Taking the day off

I haven't been able to access my blog itself from here but I have reports from those outside the Bush Bible belt that it did publish yesterday. Always good to know I didn't waste the time I could have spent with the family.

Meanwhile, it's my last day here and I want to take the folks on this riverboat cruise down at the lake so I won't be posting today. As always the fine blogs on the sidebar will keep you informed in my absence.

See you all (around here I guess that would be y'all) tomorrow night.

Family Reunion

Well here I am in lovely downtown Statesville. This place could be any town America. Kind of like a Norman Rockwell feeling to the place and although I actually haven't walked around the downtown yet, just driving through it had a feel somewhat reminiscent of lovely downtown Noho. Unfortunately, the only internet cafe in town apparently shut down a couple of months ago so I'm limited to the local library access at the moment. I'm actually surprised that the kid-filter here let me into the blog. I would thought all those "bad" words on my blog would have tripped the alarm system.

Meanwhile, it is so great to be hanging with Dad and Helen (who I consider to be my "real" mom). It turned out to be an impromptu family reunion. I haven't seen them in six years. My sister and her husband showed up and step sister Linda lives next door so she was there. Then as luck would have it, Aunt Bertha and Uncle Buddy were coming through town on their way to Florida to survey their apparently ruined vacation home and stopped in unexpectedly as well with their daughter Barbara who is also in my age range.

Linda is a fabulous cook and we had a dinner that could not be beat. With so many of us, the "sisters" (we're all in the same age range) ate on the front porch and traded stories about our horrible luck with men. Of course my sister Anne has been married to Harry for decades and he wandered out briefly to see why we were laughing so hard. He disappeared as soon as he heard the word sex bandied carelessly about.

The ride out was not that pleasant, the highway was crowded right up until I was about 40 miles out but the scenery was beautiful from there. You know you're in hillbilly country though when you start seeing the confederate flags flying right under the stars and stripes on the flagpoles. It's also surprisingly cold here. It gets down to the high 40s at night and the days haven't been mush over 70 degrees in the heat of the day.

My hotel room is hysterical. I took the cheapest room I could find, (with the tourist coupon) at the allegedly remodeled Motel 6. It's quiet and it actually has a great view. It looks over an empty field full of wildflowers and in the morning you can hear the birds even though I'm quite close to the highway. I had a choice of three hotels within the block but chose this one because you can open the windows. Ironically with the cold nights I've also had to turn on the heat which fortunately works very well.

The hotel itself is quite run down, stains on the interior corridor carpeting and my bathroom has great water pressure in the shower but the corner of the toilet tank lid is broken off and the skin drain stopper is missing the little handle so it's just a metal rod sticking up from the sink. The bed is comfortable enough however and it's an easy three minute drive from Dad's so it's been something of tradeoff but I'm happy enough and what can you expect for $30 a night anyway?

So blogging in any event is likely to be lighter than I expected although I will try to get in for an update once a day, I hate to waste a second of time I could be spending with Dad. So, if I disappear, expect to see me back on track by Wednesday night.

UPDATE: Well I can't preview the post, (I assume becasue of the filter) so I'm hoping this actually publishes. I'll be bummed if I just wasted the time writing all this down for nothing. Keeping my fingers crossed...

One last side trip

I'm off to see my Dad for a few days this morning. Not likely to post again today as Dad is a Luddite and refuses to get a computer, however I have already located an internet cafe in his town so I should be back on-line by tomorrow.

Meanwhile be sure to check out the the Drug WarRant. Pete has some new information posted of interest to us, including the scoop on Montel Williams new show and you can keep track of breaking news using the blogs on the sidebar.

Enjoy your Sunday. It appears it's going to be a beatiful day for a drive here.

In my own backyard

Thanks to my friend Karen for sending in today's stupid eradication story from Worthington, MA. This one hits close to home; I used to live out in those hills and truth be told, I had a grow in a swamp on the other side of that town about 20 years ago. I also named my plants and grew them in five gallon pails but I didn't label them. It would have been like putting a name tag on your own children. It's not necessary, you know them by sight, even if they're identical twins.

I probably know a lot of the 50 people involved in this one personally, certainly almost every guy from Cummington who helped on that operation. They're actually decent guys and I'd bet money they volunteered their time, just because that's what they do out there in the hilltowns. Nonetheless there's still the matter of the tax dollars being wasted on National Guard helicopters being used to find the plants and what the hell is the Worthington PD doing flying around looking for pot anyway after eight years? This smells of Bush's avowed crackdown on pot smokers.

The article doesn't say how many there were but doing the math on the information available it appears they found 250 plants in an area 300 by 60 feet square which does give each plant a fair amount of space. Again however, although the plants were four to five feet tall, it doesn't mean a thing unless they had significant buds and I doubt they did. The plants could have been 20 feet tall, without the flowers they are still pretty much worthless and you just don't get high yield buds outdoors there anyway.

It's been a cold summer in New England and even in a warm summer they would have just started seriously budding out now. You don't harvest for another month up there and you hope like hell you don't get beat by the frost. That's part of the reason you put in the swamp. The water protects it somewhat from the frosty mornings. And even if they managed to get some decent bud activity and assuming they had good seed stock there is no way the grower would have ended up with eight ounces of dried buds from one plant which is what they would have to get to make them worth $2,000 each.

I can picture this operation in my mind, I can almost hear the banter - I know the way these guys talk and I know the land they're treading. Although I'm just as irritated that they wasted the resources on chasing down harmless plants, this one makes me more sad usual, not only because these guys were ruining what was obviously a grow that someone really cared about and but also that guys like the Forgeas and Dennis Anderson, that I otherwise really like, would have participated in such a stupid effort and have been party to perpetrating such misinformation.

Funny world.

Marc Emery Speaks

Marc is still in jail of course and has expressed some dissatisfaction with NDP leader Jack Layton's silence over his imprisonment for sharing a joint. Layton was a beneficiary of Emery's largess in the recent election. Marc stumped for the party, signed up thousands of new members, paid for literature and donated generously to fundraising efforts. In light of Marc's contribution, although fellow NDP member, MP Libby Davies issued what was called a joint statement decrying Marc's plight, Layton's silence is still somewhat deafening.

As I recall, when I still had time to participate in forums, there was a lively discussion going on at Cannabis Culture on whether Marc's Marijuana Party should merge with the NDP at that time. I was one of the few that said they were risking losing their own momentum by casting their lot with Layton without some guarantee of further action on behalf of cannabis issues. I wish I hadn't been right, but Marc not being one to dwell on his losses intends to run a full slate of Marijuana Party candidates in the next go around.

Meanwhile however, Marc's supporters continue to hold daily vigil outside the provincial courthouse in Saskatoon on his behalf. They also staged a very successful rally on September 11 that was well attended despite terrible weather. Word has it there was much smoking of cannabis at the event and no police presence outside of a call made by festival organizers for an investigation into a stolen purse.

Local authorities said they were unaware of the rally, a rather disingenous statement considering the publicity prior to the event. One expects they simply did not want to add fuel to the simmering outrage of thousands of Marc's supporters who are organizing many political actions on his behalf including a mass mailing expected to result in 50,000 "Free Marc Emery" postcards to be delivered to the Justice Minister within the month.

Marc of course has long been a great hero of mine in this movement and we at Last One Speaks are with him and his supporters in spirit and solidarity. Last word to Marc:

"I have been in this jail for 24 days," continued Emery, "and God willing I will be released in 38 more. 62 days of my life stolen from me. And yet it goes on every day in courtrooms across Canada, lives are ruined and stolen because of alcohol-drinking lawyers, cops, judges and politicians.

"They despise our beautiful culture of tolerance, acceptance, unity, brotherhood and wonderment. They hate us for our goodness. We must shine light on their darkness, use truth to counter lies, and love to melt their hate."

"No job will be harder that to liberate Saskatchewan from the the dark grip of backwardness, bigotry and the peverse urge to punish," said Emery. "But we will liberate this province, and we will bring the whole country to the glory of a free nation once and for all, one nation under cannabis!"

Visit the website and show your support today.

Save the children

Kid's issues have been crossing my radar screen this week and the news is not good. To begin with, Sheldon Richman draws the parallels between the war on some drugs and social engineering designed to ensure our children grow up to be compliant exploitable workers. The U.S. Bureau of Education admitted as far back as 1914, "The public schools exist primarily for the benefit of the State rather than for the benefit of the individual."

What does this have to do with the war on some drugs? As Richman puts it,

... the "war on drugs" is an exercise in authoritarianism that has nothing to do with the welfare of the American people. Its purpose is to persuade people that only the government stands between them and mayhem. The key to the state's objective is making us believe that addiction chooses us and not the other way around. This is a lie exposed by the many responsible people who enjoy drugs in moderation the way others enjoy cocktails.

A lie that even former drug czar Bill (gambling is not an addiction) Bennett exposed in his 1989 introduction to National Drug Control Strategy, published by the ONDCP.

Non-addicted drug users still comprise the vast bulk of our drug involved population. The non-addicted casual or regular user . . . is likely to have a still-intact family, social, and work life. He is likely still to "enjoy" his drug for the pleasure it offers.

The government excuses its fascist tactics in the name of protecting our young people. Sheldon makes a good case for why it's far more dangerous to allow the prohibition profiteers to frighten you into allowing dangerous and unnecessary raids like Goose Creek to be perpetrated on your children in the name of safety than it would to simply allow them to experiment with drugs. Most kids will try them once or twice and not like them. The ones that abuse them have psychological issues that have little to do with the substances themselves.

The irony of this is the Bush administration's current proposal to test the mental health of every school kid in America would end up dispensing Ritalin, (already mandated as a behavior modifier for many "problem" students), or even worse legal pharmaceutical drugs at unprecedented levels. And by the way, this is just a beginning. Bush would like to extend mandatory mental health testing to encompass every single person in the United States!

As bad as all this sounds, for children in South America the situation is even worse. Your tax dollars are being used, directly or indirectly, to finance the wholesale murder of innocent children under the auspices of fighting the war on some drugs, whose only crime is to live in poverty in the slums of every country on that continent. These children can't help being born into a place where the drug culture is not only inescapable but often the only means of support and they have been executed by local police for as little as being in possession of one marijuana cigarette. I dare you to read the whole thing and still find any aspect of the war on some drugs supportable.

Alaska leads the way to sensible cannabis policy

I've been following this story for a long time with particular interest because my brother has been living in Anchorage for almost 20 years now and although he's offered to send me a ticket, I've never managed to get there to see his place. Places, I should say since he owns a house on the outskirts of town, a plumbing company and half a mountain somewhere out there. It's not that I don't love my bro, it's just I can never bring myself to go somewhere dark and cold when I get time off to travel. In the end, I always seem to head to a beach. This latest development in the marijuana laws however is certainly an incentive to finally accept his hospitality.

The Alaskan Supreme Court came down with a incredibly sane decision this week, "upholding last year's Court of Appeal unanimous ruling in Noy v. State of Alaska that solidified the argument a person's constitutional right to privacy is greater than a voter initiative making marijuana illegal." The lower court's ruling was in turn based on Ravin v. State which held adults had the right to possess marijuana for personal use in their home.

In 1990, voters passed an initiative on a 55 to 44 percent tally making it illegal to possess any amount of marijuana, but last year the appeals court not only ruled voters didn't have the authority to change the state constitution, but defined 4 ounces or less of marijuana as permissible for personal use at home.

"Noy basically restored Ravin and reaffirmed the right to privacy," said attorney Bill Satterberg, who filed the appeal. "People don't realize the purpose of the court is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority."

Meanwhile Alaska's John Walters' clone, Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who obviously graduated cum laude from the prohibition profiteer's school of idiotic illogic, vows to keep fighting against sanity in drug policy and intends to squander the taxpayer's money in attempting to amend the constitution of the state in order to declare the world's most beneficial plant a danger to society.

On the other hand, Tim Hinterberger is fighting on the side of reason and bringing forward The Cannabis Decriminalization and Regulation Act, a ballot initiative making it legal for adults over the age of 21 to possess marijuana whether for consumption or distribution which would allow the legislature to levy taxes and potentially provide revenue for the state.

"Alaska clearly has values of independence and responsibility and fairness that are different than the rest of the country," he said. "Clearly marijuana prohibition doesn't work, everyone knows that and it's time to try and find a different way."

For more commentary on this story, check out Drug WarRant. And while you're at the Rant be sure to check out Pete's latest addition to his excellent series of voter's guides. This one is on Alabama which would be almost completely depressing if not for the fact that Loretta Nall is from there.

Lame brained raid of the week

These stories always make me feel like kicking something, like for instance the idiot cops who did this butts. The police chief at least apologized for the imbeciles who carried out this drug bust at the wrong home but there is really no excuse for this sort of incompentency.

Chief Mark Smith of Clarksville says his tactical team received a bad address from the drug agents with the Major Crimes unit, who got their information from an informant. Of cousrse that doesn't explain why the cops didn't notice that the people they were terrorizing were in their mid-50s when the person they were after was 24 years old. This scenario has become all too commonplace in this absurdly flawed war on some drugs and demonstrates once again how the enforcement of the law is causing more harm than the use of the illegal substance would. Picture this:

Teresa Guiler and James Elliott, who are in their 50s, were home watching television when the masked men stormed into the house. Guiler, whose arm was in a sling from a previous injury, told police that they had the wrong man as they pointed a gun at her and Elliott, who is deaf and had recently received a liver transplant, she said.

Police deny they used excessive force but what does this sound like to you. According to the couple's lawyer.

''What justification can you give to kick a 54-year-old man who's down on the ground,'' Meeks said about Elliott, who is a Vietnam War veteran. ''All he saw was men in masks with rifles. He was terrified. Then to get knocked down and stomped. They picked him up like a suitcase. The Police Department said they acted in normal procedure, but that's not normal.''

Sounds more like a terrorist act than a law enforcement action to me. Disgraceful.

Looking South

Bolivia is on my mind this afternoon. First of all, Baylen at D'Alliance has posted over 200 photos of his trip to the coca growing regions there a few weeks ago. Free for the viewing but please don't steal the images.

Then thanks to Sharon Secor, there's this story on life in a Bolivian prison. I've heard of prisoners bribing the guards for better conditions before - even in this country and it's not uncommon in other countries for families to provide the basic necessities for their relatives inside, but this is first I've heard of whole families joining the inmates in their cells and calling it home. Apparently the social conditions are so abysmal and abject poverty is so widespread in Bolivia that some parents feel their children are better off in jail than out. Further with no social services to deal with children of incarcerated parents, the kids would otherwise be living on the street.

Bolivia's social disparities on the outside are duplicated within the walls of the prison. With 1,450 inmates living in a space designed for 400, prisoners must buy their cells. Some cannot even afford a miserable cubicle and live in dank hallways. At the other end of the spectrum are those who can afford to maintain a family residence outside in addition to their prison digs. This inmate's place sounds better than my own apartment.

"It could be worse," admitted one inmate with a grin as he showed off his apartment, furnished with a cushy living room set, a stereo and cable TV. Boasting a living room, dining area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, the 800-square-foot flat would have rented for $2,000 a month in Manhattan.

About 120 children live with their incarcerated fathers inside San Pedro along with hundred's of wives. Children stay for free. Wives can visit for free all day twice a week, but to sleep over, they must pay the equivalent of $2.60 - more than the daily wage for most Bolivians. For me the sad part is, with the current gulag growing daily in the United States, these inmates sound almost better off than our own 2.4 million prisoners.

One small step in Albany, one giant leap for drug policy reform

When I started this blog over a year ago, even my closest friends mocked me for thinking the drug policy reform movement could end this failed war on some drugs in our lifetime by working within the political system. Today, we are laughing on the way to the ballot box. In a stunning upset, political newcomer David Soares overwhelmed his former boss incumbent Paul Clyne by winning the nomination for Albany's district attorney. Not only will Soares be the first black man in contention for the position but he won with a wide margin by basing his campaign on promising reform of some of the most odious and inhumane drug laws in country, commonly called the Rockefeller Laws.

I hope this moment in history brings the poor folks whose lives over the past 4 decades were destroyed by Paul Clyne and his father, the late Judge John Clyne, a little comfort. And that it also sends a message to the other 61 district attorneys around the state of NY, that we have become a political force to be reckoned with.

As Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Policy Alliance said in response to the results, "I can't think of anything which will do more to change the prospects for Rockefeller drug law reform than this."

If this is "encouraging news," one wonders what bad news would look like

Alternet posts a weekly roundup of drug war news that's always worth reading in full. Baylen's excellent post on crack cocaine is included but we won't bother to summarize since we know you're reading his blog at D'Alliance every day anyway.

Bruce Mirken also has a stellar piece in this week's edition on the statistics our government's prohibitionist agencies use to pretend they are succeeding in eliminating the use of drugs in society. Mirken "fisks" the statistics and they come up sorely lacking in credibility. For instance on the often spun fallacy that teenagers are turning away from marijuana, Bruce has this to say.

Central to Thompson's claim of progress is a reduction in the percentage of 12- to-17-year-olds who say they have ever used marijuana; from 20.6 percent in 2002 to 19.6 percent in 2003. But that 19.6 percent figure is two and a half times the 1970 rate, and exactly equal to the previous historical peak, 1979. The only time it's ever been higher was during a record-setting spike from 1998 to 2002.

Overall, use of illicit drugs actually rose a bit in 2003, and the number of Americans who have used marijuana reached an all-time high of 97 million. Some 15 million Americans used marijuana at least monthly, also an increase from 2002. That's the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Alabama, Maine, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Wyoming and North Dakota lighting up each month.

Given that for three years running the administration has carpet-bombed the airwaves with commercials designed to terrify the public about the dangers of marijuana, this is an astonishing record of failure.

He also points out that cocaine use is on the rise among the entire population with the number of teens trying cocaine for the first time being now nearly four times 1970 figures. Even more disturbing is the nexus between the anti-drug campaigns and alcohol abuse among our young people.

We seem to have convinced young people that binge drinking is safer than smoking even a little marijuana. 54.4 percent of 12- to-17-year olds said they considered it a "great risk" to their health to smoke any amount of marijuana once or twice per week. Only 38.5 percent saw great risk in binge drinking once or twice a week.

Along with the title of this post that I cribbed from the article, this pretty much sums up the problem for me as well.

Policy has come completely unhinged from reality. Despite a tripling of marijuana arrests since the Nixon era, marijuana use has skyrocketed while officials pick through the data for encouraging snippets and ignoring the big picture. Worse, they find reason to cheer at figures suggesting that we may be driving kids away from a comparatively benign drug toward one that is far more lethal.

And if you don't believe alchohol is worse try hanging out in a college sports bar on a Saturday night.

Happy Anniversary to the COTV

The creator of the Carnival of the Vanities, Sid (aka Bigwig), rightfully hosts for this week's festivities marking the second anniversary of the event. I haven't been around for all that time, I started showing up at this party only a few months ago but I keep coming back because I've grown quite fond of the regs here and it's just too much fun to miss. You never know what entertaining information you'll find on the pot luck table of refreshments here and the democratic nature of the set-up appeals to the civil libertarian in me. As always it's worth the time to stop by and peruse the offerings.

Meanwhile, I'm working myself into a state of panic about my upcoming stint as host two weeks from now. I still have no theme in mind and I'm out of town and away from my own computer until the end of the month. At home I'm known as the hostess with the mostest but who knows how my party will turn out without the drugs and booze.... hey wait a minute drugs and booze there's a theme.... nah, Seldom Sober beat me to that one, guess I'll have to keep thinking.

From all walks of life

A few interesting stories on the wires this morning. In this first one, Cory W. Whitfield, a Customs agent who worked for six years screening U.S.-bound traffic at Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia, was busted at the U.S.-Canadian border, accused of driving a van packed with 536 pounds of marijuana.

According to the complaint, Whitfield tried to enter the United States at the Lynden border crossing Monday. He presented a diplomatic passport, telling Inspector Rodney Nash, "I'm one of us."

He initially claimed he was bringing an engine block to a Ford dealership in Bellingham but fell apart under questioning and eventually told investigators, "he was blackmailed into bringing the drugs to Bellingham by a man who had compromising photos of him - photos that showed Whitfield, a married man with two children, surrounded by illegal drugs and in a sexual encounter with a woman at a party."

In this next story, a 54 year old nurse was convicted of a felony offense for growing her own marijuana at home. She was ratted out by a "concerned citizen." More interesting to me is that she had 30 mature plants and other seedlings that she stated were not cannabis. Tests conducted on those seedlings would indicate she was truthful but nonetheless they convicted her as if she was some kind of dealer.

Also note that she only had 7 ounces or so of pot on hand. Thinking that she could not grow more than 30 at a time because of the limitations of space and equipment, this gives a better indication of what an actual yield from a personal grow is. This illustrates how these valuations of $1,000 and up for homegrown plants regardless of maturity and/or potency is simply not realistic even for a commercial grow. While the black market does inflate the price beyond its intrinsic value, pot that costs a $1,000 an ounce comes around maybe once in a lifetime and she clearly was not getting that kind of yield.

Finally, there's this story that also provides the graphic for this post. Now this guy was dumb to leave his generator running at an abandoned trailer in the aftermath of the hurricane. People are always more vigilant after a natural disaster about odd little things like that but I include it here for the graphic. Look at those pathetic buds - they don't even look smokeable. Law enforcement giving themselves credit for a $100,000 bust would be laughable if it wasn't such a tragic waste of taxpayer's money to chase these little grows down.

Now the safety issue is a good point. Rigging these indoor operations requires a certain level of skill and intelligence that this guy clearly did not have but as Ben Masel pointed out in the comments section of yesterday's post on this subject, if it were legal, people could grow them outdoors in perfect safety and saving the fuel and electricity for other uses.

What I really want you to think about today though is just how pervasive cannabis is within our society. These people are not common criminals, they are your neighbors, your health care givers, your protectors from terrorists and otherwise law abiding citizens. They were not arrested for doing anything harmful or violent. They were arrested for gardening or transporting a common herbaceous plant that in terms of toxicity is less harmful than aspirin. With all the real crime in the world, how much longer are you willing to let your government waste its limited resources on going after these easiest of targets?

Another medical breakthrough for cannabis

A report in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal BMC Medicine details findings by researchers in Florida who have discovered that THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, may be useful in the formulation of new antiviral drugs that fight cancer-causing herpes viruses. This does not include the common herpes simplex that causes cold sores, but showed promise in treating the more virulent herpes viruses including Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus.

In tissue culture tests, THC blocked the reactivation of various types of herpes viruses. Infection with herpes virus is recurrent and lifelong. The virus lies dormant in nerve tissue in infected people after symptoms have gone away. Later the virus can reactivate itself leading to an increasing number of viruses and causing another symptomatic infection.

...THC may interfere with a gene called ORF50, which is found in these herpes viruses, say the researchers. This gene helps turn on the virus's machinery that is involved with reactivating the virus; it also helps start viral replication.

The work however is still in the preliminary stages and researchers caution that people should not be self-medicating for these conditions based on these results.

A study in contradictions

Here's an eradication story with a refreshingly honest angle. Law enforcement officials actually acknowledge that the plants were in various stages of maturity and were of low grade. This does not explain however, how they still came up with a value of 3 million dollars for the crop.

Gardeners grow by nature

Here's this week's grow-op bust illustrating the illogic of prohibition. They start out telling you about how the grow-ops are proliferating.

In the year 2001, 33 were discovered and dismantled in the City of Toronto. Last year, 2003, 140 grow operations were dismantled. In just the first 6 months of 2004, 168 operations have been dismantled within the City of Toronto.

Then they tell you that organized crime is involved.

"Grow operations generate vast profits for Organized Crime. These profits provide the resources for Organized Crime to engage in all manner of illegal activity, including the importation of Heroin and Cocaine. The illicit drug trade is the gasoline that fuels the engine of Organized Crime and ultimately results in addiction, death, violence and all forms of crime and disorder," said Staff Insp. Dan Hayes.

And then they list the dangers of unregulated grows.

Grow operations are located in our neighbourhoods. They present many risks to public safety, such as: fires, explosions, booby traps, mould, and noxious chemical exposure. In some cases, young children are living in homes that are being used for Grow Ops.

The prohibition profiteers want you to believe that this justifies their budgets and their methodology but doesn't this really illustrate why we should legalize? All these hazards are a direct result of an unregulated black market. Eradication, interdiction and incarceration have had decades to solve the problems and have obviously failed.

The grow-ops increase in numbers and size, the technology that allows for larger grows creates the profit margin that attracts organized crime and the ensuing health hazards occur because the ops have evolved from small grows for personal use to huge industrial operations that tap illegally into power sources in order to avoid detection and pump chemicals in order to increase potency and yield and who are willing to use violence to protect their investment. The people making the profits on these huge operations are not the ones working the grows. Children end up exposed to these hazards because there is no legitimate business that pays its workers that kind of salary. Think about it, kids were exposed to the hazards of bathtub gin during Prohibition I as well but do you hear of children hurt in bottling plants today?

The bottom line is the grows will grow unless and until you take the profit out of it.

Drug policy reform talk

I've already decided long ago that like it or not, (and I don't like it) that I'm voting for Kerry, but here's a chance for a little chit chat on whether it really makes a difference which republicrat (or is that democran?) gets elected. I thought I had missed this but we all still have a chance to participate in this discussion on Election 04 tomorrow at 6:00pm with one of the finest minds in the drug policy reform movement, Ethan Nadelmann. Talk or just listen here.

To submit a question, e-mail questions@drugpolicy.org.

Another encounter of the wild bird kind

My long term readers know that I'm always having bizarre bird experiences and my trip to the Crystal Coast yielded up yet another one. On Friday night I couldn't sleep so I headed out for one last walk down the beach. I got to the set of double doors leading out of the lobby and there was a guy crouched down flashing a light at something on the ground. I stopped short, not wanting to disrupt him and frankly not certain at first, whether he was just a drunk doing something nutty I didn't want to get involved in. As I crept closer, I saw he was talking to what certainly looked like a wild bird, except that it was completely motionless. I thought maybe he had hypnotized it with his little flashlight, which he was still shining intermmittently into its eyes. I was fascinated by this little tableau and watched for several minutes before he noticed I was standing there. He motioned me into the vesitibule.

I slid in quietly but the bird, although clearly alive, did not so much as as move a feather. It appeared to be a wren of some sort. The man's name was Bill and he told me the bird had hit the glass door as he was walking out and appeared to be stunned but not hurt. He was trying to revive it. I sat on the floor not four inches away from it and it still didn't flinch. It just stared at me. Having had several of these encounters now, I also started talking to it, trying to get it to react. We certainly couldn't leave it there alone with two cats prowling the yard outside, not to mention the huge possum that was also lurking somewhere. This went on for a few more minutes and still the bird didn't move.

I finally decided to try sticking my finger under it's chest to see if it would jump on as the other birds had done. No reaction whatsoever. I waited a few moments and tried again. It let me stroke its chest and didn't move at all. Bill and I continued to discuss the possibilities while the bird looked on with interest but no movement. We continued intermittently to attempt to get a reaction. It even let me stroke it's head.

Finally after about another ten minutes or so, it began to stir. I put my finger under it's chest one last time and still nothing. I finally said we should at least pick it up and put it in the shrubbery when at last, it looked at me, looked at him, turned around and flew out the one door that was propped open. Altogether an amazing experience. I looked it up later and it appears to have in fact have been a Carolina wren.

The DEA drags 9-11 victims through their mud

This disgusting, deceitful and irresponsible exhibit called Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists and You has been around since September 10, 2002. Cruelly exploiting the victims of 9-11 in an attempt to justify their prohibition profiteering, the DEA is promoting the concept, (and I remind you, using your tax dollars to do it), that their newly invented group called "narco-terrorists" is responsible.

Using the innocent souls who lost their lives to an actual act of terrorism that our government failed to stop or even detect, to justify the expenditure of 40 billion dollars on the failed war on some drugs is beneath contemptible. Our government spent their time and resources primarily focused on drug interdiction and although they still failed to stop the bulk of the drugs from entering the country prior to 9-11, they at least did stop some activity. They spent almost nothing on terrorism. Had they spent those resources on detecting terrorist activity, they might have prevented 9-11 from occurring.

This is not to say that terrorists don't make money on trafficking, especially now that Afghanistan - home base of Osama bin laden - has become a major heroin producing country again under our "protection." There are reports that the Taliban is indeed financing it's resurgence with funds derived from the black market in drugs. This is simply another reason to legalize and remove the profit factor from the business, not to escalate the current failed policies that merely serve to drive the prices (and of course their profits) up.

Meanwhile, if the DEA was actually serious about this so-called narco-terrorism, why is that they are spending all their time and funding to pursue medical marijuana patients? As Jeralyn at TalkLeft points out ''There have been more arrests for medical marijuana cultivation and distribution since September 11, than there have been for any acts of terrorism in California.' "

Skip this despicable display if it comes to your town and check out the Marijuana Policy's Project's counter-campaign, Target America: The DEA and You instead. For more commentary on this see TalkLeft, DrugWarRant and D'Alliance's posts on the subject.

Buy Progressive Insurance

Peter Nugent, a one-hit wonder of the rock and roll world seems to have some kind of forum here that wants it's members to boycott Progressive Insurance because drug reform supporter Peter Lewis is a major officer of the corporation. Well, I can't think of better reason to buy Progressive Insurance. I plan to call my agent when I get home and ask him to switch me for precisely that reason.

In fact, I think it would be a great marketing campaign. Maybe I'll write the company and suggest they try it. It would be interesting to see if they had a big upsurge in applications from closet consumers.

Meanwhile, boycott that narrow minded idiot Ted Nugent.

American teens deported from Mexican based treatment centers

There has been a lot of talk on my discussion lists about these rehab centers for young people lately. Basically used as a dumping ground for strong-willed children, parents jumped at the chance to hide these kids in programs that promise (and often delivered) results, with no questions asked. Many veterans of these "scared straight" programs of the past recall with horror the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of "counselors" and the inhumane conditions under which they lived. I might mention as adults they mostly still consume drugs but they survived their "rehab" by going along with the program and pretending to be cured.

These places still exist here in the US but have increasingly come under public scrutiny as the tales of mistreatment surface publicly and one suspects that the reason some programs set up in foreign countries is to avoid US regulations that interfere with their methodology. Apparently this doesn't always work. Three such programs run by Americans in the Baja were shut down this week by the Mexican authorities and hundreds of teens, many of whom were in the country illegally under visitor visas were deported along with the director of Casa La Esperanza who was expelled for conducting activities not authorized by his tourist visa.

Reports of foreigners and complaints that minors were being mistreated led to the raids, according to a statement late yesterday by Mexico's National Migration Institute.

...At Casa by the Sea, four residents showed signs of physical and emotional mistreatment, including one from El Salvador, the Mexican immigration statement said.

At Genesis, youths told immigration authorities that they were physically and emotionally mistreated, the statement said, without offering details.
Meanwhile some parents expressed support for the program's behavior modification of their children.

Carol Rivardi of Orange County had been waiting since the morning to see her 16-year-old daughter. "The staff is absolutely phenomenal. My daughter's behavior has totally changed," she said.

Larry Horn of Agoura Hills said his 15-year-old son had problems with drugs, alcohol, bad grades and disrespect to his parents. "We tried rehab for six weeks, but these kids need a lot more than that," he said.

Sounds to me like pretty typical behavior for a rebellious teenager and one would think if these parents spent 70 minutes a day talking to their kids rather than $70 a day locking them up in a pseudo-prison, they could have achieved the same results without subjecting them to the emotional trauma that will likely scar them for life.

On the beach

I'm here on the lovely Crystal Coast of North Carolina. It's a funny place - not one I would recommend for a single traveler looking to meet new people. It's totally geared for families.

It's basically a really long island with about five distinct communities on it and there is still a remarkable amount of undeveloped land here. The beach is a straight shot and beautiful, about thirty miles long. You could walk the length of it if you're fit enough. There are few hotels however and even the chains are rather rundown and creepy. I'm at the Ramada and can watch the sea roll in from my bed but the place is sort of mildewed and in bad need of new carpeting and bathroom fixtures. Meanwhile, between the widely scattered hotels and throughout the island which I would guess is less than a mile wide are hundreds of huge expensive beach houses and fancy condos.

Folks seem to be rather religious here, there's a dozen Baptist type churches and only a half dozen bars. What struck me as the oddest however was listening to an anti-gay marriage ad on the radio as I was driving around, proclaiming that it was destroying the sanctity of hetero unions while passing the third gentlemen's club within ten miles featuring private exotic dancers. Weird.

It's off season of course, so the place is rather empty and a lot of the businesses are closed. The people who are here seem to be either younger couples with kids or retired couples. Fully half of the couples I've seen are older redneck guys with much younger (and overweight) wives. In fact, have never seen so many obese people in one place. I expect it's because the only thing they seem to serve in the entire state is fried food. I saw one woman sitting on the deck of one of those fancy condos that was so fat that from a distance I swear I thought she was some kind of stationary hot-air balloon. She was dressed in a hot pink outfit and until I saw her head, looking very tiny atop of that body, she didn't even look human. One wonders how she gets through a door.

It's been a good couple of days for me. I was looking for a quiet place to think by the sea and I'm blogging live from the beach here in the center of the main town in a very fancy and new building. At the other end of what they call the Boardwalk, which is about 2000 feet of wooden sidewalk in front of one of the public access beaches here is a filthy and rundown building housing the only bar where I stopped for a beer. I shared the space with a half dozen great big good ole local boys who were deeply involved in some gambling game that involved hundreds of dollars in twenties. It looked like one of them won about five hundred. There was a big sign inside warning you that you could drink on the beach but not on the boardwalk. Somehow I don't get the logic of that. They're contiguous but it's a little too wide to jump.

Really odd place but I'm amused enough. The only disappointment was the biscuits. I expected to get a decent one here, it being the south and all but there's none to be had, and if anyone tells you the fast food chain Bojangles has great ones, don't believe them. They're terrible.

Well the sun came back out and I have to leave tomorrow so I'm back off to the beach. I'll be back to regular blogging tomorrow night.

Road Trip

Im on the road today on my way to the beach for a couple of days. I won't be posting unless I can find internet access there. In the meantime be sure to check out the stellar blogs on my blogroll. Peace.

Carnival time

Damn, I'm tied up with family business and missed the party and it was Pete Holiday's turn to host again. Love his mysterious changing captions over there. In fact, I've been meaning to put him on my blogroll. Run on over and check it out.

Meanwhile, I'm due to host in a couple of weeks and I'm starting to freak out. I wonder if anyone will even show up and I don't even have a theme yet. Must start a to-do list....

Governor Granholm casts shadow of doubt on marijuana initiative in Ann Arbor

We told you about this measure when it passed the city council in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago. Now Jennifer Granholm and the Michigan AG's office are throwing a wet blanket on the smoking initiative saying it will have no legal validity. Like most sane approaches to medical marijuana there are always the alarmists and naysayers that trumpet the imagined disastrous consequences of these things, however, Michigan should look to Washington state where the naysayers were proven so wrong that even the stauchest opponents were forced to admit there were no adverse effects from sane drug policy.

Tis the season

I love these stories. It's that time of year when prank plantings become evident. We told you about you about the Inspector's grow in India yesterday (well actually today I think, Blogger's publish function has been glitchy here this week). Here's one closer to home. The Brown County Sheriff's Department in Green Bay, Wisconsin was alerted by the local TV station that cannabis was growing in a planter on the south side of the courthouse.

The drug officer pulled the six small plants, which were to be destroyed.

"It's a good thing it was brought to our attention because someone may have realized what it was and could've taken it and used it," Gossage said.

One might have thought that trained officers would have paid attention and noticed it themselves.

Marc Emery speaks from behind the prison walls

Steve Kubby has been circulating a rather nasty memo on Marc's guilty plea that resulted in his current insane 90 day incarceration on trafficking charges in the Saskatoon jail for passing one joint in a crowd. That Marc's attorney screwed up the plea has been well documented and I thought Kubby's memo was meanspirited and intended to simply ignore it, but it turns out Marc is blogging from the inside and has responded himself, so I will simply give Marc the podium here.

Leanne Johnson was totally derelict in her duties as my lawyer in not consulting me before court and explaining what she was to do. She compromised my instructions completely. She was ineffective in arguing the sentencing as well. So then I hired Saskatchewan's best and most expensive lawyer, Mark Brayford, who said, "Alas, an appeal would be futile."

He said, and I quote, "The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal will uphold that shitty decision. You're screwed. You'll have to sit tight until October 18th. If it's any consolation, you're doing your movement and people a lot more good there than if they let you out on bail for an appeal, because it would deflate all the activity going on now because of that outrageous sentence. I'd like to take your $5,000, which would be the cost of filing and pressing the appeal, but you'd get nothing for your money, and the shit storm that's going on because you're in jail would end if you got released on bail. And the Court of Appeal would uphold the bad decision and then you'd just be back in a Saskatoon jail for the full sentence anyway. You don't want to come back to Saskatchewan to go to jail, do you? And it would be more difficult to rally your people a second time." That's what the best lawyer in this province said. So here I am, until October 18th.

It hurts to hear Steve Kubby say I've done a disservice to everyone, because of a guilty plea I didn't make. If it weren't for me and Michelle Rainey, Steve Kubby would most certainly be dead or in prison in the USA and Canada — I paid his lawyers over $15,000, I paid his bail of $5,000, I got him lots of pot when he had none, I found him a house, and I gave him a job. He has some nerve criticising me. Steve Kubby should be worshipping the very dust I leave behind for all I've done for him. In fact, if he's so confident about his courtroom knowledge and ability, what's he doing in a foreign country, dodging his own country's legal system? At least I have no intention of ever leaving my country and my people, no matter what my government does to me. Jesus said to his brethren, "One who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me", from John 13:19. It's bad enough there was a Judas in the crowd of activists the night I was arrested in Saskatoon, who betrayed me to the police. And it's very bad that my Saskatoon laywer, Leanne Johnson, betrayed my clear instructions and behaved negligently. But to have a man who owes his very life and current freedom to me insult me in public forums with words is sickening.

Wake up and smell the ganja

You occasionally hear about cannabis plants growing outside of police stations. It even happened here in lovely downtown Northampton a few years ago, but you rarely hear of them growing to be six feet tall before they are discovered.

Such was the case recently in Hassan, India. When some local youngsters brought them to the attention of the authorities, they were escorted off the premises by the Excise Inspector and told to mind their own business. However, the youths persisted in their inquiries, protesting on behalf of local farmers who have suffered legal repercussions for plants that inadvertently ended up in their fields.

The Inspector came up with a plausible reason they were there, stating that "the ganja plants found after inspecting various parts of the district, were brought to the Office premises. They were later destroyed and thrown aside and in the process, seeds that may have found their ground have grown into fresh plants again."

However as noted by the reporter, "It is strange that these officers who detect ganja plants in various parts of the district are unaware that such plants, 6-7 ft in height, are growing right under their noses. This only gives rise to suspicion, they say."

The staff of the Excise Department are said to be pondering over who could be responsible for the situation.

Now famous for more than Pabst Blue Ribbon

Do teens in Milwaukee really smoke more marijuana than the rest of the country or are they simply more honest? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest survey says they do and the city's history lends some credibility to the results but one suspects it could be the teens in town simply feel free to admit their habits because of an accepting attitude in general.

“What made Milwaukee famous?” said Ladd White, an alcohol and other drug abuse counselor at the Child & Adolescent Center in Oconomowoc. “Part of it is our culture: We’re the beer-drinking capital of the world. We’re the party state. The overall mentality is, ‘It’s OK to mood alter.’”

Then again, in such a culture, they could just be saying they smoke it so they appear to be cool in front of their friends. You never know with teenagers.

Building a better rat trap

This is not exactly news anymore but in case anyone missed it there is a new website started by Sean Bucci of Boston. Sean has started a searchable on-line database, WhosARat.com, where people can post or retreive information on government informants. He makes clear the site is not intended to target the culprits but rather to provide information to lawyers and defendant's with limited resources. The site, just over a month old, already has over 200 entries.

Purple haze all in my brain

Paul Stewart, who opened the Purple Haze Cafe in Leith earlier this year says he is fed up with the backwards cannabis laws in Scotland and is shutting down the business and moving to Amsterdam to work in a cannabis cafe there.

Although business was initially booming due to extraordinary media coverage in the beginning, after weeks of police harassment and his subsequent arrest for allowing his patrons to consume the herb on premises, he is now broke and barely able to pay the token fine handed down by the courts. He is currently trying to sell the remainder of his eight year lease.

Meanwhile publisher and author Kevin Williamson, the Scottish Socialist Party’s drugs spokesman and founder of the Scottish Cannabis Coffeeshops Movement announced today that he will be opening a similar cafe in the center of Edinburgh. Saying the £500 fine was a "token slap on the wrist" demonstrating what a waste of police time and court time this was he advised that supporters will get together and discuss ways to open another establishment. Williamson notes, "Our ultimate aim is to get cannabis out of the black market and what we are doing is morally right."

Rest in Peace

BIZ Ivol, 56, a multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana activist died this week at her home in Orkney.

Last year, Mrs Ivol attempted suicide after charges against her of supplying cannabis in specially made chocolates were dropped. She had gone on trial at Kirkwall Sheriff Court in June 2003 on charges of cultivating, possessing and supplying the drug.

She admitted to the facts in the matter but had pleaded not guilty on the belief that she had not committed a crime by easing the suffering of fellow MS patients. Thankfully the court dismissed the case due to her deteriorating condition and she died at home a free woman.

More ridiculous eradication stories

This search and destroy mission in Indiana is just as stupid as any of them, but here's an article that lists the actual costs involved in having law enforcement essentially doing roadside ground maintenance. At least the state cop admitted the 55 plants they found weren't even mature and qualified that the estimated worth was for a harvested mature plant. Nonetheless, the DEA's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program, is a model of prohibition profiteering at the taxpayer's expense.

This year, more than $670,000 in federal money is helping to fund the Indiana State Police program -- which includes field searches and a host of other anti-marijuana efforts, records show. Authorities did not have figures on the total cost of Indiana's program.

That's one state and one would guess if they "don't have the figures" this means they are embarrassed (or afraid) to admit just how much of your tax money they are squandering on weed whacking. And although they tout having cut down 31,000 cultivated plants here, the majority of the money goes to eliminating 219 million rope quality hemp plants that grow wild throughout the mid-west.

Now don't you think if those wild plants were worth anything, that cannabis consumers would be flocking to the roadsides themselves and harvesting them?

Even more disturbing in the state police data however is the jump in asset seizures. (Assets seized include money, homes, bank account contents and vehicles.) Keep in mind they seize the assets before anyone is convicted of a crime and the onus is on the property owner to prove his property innocent in order to have it returned which customarily requires big outlays in attorney's fees. They snagged $94,596 in 2000 but only four years later having refined their methods in this legally sanctioned larceny by accusation, Indiana law enforcement seized $925,894 of it's citizen's hard earned assets.

Remember when a badge was an emblem of protection instead of a license to steal?

The way the ball bounces - or doesn't

Talk about talking the fun out of a game.

Oklahoma State Penitentiary officials cut into an exercise-yard basketball and found nearly two pounds of what is believed to be marijuana stuffed inside. Acting on a tip from McAlester police, prison officials searched the yard and found the basketball, which held 30 one-ounce packets of the leafy substance.

Wonder how the heck they got it in there?

Ripping medicine out of the hands of the terminally ill

Strike another blow for inhumanity. The DEA apparently has no time to wait for the Supreme Court decision on the question of whether California Prop 215 trumps federal interstate commerce law and is very busy out there in California raiding another one of those "dangerous" compassionate care organizations growing medical marijuana to provide to chronically ill patients.

Richard Meyer, special agent in the DEA's San Francisco division, said other medical marijuana dispensaries in California "should know that they are breaking the law ... they should get out of the business of selling drugs."

Of course what Richard Marino has been doing is has been legal under California state law since 1996. "I thought I was doing everything above board," he said. "I still think I'm doing everything above board."

Of course he is. The only ones skulking around like criminals are the DEA.

Close but no cigar

This is a heartbreaker. Arkansas voters won't have a chance to vote on a medical marijuana initiative because they were short 1,292 out of the 64,456 signatures needed to get the measure on the November ballots.

Roll the Vote - Please Tax Us

That's this year's theme for the 15th Annual Mass Cann Freedom Rally. Once again, I'm out of town and will miss it but if you're near Boston on Saturday, September 18th, this year's affair on the Boston Common promises to be bigger and better than ever.

The speakers list reads like a who's who of the drug policy reform movement and includes Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik and Keith Stroup, outgoing Executive Director of NORML. This could be your last chance to hear him speak.

This is a huge event that generally draws thousands of participants and it's not to late to volunteer to help out however and get yourself a free T-shirt in exchange for a mere four hours of work. Whether you work or just go to play, this is one not to be missed.

Sunday reading

Catching up on the blogosphere this afternoon while everyone is napping and as always there's a lot worth reading in my Bloggerhood.

Pete at DrugWarRant looks at yet another stupid drug task force trick. You all know how subversive those catnip freaks can be. And he's dreaming of schmoozing with Chris Wallace over at Fox News Sunday.

Baylen at D'Alliance posts on Weird Customs featuring a bizarre stop at the Canadian border, the politics of pizza and an excellent piece on a pending bill that would prevent most random drug testing of students in California.

Meanwhile, Vice Squad is looking at Mother's Against Meth a noble idea wrapped in a frightening faith-based package and also has more info on the this new "super-coca plant."

Grand Old Party of hate

The GOP and their supporters love to accuse liberals of being hateful, but if you look past the rhetoric at the actual evidence, it's the Bushies who spread hate like it was fertilizer on the garden. Paul Krugman has a great article out on this phenomenon and the Republican campaign to smear George Soros.

For many months we've been warned by tut-tutting commentators about the evils of irrational "Bush hatred." Pundits eagerly scanned the Democratic convention for the disease; some invented examples when they failed to find it. Then they waited eagerly for outrageous behavior by demonstrators in New York, only to be disappointed again.

There was plenty of hatred in Manhattan, but it was inside, not outside, Madison Square Garden.

Krugman tells us why.

Why are the Republicans so angry? One reason is that they have nothing positive to run on ( during the first three days, Mr. Bush was mentioned far less often than John Kerry )...Nothing makes you hate people as much as knowing in your heart that you are in the wrong and they are in the right.

... But the vitriol also reflects the fact that many of the people at that convention, for all their flag-waving, hate America. They want a controlled, monolithic society; they fear and loathe our nation's freedom, diversity and complexity.

He also exposes the GOP's fraudulent PR.

The party made sure to put social moderates like Rudy Giuliani in front of the cameras. But in private events, the story was different. For example, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas told Republicans that we are in a "culture war" and urged a reduction in the separation of church and state.

And he sums up the Bush campaign perfectly.

Mr. Bush, it's now clear, intends to run a campaign based on fear. And for me, at least, it's working: thinking about what these people will do if they solidify their grip on power makes me very, very afraid.

We should all be afraid of four more years of this.

Take the long way home

Well here I am in warmer climes once again. I'm afraid I spent just a little too much time in airport bars on Friday and had a full schedule today so posting has been lighter than expected this weekend. The trip however, despite the rocky start, went surprisingly well.

I had to get to the airport three hours early on account of the shuttle. They changed their schedule since the last time I used the service. So anyway, I'm sitting at the bar at Bradley looking at a three hour wait and the guy next to me mentions he's on a flight at 4:45 to Balti and I should try to get on it. I'm thinking it probably won't do much good because I still have a late connection but I decide to stroll over at ten minutes before the flight leaves and check it out anyway.

Turns out the flight was pretty empty because of the hurricane cancellations and there was also an earlier connection I had a slight chance of making so I decided to go for it. What the heck, Balti is a more interesting airport to be stuck in anyway. I almost didn't make it on the plane because the computers went down and the desk clerk couldn't change my ticket. So I'm watching the people board thinking that maybe it just wasn't meant to be but darned if it didn't finally go through right at the last possible moment and I waltzed on with seconds to spare. And who do I end up sitting next to but the guy from the bar.

He turned out to be way interesting. Descended from pirates that settled in Barbados -- in fact his ancestor was third mate to the Captain Morgan they named the rum after -- and he owns a software company that provides a platform for political polling. Not the kind you see in local paper but the kind the campaigns use to decide how to target the voters. Then our gates were close together on the next leg also so we ended up sitting next to each other at the bar in Balti as well. Very cosmic.

Meanwhile the earlier flight out of Balti I want to get on is booked solid but I'm number two on the wait list and once again waltzed onto the flight, the third to last person on the plane. This one was so full I had to stow my bag under the seat but I had another interesting seatmate. This guy was on his way to a dog show, his pup was in it, but the really interesting part was that he makes his living as a lobbyist for the oil industry. We had a great conversation about politics as well. He was surprising liberal, definitely not going to vote for Bush either. This is why I love Southwest airlines.

MMJ producer facing two life sentences

Eddy Lepp has a 25 acre farm in California where he grows marijuana for seriously ill, legally certified marijuana patients that are unable to grow their own medicine. On Wednesday, August 18, 2004, a team of law enforcement led by the DEA raided his farm uprooting over 35,000 cannabis plants.

In the raid, Government Officials also took personal computers, souvenirs, and other artifacts that had nothing to do with EMG, and had no real significance to be considered evidence. They also confiscated a total of 2,300 dollars from members of EMG, never admitting it into evidence. Also, missing from the home was all of Lepp’s files and paper work for his civil case against the DEA for an illegal raid they conducted two years prior. “We have heard numerous reports that the DEA has pressured all local and national news not to cover the story,” Lepp said, “and we have reason to believe that the DEA shut down our email accounts for a period of time affecting our ability to conduct our business properly.”

Much of the DEA’s conduct in the raid left reason to question the warrants authenticity. Even the warrant itself left reason to raise a brow. It was a search warrant, with only the four addresses and the judges’ signature on it. They canceled EMG’s t-shirt, postcard, soil and fertilizer orders, as well as reservations and appointments for upcoming personal and professional events. This conduct seemed not only unprofessional, but childish and petty.

And that's not even the worst of it. This is how prohibitionists protect your children from marijuana.

Probably the most disturbing information received by EMG and their sources was, while moving the load off the premises the government officials involved spilled hundreds of pounds of cannabis all over highway 20’s roadside. Then when people walked up and down the road collecting the cannabis not one single officer even attempted to stop them. In a very recent report received by EMG it was established that some of the citizens gathering up the cannabis were small children and the officers continued to just drive on by. As these children continued to gather the cannabis there seemed to be little or no concern from the officers that these children had access to the cannabis. [emphasis mine]

This is a direct result of the Bush administration's recent vow to go after non-violent cannabis consumers and Lepp could not be an easier target. He operates openly and is a well-known activist for this medicinal herb who has received numerous awards for his work. The DEA didn't have to conduct an investigation to figure out what he was doing. MMJ growers don't shoot back. Busting real criminals is dangerous. This raid is not only underscores how misplaced the federal government's priorities are, it's also a testament to how lazy law enforcement has become in this war on some drugs. Lepp puts it this way.

“If the federal government has a problem with California law they should take the state of California to court and leave us the F215 alone!”

Eddy can be contacted at Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens And Multi-Denominational Ministry Of Cannabis And Rastafari at 707-275-8879, or on line at www.eddysmedicinalgardens.com. More information on the bust and the ministry is available at the website.

Comrade Carnival

Blogo Slovo hosts this week with a tribute to one of my favorite celestial wonders, Spacestation Mir. The company is delightful, there is plenty of vodka and Blogo was kind enough to introduce me to a new friend.

Check it out, it's a great one and he was working under great duress to put this party together. Bravo Blogo.

artforgod.ca
Knock me over with a feather

Oh my God. I never thought I would live to see the day that I would absolutely agree with Glenn Reynolds on three consecutive posts but here it is. I've been complaining about too much talking by talking heads on TV for years and that goes for sports commentators as well. I also agree that homeland security is a mess and the ruinous Detroit "terrorism" case was a travesty and a black mark on the justice system and finally we both agree that drugs should be legalized and Dennis Hastert's remarks on George Soros were nothing more than bizarre conjecture and irresponsibly slanderous.

Glenn also points us to a follow-up on Hastert's initial remarks where he tries to shade their intent. As Glenn notes, the transcript belies his explanation.

Gee whiz, if Glenn is not more careful, we could end up being friends some day...

Call for LTEs

Kevin Sabet, former senior speechwriter to America’s drug czar, John P. Walters, gets the prize for most irritating and blatantly false essay of the week. He makes a mockery of the concept of scientific inquiry in this little screed published in the NH Union Leader.

He starts out with the usual sneering at drug policy reform and disseminates total disinformation on the potency of the plant. Further he cites studies regarding a nexus between cannabis and mental illnesses that have been long debunked . I think we reformers are making progress however because he takes care to refute our arguments whereas, only months ago he and his fellow prohibitionists were ignoring them. All that lying gets a little confusing though. He says:

And although a majority of kids in treatment for marijuana are referred there by the criminal justice system, it still remains only a slight majority — about 54 percent. The rest is self, school or doctor referral.

To paint the picture that the reason marijuana dependence looks higher is because of the criminal justice system is disingenuous (especially because most people who use only marijuana never interact with law enforcement as a result of that use).

What an idiotic statement. School and doctor referrals come from kids who got caught and whose parents are connected enough to keep them out of court proper. These ploys are used to keep them from having a criminal record and are often allowed by the courts to serve in lieu of actual court mandated treatment. And perhaps he had better catch up on his reading if he truly believes that our jails are not stuffed to the max with non-violent drug offenders who are there solely on cannabis possession charges. I think the latest DOJ report would refute that contention.

If you can stand it, read the whole thing, and then sharpen up your pen and fire off a letter to the editor.

Quick reads

A California Court of Appeals reversed a conviction against Shaun Wright for possession of marijuana and ordered a new trial on the grounds that he was not allowed to present a medical necessity defense. I'm not so sure given the facts of the case that he'll prevail on this second go-around either but at least he'll get a chance to try.

Dana May , a MMJ patient in Colorado will most definitely be getting back his growing equipment from the DA. The government will not be returning his herb however.

The owner of a Vancouver cannabis cafe has reported herself to the authorities in an effort to draw attention to the harm reduction strategy behind her operation.

Meanwhile a Vancouver BC man was convicted of driving to endanger but was acquitted of driving under the influence of marijuana because of conflicting analysis of his test results.

And talk about bad luck. A helicopter providing security for George Bush in the Detroit area spotted a personal grow in someone's back yard and sent in the state police to eradicate eight marijuana plants.

Unexpected travel plans

Well I just found out at 10:00 last night that I'm going to need to leave town for pretty much the month of September so posting is likely to be a little light for the next couple of days while I get ready to go. Meanwhile here's the morning roundup.

Pete at Drug WarRant is continuing with his excellent election voting guides. Be sure to check these out for clues on your state candidates for office. He also reports on the Change the Climate victory in DC where their posters will once again be appearing at Metro stations in the city.

And Baylen at D'Alliance points us to a researcher in Missouri who says "students are more likely to drink, smoke cigarettes and smoke marijuana when they receive drivers' licenses."

Republicans wallow in mud-slinging

Long time drug policy reform supporter George Soros is often the target of the conservatives' bile, particularly in this election year since he has come out strongly against the Bush administration. In a typical response to his political activities, House Speaker Dennis Hastert accused him of being funded by drug cartels or worse. This of course completely false and Soros has responded with this letter saying in part,

This past Sunday on national television, you suggested that I might be a criminal simply because I have exercised my First Amendment rights to dissent from the policies of the Bush administration.

I am playing a role in this election because I share the concerns of many Americans and believe President Bush is leading our nation in a ruinous direction on both economic and foreign policy.

Talking Points Memo notes that Hastert has been repeating this slander all over the halls of Congress. As Soros further states, Hastert should be ashamed.
"For the Speaker of the House of Representatives, even in the midst of an election season, to descend to a level of political discourse where innuendo and slander replace reason, truth and argument is unacceptable. ... "
[Link via Drug WarRant]

Cross Words

So on a whim, I answered my invitation to host a Google AdShare Ad. I figured with my hit count they wouldn't bother to answer but they did and they really irritated me for rejecting me on my content. I'm guessing they don't even read the sites but send in some spidery thing and look for trip words instead. My topic being what it is, would be bound to set off the alarm system. I was betting no human being ever read it. This is what they sent me tonight:

Hello Libby,

Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. After reviewing your application, our program specialists have found that the website currently associated with your account does not comply with our policies. Therefore, we're unable to accept you into Google AdSense at this time.

We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below. If you are able to resolve these issues, please feel free to reply to this email for reconsideration when you have made the changes.

Issues:

- Drugs or drug paraphernalia

---------------------

Further detail:

Drugs or drug paraphernalia: Google believes strongly in the freedom of expression and offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. However, Google policy does not permit the placement of AdWords ads on sites promoting illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia. We've found your site content currently violates this policy. Please review our policies for a complete list of site content not allowed on web pages.

This offended me because it abridges your right to discuss the problem if the words themselves, apart from their context, are unacceptable. I replied of course.

Dear Google Team:

Thank you for reviewing my site. I am aware of and appreciate your policies however I believe you are mistaken about the content and intent of my blog.

I do not promote nor advocate for the use of drugs and/or paraphernalia. What I advocate is the awareness and acceptance of the fact that drug use (and abuse)exists in society; that it has always existed and that no amount of punitive legislation, interdiction nor ecologically unsound eradication efforts will solve this problem. My site addresses the need to change policies and practices that are currently endangering the planet and the safety of future generations.

Last One Speaks addresses the abject failure of the War on Drugs to eliminate the dangers of the black market and also focuses on how its excesses impact our civil rights and national treasury. Our current policies cost the US taxpayer 40 billion dollars a year, have contributed to an unprecedented and unwarranted rise in the incarceration rate -(the US is currently the biggest jailer on the planet)- and with 1 out of 3 black men in America in jail, it is shredding the family structure of an entire ethnic class, (notably an economically disadvantaged one) and destroying the foundation of civil society.

My blog proposes a practical solution to failed, taxpayer-funded government programs that currently cause more harm than good. I'm making a political statement about a controversial issue but I am certainly not enlisting others into any illegal activity. I am trying to help them out of it.

Thus I believe my site was rejected under an incorrect criteria and respectfully request to be listed as rejected on other grounds.

Thank you for your consideration in advance.

Sincerely,

Libby

I don't think it will sway their decision, but I hope it makes them think.

A competitor for Kdrink?






This does sound refreshing, but I wouldn't start waiting in line at the grocery store for it as long as John Walters is drug czar and don't expect to hear about in Malta anytime soon either.

Officer, arrest that tree!

Yet another case of blaming flora for human flaws. Superlative Suppository points us to a story on a troublesome tree in Florida.

Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies think they have found a solution for getting rid of drug dealers and prostitutes who congregate under a giant oak tree: chop it down.

The idea is apparently a big hit with the neighbors who are threatening to move unless action is taken, however county officials came out in defense of the hapless oak and have accepted a free trimming offered by Fritz Bros. Tree Service along with sealing the crevices in the tree where contraband can be hidden. Fritz is clearly one of those tree lovers.

"It's an old tree and I think it would be a shame to cut it down without pursuing other options, increasing patrols, putting a fence around it, pruning it," Fritz said. "It's like we're cutting off our arm because our hand is offending us."

The neighbors are not satisfied with the solution but as Sister Geoff so succinctly puts it, "Yes, people would be model citizens who urinated only in approved places, do not use illegal substances or exchange money for sex if we just cut down that damned devil tree! Cut it down and all will be well!"

Yeah, right.

The war on flora

Ridiculous drug eradication of the day is this search and destroy mission in Pennsylvania.

LISBON — With a helicopter overhead and a small army made up of state and local agencies, the search for marijuana plants in Columbiana County was under way Friday.
The search was hardly an easy task to accomplish.

...The Columbiana County Drug Task Force, Bureau of Criminal Investigation and members of the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Department were all part of a team combined with a helicopter from the state to eradicate marijuana.

....The helicopter was manned with a BCI agent and several members of drug enforcement agencies flying overhead keeping a sharp eye on the ground for marijuana plants growing throughout the county.

...There were a total of 68 marijuana plants discovered during the search, according to Sgt. Brian McLaughlin, director of the CCDTF. The value of the plants found during the search is estimated at $68,000.

First of all look at the photo that went with this story. There are no buds on those plants. They are worthless at this point and even if the plants were actually worth $1,000 a piece, I would bet with all those cops and the helicopter, the cost of the operation far exceeded that figure.

Not to mention these appeared to be personal use grows and if the goal was really to stop drug dealers, these raids have the opposite effect. The loss of their personal crop will force these people to go out and get their herb on the black market. Counterproductive all around.

Around my bloggerhood

Baylen at D'Alliance, as always, has a huge roundup of interesting news in the world of the war on some drugs. Don't miss his update on the new strain of coca plant being developed in the producer coutries, a story on the most confused Missouri Rep Roy Blunt who thinks that destroying cannabis plants will somehow end the meth business, and a link to a couple of good editorials on drug sniffing dogs in the schools and the destructive absurdity of the war on pain doctors.

Meanwhile Pete at Drug WarRant continues to publish his imminently useful and important election guide for voters in state level campaigns across the country. Just start at the top and keep reading.

There's a difference

Sorry kids, I blew my lunch hour posting at Detroit about the convention protesters so only have time for this quick item. A court of law in India apparently sees the difference between cannabis flower buds (called ganga there) and cannabis leaves (called bhang) and reversed a judgment against Arjun Singh who was convicted under the laws for possession of ganga when he was actually in possession of bhang.

So when is US law enforcement going catch up with this logic when they are valuing those eradicated plants?

Morning read

I'm running late this morning so I sending you over to Vice Squad for the morning's news. Everything is worth reading as always but be sure not to miss this story on using already available chemical drugs to treat drug addictions.

While I appreciate the intent of the research, I have to say I find its goals somewhat disturbing. For one thing treating chemical dependency with more chemicals seems a little counterproductive, especially since they are ignoring the emerging data on the herb ibogaine which by all accounts has been tremendously successful in treating addictions and does not require continously taking a drug. I'm also greatly concerned to see marijuana mentioned in the context of addictive drugs requiring such chemical intervention.

Vice Squad also points us to this week's New York Times Book Review on the 9/11 Commission's report. It's long but Jim points out that Judge Richard Posner makes seven of his own recommendations and number six is:

The thousands of federal agents assigned to the ''war on drugs,'' a war that is not only unwinnable but probably not worth winning, should be reassigned to the war on international terrorism..

Thanks to Jim for noticing that I made the same point in yesterday's post.

hemp.co.uk
House of Hemp

Here's a positive development. Researchers in Australia are about to conduct an experiment in house building using hemp bricks. This is actually an age-old use for the agricultural hemp plant which is said to have 25,000 other uses and that does not include getting high.

However it's new for New South Wales and Southern Cross University in Lismore has a bumper crop of hemp to work with. It's not clear to me why the experiment in brickmaking is being conducted in great secrecy as these homes are already being built in other countries. Perhaps they just want to stay ahead of the local competition. In any event, since we have been advocating for the expanded use of this beneficial plant for years now, we wish them luck with this project.

The real dope on grow-op busts

I don't know why I keep posting on these ridiculous grow busts except that I find this sort of misinformation and flagrant waste of tax dollars so irritating that giving a big ARRRRGH out loud, kind of helps. Take this first item for instance.

On Thursday, an anonymous tip led officers to four plants that were some of the largest they had ever seen. The biggest was 14 feet tall, and together the plants weighed 120 pounds.

The numbers are meaningless. That's wet weight, including the stalks which I would bet on 14 foot plant could be 6 inches or larger in diameter and heavy. Let me reiterate for the non-consumer, the only part of a cannabis plant that has commercial value is the dried flower buds. If the plant didn't have any buds yet, it could be forty feet tall and still be worthless. It's unlikely to be worth 50 grand just because it's big. Then there's this theory.

Deputies have found six different marijuana fields that have enough similarities that they believe the same suspects were growing them. At each one of these fields, there have been 70 to 100 plants. These suspects are truly marijuana farmers, Seawell said.

How many dissimilarities could there be between different outdoor grows? Not to mention that they later admit they have no idea who the suspects are. Deputies further declare the pot would have been sold locally. I guess they use a clairvoyant to tell them that. How do they know it wouldn't be sold in Cleveland? But here, as always is the clincher that sets my teeth on edge.

Deputies work with the North Carolina National Guard and the SBI several times a year to conduct what they call “eradication operations.” The National Guard helicopter is the main investigative tool, Seawell said.

That's National Guard as in taxpayer funded equipment paid for with federal taxes earmarked for national defense, not plant interdiction. I ask you one more time, shouldn't these guys be out there protecting us from terrorists with bombs instead of fooling around on weed patrol?