A man is dying has been sentenced to death because the UW Medical Center doesn't think someone who has used medical marijuana can be trusted with a new liver. Here's hoping none of the folks in this band ever need a life-saving transplant....

My favorite lyric: "It grows from the earth, the earth can't hurt..." You know, poison ivy and cacti and hemlock.

Courtesy of Slog tipper Jake, who writes...

Part of me suspects that if you dug into this band's finances, you'd find loads DEA money, considering how uncool they make weed look.

South American Way: Argentine court decriminalizes drug possession.

American Way: World's leading jailer.

Higher Educators: Teaching marijuana classes in Oakland.

Alcohol Regulators: Don’t like Weed pun on beer caps.

3000: Sentences commuted for cocaine convicts.

29: In Western Washington.

Boy Dies After Drinking Meth:

Lynnwood police may try to build a relatively unusual case of homicide by a controlled substance against a 29-year-old man who has been arrested in connection with the death of a Lynnwood teen.

According to court documents, the suspect is alleged to have punched Jamie D. Leavitt, 16, after the teen drank meth-laced water and then, while in a "drug-induced state," repeatedly tried to hug the older man.

Junked: Bad weather kills Afghan poppies.

Skunked: Dutch police union chair calls to “legalise” soft drugs.

Confession: Of an American coca-leaf chewer.

The Pot Issue Has Two Sides? So reports the Kitsap Sun.

What the Kids Are Asking: About sex and drugs.

Fuzzy Math: LSD = Trees.

E-Bombs: For soldiers.

Pneumonia or Dementia? Options for the elderly.

Don’t Play that Song for Me: Starbucks backs off from music biz.

4/20 Is Over: Pry your lips from the bong.

Grateful Dead Sea Scrolls: Decoding the hippie lexicon.

The announcement came from the DEA. Yesterday at 1 p.m., a press conference downtown would detail a string of pot raids and arrests around Seattle. So I, familiar with the unscrutinizing coverage the daily papers reserve for drug busts, wrote this post to challenge reporters in the mainstream media. Could they ask the sorts of questions about pot busts that they would ask about any other policy issue—why is the government doing this and is the strategy effective? Basically, cover the different sides of the issue.

The Times and the PI sent respectively Mike Carter and Paul Shukovsky. Two smart guys – and solid reporters on other subjects – and they wrote the same old rah-rah stories (almost identical articles) that glorify drug busts. They go like this: feds have announced arrests, they’re cracking down on drugs, about a dozen people were busted, those suspects are likely going to jail. Curtain.

Where’s the rest—like how much the raids cost, if the defendants (or organizations who speak for them) have anything to say about it, if armed raids were the best tactic, and if this will reduce availability of pot? I called Carter and Shukovsky to find out.

Carter: “I think we can let it go that Dan Savage thinks I’m a fucking credulous hack. In fact, we’re going to.” Hangs up.

Shukovsky: “If the Slog is going to award me the super hack of the day, I want a plaque or something. I’m not going to comment to you.”

First things first. Can we get Mr. Shukovsky a “super hack of the day” plaque?

Next, guys, it’s not that Dan thinks you’re fucking credulous hacks. It’s that everyone now knows you’re fucking credulous hacks—on the issue of pot. My polite phone call was your chance to explain that there’s some logic behind omitting the parts of a story that would be included in any piece of objective journalism about these busts—what the Times and PI purports to report—but you refused to talk.

It’s not like you have to take a position to legalize marijuana. Here’s an example of covering two sides of controversial enforcement stories, while remaining objective. For these examples we’ll use stories written by… you.

Carter on a pedophilia case.

[about the enforcement] Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Rogoff described one of the letters written by Weldon Marc Gilbert as a "template for the misguided, skewed thinking of a typical grooming child molester," intended to deflect guilt and manipulate the boy into not cooperating with authorities….

[question the enforcement] The recovery of the first letter outraged Gilbert's defense attorneys because it was reportedly found by a guard in a stack of legal documents. The defense has filed a motion seeking to dismiss the federal charges against Gilbert, alleging the government is guilty of "outrageous conduct" that deprived Gilbert of his constitutional right to legal counsel. That motion has been sealed by a federal judge.

Shukovsky on a whaling case:

Prosecutors charged the whalers with violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act, a misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail. If found guilty of also violating tribal laws, they could face time in a reservation jail [about the enforcement]….

Johnson, 55, said he was thinking of the next generation of Makah whalers when he launched the hunt for the gray whale [questions about the enforcement]. "The five of us did this to protect the kids," he said. "If nobody exercises their treaty right -- we don't have one."

The Makahs signed the Treaty of Neah Bay in 1855, giving up vast tracts of forest lands laced with streams teeming with salmon. The only treaty recognizing a tribe's right to hunt whales, it's an acknowledgement that Makah culture and spirituality -- not to mention traditional cuisine -- are thoroughly infused with whales and whaling.

Good reporting on those issues, gentlemen. See, you didn’t have to advocate for any position to cover those stories fairly. And when it comes to pot, you don’t have to be the DEA’s tools.

On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:30 AM, Dan Savage wrote:

so, mike... ever smoked pot?

On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:47 AM, Mike Carter wrote:

I think we should keep SOME mystery in our relationship, don't you
Dan?

m

On On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:49 AM, Dan Savage wrote:

...a non-denial denial?

On Apr 24, 2008, at 10:51 AM, Mike Carter wrote:

That's the mystery, isn't it?

Paul Shukovsky.

Mike Carter.

UPDATE: Some felt my original headline—"Credulous Hack of the Day"—was a little mean. So I changed it. Dominic, of course, saw this coming.

I just skipped a press conference because I had to run home before going to my other job. The DEA and local police are vaunting their recent raids of marijuana grow houses. If the coverage is anything like previous pot-enforcement coverage, this will be a crack-down, clean-sweep victory for police prevailing over the scourge of drugs.

As I write this, reporters are racing to summarize the story, with the answers to the questions they asked: What happened? When did it happen? Who was involved? Where did it all go down?

But did reporters for Seattle’s mainstream news outlets ask the next questions? The fifth and sixth tenets of basic reporting—those “why” and “how” questions.

Why are they arresting the pot growers? How did they arrest them?

The simplistic answer to the first one, of course, is that pot is illegal. But reporters wouldn’t accept such a trivial explanation when the question is “Why does mayor Nickels want to tax plastic bags?” Because they’re bad for the environment so we should change the law. That’s not enough. The reporters are investigators, and they look at the efficacy of each proposal, pot or bags, critically. The bag issue had two side, we were told.

"It is an undue burden," said Mike Buchman, a spokesman for Solid Ground, a nonprofit that serves families dealing with hunger and homelessness. While he applauds the mayor's environmental policy, "there are a lot of hungry people in our community, and every dime that can go to nutritional food is important," he said.

And...

"If the mayor really wants to get on the stick, he should go after plastic bottles. Or plastic wrapping of food products. Or how about a tax or a ban on petroleum-based plastic, period?"

So does arresting pot growers change the availability or abuse-rates of pot? Is there a better way? We've come to expect the different sides of an issue.

And the next question: How were people arrested? Were the raids conducted with guns drawn in private residences? Considering the dearth of evidence that drug enforcement changes drug-use rates – what this war on drugs is supposedly all about and a worthwhile endeavor – are the raids, which risks lives of cops and suspects, really appropriate?

The war on drugs deserves at least a fraction the scrutiny our reporters give plastic bags. So, reporters, can you ask all the questions and give us the answers?

When dealing with society's most volatile criminal element, armed raids on private residences are absolutely necessary. Um, like to arrest these folks:

Police and federal agents have been raiding indoor marijuana growing operations at houses in the Seattle area.

The U.S. attorney's office says 14 people and two companies have been indicted.

Federal agents and police called a 1 p.m. Wednesday news conference at the federal building in Seattle to discuss the raids and the investigation they call "Operation Green Reaper."

The very practice of no-knock drug raids has come under fire lately on Slog, as I've written about here and here, but also in Georgia where police are on the defense for killing a 92-year old woman in her home in a drug raid based on a faulty warrant. How many of these sorts of raids have gone awry? Check out this map of paramilitary raids from the Cato institute.

But apparently the local feds and the "police" (I assume that's the SPD) think it's all worth it in the name of stopping pot. Of course, the busts make no difference in the pot market. The raids and this afternoon's press conference are all for show.

Thanks to Slog tipper Sparky.

I had no idea bullfighting had such a doping problem:

Bulls will face tighter controls for steroids and other drugs at bullfights held next month as part of Madrid's San Isidro festival, daily Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Monday, citing organisers.

Any bull that behaves in a suspect way in the ring during the festival, which will begin on May 11 and last for over a month, will undergo anti-doping testing after the bullfight, the newspaper said.

Bulls were tested at the festival before, but this time around testing will be quicker and more systematic since it will be carried out for the first time at a laboratory in Madrid, it said.

If an animal is found to have taken a banned substance, the rancher who supplied the bull can face a fine of up to 60,000 euros (95,000 dollars).

Candy or Cocaine? Stop, you’re both right.

Ask Your Doctor About Placebo: Sativex fails in trials.

Dope Head: Bush to nominate new DEA administrator.

Mayor on Drugs: Advice for the next president.

Love Is in the Air: Cannabis perfume.

Who's More Advanced on Drug Policy than the US? Even Iran.

Waving the Flag: Frank introduces marijuana-decriminalization bill.

Between the Cartels and American Noses: Cops killed in Mexico.

Mugshot of the Week: Matthew Gibeault was arrested for drug paraphernalia in Ada County, Idaho.

I was ranting about them last week and Dan de-glorified them this morning. Now the Georgia Supreme Court is on the case.

Georgia's top court is considering a case brought by two murder suspects who argue they shouldn't face the death penalty because they didn't know the intruder they shot and killed was a police officer using a special warrant.

The Georgia Supreme Court's ruling could change the way police use special warrants - known as "no knock warrants" - that are intended to prevent suspects from getting rid of evidence and to protect officers from potentially violent suspects.

It comes as lawmakers, police officers and judges consider tighter restrictions on the warrants in the wake of another botched raid that left a 92-year-old Atlanta woman dead and three police officers injured.

Antron Dawayne Fair and Damon Antwon Jolly face the death penalty for the 2006 killing of Bibb County Sheriff's Deputy Joseph Whitehead. Whitehead was the first of nine undercover agents to raid the Macon home around 1 a.m. on March 23, 2006 using the special warrants.

At the top of the list of what's wrong with the drug war has got to be cops dying senseless deaths. Sending officers to barge into someone's house in the middle of the night is begging for a gun to be pulled (by a resident who doesn't know it's a cop). If a gun is pulled, the officer pretty much has to shoot. So either the cop gets shot or a resident is shot before proven guilty. There may be a time and place for no-knock raids, but suspected nonviolent drug-law violations shouldn't make the cut.

Pink underwear for male inmates, chain gangs for teens, and meals at less than 20 cents per plate weren’t enough for Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Now women convicted of drug-law violations get special shirts.

Women inmates in Maricopa County have been on chain gangs since 1996. Now, 15 of them will wear T-shirts that say "I was a drug addict" as they clean trash from a Phoenix street on Monday.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says the move is designed to discourage young people from using drugs.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio says the women have such sad stories about what drugs have done to their lives and that they want to help others make better choices than they did.

By the sound of this article, women aren’t required to wear the shirts. They’re doing it because they want to. Uh huh.

The Sheriff’s department reportedly claimed the women would want to talk about their former addictions, but inmates interviewed by a television news crew called it a publicity stunt. One of the women said, “It’s because it’s an election years and he’s down in the polls, and he needs something to bolster his votes and campaign contributions.” I’m sure the accommodations in Joe’s hotel will be first-class for her.

I gotta admit, the whole shame-your-way-to-redemption logic baffles me. Guilt and shame are the staples of the Catholic Church, specializing in sexual guilt, and look how well it’s worked for priests and alters boys. By that math, these shamed ladies will all get out of jail and swallow a meth lab.

Thanks to tipper Nicole. Via TalkLeft.

...is the mindless glorification of the War on Drugs. Gee, I wonder how many people involved with the conception, production, and promotion of this new show on Spike—let's not even talk about Spike's typical viewers—have used drugs themselves?

Your front row seat to the most dangerous job on the street? Try your front row seat to the most the most unnecessary job on the street. Want to protect these saintly DEA agents from harm? Legalize drugs, tax the shit out of 'em, and reassign these DEA agents to the jaywalking beat.

Oh, and here's the bottom half of the poster—which shows a huge number of DEA agents rushing into a house in what I presume is an urban area:

By my count there are ten armed DEA agents breaking rushing into that house—all with their great big guns drawn. Cops raid the wrong house so frequently that the LAPD has a full-time carpenter that does nothing but repair doors torn off their hinges when the police raid the wrong house. And as Dominic wrote on Slog last week...

During no-knock drug raids, innocent bystanders are shot and killed, like this one-year-old baby and his mom; cops are killed, like this officer raiding a house for marijuana that turned out to be maple trees; and other times, as in this story, a suspect who could have been apprehended without gunfire is left dead.

Some might say that this armed raid was justified because Aguillard allegedly pulled a gun. But he pulled his gun because armed strangers were breaking down his door. Law-abiding people would do that, too.

Yes, Spike, "every deal can turn deadly"—but not just for the cops. Here's hoping that Spike will have the guts to show the police blowing the head off a year-old baby if their camera crews should happen to capture that on video. They wouldn't, of course, as that piece of tape would expose the "heroic DEA agents, dastardly drug dealers" angle that Spike is peddling for the fraud that it is.

Move It: Declining dollar shifts cocaine market to Europe.

Push It: McDonald’s free-latte Fridays.

Resist It: National D.A.R.E. day.

Always Worth It: Budweiser’s link to McCain.

“As Many Crack Offenders Are Freed Early, Will Crime Rise?” No.

Of Mice and Monkeys: Drug protects from radiation.

Rats: Marijuana linked to temporary lethargy and wimpy muscles.

Brats: Teen calls cops on mom for growing pot.

Stats: One-in-five scientists using mental performance-enhancing drugs.

In Unrelated News:

Three dead in suburban Vancouver house fire linked to marijuana grow-op

DELTA, B.C. — Police have identified three people killed in a house fire in the Vancouver suburb of Delta and now say a marijuana grow-op on the property didn't start the blaze.

A report today in the New England Journal of Medicine says that 29 people who sought medical attention in Germany were suffereing from lead poisoning. The source? Their stash.

Here's yet another reason to "just say no" to drugs: Smoking marijuana could lead to lead poisoning. Doctors in Germany have linked a mysterious outbreak of lead intoxication to contaminated street supplies of marijuana.

In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, Franziska Busse, M.D., of the University Hospital Leipzig and colleagues detail a puzzling occurrence of lead poisoning symptoms over a 3- to 4-month period among patients aged 16 to 33 years old. Twenty-nine patients at four different hospitals had abdominal cramps, nausea, fatigue, and anemia - classic signs and symptoms of lead intoxication.

Wheelchair weed, indeed. But despite the sensational lede – another reason to “just say no” to drugs – this doesn't indicate a contamination crisis in the US. The only reason it's news is because it’s an anomaly. In fact, docs say there are no known cases of lead-contaminated pot in the U.S. If we would regulate the marijuana market, of course, contamination like this wouldn't be a risk. In their report (.pdf), researches concluded the asshole dealers did it to turn a quick, um, Euro.

The current working hypothesis of the police is that because of its high specific gravity and inconspicuous grayish color, lead was used to increase the weight of street marijuana sold by the gram and thereby maximize profits among dealers.... Lead particles smoked in a joint, which can have a core temperature of 1200°C,2 are very effectively absorbed in the respiratory tract.

Those dealers should go to jail for poisoning people. Seriously. And, marijuana smokers, should you happen come across pot mixed with chunks that look like this…

…don’t smoke it. Obviously.

This is terrible...

Family members of a man fatally shot during a no-knock raid last week say he was schizophrenic, so reclusive and paranoid that he rarely spoke to other people and couldn't have dealt drugs as police suggest.

Nathan Aguillard, a Hurricane Katrina refugee, was shot by Denver police Officers Ronald Fox and Thomas Mc Kibben on Friday morning when they broke through his apartment door at 4754 Peoria St. with a warrant to search for drugs.

Police say Aguillard confronted the SWAT officers with a gun and was shot to death. They say they found guns and drugs in the apartment. The two SWAT team officers each have 21 years of experience.

The warrant signed in support of the no-knock search was not available at the courthouse Tuesday, nor was a listing of items found in Aguillard's apartment.

Denver attorney Craig Skinner said the Aguillard family has hired him to review the Police Department's actions in the shooting. "We're going to try and find out if the police did anything inappropriate," Skinner said Tuesday. "I do see several red flags. It does seem curious (police) haven't been more open about this shooting and the warrant."

Whenever I post these Winning the War on Drugs pieces, there are mixed reactions of rage at the officers, rage at the drugs, and rage at me. The theme in most of the posts – that someone was shot and killed in a drug raid – is enraging. But I keep posting them to pose a question.

The question isn’t whether or not cops should shoot people who pull a gun on them. They must. The question also isn’t whether armed raids are ever appropriate. Sometimes they are. And it’s not whether drugs or guns should be outlawed. That’s a bigger ball of wax. It is this: Is raiding a private residence with guns drawn an acceptable way to enforce suspected nonviolent drug-law violations?

During no-knock drug raids, innocent bystanders are shot and killed, like this one-year-old baby and his mom; cops are killed, like this officer raiding a house for marijuana that turned out to be maple trees; and other times, as in this story, a suspect who could have been apprehended without gunfire is left dead.

Some might say that this armed raid was justified because Aguillard allegedly pulled a gun. But he pulled his gun because armed strangers were breaking down his door. Law-abiding people would do that, too. Each year police arrest hundreds of thousands of people--suspected of nonviolent and violent crimes--without resorting to armed raids. On the street, in cars, at the suspect's place of employment, etc.

But emphasizing COPS-style raids for nonviolent drug offenses is theatrics, with deadly consequences. And police are in denial about the risk involved--like when officers in Florida last week brought their kids to see the show.

Two SWAT officers are being counseled after bringing their young children along with them on a drug raid.

The Orange County SWAT team searched a house on Napoleon Street Friday, arresting three people and recovering guns and drugs.

The two officers who brought their children on the raid will not be disciplined.

We need to wake up and smell the blood. Drug treatment reduces drug abuse. Even arrests followed by mandatory treatment is fairly effective. But no-knock drug raids are anything but winning the war on drugs.

Holy Fucking Shit: Aerial drones to hunt pot growers.

The federal government plans to escalate its eradication of marijuana plantations in the backwoods of national forests this year, beginning in California with the deployment of larger strike teams and the controversial launching of miniature, remote-controlled spy planes to outfox growers, a top Bush administration official said Thursday.

The SkySeer runs quietly and its tiny video camera can resolve whether a person is armed with a handgun from 250 feet in the air – high enough for the 4-foot-long craft to become invisible from the ground, according to its inventor, Sam De La Torres.

Detained: Red tape keeps prisoners with reduced sentences in jail.

Distracted: Cops too busy busting drugs to stop gangs.

Rejected: California kills bill to drug test welfare recipients.

Arrested: Mom allegedly gives meth to her kid.

Fair and Balanced: Are retroactive crack sentences a “gamble with our safety?”

Fairview Fanny: On drugs.

Rick Steves: Remains awesome.

Bobby Brown: Blames Whitney.

Los Angeles: Supports medical pot dispensaries.

Viet Nam: Considers shorter terms.

The Official Word: Drugs killed Tasered man.

Wacky Tobacky: Tom Cruise may sue over namesake weed.

Over at his blog, further evidence of Rick Steves' supreme coolness. Yeeeah, boy.

Some enterprising netizens took a 1999 Mac ad featuring Jeff Goldblum and slowed it down a little so he sounds drunk. Boy is it funny.

Now I want to go find some stuff to slow down.

via Blogtown, PDX

Charged and Seized: As you may recall, a police officer in Lima, Ohio shot and killed Tarika Wilson in January while she was holding her baby during a drug raid. The cop has been charged. Also in Lima, police have confiscated a couple’s life savings of $400,000—for possessing a small amount of marijuana. The couple had called the cops after fending off two burglars from their home.

Nixed: No plea agreement for Canadian seed trafficker.

Pardoned: Bush releases non-violent drug offender.

Halfway There: New Hampshire pot decriminalization bill stalls in state senate.

Gov. Patterson: Used pot and cocaine.

Guilty: Oakland pot candy maker pleads.

Not Guilty: Texas jury dismisses marijuana charges.

Jurors deliberated less than 15 minutes Tuesday before reaching a not guilty verdict for Tim Stevens, 53, whose attorney used the defense that marijuana use was a necessity to treat nausea and vomiting. County attorney Scott Brumley called the verdict "unfortunate."

Stevens, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, suffers from nausea and cyclical vomiting syndrome, a condition so severe that it has required hospitalization and blood transfusions in the past.

Rick Steves: Smart on drugs.

Superskunk Me: 30 days on reefer.

More Stable than the US: That drug haven called the Netherlands.

Supreme Court: To consider search and consent.

In Sports News:

A 24-year-old South Kitsap man — and self-proclaimed Seattle Seahawks fan — was arrested Sunday for allegedly spitting on the hamburger he prepared for a man wearing Pittsburgh Steelers attire, according to Kitsap County Sheriff's Office reports.

He was booked into the Kitsap County jail for fourth-degree assault and possession of marijuana and released.

Then be sure to get ordained first.

Turning Over a New Leaf: Florida wants to smoke Salvia.

Green Light: New Hampshire house passes bill to decriminalize marijuana possession.

Magic Dragon: Peter Yarrow says Puff wasn’t about drugs.

Seven Days a Week and Twice on Sunday: Colorado repeals blue law.

Bust a Move: Cops nab alleged crack ring.

Big Time: Moms don't say sober after giving birth.

Big House: Man gets 51 years for killing over fake cocaine.

Big Money: Judge orders Starbucks to return $100 million in tips.

You're Next: UN Drug Czar targets Amy Winehouse for being one of the "coke-snorting fashionistas.”

The Border: Fucked.

The Drug Control Budget: Criticized by Congress.

Good Work: Drug Czar vaunts fewer positive tests for meth at workplace.

Need a Coloscope? "We've found a grenade launcher; we had to return that to the police department.”

Tea Time: The ACLU wants to chat about the weed.

The Last Tea Time: Suicide assistance and a bicky.

Central Intelligence: Former CIA head Jim Woosley wants to legalize industrial hemp.

Go Terps! U Maryland student edged off student senate for possessing half-gram of pot.

Please Bring Down Your Concertina: Arkansas names “drug czarina."

The question the UN Drug Czar won’t answer.

Ladies and gentleman, the 420 Kit from Burton.

This is Burton's most glorious invention. A perfect carry pouch for every icognito smoker. It's got slots and pouches for all on-the-go needs: plastic zip pouch(removable), a metal poker, and two custom slots. Exciting isn't it?

Yes, it is. But what kind of message does it send to kids?

Lincoln, Nebraska.

Ten-year-old Jayci Yaeger is dying of brain cancer, and has one final wish -- to have her father spend some time at her bedside before she dies.

She's in a Lincoln, Neb. hospice.

However, her father, Jason Yaeger, is in a federal minimum security prison in South Dakota, serving five-and-a-half years for a drug conviction. He has less than a year left in his sentence, and is set to be released to a halfway house in four months.

Jason and the Yaeger family have appealed many times to the warden for a 30-day supervised release, which could be allowed under "extraordinary circumstances." However, the family says these appeals have been denied, and the prison tells them the circumstances are not "extraordinary."

"She's very scared," Jayci's mother, Vonda Yaeger says, "and I think she's holding on for her father. She didn't do anything wrong. He was there for her when she was born. He should be there for her when she goes."

We've been told repeatedly that we need uncompromising drug laws to send the "right message to our children." But what message does this send to Jayci Yaeger? The government won't let your daddy come see you on your deathbed because it would send you the wrong message. Sorry, dying little girl. Don't do drugs.

I gotta hand it to sports writers. They create compelling narratives out of what is essentially the same story repeating again and again. They give meaning to the utterances of the inarticulate. They must be brilliant. Most of them.

Craig Smith over at the Seattle Times proclaims that last week’s unanimous ruling by the state Supreme Court, banning random student drug testing, "lacks sense" and is a "defeat for common sense." The Justices decided that searching a student's bodily fluids was at least as invasive as searching their luggage, which requires reasonable suspicion.

Justice Sanders wrote:

"The urinalysis test is by itself relatively unobtrusive. Nevertheless, a student is still required to provide his or her bodily fluids. Even if done in an enclosed stall, this is a significant intrusion on a student's fundamental right of privacy. …

"In sum, no argument has been presented that would bring the random drug testing within any reasonable interpretation of the constitutionally required 'authority of law.'"

That's what the judges ruled, and it makes sense. What lacks sense is Smith's knee-jerk reasoning.

I'm angry. It's a bad decision. Random testing, even though it was only in a handful of schools, provides one more reason a kid can say "no" when tempted by peers.

"Sorry, guys, it's my senior season and with my luck I'll get caught in drug-testing if I even get near marijuana. Let's find something else to do."

That seems compelling. But the only peer-reviewed scientific study ever conducted on random drug testing, by the University of Michigan, showed it has no impact—it’s not a deterrent to drug use. It’s more likely that a students who face random piss tests are actually saying, “Sure, guys, let’s go smoke pot. Since the tests are random, I probably won’t get tested anyway. But if I do, I’ll only get kicked off the swim team…”

Is that what Smith really wants: for students to game the system and, if they lose, get expelled from the very extracurricular activities that would keep them from using more drugs? Because that sure would make sense.

Holidays in America, even those that originated somewhere else, fall into three basic categories: meat holidays, candy holidays, and liquor holidays. We will call the last category—which includes New Year’s Eve, Cinco De Mayo, and St. Patrick's Day—the “alcoholidays.” Most Americans associate these wonderful times primarily with drunkenness.

Other holidays may be associated with drinking, too. But the drinking is secondary. For instance, Independence Day is a drink-liquor-and-eat-hot-dogs holiday; Valentine’s Day is a drink-liquor-and-cry-into-your-pillow holiday. Memorial and Labor Days are foremost about working, dying, and barbequing.

But the true alcoholidays are all about getting wasted. And drinking on St. Patrick's Day, usually on March 17th, is even accommodated by the church. The Catholic Church, which has a say on all holidays with the word “Saint” in it, cares so much for our privilege to feast on green beer and whiskey that, to avoid conflict with the Holy Week this year (Easter is this Sunday), they changed the date of St. Patrick’s Day to before the holy week began. That’s right… it already happened. On Saturday.

But you’re not Catholic, are you? And you don’t conform to arbitrary edicts from way over there in the Vatican City, do you? Us Yankees had us a parade in New York today. And we got booze here in Seattle tonight, so you can drink like you're Irish. Cheers!

Yellow Cab: (206) 622-6500
Orange Cab: (206) 522-8800

I guess people have stopped buying the arguments that smoking marijuana makes you sterile, run over little girls on tricycles, lose your girlfriend to an alien, a deflated bag, an indie-rock robot, or a terrorist. I mean, those just aren't plausible scenarios. Nowadays, if you want to justify denying medicine to someone dying with cancer, just explain that doing so could make people sell their babies.

Here's a letter from Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to a constituent who asked why medical marijuana, despite recent support from the American College of Physicians, is still illegal.

Dear XXXX:

Thank you for contacting me. I am always glad to hear from you.

Marijuana is often the drug singled out for legalization. However, marijuana is not the recreational drug that many believe it to be. In a study completed by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of marijuana related emergencies has nearly reached the level of cocaine related emergencies. As this statistic indicates, marijuana use often has fatal consequences.

I was deeply troubled when I learned of another recent study which found that nearly one-third of all eighth graders had tried marijuana. As the father of two daughters, it greatly disturbs me that children are exposed to drugs at such a young age. I am concerned that legalization of this drug will only increase the number of children who gain access to its harmful effects.

The victims of the drug war are many -- the small child whose parents are so addicted to illegal drugs that they sell everything including perhaps their own children to obtain a fix; the police officer’s family which must now learn to cope with the loss of their loved one as a result of a violent drug bust gone awry. These are the people I think of when I say that drugs pose a significant threat to the security of this nation.

Legalizing drugs is equivalent to declaring surrender in the war on drugs. However we may differ in tactics, I am hopeful that we can work together to fight drugs in our communities and to make Iowa drug free.

Again, thanks for sharing your views with me. Please don’t hesitate to let me know how you feel on any issue that concerns you.

Sincerely,

Tom Harkin
United States Senator

This gem was posted on AlterNet by Ron Fisher of NORML, for which I serve on the board. Thanks, ECB, for sending it my way.

The Washington State Supreme Court this morning ruled unanimously that randomly testing students' urine for drugs violates the state's constitution. Drug tests now require suspicion of wrongdoing.

Implementing and maintaining random drug-testing programs, which are allowed under federal law, is listed at the top of Bush’s 2008 national drug-control strategy. The Drug Czar's office argues that random drug testing reduces drug use, but the only peer-reviewed scientific study found it has no effect.

The decision permanently ends the practice here. “The Washington Supreme Court gets the last word on the Washington Constitution,” says Aaron Caplan, a staff attorney for ACLU of Washington, which litigated the case. Only three districts in the state have been randomly piss-testing students who participate in extracurricular activates; other districts have been holding off, waiting for this decision, despite the White House's pressure and funding to start the programs. “One of the things we’re doing is making sure those districts know they need to stop and let other districts know they should not start,” says Caplan.

The case, York v. Wahkiakum School District, arose from disputes over testing the children of a Deputy Sherriff and emergency room manager in Wakiukum County, where a judge ruled the practice was within the law. But the Supes unanimously tossed out that decision. Writes Justice Sanders in the lead opinion:

The urinalysis test is by itself relatively unobtrusive. Nevertheless, a student is still required to provide his or her bodily fluids. Even if done in an enclosed stall, this is a significant intrusion on a student's fundamental right of privacy. …

In sum, no argument has been presented that would bring the random drug testing within any reasonable interpretation of the constitutionally required "authority of law."

Judge Madsen concurs:

As pointed out by the Washington Education Association and Drug Policy Alliance in their amicus brief, drug testing may actually be counterproductive, as participation in athletic activities is itself an important factor in discouraging drug use and the drug testing program may actually discourage such participation, isolating students from healthy activities. … Indeed, suspicionless drug testing jeopardizes other important educational objectives, including preparing students to become responsible citizens who share a common understanding and appreciation of our constitutional values."

Caplan says the ruling is based primarily on precedent from a 1985 decision, also by the state’s high court, which concluded school officials chaperoning Renton students on a field trip could not randomly search for alcohol in the kids’ luggage. “You can’t search through luggage at random, you what makes you think you can search their bodies?” Caplan asks.

In January, the drug czar’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sent a cadre of drug testing advocates to Highline Community College as part of a national campaign to persuade more school administrators to implement the programs here. Thus far, school districts around the country have received $36.1 million for the programs. Caplan says, “School districts in Washington are not allowed to take the ONDCP’s sucker money.”

The ONDCP has not returned calls for comment.

The Seattle Times:

The state Supreme Court says that random drug testing of student athletes is unconstitutional.

The court unanimously ruled in favor of some parents and students in the Wahkiakum School District that were fighting the district's policy of random urine tests of middle school and high school student athletes.

Like any regular TV watcher, I am consistently dazzled by commercials for new prescription drugs, all of which seem to boast amazing names. (If I ever have a son, his name will be Flomax; a daughter, Plavix.)

But where many drug names achieve near-poetry, others seem to be barely trying. Case in point: Abilify, which is pronounced "uh-BILL-if-eye" and prescribed for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. But more than anything, it reminds of some malapropism from this monkey. ("We will abilify the Iraqis to govern themselves!")

Abilify. Schizophrenics deserve better. (Especially when you hear the list of potential side effects.)

An Antioch man was shot and killed Tuesday as county narcotics agents tried to search his apartment. Investigators said the victim, whose name was not released, was shot as he tried to reach for the handgun of one of the agents.

County and state narcotics officers were searching the apartment on H Street for marijuana. The suspect, remembered by neighbors as a helpful man who always had a smile on his face, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Wait, this sounds so... familiar: Oh yes, they both reached for the gun... Understandable, understandable, yes it's perfectly understandable. Comprehensible, comprehensible, not a bit reprehensible, it's so defensible...

This ought to spell the end for drugs in the college town of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Stellenbosch students, their parents and club owners are outraged at what they have described as brutal drug raids on nightspots in the student town on Friday night, and some are considering taking legal action against the police.

Police found only a small plastic bank bag and two joints of dagga [marijuana] and three grams of hashish, at the clubs.

Several witnesses have come forward, describing how the police, wearing Kevlar vests and carrying firearms, burst into Bohemia, Die Mystic Boer and Springbok Pub around midnight and assaulted several students, sprayed them with mace, took their cellphones and ordered them to delete cellphone pictures of the raid.

Police officers also reportedly put their hands in some womens' underwear to search for drugs.

Willem Coertze, owner of Die Mystic Boer, said he was punched in the face and had his wrists tied behind his back with cable ties after asking a police officer why his club was being raided and whether there was a search warrant.

Nobody was arrested, but that girl thrown on her face at the end of this video sure learned her lesson.

Bush Poses: Releases drug-control strategy for 2008. Hey, that looks like the same strategy that was so effective in 2007.

Mukasey Loses: Courts begin commuting crack sentences despite AG protests.

Bill of Wrongs: "I regret more than I can say that we didn't do more on it," Bill Clinton said of racially disparate sentencing for crack and and powder cocaine under his watch. "I'm prepared to spend a significant portion of whatever life I've got left on the earth trying to fix this because I think it's a cancer."

Bill of Sale: Amherst reconsiders charging pot-fest organizers for cops.

Chewed Up: UN tells South American nations to ban chewing of coca leaves.

Chewed Out: UN decries Canada's safe-injection sites.

Staying in Business: Federal judge allows medical-marijuana dispensary.

Staying in Jail: Denver makes more arrests after lowest-priority vote.

Reefer Madness: The musical.

Reefer Mushers: The Iditarod.

Dutch Ado About Nothing: Consider banning sales of pot growing equipment.

Little Ado About Something: UN angry at UK for being soft on celebrity drug use.

Where There’s Smoke: The mayor of Moss Point, Mississippi tried to oust a fire department captain who had tested positive for marijuana after being caught with pot and pills. The captain was supposed to be canned under the city’s zero-tolerance drug policy, even though he wasn’t accused of being under the influence at work. A majority of the city’s board of aldermen, however, voted to keep the firefighter on the payroll, and then they overrode the mayor’s attempted veto of their first decision. In response, editors of The Mississippi Press, which apparently believes in fighting firefighters with fire, spat that the “aldermen are content with the erosion of the fire department's credibility.”

So if you've bought Airborne, the herbal supplements that used to be marketed as a "miracle cold buster" you could be owed a refund. They can't back up the cold-busting claims in court.

The Israelites might have been tripping, too, says this professor.

Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an "altered state of awareness," Shanon hypothesized.

Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having "partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts."

Could it be that drug-induced states of delirium also explain visions of the burning bush, Jesus moving that rock, Moses parting the Red Sea, miracles for the Huckabee campaign...?

Smoke it while you've got it, Seattle-area potheads. The police busted a local grow-op this weekend--surely the last local grow-op--and those good little drug-war soldiers at the PI dutifully report on the raid.

Investigators say they seized more than 4,000 marijuana plants from homes in King and Snohomish counties during raids last week. More than 1,100 plants were found in houses in Lynnwood and Everett, and in a related case, about 3,200 plants were seized in two houses in King County.

Detectives believe the indoor pot farms were set up and tended by drug traffickers connected to Vietnamese criminal groups.

"These were professional jobs. We're not talking 10 plants in a closest," Lynnwood police Sgt. Jim Nelson, a supervisor with the South Snohomish County Narcotics Task Force, told The Herald newspaper of Everett.

First off, does anyone believe that the police, if they discovered 10 plants in someone's closet, would look the other way?

And thanks, as ever, to the PI for handing the mic to the cops and failing, as always, to devote a single graph, sentence, or sentence fragment to the futility of it all. This raid will make no dent whatsoever in local pot supplies, as many PI staffers can attest. And so long as pot is illegal, drug traffickers and criminal groups will control its production and supply. Want to put Vietnamese gangs out of business? Legalize pot, let farmers grow it, tax it, and let people use it without fear of arrest or prosecution.

That Blasted Definition of Insanity: The more the U.S. spends on its "drug-control strategy" in South and Central America, the worse, it seems, things get.

In Colombia, troops this week were convicted of killing their own government’s anti-narcotics agents, funded by the U.S., and a prosecutor in the case has been accused of offering to aid the defense in exchange for dough. In Mexico, where drug-related murders have soared along with U.S. aid, our undeterred Drug Czar wants more of the same—more money to bust pot traffickers. The apparent logic of Drug Czar John “hope for treatment” Walters is that, rather than reducing demand in his own country, the U.S. must increase funding for interdiction campaigns abroad. But that's obviously not working. Back in the U.S., former Drug Czar staffer John Carnevale released a scathing indictment of Bush's insane drug-control spending from 2002 through 2009.

A review of the federal drug control budget shows that the current administration continues to favor supply reduction programs over demand reduction programs to reduce the demand for drugs by youth and adults. Since federal fiscal year (FY) 02, the budget has emphasized what research has shown to be the least effective ingredients of a federal drug control policy.

According to data from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, resources for supply reduction have grown the most since FY02, by nearly 57 percent. In fact, supply reduction resources now represent nearly two-thirds of the total federal drug control budget. By comparison, resources for demand reduction grew by less than 3 percent and its share of total resources now represents only about one-third of all resources.

Bush Administration Federal Drug Control Spending, by Function
FY 2002-FY 2009 (Budget Authority in Millions)

Get Them Off Drugs: Bill proposes withholding welfare from folks who fail piss test.

Get Them Off: Playboy launches new energy drink.

Get Them a Drink: Elysian winter beer festival on Saturday.

Double Jeopardy: Gov. Spitzer proposes crack tax.

Double Scotch: Liquor companies opposing China's ban on lunchtime drinking.

High Strung: Man puts out girlfriend’s cigarette with fire extinguisher.

High Tide: 100 lbs of cocaine wash up on beach.

High Time: Bill would require F.D.A. oversight of tobacco.

On His Knees: Aaron Carter allegedly caught with pot, held in Texas jail.

Every man should have one of these.

The whole “Beer Belly” thing is just too obvious for smuggling liquor into a dry venue--one unnatural jiggle and the cat’s out of the bag. But these babies, woah, obviously not real. Fags like me could live out their inner drag queen; straight guys could feel themselves up and be buzzed enough to think they’re getting away with it. And who would have the balls to confront a person of indeterminate gender identity with some medical-looking tube dangling from his or her shirt? Someone you want to meet, that's who. One downside, however: The more you drink, the smaller your rack.

A dip of the cleavage to Slog tipper Michael.

Hendrik Hertzberg on drugs.

Ruled: Pharmacists can continue withholding Plan B until case is resolved.

Stabbed: Mom nagged son to get off the pot. Son also reportedly in possession of three human skulls used for “money-making rituals.”

Charged: Garden-supply shop owner faces 40 years.

Backed: Support for medical marijuana from the American College of Physicians.

District Attorney in Texas: "Although I have enjoyed excellent medical and pharmacological treatment, I have come to learn that the particular combination of drugs prescribed for me in the past has caused some impairment in my judgment."

County Treasurer in Oklahoma: “I resign now with enormous regret, however, in light of recent events, I find it impossible to effectively serve as Treasurer any longer.”

Hole in One: Dunkin’ Donuts rivals Starbucks.

Do not Use Exactly as Directed: FDA nods to drugs' unapproved uses.

Passing Once Wasn’t Enough: Hailey, Idaho to consider pot measures again.

Federal Prosecutors: Won’t block commuted sentences.

Hot Water: Britain considers tea ban for students.