Update from (Near) The White House, Part I

See this update on what we're up to during this historic week!

Why Republicans Didn't Block Medical Marijuana or Needle Exchange

President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner worked out an agreement that avoided a federal government shutdown this past week. In order to reach a deal, Obama and Reid bowed to GOP demands to ban the District of Columbia from using any money to fund abortions.

But for all of the fierce partisan debate surrounding budget cuts and social "riders," several supposedly hot-button issues were conspicuously absent from the bickering, namely medical marijuana and needle exchange programs in DC. This is a new development. Until just last year, the District was banned by federal law from implementing a medical marijuana law its residents overwhelmingly passed in 1998.

What happened? Did Republican leaders' hearts grow several sizes?

Both parties have realized that, when it comes to cultural issues, they are roughly a decade behind the rest of the country, and they've taken notice of the fact that we are at a tipping point on drug policy reform. Leaders in Congress are smart people, and they tend to have some thoughtful advisors. But those advisors are practical, even cynical. So it's particularly notable when cynical, win-at-all-costs strategists abandon what they previously used as a platform for scoring points on the other side. They haven't done so because they suddenly looked in the mirror and felt icky about being dishonest. Leaders in both parties have realized that the old reefer madness strategies simply don't work anymore.

AMPLIFY Artist Addition: Cas Haley

SSDP's AMPLIFY Project is proud to announce Cas Haley as our newest addition to the AMPLIFY artist family! We're excited to add an artist that has proved determination, hard work, and good vibes can take you a long way (not to mention incredible talent!). Head over to his facebook page and show him some love! Cas' story is pretty cool:

His crystalline voice and funky, easygoing beats earned Cas Haley a second-place finish on America’s Got Talent, which in turn netted him a measure of fame and a following. But the contest also locked the Texan singer/songwriter/guitarist into a major label deal that didn’t feel right. So, not wanting to be turned into a manufactured product, he struck out on his own. Connection, his Easy Star Records debut, is aptly named. It’s all about those deep-running connections that make him what he is—those unbreakable links between artist and audience, between styles of music, between art and life, and most of all, between all people. As Cas points out, reggae’s core message is, after all, "one love."

Cas is about to hit the road with AMPLIFY artists Easy Star All Stars and The Green just in time for spring. What better way to warm up after a chilly winter than signing up your SSDP chapter for some of these shows?

3/23 Mt. Snow - Mt. Snow, VT
3/31 Bourbon Quarter - Baltimore, MD
4/1 Jefferson Theatre - Charlottesville, VA
4/2 The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC
4/3 Cat’s Cradle - Carrboro, NC
4/5 The Soapbox - Wilmington, NC
4/6 The Music Farm - Charleston, SC
4/7 Freebird Live - Jacksonville, FL
4/8 Plaza Theatre - Orlando, FL (part of Florida Music Fest)
4/9 Culture Room - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
4/10 State Theatre - St. Petersburg, FL
4/12 Common Grounds - Gainesville, FL
4/13 Seville Quarters - Pensacola, FL
4/14 New Earth Music Hall - Athens, GA
4/16 World Café Live - Wilmington, DE
4/17 World Café Live - Philadelphia, PA
4/20 Highline Ballroom - New York, NY (w/ AMPLIFY artist John Brown's Body)
4/21 Castaways - Ithaca, NY
4/22 Westcott Theatre - Syracuse, NY (w/ AMPLIFY artist John Brown's Body)
4/23 The Great Hall - Toronto, ON
4/25 Cabaret Mile End - Montreal, QC
4/26 Higher Ground - Burlington, VT

War on Drugs Deemed a Failure at the International AIDS Conference

The Vienna Declaration, a document drafted by the world's leading AIDS experts, became the centerpiece of the 18th International AIDS Conference held in Vienna this week. The statement declares the War on Drugs a 50-year-old failure, and calls on governments to adopt science-based drug policies. Experts argue that that the criminalization of drug use is fueling the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

There is incontrovertible evidence that law enforcement has failed to curtail the market for illicit drugs, which is worth an estimated $320-billion (U.S.) a year, says Evan wood, founder of the International Center for Science in Drug Policy.

So, instead of merely arresting and jailing those who take illegal drugs, money should be spent on public-health efforts such as needle exchanges and methadone treatment. Removing the stigma and legal barriers will also make it easier for drug users to come forward to seek treatment for infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, as well as rehabilitative services.

“Basing drug policies on scientific evidence will not eliminate drug use or the problems stemming from drug injection,” the Vienna Declaration reads. “However, reorienting drug policies towards evidence-based approaches … would allow for the redirection of vast financial resources to where they are needed most.”

Our punitive laws are expensive and ineffective. The supply of illicit drugs in the U.S. remains constant despite $50 billion spent on the failed War on Drugs every year. The mass incarceration of drug users doesn't seem to solve drug problems either. Handcuffs certainly don't cure drug addictions. With the money wasted on the drug war, there is little room left to fund addiction treatment and prevention programs. Outside of Africa, almost a third of all HIV infections stem from drug injections. Providing users with clean needle swaps, for example, is a sensible harm reduction strategy. More "extreme" strategies, including the legalization of drugs, seem to be considered more effective at dealing with drug problems than prohibition.

Dr. Evan Wood, an AIDS policy expert at the University of British Columbia and the chief author of the Vienna Declaration, cited Portugal’s approach. According to a 2009 report by the libertarian Cato Institute, in the decade since Portugal legalized possession of up to 10 days’ worth of any drug, including cocaine and heroin, its AIDS rate dropped by half, overdose deaths fell, many citizens sought treatment, drug use among young people fell and drug tourism did not develop. The institute called the policy “a resounding success.”

Although the premises of the Vienna Declaration should be concerning, who's paying attention? Only two governments have reacted to the document. Canada rejected it while Georgia's first lady signed it at a public ceremony. Not surprisingly, almost every top American official refused to discuss the declaration. One anonymous government official said he had just called the White House for guidance and was told no one had read it yet, and there was no time to respond. Will there ever be a more urgent time to take a deeper look into the failures of the War on Drugs?

Did You Know? The War on Drugs Edition

Check out this great video from the International Centre for Science and Drug Policy. It serves as a quick yet thorough introduction to the War on Drugs. For new SSDP members, watching the video will make them aware of drug war facts. And this new awareness could spark a desire to make a difference, a sentiment common among drug policy reformers.

The video shows that our current drug policies are harmful, ineffective, and counterproductive. The War on Drugs--which set out to reduce drugs' supply and use--has done little to accomplish these goals. After forty years of prohibiting illicit drugs and incarcerating their users, these drugs are readily accessible to youth, more so than legally regulated drugs like alcohol and cigarettes. In a damning indictment of prohibition, rates of drug use have remained mostly constant over the same four decade trajectory.

Such failures evince an ineffective strategy: by creating a profitable black market for drugs, prohibition has increased drug-related violence. Americans have seen this scenario of illegal market formation and escalating violence before, with alcohol's prohibition in the 1920s. Indeed, echoing seventeenth-century Enlightenment penal reformer Cesare Beccaria, Albert Einstein made the following observation during Prohibition:

"Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."

Einstein couldn't foresee the astronomically high rates of incarceration which have followed from prohibition in the war on drugs. Nor could anyone predict the costs upon our education and health care systems, heavy burdens for society that have fallen on drug users and non-users alike. That's why the International Centre for Science and Durg Policy's work helps us understand the unintended, devastating consequences of the War on Drugs.

Legalizing Marijuana is Top Idea on Republican Voting Site

Currently on the Republican website “AmericaSpeakingOut.com”, the issue of Marijuana legalization has become the most voted on issue. In the “Open Mic” section, where web users are encouraged to “start your own debate”, Marijuana legalization stands at the top, with 1,800 votes.

In second place is…also marijuana legalization, with 1,003 votes. If you add up all of the similarly worded marijuana legalization topic votes, vs. all the non-related votes, you get 5,088 votes for marijuana legalization, and 3,097 votes for all other topics. The message is clear: people, on both sides of the aisle, want marijuana legalized. However, Washington, as always, is so far removed from the population at large, and so soaked in both rhetoric and money that you would never be able to tell from Congressional debates on/around the subject that this was the case. Frankly put, the writing is on the wall that this is what the people want, and in addition to outright opposition, you now have a sort of filibuster, or suing for time, taking place on the national level.

Whether it be the Obama administration’s claim that “legalization isn’t in our vocabulary” (see his derision here with commentary from The Young Turks), or our continued support (both direct and indirect) of devastating chemical attacks on the environment in both Mexico and Columbia.

What remains to be seen now is how the GOP will tackle this. In a surprising way, the GOP (often thought of as the more out-of-touch party on this issue), has been much more receptive to its more vocal members in the past few years. The Tea Party Takeover of the GOP has been swift and decisive, and not only are many Tea Partiers in favor of reducing or ending the War on Drugs, but today’s Republican Party is more malleable than it has been in over a decade.

If marijuana legalization takes off in the conservative blogosphere and grassroots networks, then who knows? Maybe the final push drug policy reformers have been waiting for will come from the Right.

The Drug War is Over!

In today's Washington Post:

Law enforcement officials announced criminal drug-trafficking charges Thursday against 43 people in the United States and Mexico, including suspected leaders of prominent cartels in a country that has been plagued with gun violence.

[...]

The indictments "demonstrate our unwavering commitment to root out the leaders of these criminal enterprises wherever they may be found," said U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

Awesome. All the evil doers have been defeated. No more drug abuse and no more drug trade violence now, right?

Let's call up George W. Bush and see if we can borrow his banner:


In all seriousness, this is very BAD news for the people of Mexico. All it means is that several very lucrative job openings have been created in a multi-billion dollar industry, and the job application process involves lots of bloodshed.

Trying to stop cartel violence by arresting cartel leaders is like trying to save the Titanic by punching more holes in it.

Straight From the Whitehouse: Marijuana is Dangerous

First, Seattle Hempfest congratulates him for his new title and commends him for being one of “Seattle’s finest”.

Then, he calls for an end to the “war on drugs".

And for a couple of months, he manages to remain completely silent about drugs, using the excuse that he's still finding his way around the office.

But finally, last week, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske shocks the nation during a speech in California, stating that,

Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit [The Fresno Bee]

Seriously. Even after the Obama administration promised to stop raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, Kerlikowske manages to somehow convince himself that it’s a good idea to tell hundreds of Californians that medical marijuana is bullshit. So much for the “science based approach to drug policy rather than the scorched earth policies of the previous administration” Seattle Hempfest claimed Kerlikowske so obviously respected.

If you’re as outraged as I am, please take a second to fill out this form to send an e-mail to President Obama about Kerlikowske’s statement. We can't just let such appalling and offensive lies slide unnoticed.