Sound Science and The War on Drugs

When it comes to the EPA, President Obama recently said that "rigid ideology has overruled sound science" as he implemented some well-needed science back into the department. I just want to know how soon we can apply this to the War on Drugs, which has wasted so much money, ruined so many lives and has kept a black market thriving because demand hasn't dropped at all. We have a full-on narco war across the Mexican border, which is spilling into our cities and national parks. We have more people in prison for non-violent drug possession than most other countries do for all crimes combined. And the DEA continues to raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states that have approved them, even though Obama has said these raids will stop under his administration. To wit: On Jan. 22, the DEA - assisted by the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the South Lake Tahoe-El Dorado County Narcotics Enforcement Team and the South Lake Tahoe Police - raided Ken Estes' Patient to Patient Collective in Lake Tahoe. It occured just two days after the Inauguration. Estes, a 44-year-old quadriplegic and single parent, had nine employees and had paid over $51,000 in sales taxes to the state in the past three months. One more fact: in 2007, over 800,000 people were arrested on marijuana-related offenses, 89% for simple possession, according to NORML. The US has the highest level of marijuana use despite having some of the strictest anti-marijuana laws. The fact that the laws are doing nothing to undermine demand should be a huge red flag that our drug policies are not working for us. Well, they are working for the Prison Industry and for the Law Enforcement budget and for the Black Market, but certainly not for US Citizens individually or collectively.

The War on Drugs has been a War on Drug Users and it has not had any effect in slowing down actual use. It is estimated that since we began waging this "war" in 1971, the United States has spent close to 1 trillion dollars. In fact, many teens are now abusing prescription medications in record numbers, making their parents "legal"medicine chest more of a danger than any dealer of illicit substances. But the War on Drugs focuses so much of its efforts on marijuana that it has allowed other more serious threats- such as crystal meth and prescription drug abuse- to spiral out of control. We are short on law enforcement, homeland/border security, prison space and taxable income, not to mention compassion, all of which could be rectified by legitimizing the medical marijuana trade (or all marijuana trade, really) and bringing this cash crop out of the black market and into taxation and regulation.

By applying "sounds science" and common sense to our drug policy, we can move towards decriminalizing marijuana and letting states tax and regulate it, much like they did after alcohol prohibition in the 30's. Lest you forget: from 1920-1933, the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol were banned by the 18th Amendment (later repealed by the 21st Amendment). That's right, it was not just illegal but UNCONSTITUTIONAL to drink alcohol! Sounds ridiculous, right? So does marijuana prohibition, which does far more harm than the drug itself. But think back to Prohibition- gangsters like Al Capone and Bugs Moran made millions selling bootleg liquor; Capone himself controlled 10,000 speakeasies in Chicago. There was a demand for alcohol and the Black Market was all too happy to supply it. Once Roosevelt repealed Prohibition in 1933, the Black Market lost it's profits and reason for existing. Apply that to the narco-war to the south and our own Drug War at home and you remove their reasons for being and for draining our resources, not to mention add a whole new stream of revenue to state and federal budgets. But it's a third rail no politician has been willing to touch for fear of being soft on drugs, especially in the eyes of parents concerned about their kids safety.

For those that say decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana would encourage kids/teens to smoke it, I ask you to look at the facts on the ground right now. As things stand, kids/teens have access to and are smoking marijuana in consistent numbers regardless of the laws and anti-drug commercials. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that half of all teens try marijuana before they graduate high school and they are evidently finding the anti-drug propaganda to be far from the reality of marijuana, which they've obviously tested personally. A combination of politics and faulty science has been used to keep the status quo, but the time to review marijuana- and really all drugs- for re-scheduling by the DEA has come. Can we get a sound scientific basis for how we schedule drugs and then apply it indiscriminately to all substances? It's interesting to note that the FDA has blocked any research on marijuana while simultaneously rejecting it's use medical or otherwise because it is not FDA approved. How convenient. Between the FDA and the DEA, neither has given sound scientific evidence as to how marijuana is more dangerous than other legal drugs, such as nicotine (which is far more toxic, addictive and lethal than marijuana). And guess what? Nicotine isn't even scheduled as a drug on the DEA's list! Nor is alcohol. Imagine that.

Marijuana is used more than any other illegal drug but its top level scheduling doesn't reflect its actual danger (or lack thereof). If marijuana alone were decriminalized, the benefits would be astounding. It is the largest cash crop in California and it would be taxed, which would add hundreds of millions of needed dollars to Californias coffers. It would clear up prison overcrowding almost overnight, with tens of thousands of incarcerated non-violent drug offenders either commuted to treatment or dismissed altogether. It would remove marijuana from the black market, allowing law enforcement on both sides of the Mexico-US border to concentrate on harder drugs like meth, cocaine and heroin. It would allow local, state and federal law enforcement to redistribute their efforts, manpower and funds to more important issues, especially terrorism and immigration. It would also unclog the courts for more urgent and pressing business and remove the criminal stigma from medical marijuana patients seeking relief without chemical/pharmaceutical medication. There are a myriad of other areas that would feel a ripple effect from all this, especially when it comes to industrial hemp, which has no intoxicating effect. However, it does have the potential for use in everything from paper and food products to fiber and biofuels, which tie in nicely with National Security issues and reducing our dependence on foreign oil (and oil altogether). In World Wars 1 & 2, farmers were encouraged to grow Victory Gardens of Hemp for use of its fibers by our military. Henry Ford ran a car on hemp oil and knew the possibilities of the plants oil and fiber. But the economic powers of his day- Dupont, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Mellon and Hearst, to name a few- felt hemp to be a threat to the oil and petrolium industries they ran and they demonized marijuana into prohibition in 1937 (thank you Harry Anslinger!). Since then, it was only revisited seriously once, when President Nixon got the opinion of The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (aka the Shafer Commission) in March of 1972. Their formal (and ultimately ignored) recommendation was this:

"Neither the marijuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety. Therefore, the Commission recommends ... [the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration no longer be an offense."
For those that still say decriminalizing (or legalizing) marijuana would give the wrong message to our kids/teens, it could hardly be worse than the false scare propaganda our government has foisted on them. According to the 2008 Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, marijuana use among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, which has declined a bit since the mid-1990s, appears to have leveled off with 10.9 percent of eighth graders, 23.9 percent of tenth graders, and 32.4 percent of twelfth graders reporting past year use. And just compared to last year, the proportion of eighth graders who perceived smoking marijuana as harmful and the proportion disapproving of its use have decreased. Add to that this fact: seven of the top 10 drugs abused by twelfth graders in the year prior to the survey were prescribed or purchased over-the-counter. Kids/teens are smarter than you think and know the difference between bullshit rhetoric and reality. Once they figure out for themselves that marijuana isn't the Evil Gateway Drug that they've been told, they fully question any other anti-drug propaganda, even the ones that happen to be telling the truth. Telling kids/teens the truth about ALL drugs for a change will instill a sense of trust in them so that when the government warns that "Crack is wack" they will know that it's based on science, not politics or fairy tales.

With Obama promising a "top-to-bottom audit to eliminate spending for programs that don't work" he should set his sights directly on the War on Drugs, which would include reforming our Prison System and Judicial Department as well. On tax revenue alone, here is a great example for you from the great state of California: According to California NORML, Californians consume as much as $2.5 billion worth of medical marijuana per year, enough to generate $100 million in sales taxes. Ten times as much could be generated by complete legalization (yes, that would be a BILLION dollars). At a time when state budgets are deep in the red, that money could help tremendously. Bringing an entire shadow economy out of the black market would have a greater effect than almost anything we can do besides ending the war in Iraq. Let's hope that under Obama, "sound science" gets a fair chance to dispel the "rigid ideology" holding our country hostage to a failed "war" on drugs.

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Follow this thread back to a piece I wrote in 2007 about the scheduling of Nicotine.

Two notable quotes:

Make the most of the hemp seed. Sow it everywhere. --George Washington
Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and prosperity of the nation. -- Thomas Jefferson

A few notable links:

See "Hemp for Victory" produced by the US Government in 1942

Nixon tapes show why US Government outlawed marijuana.

www.norml.com

www.mpp.org

Comments

[awilshire]

Another fine piece. I don't have to tell you my feelings on this subject. If they would just legalize marijuana, it would be so much easier. I use it for my nausea, but there is no provision in Texas for medical usage. Therefore, I break the law. But, I know well enough to realize that it's harmless, and that it helps me.

You never disappoint!!!

[fredamae]

Those Federal Raids were Already planned under the bush admin and have nothing to do with Obama's "promises", kept or broken. He was Barely in Office and I suspect "they" wants to sneak as many of these through as they can before the "screws tighten"...It means a lot of Over-time (cash), Plus Hazard Pay and so on....

[rjmiller]

Maybe I'm an exception, but my drug-related education in school (the 5th grade DARE program circa 1994, and yes I really remember this pretty clearly) was pretty straightforward and at least somewhat honest. We were given a table that listed about 15 common drugs with their addictiveness, effects/si­de-effects­, withdrawal symptoms, etc. Here's what I remember from it:

Effects: Euphoria, raised heart rate. Addictiveness: none. Withdrawal symptoms: none

I then decided that when I was older, I probably would smoke pot and not really do any other drug because it isn't harmful, while most everything else is. If a 10 year old can figure this out, I don't see why the government can't.

[scottportrits]

Sound science demands new 'delivery systems' like inhalers, liquid extract gel-caps, syrup-oil, trans-dermal patches, etc. Reason: Because the FDA, AMA, or DEA will NEVER endorse smoked anything as medicine.
Some doctors at U of Mass got rejected when requesting to grow some cannabis for research studies. An Administrative Judge for the DEA said it would be 'okay', but the DEA still said "NO !" The main doctor is appealing the DEA's decision in Federal Court now.

Sound science goes forward, doesn't beat around the bush, and is not afraid that a study might show the medicine clearly works.

Let's demand forward-thinking action and more 'sound science' from our elected and appointed fiduciary leaders.

[Brinna]

There are so many of us that see through the Drug War propaganda to recognize its essential nature: It is a tool of oppression, pure and simple. The question is, how do we organize an effective opposition. The government policy has been one of divide and conquer, control the media, and squelch science and public discussion, ruin reputations, and keep everyone on the run.

But, the power of networks such as MoveOn.org, and the Obama campaign organization demonstrates that through the internet we can come together and actually make change happen.

We need to apply this social technology to the job of dismantling the Prison Industry which feeds on the War on Drugs. The players are: the multitude of cannabis legalization groups, medical cannabis groups, prison reform groups, sane drug policy groups, physician and nursing advocates, and the millions of people who have been adversely affected by 75 years of government oppression based on lies, and the pretense of preserving social order.

So, this is a call for a Network of Networks to put a nail in the coffin of these terrible policies. Does anyone reading this know the software to do this?

[Jhughes]

There is no more argument. Those that believe in this continued draconian ideology are grasping at the last straws. The debate has ended but still they come with the same old false statements. They are afraid that use will increase in teens. Actually there is a strong possibility that usage would go down. When marijuana was decriminalized in the Netherlands, usage went down especially in teens. Their current practice of keeping it out of teens hands is not working. They claim that marijuana is a gateway drug although there is not one medical report (medical reports should be done by doctors) that links marijuana to harder drugs such as herion and cocaine. It is time to legalize, educate, tax and regulate.

[fredamae]

Caffeine is the First drug, along with Sugar....introduced to Babies via medicines and food. Not to mention the deluge of chemical "vaccinations", Prescriptions and OTC's.

My friends granddaughter was using Nyquil Everyday as per her mothers instructions for sleep.

"They" prescribed Oxycodone to her at 13 for a broken leg.

Again, More than 600,000 Die Every year from using Legal Drugs. This does not include Prescription drug Abuse but rather Adverse reactions.

All Illegal drug use Combined claims just 17,000 lives in comparison.

Cannabis, Zero fatalities.

It is Biologically Impossible to become "Addicted" to Cannabis.

Define Addiction.

Do Include statistics for those with/without an existing Propensity for Addiction.

Science TRUMPS Reefer Madness.

There is No Such Thing As A Safe Drug. We Must Judge All Drugs By The Same Standard Weighing Benefit VS. Risk. Educate All Consumers About All And Any Drug, To Allow Us To Make An Informed Decision Before We Consume Any Substance.
It Is Called Harm Reduction And It Works!

[doriath22]

Marijuana prohibition was introduced partly as a make-work program for Federal agents who would have been out of jobs following the repeal of alcohol prohibition. Today it provides employment for prison employees and for-profit jails, along with billions in revenue for local law enforcement agencies through the theft (pardon me, "forfeiture") of private property. Well-financed lobbyists in the employ of these interests will insist that America cannot "afford" legalization.

[LeftRight]

Not really. It was already illegal. The reason that it was made illegal was that it was being used by African-Americans in too large numbers. Of course, the fact that it was introduced to them by white people trying to control them....

[doriath22]

There were NO laws regarding cannabis prior to 1934

[doriath22]

Pardon me, I should have been more specific. There were no FEDERAL laws regarding cannabis prior to the marijuana Tax Act (1937)

[fredamae]

Who Profits from Cannabis Prohibition?

DE-Schedule Cannabis, Tax, Regulate, conduct Medical Research and KEEP THE FDA OUT OF IT!

In the few States where Cannabis is approved for medical use, you do Not see Patients having medical difficulties self titrating with counsel from their Doctors. The FDA has difficulty monitoring the Medications they have Approved as we see by the Legal Drug Deaths, Medical errors, etc experiencing More than 600,000 Fatalities Annually.

President Obama: When will Cannabis become a matter of Health Care and Not a Political Issue?

We, the People, Want a Rational Approach to the Drug problems in this country developed by using plain 'ol Common Sense.

Those monies currently being spent for eradication can be diverted to other Health Care Programs, Drug Education Programs that teach HARM REDUCTION as an alternative to using FEAR as the most Ineffective weapon against drug mis-use and abuse.

What we Are doing Is Not Working and Is a MULTI-Billion Fiscal Waste Annually.

[fredamae]

Points of interest:

1. Kids can find Cannabis in a New York Second, But demonstrate it is too difficult to obtain the Deadly drugs aka: Alcohol and Nicotine.
2. In 2008 Our Federal Leaders authorized and Spent $10 BILLION for Just Cannabis Eradication and it was Not eradicated. It Never will be.
3. In Addition to the $10Billion Wasted it costs Americans Another $2800.00 per month Per prisoner for each of those convicted of Cannabis Violations.
4. Science Trumps "REEFER MADNESS" Before Prohibition and most definitely, Post Prohibition.
5. Federal Medical Marijuana Patients receive, through the mail, 300 Cannabis Cigarettes Every month.
(see: Ely Musika, Irv Rosenfeld)
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2005/02/18/irvRosenbergAndTheCompassi.html
http://www.independent.com/news/2008/aug/26/federal-cannabis-patient-lead-medical-marijuana-ma/

6. Under Current Laws, Rules and Policies that govern the use of Cannabis, families are torn apart, Social Services carry a Heavier Burden post sentencing as the family wage earners are Incarcerated and the American Tax-Payer fails to get a Return on that investment because the Public is No Safer post incarceration of a Cannabis Consumer. Rapists and murderers are oft times Released Before a Non-Violent Drug offender.
7. The ill and dying are DENIED access to this efficacious Medicine on a Daily Basis, causing Needless Suffering simply due to "ink on a piece of paper".

[HeevenSteven]

The "false scare propaganda our government has foisted" on teens as well only serves to make them cynical of government authority. I know that because that's what I got from it when I was a teen.. Not that there isn't enough already to make one cynical of government, but I remember this very clearly back then.

[WilliePilgrim]

Rigid ideology is a two way street. I'm as concerned over the proliferation of opinion that says on one hand that the earth is so robust that nothing we do can hurt it or disrupt its basic systems as I am over the countervaling perspectivewhich promotes the idea that we are hurtling into a fevered climate that is unhealthy for life the way life on earth should be and will destroy us unless we, without reservation, begin a full-on effort to cap and trade carbon offsets in a misguided attempt to find salvation in a game of 3 Card Monty of immense scale.
It's all summed up in the ultimate statement of "anti-science" which has been repeated ad nauseum: "the debate is over". Only a political postion more interested in political solutions than in real science could ascribe to that. Let's hope we get beyond the polemics and hysteria and begin to do the practical thing to keep us capable and energetic as our species goes through this difficult phase.

[LeftRight]

Just like keeping our kids in the dark about sex doesn't prevent them from doing it, keeping our kids in the dark about drugs and alcohol does NOTHING to stop them (except a tiny minority) from actually USING the substances!

Furthermore, lets legalize pot the same way that we legalize alcohol, with limits on driving while you are on the substance!