When one of your cities has more Drug War murders than California, it refocuses your attention on ending the Drug War

The marijuana internets are abuzz with the latest headline about world leaders declaring the War on Drugs to be a failure and calling for the legalization of marijuana. Here are a few:

World Leaders: Time to End Marijuana Prohibition

Who’s Who of World Leaders Call Global Drug War a “Failure”

World Leaders Recommend Ending The ‘Failed’ Drug War

These headlines cover the report released by the Global Commission on Drug Policy yesterday.  However, I think the preceding headlines fail to make an important distinction, one that was not lost on the editors at NPR (emphasis mine):

‘Global War On Drugs Has Failed,’ Former World Leaders Say

MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY

– Asma Jahangir; human rights activist, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions; Pakistan.
– Carlos Fuentes; writer; Mexico.
– Cesar Gaviria; former president of Colombia.
– Ernesto Zedillo; former president of Mexico.
– Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former president of Brazil.
– George Papandreou; Prime Minister of Greece. [The exception that proves the rule? --"R"R]
– George Shultz; former secretary of state.
– Javier Solana; former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy; Spain.
– John Whitehead; banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial; United States.
– Kofi Annan; former secretary general of the United Nations.
– Louise Arbour; former U.N. high commissioner for human rights; Canada.
– Maria Cattaui; member of the board, Petroplus Holdings; former secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce; Switzerland.
– Marion Caspers-Merk; former state secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany.
– Mario Vargas Llosa; writer; Peru.
– Michel Kazatchkine; executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; France.
– Paul Volcker; former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
– Richard Branson; entrepreneur; founder of the Virgin Group; U.K.
– Ruth Dreifuss- former president of Switzerland.
– Thorvald Stoltenberg; former minister of foreign affairs and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; Norway.

It’s rarely current world leaders expressing these sentiments.  They seem to only speak out after they are out of office and lacking the power to help end that “failure”.  I’ve been reporting on the “former leaders” who call for an end to the Drug War since 2008:

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox calls for debate on marijuana legalization

Latin American ex-presidents urge US to decriminalize marijuana, rethink drug war

Former UK Drug Warrior: “What harms society is the illegality of drugs…”

Fortunately a few brave leaders speak out while they are still in office:

Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use

Jamaica lawmaker calls for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for private use

And when they succeed in decriminalization of drug use, they get amazing results:

United Nations backs drug decriminalization

The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

The report itself makes many of the same recommendations NORML has been touting for four decades now.  The former world leaders recommend that we stop ”the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others.”  They point out that “models of legal regulation of drugs” should be instituted by governments to reduce the power of organized crime and protect the health of citizens and that this “applies especially to cannabis.”  They explain that a realistic government drug policy would avoid “simplistic ‘just say no’ messages and ‘zero tolerance’ policies in favor of educational efforts”.  It’s nice to finally have world leaders, even former ones, recognizing we were and are right.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

Unfortunately, it’s the current ones – the ones who have the power to make these changes – we have to convince… and they’re not budging from their “Schedule I dangerous drug what about the children?!?” rhetoric:

(Los Angeles Times) ”Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe,” said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

More available?  Almost 1 in 4  high school kids can get a bag of weed within an hour and say it’s easier to buy than beer and prescription drugs.  Twenty-five million American adults are using cannabis annually and fifteen million use monthly.  Marijuana is already quite available, it’s just a question of who controls and profits from the market – regulated businesses or violent criminals.

“Legalizing dangerous drugs would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences,” drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said this year.

Administration officials dispute the idea that nothing can be done to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States. A spokesman for the White House drug agency said U.S. consumption peaked in 1979, when surveys showed that 14% of respondents had used illegal drugs in the previous month. Now that figure has dropped to 7%.

Remember that when Gateway Gil says “drugs”, he means “marijuana”.  Among 12th graders, monthly use of marijuana peaked in 1978, but amphetamines peaked in 1981, cocaine use peaked in 1985, ecstasy use peaked in 2000, hallucinogen use peaked in 1975, heroin use peaked in 2000, and sedative use peaked in 1975.  Since marijuana is far more popular (15 million annual users) than all other drugs combined (6 million annual users), any movement of the marijuana numbers moves the “drugs” numbers.

And since he brought it up, I’d remind Gateway Gil that his claim of that monthly drug use dropped in half since 1979 came as sixteen states passed medical marijuana laws and two states decriminalized marijuana possession.  Your predecessors warned us that if we legalized marijuana, even in those very specific and limited ways, it would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences.  It’s understandable, since you and your predecessors are bound by law to oppose any move toward legalization, so you can understand when we completely ignore your Chicken Little warnings about legalization.

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1. Saginaw, Michigan protests over DEA raids against legal medical marijuana patients
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3. Swiss man on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment for cannabis

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This Reggae Wednesday we’re listening to ‘I Live My Life’ by Kya Bamba from Switzerland.

Popular band Kya Bamba got their fame by playing at clubs and producing mix cds.

They have since performed their mix of reggae, dancehall and hip hop music around the world.

Kya Bamba have played with top class artists like Collie Buddz, Budda Monk from Wu-Tang and many more.

The group have produced music for a number of movies and released 5 mix CDs.

Kya Bamba are currently working on their 6th mix CD, due for release later this year.

Stay tuned with Kya Bamba at myspace.com/kyabamba

Enjoy ‘I Live My Life’ by Kya Bamba!

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KYA BAMBA ON MYSPACE

MMA ON MYSPACE

Viele Cannabis-Liebhaber sind denn auch gar nicht erfreut über ihre Missachtung als Zielgruppe und haben zum Boykott von Kellogg´s-Produkten aufgerufen. Die amerikanische Marihuana-Lobby NORML hat auf boycottkelloggs.net eine Liste aller Kellogg´s Produkte und mehrere Kontaktmöglichkeiten veröffentlicht, um dem Müesli-Konzern mal so richtig die Marihueinung zu sagen. Insbesondere die Tatsache, dass Phelps 2004 betrunken am Steuer erwischt wurde, ohne dass das Kellogg´s im Geringsten gestört hätte, sorgt für rote Köpfe bei den sonst so relaxten Hanfkissen-Fans.

via Kiffer würden Kellogg’s kaufen – People – Blick.ch .

The Stash made headlines in Switzerland!  Now maybe they’ll take seriously my request for an Army knife with a retractable poker and hidden bowl!

There is sufficient and consistent evidence that alcohol use is a causal risk factor for injury. For cannabis use, however, there is conflicting evidence; a detrimental dose-response effect of cannabis use on psychomotor and other relevant skills has been found in experimental laboratory studies, while a protective effect of cannabis use has also been found in epidemiological studies. 

So these researchers took a look at 468 randomly-selected injured patients from an emergency department of a hospital.  They determined whether the patients had used alcohol, cannabis, or nothing at all six hours prior to their injury.

Not surprisingly, they found people who drank alcohol were more likely to be injured, and in a dose-relationship way, i.e., the drunker you get, the more likely you’ll get injured.  But then an interesting discovery:

The most surprising result of our study was the inverse relationship between cannabis use and injury. Possible explanations and underlying mechanisms, such as use in safer environments or more compensatory behavior among cannabis users, were discussed.

via Abstract | Alcohol and cannabis use as risk factors for injury – a case-crossover analysis in a Swiss hospital emergency department.

Meaning that not only were stoned people less likely to become injured than drunk people, but also less likely to be injured than sober people!  And that the more stoned you get, the less likely you are to become injured!

Some people might take this to mean that it’s hard to get injured eating Cheetos on the couch watching Spongebob.  I think it means stoners’ attraction to the safest of all recreational intoxicants naturally selects the people who make safer decisions in other areas of life.

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company’s satellite mapping software.

Police said the find was part of a bigger investigation that led to the arrest of 16 people and seizure of 1.2 tons (1.1 metric tons) of marijuana as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).

The plantation, measuring almost two acres (7,500 square meters), was hidden inside a field of corn. But officers using Google Earth to locate the address of two farmers suspected of involvement in the drug operation quickly spotted the illegal crop.

via The Associated Press: Swiss police spy marijuana field with Google Earth.

I wonder if Google Earth has spotted any Mexicans on tall ladders in the middle of swimming pools that are hiding massive grow operations?  Does Sgt. Stedanko use teh Google?

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Welcome back, Stashers!  Did you get enough turkey this weekend?  Hey, hold on, I can just ask you with this handy dandy new Polls plug-in (some of you already noticed the polls over there on the right, right?)

Oh, I’m going to have fun with this. Let’s get existential!

Anyway, today’s Stash takes us all the way to Switzerland, home of alpenhorns, army knives, and government-prescribed heroin. PJ Wasserman joins us to discuss Swiss culture and how they can accept free heroin for addicts but reject cannabis decriminalization.  Check out PJ’s music website at SchaltkreisWasserman.com.

Then Brendan Rivard from the University of Central Florida chapter of NORML comes on to talk about the cannabis-alcohol equalization initiative that will be voted on by the student assembly.

Heroin Legalization Program Approved By Swiss Voters
GENEVA — The world’s most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent Sunday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.

The nearly 1,300 selected addicts, who have been unhelped by other therapies, visit one of the centers twice a day to receive the carefully measured dose of heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.

They keep their paraphernalia in cups labeled with their names and use the equipment and clean needles to inject themselves _ four at a time _ under the supervision of a nurse, and also receive counseling from psychiatrists and social workers.

Sixty-eight percent of the 2.26 million Swiss voters casting ballots approved making the heroin program permanent.

By contrast, around 63.2 percent of voters voted against the marijuana proposal, which was based on a separate citizens’ initiative to decriminalize the consumption of marijuana and growing the plant for personal use.

Jo Lang, a Green Party member of parliament from the central city of Zug, said he was disappointed in the failure of the marijuana measure because it means 600,000 people in Switzerland will be treated as criminals because they use cannabis.

“People have died from alcohol and heroin, but not from cannabis,” Lang said.

The government, which opposed the marijuana proposal, said it feared that liberalizing cannabis could cause problems with neighboring countries.

Talk about “sending a wrong message to the children”!  Don’t use cannabis, or we’ll arrest you, but if you get into heroin, we’ll give you a nice place to shoot up some free smack.  In a strange way, the Swiss voters just said that cannabis use isn’t addictive.  They had to take action against heroin because those people got addicted and would shoot up in the city parks, but apparently cannabis isn’t enough of a problem for the Swiss people to think it needs a harm reduction solution.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for clean needle exchange programs and maintenance heroin programs and I really don’t even mind if the government pays for it.  But to accept that treatment of heroin while maintaining a prohibition against cannabis seems insane to me.  I’d bet if you legalized the cannabis, you’d end up with less heroin addicts over the long term, too.

swissinfo – Switzerland’s liberal drugs policy to be decided at polls
Cannabis and heroin are once again high on the agenda as the campaign ahead of a nationwide vote on Switzerland’s drugs policy gathers pace.

Forty-five per cent of respondents in the poll said they would vote for decriminalisation, while 42 per cent came out against.

The people’s initiative foresees the legalisation of psychoactive hemp for personal consumption, while the trade and cultivation of hemp would be subject to state control. The state would also have to ensure that minors don’t have access to cannabis products.

It will be the third ballot on drugs in just over a decade. In 1998 voters rejected a proposal to decriminalise cannabis just one year after they turned down a call at the other end of the scale to introduce a restrictive drugs policy based on abstinence.

Drugs experts are pleading that cannabis consumption should be considered in a wider context.

“A majority of the government advisory committee stands by its conclusions from 1999 to find a system regulating access to cannabis products.”

Governments around the world are coming to the same conclusions – that cannabis isn’t the social harm it’s been made out to be, that lots of people like to buy and use cannabis, and that a system of regulation would better control the market for cannabis while eliminating prohibitionary harms.  Will the United States during this incoming administration get onboard with the rest of the world?  

One of the points made in the article by a member of the parliament was that Switzerland is a signatory to global anti-cannabis treaties, treaties that were pushed through the UN by the US.  We are going to have to lead the world in ending cannabis prohibition, because much of the world prohibits cannabis because of us!

Swisster – Society – Backing grows in Bern for marijuana decriminalization
Four federal parties rally in support of an initiative to replace a ban on cannabis use for adults, while strictly enforcing its prohibition for those under 18. Swiss voters are set to vote on the issue, rejected by parliament four years ago, in a November referendum.

A coalition of federal Swiss political parties of various stripes has renewed a bid to decriminalize marijuana in the country. Elected members of the Radical, Christian Democrat, Socialist and Green parties on Friday endorsed an initiative that would regulate cannabis use while making it illegal for children under the of 18.

The initiative is scheduled to be voted on by Swiss voters on Nov. 30. The parties have urged people to say yes to the proposal. Members in Bern said the initiative offers a “reasonable policy” governing the use of marijuana that is preferable to the current prohibition.

They noted that the proposal effectively protects young people by banning it for those underage. However the group maintains that for adults smoking a joint is a personal choice over which each person can make their own decision.

Marijuana officially remains a banned drug in Switzerland though possession in small quantities for personal use is tolerated in many [states]. The politicians calling for changes to the law say the current prohibition has failed to cut use. Christa Markwalder, Radical member of parliament from Bern, said an estimated 500,000 people in Switzerland are regular or occasional users of cannabis. The more than 27,500 complaints lodged annually with police (based on 2005 figures) have only served to needlessly overload the police and judicial systems, Markwalder indicated.

As European travel guru Rick Steves is fond of saying, “In America, we get two choices: ‘hard on drugs’ or ‘soft on drugs’.  In Europe they’ve found a third way: ‘smart on drugs’.”  I’m really hoping that the Swiss vote to recognize their adult citizens right to smoke pot.  Then maybe they’ll put a poker and a loupe on that Army Knife of theirs…