No Pot For Dog Sledders

Even the Iditarod is getting in on drug testing.

You would think that riding in an open sled across a frozen tundra is one activity where drugs or alcohol would be a requirement. Anchorage Daily News:

FAIRBANKS -- The Iditarod plans to test mushers for drugs and alcohol in March, a change many mushers have no problem with -- but one that three-time champion Lance Mackey scoffs at.[...]

Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who has a medical marijuana card, admits to using marijuana on the trail and thinks his success has made some of his competitors jealous.

"It isn't the reason I've won three years in a row," said Mackey, though he concedes marijuana helps him stay awake and focused during the 1,100-mile race that takes winners nearly 10 days to complete.[...]

Mackey says the issue of mushers smoking on the trail is irrelevant because it hasn't affected anyone's race.

Furthermore, he said, what he does in his time is his business.

"The Alaska lifestyle, you can do just about anything you want if you're not bothering anybody," he said. "You have a little more freedom in this state and smoking pot is kind of a common thing here in Alaska."

Ahh Alaska...Sounds like a frozen paradise...[says the guy from Baltimore who can't even lean on a fucking flower pot without some fuckwad from the city yelling at him]

Is There a Pyramid Scheme for Dummies Book?

Because I'd really like to start one. A large one. Details on the life of a pyramid scheme manager:

Convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff promoted a "culture of sexual deviance" at his New York headquarters that featured vast quantities of cocaine and drug-fueled parties with topless waitresses, according to details of a new lawsuit.

"Madoff's affinity for escorts, masseuses and attractive female employees was well known in the office culture," the complaint says. "A significant amount of the money stolen from investors went towards these lavish indulgences as well as other expenses for his employees, family and favorite feeders."[..]

The complaint, filed by California lawyer Joseph Cotchett on behalf of dozens of fraud victims, says coke was so rampant in his Manhattan headquarters that it was known as "The North Pole."

Well...they may have had bowls of coke, swarms of naked whores and a ton of booze at Madoff office parties; but I bet they didn't have a contest for Best Decorated Cube at their office halloween party. You know who does? This guy. And as I always say, who needs drugs, booze and whores when you have a receptionist with a flair for holiday decorations.

Full article here.

Where Can I Get Some Khat?

I only ask because it seems like Khat submissions have been way up over the past six months of the Microgram Bulletin (scroll down to the bottom). I wonder why?

Khat strikes me as a pretty entertaining drug, one I was first introduced (in a literary sense) while reading the Tony Horowitz book, Baghdad Without a Map. Great book, totally worth a read if you haven't. Anyway, since reading his Yemen chapter I've always wanted to sit in tent with some Arabs, drink some pepsi and chew khat for 16 hours straight. I was the only kid in high school with that dream. Talk about let down since, I haven't even been at a party where someone broke out a bundle of khat and asked me if I wanted some.

Which is what got me thinking about this whole khat in America thing. I'm guessing it's brought into the the country to service large immigrant population centers; but I'd like to imagine that khat is becoming a big mainstream drug hit. The new club drug. Soon we will have khat-whores. If you want to guarantee getting laid in a club, you'll make sure that you didn't forget your bale of khat. Khat-whores...It would be great...

Here's a Baseball Promotion That You Can't Pass Up

July 8th the Bowie Baysox (the Orioles AA minor league affiliate) will be hosting Inhalant Abuse Night at the ballpark. No word yet on whether the give-a-way will be glue, aerosol whipped cream, or spray paint.

BTW -- just in case you're a kid who's wondering what will get you high in your own home, the American School Counselor Association kindly answers that question. Just about everything:

Nationwide, children abuse more than 1,400 everyday products, according to a statement. With the cooperation of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), Louie, the Baysox mascot, and team representatives will visit dozens of local schools to discuss inhalant abuse.

I love making up numbers too. I've had sex with 250 thin, attractive women over the past 10 years. None of them have had an STD. I also make $150,000/year, and this blog as a daily traffic of over 100,000 unique visitors. See, isn't it fun to make up numbers?

They Aren't Working

Florida couple nabbed by cops for distributing steroids illegally. Couple claims they sold to athletes in multiple major sports leagues including -- get ready for this -- the Washington Nationals. Yes those 13-36 Nationals. ESPN:

"We're following very closely the developments in Florida as the case progresses," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Washington Post on Sunday. "We think it's important from the league's perspective to investigate this because any allegations of this type are concerning."

Upon his arrest last Tuesday, Richard Thomas of Lakeland, Fla., told police that he had provided drugs to numerous professional athletes. He did not mention names or offer evidence to support his allegations, Polk Co. Sheriff Grady Judd said. Thomas' wife, Sandra, also was arrested in the bust.

The Thomases face 21 state charges of importing and possessing steroids and other controlled drugs.

"We asked him if he'd sold to major professional athletes, and his quote was, 'You name the sport, we've sold to them,' " Judd told ESPN's T.J. Quinn last week. "He didn't name specifics, but he said he had dealt with [players for] the Washington Nationals and the Capitals."

Full story here.

I'll Never Look at a Ukulele the Same Again

A few things to note from the recent Microgram Bulletins:

1) It's always worth a chuckle to see what people are stuffing drugs inside of for the purposes of smuggling. Teddy bears are always popular, antiques often show up. I've also seen shoes, chairs, blinds, you name it. Just as the editors are sure to point out that a particular drug combination is the first submission to Microgram, they also point out if the vessel used to smuggle the drug is a new to them as well. This one made me laugh, and not just because they don't know how to spell ukulele correctly:

These were the first submissions of cocaine smuggled in a ukelele or a jewelry box to the Southeast Laboratory

Guitar, no. Banjo, probably not. Ukulele, yes.

2) This entry is interesting if you've been following the flavored meth hype of the past few years.

The DEA Western Laboratory (San Francisco, California) recently received a ziplock plastic bag containing a mixture of translucent crystals and tiny purple specks that had a distinct grape candy-like odor, purported to be “flavored methamphetamine” (see Photo 1). The exhibit was acquired by DEA Special Agents in Everett, Washington. Analysis of the exhibit (total net mass 26.7 grams) by FTIR, GC/MS, GC/IRD, and HPLC confirmed 1.1% methamphetamine (salt form undetermined), diluted with dimethylsulfone and sucrose; the sample appeared to be mostly dimethylsulfone, based on the FTIR spectrum. It is possible that the tiny purple specks in the exhibit were bits of a grape flavored candy or lollipop, but this was not formally determined. This is the first such submission to the Western Laboratory.

Microgram adds this Editor's note at the bottom of the entry:

[Editor’s Notes: “Flavored methamphetamine” (most notably “strawberry meth”) has received extensive and often alarmist coverage in the mass media over the past two years. However, this is the first confirmed sample of “flavored methamphetamine” submitted to a DEA laboratory, and is also the first such report by any laboratory to Microgram. A small number of exhibits with unusual colors have been submitted to the South Central Laboratory (Dallas, Texas) over the past two years; however, none of the latter samples had any noticeable fruit or candy-like odors.

Interesting if nothing else. What I'm confused about is how they can say it is the "first confirmed sample of flavored methamphetamine" when they could only confirm the odor, not the flavor. Most likely, as Microgram suggests, it is merely grape flavored candy mixed with the meth which I'm assuming would give it a grape taste if smoked, but does an odor automatically confirm a taste?

$872 Million

The size of Baltimore's "informal economy". Plus, some other really fascinating stuff in this City Paper article that connects some dots for Baltimore's drug markets. Read the whole thing but here are some of the more interesting tidbits pulled from the piece (direct quotes):

• The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in 2002 "accommodation and food service sales" in Baltimore were worth about $1 billion.
  
  In other words, the drug trade generates a revenue stream comparable to the city's hotels and restaurants, an industry so important politically that the city government pledged $305 million in revenue bonds to build a downtown hotel that opened last year.
  
  
• For years Baltimore Police and city officials have contended that loosely grouped street-corner crews drive to New York City to buy drugs for resale here. Yet recent federal court cases have tied Baltimore defendants to drug trafficking organizations stretching to Florida, Texas, California, and Mexico, suggesting that a few well-connected Baltimoreans orchestrate shipments of pot, cocaine, and heroin purchased from Mexican middlemen who work for (or are part of) international drug cartels.
  
  
• The DEA's Heroin Domestic Monitor Program reports that Baltimore heroin is, on average, about 45 percent pure. High purity suggests Baltimore is a distribution hub for the drug, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the nation's primary keeper of illegal drug statistics.
  
  
• Charitable foundations and the federal government spend $1 million per week in Baltimore on drug treatment programs, creating hundreds of additional jobs--many of them for recovering addicts--which depend on an amorphous, uncountable addict population. City police draw overtime and seize millions of dollars worth of cars, real estate, and cash every year, leaching wealth from the city's drug economy but never really wounding it.
  
  From an economic perspective, Baltimore's relationship to its shadow economy at first appears schizophrenic: politicians dress the "informal economy" in bows and present it in reports like the DrillDown as evidence of "strong markets," then wrap it in rags for presentation to the federal government in applications for aid. But Baltimore's informal economy exists, like underworlds everywhere, in symbiosis with official institutions.
  

It's a magnificent piece of journalism and does much to connect the scattered (not meant in a pejorative way) reporting that the City Paper has done on the local drug trade in recent years. There's a lot to digest in the article, and even more when you include previous pieces, but even if you don't care about the implications of drug prohibition on place like Baltimore the reporting (esp this piece) that the City Paper has done on the matter makes for a great read.

Hopefully this piece makes it around the web.

Disclaimer: Despite my gushing I know no one (that comes to mind) that works at the City Paper.

What Epidemic?

News that you already knew...If you know, you actually read the news, as opposed to just believing over-hyped Time cover stories from decades ago. NYT:

At a scientific conference in November, Dr. Lester presented an analysis of a pool of studies of 14 groups of cocaine-exposed children — 4,419 in all, ranging in age from 4 to 13. The analysis failed to show a statistically significant effect on I.Q. or language development. In the largest of the studies, I.Q. scores of exposed children averaged about 4 points lower at age 7 than those of unexposed children.

Via Baltimore Crime.

P.S. Is it necessary for the New York Times to do every story on drugs, poor people, poor black people, and crime from Baltimore? What about Detroit?

I Think I've Seen This On YouPorn

In his defense, it is a long fucking drive:

Brenton Alan Erhardt, 39, pleaded guilty in the Darwin Magistrates Court to dangerous driving.

He was pulled over by police on the Stuart Highway in July speeding at 147 kilometres per hour, south of Daly Waters.

He admitted to officers he filmed himself masturbating while driving from Adelaide to Darwin.

He also pleaded guilty to driving unlicensed, carrying two cannabis smoking pipes, administering the drug and carrying a loaded rifle.

I don't know about filming myself, but I'll admit that it is tough to go on any drive over 7 hours without getting stoned and masturbating at least once. I'd probably leave the loaded firearms and marijuana plants at home thought. Just me.

Blame the Belgians for Everything

Those ugly Belgians better not screw up drug tourism for the rest of us.

The cannabis-loving clientele of the Liberty II Café are convinced that the latest attempt by authorities to curb their habit will backfire.

Faced with outrage from residents about rowdy behaviour, Roosendaal’s Mayor, Michel Marijnen, wants to close the town’s four coffee shops but is being hampered by civil rights laws.

Like many Dutch “coffee shops” the Liberty II boasts a wide range of marijuana strains, from Amnesia through K2 to Hollands Glorie, sold openly in joints and small amounts over the counter.

Even though it is tucked away in a side street in the sleepy town of Roosendaal, its location near the southern Dutch border has made it a magnet for drug tourists who arrive in their thousands every week from across northern Europe.

Even in Amsterdam where half of the country's coffee shops live, tolerance is the barely the word I would use for how the locals feel about people...well, like me. While I'm not jumping off of any bridges while tripping out of my mind, and I tend to be a very responsible drug tourist as a whole, normal Dutch citizens are tired (and understandably so) of the reputation that their country and/or city has. But whatever, it makes them a shitload of money and the majority of tourist (read: everyone but the British) are well-behaved and respectful.

On another note, later in the article we find out what happened to Coolio. He moved to Belgium:

One of the day-trippers, Coolio, 40, arrived yesterday by train from Leuven, Belgium. “What you buy for €10 (£8.50) here will cost you €20 in Leuven,” he said. “I understand there is too much grass for the people living here, but you should not blame the coffee shops. You have to blame the Belgian Government, why don’t they make the coffee shops legal for their own people?”

Right on Coolio.

Full article here.

Enough of the Financial Talk; How About Some Drugs, Sheep that are Asking for It and Dead Hookers?

Links for your enjoyment.

Can I get rid of Comcast yet? Sprint unviels WiMax; city-wide "hot-spot" coverage for Baltimore.

This sounds like the type of guy I would trust to give information that may send people to jail:

Informants have different motivations for working with police, but the details they provide — names, places and times — can be key in major investigations and can lead to arrests.

Until last week, Timothy Ian Boland, a 31-year-old Robbinsdale man, was one of them. He's now accused of playing a role in the death of his brother's girlfriend and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree aiding and abetting a murder.

"At this point, his value as an informant is zero," Sommer said.

But Boland's arrest won't compromise any of the task force's investigations, he said.

Of course not. But is it nuts to think that it should? I don't think so...

TtP asks the question in Feburary '06 -- Is Sheep-Fucker a Sex Offender? I'm happy to report that the Michigan Court of Appeals says no.

A Calhoun County man who sodomized a sheep will not have to register as a sex offender because the sheep cannot be considered a victim of sexual assault under Michigan law, a court ruled this week.

Jeffrey Scott Haynes, 45, is serving a 2 1/2 - to 20-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to sodomy in 2006. He was found trespassing on a farm in Bedford Township in January 2005. The farmer called police when she realized one of her sheep was injured. A DNA sample taken from the sheep matched Haynes, a career criminal with convictions dating to 1985.[...]

Haynes, who was sentenced as a fourth-time habitual offender, is at Parr Highway Correctional Facility in Adrian. He has been convicted of home invasion, forgery and uttering and publishing.

Question to my lawyer readers: What's the difference between forgery and uttering and publishing?

While most people might automatically think murder when they find a dead hooker buried in a garden with her underwear around her knees, and her legs tied together with a plastice bag ALONG with signs of strangulation; the Baltimore Coroner would disagree. A brief story about the abnormally high rate of "undeclared" deaths in Baltimore as well as a reminder that someone is going around killing prostitutes in this city.

The Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore consistently posted higher numbers of undetermined deaths than other states or large cities. In 2004, for instance, 341 deaths were ruled undetermined in Baltimore City, and 807 in the state of Maryland. The same year, Washington, D.C., had 76 undetermined deaths.

In McClary’s case, Wecht said undetermined appeared to be the “proper” ruling. “In a case like this, where they need more information, it’s the right thing to do,” Wecht said.

McClary’s body was discovered Aug. 30, 2006, on Beaufort and West Belvedere avenues, where former police Commissioner Leonard Hamm’s stepdaughter Nicole Sesker was found strangled this year.

“We always thought it was suspicious,” said Rhonda McClary, Tyra’s sister. “We’ve really never had any closure. It’s been very hard for her mother.”

There have been 26 prostitutes killed since 1998, according to records reviewed by The Examiner.

Officer, the marijuana in my possesion only looks like a lot because it's fluffy. Oh, and I stayed late after work to drink booze. Now, why did you pull me over?

That's a Shit Load of Coke

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Peruvian police made their biggest seizure of cocaine in three years, daily La Republica reported.

Police impounded a 4 metric-ton (8,820-pound) shipment headed for Holland in an operation in Lima, the daily said, citing Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro. Peruvian authorities have seized 20 tons of drugs so far this year, La Republica said.

Police arrested 20 people, including five Mexicans and three Colombians during the operation on Sept. 5, according to the newspaper. The drugs, hidden inside a shipment of steel barrels, would have been worth $400 million in Europe, La Republica said.

The shipment was organized by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, the Lima-based newspaper said.

Somewhere, someone is asking the question -- Where is 9,000 pounds of coke when I need it?

Story here.

I Need to Become a Police Informant for a Preggo Prostitution Sting So I can "Maintain My Cover"

Drug bust in Connecticut nabs 64 street-level drug dealers; who as police say "were collectively dealing large amounts of drugs." Interesting way to distort phrase a low-level bust comprised mostly of addicts. 'Kinda like saying "collectively, everyone working at my non-profit earns a lot of money."

The Herald:

NEW BRITAIN - Complaints of street-corner dealing and a slight upswing in heroin use spurred teams of city officers to nab dozens of low-level drug dealers Tuesday in an early-morning sweep designed to curb open crack and heroin sales in the city.

The arrests were the result of a four-month investigation during which city narcotics officers tracked the activities of known dealers and videotaped their sales during controlled drug buys to informants.

The busts were focused on putting a crimp on street-level dealing in targeted areas, including the city's three neighborhood revitalization zones, public housing and the downtown area in front of City Hall.

In front of City Hall? I love it. Prohibition is such a failure that this city can't even control heavy drug dealing in front of their main municipal building. Great stuff this war on drugs.

And how about that 4-month long investigation into street-level drug dealers selling 5-15$ worth of drugs? Sounds involved and intense. I betcha' like Baltimore it must be hard to buy small amounts of crack and heroin on the streets of New Britain.

Heroin sells for about $3 a bag in Hartford, Williams estimates, but about $5 to $10 a bag in New Britain. "It's very easy to make a quick profit and then use the money to feed their own habit," Williams said.

[...]"Heroin appears to be up more than past years," Williams said. It's very easy to get and an easy way to get quick money."

Oh, never mind..It's "easy to get" and an "easy way to get quick money". That almost leads you to believe that in no time 64 people will quickly spring up to take the place of the soon-to-be incarcerated 64.

Here's the best part of this story:

One man claiming to be a confidential informant for New Britain police said two weeks before the sweep that he was paid $60 per drug buy and an extra $100 if a firearm was seized.

The informant said he had smoked some of crack cocaine bought from a dealer, to maintain his cover, before giving the rest to police.

Heh...Full story here.

Giving Drugs a Bad Name

Bad idea -- Calling the cops to report that you have drugs in your house. Really bad idea -- Calling cops to report that you have drugs in your house when you also have a Deringer on your person:

Police arrested a man and woman on drug charges Thursday after the woman claimed there was marijuana in their apartment and in her boyfriend’s truck, reports stated.

Misty Deanne Norwood, 39, of 400 Woods Road and Charles Thomas Cook, 42, of 436 Radio Springs Road, were taken into custody after police arrived and found a Deringer .22-caliber handgun on Norwood.

According to police reports, the drugs were found under a couch in the apartment. Police brought a K-9 unit to search Cook’s pickup truck and found more marijuana and a pipe with suspected methamphetamine residue in it.

Both Cook and Norwood remained at the Floyd County Jail this morning on misdemeanor assault and battery charges and possession of marijuana charges with no bond. Cook also faces felony possession of amphetamines charges.

Mushrooms Good for You

Yet another study that says psilocybin can be helpful for addiction, and paitents with fatal diseases:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed.

In 2006, Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues gave psilocybin to 36 volunteers and asked them how it felt. Most reported having a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.

More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

"This is a truly remarkable finding," Griffiths said in a statement. "Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."

Full article here.

Still Alive

I'm still alive; just been in the process of a job change that has taken up the bulk of my time over the past week. Spent yesterday at a Concentra medical center giving my obligatory cup o'piss for a 10 panel pre-employment drug screen. My default position is to not work for any company that insists on mandatory drug screens, but practicality deems that position futile in today's environment. What fun.

Anyway, sorry for the light posting, it might continue for a bit as I complete this transition. (Whether it be to the new job or to a cardboard box somewhere on the streets of Baltimore after I fail my drug screen)

As for now; back to the blogging!

-------

Pro-Life Politician: I had no idea that the $300 dollars and ride that I gave to the woman I was fucking was for an abortion. No, really he said that. Seattle Times:

A woman who dated congressional candidate Mike Erickson seven years ago said she asked him directly whether he wanted to have a baby. He shook his head no, she said, and paid for her abortion.[...]

Erickson agrees that he gave Tawnya $300 for medical help, and a ride to a doctor's office, but said he didn't know she was pregnant or planned to get an abortion.

Erickson, a Lake Oswego businessman, is the Republican candidate in Oregon's 5th Congressional District and is running on an anti-abortion platform. The charge that he provided money to Tawnya nearly derailed his campaign for the May 20 primary and could hobble his chances in the Nov. 4 general election against state Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby.

I believe him. This one time I was in Mexico and paid a hooker $50 and pulled down my pants -- but I had no idea she was going to blow me. Or that she had a penis. OK, I knew she had a penis. But really, the blow job was completely unexpected. Good, but unexpected.

So if it wasn't "I didn't know she had a penis", what was Erickson's excuse?

Erickson gives a far different account of events.

He said he thinks that a week or two before the appointment, Tawnya called asking for help with money to see a doctor. A day or two before the appointment, he said, she called to say she had car troubles and needed a ride.

He said he didn't ask her why she needed to see a doctor, saying he didn't want to pry. "I knew her pretty well but not like — it wasn't my girlfriend — but it was somebody that I had a relationship with," Erickson said.

Erickson didn't wait around. "She said her friend was picking her up and they were going to do something at the mall, or something like that."

Not even an ounce of creativity in his excuse...I'd be disappointed in this douche bag if I was a Washington Oregon voter, not because he's a fucking hypocrite, rather because he's a lazy, fucking hypocrite. Come one man, accuse the chick of being a whore, demean her character, lie about where you were on the day the abortion happen. But for God's sakes, don't say that you gave her $300, then dropped her off at a doctors office, but had no idea that she was having an abortion -- you just thought she was going to the mall...or something. What a dope. An even bigger dope than your average politician.

I Could Think of Worse Ways to Wage the War on Drugs

No parking here has helped drive down business in one of the largest open-air drug markets in city...but drug dealers aren't the only business being hurt:

Every day, Derek Kang used to chase 20 to 30 people he suspected of dealing drugs out of the vestibule of Sweet Sixteen, a women's clothing store he manages on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Now it's down to just one or two, he said, after Baltimore police began a new strategy to eradicate one of the city's largest open-air drug markets: Take away the parking.

Business has been down since late fall, when orange "No Stopping" bags first appeared on the meters lining four blocks of the West Baltimore commercial district, and Kang and other merchants along the strip have felt the impact on their bottom line. But Baltimore police officials said that calls for service are also down there and that they are monitoring the effects of the initiative to determine whether it might be applied elsewhere.[...]

The city's strategy is an example of what is called "situational crime prevention" - changing the environment to deter criminal activity, said Jean M. McGloin, a criminologist at the University of Maryland.

Interesting. Of course what usually ends up happening in situations like this is that the drug dealers merely get pushed to another area, it's not as though people want to stop getting high in Baltimore. But as far as tactics go in the War on Drugs, we could do a lot worse.

This Time They Mean It

The Netherlands looks to ban mushrooms...again:

The Dutch government has decided to ban "magic mushrooms" and announced that it would put a bill before parliament under a proposal put forward by the ministers of health and justice, Ab Klink and Hirsch Ballin.

The decision, backed by a majority of members of parliament, was taken after a number of accidents mostly involving tourists.

Flashback to over a year ago when we first heard that the Dutch government was banning the sale of mushrooms after a French teenage tourist jumped to her death in March of '07. This past February I was surprised to find that smart shops were still open and doing brisk business. So I don't know what to expect with this recent news out of the Netherlands, but it would seem as if at some point in the near future smart shops will cease to exist legally in the tolerant country.

2288 Grams is a Lot of Shrooms

Our country is no doubt a little bit safer after police confiscate 2288 grams of psilocybe mushrooms that some master drug smuggler attempted to mail cross-country via USPS. I could understand a few pills; maybe some pot, but 2288 grams of shrooms? Seems ambitious at best, really stupid at worst. Either way it failed.

The bigger War on Drugs-is-a-Big-Failure point still remains though -- we are looking at mushrooms, not a pile of dead Russian hookers that police discovered in a shipping container -- but fucking mushrooms. We spend billions of dollars a year in enforcement so that police can proudly take a picture of a huge pile of mushrooms. Pretty silly if you ask me.

More here at the always informational DEA Microgram Bulletin, including the always popular heroin in a laptop and meth, meth, and more meth.

That's So Sketchy

Kid should have stuck with his gut reaction:

N.H. Principal Lures Student Into Drug Deal

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ― A New Hampshire student is suing his high school after he was lured into an alleged drug deal by a principal from another school posing as a friend.

The deal was set up by Bishop Brady High School Principal Jean Barker on a cell phone she confiscated from one of her students, according to police reports.

She received a text message from Concord High School senior John Huckins, 17, stating "Yo, you need a bag?" according to police reports.

Barker, who suspected Huckins was referring to bags of marijuana, asked for two. Pretending to be the phone's owner, she arranged, through text messages, to meet outside the back door of her school, and called police.

Huckins sent two messages saying he was reluctant to meet on school property, according to police reports.

He wrote "that's so sketchy" and "dude, I don't like that" and suggested waiting until they could meet after school. But the Catholic school principal persisted.

It's a shame the principal of Concord High School has nothing better to do than set-up drug deals to bust up small time pot dealers. I guess every student at Concord High has nothing else to learn about. Nothing. They are the brightest and most accomplished high school students anywhere in the world. Since he's finished his work in educating children at his school, he probably felt it was time to move onto crime fighting. Makes sense.

Full story here.

If Heroin Was Legal, You Couldn't Pay for It With Your Sister

Whose the bigger creep? The drug dealer selling his sister, or the drug dealer who accepts the woman as payment and rapes her in the back of his car? Tough call.

Espanola, NM (KOAT) - A northern New Mexico man is suspected of trading his sister for heroin.

Police say they initially investigated the case as a kidnapping, but when they dug deeper, they say they discovered something more disturbing.

Police say Herman Flores Junior accepted the woman as payment for the drugs and then forced her to have sex with him.

Full story here.

Israeli Anti-Drug Authority Shares Notes with ONDCP

Good to know anti-drug hysteria linking pot smokers to terrorist isn't limited to just within our borders. Although from looks of it Israel's Anti-Drug Authority seems to be taking the cultural "destroy us from within" approach, different from the ONDCP's "you fund terrorism with your dime-bag purchase" meme. Neither are very persuasive.

From the LA Times blog -- Babylon and Beyond:

ISRAEL: Drugs - going out with a bong?
"At the end of every joint sits Nasrallah," an irresistible headline beckoned me this morning. A mouse-click led to a critique of the new campaign ad by The Israeli Anti-Drug Authority, showing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah wafting, genie-like, out of a bong. "They want to destroy us from within," it cautioned. Hezbollah intends to flood Israel with drugs, which pose a strategic threat to Israeli society: "Anyone doing drugs is lending a hand to the next terror attack!" The ads (below) ran in Tuesday's papers.

Drug Fueled Binges of the Rich and Corrupted

I'll admit I haven't been paying close attention to the Tony Rezko trial/scandal, but testimony like this makes me wish I had been. Also makes me wish I was a politician. Or a corrupt real estate mogul. Or just filthy rich.

Victory in the War on Pot

Via Baltimore Crime, from the Examiner:

Sniffing beats smoking pot among young teens

Sniffing solvents is more popular than smoking marijuana for teenagers looking to get high, according to a new report from the University of Maryland Center for Substance Abuse Research.

Inhalants are the most popular type of drug among children 12 to 13, the report found, with more than 500,000 young teens experimenting with solvents.

Is there any question which of these drugs is worse for the body and mind? Huffing chemicals or smoking pot? I'd stake my impressive reputation on the statement that huffing chemicals is exponentially more dangerous than smoking pot at 12, 13, 16, 20 -- you name the age.

The best part about studies like these, is that you can actually imagine the ONDCP throwing together a press release and a blog post hailing this as a victory in the War on Drugs. We've beaten the scourge of marijuana, now onto paint thinners and varnish.

Full story here.

NY Gov Can't Stop Confessing

Look, I reflexively love any guy who cheats on his wife, does blow, and smokes pot. Fun guy to be around. Perhaps though, if you are a governor of a major American state, and not a blogger at a pathetically low-brow blog, you might want to keep some of your behaviors, past or present, to yourself.
ABC News:

New York's new governor, who disclosed last week that he and his wife both committed adultery several years ago, said Monday that he used cocaine in his 20s and smoked marijuana when he was younger. In reference to cocaine, Gov. David Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he "tried it a couple of times" when he was "about 22 or 23." "And marijuana probably when I was about 20," he said on the NY1 cable news station. "I don't think I touched marijuana since the '70s."

Any guesses on what confessions we get next from Paterson?

Sheriff Finds It Hard to Believe TSA Agents are Inept; Rest of the Country Disagrees

Someone has seen Blow a few too many times -- 45 lbs of pot goes semi-unnoticed through a Milwaukee airport:

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A suitcase packed with 45 pounds of marijuana passed through security at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee County.

Sheriff David Clarke suspects it was "an inside job" because of the security breach. Clarke says it's unnerving that such a bag can bypass all the TSA security devices.

Investigators aren't saying exactly where the untagged suitcase was found, but they believe it was destined for a plane to New York.

It could have been an inside job. Or the TSA agents could have been, well, TSA agents...

Jim Landers is a Dope

An idea for columnist, reporters, and other worthless media types everywhere -- If you write a story/article on drugs, and the drug trade, make a honest effort to talk some people that don't work for the ONDCP or the U.N. It might provide some actual insight into the problems we face.

Case in point: Jim Landers from the Dallas Morning News:

WASHINGTON – Here's a recession that's welcome.

The criminal enterprises that sell illegal drugs are seeing less profit, and some are losing money, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Drug abuse is down dramatically in the United States. It is flat around the world for the third year in a row.

What happened?

The war on drugs has shifted to a public health focus toward users, and a private business focus toward sellers.

Uh...Is that news to anybody else, or just me? "The war on drugs has shifted to a public health focus toward users". I wasn't aware we switched drug policy. Must have happened over the weekend and I missed it in the haze of St Patrick's Day weekend. A shame really -- because our previous strategy of shooting and/or imprisoning users and dealers alike seemed to be working so well for us.

I'll give Jim credit on one data point; drug use is down, and has been going down for years. It's been going down as the supply of most drugs has been increasing and the prices decreasing. More and cheaper drugs; but yet less drug use. Could it be, that if you let people alone to make their own decisions about what they put in their bodies that most will decide that drugs are not for them? That would be a revolutionary idea: Let folks make their own choices.

More:

"It may not be the best thing to arrest the most people. It may not be the best thing to focus brute force on them," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Good one John. You almost had me there for a minute.

And finally:

Local, national and international laws restricting the sale of chemicals used to manufacture the drugs have proved surprisingly effective in disrupting the traffic in methamphetamines, or crystal meth, an illegal stimulant. Local governments were the first to curb sales of cold medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, followed in 2006 by national legislation.

The drug makers moved manufacturing to Mexico. As of January, however, Mexico has banned imports of these chemicals.

And then people will stop using methamphetmines to get high. End of story, it's that simple. No substitution drug will pop up, no new production methods will be tried, all you have to do is ban the substances and the problem goes away. It always works.

Should Sex Offenders Not Be Eligible for Student Aid?

Rep. Ric Keller (R) of Florida thinks most definitely that they should not.

''This is the most insane waste of taxpayer money that I have seen in my eight years in Congress,'' said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., who is pushing to stop the practice. ''It is a national embarrassment that we are wasting taxpayer dollars for pedophiles and rapists to take college courses while hardworking young people from lower-class families are flipping hamburgers to pay for college.''

[Fact check: federal student aid that goes to sex offenders has zero effect on what hamburger flippers or any other American can receive in aid; it is not a zero sum game and everyone is eligible.]

Rep. Keller has introduced a bill that would ban sex offenders from receiving Pell grants, which is the form of aid available to low-income students and is especially helpful to them because it is a grant, not a loan. People convicted of drug offenses are already banned from accessing student loans under similar punishment logic. Murderers are still free to seek government aid.

IMHO, a convicted criminal's pursuit of higher education is a good thing and not an outrage that should be banned de facto by denying student aid. What is the goal here? Permanent outcast status for sex and drug offenders or rehabilitation and a path to stability and re-entry into society?

Police Officer Alerts Schools to Dangerous Drug, Also Passes Along Information on Cheap Viagra and a Sweet Business Deal with Nigerian Royality

Oxfordshire, England. Hysteria run amok after a cop falls for a fradulant, chain e-mail.

A policeman alerted hundreds of families to the danger-drug Strawberry Meth - despite the fact it does not exist.

Pupils and parents at 80 schools in Oxfordshire were warned of the possible risks of the fruit-flavoured drug, also known as Strawberry Quick, by the unwitting officer.

The spurious alert came after the officer sent an email via a special system connecting police and schools without checking it with colleagues.

The drug, said to contain deadly crystal meth, had apparently been given to children in sweet form by strangers outside school gates, leading to two victims being hospitalised.

But there had never been such an incident, and the officer had forwarded on an email well known for being an Internet hoax.

Full story here.

School Hires 34 Year Old Former Stripper at Minumum Wage; Stripper Does Her Part for Predictable Ending

And I thought TtP's hiring policies were lenient:

A special-education aide at Highlands Senior High School resigned under pressure yesterday and faces possible drug and corruption of minors charges for a hotel party involving high school teenagers.

New Kensington police said they found suspected crack cocaine, empty beer cans and used condoms in a room that Abbiejane Swogger, 34, of Harrison, shared with minors Thursday night at New Kensington's Clarion Hotel. The room contained drug paraphernalia and a marijuana odor when officers arrived just before noon on Friday to follow up on reports of missing teens, said Detective Dennis Marsili.[...]

The one-time exotic dancer worked since September for the school district at a job paying minimum wage or slightly above. At the time Ms. Swogger was hired, the school district had no drug-testing policy for employees at her level, Dr. Galcik said. The school board later expanded its policy to require such testing in January for new employees, she said.

Drug testing? I'm not sure preventing casual pot smokers from teaching will accomplish much in the way of preventing pedophilia.

How about whore testing? That would be a more effective policy to stop the hiring of middle-aged whores as teachers. You can take this as a formal offer of my services Westmoreland County. Not to brag but I'm like a human lie-detector machine. Only I detect whoreness. It's a complicated process where I see if the women in question will go home with me. Never fails.

More:

Ms. Swogger says she rented a hotel room to socialize and drink beer with adult acquaintances, but teenage friends of her son showed up and refused to leave. She maintained yesterday that she knew nothing about drugs in the room and did not give the teens any beer.

"I think if they drank, I would have known about it," she said, adding that she unsuccessfully urged the two girls to leave.

Ms. Swogger also said she did not have sex with any of the young people present. They may have had sex with one another, she said, but did so "discreetly."

That's a good excuse...They might have had sex in the same room as me, but if they did so, they were 'discreet' about it. I'll have to tuck that one away for further use. Like this Saturday. Me: "Officer, there may have been a dozen or so street walkers shooting heroin while blowing me in the bathroom. But if they did, they were discreet about it. Now, am I free to go back to more discreet prostitutes that may or may not be in my bedroom?

Full story here, with a hitable picture of the former teacher in question.

John Walter's Annual Get-A-Way Spot

Why does anyone continue to travel through or to Dubai?

In all seriousness, do any readers know if it is a hub for any international destination? Africa?

Watch Out for Toothless, Rotten Gummed, Iron Lunged, Szichophrenic Pot Heads

Rotten gums, the latest medical consequence from smoking pot:

An international team tracked the dental health of 1,000 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972 and 1973.

They found heavy cannabis smoking was responsible for more than one-third of the new cases of gum disease among the group by the age of 32.

Right. Buried down at the end of the article is this:

Overall, 29% of the sample showed some signs of gum disease.

29% showed some sign of gum disease. Don't forget that most of the smokers were smokers; of both tobacco and marijuana, and that gum disease is a very common ailment.

More on drugs: Check out this article in the Washington Post on cocaine trafficking out of Columbia using submersible vessels. Pretty cool stuff. Definitely read the whole thing, but let me excerpt the last few paragraphs that remind anyone with an ounce of common sense of the futility of the prohibition exercise.

Here in the navy yard, in addition to the seized submersibles, there is a torpedo-like tube, designed to carry cocaine, that traffickers planned to attach by cable to a ship. There are also several "go-fasts" and an earlier mode of transport for drugs -- fishing trawlers -- now rotting in dry dock. Together, they could make up a Smithsonian exhibit.

Some officials say the submersibles should be destroyed.

"We've been debating what to do with them," Angel said. "I'm partial to keeping them because they are part of the history of our country. And when we put an end to drug trafficking, our sons and grandsons should know what these criminals did."

Kids Get Creative; Find Ways To Get Gigh, Without Getting High

Great headline:

Lewisville teen's hand sanitizer gel sniff 'not a crime'

By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News

Denton County prosecutors decided Friday to wash their hands of a case against a Lewisville middle school student accused of trying to get high by sniffing his teacher's hand sanitizer.

Three days after filing delinquency charges against the youth, prosecutors did a turnaround and decided that the common cleaning gel is not an abusive inhalant under the Texas Health and Safety Code.

"It's not a crime. Hand sanitizer does not fall within that statute," said Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney in Denton County. "The police agency brought it up mistakenly thinking it was."

Great. Good to see we take a sane approach to all drugs substances, from hand sanitizers up to heroin. This is the kicker of piece:

Joni Eddy, assistant police chief in Lewisville, said Friday that hand sanitizer has become a popular inhalant. "That is the latest thing to huff," she said.

Really? You're going to try and claim that? You want to try and back that up with any, what's it called...evidence? Maybe some data points or anything? Or have we just caught you in a bold-faced lie, developed to save your own departments ass?

Because to the best of my knowledge there is no such fad. Some small number of mentally deficient kids might be drinking the stuff; but I highly doubt anyone is huffing hand sanitizer to get high. I pay close enough attention to the ONDCP and their media machine and if there was even the slightest amount of data indicating that some kid somewhere was huffing hand sanitizer, I would have read about it in a press release warning the pubic about the latest epidemic -- Purell.

A spokeswomen for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in the same article that they have "no data about hand sanitizers being abused as inhalants". A simple googling, along with a few deep huffs of my own Purell backed up the claim.

Full article here.

Cannabis: Africa's Biggest Drug Problem

I understand that the West Coast of Africa has become the latest hot-spot for global drug trafficking. What I don't know, is what size the piece of the trafficking pie is dedicated to marijuana. allAfrica reports:

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade said at the weekend that Cannabis otherwise known as Indian hemp is the biggest drug challenge in the country and the African continent.[...]

Giade, decried the dangers of hard drugs to humanity and stressed that the destruction exercises is to spite drug barons and also to demonstrate the superiority of law enforcement agents over illicit drug dealers.

According to Giade "the threat of narcotic drugs is palpable. It is difficult to ignore this peril starring at us in the face. Cannabis control constitutes the biggest drug challenge in Nigeria and Africa . This is because it grows effortlessly in the country. This drug has the propensity to destroy our society but we equally have the capacity to subdue it".

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State in his goodwill message said that it is sad that some indigenes of the State are getting involved in the illicit drug trade when they are highly respected as good business men and women.

"Anambra citizen has no business with illicit drugs and I assure you that the State will partner with the NDLEA to ensure that Anambra State and by implication the entire country is completely drug free"he said.

Giade pointed out that illegal drug business is a covert affair that makes drug control a very cumbersome task demanding enormous resources, training and dexterity. The NDLEA boss said that no drug baron wants his drugs seized let alone destroyed because they have paid so much to acquire them.

My title is a bit misleading, as even the official seems to make the distinction of 'cannabis control', rather than the plant itself. I'm sure Nigeria is no friend to drug reformers, but their officials seem willing to honestly admit that policing the drug trade is the problem in and of itself*. That's more than we can say for U.S. drug warriors. Story here.

*Yes, I understand that NDLEA probably usues this rehetoric to demand more money for its efforts. Just because it may be out of self-interest, doesn't make it any less true, or refreshing to hear.

Extreme Exctasy

Compare and contrast the coverage.

Drug Inspired Friday Links

Cigarettes, pot, crack, and coffee. What more could you want in one cafe?

Bound to make your skin crawl and your temper flare. Prepare yourself for a DEA reality show coming to Spike TV this year. From producer Al Roker:

Television viewers will get the same unprecedented access to the inner workings of the DEA as our camera crews – the raids, the risks and the danger," said the show's executive producer, Al Roker. "This series is the real deal, exposing elements of the illegal drug trade that you could not imagine. When you watch DEA, you will feel like you have gone undercover."

"Exposing elements of the drug trade that you could not imagine." No, I can pretty easily imagine what they are going to show. I'm guessing it will be nothing like Traffik, and completely like Dallas Swat.

Don't worry Amy; they make me give DNA samples just to enter other countries. Or I think they do...Come to think of it, that "nurse" under the stairs at BWI Airport did kind of look like a homeless troll. Not a "Government Testing Official" like his name tag read...I really didn't think a stool test was necessary for trip to Europe.

Let's wrap this post up with some typically dramatic drug stories from the British press. 1) A user who suffers a heart attack from meth sues her dealer.

“I have gotten sober. I think that’s taking responsibility for my actions. I don’t think I should have to take responsibility for both of our actions. I think he should meet me half way. That’s what this lawsuit is about,” she said.

2) Pot puts 500 a week in hospital.

Doctors say cannabis abuse can contribute to mental health problems including forms of psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. There can be harmful physical side-effects, disrupting blood pressure and exacerbating heart and circulation disorders.

Oooooooo scary....

EXTREME EXCTASY!!!!

Federal agents are targeting a turbo-charged form of Ecstasy that is gaining in popularity, fearing it will lead to fatal overdoses similar to ones experienced a few years ago caused by heroin mixed with fentanyl.

Michigan and nine other states along Canada's border would see the first wave of any such overdoses, and officials are warning that the so-called "extreme Ecstasy," which is mixed with methamphetamines, is becoming a problem.

"They (drug dealers) are remarketing and packaging it and trying to glamorize it," said Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "We just went through this issue with fentanyl. We learned a lot of things from that. We have to get on it early and get on it aggressively."

Drudge has a link to a this story in the Detroit Times about the potential of a new, and much more potent form of ecstasy that contains methamphetamine. Officials, in a hope to simultaneously scare the beejbus out of parents, and intrigue kids everywhere, have labeled the "drug" extreme ecstasy. Good work guys, way to borrow a page out of Mountain Dew's marketing book.

As with most ONDCP claims, this is all hype and very little substance, and does nothing but point to the larger failures of the very war that they are losing. The street-drug version of MDMA is a composite drug. You don't buy pure MDMA tablets; ecstasy pills are usually MDMA adulterated with some combination of ketamine, procaine, caffeine, cocaine, heroin, and yes methamphetamine. The combination of drugs that are used can be endless. When we talk about controlling the purity of drugs by legalizing them this is what we mean. A buyer has no idea what he/she is getting when you buy purported ecstasy on the street.

The funny thing about this particular case? People are not dropping dead in the street from this combo ecstasy. The Feds try to compare this to the mass heroin overdoses that were/are most likely caused by some bad batches of the drug that were heavily adulterated with fetanyl. But that's a stretch for even drug warriors to make. We haven't seen anything like that with the combo ecstasy tablets, and I have no idea why we would. Fetanyl is not the same thing as meth. Not nearly, and the amounts of methampthetimine used in producing ecstasy is usually under 5% of the body of the drug. We aren't talking about a lollipop size of meth.

Here, here, here and here are examples of component ecstasy. Read it for yourself. And here's what the DEA Microgram Bulletin had to say back in August about these multi-component forms of ecstasy:

Once unusual, these multi component type Ecstasy tablets have recently become very common in the region served by the South Central Laboratory.

Show me some bodies.

The Supreme Court On Crack

Baltimore Sun:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court today said judges may impose shorter prison terms for crack cocaine crimes, enhancing judicial discretion to reduce the disparity between sentences for crack and cocaine powder.

By a 7-2 vote, the court said that a 15-year sentence given to Derrick Kimbrough, a black veteran of the 1991 war with Iraq, was acceptable, even though federal sentencing guidelines called for Kimbrough to receive 19 to 22 years.

Full article here.

Parkinson's Drug Releases the Homo Inside of Patient

Not much I can add here:

A father-of-two with Parkinson's disease may be awarded damages in France after he turned into a gambler and a thief with uncontrollable homosexual urges because of drugs prescribed for his treatment.[...]

During his highs he turned to gambling and accumulated debts of €130,000.

He began to steal from his family, friends and neighbours to support his addiction and even sold his young son's toys.

Mr Jambart also began looking for partners on gay internet sites to invite back to his home

Full article here.

War on Breath Mints

Hershey's goes after the allusive, "I want mints that look like crack" market. Who would have guessed anyone would have a problem with it?

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ― The Hershey Company is under fire for making a product that law enforcement says resembles crack cocaine.

When Philadelphia narcotics officers first saw the breath mints, called Ice Breakers, they actually ordered a field test to determine its contents because the package looked so much like illegal drugs.[...]

Police fear the similarities between the newly released mints and the long-time packaging of deadly drugs could put children in danger.

"We could have a real tragedy, that child could consume that product thinking that it was candy," Blackburn said.[...]

Linda Wagner, a Philadelphia narcotics officer whose teenage daughter Krystal died of a drug overdose, is shocked that Hershey would market such a product.

"I just couldn't believe that such a large company would be so irresponsible to put out a product that resembles drugs," Officer Wagner said.

And I can't believe that a parent would be so irresponsible that she would allow her child to overdose...Two can play the responsibility game.

More from Wagner:

Officer Wagner, who teaches drug awareness in her daughter's memory, believes the only answer is to change the product or take it off store shelves.

"To have a company that produces a product like this, you feel defeated," Officer Wagner said.

Don't let the Feds hear you talking like that...They wouldn't like that secret to get out. Full article here. More here.

Friday Links

It's back! Full of drugs, it's the Friday links..

A classic Robert Redford movie I caught during solid AMC programming over Thanksgiving. Especially with what they have been showing lately.

Obama tells kids: "Fun is bad." Naturally, everyone takes notice.

Amy Winehouse might want to find a new sponsor.

Doherty helps Winehouse quit drugs
Amy Winehouse speaks to Pete Doherty every day in a bid to help her quit drugs.

More here.

On the lighter side...

Murder rate is at its lowest level ever in New York.

John Howard involved in a tight race in Australia.

I agree. It doesn't matter what she is saying, I take her side in any disagreements. If she wants her job back, give it to her. Same with money. She can't be wrong.

The French railroad workers go back to work. Or everyone thinks they do...It can be tough to tell...

Scary.

SIXTH-FORMERS at a top school were tested for drugs on Monday using a super-sensitive detection device.

Slough Grammar principal Margaret Lenton arranged the checks in a bid to reinforce the school's strict anti-drugs policy.

The tests were conducted at the Lascelles Road school using a drugs itemiser machine which can detect the tiniest traces of drugs on the palm of people's hands.

Read the full article.

Generation RX

While watching Kid Nation (btw, I'm pretending to be working on a piece on what Kid Nation says about what we have come to expect from our political leaders) on CBS I caught an AD for a Nightly News special -- beginning next week -- covering prescription drug abuse among our kids. News to me, hadn't heard much about that epidemic...Not much at all...Anyways, they had spooky graphics, scary language, and a catchy name for the special: Generation RX. Can't wait.

Drop in the Dollar Killing Canadian Pot Exports

From the Missoulian:

Suddenly, it's far more expensive to buy Canadian exports, legal or otherwise, and smuggling profits disappear.

“It's very simple,” said Stephen Easton, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. “Canadian marijuana production costs are met in Canadian dollars, and those are worth more now.”

Previously, he said, pot growers could produce a pound of potent “B.C. bud” for about $2,000 Canadian and, with the exchange rate, smugglers buying with U.S. currency could sell it for a hefty profit south of the border. In those days, an American dollar in Canada was like a 50 percent discount card, and there's nothing like a wholesale discount to bolster retail profits.

Production costs remain in the range of $2,000 Canadian, Easton said. But with the currencies at par, the profit margin is completely gone, unless Montanans are willing to pay 50 percent more for the prime northern bud. A smuggler's risks and transport costs are no longer offset by profit.

Interesting, but this makes a good story more than anything else. The article goes on to quote the Canadian share of the US marijuana market at 3%. I'd be surprised if it was that much. Pot is everywhere. Good pot is grown everywhere. It's a blessing of the plant. Full article here.

This is Better Than the Time I Claimed I Didn't Have Chlamydia...Or Gonorrhea...Or Syphilis...Or Gental Warts

Ok, so it wasn't "one time". More like every every time...But girls today are so demanding. They're all like, "Are you clean?" or "Whats that large bump doing on your penis?" or even better "Where's the puss coming from?" I mean really.....Such high standards from women willing to have sex with me...Demanding is a better word.

Anyways, Amy Winehouse pulls a "Rob" and claims she doesn't use drugs. As she is passing out during the interview with Blender. No joke. From Holy Moly:

Channeling Marks & Spencer voice): This is the Amy Winehouse who was hospitalised after a drug overdose in August. But she doesn't take drugs.

This is the Amy Winehouse who was arrested in Norway for possession of marijuana. But she doesn't take drugs.

This is the drug-free Winehouse who was speaking to Blender magazine when she made the claim that she doesn't take drugs.

This is the Amy Winehouse who fell asleep three times during the interview with Blender magazine.

This is the Amy Winehouse who said, "I take, like, anti- ... I take stuff for my depression. Prescriptive stuff. But I don't take it.

"I don't have the time [for drugs]... I'm a really big drinker. I used to be there before the pub opened, banging on the door." And never, repeat never, at any time taking drugs. Well I believe her. And as Chris Morris pointed out, alcohol isn't a drug, it's a drink.

P.S. If you happen to be female and run into me at a bar, these are all just jokes, really. I mean I swear -- nothing to pass on from me to you. Except sweat. Boy do sweat a lot, but I consider that an asset. Not sure why, but I do.

Forget the Waiting Period, Sale of Mushrooms Now Banned

Jesus, that was quick:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the government announced Friday, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.

The decision will go into effect within several months, said Wim van der Weegen, a Justice Ministry spokesman.

[...]

Possession of "hard" drugs like cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy is illegal. Mushrooms will fall somewhere in the middle.

"We're not talking about a non-prosecution policy, but we'll be targeting sellers" Van der Weegen said.

Psilocybin, the main active chemical in the mushrooms, has been illegal under international law since 1971. However, fresh, unprocessed mushrooms continued to be sold legally in the Netherlands along with herbal medicines in so-called "smart-shops," on the theory that it was impossible to determine how much of the naturally occurring substance any given mushroom contains.

Van der Weegen said that was also the reason the system proved unworkable: "It's impossible to estimate what amount will have what effect."

Calls for a re-evaluation arose after Gaelle Caroff, a 17-year-old visiting from France, from a building in Amsterdam in March after eating psychedelic mushrooms.

Shame. Full article here. Our prior stuff on smart shops, Amsterdam and mushrooms, here.

Bill O'Reilly: Not A Fan of Reason

Via the new Reason.tv, Jacob Sullum takes the "try to complete a sentence while disagreeing with O'Reilly" challenge.

O'Reilly calls Sullum an "irresponsible libertine" and tells him "don't come near my family." It's about what you'd expect from Bill O'Reilly, but much credit is due to Sullum for putting up with that prick for five minutes.

I've made a mental note to read Sullum's book soon, despite the fact that I've already been Saying Yes for years.

Teammates of Jones Shouldn't Give Their Medals Back

The US Olympic Committee has ordered the American teammates of drug cheat Marion Jones to hand over the relay medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"Your results involved cheating so you are not entitled to the medals," Peter Uebberroth, the chairman of USOC, said.

The request comes in the wake of disgraced US sprinter Jones's admission last week that she used steroids. [Full article]

Assuming the teammates were not aware of Marion Jones's use of performance enhancing drugs*, they should not return their medals. Debatable, sure, but this is my opinion. Here's why:

1) Marion Jones isn't necessarily the only person on any of the medal-winning teams that was using steroids. She's the only one who admitted to it. At the bottom of the article, there is a suggestion that a Greek sprinter who may receive a gold due to Jones's forfeiture faked an accident to cover for missing a drug test. Now that particular event was not a relay, but it goes to show that Jones very well might not have been a unique case.

2) Jones was only 1/4 of the relay team, and the team won gold. In addition, it's not clear just how much steriods help a sprinter.


* Disclosure: I am not sure of this.

Oh No Tom! Don't Leave Us!

Sizemore is done with the drugs...for good.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Tom Sizemore says he's done with drugs.

"I'm not trading my whole life for some powder," the 45-year-old actor told The Bakersfield Californian in a jailhouse interview published Friday.

"God's trying to tell me he doesn't want me using drugs because every time I use them I get caught," Sizemore said.

I know, I know, who's going to produce some of the finest dialogue known to man, in amateur-hooker-porn now? I'd say -- knowing Tom Sizemore like I don't; he won't soon forget his fans, and make a few more returns to a life of drugs and debauchery.

P.S.: I did my best, while here at work, to dig up a transcript, or link to the famous Sizemore-sex video. No luck. I'm not sure if its the same as his official video, "The Tom Sizemore Sex Scandal"-- where he claims to have had sex with Paris Hilton among other things. But the one I'm talking about involves 3 prostitutes and lots of drugs. And some hilarious dialogue. And possibly some cock-to-face-slapping. But I could be making that last one up. Or confusing it with my weekend. Who knows.

Marjiuana Monday

Continuing the theme from the previous post....I'll give my own breakdown of the domestic outdoor pot-crop. This is mostly from second hand accounts of course; news articles and the sort, and this time it's strictly East Coast. Take it for what it's worth...

Supply: It's looking like a below average yield, especially in the southeast, due to drought like conditions. Plants have wilted, buds are black and dead looking when they are forced harvested, and total numbers actually appear to be down in some areas. Quick rating...like a 5 or 6 out of 10? I dunno, but I haven't read/heard good things. Strictly a guess though.

Market Impact: On street level the impact is marginal to the buyer, but prices could increase in the coming months as supply becomes limited. Quality outdoor buds shouldn't be impossible to find, but it's probably a bit tougher than usual. Low-quality marijuana dealt on the lowest level of the food chain will most likely see a slight increase over the coming months, but the biggest impact will likely be a slight increase in the price of indoor bud, which for some folks is all they deal in. I'm thinking mostly the beaster market, not high quality indoor bud. That particular market is usually in flux, as quality is at a premium and buyers are willing to pay for it, meaning that the impact from a poor outdoor crop won't be noticeable for many buyers.

Links: Here and here.

America Running Out of Continents to Fuck Up -- Antarctica said to be On Alert

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos met with the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle yesterday, and presented a side of the US drug war that anti-prohibitionist know all too well. Unfortunately he wasn't in Houston to tell us to legalize the stuff already and get off his country's back. More like -- "We've co-operated with you and done everything you've asked, please pass a free-trade agreement....Oh, and keep those billions in aid flowing too."

Some excerpts: [emphasis mine]

The drug cartels are looking to Peru, Bolivia and other countries to expand their coca crops, he said, and Mexico, now home to the world's most powerful cartels, had better fortify itself.

"You need to be tough, really tough, because they are tough criminals and the business is so big that they will try to fight it out to the end," Santos said.

[...]

Santos held out his country's efforts to extradite drug traffickers to the United States and spray poison on crops as evidence of its policies, but conceded it has not had much success in reducing the supply — a problem many say is caused by the United States remaining the world's biggest cocaine market.

John Walsh, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights and foreign policy monitoring organization, said that although the amount of Colombian cocaine has not dropped, the Bogota government is doing more than any other country to eradicate coca crops.

That anyone can see the results of our own domestic drug policy both at home and on the world stage, and not concede that what we are doing is failing miserably is serious cause for concern. Full article here.

Amsterdam Now Requires 4 Day Visit

Buzzkill of the week:

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A new proposal from the mayor of Amsterdam is sure to be considered a bummer by certain visitors to the Dutch city: a three-day waiting period to buy hallucinogenic mushrooms

Mayor Job Cohen wants to require the wait period to allow mushroom buyers to fully understand exactly what it is they are purchasing, ANP news agency reported Tuesday.

If...If this was separate from a more complete anti-drug push back in the Netherlands, I would be supportive of this particular policy 100%. We blogged about mushrooms and Amsterdam after my last trip in the spring to the city. Cicero and I both commented on the lack of proper information given to unaware users of the drug, and how irresponsible many smart shop owners and workers are. Unfortunately, with a more conservative government in power over the past few years efforts fix -- as they see it -- the image of the city have been continuously underway. Prostitution, coffee shops, have felt the pressuer -- tougher crackdowns on domestic marijuana growers, you could even throw the nationwide smoking ban in...If it wasn't done everywhere else in the world.

Ebb and flow...Ebb and flow. Hopefully more flow than ebb in this case... Full article here.

Hell, This Has To Be One Of The Worst Op-Eds Ever Written

This one by Colonel David Hunt, via FoxNews.com, I mean... In case you plan on reading the entire article, take an aspirin and a few quick shots of whiskey first.

For the sake of discussion, I'll breeze quickly past the poor writing style - such as calling President Karzai a "cute little guy who wears a cape and a hat" and starting 10% of his sentences with "Hell,..."

The first three paragraphs are reasonably accurate, minus the oddly placed immigration reference at the end (and maybe the claim that the US has "owned Afghanistan for five years"). In fact, the article starts much like most pro-drug war articles start: with facts that support ending the drug war.

And then, the paragraph:

The United States of America is sadly the largest user of raw opium — you may
know it as heroin. My friends, you cannot make this up … you see, truth is stranger and always more shocking than fiction. What else is stranger than fiction is how easy it would be to destroy the stuff. These fields are miles and miles long and wide. We should bomb them, blow them up, set up an artillery and motor training range and blow the opium off the planet. It is true that it’s the only product Afghanistan farmers export. Between us and Europe, we surely can come up with another product that this poor country can export. We can also pay them for their opium that we will destroy for a few years, and, of course, while we are getting them to use another product that does not kill people. [How about marijuana, then??]

All emphasis and bracketed comments mine.

Wow... WOW... In this one paragraph, Hunt advocates not only spraying but bombing opium fields. He claims that the US and Europe should be able to dictate what crops poor Afghan farmers can grow. And finally, he advocates extending the oh-so-successful "pay to not produce shit" farm subsidies to a foreign country.

I could quote some more from the final paragraphs of the article, but there's really no need. It doesn't make any fucking sense. To summarize, Hunt goes on to scold you for not caring enough about bin Laden's most recent video and then the grand finale (ok, I just have to give in and quote one more time):

...with the sheer amount of opium present, the massive size of the problem will get your attention and maybe, just maybe, you might put down the beer, or even better, take the half full one and throw it at the TV and then write your congressman, senator or even the president and say, “Enough is enough, this is the greatest damn country in the world, how about we act like it?

My head hurts.

Columbia Nabs Country's Top "Drug Baron"

BBC:

Mr Montoya - known in Colombia's underworld as the "boss of bosses" - appears on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's "10 Most Wanted" list.

He is accused of producing tons of cocaine for the US market. Officials say he helped found the Norte del Valle cartel based near the city of Cali.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says Mr Montoya's capture is a huge coup for the government and ends the reign of one of the legends of the Colombian underworld

[...]

US authorities had offered a reward of $5m for information leading to Mr Montoya's arrest.

Colombia's Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, said Mr Montoya controlled a vast trafficking network responsible for about 70% of the cocaine smuggled to the US and Europe.

I'm interested to see what this does to already tight cocaine market in the US.

Side note: Am I the only one who thinks top hat and cane when I hear baron? Montoya doesn't do much to live up to the expectations of a baron....Full article here.

This Just Plain Isn't News

A good thing about being in Japan is that I get to be drunk on Friday night before you homelanders even start your Friday workday.

But as I turned on CNN tonight, I hear the big breaking news story that 10 pro wrestlers from the WWE tested positive for steroids and/or other drugs.

Well, I'm going to go ahead and file this story in my "Well, No Shit" folder. Seriously, is anyone surprised by this? Is anyone disappointed?

I'm not a wrestling fan, but the "news" that pro wrestles are on steroids kind of strikes me as would the news that Miss America contestants wear make-up.

What's the big deal? These guys have decided that the benefits outweigh the costs for them. Some are surely making millions. And they surely have heard by now the downside of using steroids. Let them make their own choice, and if their testicles shrink to the size of BBs later, then that's their own problem.

The Other War in Afghanistan: An Expensive Failure in Drug Policy

Poppies are covering the fields of Afghanistan as that country's opium production hit a record high this year, growing by 17%, following another record year in 2006, according to the UN and as reported by the NY Times today.

Despite a $600 million American counternarcotics effort and an increase in the number of poppy-free provinces from 6 to 13, the report found that Afghanistan still produces more narcotics than Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined.

It now accounts for 93 percent of the world’s opium, up from 92 percent last year, the report said.

Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes Policy, which issued the report, called the new figures “terrifying.” “Afghanistan today is cultivating megacrops of opium,” he said at a news conference. “Leaving aside China in the 19th century, no other country has produced so much narcotics in the past 100 years.” [Emphasis mine]

To translate: Afghanistan is producing much more opium than it did before there were tens of thousands of US and NATO troops there (with much of their time spent eradicating poppy fields)and US taxpayers were funding a $600 million DEA enforcement operation.

Animal Cruelty Laws: A Cover for Drug Investigations

Which will net him the most years...Guns, drugs or dead pit bulls?

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, searching the home of rapper DMX during an investigation into claims of animal cruelty found about half a pound of suspected illegal drugs.

[...]

The search was prompted by reports that pit bulls kept by the rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, at the home were not being given enough food or water.

A dozen pit bulls were seized, the bodies of three dogs were dug up in the garden and a variety of assault-style weapons were taken from the home, Arpaio said.

Full article here.

I Want to Spend Hours Locked in a Room with Amy Winehouse, Call Girls and Drugs

I'm a few days late to this, but I've been busy all weekend trying to find my own Amy Winehouse in various methadone clinics, heroin shacks and zoos. All I have to show for the weekend is a few scratches, a missing testicle and what seems to be a nasty infection from what may or may not have been a rabid raccoon. All in all a pretty good weekend for Rob.

Amy denied Blake was the cause of the argument, 24 hours earlier after which the 23-year-old singer, who has spent most of the summer in and out of rehab for crack and heroin addiction, was seen with bandages covering her arm, blood-spattered shoes and a gashed knee.

And in a series of texts between the Rehab singer and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, she defended her husband who she claimed "saved my life".

Amy told Perez: "Blake is the best man in the world. We would never ever harm each other... I was cutting myself after he found me in our room about to do drugs with a call girl and rightly said I wasn't good enough for him. I lost it and he saved my life."

Full article here. Via the Superficial.

A Little Dose of Mohr is OK

The detestable Jay Mohr, who somehow weaseled his way into a job as a columnist for FoxSports.com, has a surprisingly amusing piece up today describing why you -- yes, you! -- should rush out and buy the newly released Madden '08 today.

The reason? Madden '07 saved his life, he claims, when someone put LSD in his Mexican food last year. More here.

Mixed Bag of Friday Links

Scratch my previous, optimistic post on the poppy situation in Afghanistan. Today I read this:

WASHINGTON - American combat troops will be thrown into the fight against narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan, where despite a $1 billion U.S. effort, another record opium crop is expected this fall, U.S. anti-drug officials said yesterday.

In a briefing for reporters, the officials outlined the new approach as part of a "basic strategy shift" in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.

In case that doesn't worry you enough, I can throw in quotes from John Walters, more on interdiction and eradication....The favorite buzzwords of Drug Warriors.

In southern Afghanistan where poppy cultivation has increased the fastest, the emphasis will be on crop eradication and on "taking down" drug kingpins and narco-traffickers, said Thomas Schweich, the State Department's top counter-narcotics official

[...]

Walters said he has worked closely on the plan with U.S. and international commanders in Iraq and with Gates and others at the Pentagon. Currently, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan, Joint Task Force 82, provides some limited intelligence to Afghan forces on missions to interdict drug shipments, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in June.

Note to drug mules -- The authorities are on to you and you 6 inch platform shoes. My advice -- Switch to a giant sombrero.

PGA Championship started yesterday. From Sobel's blog at ESPN:

2:46 p.m.: The Legend of John Daly continues to grow.

Daly just completed his post-round news conference and talked about eschewing practice rounds at Southern Hills in favor of -- you guessed it -- going to a casino.

On Tuesday, Daly played slots at nearby Cherokee Casino and said he did very well. He went back the next day (yesterday) and didn't fare as well on the slots, but got in some golf at the casino's course.

I heart John Daly. Here's to hoping he stays in the hunt come this weekend.

Beckham made his MLS debut with about 15-20 min left in last nights game in DC. Anyone go? He certainly made an impact on the flow of the game, providing some direction for a LA team that looked like poop for most of the game. DC won 1-0.

Drugs!

Golf or fishing....That's the question of the day. For all you TtP readers who live in the Mid-Atlantic, I sure hope you've appreciated this summer weather so far. Limited humidity, perfect temperatures, no rain. Beautiful weather everyday. Try and enjoy it.

As for the drugs....

John Walters mini-me gets promoted to Deputy Director of the ONDCP. Pledges to kill John Walters, assume his position and radically change the mission statement of the ONDCP. That or some bullshit about working in his new role to expand the harm he has already done. Who knows, I was blitzed out of my skull when I read it. Best of luck Mr Burns!

Walters and his ONDCP claim victory for a recent cocaine shortage that has risen the street level price of the drug considerably and increased the popularity and demand of other "replacement" drugs. Here's to more money in the pockets of violent drug dealers, and more heroin overdoses! Success for the drug warriors once again!

DEA arrest the man responsible for giving the agency it's largest drug-cash seizure ever, of $205 million, while dining at a Wheaton bistro. You can't make a better effort at hiding yourself?

More on that super-powerful-turn-kids-into-flesh-eating-zombies-bud that is threatening to take down the British Empire. You know that dangerous "herbal marijuana". From the article:

The Home Office's drugs information website, Frank, includes details of new more potent varieties of cannabis.

It says: "Recently, there have been various forms of herbal or grass-type cannabis that are generally found to be stronger than ordinary 'weed', containing on average two to three times the amount of the active compound, THC.

New PM Gordon Brown is recommending that the cannabis be reclassified back to a class B drug. The Conservative Party, led by well-known pot-head and all around idiot, David Cameron is quite happy to go along with it. The Government plans to get the cannabis reclassification out of the way, and then move on to less pressing issues -- i.e., the abnormal desire of some British citizens to blow themselves and others up.

Finally, on a completely different note, this douche-bag wants the FEC to stifle the 1st Amendment rights of the all around annoying blog, Daily Kos. Get a life buddy. And be careful Baylen, don't I remember TtP endorsing a candidate last year......?