I run the world's largest on-line library of drug policy -- the one that people often go to for the "crumbs" (as Clancy calls them) to support their arguments in favour of reform. All the research tells the same essential story -- that the marijuana laws were based on racism, ignorance and the most laughable kind of nonsense, and that they should have been repealed long ago because they do more harm than good. If Clancy knows of any serious research which supports his opinion, I would dearly love to hear about it. But I have been asking people like him for the last 10 years and nobody has come up with even one such study yet. Clifford A. Schaffer (As Clancy predicted, the Internet activists weigh in.) [end]
Like so many others, John A. Benson Jr. and Stanley J. Watson Jr. act as if the medical marijuana issue is some collegial, academic discussion (May 4). Like so many others, they leave out one significant fact -- sick people are being jailed and their property seized because they tried to relieve their own suffering. It is amazing to me that, with all the research they did, they never once considered the health effects of jailing sick people. In all their research, did these good doctors come across any other instance in which we would jail sick people because they chose a medicine other than what the doctor prescribed? [continues 55 words]
There you will find a collection of the major studies of drug policy over the last 100 years, including the largest studies ever conducted by the governments of the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia. You will also find historical documents covering the history of the drug laws from their inception. If you are new to the online library, I recommend you start with The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs, which you will find under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. It is probably the best book ever written on the subject. [continues 224 words]
Clifford A. Schaffer Canyon Country [end]
To help you understand the point you missed, let's try another analogy. Let's suppose that these people were growing their own tobacco and rolling their own cigars, because they thought they made them feel better. We all know, of course, that tobacco has no significant beneficial medical effects and, in fact is pretty bad for their health. Should we jail them and seize their property to persuade them to stop smoking homegrown cigars? Smoking cigars is certainly harmful, but the effects of jailing sick people and seizing their property is even worse. The real point is this - whatever you believe about the medical properties of marijuana - jailing sick people for using it does more damage than the drug itself. We should not be inflicting greater harm than the problem we are trying to solve. And, I would recomend that you read Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer. You need to catch up with the research on these issues. Cliff Schaffer Canyon Country, Calif. [end]
RE: "Silverberg's crusade," (Aug. 24): So now the police chief has decided it is time to get tough on organized crime before it is too late. Drugs, of course, are the first priority because that is the big money engine which gives gangs all their power. Tell me, chief: Does the name Al Capone ring a bell? Have we ever seen this situation before? Clifford A. Schaffer (What are you driving at?) - --- Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson [end]
I can see that Joseph Filko has taught political science and, therefore, must be a scholar of drug policy, civil liberties and related issues. I would like to pose two simple questions to Mr. Filko: One: How would you explain the fact that even the people who wrote the original federal drug prohibition laws (the Harrison Tax Act and the Marijuana Tax Act) agreed that the federal government was constitutionally prohibited from enacting any law to prohibit the personal use of drugs? [continues 166 words]
Does anyone really believe that busting that guy will make any significant difference in the local heroin market (in New Bedford)? Is this really the end of the heroin-selling motor scooter gangs? Or is it just another minor bust of one more minor character which won't make a nickel's difference in the local heroin market? Clifford A. Schaffer Director, DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy Canyon Country, CA http://www.druglibrary.org/ [end]
Strangely enough, the U.S. police take the same attitude as the RCMP. They seem to believe bigger and bigger busts indicate they are winning the war on drugs. The one thing they fail to mention is it never seems to have any real effect on the marijuana market. Clifford A. Schaffer, Canyon Country, Calif. (Twenty tons? No effect? Come on.) [end]
What he fails to mention is that the US tried banning alcohol, and it was a disaster. Prohibition failed to produce any long-term reductions in alcohol use and created new problems of its own. One such problem was a massive increase in the use of alcohol by children. During Prohibition, school officials reported that they were unable to hold school dances and other events because it had become fashionable for all the male students to show up with a hip flask of whisky. They even had to close some schools for a while because so many kids were coming to school drunk. [continues 127 words]
Mark Woodward, public information officer for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics And Dangerous Drugs Control (''Your Views,'' Feb. 24) missed the point in his letter about drugs. First, drug laws were never about public health. That much is demonstrated by the simple fact that two legal drugs -- alcohol and tobacco -- kill more people every year than all the people killed by all the illegal drugs in the last century. The largest studies ever conducted by the governments of the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia tell us that our drug policy is a mistake and should be abandoned. [continues 76 words]
Dear eye, Re: Alan McDonald's "Stoner Walled," Not the Editorial Page, Nov. 20. Alan McDonald says that if diabetics didn't get insulin, they would all be dead and says, therefore, that the comparison between insulin and marijuana as medicines is not appropriate. McDonald should be aware that, for many people, the situation is precisely the same with marijuana. Many of the people who use marijuana medicinally credit it with saving their lives. One example is its use with AIDS wasting syndrome which kills people through lack of nutrition. Marijuana enables many of the people with AIDS wasting syndrome to eat which, quite literally, saves their lives. Clifford A. Schaffer, Canyon Country, Calif. [end]
ANTI-MARlJUANA laws are nothing less than Iunacy. The original reason that marijuana was outlawed was because:"All Mexicans are crazy and marijuana is 'what makes them crazy.'" The laws were first passed in the United States because of racism they were legal tool to punish racial minorities. Throughout the history of these 1aws, the reasons have never made any more sense than that. The marijuana laws ought to be repealed for the simplest of reasons - they aere complete lunacy and an outright fraud from the very beginning. [continues 59 words]
