-Caveat Lector-
These Drug War Nuts are fanatics. States are going broke,
terrorists are hiding among us, and these guys only care about
busting pot smokers. Makes one embarassed to be an
American citizen.
flw
Prosecutors Enlist in Drug Czar's Anti-Marijuana Campaign --
Will Prioritize Marijuana Cases, Lobby Against Reform
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/270.html#prosecutorsenlist
The drug czar's Office of National Drug Control Policy
(http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov) has teamed up with the
National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) as part of its
escalating war on marijuana. In letters sent to every prosecutor
in the country on November 1, NDAA president Dan Alsobrooks and
the drug czar's Deputy Director for State and Local Affairs, Scott
Burns, hoisted the battle flag against pot, signaling prosecutors
that they should make the prosecution of marijuana crimes a high
priority and urging them to fight efforts to reform the drug laws.
But for a group representing prosecutors, who have long fended off
criticisms of drug prosecutions on the grounds that we don't make
the laws, we merely enforce them, the push against marijuana
brushes right up against the line separating law enforcement from
lobbying. While Alsobrooks, in his cover letter, attempted to
portray the push as a matter of public safety, he also made it
clear that the effort was inspired by attempts to reform the
marijuana laws. Attempts to legalize or criminalize controlled
substances, and particularly marijuana, are springing up around
the country, Alsobrooks warned. Those who support drug
legalization are well funded and highly adept at manipulating the
media. And they do not mind deceiving the American public as
well... Those who want to legalize drugs advance their position
issue-by-issue, winning incremental victories. We can, and have
stopped their efforts at the national level, but will lose all if
the states yield individually. Writing that the drug czar's
office had asked NDAA to aid in its battle against marijuana,
Alsobrooks urged prosecutors to read Burns' letter containing
important information about marijuana and to consider ways that
you can bring this message to your communities.
But if prosecutors have any interest in accurate information about
marijuana, they will shy away from Burns' rhetoric. The tenor of
Burns' letter is evident early on, when he tells prosecutors that
nationwide, no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana. He
then listed a bunch of truths for prosecutors to tell the
American people about cannabis, but those truths are, at best,
highly controversial and, at worst, mendacious and tendentious.
The truth is that marijuana is not harmless, Burns wrote, citing
DAWN data showing marijuana mentions in hospital emergency rooms.
Marijuana now surpasses heroin as a factor in emergency room
visits, he claimed. Burns did not explain that an emergency room
mention of marijuana does not signify a marijuana-related
medical emergency, or that marijuana overdoses are a practical
impossibility.
The truth is that marijuana is addictive, Burns wrote, claiming
that 62% of all dependent drug users are hooked on pot. But
experts disagree. In his new overview of marijuana research,
Understanding Marijuana, Dr. Mitchell Earlywine writes: Despite
its popularity, few people smoke marijuana regularly... diagnoses
[of addiction or dependence] may say more about the culture and
values of a given clinician than the actual negative consequences
that cannabis creates.
The truth is that marijuana and violence are linked, Burns
claimed, citing two studies that fly in the face of both decades
of folk wisdom and the rest of the scientific literature. On this
topic, Earlywine writes: Direct links between cannabis
intoxication and violence do not appear in the general population.
A few studies show correlations between marijuana consumption and
violent acts, but these links frequently stem from personality
characteristics or the influence of other drugs. People who are
violent or who use drugs that lead to violence often also smoke
marijuana, but the marijuana does not appear to cause the
violence.
The truth is that we aren't imprisoning individuals for just
'smoking a joint,' Burns wrote, noting that only half of one
percent of prisoners are doing time for marijuana possession.
While few responsible critics of drug policy make that argument,
that is still roughly 10,000 people doing hard time. Burns also
ignores the serious consequences awaiting the 700,000 people
arrested each year on marijuana charges, from jail time to lost
benefits to lost licenses to financial hardship.
The truth is that marijuana is a gateway drug, Burns wrote,
ignoring study after study that debunks this prohibitionist tenet.
Two of the most recent studies to debunk the gateway theory are a
February 2001 study by Dr. Andrew Golub published in the American
Journal of Public Health that called it a historical artifact
with no explanatory value
