Dear Editor: White House officials have said President Barack Obama has chosen as his drug czar the police chief of Seattle, a city with enlightened policies on drug law enforcement. Gil Kerlikowske did not originate those policies, but he has maintained them and seen their benefits during his nine years as chief. He should be an effective advocate for Obama's own less punitive positions. After his Senate confirmation, Kerlikowske should get to work putting flesh on Obama's campaign promise to "focus more on a public health approach" to drug abuse. Step one would be to get Congress to lift the ban on federal spending for needle-exchange programs, a proven method of limiting the spread of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. Candidate Obama said he favored lifting the ban. [continues 125 words]
Drug Policy Forum of Stillwater is actively pursuing legislation to allow for the use of marijuana for debilitating illnesses such as chronic pain, muscle spasticity, nausea, wasting syndrome, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. In 11 states, doctors and patients decide if marijuana is the best medicine. Unfortunately in Oklahoma, citizens who need marijuana are treated like common criminals. They are locked up in our very overcrowded prisons and then we have to pay for their medical care. Our law provides no defense based on a medical necessity, even when a person cannot afford drug store medicines. [continues 111 words]
Tara Roberson's article Nov. 23 about a Stillwater policeman who killed a Logan County man in the cause of marijuana prohibition is again sickening proof that the war on drugs is worse than use of any drug, legal or illegal. According to the article, the SWAT team left with one and one-half pounds of marijuana in exchange for one human life. We fail to see that these raids constitute an expensive, hypocritical enforcement of marijuana prohibition. They are paid for with taxes that could well be spent on something better. [continues 116 words]
There is nothing more full of stress and anxiety than being poor. Nothing contributes to fear of facing the world and coping with life more than abject poverty. Poverty creates "social addicts." Oklahoma is famous for the home manufacture of "bathtub meth " in which poisons are concocted into a deadly product for sale to the poor and depressed. Meth is the counterpart of the "bathtub gin" of the '20s and '30s . Both are products of the deadly combination of prohibition and poverty. But the poison works to release a shower of neurotransmitters in the brain causing transient euphoria followed by depression in a downward spiral to addiction and death. [continues 101 words]
Jack Cole, retired officer, executive director, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, spoke at the June 11 meeting of the Drug Policy Forum of Oklahoma in Stillwater. "We're the richest nation in the world and we've decided to spend $69 billion per year to destroy rather than save lives." No local law enforcement nor reporters attended. They will have another chance when Roger Hudlin, a police officer from Wichita, will travel to Stillwater to speak to the DPFOK this fall - one in a series of dynamic presentations from officers with the courage to speak out against the War on Drugs/Drug Prohibition. [continues 107 words]
Under prohibition, drugs are controlled by the law of the jungle in which some of the worst criminals on the face of the earth rule supreme. The International Antiprohibition League plans on replacing that violent chaos with a more rational and peaceful system of law, education, and treatment. It thus seeks to replace the law of the jungle with the rule of law. To accomplish these important goals, the IAL has launched an ever-expanding international campaign utilizing a wide variety of nonviolent strategies consistent with the ethos and methods of the Transnational Radical Party, with which it is affiliated. [continues 90 words]
The laws prohibiting marijuana possession in Canada continue to crumble. Last week, an Ontario judge declared unconstitutional Ottawa's scheme to allow the use of pot for medical reasons, according to a Canadian Press report. It's not fair to allow people to smoke medicinal marijuana then force them to get the drug from the corner drug dealer, which is what the scheme effectively does, said Superior Court Justice Sidney Lederman. "Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been authorized to take violate the constitutional right to security of the person," Lederman wrote in a 40-page ruling. "I have grave reservations about a regime which grants legal access by relying on drug dealers to supply and distribute the required medicine." [continues 55 words]
I disagree with Officer David Duncan who claims in his letter to the NewsPress (Oct. 14) that Rob Hudson's refusal to speak to the Drug Policy Forum was a "sound decision." Duncan states that Hudson sent a letter declining the letter of invitation to speak. That is not the case. I called the DA's office several times to finally receive an oral declination from a secretary. I never received a letter from Hudson. For me, the clear difference is that Holcombe is willing to communicate, Hudson is not. Holcombe is open-minded, Hudson is not. [continues 123 words]
