INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Outside of the rumors swirling around the impending change of ownership at City Cafe, (and they're ugly folks - word has it they are changing the whole concept into one more boring upscale bar), nothing much is going on in the downtown scene this week.

Fortunately there's enough happening in the larger world to entertain us and I think I'll start with Dean Becker at Unvarnished Truth. Dean was gracious enough to spend some time with me at the DPA conference between a busy interview schedule for his radio program, Cultural Baggage. Check out the site, it holds a treasure trove of archived interviews with the biggest players in the anti-prohibition movement.

Considering the company he keeps, I was surprised to find him to be such a down to earth and unassuming guy. This man gives new meaning to the words, tireless activist. He doesn't view his work as a job, it's a lifestyle and he appears to devote all his waking hours to this fight. He's not doing it for the money; he lives on a bare bones budget and puts all his resources into the website.

Ever alert for a source of independent funding, he has created a line of voodoo dolls at a reasonable price that would make great presents for the politically aware folks on your list in this gift-giving season. Please support this project and send the link to your friends.

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NORTH & SOUTH

Speaking of friends, my buddy Al Giordano at BigLeftOutside has issued one of his trademark challenges to the disinformation (read that outright lies) being circulated in a "Free Intelligence Briefing" by Stratfor.com titled "Latin America: Racial Revolt in the Making."

I've never heard of this organization before, but Al's apparently been on their case for many months.

Stratfor is one of these snake-oil disinfo sales firms that traffics in "intelligence briefings" for people gullible enough to pay for them. Imagine that: you can get lied to for free all over this great land, but some people actually pay to be deceived!

....In my opinion, Stratfor engages in circulating disinformation into the datasphere through its free and paid email memos in ways that seem aimed to help the agendas of that very same corporate world that contracts its services.

Al surgically dissects the falsehoods, corrects the record, and as always assembles the pieces of the Latin American puzzle into a coherent picture of the current upheaval being caused by neo-liberal, free trade politics in the southern part of this hemisphere.

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To the North where BigLeftOutside rarely treads, the news is not any better on the treatment of their indigenous population. While the US is busy frying the native populations to the south with fumigants, the Canadian police are literally freezing their own indigenous to death.

This disturbing story has nothing directly to do with the WODSU or corporate exploitation but I think it illustrates the danger of accepting implicit bigotry as a necessary consequence of law enforcement in any arena. We are all diminished as human beings when we allow any group of people to be marginalized in the name of public safety.

Left for Dead in a Saskatchewan Winter
A Survivor's Story Exposes Police Abuse of Indigenous Canadians is a chilling illlustration of bigotry run amok.

Darrell Night, a member of the Cree Nation, recalls thinking the cops were going to throw him in the drunk tank, but they drove straight out of town. They took him to an isolated spot three miles outside Saskatoon.

....Night watched the car drive off, its lights trailing out of sight. The wind was whipping on the night of Jan. 28, 2000, in Saskatchewan, where there can be sudden blizzards and temperatures may drop to 40 degrees below zero. He was wearing a T-shirt, jeans, a jeans jacket and running shoes.

....Night's account of his survival transfixed Saskatoon and opened a window on what some have called the dark side of the city's police force, which may have imposed its own death penalty on the wind-whipped prairie. Over the years, at least five frozen bodies of aboriginal men have been found in the same area. There were always rumors the police had dropped them off, but there was nothing to prove it until Night made it back alive.

Unfortunately, justice was barely served in this case.

....constables Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson of the Saskatoon Police Service were convicted of unlawful confinement in September 2001 and sentenced to eight months in prison. The maximum sentence for an unlawful confinement conviction is 10 years. They are now free.

As my mother used to say when we travelled, "Oh look, just like back home."

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ISLAND HOPPING

But enough of the depressing stuff, there are actually some positive global developments to report. The Jamaican parliament may finally take up the issue of decriminalizing marijuana after 26 years of commission hearings and studies. Keith Stroup of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance are scheduled to testify at further hearings next week. Interestingly, in contrast to the chest beating that went on around similar Canadian legislation, the Bush administration and its narco-thugs have had little to say on the issue.

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In the United Kingdom, Drug Policy News reports sensible, cost-effective treatment reforms are pending.

Caroline Flint, only four months into her term as Prime Minister Blair’s drugs minister, has formulated “a coherent drug treatment system” according to The Guardian. The plan rests on two pillars - throughcare, implemented after a drug arrest, and aftercare, designed to reduce recidivism “long after” incarceration or treatment are complete.

Sure sounds more sensible than the 'lock em up and throw away the key' mentality of the US gulag. I wonder if Tony Blair would trade her to us for John Walters?

And in other news, the UK Cannabis Party is fielding as many as 120 candidates nationwide in the upcoming general election. Can't wait for those election returns.

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Finally taking a long hop over to the other side of the globe, I can't resist sharing this item from the Bulletin Antiprohibitionist.

THE TIMES OF INDIA
Manali in Himachal Pradesh state is a Mecca for cannabis tourism. Product quality is very high and the stuff is sold under names like "AK47", "Russian Mist", "Dope Oil", "Space Ball" and "Malani Cream".

Any bets that the vendors also speak good English when they invite you up into their rooms? US consumers 'Americanize' these communities the world over. I've seen it in Jamaica, Belize, the Yucatan and Amsterdam. This is just another reason the premise of the WODSU is so absurd. US demand drives the market internationally.

Keep that in mind when you see statistics on foreign substance use. In reality, great numbers of US citizens travel to these countries, many of them lingering on as ex-pats precisely because they can get quality drugs at reasonable prices.

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FACING FACTS

With that in mind, last word goes to Glenn Backes of Drug Policy Alliance who rightly urges the prohibition addicts to abandon the myth of a "drug free America'.

Federal and state governments flush about $40 billion a year trying to win the war on drugs. The lion's share goes toward busting, trying, and incarcerating nonviolent drug users and petty dealers. The federal prison bill for housing over 78,000 drug offenders exceeds $1.8 billion every year. Most of the men and women in federal prisons for drug offenses are first-time, nonviolent offenders.

...It's time for a new approach. First off, let's abandon the "drug-free" myth. Clinging to this impossible goal clouds our common sense and perverts our policy priorities. Instead, we should focus on implementing new drug policies that are fiscally responsible and have the goal of keeping Americans safe and healthy.

It works for me.

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