Altered States

From Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense by Joe Klein:

For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver's licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We'll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We'll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead."

Read the rest here.

Can You Afford Illegal Drugs?

With the way the economy is in the United States, who can afford anything, let alone illegal drugs? I think that the only people who can afford them are the people on Wall Street who “deserve” to make at least $500,000.00 a year because they are so “talented.”

From State Dept. Cites 'Large Firefights' in Travel Alert on Mexico by William Booth:

According to the alert, the threat of bodily harm is part of the ongoing drug war: "Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an increasingly violent conflict -- both among themselves and with Mexican security services -- for control of narcotics trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexico border. In order to combat violence, the government of Mexico has deployed troops in various parts of the country. U.S. citizens should cooperate fully with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways."

The alerts are a poke in Mexico's eye as well as a source of friction. As Mexican commentators point out, the country is fighting to stop drugs heading to the world's largest consumer nation -- the United States.

Some Sanity In Politics

From Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use:

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner repeated her call this week to decriminalize personal drug use and crack down on traffickers and dealers.

"I don't like it when people easily condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if he were a person who should be persecuted," she told a meeting of the National Investigation into the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, Psychopharmaceuticals and Illegal Drugs.

The concept has gained followers in the United States, too, he said, citing statistics that show two-thirds of Americans support drug treatment instead of jail time for first-time drug offenders.

On Wednesday, Rep. Barney Frank announced a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, or almost a quarter-pound, of marijuana.

"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

Forty Thousand Heroin Addicts

Forty thousand heroin addicts. That’s not the total for the United States, that’s for the city of Baltimore all by itself. How successful is the War on Drugs? The term was first used by President Richard Nixon in 1972. After all of that time what have we accomplished? We have a huge prison population and forty thousand heroin addicts in Baltimore. The war on drugs doesn’t seem very successful to me. Let’s spend more money on treatment and less on imprisonment.

From Raid signals more trouble for Baltimore mayor by Ben Nuckols:

Seen by some as a divisive figure during her time on the City Council, Dixon has won over skeptics with her shrewd management of an often-troubled city of about 624,000, including an estimated 40,000 heroin addicts.

For more information on the War on Drugs see:

Telling the Truth About the War on Drugs

Drug Policy Alliance Network

It's Only Money, Who Needs It?

The Bush administration's plan to help the United States seems to be to not raise taxes and not spend any government funds on the United States itself, but to send all our money to foreign nations. Why? How does this help the citizens of the United States? There are so many ways this money could be more wisely spent.

From Plan Mexico by: Maya Schenwar:

As Congress gears up to fund another year of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is also readying a nearly half-billion-dollar aid package that would initiate a Colombia-like drug war in Mexico. The majority of funds would fuel the Mexican military, known for rampant human rights abuses and participation in organized crime.

Yet, according to human rights advocates, the plan prioritizes companies over people, lining the pockets of American defense contractors while putting both political dissidents and ordinary Mexican civilians at risk. Government documents leaked to the nonprofit Center for International Policy provide an idea of what the specifics of the plan will look like: more than half the funds would pay for technology and personnel to bolster the Mexican military's counternarcotics operations. The initiative would ignore the US's own involvement in the transport and sale of drugs.

Plan Mexico allots no money for drug treatment and rehabilitation.

Read more here.