Drugs This Week on Drugs
posted by on December 7 at 15:55 PM
New Orleans: I’m drinking a Manhattan on Bourbon St at the international drug policy conference. One of the topics that repeatedly comes up at these things is whether it’s disingenuous to talk about the racial disparity in drug enforcement as the impetus for major overhaul—when the folks delivering that message are overwhelmingly white. But this year, maybe because we’re in NOLA, the event is more multi-racial than any I’ve attended before. After yesterday’s super-Jewish kick-off, I stopped in at a grassroots organizing networking meeting, where I ate sausage and beans and met about two-dozen people wearing these shirts.
Based in Alabama, the New Bottom Line Campaign works to replace punitive penalties for drugs with drug treatment programs and to restore voting rights to felons who have done their time. Black people make up 26 percent of Alabama’s general population but 60 percent of prison population, according to their handbill. The group is predominantly African American – one white woman who looks like a young Ellen Degeneres was among their ranks – and is lead by Pastor Kenny Glasgow. They wanted to talk a lot and they were really fired up, high on Jesus I suppose, making their group by far the most exciting thing going on here.
Some insight into why African-American communities are reluctant to embrace drug law reform was explained Doug McVay, of Common Sense for Drug Policy, who tried to drive through people’s thick heads that they aren’t listening enough: “For a lot of people in poor and African American communities, the drug war is the only way to get police into their neighborhoods.”
Seven Dogs Per Student: That’s what you need to make a pot bust in Connecticut schools. But all my money says the random searches will get tossed out in court.
Packing in Pakistan: 87,565 kilos of heroin.
Drug Users: Owe everyone an apology.
$10,000 Bribe: Still not enough to get the GOP talking pot.
Dangerous Paraphernalia: Starbucks mugs could kill you.
New World Order: Yes, I’ll have a Big Mac, Large Fries, and a Double-Tall, Split-Shot Americano, with extra room, please.
No Vacancy: Mexican prisons full of drug offenders.
Gimmee a Brake: National Institute on Drug Abuse wants you to park the car before you smoke dope.
Personally, I think it should be safe, legal, and treated like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol - taxed and regulated and not available to kids.
OK, like we don't have kids smoking cigs (average age of 11-14 according to studies) and drinking booze (usually 12-18) ... but same general concept.
@1: Again, just because kids do it, doesn't mean we should let them.
demand that all elected officials tell us what drugs they did. Then, why they allow 1000's of black men to be in jail for drug possession.
Start with Bush the coke snorter. But don't forget all city and state officials.
Probably half of them did pot and coke.
And if they didn't try it, why would you vote for them?
A Manhattan at a drug conference....hhhmmmmmm good thing they are stopping the flow of DRUGS.
Just kidding, alcohol is indeed a drug and all drugs should be legal with treatment options. Ahhhhh one can dream cant they.
All drugs?
No, @4.
There are many drugs that definitely should not be legal with treatment options. Not that treatment shouldn't always be available.
“For a lot of people in poor and African American communities, the drug war is the only way to get police into their neighborhoods.”
But ultimately, the drug war is what's fueling a lot of the crime in those neighborhoods. The black market is funding the gangs and the competition erupts into violence -- and if you legalize and regulate drugs instead, the gangs would be out of business.
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