SentLTE-Digest Tuesday, November 23 2010 Volume 10 : Number 073
001 LTE: US TX: OPED: How To Wage A Successful War On Drugs
From: Allan Erickson <>
002 LTE: Re: 'How to wage a successful war on drugs'
From: Kirk Muse <>
003 LTE: 'Young Marijuana Users Pay Cognitive Price'
From: John Chase <>
004 LTE: 'A smart way Florida can reduce prison costs'
From: John Chase <>
005 LTE: Re: 'A smart way Florida can reduce prison costs'
From: Kirk Muse <>
006 LTE: Colorado's Medical-Pot Rules: ID, Video and a Vast Paper Trail
From: John Chase <>
007 LTE: US NY: Edu: Editorial: The Prohibition of Marijuana Only Seems to
From: Allan Erickson <>
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Subj: 001 LTE: US TX: OPED: How To Wage A Successful War On Drugs
From: Allan Erickson <>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:40:45 -0800
US TX: OPED: How To Wage A Successful War On Drugs
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n953/a11.html?397
ae
http://morningdonut.blogspot.com/
- ---
To the editor-
Harmish McKenzie pokes a good hole in the myths of the drug war in his
excellent oped, How To Wage A Successful War On Drugs (Fri, Nov 19).
An additional point and a key to the War On (some) Drugs are the
falsehoods upon which it is founded. Particularly in the case of
cannabis, the "evidence" for banning most currently illegal drugs is at
best sparsely sprinkled with truth. Mostly though, it's racism and
xenophobic horror tales that comprise Prohibition II's foundation.
The ludicrous nature of the drug war is even more compellingly bizarre
when we look for the drug war's successes... hmmm... sorry, I seem to
be having trouble finding any such success to trumpet. Again pointing
to cannabis, in the eight decades it has been banned it has somehow
managed to become our nation's number one agricultural commodity. As a
cash, tax-free commodity it has no equal.
When the "Land of the Free" becomes "the Land of the Most Incarcerated"
we have erred grievously. When the results of the drug war are examined
we find a situation more racist in its present state than in its
founding - we now incarcerate young black males at a rate 7 times
greater per capita than did South Africa under their universally
condemned policy of apartheid.
Prohibition will always fail. We must re-legalize all drugs in order to
remove the cartels' grasp on the golden egg laying goose of
Prohibition.
Allan Erickson
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Subj: 002 LTE: Re: 'How to wage a successful war on drugs'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 17:16:57 -0800
To the Editor of The Austin American-Statesman:
Regarding Harmish McKenzie's thoughtful oped: "How to wage
a successful war on drugs" (11-19-10). I submit that we
should wage a war on the drug cartels the same way we waged
a war on the alcohol cartels of the 1920's: Re-legalization.
Alcohol cartels existed for one reason: alcohol prohibition. Drug
cartels exist for one reason: drug prohibition.
When we terminated alcohol prohibition, we terminated the alcohol cartels.
Isn't it about time we terminate drug prohibition for the same reasons
we terminated alcohol prohibition?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
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Subj: 003 LTE: 'Young Marijuana Users Pay Cognitive Price'
From: John Chase <>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:20:29 -0800
Editors, NY Times -
Re:YOUNG MARIJUANA USERS PAY COGNITIVE PRICE, 23 November
The reported findings of marijuana's effect on developing brains beg the
question how to keep marijuana and young people apart.
Our experience with smoking -- both tobacco and marijuana -- indicates
that the answer is to be unbiased about its effects and to let it become
boring, as we've been doing for cigarettes since 1965.
Cigarette smoking by young people is still declining, so fast that
within a year or two, fewer young people will be smoking tobacco than
marijuana. By contrast, marijuana prohibition suffers from its selective
enforcement against poor people and minorities, the blatant dishonesty
of the 1937 movie, "Reefer Madness", and the glitz of "forbidden fruit".
We should end marijuana prohibition and apply our anti-tobacco strategy
to marijuana.
John Chase
727 787 3085 day and night
727 204 6101 cel
1620 E Dorchester Dr
Palm Harbor, FL 34684
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Subj: 004 LTE: 'A smart way Florida can reduce prison costs'
From: John Chase <>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:19:38 -0800
Editors, Miami Herald -
Re: "A smart way Florida can reduce prison costs" 21 November
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/21/1934085/a-smart-way-florida-can-
Walter McNeil's plan is good as far as it goes, but there is more to do.
First, restore ex-offenders' civil rights to give them a better chance
of getting a job or professional license. Ex-offenders in most states
leave prison with their rights automatically restored. But not Florida.
Second, apply our anti-tobacco program to marijuana. It works.
Cigarette smoking among young people is coming down so fast it will soon
fly by marijuana on its way down. Marijuana smoking has barely changed
in the past 10 years. Prohibition suffers from its selective enforcement
against poor people and minorities, the crass dishonesty of the 1937
movie, "Reefer Madness", and the glitz of "forbidden fruit".
Public health and safety -- and taxpayers' funds -- would be well served
by these two steps.
John Chase
727 204 6101 cel
1620 E Dorchester Dr
Palm Harbor, FL 34684
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Subj: 005 LTE: Re: 'A smart way Florida can reduce prison costs'
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:40:04 -0800
To the Editor of The Miami Herald:
I'm writing about your thoughtful editorial: "A smart way Florida can
reduce prison costs" (11-21-10).
I have another suggestion: reserve your prison space for those who
intentionally harm others against
their will. Not felony gardeners. Not people who sell to willing
buyers unapproved products.
Re-legalize all drugs so they can be sold in licensed, regulated and
taxed businesses like they were
a hundred years ago, when the term "drug-related crime" didn't exist.
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment: http://mapinc.org/temp/31rViA6_7ixLs.html
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Subj: 006 LTE: Colorado's Medical-Pot Rules: ID, Video and a Vast Paper Trail
From: John Chase <>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:35:53 -0800
Editors, WSJ -
Re: COLORADO'S MEDICAL-POT RULES: ID, VIDEO AND A VAST PAPER TRAIL
It was a fool's errand in the 1920s to limit alcohol to 'medicinal' just
as it is today to limit cannabis to "medical".
Daniel Okrent, in his 2010 book, "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of
Prohibition" has a chapter, "The Alcohol That Got Away" about medicinal
and sacramental alcohol. He writes that he researched page after page of
doctors' prescriptions listing "debility" as the ailment being treated,
and notes that when wine was being ordered by rabbis named O'Brien and
Fitzgerald, the feds became suspicious
The solution was -- and is -- to legalize popular drugs so they can be
controlled and taxed. Otherwise, our grandchildren will look back at us
and roll their eyes, just as we look back at ours today.
John Chase
727 204 6101 cel day and night
1620 E Dorchester Dr
Palm Harbor, FL 34684
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Subj: 007 LTE: US NY: Edu: Editorial: The Prohibition of Marijuana Only Seems to Cause More Use
From: Allan Erickson <>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:55:08 -0800
US NY: Edu: Editorial: The Prohibition of Marijuana Only Seems to Cause
More Use
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n962/a04.html?397
ae
http://morningdonut.blogspot.com/
- ---
To the editor-
Sincere thanks for your editorial, The Prohibition of Marijuana Only
Seems to Cause More Use (Fri, Nov 19).
There is no policy more deleterious to our nation than the failed
fiasco of Prohibition II. Not only has this second coming of
Prohibition failed but it has also attacked and damaged the very fabric
of our society. When a government proclaims lies as truth and proceeds
to prosecute the law under the guise of such falsehoods then we are
lost, very lost indeed.
In his run for President, Mr. Obama pledged to make facts and science
the cornerstones of his policies, yet here lays drug policy reform,
ignored and abused.
One thing that California's Prop 19 did do was to raise the level of
public debate about cannabis, its legalization and its prohibition. No
longer do the cultural stereotypes of lazy stoners rule the day.
Prohibitionists are meeting their match with former police chiefs (ie,
Norm Stamper, former chief of Seattle's PD and Joseph McNamara, former
chief of San Jose's PD), top economists, Presidential candidates,
governors and top business executives putting their weight behind
re-legalizing cannabis.
I would urge the Chimes and the students at Morrisville State College
to promote discussion and vigorous public debate on the issue of
re-legalizing cannabis.
The U.S. was once known as "the Land of the Free" but Prohibition II
has made us "the Land of the Most Incarcerated." A title we should wear
in shame.
Allan Erickson
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End of SentLTE-Digest V10 #73
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