Hell Freezes Over: White House Drug Czar Backs Decrimin

[epilepticme]

From Jack Herer:



(Washington, D.C.) The Marijuana Policy Project today congratulated White House "drug czar" John Walters for backing a Mexican government proposal that would remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but John Walters is right," said MPP executive director Rob Kampia. "We heartily second his support for eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana users in Mexico, and look forward to working with him to end such penalties in the U.S. as well.
"
On Oct. 22, The New York Times reported Walters' public support for a drug decriminalization proposal by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, quoting Walters as saying, "I don't think that's legalization." Under Calderon's proposal, individuals caught with small quantities of marijuana would receive no jail sentence or fine and would not receive a criminal record so long as they complete either drug education or, if addicted, drug treatment. Unlike proposals supported by MPP, the Mexican president's proposal would also decriminalize possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.

"It's fantastic that John Walters has recognized the massive destruction the drug war has inflicted on Mexico and is now calling for reforms there, but he's a rank hypocrite if he continues opposing similar reforms in the U.S.," Kampia said. "The Mexican proposal is far more sweeping than MPP's proposals to decriminalize marijuana or make marijuana medically available, both of which John Walters and his henchmen rail against.
"
In a March 19, 2008, press release from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, deputy director Scott Burns called a New Hampshire proposal to impose a $200 fine rather than jail time for a small amount of marijuana "a dangerous first step toward complete drug legalization.
"
http://www. newsli. com/2008/10/27/hell-freezes-over-white-house-drug-czar-backs-decriminalization/ (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm5ld3NsaS5jb20vMjAwOC8xMC8yNy9oZW xsLWZyZWV6ZXMtb3Zlci13aGl0ZS1ob3VzZS1kcnVnLWN6YXIt YmFja3MtZGVjcmltaW5hbGl6YXRpb24v)

[flyingimam]

WHAT:eek:

is it April already?
I gotta look this up

[flyingimam]

Hit & Run > Does America's Drug Czar Support Decriminalization? - Reason Magazine (http://reason.com/blog/show/129679.html)

Does America's Drug Czar Support Decriminalization?

Jacob Sullum | October 27, 2008, 11:55am

Mexican President Felipe Calderon thinks people caught with small amounts of illegal drugs should go to "treatment" instead of jail. Under his proposal, anyone possessing up to two grams of marijuana or opium, half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, or 40 milligrams of methamphetamine would face no criminal penalties as long as he agreed to enter treatment. Otherwise, he could get up to three and a half years in prison. U.S. drug czar John Walters says he has no problem with Calderon's plan. "I don't think that's legalization," he told The New York Times last week.

Neither do I. In fact, it's a stretch even to call Calderon's proposal "decriminalization," as the Marijuana Policy Project does in a press release tweaking Walters with the headline, "Hell Freezes Over: White House Drug Czar Backs Decriminalization." It is surely an improvement if illegal drug users don't go to prison, even if the alternative is a treatment program that may be inappropriate, ineffective, or both. Yet under Calderon's plan the threat of jail still hangs over anyone who violates the government's pharmacological taboos and is not prepared to undergo re-education, which entails identifying himself as an addict, even if he isn't, and playing the role of the drug dealer's helpless victim. Walters correctly sees that such compelled affirmation of drug war dogma, which he likens to the treatment-or-jail option offered in American "drug courts," poses little threat to current policy.

Notably, a 2006 bill that Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, supported before American complaints changed his mind would have lifted criminal penalties for possessing personal-use amounts of various drugs without requiring abasement at the altar of pharmacological correctness. Shortly before Fox refused to sign the bill, a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said the Mexican government should "ensure that all persons found in possession of any quantity of illegal drugs be prosecuted or be sent into mandatory drug treatment programs." The Calderon proposal satisfies that criterion and differs little from current practice in many American jurisdictions, so it's not surprising Walters is on board.

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SEPARATE ARTICLE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/21/state/n114245D39.DTL&type=politics CLICK N READ, dated Oct 21st 2008
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raised my hopes for a sec!:(

[epilepticme]

All I can say is this came from the real Jack Herer!

[stinkyattic]

Lemme guess... the drug treatment is expensive and paid for by the person receiving treatment... PERFECT! Instead of the government paying for people to go to jail, make them pay the government to get treated for their 'addiction' to pot! :wtf: seriously, that's just GREEEEAT. I see in my crystal ball.. Halliburton is gonna get some contracts for rehab centers pretty soon...

Meaningful policy reform FAIL.

[IAmKowalski]

I am baffled by why anyone would support decriminalization rather than legalization and regulation. If you really think about it, decriminalization is a lot more radical of a move than simply legalizing it.

Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it.

Under decriminalization, it would STILL be easier for a 14 year old kid to get pot then to get beer. Why? 'cause there ain't no black market with a guy selling six packs to any kid that comes along. Hell, depending on where you live it's easier for a kid to buy Marijuana than it is for them to buy Tobacco - Why? Because we have an effectively regulated market for both Tobacco and Alcohol - but we abdicate any responsibility to regulate Marijuana, leaving it as a wild west anything goes market.

Currently (admittedly due in large part to black market prices) Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the United States. Legalization would legitimize this industry and allow the profits to be taxed the same as every other industry.

Decriminalization would lower enforcement costs, true. Decriminalization would end this silly system in which 700,000+/- people are arrested each year mostly for simple possession with the harm inflicted on them by the legal system greatly disproportionate to the imagined harm of their 'crime'. True.

But it stops so far short of actually solving the real problems of prohibition.

Sure, we need to eliminate the draconian legal penalties for Marijuana - but why the hell would we stop there? Any responsible adult should be able to walk into a licensed store and legally purchase herb - without chancing being ripped off, without chancing buying laced weed, actually knowing that the strain they are buying is the strain advertised. Oh well, just my $0.02

[IAmKowalski]

Ramen Stinky, Raaaamen :-)

[killerweed420]

Lemme guess... the drug treatment is expensive and paid for by the person receiving treatment... PERFECT! Instead of the government paying for people to go to jail, make them pay the government to get treated for their 'addiction' to pot! :wtf: seriously, that's just GREEEEAT. I see in my crystal ball.. Halliburton is gonna get some contracts for rehab centers pretty soon...

Meaningful policy reform FAIL.

Yep. Privatized prisons already(which is sick) and soon to be lots of privatized treatment facilities in your neighborhood. They already do this, they give some users a choice of admitting they are a drug addict(which there not) and go to treament centers or go directly to jail. Not much of a choice.

[IAmKowalski]

And, of course, the more people in treatment - the more (only) evidence they have that Marijuana is a horrible addictive drug - just look at all of these people in treatment for addiction - hence justification for the continued drug war.

[veggii]

[SIZE=3]From Jack Herer:



(Washington, D.C.)
[SIZE=3] Unlike proposals supported by MPP, the Mexican president's proposal would also decriminalize possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.



WTF !! omg! drugs are gonna be in the kindergardens of Mexico
they are really planning on making methamphetamine legal? Herion & coke too OMFG!!