No More Drug War!

A few jobs ago I was a web person for a drug policy reform organization. Some people thought i was attracted to this line of work out of self interest, but honestly, when your whole workday is about drugs drugs DRUGS they are the last thing you want to do when you get home. Actually, it was learning on the job about the injustices perpetuated by the war on drugs that forever altered my political orientation. It is only my Hobbesian view of the world that keeps me from being a full-blown Libertarian.

For instance, the war on drugs is a war on people of color. Blacks and whites use drugs at equivalent rates, but African Americans are arrested for drug offenses at six times the rate of whites. And the United States has the world's highest incarceration rate largely due to arresting non-violent drug offenders. And consider this: you are, as a taxpayer, spending $300 a year on the war on drugs.

There were two drug war issues in particular that angered me: one was the inability of people with diseases such as cancer and AIDS to obtain medical marijuana, and the other was the under-treatment of pain. In the case of the former, politicians would generally use 2 excuses to justify keeping medical marijuana illegal:

1) Marijuana has no medical value

2) The existence of marinol, an FDA-approved cannabinoid.

Wait a minute! Even the goverment's own supressed medical study by the Institute of Medicine will tell you 1 is bunk. There are also numerous peer reviewed journal articles here.

But if you still are not convinced, you need to ask yourself, if marijuana has no medical value, why are companies trying to market Delta-9-THC in pill form? Number 1 and number 2 contradict each other.

Anyways, the war on drugs has hit me a little closer to home recently. Once a week or so I wake up with a crushing sinus headache. Ocassionally the cuplrit is too much red wine the previous eveing, but it is just as likely caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. In order to get on with my day I take a sudafed. But as you know, the active ingredient has been pseudophredine, which politicians felt compelled to regulate because if you stockpile a lot of boxes you can make crystal meth. My sudafed got replaced by a "PE" formulation which is about the equivalent of decaf coffee. Now meth lab owners are having to schlep to Mexico for their pseudophredine and I am having to go to the pharmacy window at Safeway and sign a registry for what was previously an over-the-counter medication.

While I was trying in vain with the PE to get rid of my congestion, some of the fluid leaked into my inner ear so I now get a brief sensation of falling if I hastily avert my gaze while walking. All because of the drug war!! This is like a pin prick on the drug casualty scale but aggravating nevertheless. For more on what you can do to try to end the war on drugs click the banner below.

Rotating images

During the 2000 election I lived in Takoma Park, which for those of you outside the DC-area is like Maryland's answer to Berkeley. Eventually being surrounded by smug, self-righteous liberals wore on me as much as much as growing up amongst rednecks in Florida. I rebelled by putting a John McCain bumper sticker on my Festiva. Talk about an atomic-blast in a nuclear-free zone! Several people in the neighborhood approached my housemate demanding to know "who in your household is voting for John McCain?!?" Others probably lived in silent fear that their hermetically sealed enclave had been invaded.

At the time of the 2000 Republican primaries, the sticker was the ultimate anti-Bush accessory. But now, after seeing what a hawk McCain is these days, it must come off my car. NOW. Before my new anti-war activist neighbors escort me to the border of Montgomery County. But I am fussy about what to replace it with -- I don't want my car to be a forum for left-wing political sentiment nor drug policy messages in case I get pulled over by a law and order type. And it must complement my "In case of Rapture Can I have your car?" sticker.

The topic of McCain came up today because it turns out a web designer in Seattle who created a really cool myspace template learned that McCain's campaign was using it but linking to an image on his server, in direct violation of his terms of use. Hilarity ensues. Story here.

Alpha Dog

Back in my work and surf days, I read the story of Jessie James Hollywood at CourtTV's crimelibrary. 

Hollywood was the youngest person on the FBI's most wanted list. The 19-year old drug dealer conspired to kidnap then kill the innocent brother of another dealer who hadn't paid off a drug debt. The intriguing story inspired the movie Alpha Dog, which stars Justin Timberlake and other big names who play small but crucial parts. The writer insists the screenplay is 90% true, and in my opinion they generally stuck to the story Court TV presented, with a depth that illustrated the senselessness of the crime and the motivations, lifestyle, and bad decisions that fueled it. Eva Cassidy's haunting version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" surprisingly plays during the opening credits as a montage of creepy, grainy video clips of young boys sets the scene of privilege and permissive parenting.

Justin Timberlake plays an irresistibly charismatic character named Frankie whose allegiance to Johnny Truelove (based on Jessie James Hollywood) leads to his participation in the impulsive kidnapping of  Zack, the 15-year old half-brother of ne'r do well druggie Jake. Zack is rebelling against his strict mother, who is trying to keep him from turning into his older brother. He understandably seals his own fate by refusing a chance to escape and waiting obediently outside a liquor store while Frankie buys them booze. He is later seduced, both literally and figuratively, in a Palm Springs paradise of tough guys, swimming pools, and an endless supply of drugs and young women.

Frankie spends his lazy, drug-hazed days cultivating his father's marijuana crop and entertaining friends at his palace while watching over Zack, who clearly looks up to him. The older youth's pangs of conscience are palpable when he realizes that Truelove intends to have him murder Zack to avoid a life-sentence for kidnapping. The moment that Zack realizes his "friends" intend to kill him and a conflicted Frankie betrays him is heart wrenching. A witness count is provided for the duration of the movie, showing how many people went along with the crime rather than disrupt the drug-fueled status quo. A cosmetically fattened Sharon Stone provides a chilling epilogue as Zack's mom. During her overmedicated ranting from a state mental hospital she exclaims "If God has a purpose for me he needs to get the f*ck down here and tell me what it is!"

I highly recommend this one...