You might not think a 65-year-old retired cop would take to the Internet to ask the president of the United States to consider legalizing drugs, but that's just what I did recently. The answer I got from President Obama in YouTube's "Your Interview with the President" contest pleasantly surprised me.
In stark contrast to when the president literally laughed off discussion of marijuana policy in a similar online question-and-answer session in 2009, Obama responded to me by saying that legalizing drugs is "an entirely legitimate topic for debate." Although he noted that he remains personally opposed to legalization for now, he acknowledged that "we have been so focused on arrests, incarceration, interdiction... that we don't spend as much time thinking about how to shrink demand." This welcome statement validated the viewpoint I developed over my 15 years of trying to enforce the drug prohibition laws.
I began my career in law enforcement as a deputy with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department in 1985. Later, I moved to Washington State to work for the King County Sheriff's Office in Seattle, where I worked in our most difficult neighborhoods as a patrol deputy and training officer. I also did a stint as an undercover detective making drug buys, running informants and writing and executing search warrants. I long ago lost count of how many drug arrests I made.
You might think my attitude towards drug users would only have hardened over the years, but the opposite proved to be the case. Understand, I in no way condone or support the use of drugs. And crimes committed by drug users to support their habits must be punished as the crimes they are.
What I came to understand, however, is that this is really a public health and education problem and must be addressed as such. I'm old enough to remember when doctors in white lab coats were on TV hawking cigarettes. It took a long time and a consistent public awareness campaign, but tobacco use in America is down dramatically. Can you imagine the mayhem had we outlawed cigarettes? Can you envision the "cigarette cartels" and the bloodbath that would follow? Yet, thanks to a public awareness campaign we've made a huge dent in tobacco use without arresting a single cigarette smoker.
The "drug" problems our society is plagued with are, for the most part, actually drug prohibition problems, the result of a black market. We will never be able to legislate people away from self-intoxication. It's been going on since the first hominid ate a piece of fermenting fruit and got high on the alcohol content. All we succeed in doing by outlawing these substances is create a gargantuan black market for drug dealers and cartels. The illicit market is estimated to be a half-trillion dollars a year. For that kind of money you can by yourself a sovereign country and in some cases the cartels seemingly have. Mexico is engaged in, basically, open warfare with the cartels. The level of violence and brutality is unprecedented.
If the colloquial definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, what does that say about our "War on Drugs"? We've been pursuing this strategy for 40 years. It has cost a trillion taxpayer dollars, thousands of lives (both law enforcement and civilian) and destroyed hundreds of thousands more by incarceration. Moreover, it undermines the safety of our communities by overcrowding our jails and prisons, forcing them to give early release to truly violent offenders.
So, in a country where, all too often, the only voices heard (or at least heeded) are those of large corporations or special interest groups with powerful lobbyists in Washington, I thought the president's YouTube forum might be a chance to pose a question directly to the person in charge. Long odds to be sure, but a chance nonetheless. Surprise doesn't begin to describe my reaction upon learning my video question ranked first place in the online voting and would be presented to the president.
It is extremely encouraging to hear President Obama respond to a question about our national drug policy in a reasonable, respectful and serious manner, the first time a sitting president has done so.
This is obviously a complicated, highly-charged issue, with Obama and many elected officials still opposed to legalization. But nothing will ever improve without first acknowledging the need for discussion. In that regard, the president's YouTube comments are a tremendous first step.
We can only hope his words encouraging a serious debate on the topic prove to be more than rhetoric, and that he will take on the admittedly complicated challenge of revisiting and, hopefully, revising our national stance on drugs.
MacKenzie Allen, a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is a retired deputy sheriff who did policing in Los Angles and Seattle.
Jessica Speart: The Price Of Obsession: Black Market Butteflies (PHOTOS)
1. Less spent on law enforcement. (Which by the way has not and will not work.)
2. Increased tax in come. (This can be given a high tax cost to the consumer)
If a pack $4.00 pack of cigs has a 20 cent tax, an ounce of marijuana can be taxed at the same rate as the selling price. Say $10.00 an ounce, then $10.00 tax.
And all public jobs will require testing. The $10.00 tax is more than enough to pay for this and still increase the feds budget.
If you also make the same commodity illegal, you establish a "black market", ruled and regulated by gangsters instead of government. You then fill court calanders with trials and jails with prisoners, whose "crime" is trying to enjoy or earn a living from the vice. You made an otherwise minimally negative product into a maximally costly problem.
Cut it out!!
Trouble getting to sleep is nature telling you something, and it aint take a pill. But, big day tomorrow so they do. Pretty soon it becomes a habit and they cant really cope with a big day or even a small day well (generally seedy, bad memory). On the few occasions I took them, I had a very bad vibe about what they were doing to my brain.
My solution was to always do more than the job required. Be early, dont take sickies, minimal if at all lunch hour (couldnt see the logic of dressing up and commuting & then goofing off for an hour in the middle of the day - I was there to work since I had gone to all that trouble - would rather work 4 10 hour days than 5 7 hour days), leave a bit late, embrace change, epathise with the boss. If I had an off day or had to do something private during work hours, the boss was cool. Its a small price to pay for the dignity of being trustworthy vs the stress of being watched like a hawk.
And while the murder rate may go down concerning territorial wars, murders will still occur as the result of drug use, i.e., driving under the influence.
Unless we're going to designate specific use areas, such as opium dens or even "opium counties," we're going to have mayhem simply because legalization in too many minds means no reason to refrain at all.
If there are so many people out there who desire the unregulated use of mind-altering substances that it should be legalized, then why would I believe for a second these users and abusers would be more concerned for the safety of their neighbors than their own desire to alter reality?
I haven't drank alcohol since 1982 and have never used any other drug, so I don't even want to go to parties filled with people under various influences, let alone live in a society that thinks a 24/7 party attitude is a good idea.
Be real people; if someone risks prison to get high or drunk or whatever now, what are they going to do when the only risk is maybe they hurt someone else while intoxicated?
America is filled with people who want what they need, but designed and run by people who simply want more. And when it comes to drugs of any kind, more is a bad idea.
you make it sound like a bad thing why?
I don't drink and do not do anything harder than weed. What I resent is someone telling me what is good for ME. While I do not support legalizing such drugs as heroin, cocaine or narcotic pain relievers, I think we have wasted far too much money and far too many lives trying to stamp out marijuana use. Oh, and I do not drive. Any intoxicant can be used responsibly.
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 23, 2011 (HealthDay News) -- The main active ingredient in marijuana seems to allow chemotherapy patients to regain their ability to taste and enjoy food, according to the results of a small new study.
In the new study, Wendy Wismer, an associate professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and colleagues randomly assigned 21 patients to take THC in pill form (through an anti-nausea drug called Marinol, known generically as dronabinol) or a placebo twice daily for 18 days.
The study results are published in the Feb. 22 online edition of the Annals of Oncology.
The investigators found that those who received the THC were more likely to report that food "tasted better" and ate more protein, although they didn't eat more calories overall than those who took the placebos. The patients who took THC also reported better sleep and relaxation.
The study authors concluded that "THC may well contribute to the overall enjoyment of food in cancer patients."
Commenting on the report, Dr. Donald I. Abrams, a professor of clinical medicine who studies marijuana at the University of California, San Francisco, said that the findings aren't "earth-shattering," but they are good news for cancer patients.
However, he added, the drug probably won't get approved for this use. As an alternative, "people might get similar benefits from smoking cannabis," Abrams said.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=126278&pf=3&page=1