The War on Drugs

Prologue:

Now that details have begun to emerge on the upcoming biography of President Barack Obama, there could be no better time to take a look at the United States world wide war on drugs. But before we get in to the nitty gritty let's learn a little more about our sitting president. This paragraph comes from The Huffington Post but you can find similar reporting nearly everywhere.

 David Maraniss' book, Barack Obama: The Story, describes Obama as a marijuana enthusiast: "When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted 'Intercepted!' and took an extra hit," Maraniss writes. 

Maraniss also describes Obama's technique of "roof hits" while hot-boxing cars. "When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling," he writes. 

Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in Dreams from My Father, "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it," he writes in the memoir.

BuzzFeed gave a detailed report on what seems to be every mention of cannabis use in the upcoming book by David Maraniss.  Here are my personal favorites:

A self-selected group of boys at Punahou School who loved basketball and good times called themselves the Choom Gang. Choom is a verb, meaning "to smoke marijuana." 

As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called "TA," short for "total absorption." To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton's claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled.

There are more than a dozen other interesting details about the president you might not have known.  All of which lead most thoughtful people to wonder why in the world a man who knows how harmless cannabis use is, could be among the harshest of administrations in regards to drug enforcement.

America:

Louisiana

There are many undeniable fact one faces when looking at Louisiana's incarceration rate. NOLA had this to say about the subject:

Louisiana is the world's prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran's, seven times China's and 10 times Germany's.

This may make you wonder if there are more criminals or a harder working police force in place to account for so many arrest.  Sadly the problem stems from a deeply rooted racism and a system of people profiting off  of the incarceration of others.

If the inmate count dips, sheriffs bleed money. Their constituents lose jobs. The prison lobby ensures this does not happen by thwarting nearly every reform that could result in fewer people behind bars.

A prison system that leased its convicts as plantation labor in the 1800s has come full circle and is again a nexus for profit.

There are many tribulations that put people in jail (as opposed to hard crimes) and Louisiana does have a high crime rate, however part of the reason there are so many inmates year after year is their harsh sentencing practices.

A trio of drug convictions can be enough to land you at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for the rest of your life.

To prove the point that drug enforcement policy provides plenty of fodder for the jail system the article goes  further:

Every dollar spent on prisons is a dollar not spent on schools, hospitals and highways. Other states are strategically reducing their prison populations -- using tactics known in policy circles as "smart on crime." Compared with the national average, Louisiana has a much lower percentage of people incarcerated for violent offenses and a much higher percentage behind bars for drug offenses -- perhaps a signal that some nonviolent criminals could be dealt with differently.

"You have people who are so invested in maintaining the present system -- not just the sheriffs, but judges, prosecutors, other people who have links to it," said Burk Foster, a former professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and an expert on Louisiana prisons. "They don't want to see the prison system get smaller or the number of people in custody reduced, even though the crime rate is down, because the good old boys are all linked together in the punishment network, which is good for them financially and politically."

If this is not the definition of a police state, then I do not know what is. We've become a nation addicted to creating laws and enforcing them to the fullest extent.  There are so many laws on the books that a police officer can rightfully arrest you for nearly anything.  Talking too loud, touching an officer, taking a picture, walking in the street, wearing a mask, and so on.  They can literally arrest you for nothing and just make something up and get away with it many times.  How many of the laws that we allow police to detain people for are legitimate causes for concern among society?  Sadly I think not many.

California

Even a progressive state with laws that allow cannabis use for medicinal purposes like California had seen rising arrests for misdemeanor cannabis possession.  Not to mention the rising DEA raids of local dispensaries.  Legislators recently passed a bill looking to create a regulatory board that would oversee all the dispensaries in the state in order to lessen the need for federal raids.  Of course the bill has it detractors.  The Miami Herald had this gem to share with it's readers:

Republican Assemblyman Don Wagner of Irvine blasted the bill for creating an oversight board stacked with people supportive of a marijuana industry. The board's nine members would include two physicians familiar with medical marijuana, a patient advocate, a marijuana union representative and at least one medical marijuana user.

"Something smells when you stack the deck like that," Wagner said. "And we know what that smell is."

Sound just like the oversight boards that are created to regulate energy production whose members are all from big oil or the ones created to regulate health care whose members all come from the pharmaceutical companies or how the Federal Reserve is filled with former bankers.  It's only fair when it works to the Federal Governments advantage to place insiders on a advisory board.  Hopefully this will help ease the DEA raids though, like last years bill which decriminalized possession of under an ounce of cannabis in CA  has helped lessen arrests for simple possession.

New Jersey

New Jersey has recently introduced a bill which would have similar effects to California's recent legislation, Philly.com explained it as such:

Under the measure, a first-time offender arrested with 15 grams of marijuana or less would face a $150 fine. The fine for subsequent offenses could increase to up to $500, along with referral to a state drug-education program. The bill won unanimous approval with bipartisan support Monday from the Assembly Judiciary Committee. A Senate version was introduced last week.

The bill isn't looking very likely to pass sadly.

Connecticut

On a brighter note, Friday June 1st Connecticut became the 17th state to legalize the medicinial use of cannabis.  Reuter's distinguished the law from it's counter part's in other parts of the country, noting that certain provisions will keep them from repeating past mistakes which have called federal attention to local matters.

Under the bill, patients and their caregivers must register with the Department of Consumer Protection. In addition, a doctor must certify there is a medical need for marijuana to be dispensed, including such debilitating conditions as cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy.

Finally, only a pharmacist with a special license can dispense medical marijuana, according to the new law.

New York

Meanwhile Connecticut's neighbors to the south in New York might see a reduction of the penalty for having 25 grams or less of cannabis out in public view.  Right now it is a misdemeanor offence which can lead to an arrest, court dates and a record.  If Gov. Andrew Cuomo has his way thousands of ethnic youths will be saved the indignity of being stopped and searched on the side of the road just to get arrested for a dime bag of weed.

The New York Times explains the law as such:

The governor will call for the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana in public view, administration officials said. Advocates of such a change say the offense has ensnared tens of thousands of young black and Latino men who are stopped by the New York City police for other reasons but after being instructed to empty their pockets, find themselves charged with a crime.

The consequences of even a small possession charge can be devastating as the article explains:

“For individuals who have any kind of a record, even a minuscule one, the obstacles are enormous to employment and to education,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “When it’s really a huge number of kids in the community who go through this, and all have the same story, the impact is just devastating.”


The Huffington Post expanded on the issue when they reported:

Reverend Al Sharpton was correct in praising Cuomo's marijuana proposal as "a step in the right direction," but it is only the first of many steps that need to be taken to address drug abuse in our state and our nation. For one thing, the proposal continues to classify public marijuana smoking as a misdemeanor, whereas another bill proposed by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and State Senator Mark J. Grisanti would end low-level marijuana arrests entirely. That is the kind of bill we need, and neither the state nor the nation should rest until every non-violent drug offender (yes, even those caught using in public) is treated, not incarcerated.

Chicago

Following hot in Governor Cuomo's footsteps Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago is now considering similar measures, Rueters explains the situation as:

Under the proposed ordinance, to be voted on by the city council later this month, police officers in the nation's third-largest city would be able to issue a written violation for possession of 15 grams or less.

Of course this decision is based on a detailed investigation revealing:

Chicago Police Department statistics indicate that last year there were 18,298 arrests for possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana, according to a statement from the mayor's office. Each case involves approximately four officers - two arresting and two transporting officers - and places an additional burden on the Cook County court and jail system, the statement said.

World Wide:

Mexico

The reverberation of the choices made by a sitting president don't just influence the people inside the United States, not by a long shot.  Since the war on drugs was initiated a serious and deadly war between drug cartels has enfolded just south of our borders.  To get an idea of how serious the power a drug cartel holds over a country's people take this example from MSNBC as a starter:

A message signed by the Zetas and hung from a bridge in Monterrey in February took aim at the Mexican government. "Even with the support of the United States, they cannot stop us, because here the Zetas rule," it said. "The government must make a pact with us because if not we will have to overthrow it and take power by force."

There are those who may think that threats like this are idle and passing, but what kind of odds do you want to take with a group who is known for dismemberment and mass graves filled with innocent people.

The article goes in to deeper detail by revealing:

"The Zetas have created a new model of organized crime and unleashed new levels of violence to try and unseat the older cartels," said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "This has destabilized many areas of Mexico."

In any war there are expected casualties between the opposing sides, each cartel for instance can fairly expect to have members be slain and possibly strewn out on to a busy highway.  It's when these battles start spilling over in to the public that things get really ugly.  Regular people are terrified to say anything to the police over the threat of being offed by a Zeta hitman and migrant workers trying to get to American and routinely held for ransom and murdered en mass.

This all goes on just 45 miles from the Texas border with much of the reason being due to the legal status of Cannabis.  The day the United States stops it's war on drugs is the first day not just the Zeta's but every drug cartel's money flow will start to dry up and their reigns of terror will surely start to crumble.  However an atrocity such as the one described in The News has many angles to be tackled before the root of the problem can be eliminated:

On Sunday, May 13th, the decapitated bodies of 43 men and women were found scattered alongside a highway in Monterrey, Mexico. According to officials, the dismembered corpses were dumped beside a banner signed by the top leaders of Zetas, an infamous Mexican drug cartel.

They go on to explain:

Indeed, since the Mexican government first announced its “War on Drugs” in 2006, U.S. strategy designed help with the removal of illicit drug operations have evolved.  Yet such policy has lacked efficiency when combating the greatest cause of the violence that starts on the American side of the border: firearms trade.  In fact, according to a recent U.S. Senate report, approximately 87% of weapons used by cartels in Mexico have roots in the United States.

However the initial sales of most of these weapons were definitely not meant to go directly in to the hands of the Zetas or any other cartel, most of the original weapons were sold to the military or police, corruption south of the border leads to their eventual use in gang violence.

In an interview with CBS, Bill Hartung, a proponent for arms control in the Arms and Security Project, stated, “There have been 150,000 or more Mexican soldiers defect to go work for the cartels, and I think it’s safe to assume that when they defect they take their firearms with them.”

The Zetas are the new kids on the block as far as Mexican Drug cartels do though and their older more seasoned counterpart the Sinoloa cartel are making sure that their reputation isn't tarnished by the recent surge in territory the Zetas have achieved.  TribLive had this to say about the situation:

"What was once viewed as extreme is now normal. So these gangs must find new extremes. And the only real limit is their imagination, and you do not want to know what is the limit of psychopaths," said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst with the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, a nonpartisan think tank. 

In the past month alone, in what authorities describe as gruesome version of text messaging, the two criminal groups and their allies deposited 14 headless bodies in front of city hall in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, and hung nine people, including four women, from a bridge in the same city.

If you're wondering how they can get away with such brutal slayings without any repercussions, it's because they control entire towns with their automatic rifles and stacks of cash.

To bolster their defense of regions they control, and to destabilize their opponents, both groups have taken the fight to the other's territory. Part of this strategy is to "heat up the plaza" -- a plaza being a city or town where a criminal group controls corrupt officials and police as well as smuggling routes, a network of safe houses, armories of stashed weapons, and teams dedicated to spying, collecting money and killing.

Afghanistan

All of this madness is perpetuated in order to attempt to keep a joint out of the reach of ultra conservative America's children.  After all the money spent and violence wrecked weed is still everywhere!  Even in war torn countries where drug lords were on the run our hypocritical American ways have brought them back to the forefront of society.

Since the invasion of Afghanistan by "allied forces" drug lords who were held in check by the Taliban have started their opium empires once again with absolutely no interference from the US military.  I truly wonder how those poppy pods make it all the way across the world to America from the Middle East to be sold as heroin on the streets to addicts.  Even with the huge amount of drugs being produced in the country Afghans find themselves getting high off of a much rarer and more unusual substance, Suburra explains it as:

David Macdonald argues in his 2007 book, Drugs in Afghanistan, that Afghanistan’s increased drug usage is driven by an impoverished battle-scarred population trying desperately to relieve its suffering.* Western-led efforts to universally criminalize drugs are futile because distressed people will always be able to find chemical relief.

As an example, Macdonald notes that in Afghanistan even the ubiquitous scorpions can be used for intoxication. Tartars in Bamiyan province prepare scorpions by smashing them between stones and letting them dry. The main part of the tail, with the sting, is then crushed into a powder and smoked with tobacco and/or hashish (marijuana).

In India one police officer described the situation as:

Because of our successful drives against the sellers and addicts of alcohol, opium, cough syrup, and heroin in urban areas, young people are flocking on the highways to try the new craze of scorpion stings.

What's next, will America make Scorpions illegal so they can later inundate the streets with them in hopes that when the crack dries up they can start imprisoning non violent Scorpion addicts?  Only time shall tell.