Drug Czar Confronted At Press Conference (VIDEO)

More than 850,000 people were arrested for marijuana violations in 2009 -- the second biggest haul in American history, according to the annual Uniform Crime Report released by the FBI Wednesday. Despite the increased enforcement, however, marijuana use rose in the past year, according to the National Survey On Drug Use and Health released Thursday by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"The findings are disappointing, but not surprising," said National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske, the nation's so-called "drug czar." Indeed, there is little surprising in the notion that drug use is remaining roughly steady in spite of the War on Drugs, but Kerlikowske did encounter one unexpected question at Thursday's press conference.

Daniel Pacheco, a Colombian student from Georgetown University and a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, asked Kerlikowske to respond to Mexican leaders' assertions that the United States should consider legalizing drugs -- particularly marijuana -- in order to deprive drug cartels of the majority of their revenue. The exchange was caught on camera by SSDP's Aaron Houston and posted on Firedoglake.com. SSDP and Firedoglake are partners in a new coalition, Just Say Now, organizing in favor of marijuana legalization.

Pacheco delivered to Kerlikowske 52,000 signatures, many gathered on college campuses, on behalf of the campaign.

Instead of defending the principle of prohibition, Kerlikowske quibbled with Pacheco's statistic on how much of the cartel's revenue comes from marijuana. "The number that has been often cited in the press -- 58 to 60 percent of cartel revenues comes -- was introduced by ONDCP in 2006. Unfortunately, the history is that it was based on 1997 information," Kerlikowske said. "Everyone that recognizes these cartels clearly understands that their revenues have changed a lot since 1997. There are different drugs, they are involved with different criminal enterprises, so people that continue -- and we really reject trying to continue to use a number that is now 13 to 14 years old, about how much money comes from marijuana. So, we strongly believe we see significantly less than the numbers cited from 14 years ago."

Testimony to the Senate from both the FBI and DEA, however, confirmed the 60-percent figure in 2010.

According to the report, more than 50 percent of all drug arrests were for marijuana, up from below 45 percent a decade ago. Police paid particular attention to individual pot smokers: 88 percent of those arrested were charged for simple possession.

The pot arrest total was the second-highest in American history and an increase over 2008. In November, California voters will decide whether to legalize marijuana for adults. The proposition has strong backing from nurses unions and teachers unions, who hope that the revenue raised with stave off layoffs.

Not all of the 758,593 people arrested for possession were sent to prison, but all were harmed in one way or another. Getting arrested can cost a person his or her job, as in the case of a senior staffer to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) who recently came to his office on the weekend with a bag of pot on him. That staffer will appear as a single digit in next year's crime report.

"The numbers tell the story; the enforcement of criminal marijuana laws and the prosecution of marijuana offenders, in particular minor marijuana possession defendants, is driving the present drug war," NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said.

Earlier this week, current and former heads of the DEA gathered at the National Press Club to draw attention to their letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to challenge California's legalization proposition if it passes in November.

"I worked directly with DEA Administrators Bensinger, Mullen and Lawn in the 1980s, and have had debates or conversations with Bonner, Constantine and Hutchinson," said Eric Sterling, a former assistant counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 1979 to 1989, a period during which the committee produced some of the toughest drug laws. "I cannot recall any previous collaboration of former DEA administrators of this kind. If our national marijuana prohibition policy were not so clearly failing and not so close to being replaced with real controls, they would never have mobilized in this way to defend it. If Prop. 19 were not proposing a system of control that is so logical and straight forward that it is widely politically attractive, they would not be mobilizing this kind of collaboration."

WATCH:

Ryan Grim is the author of This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

Comments

[TxGrandma FourTwenty]

04:11 PM on 10/04/2010

It just sounds like he is rambling a bunch of garbage that doesn't make sense. A small amount of Marijuana comes out of Mexico??? Hmm I don't think so, have you seen all the drug busts lately and how much money all that marijuana is worth? Wake up people and smell the liar! The thing is.. who cares what he thinks. If medicinal marijuana helps people and others with degenerative arthritis and depression, WE shall use it over any pharmacy drug any day! The Pharmaceutical companies don't want it because they can't own it, therefore they cannot make money off of it. Now remember, these people are the same ones who say there are no such thing as a UFO.

[camanokat]

09:17 PM on 09/20/2010

The government can't have it both ways. It has scheduled cannabis at a level 1 "drug" with no benefits whatsoever. At the same time it holds a patent on cannabis as medicine. From digital journal:

On the one hand, United States federal government officials have consistently denied that marijuana has any medical benefits. On the other, the government actually holds patents for the medical use of the plant.
Just check out US Patent 6630507 titled "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants" which is assigned to The United States of America, as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The patent claims that "Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia."
The patent was obtained in October of 2003.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/257008#ixzz107eJD4UW

[RockyMissouri]

01:37 PM on 09/19/2010

Why don't people acknowledge the drug problem that is of the pharmaceutical variety...and the many, many problems associated with them----aside from cost and side effects---what does it say about the society that allows its' citizens to be denied something that could actually-no, IS helpful and beneficial to them---and prefers to let them suffer....?????

[fumes]

02:36 PM on 09/18/2010

hey! hemp has been saving lives since 1861..

Deployment Of The Hemp Bales
The main battlefield where Confederates climbed the bluffs of the Missouri River pushing hemp bales up the bluff to defeat the Union positions.
Early on the morning of September 20, Harris's men advanced behind his mobile breastworks. As the fighting progressed, State Guardsmen from other divisions joined Harris's men behind the hemp bales, increasing the amount of fire directed toward the Union garrison. Although the Union defenders poured red-hot cannon shot into the advancing bales, their soaking in the Missouri River the previous night had given them the desired immunity to the Federal shells. By early afternoon, the rolling fortification had advanced close enough for the Southerners to take the Union works in a final rush. Mulligan requested surrender terms after noon, and by 2:00 p.m. his men had vacated their trenches and stacked their arms.
Many years later, in his book The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Southern president Jefferson Davis opined that "The expedient of the bales of hemp was a brilliant conception, not unlike that which made Tarik, the Saracen warrior, immortal, and gave his name to the northern pillar of Hercules."[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Batt le_of_Lexi ngton

[Dolmance]

12:35 PM on 09/18/2010

If we weren't fighting a 70 year drug war in which we've lost every single battle we wouldn't have a deficit or a recession right now. And a lot less people would be taking drugs. And a lot less people would be dead too.

The Drug War is the biggest pork project in human history. And the quality of life degradation is incalculable - it's ruined our cities and made a majority of the areas within them too dangerous to walk in.

The Drug War has cost ten trillion dollars and it's costing more now than it ever did.

[justsayknow]

02:29 PM on 09/18/2010

And the worst part is that titanic amount of money is tax dollars paid by you and me. Not to mention the hypocrisy we demonstrate to our children. That enormous amount of money could be spent on education and health care. Marijuana is a medicine; a blessing to mankind... and its illegal. The people who dont use pot are the ones who should be up in arms and furious about this colossal waste of money, time and resources.

[Arian Smith]

12:12 PM on 09/18/2010

Take money from the drug cartel and give it to our government. They lose we win. This is a no brainer. Thats why the drug czar doesnt get it! HE HAS NO BRAIN.

[Wildweed T Hemp]

03:23 AM on 09/18/2010

850,000 people a year, 88% for possession. but they are as rare as a unicorn...
i remember before this war on drugs that was ramped up during the reagan years there actually less people doing drugs, especially hard drugs, less people doing time and less children in foster care. . I don't recall innocent people being shot in their own home by police raiding the wrong house either. I also do not recall the cops being the bad guys so often either. addicts need treatment, not jail. and adult personal choices of lifestyle, medicine or intoxicants, should not be a concern of the legal or judicioury system - it just ain't American. but maybe I'm just old fashioned..

prohibition has created violence, corruption, and a bloody blackmarket who's victims include the children who are routinely used to sell or transport the drugs or to incur the violence - all this is what the drug prohibition failure has brought us. Legalize pot, legalize hemp and really, nevermind about the tax revenue herring - because what it will create is industry and trade and green jobs in retail and agriculture and manufacturing. we already know that there is a market out there - and plenty of products that can be made.

[Christian R Wilson]

10:16 PM on 09/17/2010

If marijuana were legalized, it would open up a lot of business opportunities in the retail, agriculture and textile (Hemp) sector’s of the economy. And when you consider the increased tax revenue, it’s a win, win, win, win situation.

[RockyMissouri]

10:13 PM on 09/17/2010

A battle of the Civil War was fought not far from where I was born....Its' politically correct name is-- the Battle of Lexington (Missouri!).. but I knew it growing up as-- the Battle of the Hemp Bales......

[fumes]

08:04 AM on 09/18/2010

great story!

Deployment of the hemp bales
The main battlefield where Confederates climbed the bluffs of the Missouri River pushing hemp bales up the bluff to defeat the Union positions.
Early on the morning of September 20, Harris's men advanced behind his mobile breastworks. As the fighting progressed, State Guardsmen from other divisions joined Harris's men behind the hemp bales, increasing the amount of fire directed toward the Union garrison. Although the Union defenders poured red-hot cannon shot into the advancing bales, their soaking in the Missouri River the previous night had given them the desired immunity to the Federal shells. By early afternoon, the rolling fortification had advanced close enough for the Southerners to take the Union works in a final rush. Mulligan requested surrender terms after noon, and by 2:00 p.m. his men had vacated their trenches and stacked their arms.
Many years later, in his book The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Southern president Jefferson Davis opined that "The expedient of the bales of hemp was a brilliant conception, not unlike that which made Tarik, the Saracen warrior, immortal, and gave his name to the northern pillar of Hercules."[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Lexington

[bluesraves]

06:10 PM on 09/17/2010

Just decide where you want to send your money...Gangsters or your Local City Tax Coffers?

Stimulant Consumption will continue and expand forever by humans and that's the way we are built. Banning it or going to war against it has been tried and look where it got us.

Do you want to fun Don F*ckwad in Mexico/Columbia/America or fund your local services?

[fumes]

05:36 PM on 09/17/2010

stuff grows like a weed..

i keep mowing it down and it keeps coming back!

isn't this the canadian thistle thread?

[KayoFrisco]

05:31 PM on 09/17/2010

I am just glad I live in California with a doctor's cannabis recommendation after I broke my clavicle, humerus, and rotator cuff. My medicine gives me comfort & pain relief without addiction, plus no hangover the day after. Indica, here I come!

[StopMakingSense2]

05:19 PM on 09/17/2010

But if we came up with a rational drug policy what would happen to all those for profit prisons? This would be bad for business. What do businesses want? More customers! If they actually did what society wanted they would put themselves out of business. What do you think they would lobby for? Same with the idea or reforming inmates. That's not in their interest they want them to serve the longest terms possible, not get parole, leave in worse shape guaranteeing their return. Far fetched? I don't have a smoking gun but it's hard to argue with our statistics. Just another example of how for profit isn't always a good idea and works against the common goals. Republicans like to posture on law and order even if nothing is actually accomplished and anything that hurts a business is bad in their eyes even if that business isn't performing a useful function as long as they keep the campaign contributions flowing.

[bluesraves]

06:11 PM on 09/17/2010

Stop making so much sense :-)

[CJHAN]

04:36 PM on 09/17/2010

I dont smoke pot but if we are going to keep it illegal then we need to do the same to tabacco.

[Rational Voice]

05:25 PM on 09/17/2010

With all due respect, that's just dumb. That's no different than our government's take on the situation. We have less smoking now than ever before -- but we didn't have to prohibit it. All it took was sharing the REAL facts. Prohibition of ANYTHING does not work.

What you're failing to acknowledge is the fact that cannabis is by all account a wunder-drug. There is a good chance that it somehow holds the key to defeating cancer -- not to mention the multitude of other serious ailments that it works to treat, reduce, or even cure.

It's not like conventional scientific medicine. It doesn't just make your stomach feel better -- or your head stop hurting -- or your muscles move a little easier. It does ALL of those things, by working in harmony with the human body, not by altering the chemical composition of the body.

The great majority of our experimental "medicines" -- you know, the one's big pharma makes up in a lab, and then pushes out to the public without proper testing -- they don't generally FIX anything. They help you reduce symptoms, but they often create more than they cure.

Keeping cannabis illegal is absolutely 100% unacceptable. We need to be studying this wonderful plant more than we already have, and we need to seriously consider using it as the FIRST line of treatment for most illnesses and minor aches -- NOT the last.

Please do some homework, and educate yourself. Google the myths vs.

[bluesraves]

06:11 PM on 09/17/2010

You too...stop making so much sense :-)

[CJHAN]

11:31 PM on 09/19/2010

I agree with you 100% what you say here is exactly what I ment. there is nothing good about using tabacco but it is not illigal the same should be done for pot that at this point showes some promise.

[rikster]

04:31 PM on 09/17/2010

as Czar..does he sample the goods..?