a lot of Dean’s
personal journey as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
scope of these interviews is breath-taking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They range from people in law enforcement – police (mainly retired and
members of LEAP as is Dean himself) to judges to a prison warden – through medical
researchers and practitioners to medical marijuana patients and their families
to victims of the drug war to those who have led the fight against it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While this breadth leads to some repetition,
even that repetition paints more details into a vast and vibrant landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">My
major regret with the book is that Dean didn’t start early enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have liked to read the thoughts of
the first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cucaracha</i> to bring his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mota</i> across the Rio Grande or to hear
Dr. O’Shaughnessy talk about his experiences with cannabis in British India or
learn what George Washington hoped for the commercial prospects of his hemp
crop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But maybe we will be lucky enough
to hear his interview with the president just after he signs the act repealing
drug prohibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This
is a good book that will educate, hearten, and inspire you as it welcomes you
into the community of those trying to make everyone’s life better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pick it up and read it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll be glad you did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">If
you want more of Dean, in addition to his book, you can go to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 75.65pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">“Century of Lies” radio broadcasts, KPFT-FM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 75.65pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="http://www.drugtruth.net/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">www.DrugTruth.net</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 75.65pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Endthedrugwar.us<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 75.65pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Archives, The James A. Baker III Institute,
Rice University www.BakerInstitute.org<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/To%20End%20the%20War%20on%20Drugs.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">[1]</span></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now at the James A. Baker III Institute of
Rice University.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus5/To%20End%20the%20War%20on%20Drugs.docx" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">[2]</span></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
Available at Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle formats.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-29612781205457686862014-03-03T09:02:00.002-08:002014-03-03T09:02:41.762-08:00Get Shorty
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Get
Shorty<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Mexican Marines arrested “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, reputed head of the
Sinaloa drug cartel, and the DEA has been crowing like a rooster greeting an
Alaskan spring dawn after a six-month sunless winter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the press is to be believed, Guzman certainly
is a cold, violent, deadly career criminal who has earned a life-long tenancy
in a federal Super-Max prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there
is much less about his capture than meets the eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not merit the gleeful celebrations of
the Drug War bureaucrats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Getting
Shorty (I don’t call it an arrest because this military raid has little, if
anything, to do with proper police procedure) fails to give cause for
celebration for two reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The minor
one is its cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kind of multi-national
military and police operation extending over several days or weeks and
involving two cities has to have cost several million dollars to plan and
execute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other large cost,
potentially much more serious, was only a probability that happily did not
occur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An large-scale armed raid on a
man known to surround himself with professional killers was likely to end in a
storm of gunfire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To stage one in the
middle of a large city whose streets teem with people around the clock was to
invite injury or death to multitudes of innocent bystanders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we really want scenes like those from the
streets of Damascus staged in our cities?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By sheer luck, this incipient battle ended bloodlessly – this time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
major shortcoming of the Get Shorty caper is that it did nothing to further the
stated goals of the War on Drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
way or another, the Cartels will continue their businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of El Chapo’s underlings will step in, or
Sinaloa will split into separate parts each carrying on the trade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The worst outcome would be for warfare to
break out again among all the rival groups sensing a weakness in Guzman’s
group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That kind of warfare would
increase the bloodshed in Mexico and possibly in Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And since wars cost money, the rivals would
feel pressure to increase the volume of their sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ascendancy of the Cali Cartel to control
over Colombia’s cocaine trade after the killing of Pablo Escobar is a good
precedent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Mexican cartels have much
deeper and stronger roots than did the Colombian ones. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the Mexican gangs have been in
continuous operation since the days they were smuggling alcohol across the
border in the 1920s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">While
the marines and DEA were staging their circus act in Mazatlán, Colorado and
Washington were quietly attacking the Cartels in the way that does the most
damage:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by legalizing the production and
sale of marijuana they are working to cut off the flow of money that is both
the reason for the Cartels’ existence and the fuel that allows them to
function.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legitimizing the product
removes the high contraband premium adds to the price of marijuana, probably
dropping the price by at least ninety percent, and it also prevents the police
agencies from enforcing and protecting the Cartel monopoly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guzman’s group can in no way compete with
honest farmers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Classical
mythology tells of the Hydra, a hideous flesh-eating monster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hydra was thought to be invincible because
when its head was cut off, it immediately grew two more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heracles solved the problem by ignoring the
threatening heads and going straight for its heart, killing the Hydra with a
single sword thrust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By going after
Guzman, the DEA is merely hacking at the Hydra’s head: legalization, by
stemming the life-blood flow of money, is thrusting into the monster’s
heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time has come to quit
flailing around blindly and to start cutting surgically by removing the
Prohibition heart of the monster. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-19140581521695395312014-02-11T08:39:00.002-08:002014-02-11T08:39:23.955-08:00Death By Heroin
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Death
By Heroin<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Philip
Seymour Hoffman died last week, his death apparently heroin-related.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a popular Oscar-winning film actor,
and since his death closely followed substantial outcroppings of opiate-related
deaths around the country, the news media have gone wild with the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But was his death a consequence of heroin use
or of the laws against heroin?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Answering
that question involves looking at three issues: the safety of opiates,
including heroin, themselves; the kinds of deaths suffered by opiate users; and
the effects of the drug Prohibition laws on those deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
opiates are incredibly safe drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
use goes back at least 4,000 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the last fifty years before their Prohibition (c. 1860 – 1914) opiate use –
primarily opium but also morphine and heroin – was widespread and compulsive
use was viewed as a significant social problem, but overdose deaths were
extremely rare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These opiate-related
deaths started becoming common only after the major maintenance clinics were
closed in 1925.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even now, pure heroin overdose
deaths are rare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Experienced users can
build remarkable tolerances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One addict
at the Lexington Narcotics Farm was recorded as using over 1,600 mg. a day –
about ten times the lethal dose; and Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to one
hundred times stronger than heroin, is routinely administered for several
chronic pain in doses equivalent to 3,000 mg of heroin daily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only side effects of opiates are
constipation and the risk of withdrawal symptoms roughly equivalent to the flu
if use is stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An addict maintained
on pure heroin can lead a long, normal life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The lives of three men are illustrative of what a heroin addict’s life
can be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. William Halsted became
addicted to heroin and morphine before age thirty and used them daily until his
death in his seventies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that time he
became “The Father of American Surgery”, helping form n Hopkins, served as
chief of staff, instituted the use of rubber gloves, and developed the
techniques still used for hernia repair and mastectomy. William Burroughs used
heroin regularly from his thirties until his death in his seventies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His novels written during that time included <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Junky</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Naked Lunch</i>, and he is viewed as a major influence on modern
American literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Philip Hoffman
serves as a bridge between the ability to function as an addict and the dangers
imposed by suppressing heroin into an underground market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a heroin addict before age twenty-two,
and before his death at forty-six, had appeared in over fifty movies, been
nominated for Tony awards, and won an Oscar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His death with a needle still dangling in his arm raises the issues in
the next section.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Many
heroin users die from opiate-related causes, but few of them die heroin-caused
deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many become homeless because of
the pressures of living in a black market and paying Prohibition-fueled premiums
for a cheap commodity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They die from
malnutrition, exposure, or violence endemic to life on the streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the other deaths are caused by
impurity, adulteration, or substitution common in unregulated drugs or from the
consequences of unsterile injection techniques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Almost all of the recently reported deaths involve mixtures of heroin
and Fentanyl, a hundred times stronger than heroin as noted above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are probably overdose deaths – but overdoses
of Fentanyl, not heroin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A heroin user unknowingly
injecting Fentanyl is trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For several decades heroin users have died
when their suppliers substituted Fentanyl for the heroin they expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an illegal market, heroin’s supply has wavered
from drought to flood, and when it is scarce Fentanyl steps in and death
results. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other
adulterants or substitutions can also be fatal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A large number of Dallas teenagers died after injecting a heroin mix
called “cheese”, which was a combination of heroin and Tylenol RM that contains
</span><span class="st1"><span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">diphenhydramine
(Benadryl).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The required label for
diphenhydramine lists death in adolescents as a possible side effect and warns
that combination with opiates can strengthen the actions of the drug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Autopsies showed low or moderate levels of
heroin and high levels of diphenhydramine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another episode near Houston resulted in the deaths of about twenty
men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They bought and injected what they
thought were usual doses of cocaine, but the drug was actually 60% pure heroin:
what would have been their expected high if were cocaine was a fatal amount of
heroin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor injection technique can
also be deadly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Injection of air bubbles
or solid contaminants can cause embolisms or thromboses, either of which can
cause instant deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the body is
found with the needle still imbedded, that is usually the marker of this kind
of flawed injection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overdose, which
takes over an hour at the least, allows plenty of time for the user to remove
the needle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="st1"><span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If this analysis is
correct, countries with legal heroin available should have much lower
opiate-related deaths than those that Prohibit the drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four examples support this assumption, and,
to the best of my knowledge, none show contrary results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As mentioned previously, opiates were freely
available In the U. S. before 1914 and habitual use was recognized as a
problem, but opiate-related deaths were virtually unknown. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incidentally, before the Harrison Act heroin
was generally snorted, smoked, or taken orally; injection only became common
after tight regulation made pure drugs hard to obtain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Switzerland has distributed free heroin to
addicts for almost two decades and the Netherlands has recently joined them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deaths have virtually disappeared, related
property crimes have gone down, and the rate of use has not increased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best example is England, which started
allowing doctors to distribute heroin to addicts in 1914.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They continued to do so until the Thatcherite
regime stopped the process in the 1980s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both the number of deaths and the rate of drug-trafficking crimes shot
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The English resumed supplying
opiates to addicts and the death and crime rates dropped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In comparison, Scotland continued strict
Prohibition and continues to have death and crime problems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="st1"><span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This year marks one
hundred years since the passage of both the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act and the
first Hague Convention on narcotics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They have created a century of Death By Heroin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a society can learn from its history, the
world should have realized by now that Prohibition does not stop drug use, but
it does impose an unconscionable toll of death, misery, and crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One hundred years is enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stop this failed experiment and end
Prohibition now. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-34769328823977526062014-02-01T07:06:00.003-08:002014-02-01T07:06:59.655-08:00Legalizing It
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Legalizing
It<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
news media have been alive with talk about legalizing marijuana for some time
now, especially since the 2012 votes in Colorado and Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But no one is really sure what legalizing
marijuana means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The easiest way to
answer this question is to just apply the words literally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It simply means to apply rules and
regulations to an already existing lawless market, thereby bringing safety and
order to that market.about<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
marijuana market exists now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It existed
before the Marihuana Tax Act was passed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many in states along the Mexican border were using it by 1915 (The
federal government issued its first large study before 1920). Use in the
military was so common that the Army Surgeon-General issued a report in 1932
(His conclusion: marijuana presented no risk to effectiveness, discipline, or
health and no regulations were needed). Musicians in Chicago and Kansas City
used it in the 1930s (Louis Armstrong was arrested for possession in Los
Angeles) and it was common in Harlem and Boston.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it will continue to exist whether its
Prohibition ends or continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal
government surveys show that more than 15,000,000 people use each month.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">But
that market is different from the market for prescription drugs or automobiles
or blue jeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of Prohibition
the marijuana market is law-less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
operates in the dark where the law cannot reach: a black market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legalization does not mean creating a market –
that already exists; it only means applying the usual rules and regulations to
that market: bringing it into the light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Markets
without regulation are always expensive and destructive at every step in the
process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manufacturing or processing the
goods are hazardous both to the consumer and to the neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before the Pure Food and Drug Act, millions
died from spoiled meats or adulterated foods; and bathtub gin, denatured
alcohol and jakeleg killed or crippled tens of thousands during alcohol
Prohibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the deaths
attributed to heroin are actually due to adulterants, substituted drugs, or
unexpected potency; the same can be said for all of the reported MDMA
deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana has also had its
purity problems with herbicide, pesticide, and fertilizer contaminants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These poisonings have been almost eliminated
from food and drink (including alcohol) by modern regulation and inspection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Preparing
drugs illegally also creates unnecessary hazards. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bathtub gin stills exploded, burning down
crowded tenement apartments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Illegal
meth cookers spill hazardous chemicals and explode in populated neighborhoods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana growhouses burn from improper
electrical installations and innocent passers-by have been killed by booby
traps at illegal grows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Jim Beam and
Jack Daniels have been safely distilling whiskey for generations; and licensed
pharmaceuticals have safely manufactured methamphetamine (yes, it is a legal
prescription drug) for eighty years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legal
marijuana would be grown and processed as safely as tomatoes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
most dangerous part of an illegal market are the people who run it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combination of artificially high prices
and high risks of imprisonment or death attracts only the most ruthless and
violent to compete in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During alcohol
Prohibition, modern organized crime got it start in the mobs that ruled Chicago
and New York with tommy guns and bribes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After repeal lowered prices and overt regulation forced these gangs from
alcohol into the other Prohibition-based markets of prostitution, gambling, and
drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The height of the cocaine era was
dominated by first the Colombian, then the Mexican Cartels, who elevated
violence to military levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have
also been prevalent in the marijuana trade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These Cartels combine with local street gangs at the retail level of the
market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Repealing Prohibition replaced
the murderous gangs by law-abiding breweries and distilleries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legalization and regulation by repealing
marijuana would accomplish the same transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The marijuana
market existed before the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act; it has not only
continued, but has flourished and grown since; and it will continue into the
foreseeable future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only question
facing Congress and state legislatures is whether that market will continue to
fester in the dark of a criminalized black market or will it be brought out
into the healthy sunlight of a legal market kept well and strong by rules and
regulations – rules that protect not just the consumers in that market but also
the by-standers whose lives, homes, and livelihoods are jeopardized by the
Prohibition parasites that repressive laws foster among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legalizing the marijuana market will protect
everyone. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-35118669358189864932014-01-11T08:41:00.003-08:002014-01-11T08:41:52.811-08:00Poor, Puny Anonymities
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Poor,
Puny Anonymities<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In
1919 a divided Supreme Court upheld long prison sentences for four marginally
employed anarchists in New York for printing and passing out a few poorly
written pamphlets opposing use of the U. S. military against the Russian
Revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Justice Holmes wrote a
stinging dissent that, with its “clear and present danger” test, soon became
the bedrock of modern free speech law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In that dissent he called the defendants “poor, puny anonymities”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Poor,
puny anonymities is a good description of the victims of the War on Drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These should be contrasted to those whose
exposure to affluenza has immunized them to the consequences of this war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both groups are targets of the Drug Warriors,
but their fates are totally different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
vast majority of the Drug War victims are truly poor, puny, and anonymous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the young, under-educated and
–employed, powerless, and usually black or brown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the ones who are stopped and frisked
on city streets and profile=stopped on the highways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They disproportionately fill the jails and
prisons and suffer the civil, educational, and employment consequences after
release from confinement: confinement that is itself disproportionately long
compared to their affluent counterpoints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Michelle Alexander, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New Jim
Crow</i>, has done much better in describing their plight and fate than I can
even attempt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
children of affluence face a different fate when they become ensnarled by the
Drug War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their infection of affluenza
immunizes them from its pathological effects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A recent trial in Texas gained notoriety when a thirteen year old by
pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal homicide when his drunken driving
spree resulted in four deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The judge
sentenced him to ten years probation with his parents agreeing to place him in
a private rehabilitation facility at a cost to them of $450,000 per year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The judge explained that the youth could not
control himself because his over-indulgent upbringing shielded him from the
consequences of his earlier wrong-doings and had totally failed to teach him
either right from wrong or self-restraint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In an interview, a psychologist who had testified as an expert for the
defense, described the boy’s condition as a case of affluenza.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Both
the affluenzaics and the poor and puny run afoul of the Drug Warriors (although
the poor are targeted in much greater numbers, but the aftereffects of
affluenza include immunity to Drug War casualties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While no Prof. Alexander has appeared to
document and analyze the fates of these affluent few, everyone can easily
create his own top ten list of offenders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A few of the better-known stories can hint at the scope of their
immunity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Politics
provides some good examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mayor Rob
Ford of Toronto, when shown a video of him smoking crack cocaine, admitted it
but excused himself as having done it in a “drunken stupor”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only did he receive no punishment, he is
running for re-election with high popular support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Republican Congressman Trey Redel was not
quite as fortunate: after being caught buying cocaine in a police undercover
operation, he received probation and is still serving his time on the floor of
congress and considering a run for re-election as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Democratic Congressman Patrick Kennedy (of
the Hyannis port clan) did resign from congress after causing an
Ambien-influenced car wreck, spent a short stay in an expensive rehab spa and
now is a highly visible Drug Warrior on the celebrity speech tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These three affluent druggies spent a total
of zero days in jail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
world of entertainment presents the most lurid pictures of affluenza immunity –
from marijuana-centered hip hop lifestyles to Miley Cyrus toking a joint on You
Tube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even in the entertainment
world some affluenziacs are more outrageous than others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Louis Armstrong was arrested and assessed a
small fine for marijuana possession in L. A. in the early 1930s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the next thirty years he smoked it almost
constantly and, according to legend, insisted that all of his band members get
high before any performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Willie
Nelson’s tour bus was found to carry marijuana in Sierra Blanca, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sheriff offered not to file charges if
Willie would sing a song in the sheriff’s office; to his credit, Willie turned
down the offer with the scorn it deserved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lindsey Lohan’s drug-abusing behavior has had her in and out of court on
a regular basis for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The number of
times she has appeared in court is probably greater than the number of days she
has spent in jail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
best story of all illustrates both ends of the poor-and-puny to affluent
spectrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rush Limbaugh, darling of talk
radio, developed a craving for opiates that he satisfied with black market
OxyCotin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unwilling to run the risks of
making criminal purchases himself, he coerced his maid into buying for
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was arrested while making a
parking lot purchase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The maid was
convicted and sentenced for Prohibition violations, but Rush – instigator of
the transaction – continues to be the number one bloviator of the airwaves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Andre
Gide, the French literature Nobelist, once observed that the Law in its
infinite majesty forbids to both the rich and the poor the right to sleep under
the bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drug Prohibition reveals the
dark side of that maxim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It shows Lady
Law peeking around her blindfold to plant her thumb solidly on the scales of
Justice, weighing down the poor, puny anonymities while elevating and coddling
the Affluent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now is the time to insist
that she rebalance her scales. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-61022450495917745802014-01-01T09:08:00.000-08:002014-01-01T09:08:07.745-08:00The News That Didn't Happen
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">The
News That Didn’t Happen<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">On
Wednesday, the first legal pot shops opened in Colorado.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>News cameras from around the world focused on
their doors, but the real news is what didn’t happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
health news is what didn’t happen in emergency rooms around the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a single overdose death was
reported.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No patients were treated for
bad trips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fewer trauma patients than
normal were admitted, mainly because of a decrease in serious traffic accidents.
(However, a few new minor injuries were reported when newbies burned their
fingers or eyebrows while trying to light that first joint.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Reporters
covering the police beat also found mostly no stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cops worked very few impaired driving
wrecks (that number had been going down dramatically ever since the
legalization of medical marijuana).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
bars were quiet with few fights to be broken up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were only sporadically called for
domestic abuse cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Except for a few
murders and robberies the state was quiet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">While
the schools are closed for the holidays, they are expected to resume with no
news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will have no more absentees
than normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stoned highschoolers will
not be giggling and disrupting classes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No more teenagers will be nodding off in class than in this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The band will still play Sousa marches, not
Grateful Dead jams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Football and basketball
teams will still concentrate on their practice drills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the teachers will pay attention to their
lesson plans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">No
news was the story on the street corners and in the alleys as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That dejected looking man slinking around the
corner was a dealer who had not made a sale all day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No alley was blocked by a truck unloading a
ton from Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No immigrant with
calves like cantaloupes was arrested with a seventy-five pound backpack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The local news did not lead with a story
about a gang shoot-out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Everything
was not quiet; some businesses generated news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The do-nut shops had waiting lines outside the front door and the
convenience stores sold out of Doritos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pizza delivery men worked overtime, and Netflix set a new record for
movie downloads.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And
the first “official” customer in Denver was a veteran suffering from PTSD, a
condition not included in Colorado’s medical marijuana statute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This
“news story” is clearly a work of fiction, but it is based on decades of study
and observation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, it is my best
prediction of what the effect of legalizing marijuana will be, not only in
Colorado and then Washington, but across the nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the average person the only visible effect
will be a few signs bearing green leaves along some commercial streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more sophisticated will also notice
significant relief in their tax burden, both from increased revenue and from
decreased criminal justice expenses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
biggest domestic news story of 2014 may well be that nothing happened – and that
nothing happening is spreading across the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-67019674258250859322013-12-30T17:09:00.000-08:002013-12-30T17:09:03.848-08:00Happy New Year!
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Happy
New Year<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
dawn of a new year has long been surrounded by customs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One I grew up with is eating black-eyed peas
to insure good luck in the coming year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One widespread custom is to make (and quickly break) resolutions to
improve one’s life in the coming year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In place of the usual, boring resolutions to diet and lose weight, to
exercise more, and to climb Mt. Everest, I would like to suggest some alternatives
that, if enough of us could meet them even partway, would improve our world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Vacation
in Colorado or Washington this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Write
or email at least three of your elected representatives about drug law reform
this year (local, state or federal).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Send
a Letter to the Editor of your local paper – even if it’s not published at
least one editor will be educated by reading it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Fess
up! The world needs to know that engineers and lawyers and insurance salesmen
smoke pot – not just stoners and gangbangers (you may have to wait until you
retire or even die – like Prof. X before you do this one).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Talk
about drug tests, locker searches, and drug dogs prowling the hallways at a PTA
or school board meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">RAISE
HELL!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">OK,
you can include this one too: climb Everest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">If
just a few of us keep some of these resolutions, 2014 can be a great year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">(Feel
free to add your own resolutions to the list as a comment.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
everyone have a happy, prosperous, and green New Year! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">CHEERS!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-19371045616148659802013-12-28T10:48:00.001-08:002013-12-28T10:48:21.195-08:00Oh, My Achin' Back!
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Oh,
My Achin’ Back!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">As
medical marijuana programs have come into effect in various states, they have
exhibited one surprising common factor: overwhelmingly the greatest number of
users take it to alleviate pain, many of them young otherwise healthy males.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This
appearance of healthy-looking young men has stirred the passions of the Drug
Prohibitionists: “These are just stoners using the medical law to avoid arrests
and just get high.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They view the
medical use laws as simply a conspiracy to get around the drug control
laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, their argument
shows almost total ignorance of medical treatment of pain and of the health
problems of young men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Pain
is both one of the most widespread and hardest to diagnose and treat of medical
conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pain – from a thorn prick on
a finger to the chronic intractable neuropathic aftermath of trauma – is a
human universal; everyone has some experience with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the search for relief is also universal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walk through any drugstore and see rack after
rack filled with painkillers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Morphine
is a staple in every operating suite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Vicodin (an opiate mixed with acetaminophen) is the most prescribed drug
in the U. S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pain presents doctors with
two problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, it is hard to
diagnose; medicine has not developed a painometer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most tests are useless in detecting pain and
doctors must rely on the patient’s own subjective reports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, while some pain (like that finger
prick) is self-limiting and some may be relieved by surgery, a lot of it is incurable
and chronic; it can only be alleviated by (often life-long) palliation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the drugs used for that treatment are
opioids with their attendant risks of overdose, dependency, and sedative
interference with routine activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When compared to the risks of the opioids and to the side effects of the
OTC pain relievers (gastric bleeding and severe liver damage among others), the
more benign marijuana seems the better choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In its earlier life as elixir of cannabis its main uses included
treatment of migraines and PMS and menstrual disorders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Just
as the Prohibitionists do not understand the problem of pain, they also do not
understand the lives of many young men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While society is more egalitarian than ever before, careers based on
physical strength are still predominantly male and young: construction, mining,
oil and gas production, mining, transportation, to name a few; and young men
are disproportionately active in athletics<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Oh%20My%20Achin%20Back.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These activities share an increased exposure
to pain, both recurrent (and often daily) pain from muscular exertion and
strain and more serious pain from trauma incurred during that activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sitting for a while in an emergency room or
reading a civil court document will shock anyone by the numbers of injured
young males.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Both
parts of the Prohibitionists’ arguments are wrong: healthy-appearing young
males do suffer di9sproportionately from pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the only way a doctor can diagnose pain is by talking to the
patient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No lab test or high-tech scan
objectively reveals pain (although they sometimes may show a possible cause for
the reported discomfort).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their smoking
gun is merely an illusion shaped by a cloud of ignorance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I
have focused on young men only because the Prohibitionists have focused on
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have not intended to ignore the
very real pains suffered by the rest of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Young women have their special pains as well (and many of them engage in
those occupations I listed as the domain of young men).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They suffer from PMS and menstrual cramps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They strain muscles from lifting and carrying
heavy toddlers, wet laundry, and loaded grocery bags (Yes, Dear, we men
sometimes help with these chores a little bit).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just imagine the pains and traumas of an exotic dancer spending all day
in those ridiculous but sexy high heels and doing stunts on the dance pole that
would challenge an Olympian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Workers of
both sexes spend all day hunched over a keyboard or on their feet as sales
clerks. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as for my body that has withstood
three-quarters of a century of wear and tear….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Yes,
young men (and the rest of us) do have pain and marijuana can help them; and
yes, doctors recommend they use marijuana without conducting full physical
examinations, just as they recommend Tylenol or Vicodin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pain and its treatment are part of everyday
reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana should not be
forbidden and locked away; it should be on the open shelves between the aspirin
and the acetomenaphen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Oh%20My%20Achin%20Back.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
Look for a posting here on “Athletes and Marijuana” in the near future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-88371657062477224872013-12-24T09:08:00.003-08:002013-12-24T09:08:56.435-08:00Green Christmas
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Green
Christmas<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Here’s
wishing you a green Christmas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
all the greens in your house be strong and dank.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
you vacation this next year in Colorado or Washington – or both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
your own state be as sensible as they are in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
your regular family doctor prescribe the medicine you actually need…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">and may
you purchase it safely from a licensed pharmacist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
you never be stopped and frisked by a street cop,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Or undergo
a “routine stop” by a traffic patrolman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
the Greatful Dead carol on your lawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
you find a hand-blown bong in your stocking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
all your holiday cookies contain the magical ingredient.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
the smoke from your pipe encircle your head like a wreath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">May
Sativa Claus grant all your wishes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Merry Green Christmas
to all and a happy legal new year!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-6106040334118641592013-12-06T17:19:00.002-08:002013-12-06T17:19:49.307-08:00Furthur
[In my other life I sometimes comment poetry. Here's a sample that fits this subject matter. More may follow sometime -- who knows?]<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">A
Bus Named FURTHUR<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In memory of Aldous Huxley, the trailblazer and guide who
has led the way, opening the<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Doors of Perception for many to take the trip to<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">Furthur</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1939 International Harvester<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1960s sound and film<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Day-Glo paints,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mandalas smeared and loppy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Destination sign reads “</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Jokerman; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Furthur</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Are you on the bus –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.75in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">-- or off the bus?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Neal Cassady’s driving:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dean
Moriarity On The Road again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Foot down hard, going fast;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Hands in air – he steers by mental force. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Non-stop monolog – Beat rap now decades long enchanting
all around but the traffic cop who gets confused and slinks away silently<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– not on the bus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Merry Pranksters career thru deserts and down to Houston;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Stop at McMurtry’s door:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Larry dazed and enraged<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At Blanket Girl naked on his lawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You’re either on the bus –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-- or
off the bus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On to Gotham: McMurphy’s on the stage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
foiling Rached – who missed the bus long ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Sometimes a Great Notion: on to Millbrook<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And enlightened Guru Tim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But Tibet chants and Book of Dead are just a killing
bore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Tim’s dropped out --<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– and off the bus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Back on the bus – and furthur west:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Fillmore waits; Garcia has the band.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Light show flicker/flows and Owsley spikes the brew:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Orange Sunshine for the trip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you pass the Acid Test, no need to use the bus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Your mind’s enough:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The trip is always FURTHUR.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-80237374511258199132013-12-02T13:46:00.001-08:002013-12-02T13:46:08.948-08:00Dear Abby
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dear Abby<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This letter and reply
appeared in a recent “Dear Abby” column<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Dear%20Abby.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Teen’s pot use puts friend in tough</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">spot </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Dear Abby: </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> I’m a senior in high school. Every day during
lunch, one of my friends goes outside and smokes weed with a couple of his
friends. He comes back from lunch with red eyes and smelling of smoke, and his
behavior indicates he’s high. I’m not sure if they smoke on or off campus, but
I know it isn’t legal at their age (17) and especially not at school. I saw a
joint in his pocket a couple of times, and he told me to keep it a secret. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Abby, this has me very uncomfortable. If he
wants me to keep it a secret, he must know it’s wrong. I don’t know how to tell
someone or even who I should tell. I know he has depression and weed can “take
the edge off,” but that doesn’t make it OK. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> What should I do? Should I tell anyone? And
if so, who and how? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Fretting in Washington State <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Dear Fretting: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> It’s surprising to me that your friend
returns from lunch showing all of the signs of being stoned, and none of his
teachers have picked up on it. Haven’t his grades suffered? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> While it is not
uncommon for people who are depressed to try to self-medicate with illegal
substances, it’s not nearly as successful as dealing with their emotions by
talking about them with a medical professional and can sometimes make the
problem worse. The person to confide in about this would be a trusted teacher
or school counselor. Please don’t wait.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Abby seems to need
some advice herself on marijuana and the marijuana laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to respond to her response and hope
she will avail herself of an opportunity to learn more and be a better
counselor to her readers:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dear Abby,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thank you for paying
attention to teenagers caught in the current social conflict over marijuana and
its use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you ignored the bigger half
of the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, a few –very few –
teens face problems arising from their use of marijuana, but vast numbers of
them face much more serious problems from their encounters with marijuana laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First, her friend’s
use of marijuana is extremely unlikely to do him harm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It presents virtually no health risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one has ever been shown to have died from
a marijuana overdose or from any medical side effects or from marijuana
complications or contributions to long term diseases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several long-term studies tracking thousands
of patients for longer than twenty years have found no health differences
between marijuana users and abstainers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While a few argue than marijuana is addictive, the weight of evidence
rebuts that contention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few may
develop a weak compulsive use, but those are easily able to break their habits,
often without help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Apparently his
teachers have not noticed any bad effect on his academic performance, and there
have probably been none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Studies show
that marijuana use is more common in high performing students – both academically
and in extra-curricular activities – than in those in the middle of the class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just ask Prof. Carl Sagan, astronomer, NASA
consultant, and creator of the PBS “Cosmos” series, or Dr. Lester Grinspoon,
professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School – or thousands of Silicon
Valley computer scientists and engineers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If, as your correspondent reports, he suffers from depression or
anxiety, the marijuana may actually improve both his school work and his
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana has been shown to be
helpful for both of these disorders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
with mental health services now unavailable or unaffordable for most people,
his self-medication with marijuana may be his best option.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His marijuana use does
put him at risk, but not because of its effects on his mind or body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The risk comes from the dangers imposed by
the laws prohibiting marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the
school learns of his marijuana use, he will probably be placed in alternative schooling
or expelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either of these actions
would make his high school graduation unlikely and probably preclude college.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even worse, the school
administrators would be required to report his activity to the police; and a
conviction for marijuana possession, even one resulting in probation rather
than a jail sentence could destroy his future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In most states he would lose his driver’s license for a least two
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would become ineligible for
student financial aid, necessary for many college students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many places he could not rent an apartment
and would be barred from many jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In short, telling
teachers or school counselors about his marijuana use would do much more harm
to his future than his continuing marijuana would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While your correspondent may want to discuss
her own use of marijuana, current or contemplated, with her parents, she should
never tell any adult about another’s use unless compelled by subpoena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The effects on that person’s future could be
much, much worse than marijuana will be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If she feels like she
must talk to someone, she should ask her teachers and counselors why they
endanger students by not speaking up for and working for reform of the
marijuana laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And that’s also a good
question for Dear Abby.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A concerned Reader<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Dear%20Abby.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> I
read it in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Houston Chronicle</i>,
11/16/2013.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-56099398751582693142013-11-14T17:32:00.000-08:002013-11-14T17:32:15.402-08:00Congress: A Modest Proposal
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Congress:
A Modest Proposal<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Are
you as tired as I am about the way Congress is acting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They scream at each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Partisan warfare is unending and
unrestricted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shouted slogans replace
debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing gets done; the wheels
fall off and the government shuts down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Congress needs to chill out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Congressmen need to get mellow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have a modest proposal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Before
they attend any meeting to conduct legislative affairs, before any public
appearance, before any media interview, all Congress members and candidates for
Congress should be required to smoke a big, fat doobie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Think
about how much this would lower the temperature of the current hate fight
between Red and Blue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tea Partiers and
Ninety-niners would be bros, not foes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the words of Rodney King, we could all just get along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Some current members seem to be on the
program already – have you seen Rand Paul’s recent ramblings?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This
program would have some drawbacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Speeches in the Senate would wander on to filibuster length; the
membership of the house could never be gotten together at the same time and
place to vote on anything (come to think about it, that’s how it works now).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Capitol cafeteria would have to stock up
on snack foods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps Twinkies should
be limited to Democrats and Ho Hos to Republicans to make scoring the food
fights easier. (Or vice versa; maybe the Speaker and the Minority Leader could
start each biennium by playing rock-scissors-paper for the choice.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tv Sunday talk shows would have to be extended
to handle the rambling, disconnected answers they would be getting, but that
would be no problem since nothing else competes for those time slots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Speaking
of television, to achieve the proposal’s goals the toke-up doctrine would have
to extend to television interviewers and commentators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They cause even more political rancor than do
the politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here the results would
almost all be positive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chris Mathews
would no longer sound like he is on an extended speed tweak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might find out if Bill O’Reilly is capable
of smiling – or at least grinning inanely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Glen Beck might even start making sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bob Shaeffer would be most appealing as a giggling grandpa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the media would probably go along
willingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I suspect some of
them are already on the program – have you listened to Rachael Maddow or Chris
Hays lately?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few would hold out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rush “Rob Ford” the Limburger has a taste
that runs more to Oxy, and even a small case of the munchies would keep him
from being able to squeeze through the studio doors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">We
need relief from the acrimonious, non-ending, partisan warfare that has
resulted in permanent deadlock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
time to give this modest proposal a chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It can’t do any greater damage than we now suffer, and it may give some
easing of the stalemate in Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At the very least, we would get some amusing minutes, and laughter IS
the best medicine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have nothing to
lose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> They might even vote to repeal the Controlled Substances Act. </span>If you agree, spark a jay and let
your congresscritter know just how you feel on this important issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe give him an eighth –you’ll have to hand
deliver it to keep the postal inspectors and Fibbies at bay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for me, I don’t think I’ll ever vote for a
candidate whose campaign song doesn’t include the line:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Everybody must get stoned!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-55745513270849156302013-11-11T17:43:00.001-08:002013-11-11T17:43:03.489-08:00Robbery in Blue
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Robbery
in Blue<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">[This
is a companion piece to my earlier “Policing for Profit”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It examines another – and darker – side of
what happens when the goal of policing becomes dollars, not law enforcement.]<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One
night in 1992 a gang of masked and armed men burst into Donald Scott’s ranch
house and shot him dead as he stood at the top of the stairs leading to his
bedroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were there to seize his
ranch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This armed gang was a mixed task
force from federal and state police agencies, including the park service, which
wanted the ranch for park land but were unable to buy it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their search warrant stated that a helicopter
overflight had seen marijuana growing on the land, but as the subsequent law
suit revealed, a search of the ranch after the fatal raid found no marijuana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">A
young man in Florida was arrested and convicted for selling a small amount of
marijuana in a shopping center parking lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The pick-up he was driving was forfeited to the government … as was his
parent’s house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lived in an apartment
on the rear of their house with its on separate entrance, although he did have
access to his parents’ kitchen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He used
the phone in that apartment, which was listed in his name, had arranged to have
installed, and paid for, to arrange the drug sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The DEA claimed that this use of the phone
made the whole house an instrument of the crime even though the parents had no
access to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The court held that the
parents could not be innocent owners since their son had been on probation for
marijuana possession when he was fifteen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The judge said that the earlier probation put them on notice that he had
a propensity to deal drugs and that they should have taken greater steps to
insure he did not do so in their house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">A
Florida nurseryman flew to Houston to buy plants for his business from growers
in that area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since many of those small
growers would not accept out of state checks, he withdrew $10,000 in cash to
use on the trip<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Robbery%20in%20Blue.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal agents met his plane when it landed
in Houston and he was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His money was confiscated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In
Dallas, a young man found a duffle bag full of money in the street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did the right thing and turned the money
in to local authorities for return to the rightful owner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The DEA asserted a claim to the money on the
grounds that no one but a drug dealer would have that much cash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This story has a happy ending.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The DEA’s claim was rejected and the money
was awarded to the honest finder. (This is one of my favorite stories.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">These
three stories are among the thousands of outcomes springing from one of the
most overreaching follies of Nixon’s tough-on-crime War on Drugs: civil asset
forfeiture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The FBI and BNDD (later the
DEA) had long been frustrated that they could rarely convict major crime
figures who only gave orders, never dirtying their own hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new laws<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Robbery%20in%20Blue.docx" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> allowed then to seize any
property that they had probable cause to believe had been used as a criminal
instrumentality, was the proceeds of a crime, or had been acquired with
criminal proceeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government could
seize the property based only on probable cause (a very low standard of proof)
and the owner would be forced to file suit and prove by a preponderance of
evidence that he was an innocent owner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">These
laws not only severely weakened court oversight of the process, they also cut
administrative and political control of police behavior out of the
picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seized assets did not go
into general government funds subject to budgetary control and auditing; they
went directly to the police agency that had done the seizing for discretionary
use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some police have made selfish use
of these slush funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A prosecutor
bought a luxury automobile with expensive customizing for his “official”
car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Texas sheriff threw monthly beer
and barbeque outings for his deputies. (How did local police get into the
act?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, the federal agencies shared
the loot with local agencies participating in the seizure, then most states
enacted “baby RICOs” of their own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Not
all of the failures of these laws are as harmless as barbeque and pimped limos
or merely excessive like the forfeiture of a yacht valued at over a million
dollars because one marijuana cigarette butt was found in crew quarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most are downright destructive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Ironically,
the law designed to punish the leaders of organized crime acted provided them a
safety net.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Major drug lords discovered
they could exchange forfeiture of secret or untouchable off-shore millions for short,
easily served prison terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manuel
Noriega, corrupt drug-running Panamanian president bought a shorter sentence in
a minimum security prison than a street-corner dealer would serve in a maximum
security fortress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Informants became a
way of life for the police and flourishing businessmen in their own right; they
not only received direct pay for information, they also got shares in forfeited
property.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many DEA informants have
received over a million dollars each.<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Robbery%20in%20Blue.docx" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Even
the patterns of law enforcement changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the Interstate highways running north and south through Florida and
east and west through Arkansas, cars traveling north or east were rarely
stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would be carrying drugs to
be sold that would have to be destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>South- and west-bound cars were more attractive targets:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they were carrying the proceeds of those
sales, money that the cops could confiscate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In one Texas county, patrolmen were issued pre-printed release
forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A motorist stopped in that county
with a large amount of cash could surrender the money, sign the release
acknowledging he was allowing the cop to take the money, and drive away without
being arrested.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">These
corrupting laws need to be repealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
the very least, they should be amended to require the government to prove beyond
a reasonable doubt its right to take to take the property and for the recovery
of court costs and attorneys’ fees to the owner if the government does not
prevail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any forfeited funds should go
into the government’s general funds, subject to budgeting controls, not
directly to the police.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In
the meantime, if an armed bandit pulls you out of your car and has a tow-truck
haul it away, or if you find yourself on the curb locked out of the house on
which you have been paying the mortgage for fifteen years, just take a deep
breath and smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You haven’t been
robbed: the law says the cops have the right to grab it away from you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Robbery%20in%20Blue.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
Federal law requires banks to report all cash transactions of $10,000 or
larger.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Robbery%20in%20Blue.docx" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Racketeer
Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) and Continuing Criminal Enterprises
(CCE)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Robbery%20in%20Blue.docx" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
See my earlier “Informants: Deal with the Devil” for more on this subject.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-40934421186736743472013-11-07T08:39:00.001-08:002013-11-07T08:39:35.594-08:00Marijuana or Cannabis?
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Marijuana
or Cannabis?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">An
ongoing squabble within the marijuana reform community is about what to call
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it marijuana or is it cannabis?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While marijuana is the most common term, many
– primarily medical marijuana proponents – prefer cannabis and advocate for its
general use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This debate is not crucial;
the world has plenty of room for many names for a plant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does, however, create an intra-tribal
rancor that could be eased by an understanding of the roots and motives of the
combatants. In other words, look at the history of plants of the genus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cannabis</i> in American culture, medicine,
and law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Up
until the 1930s, America had treated this plant as if it were four separate
entities, recognizing no connection among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hemp was grown for fiber from the earliest colonial days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beginning in about 1840 tincture of cannabis
was used medicinally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Civil
War, a small elite in East Coast cities started eating hashish in imitation of
the French literary salons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And after
the Mexican Revolution, marijuana crossed the border and, spread by itinerant musicians
and maritime seamen, migrated from the Southwest and New Orleans to Kansas
City, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one noticed a relationship among these
four cultures (for more on this topic see my earlier “Prehistory of Marijuana”,
Parts I and II, and “Marijuana Comes to the Americas).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 brought marijuana together with what was left of the
other three cultures for the first time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In objecting to that Act, the AMA, recognizing the identity of marijuana
and medical cannabis protested the Act would foreclose needed medical
research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paint manufactures and bird
seed sellers (who claimed that canaries would not sing without hemp seed) were
allowed to import sterile hemp seeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Soon thereafter, in the build-up to World War II, hemp cultivation was
allowed for duration of the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
law, for the first time, forced recognition of the unity of the four cultures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">At
the time the Act was passed, three of the four cultures had faded into
obscurity – almost extinction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hashish,
always a small elitist cult, had shrunk to invisibility during the Progressive
Era migrations and the rise of the speak-easy culture of alcohol Prohibition<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Marijuana%20or%20Cannabis.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hemp had always been labor-intensive both in
cultivation and preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
slavery ended, it became economically unproductive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As sailing ships were replaced by steam, the
primary market for ropes and sail cloth disappeared; and America’s conquest of
the Philippine Islands made cheap sisal available as a replacement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currency was the only remaining market, and
when the U. S. left the gold standard, hemp bills were replaced by rag-paper money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only the silent canaries and a few specialty
paint manufacturers still consumed hemp. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Cannabis
entered Western medicine with O’Shaughnessy’s articles in the 1830s and
remained for about one hundred years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first edition of Merck’s Manual listed over twenty applications, but
its use was never widespread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Granny
Books”, household medical handbooks for those living in rural areas without
professional health care, and memoirs and biographies of frontier doctors make
little mention of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end of the
nineteenth century it had been replaced for pain relief – its major use – by oral
and injected morphine and aspirin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
1913 study of pharmacists and drug stores by congressional investigators
preparing for the Harrison Narcotics Act reported no need to move against
Cannabis, having found fewer than ten preparations available and three of use
for external use in corn plasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
the AMA testified in Congress against the Marihuana Tax Act, it warned about
foreclosing research but made no mention of therapy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although expensive and very hard to obtain,
cannabis remained available for therapy until the Boggs Amendments of 1951, but
no one objected to its removal from the U. S. P. in 1942.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had been removed from the doctor’s black
bag long before that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">For
roughly forty years, from 1937 until the mid-1970s, marijuana is the only one
of the four cultures representing the plant in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that representation was as an outlaw,
dangerous drug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And its use grew
exponentially during that period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
1970, Nixon declared War on Drugs, and the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs (soon to become the DEA) shifted its focus from heroin to marijuana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Among
those now targeted was a small group of desperate patients suffering from terminal
or life-threatening diseases (including cancers, AIDS, and glaucoma) who,
finding no relief from mainstream medicine, turned to marijuana for help. These
people were beset by two, and for some three, oppressive forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conventional medicine could give them little
relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some, the nature of their
disease brought social opprobrium; and the government treated them as felonious
drug fiends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they persisted; the
value of marijuana in treatment of many disorders was established; their numbers
increased; professional associations recognized the value of their treatments;
states – starting with California in 1996 and mounting to over twenty today –
legally recognized their medicine; and public polls swung in their favor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One
of their tactics was to eschew the criminal aura associated with
marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so, they resurrected
the old name cannabis and built a creation myth around its hazy medical past.
(Of course, if they wish to be accurate, they would limit cannabis to
tinctures, call edibles hashish, and use marijuana for smokeable unprocessed plant
buds.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Just
recently claims have been advanced that “marijuana” should not be used because
of the xenophobic shades it acquired in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But marijuana had established its presence in
the U. S. before the hatred of Mexicans developed as a political issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, its ethnic heritage should be
honored, just as is done with enchiladas, curry, and Chianti.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
reform tent is broad enough for multiple names to be used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, if a single name is selected, it
should be one that truly honors the history and heritage of the plant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The roots of American marijuana lie, not in
Europe, but in India, home of bhang and ganj.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From there it migrated to Jamaica with imported laborers and then to
Panama and Mexico before coming to the U. S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We should recognize that the Rastafarians truly know its history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should join them and call ganja by its
proper name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Marijuana%20or%20Cannabis.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> I
have not run across a single reference to hashish in America between 1920 and
1960.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-75603889244883501702013-11-02T21:40:00.003-07:002013-11-03T08:31:39.734-08:00Whither Congress?<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Whither
Congress?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In a
recent post (“Cease Fire?”) I argued that the Administration has radically
changed its approach to drug law enforcement: that they appear to have accepted
normalization of marijuana use and commerce. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I also pointed out that real reform of
federal drug laws rests in congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>More recent developments now bring the question of what, if anything,
congress is willing to do on this issue: whither Congress?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
most striking thing to come out of congress recently has been silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the mid-1970s to the mid-90s, Congress
never saw a drug law it didn’t like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact, the members played “Can you top this?”, each trying to prove he was the
most ardent Drug Warrior of them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The results included RICO and CCE, the powder/crack cocaine sentencing
disparity, mandatory minimum sentences, and the Club Drug Act, to name just
their most visible actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also
created the Drug Czar (Office of National Drug Control Policy).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then they seemed to fall asleep for a
decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The War on Drugs looked like it
was running on autopilot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
long nap ended with some quiet moves toward reform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judges regained their discretion to impose
sentences less than those mandated by the Mandatory Minimum law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The crack cocaine-powder cocaine sentencing
disparity was reduced from 1 to 100 down to 1 to 18 (still totally unjustified
and discriminatory).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An erosive trickle
had appeared in Fortress Prohibition, but then congress went back to sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">However
2012-13, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">annus maribilis</i> of the Drug
War, has been dramatic enough that those trickles now look like signals of a
looming tsunami.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, Colorado and
Washington enacted state legalization of marijuana (including growth,
distribution, and sale) by referendum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then after nine months – is that time span significant? – the Obama
administration took three executive steps almost simultaneously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First it announced that U. S. Attorneys would
be instructed to draft charging instruments (complaints and indictments) to
avoid invoking mandatory minimum sentences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The next announcement was that it would not prosecute those operating in
compliance with state marijuana laws if those laws complied with eight
standards articulated in that memo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
was immediately followed by a statement that the Attorney General would work
with the bank regulators to make normal banking services available to marijuana
businesses in those states.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Reaction
among the federal law establishment was immediate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A district judge in Maryland announced a very
light sentence in a marijuana trafficking case, saying that the logic of the
Justice Department’s statements was thoroughly convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two of the most aggressively Prohibitionist
U. S. Attorneys in California dismissed at least three high profile, big-dollar
asset forfeiture cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">But
where were those senators and representatives who, barely a decade before, had
been so anxious to prove that they were the most ardent of all Warriors against
Drugs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their silence on the issue was
deafening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The District of Columbia,
where Congress has direct governmental authority is on the verge of legalizing
marijuana, but Congress has made no move to block it – a contrast from its
blocking medical marijuana there for over a decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congress is quiescent. Not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Peep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
other side, long cowed into silence, began to stir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost as soon as the Colorado and Washington
election returns were counted, eight representatives sponsored a bill that
would have required the federal government to respect state marijuana
laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The week after the Justice
announcement of non-prosecution in states with effective marijuana laws, the
Senate Judiciary Committee had a hearing on the issue of enforcing the federal
law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assistant A-G Cole and two
Washington state law enforcement officials testified in support of the new
position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only witness opposing the
action was a professional Prohibitionist and rehab huckster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The committee members themselves voiced no
opposition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since then Republican Sen.
MCain has stated that Prohibition has been a failure and the law needs to be
re-examined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New Democratic Senator
Booker from New Jersey and Republican Senator Paul from Kentucky announced,
virtually simultaneously, that drug sentences were too severe and needed to be
revised; and then each of them independently said they would work together on
the issue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Administration has begun a retreat; one from which a resumption of hostilities
will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the drug laws are so tightly written and draconian that real reform
without Congressional action is impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The question “Whither Congress?” shouts for an answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
next election cycle in 2014 will probably provide that answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As many as four or five states will probably
follow Colorado and Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Administration will be too far down the non-enforcement road to backtrack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question is whether the pressure on a
Congress with already weakened support for the Drug War will be enough to
overcome the factionalism and paralysis now preventing action on anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The failure of the Drug War looks to be so
obvious and so accepted that reform will probably force its way even through
this do-nothing Congress during the next two years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-24074020110818725532013-10-26T17:38:00.003-07:002013-10-26T17:38:39.067-07:00The Drug War Racket
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Drug War Racket<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Every
great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually
degenerates into a racket.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: right;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Eric
Hoffer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Temper of Our
Time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
history of Prohibition clearly follows the arc of Hoffer's aphorism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prohibition started as a religious and moral
movement early in the nineteenth century, it developed into a business in the
mid-twentieth century with laws prohibiting drugs other than alcohol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, the failed War on Drugs has
degenerated into a racket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Prohibition
started as a religious movement early in the nineteenth century when the
secular republic of the Revolution turned to religion in the Second Great
Awakening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it developed, it merged
three different religious traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The older Puritans, who had faded a century earlier, bequeathed the idea
that society had a moral obligation to closely constrain public
conformity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Evangelists who arose
after about 1810 focused on sanctification, or that each person must lead a
godly life to achieve salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the
end of that century they were joined by the practitioners of the social gospel
who believed in a mission to better social conditions and society itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The common thread holding all three together
was an insistence on absolute sobriety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were able to impose their religious vision (whichever form it took)
on the nation as a whole with the ratification of the Prohibition in 1919.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Prohibition was repealed, the Dry true
believers simply switched their allegiance to the new drug prohibition that
developed in the 1920s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some even
continued giving the same speeches, merely substituting the word “drugs” for “alcohol”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even today this absolute moralistic core
resonates with many Drug Warriors who still see all drugs (or at least selected
“bad” drugs) as evil and who insist on total, nationwide sobriety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">When
Prohibition – of both alcohol and other drugs – came into effect in the 1920s,
the moral crusade for total sobriety morphed into a business of enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The commercialization actually started in the
late nineteenth century with the opening of inebriation asylums and sobriety
clinics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the twentieth, they were
joined by healers working against drug addiction – in fact the term ”addict”
itself grew from those efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
grew from city clinics to institutes trying to break the grip of drugs on their
users.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the mid-30s even the prison
system joined in this professional effort with the opening of the federal “narcotic
farms” in Lexington and Fort Worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These, in turn, became the foundation of the medical profession’s work
in the field of drug abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
professionalization of rehabilitation and drug medicine was joined by that of
drug policing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 1930 both the
Prohibition Bureau (later merged into the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency)
and the Bureau of Narcotics (forerunner of the current Drug Enforcement Agency)
had become regular civil service bureaus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
new business of Prohibition slogged along unsuccessfully for a half a century
(that’s right: more than fifty years elapsed between the Harrison Narcotic Act
and the Controlled Substances Act) before it was supercharged by the War on
Drugs and greedily expanded into a racket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Over a trillion dollars has been thrown to greedy sharks, and drug use
is more wide-spread than ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">From
1970 to 2010 prison population expanded from under 500,000 to over 2,000,000 –
most of it from drug arrests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Private
for-profit corporations rushed in to build prisons and operate them under state
contracts – and they insured those profits gained with massive campaign
contributions and lobbying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
California Corrections Officers association quickly became one of the richest
and most powerful political associations in the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dependence therapy and rehabilitation, a
small medical specialty since the 1920s, blossomed into a nationwide industry
with major chains of treatment organizations, often run by hucksters and
quacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
federal government also poured two massive torrents of money into Prohibition
that turned policing into a for-profit racket. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
first was a series of grants, both money and military surplus equipment (which
is why even small town police have tanks).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These were primarily based on numbers of arrests, and marijuana arrests
are easy to make<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/The%20Drug%20War%20Racket.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second War on Drugs innovation was civil
forfeiture of any assets used in the commission of a crime or acquired through
criminal proceeds<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/The%20Drug%20War%20Racket.docx" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those funds go directly to the police
agencies (federal and local) outside of their normal budgetary procedures and
constraints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One Texas sheriff uses part
of his forfeited assets to throw regular beer and barbeque gatherings for his
deputies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This process has also allowed
major drug kingpins to bribe their way into much shorter prison sentences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Hoffer’s
map traces the trajectory of Prohibition from crusade to business to racket,
but it is incomplete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every arc comes to
an end, but Hoffer gives no clue to what that end may be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a fly ball, it could fall outside the
fence for a score or into a fielder’s glove for an out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a cannonball, it could bury itself in
the dirt or blow up a fort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a
meteor, it could burn out as a fiery streak across the sky or crash into the
Gulf of Mexico destroying the dinosaurs and most other life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The arc of Prohibition must end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is up to us to make sure its end comes
quickly and does as little harm as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/The%20Drug%20War%20Racket.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> See
my earlier “Policing for Profit”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/The%20Drug%20War%20Racket.docx" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Soon
to come on this blog: “Robbery in Blue”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-88881364371990706252013-10-13T13:09:00.003-07:002013-10-13T13:09:35.572-07:00Cease Fire?
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Cease
Fire?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Has
the Obama administration declared a cease fire in the War on Drugs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The evidence surely points in that direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In
2008, Candidate Obama made several remarks suggesting that he intended to liberalize
marijuana laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of his supporters
became critical when most of his first administration passed without action on
these statements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But toward the end of
that term the Justice Department issued the Ogden memorandum, stating that it
would not prosecute medical marijuana users or their caregivers complying with
state medical marijuana laws.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">After
the 2012 elections, Obama was faced with additional challenges in drug law
enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Washington and Colorado
both passed initiatives legalizing marijuana sales and possession, new states
recognized medical use of marijuana (raising the total to twenty-one
jurisdictions doing so), and congressional sequestration dramatically reduced
the funds available for law enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Eight months passed before the administration responded to those events,
but when they came, they were sweeping<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Cease%20Fire.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
first break was an announcement by Attorney General Holder that he was
instructing federal prosecutors to draft charging instruments (complaints and
indictments) to avoid imposing mandatory minimum sentences in non-violent drug
cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He supported this instruction by
showing the immense burden these lengthy sentences placed on the prison system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Toward
the end of August, a memorandum from Asst. A-G Cole announced that the federal
government would abstain from proceeding against state marijuana laws and their
implementation if those laws complied with eight standards articulated in that
memorandum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To a large extent, those
standards provide guidelines for other states wanting to enact similar laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Senator Patrick Leahy convened a hearing by
the Judiciary Committee to inquire about this memo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hearing lasted one day, Cole was the only
federal spokesman to appear, and only one witness – a professional anti-drug
advocate with financial interests in the rehabilitation industry – was opposed
to the action taken by the government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">On
the same day the Cole memo was released, A-G Holder announced he would be
conferring with federal bank regulators to find some way for businesses in
compliance with these new state laws to use normal commercial banking services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Up until now the government has used the
threats against banks under the Money Laundering and RICO/CCE laws to prevent
them from doing business with marijuana enterprises legal under state
laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forcing these enterprises to
operate on a cash basis not only made them hard to manage, it also made them
into targets for robbery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About six
weeks after Holder’s announcement, Bank of America has agreed to be a
depository for all marijuana taxes and license fees collected by Washington
State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since large banks operate very
cautiously, this action by BoA suggests some accommodation by the federal bank
regulators in line with the Holder announcement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
other collateral attack used by aggressive federal prosecutors against
state-legal marijuana has been to use asset forfeiture laws (CCE) against
landlords leasing property to marijuana businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If an asset – including real property – is used
in the commission of a federal crime, that asset may be seized and forfeited to
the government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a sense asset
forfeiture is the government’s biggest stick against marijuana businesses: if
landlords are scared away from leasing to them, legitimate businesses are
reduced to being street dealers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
this viewpoint, the announcement a few days ago by one of the most aggressive
U. S. Attorneys in California dismissing four large asset forfeiture cases was
a bombshell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took a major weapon out
of play and put it back on the shelf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One
executive voice has been strangely missing from this flurry of federal
actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Office of National Drug
Control Policy, the agency designated by Congress to set and articulate the
government’s drug strategy has said almost nothing about these
developments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, except for its
required annual report, it has said nothing of substance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In
summary, over the last two months, the administration has:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 78.9pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Decided not to use mandatory minimum
sentences,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 78.9pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Acquiesced in state marijuana legalization
laws,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 78.9pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Announced a review of banking regulations to
allow state-legal businesses to have access to banking services (and Bank of
America has entered the business),<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 78.9pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Dismissed a series of large, high-profile
asset forfeiture cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 0.6in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Combining these four
major reductions in drug law enforcement with the eight month delay between the
2012 election results and their announcements leads to the conclusion that the
administration has declared a cease fire in the War on Drugs – at least in the
War on marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this cease fire
continues for another thirteen months, the next round of elections should usher
in a new group of legalizing states, possibly four or five more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this does result, the cease fire will
become a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fait accompli</i>: an
irrevocable accession to state-by-state legalization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt 0.6in; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Why do I characterize
this as a cease fire instead of a truce or even a surrender?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem is that the administration can
only decide how to pursue the War on Drugs; it cannot decide on its own to end
the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only congress can end the war,
and it has shown no inclination to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When will congress admit that they have lost the war and repeal Drug
Prohibition?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One hopeful sign has
been the silence from Capitol Hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
elected Drug Warriors have been screaming for punishing the legalizing states;
no committee hearings have pushed stricter enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The silence is deafening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One more election may shift the congressional
balance of power and change this cease fire into a peace treaty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Cease%20Fire.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
For a running account of these developments, see my earlier “Whatcha Goona Do?”,
“Six Months”, “They Blinked”, “Ogden and Cole”, and “Parsing the Cole Memo”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-82986965297012840112013-10-05T14:44:00.002-07:002013-10-05T14:44:35.146-07:00The Range of Legalization
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Range of Legalization<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I
originally wrote this for a group working to modernize the marijuana laws in
Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as I was writing it, I
realized that most of it is general enough to apply anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main thrust is that a reformed law will
have a broad and beneficial effect on many aspects of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, ignore the Texas-specific parts and use
those parts that apply to your state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Selling Marijuana to Texas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">After
reading Grieder’s “Hot, Wide, Cheap, and Right” that I recommended last week, I
started thinking about how we try to sell marijuana reform to both the Lege and
fellow Texans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I have concluded that
we need to change the main thrust of our argument.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Most
of the time, we have stressed the negative: “Quit putting people in jail for
marijuana”; “don’t come between a patient and a doctor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t E-lim-i-nate the negative
altogether, but we can soft=tone it while we AC-cent-u-ate the Positive:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can talk about the good marijuana can do
for Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can switch to the positive
by talking about six things: commerce, agriculture, energy, medicine,
technology, and higher education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">COMMERCE:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The growth in commerce will be astonishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the smallest town will have at least one
retailer, who rents or owns a store and may have employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Packagers and distributors will supply them;
and they in turn will need truckers, label printers, and container makers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those providing marijuana edibles need
commercial kitchens, cooks, and display areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hemp clothing, food and cosmetics will continue to be sold, but they
will probably be made from locally grown hemp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A glance at the display next to the cash register in any convenience
store will show how the market for accessories will thrive<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">AGRICULTURE:
Texas has always been known for its vigorous agricultural sector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana can expand agriculture in three
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana can be a field crop,
much like the vegetables grown in many parts of the state, or it can be a
specialty product grown in greenhouses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hemp, with its stalks, is a fiber crop to challenge cotton or wool, or
it can be grown for its seeds and oil. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
many hemp products, the change will be that they are made from locally grown
hemp instead of imported.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these
farmers will hire laborers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The farm
supply industry will sell them seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides; greenhouse
growers will also need high-end environmental control and hydroponic
systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Farm machinery manufacturers
will quickly provide equipment for hemp cultivation and harvest, and marijuana
harvesting gear will soon follow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ENERGY:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The energy business has been the keystone of
Texas industry for a century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently
it has moved past sole reliance on oil to add natural gas and, more recently,
renewables like ethanol and wind power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hemp can provide renewable fuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Prototypes have been demonstrated both for biodiesel from hempseed oil
and for cellulosic ethanol from hemp stems and leads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of these need significant development
before emerging as competitors for petroleum fuels, but the established energy
companies have the knowledge, technology, and resources to do that development
and have the marketing outlets and incentives to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The close geographical and transportation
ties between these industries and the envisioned Texas hemp cultivation should
prove synergistic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">MEDICINE:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although therapeutic use of marijuana has
become well established over the last forty years, federal prohibition has
virtually squelched basic research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many
fundamental questions of both physiology and pharmacology remain unanswered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas contains some of the world’s leading
medical research institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Houston Medical Center, including M. D. Anderson, is a good example of the
resources available to pursue this research and to advance treatment if Prohibition
is ended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">TECHNOLOGY:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the developments discussed above call
for technological improvements on the way to market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Agriculture needs tools for tillage, harvest,
and product processing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Energy needs
process and chemical engineering to move from prototype to commercial
production and distribution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Medical
research has barely begun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
technologies – agriculture, fuel and chemical processing, medical technology,
and transportation – are those in which Texas already excels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Legalizing marijuana would play into Texas
strengths and allow it to build a dominant position in a new industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">HIGHER
EDUCATION:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the same way, Texas higher
education is well placed to advance this new industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas A&M and Texas Tech are at the fore
in agricultural science and technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many Texas universities have outstanding programs in energy and process
engineering and in medical science and engineering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They, too, could build on their already
proven abilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">This
brief outline shows ways in which legalizing marijuana could broadly benefit
all Texans: that it is not just coddling stoners or excusing junk
medicine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, my perspective, while
broad, lacks depth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I invite those with
more knowledge than me (not a very high standard) in agriculture, economics,
engineering, and business to expand these sketchy overviews and provide some
substance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">If
each of my little paragraphs could be expanded to a few pages of solid detail,
he result would be a pamphlet capable of convincing large numbers of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A press run of a thousand would supply every
elected official, state and federal, every university president, and the major
state news outlets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Placement on the Web
would make it available to millions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Is
this a project we can do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who will join
me on this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-46024402644050581342013-09-30T21:22:00.001-07:002013-09-30T21:22:27.945-07:00Good Golly Miss Molly
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Good
Golly Miss Molly<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">My
favorite recreational drug has been thoroughly maligned in the press recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two or three young people have died at music
events, apparently of overdoses of a “new” drug known as “Molly”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Molly was claimed to be an unusually pure
version of the fad club drug of the 1980s and ‘90s: Ecstasy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As is usual with drug stories, these reports
were false and hysterically overdrawn; and they were false and hysterical in
ways that repeat many other drug Prohibition tales.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">But
first comes a brief explanation of the drug known as Ecstasy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ecstasy (Eve, E, or X) is methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine
(usually known by the abbreviation MDMA).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a fairly old chemical, discovered in the 1910s, at about the same
time as the related compound methamphetamine. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MDMA was ignored until the 1970s when
Alexander Shulgin examined it as part of his extended study of psychedelics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Psychotherapists
were quick to pick up on its value and were using MDMA in couples therapy. Grief
counseling, and end-of-life preparation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After the DEA placed the drug in Schedule I, the use continued in other
countries, and it is completing Stage III clinical trials for FDA approval now
for use in treating PTSD.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
same effects of MDMA that make it useful for therapy also make it attractive as
a recreational drug – increased empathy, expansive and relaxed mood, and
heightened sensation (combined these features show why it is frequently called
the “hug drug”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, its physiological
effects preclude addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since it
depletes the brain’s supply of serotonin, additional doses have no effect. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the early 1980s it was common in dance
clubs in Dallas and Austin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
clubs themselves began selling it to their patrons and accepting credit cards
for payment, the DEA rushed into an emergency scheduling procedure and placed
MDMA in Schedule I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the meantime, use
of MDMA spread to raves – large (thousands of attendees) all-night dance
parties, all across the U. S. and over to Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Netherlands became the center of its
manufacture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This explosion in use was
occurring while the DEA was rapidly enforcing its new powers against the drug.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Soon
reports began appearing in the media alarming over Ecstasy “overdose”
deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Investigation revealed that
those deaths were from heat exhaustion brought on by hours of dancing in close,
overheated quarters without sufficient hydration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since MDMA does slightly impair the body’s
heat regulation, it was a slight contributory cause of these deaths, but as the
dance venues responded by providing cooling-off areas and access to water and
as users learned the importance of hydration, these deaths disappeared
(ironically, at least one subsequent death was attributed to water overdose –
yes, one can kill himself by ODing on water – by a young woman who took the
warnings too seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the same
time period, more high school and college football players died of heat
exhaustion during practice than died after taking MDMA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">As
the DEA began enforcing its new ban on MDMA, the overt quasi-legal
manufacturers in the Netherlands were suppressed and replaced by myriads of
small, shady. Fly-by-night operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Counterfeits and adulterants became frequent, methamphetamine and DXM,
the cough syrup ingredient used by many children as a weak hallucinogen, were
among the most common<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Good%20Golly%20Miss%20Molly.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
story now circles back to Miss Molly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When follow-up stories examined the Molly scare, they found the
incidents had nothing to do with MDMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Molly was a distinct synthetic chemical named ME-2, not related to MDMA
except by marketing devices; and the deaths had nothing to do with MDMA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
substitution of lethal ME-2 for benign MDMA repeats a sad dreary refrain
recurring throughout the history of Prohibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the 1920s, thousands died and many
thousands were sickened or maimed by jakeleg and sterno or by adulterated
alcohol (intentionally denatured by the government with known poisons).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many – if not most – of the heroin deaths
reported during the last century have been caused by adulterants or
substitutions (one notorious epidemic was caused by the substitution of
fentanyl for heroin).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marijuana users
know what has happened when dangerous chemicals have been marketed as “synthetic”
marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Black markets have no
chemical control; street-corner pushers are not inspected by the FDA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Prohibitionists are confronted with
these predictable and sure results of their imposed morality, they merely shrug
and say, “They did it to themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They should have obeyed the law and abstained.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The alcohol Prohibitionists even forced the
government to use a more toxic denaturant so that drinking would be even more
deadly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Molly incidents also renewed a frequent Prohibitionist propaganda ploy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Molly was described as a purer and stronger
form of MDMA, and therefore more deadly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The story was first told about heroin being stronger and more deadly
than morphine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These doom-sayers
proclaimed crack as a more deadly and addictive form of cocaine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meth is decried as much worse than its urbane
brother, amphetamine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course,
their current cry is “It’s not your grandfather’s marijuana.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fear is apparently a classically addictive
substance: its compulsive users exhibit tolerance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They need larger and larger fixes to get the
same result.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Molly stories did not reveal a threat either to the youth of the nation or to
public health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of those could
easily be achieved by legalizing and regulating MDMA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What they did was provide another sad chapter
in the irrational and destructive history of Prohibitionism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now is the time to replace myth and hysteria
by a factual accounting of what is really happening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Good%20Golly%20Miss%20Molly.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
PERSONAL DISCLAIMER:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MDMA is my favorite
recreational drug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For several years in
the mid-90s I used it often – about once or twice a month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stopped when counterfeits became so common
that the risk of use was simply too high.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4888180128098566282.post-38588888823841733932013-09-24T17:27:00.002-07:002013-09-24T17:27:22.023-07:00Policing for Profit
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Policing
for Profit<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Policing%20for%20Profit.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Does
your local police force have a brand new armored personnel carrier?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they all equipped with Kevlar vests and
helmets?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where did their new helicopter
come from?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they talking about flying
drones above your back yard?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And,
most important, where did they get the money for all of this stuff?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not voted from local tax revenues by
the City Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not allocated
by the mayor from city funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did not
even come from the legislature in the state budget.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Instead,
those goodies or the money to pay from them came directly from the federal
government to the police force, bypassing all local governments and their
oversight of police activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
right: the feds have bought your local police and didn’t even ask the mayor’s
permission first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">And
if they’ve bought them, they can tell them what to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">As
the federal government has escalated the War on Drugs over the last forty
years, it has co-opted local police forces to do the dirty work for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have used grants of both money and
equipment to do this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over time three
major grants have been initiated and favored police agencies have also been
given access to Department of Defense surplus equipment: that’s where all those
APCs AR-15s, and Kevlar vests have come from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 6pt 0in 8pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rise of the Warrior Cop</i> by Radley
Balko gives a good history of the grant programs and their uses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His main interest in this book are
organizations like SWAT teams and their uses, a subject that should also be of
great concern to drug law reformers.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">However,
these grants are not unrestrained; they may be used for only three
purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The may be used primarily for
local enforcement of drug laws and they are used to fund multi-jurisdictional
drug task forces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The
third use is to reimburse local prosecutors, courts, and jails for the
prosecution of drug offenses against defendants arrested by federal agents by
for offenses deemed too minor for federal prosecution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, with recent federal budget cuts,
this reimbursement has stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
several sparsely populated Texas counties near the Mexican border, sheriffs and
district attorneys are now refusing to file state charges against these federal
arrestees, simply releasing them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Local
police can’t get these federal grants just by asking for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must earn them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the way they earn them is by running up
their statistics on the FBI crimes reports, reports based solely on the number
of arrests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nationwide about half of all
arrests are for drug offenses and more than half of those are for marijuana;
around 800,000 arrests each year for simple possession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simple possession arrests are made by single
cops without extensive preparation and little follow-up (but the cops love them
because the routine of arresting and booking the suspect and appearing in court
makes a lot of extra-pay overtime).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
contrast, a rape or murder may take many days for a team of detectives, using
many forensic science tests, a week or more to solve; and an major financial
crime can occupy dozens of specialized investigators months or even years to
unravel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which crimes will a police
chief trying to sell arrest numbers to the feds devote his resources and
manpower?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile violent and
destructive law-breaking continues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably the most destructive feature of
policing for federal dollars is the funding of multi-jurisdictional task
forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These dollars from Uncle Sam pay
for the formation and operations of police forces focused on drug law
enforcements composed of elements from local, state, and federal police
agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These task forces operate
outside the normal oversight and control of the local governments that provide
the officers comprising the task forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consequently, they are hotbeds for over-reaching and unlawful, abusive
behaviors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Two
different tasks forces in Texas acted so outrageously that the state
legislature passed a statute forbidding the use of state funds for these
groups. (I’m not picking on Texas – it’s no better or worse than other states –
I just know it better.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the ‘90s, two
Texas task forces made the news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Tulia, a small town in the Panhandle, an undercover task force cop arrested
about forty people for dealing cocaine – about ten per cent of the black
population of the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a few were
convicted on the sole testimony of the cop and sentenced to twenty years or
more, most of the others pled guilty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ultimately, that cop’s scheme fell about, he was convicted of perjury,
and those convicted were pardoned<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Policing%20for%20Profit.docx" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At almost the same time, a task force
investigation in Hearne, a small town near Waco, that had arrested over twenty
people, mainly black, fell apart when it was revealed that they were all based
on false reports from an informant who was both working out a plea deal and
receiving money for his tips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The common
factor is that, in both situations, the task forces were not operating as a
part of a regular police force subject to the oversight and discipline that
these organizations provide<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Policing%20for%20Profit.docx" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">When
the police work to earn federal dollars instead of working to preserve public
safety, everyone’s life becomes less secure, crime flourishes, and corruption
spreads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now is the time to insist that
the federal government stop buying police to join the War on Drugs and to tell
your local police to protect the public, not prowl the beat for the profit in
federal dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
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<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Policing%20for%20Profit.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> I
got the title from Ann Lee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ann is an
octogenarian, a stalwart of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas and a founder of
RAMP, Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she’s also the mother of Richard
Lee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hanks, Ann!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Policing%20for%20Profit.docx" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
For more on the Tulia story, read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Taking
Out the Trash in Tulia, Texas</i> by Dr. Alan Bean.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/BufordC/Documents/MariMus4/Policing%20for%20Profit.docx" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> For
more on snitches, see my earlier “Informants: Deal with the Devil”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Buford C. Terrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369992527852370500noreply@blogger.com0