Not sure whether to laugh or cry...

Bravo!

In the throes of frantically cramming for finals and painfully ignoring all mentions of drug policy in the news, I couldn't ignore this article from the NY Times. There are some important things we should learn from this:

1. Money from the illegal drug trade goes to criminals. Oh wait, we knew that. Mr. Balbo, that is kindergarten.
2. More specifically, the Taliban actually has the nerve to use drug profits for terrorist activities! Indeed, terrorists are the kind of people to get involved in high risk, illegal markets to fund expensive criminal operations. Wow. The government is finally catching on.
3. So, clearly, the United States should approach the "drug problem" in Afghanistan with a repeat performance of their involvement in Colombia.
a. Training people to use weapons and destroy property that accounts for 40-50% of Afghanistan's GDP is the best way to bring peace and stability to a region. Rest assured, the continued war, corruption, and poverty in Colombia is merely a coincidence.
b. Oh yes, didn't you hear that Afghanistan and Colombia have drug problems? Growing poppies and coca is a drug problem. These people are addicted to profitable land use, and it needs to stop. United States to the rescue.
4. "Drug wars are long, and there are no quick solutions." Yeah, I'll say. I can't wait 'til we win. How much longer 'til the end of forever? How many more victims across how many more borders for how much more money? This is getting old.

Read for yourself and see what parallels you can draw between history and moronically repeated history. There are lots. There's also a lot of interesting information about how the drug trade goes down in Afghanistan and about the zany ideas intended to stop the madness (naturally everything but what makes sense). Most interesting is the fact that our generation is going to have to deal with the legacy (read: the messes) our government leaves in developing countries as it plays a perpetual game of Whack-A-Mole* trying to eradicate the supply of illegal drugs. Nothing justifies terrorist attacks, but giving them more reasons to be pissed off at the United States certainly won't help us in the future. We will be held accountable for what our government is doing now, not our crazy predecessors who are actually responsible. Meanwhile, we'll still have the same problems to deal with at home.

... I think I'll go drown my sorrows in biology notes.

*Thank you, Sanho Tree, for the analogy. You too can learn awesome Drug War analogies when you attend the next SSDP International Conference.

"Defuncsual" thinking

Ah! Today, I received a letter from the Office of National Drug Control Policy:

[click image for full-size version]

Oh, wait. That's a letter from a middle school student. My bad. But can you blame me for making that mistake? After all, we've received equally incoherent letters from the Drug Czar's office in the past.

Seriously, though, it's sad that the DARE program and the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign are still force feeding myths and propaganda to our nation's youth. But, to the girl's credit, at least she agrees that medical marijuana should be legalized. That's so common sense that even a 12 year-old with bad spelling and grammar skills could figure it out. I wonder when the Drug Czar will stop putting crayons up his nose and come to the same conclusion.

Flex Your Rights!

Steve Silverman over at Flex Your Rights wants to know if BUSTED! has helped you successfully assert your rights during a police encounter. If you have a story let them know!

Guidelines for a good Flex Success story:

1. Keep it brief (no more than 3 paragraphs). Focus on the details
relevant to how you flexed your rights and how this benefited you.

2. Your story need not involve a high-stakes police encounter. If you
simply felt more self-confident during an otherwise stressful police
encounter, we want to hear from you too.

3. If you've had a particularly notable Busted screening event, please
describe your audience, how many people attended, and report any
positive feedback you've received.

4. Include your first name, last initial, city, and state and EMAIL!

If you don't know what BUSTED! is or your chapter has yet to have a screening, get a copy today!

HELPing Students is Easy!

The Senate HELP committee will be deciding whether to repeal the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty this week. Years of hard work by SSDP could finally result in opening the doors to higher education for students with drug convictions.

Since 1999, almost 200,000 student have been denied some form of aid. Think about the unknown number of students that didn't even bother to fill out the FAFSA because of Question 31. More than 335 National Organizations and 115 Student Governments support the repeal of this counterproductive law. This law acts as a deterrent to education, not to drugs.

Call your senator today! Just follow Jake's instructions. He's a pro at this stuff!

Don't forget to take an extra 30 seconds and send a follow up email right here!

DONATE!

Props to Brown University

What a weekend!

Dan Macombie, Trevor Stutz, Matthew Palvesky, Julia Van De Wall and all the dedicated members of Brown University's SSDP chapter put together an incredible Northeast Regional Conference this past weekend.

The conference gained press in the Providence Journal focusing on former RI Senator Lincoln Chaffee's discussion Friday evening on the need to reexamine the Drug War. Senator Chaffee spoke out in opposition to the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty, mandatory minimum sentencing, and RI Governor Don Carcieri's veto of the state's Medical Marijuana Bill.

Everything from the delicious food to the interactive and fun workshops like "Telling the Truth in 30 Seconds" was put together flawlessly. Brown SSDP raised the bar for future regional conferences.

Next stop: New Orleans.

Support Rhode Island Patients

Bills to support the rights of Rhode Island medical marijuana patients passed overwhelmingly in both Senate and House committees. The House Health, Education, and Welfare Committee voted to continue protecting patients in a 10-3 vote and the Senate Health and Human Services committee approved the legislation by 5-0.

Are you from the little Rhody? Then contact your legislators here and tell them to support keeping Rhode Island patients safer from arrest.

For more information about RI and The Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act check out RIPAC.

Northeast Regional Conference

Our Northeast Regional Conference is this weekend April 13-15 at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island. Its not too late to register!

The conference is entitled Confronting the Drug War, Envisioning Alternatives.

Speakers include:

• Lincoln Chaffee, Former U.S. Senator
• Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance
• Glenn Loury, Brown University, Professor of Economics
• Daniel Pinchbeck, Author

If you live in the area make sure to check it out! I can't wait to see all you NE SSDPer's!

New Jersey Cops, or Army Soldiers?

In this photo taken from the New York Times story on the FBI Agent killed by a fellow agent while investigating a bank robbery, we see several heavily armed officers searching for the bank robbery suspect who got away. The official caption reads,

"Law enforcement officers searched a mobile home park in Branchburg Township, N.J., Thursday, after an F.B.I. agent, Barry Lee Bush, was killed while following three bank-robbery suspects." The photo is by Tim Larsen of the Associated Press.

While I realize the story isn't about drug policy, I am posting this because of the way the picture struck me. Change the background and you wouldn't be able to tell if those guys were cops from New Jersey, or infantry from Ft. Bragg. I'm no expert, but those look like M4 carbines that two of the guys are carrying, a weapon used primarily by the military. I have no doubt that in some situations police need or would be benefited by an automatic weapon, but this image haunts me.

Radley Balko, who writes The Agitator.com also wrote a great paper on the subject of the militarization of police in his paper, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.

I wish the best for the grieving family of the slain agent, I hope the suspect is captured safely and afforded all of his rights upon arrest, and I hope we pull ourselves away from this trend of turning cops into soldiers.

Students Win Marijuana Debate

The University of Louisville sponsored a debate on the legalization of marijuana. The pro-legalization side seems to have won it by a long shot. New SSDP members anyone?

"The fact we're bringing up controversial issues to educate students, will help people open up their minds and start thinking critically," said Nathan Parthasarathy, a junior chemistry major and legalization proponent.

"I thought the [arguments] as a whole [were] a little disappointing because the side against legalization seemed to be lacking the appropriate knowledge to bring a decent argument to the table," said James Allsbrook, a freshman electrical engineering major. "The pro-legalization side definitely took the win by a long-shot."

The judging panel agreed, and the pro-legalization side emerged as the victors of the first ULP debate.