Drug Czar Blogger is Fucking Stupid and Lazy

I'm not sure I even get the lie in this post over at the Drug Czar's blog:

Violent Pharmacy Crime
If only we legalized, taxed, and regulated prescription drugs, this kind of thing wouldn't happen, right?

Oh wait.

The links point to news stories on armed robberies occurring at pharmacies -- I guess in an attempt to subtly argue that we need to outlaw lipitor, valtrex and other life-saving pharmaceuticals. That, or it's just a really stupid way of saying that even that if we legalized, regulated and taxed street drugs we would still have drug violence.

Huh. Really? 'Cause we easily had 150 drug related murders in Baltimore last year, and I don't remember reading about a single pharmacist who was killed for vicodin. I'll gladly admit my ignorance if someone could point my towards a few stories to the contrary, but I can't think of any right now.

Of course, no serious opponent of drug prohibition ever argues that drug violence would disappear overnight or completely if we legalized and mildly regulated drugs. Instead they argue, that we would take an artificially profitable product out of the hands of murderous, cold-blooded criminals who don't mind shooting toddlers in a pool. That's real drug violence.

P.S. The dumb blogger at the ONDCP resorts to a tactic that not even I use; linking to two separate news sources that are covering the exact same event. Classy stuff. Guess he really wanted links for every word in "this kind of thing", but couldn't find a 4th story to complete it. Check it out. Link 1) http://www.pjstar.com/news_police/x1878566842/Man-demands-pain-pills-in-Galesburg-robbery Link 2) http://www.galesburg.com/news/x1346456695/Drugs-stolen-in-armed-robbery-at-Walgreens.

Prohibition: Harmless?

New Study Outlines Harm of Smoking Marijuana During Pregnancy

Marijuana: Harmless?

---

Above, as quoted directly from the ONDCP's blog. Classic sensationalized scare tactic. Has anyone who is engaged in the public debate over our drug policy ever come close to asserting that pregnant women should smoke marijuana -- legal or not? Of course not, that's nuts. Is this a real fear of what's to come if we loosen some of our drug laws in our country? Pregnant women running around like mad zombies, joint in mouth, high as shit, damaging their unborn children with every puff. As much as I might like that fantasy to come true, it's highly doubtful and completely unassociated with any argument that anyone makes.

What does it have to do with any part of the legitimate drug policy debate? Nothing, of course; but the government continues to get away with their mis-information war, compiling lies and straw men everywhere you look. The truth is we have plenty of legalized substances -- including ones like alcohol and cigarettes that make the government a tidy profit -- that can cause harm to an unborn child/fetus/mistake, whatever you want to call that lump in the belly. Fish can harmful for Christ sakes. Should we ban fish? If there was a federal agency in charge of controlling fish, would we have TV ads with a picture of a cod and a pregnant lady, with the title "Fish: Harmless?" It makes just as much sense as a picture of a pregnant women with the title "Marijuana: Harmless?" As my post title suggest, I want SSDP, Stop the Drug War, MPP -- any one of those outfits to start running ads with the a picture of a packed jail cell with the title, "Prohibition: Harmless?" Because that's the real question centered around this debate.

Sidenote: I will say, in the effort of agreeing to disagree, at least John Walters and this TtP blogger enjoy posting pics of pregnant women on our blogs for utterly no reason at all. Kudos. Maybe we can get a beer sometime John? We can swap material off our hard drives, or trade URLs of some of our favorite sites. It'll be fun.

Extreme Exctasy

Compare and contrast the coverage.

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.

POS LMIRL #-)

In an effort to make peadophiles lives easier everywhere, the ONDCP's-Parent. The Anti-Drug media campaign, provides a handy go-to guide for internet lingo. Curious what that 14 yr old hottie is saying to you? Does it just look like lines and acronyms to your 45 yr old eyes? Want to know what an "emoticon" is? Well no need to kidnap the first emo kid you can find at the mall to translate for you; now you can have you very own internet lingo dictionary! Brilliant!


BTW, can we please recognize the idiocy of the write up for this page? The first couple sentences from the web page read:

TGIF, RSVP or even ASAP may sound familiar; however as computers have transformed communications a new dialect has emerged: Internet lingo. Acronyms or character symbols called Emoticons (mixing symbols to express emotions or moods) enable teens to communicate with others in a few keystrokes.

ASAP might sound familar? How fucking stupid are today's parents that they can't translate ASAP or RSVP? I betcha they feel dumb for writing As Soon As Possible out at the bottom of every memo they've ever sent out. And a "new dialect" has emerged? Abbreviations are a new dialect? That's right...the new dialect of abbreviations. The invention of modern men...

Talk About Stretching for Material

Quoting a ONDCP blog post:

Time Magazine: One Joint = 5 Cigarettes
Next week's Time magazine highlights the latest evidence of marijuana's harm as part of their "Year in Medicine" news coverage:

Indeed, someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers have. These individuals may have daily cough and phlegm, symptoms of chronic bronchitis, and more frequent chest colds. Continuing to smoke marijuana can lead to abnormal functioning of lung tissue injured or destroyed by marijuana smoke.

Regardless of the THC content, the amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide absorbed are three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers. This may be due to marijuana users inhaling more deeply and holding the smoke in the lungs.

I could care less about debating the science, I just got a kick out of the actual Time piece they link to. Here it is in its entirety:

Marijuana

A single marijuana cigarette has the same effect on the lungs as smoking up to five cigarettes in succession.

That's it. One sentence. It's part of a brief, "The Year in Medicine A-Z". Not quite "highlighting the dangers" if you ask me...

Iraq, Gaza, and Now New Mexico--Victims of Democracy

From the Drug Czar's blog:

For years, marijuana legalization groups have worked to bypass the Supreme Court's decision, the FDA's official Interagency Advisory, and Federal law regarding medical marijuana. Symbolic medical marijuana laws which have been passed in some U.S. states have given too many citizens the false impression that growing and distributing marijuana is safe and legal. Now, New Mexico is the latest state to become victimized by the confusion generated by these state laws.

They link out to this article, in case you want to read it.

What's truly great is the next section:

State-based medical marijuana laws simply do not work. Consider this:

Huh? Well, yeah. Because you guys don't let them work. If someone somewhere in the federal government decided to give federalism a go again, then maybe state based decision making (whatever happened to the whole states are the laboratories of democracy thing?) could work. Until then, not so much.

They go on to make earth-shattering points about why the laws don't work. Like, Medical marijuana laws lead to drug-related violence. Or my favorite, Medical marijuana laws protect drug dealers. Brilliant! How do you not like that one? Sometimes when I'm reading the ONDCP's blog, I get that, "Hey, they're struggling to come up with content too!" feeling. What kills me is that TtP's operating budget is coming in at a few billion below the ONDCP's. Really, it is. We hide it well, but right now I'm typing this post on a typewriter with no keys.

Related stopthedrugwar.com Drug War Chronicle article here.

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......?

ONDCP Endorses Outdoor Bud

They might not go that far, but let's see if you get as big of a laugh out of this post title from the Drug Czar's blog as I did.

Marijuana Growers = Energy Thieves
On Monday, the Press-Enterprise newspaper ran a story on how indoor pot growers are hijacking energy from their unsuspecting neighbors.

Well, as long as we have good reasons to continue our Drug War. Like chasing down thieves who are stealing the energy because it is illegal to grow marijuana. What a joke. More from the article. [emphasis mine]

However, the suspects -- seven arrested so far -- allegedly stole more than $30,000 worth of electricity per home over several months.

[...]

Gordon Taylor, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Sacramento, said his agency has raided 50 indoor marijuana-growing sites in Northern California in the last year or so.

In every instance, the suspects had tapped into the power lines and bypassed the meters, stealing $3,000 to $4,000 worth of electricity per month per home, Taylor said.

"There are a number of people in California who don't view marijuana as a very serious drug, but you have to look at the big picture," he said. "It's not just about use."

God forbid journalist actually ever call these folks out on their lies. Of course it is about use. It is completely about use according to drug warriors. We have laws in place to prevent use, for the explicit reason given that drug use causes all sorts of societal problems. Those of us who have eyes and the ability to reason can see that this isn't the case, rather it's the exact opposite, but the prohibitionist case depends completely on reducing use through coercive means. You can't argue with that, and for a DEA official to claim otherwise is stunning in my opinion. Sounds like someone from above is trying out a new argument on the public. I wouldn't be surprised if this effort is especially prevalent in states like California with lax marijuana laws, medicinal marijuana laws, etc.

To repeat myself--It isn't the marijuana that causes people to steal electricity, it's the illegal nature of the drug that forces the production underground. Full article here.

Too Lazy to Call the "Tip" In?

Well then, you're in luck . Snitching made easy; as the DEA provides an on-line tip-line. Not sure if your neighbor is a international smuggler/dealer/pot-grower/kid-toucher/circus clown? Check out these helpful tips (that have been making the rounds throughout the web) to smoke out a potential druggie.

Also from the Drug Czar's Blog, this ironically titled post: "Treatment Instead of Jail: Drug Courts Saving Lives." Hey...Wait a minute, who's side are you on??

Something We Can All Be Happy About

Hey, look at the latest good news they are touting over at the ONDCP blog.

Some great news to report. The latest report from Quest Diagnostics, the nation's largest workplace drug testing company, shows that America's drug problem is getting smaller. Quest is reporting that the number of employees testing positive for drugs is at an 18-year low.[Emphasis mine]

[...]

So, what's driving this decline in drug use? According to Quest, fewer people are using marijuana and meth:

"Quest data show marijuana remained by far the most commonly used drug, and its 6% drop in 2006 was largely responsible for the overall decline. Those who tested positive for pot fell to 2.38% from 2.54% in 2005...

Use went from really, really, really low to really, really, low. Consider my mind changed. If that doesn't justify the War on Drugs, then I don't know what does.

What Do Parents Do?

It happened once again. I was trying to put together a post of substance; a comparison to the reasons behind the recent ban on Internet gaming by the Chinese, and the reasons our government cites for continued prohibition (whether it be drugs or gambling..etc). Instead I end up lost on the ONDCPs website reading parents comments on how much it sucks to be a parent of "misguided" children. Responsibility, shudder.

Let me stress that if you are not able to laugh at others misfortunes and poor choices you will not find these personal statements the least bit humorous. However, if you are like me and you sold your soul long ago --in my case to a guy named Barry at a corner barber shop for a lollipop and a fancy hairdo -- you will get a hearty chuckle out of these. If not, try and remember that these are the type of people who form groups like MADD and carry on about what is the proper way to live your life. That should make it go down a bit easier.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite warnings (emphasis added)

Young people today have tough choices. I don't understand why our law enforcement people cannot get a handle on the drug situation, but apparently they cannot. Therefore, our youth are going to have to outsmart the people who seek to make addicts out of them. Wise up, young people, and think about where that stoned pathway will lead you...it is a desolate wasteland out there. The people trying to lead you to that wasteland are NOT your friends.