U.S. Can’t Justify Its Drug War Spending: New Reports

Graphic: Break The Matrix

​Name one government program that for 40 years has failed to achieve any of its goals, yet receives bigger and bigger budgets every year. If you said “the War on Drugs,” you’ve been paying attention.

The Obama Administration is unable to show that the billions of dollar spent in the War On Drugs have significantly affected the flow of illicit substances into the United States, according to two government reports and outside experts.

The reports specifically criticize the government’s growing use of U.S. contractors, which were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, help eradicate coca fields, and operate surveillance equipment in the battle against the expanding drug trade in Latin America over the past five years, reports Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times.

“We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that wrote one of the reports, which was released on Wednesday.

Photo: Colombia In Context

Professor Bruce Bagley, University of Miami: “I think we have wasted our money hugely”

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“I think we have wasted our money hugely,” said Bruce Bagley, an expert in U.S. anti-narcotics efforts. “The effort has had corrosive effects on every country it has touched,” said Bagley, who chairs international studies at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Florida.

Predictably, Obama Administration officials deny reports that U.S. efforts have failed to reduce drug production and smuggling in Latin America.

White House officials claim the expanding U.S. anti-drug effort occupies a “growing portion” of time for President Obama’s national security team, even though it doesn’t get many Congressional hearings or headlines.

The majority of wasted American counter-narcotics dollars are awarded to five big corporations: DynCorp, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ITT and ARINC, according to the report for the contracting oversight committee, part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Counter-narcotics contract spending increased by 32 percent over the five-year period from $482 million in 2005 to $635 million in 2009. Falls Church, Va., based DynCorp got the biggest piece of the wasted pie, a whopping $1.1 billion.

Photo: Politico

Sen. Claire McCaskill: “We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return”

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These contractors have plenty of ways to waste your tax money. They train local police and investigators in anti-drug methods, provide logistical support to intelligence collection centers, and fly airplanes and helicopters that spray herbicides to supposedly eradicate coca crops grown to produce cocaine.

The Department of Defense has wasted $6.1 billion of tax money since 2005 to help spot planes and boats headed north to the U.S. with drug payloads, as well as on surveillance and other intelligence operations.

Some of the expenses are “difficult to characterize,” according to Senate staff members, which is government-speak for “OK, you caught us wasting money again.” The Army wasted $75,000 for paintball supplies for “training exercises” in 2007, for example, and $5,000 for what the military listed as “rubber ducks.”

The “ducks” are rubber replicas of M-16 rifles that are used in training exercises, a Pentagon spokesman claimed.

Even the Defense Department described its own system for tracking these contracts as “error prone,” according to the Senate report, which also says the department doesn’t have reliable data about “how successful” its efforts have been. Go figure.

In a separate report last month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, there is the conclusion that the State Department “does not have a centralized inventory of counter-narcotics contracts” and said the department does not evaluate the overall success of its counter-narcotics program.

“It’s become increasingly clear that our efforts to rein in the narcotics trade in Latin America, especially as it relates to the government’s use of contractors, have largely failed,” Sen. McCaskill said.

The latest criticism of the United States’ War On Drugs comes just a week after a high-profile group of world leaders called the global Drug War a costly failure.

The group, which included former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and past presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, recommended that regional governments try legalizing and regulating drugs to help stop the flood of cash going to drug cartels and other organized crime groups.

James Gregory, a Pentagon spokesman, demonstrated his willingness to lie his ass off by claiming the Defense Department’s efforts against drugs “have been among the most successful and cost-effective programs” in decades.

“By any reasonable assessment, the U.S. has received ample strategic national security benefits in return for its investments in this area,” said Gregory, who seems to inhabit a particularly improbable alternate reality.

Back in the real world, the only effects most objective observers can see run along these lines: Backed by the United States, Mexico’s stepped-up Drug War has had the unintended effect of pushing drug cartels deeper into Central America, causing violence to soar in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Another effect has been the vast expansion of Orwellain surveillance technology, supposedly to combat drugs, but ever-so-useful to the authoritarian regimes in Central America (and in the United States) in suppressing dissent.

The U.S. is currently focusing on improving its efforts to intercept cellphone and Internet traffic (of “drug cartels,” yeah right) in the region, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

During a visit to El Salvador in February, William Brownfield, the head of the State Department’s anti-drug programs, opened a wiretapping center in San Salvador, as well as an office to share fingerprints and other data with U.S. law enforcement.

June 17th Marks the 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s “War on Drugs”

Photo: Cannabis Culture

President Nixon sniffs a wrapped brick of marijuana at the outset of his War On Drugs in 1970

​June 17 will mark 40 years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as “Public Enemy No. 1,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, a political consensus is emerging that the War On Drugs is a counterproductive failure.

The Drug Policy Alliance is leading advocates all across the country in marking this auspicious date with a day of action to raise awareness about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition and to call for an exit strategy from the failed War On Drugs.

“Some anniversaries provide an occasion for celebration, others a time for reflection, still others a time for action,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Forty years after President Nixon declared his war on drugs, we’re seizing upon this anniversary to prompt both reflection and action. And we’re asking everyone who harbors reservations about the war on drugs to joint us in this enterprise.

Photo: The Narco News Bulletin

Ethan Nadelmann, DPA: “We are enlisting unprecedented numbers of powerful and distinguished individuals to voice their dissent publicly”

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“The objective is to work with legislators who dare to raise the important questions, by organizing public forums and online communities where citizens can take action,” Nadelmann said. “We are enlisted unprecedented numbers of powerful and distinguished individuals to voice their dissent publicly, and organizing in cities and states to investigate new dialogues and directions in local policies.”

Fifty events will be held in 15 states, including major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans. The day of action will be highlighted by a high-profile event with elected officials in Washington, D.C.

Prominent elected officials, celebrities and VIPs, along with Nadelmann, will convene for a press conference on Thursday, June 16 at 1 p.m. at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. (555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW) to set the stage for the anniversary and day of action.

The press conference and actions come on the heels of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which released a report on June 2 calling for a major paradigm shift in how or society deals with drugs, including decriminalization and legal regulation. The report sent a jolt around the world, generating thousands of international media stories.

The commission is comprised of international dignitaries including Kofi Anna, former Secretary General of the United Nations; Richard Branson, entrepreneur, founder of the Virgin Group; and the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Switzerland. Representing the United States on the commission are George P. Shultz, Paul Volcker, and John Whitehead.

“What’s really needed is the sort of reckoning that identifies as the problem not just drug addiction but prohibition as well — and that aims to reduce the role of criminalization in drug control to the maximum extent possible while enhancing public safety and health,” Nadelmann said. “What better way to mark the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs than by breaking the taboos that have precluded frank assessment of the costs and failures of drug prohibition as well as its varied alternatives.”

Day of Action events include:

• Washington, D.C.: Leaders from African American and religious communities, including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr. Ron Daniels, will hold a forum at the National Press Club on June 17 to denounce current Drug War policies. Leaders will call for a new direction in drug policy that reduces the role of the criminal justice system and that addresses the devastating impact of drug policies on black communities.

• Chicago: Hundreds of Chicagoans will gather at the James R. Thompson Center to rally against the drug policies that have led to injustices such as the extreme racial disparities in Illinois’s prisons and jails.

• Los Angeles: Grassroots organizations and students, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Pico Youth and Family Center, Mothers United to End the War on Drugs, All Of Us Or None, Hornies Unidos and other criminal justice organizations, will stage a Day of Action to call for an end to the War On Drugs and mass incarceration. Also, the William C. Velasquez Institute will host a forum in Los Angeles with top Latino leaders to discuss the impact of the Drug War on Latino communities.

• New York City: Advocates, community leaders and elected officials will attend a forum and silent vigil at the Harlem State Office Building to highlight the impacts of the Drug War on New York communities. The event is being organized by Women On the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH).

• New Orleans: Local criminal justice organizations will commemorate the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s declaration of War On Drugs with a Second Line March that is a “funeral for the failed War On Drugs.”

To see a compilation of events around the nation, click here.

Arizona AG Worked With Anti-Marijuana Leader On Lawsuit

Photo: James King/Phoenix New Times

Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne started working on a nefarious plan to stop medical marijuana almost as soon as voters had approved it last November.

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Elected state officials busily working to defeat the will of their state’s own voters — it’s an unseemly spectacle, and it’s unfolding as we speak in Arizona. Making the entire scene even more ugly is the fact that seriously ill patients are needless suffering as a result.

Within weeks of Arizona voters approving medical marijuana in their state, the top law enforcement official in the state was devising ways to stymie the will of the people. Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne discussed a plan to launch legal action agains the state’s medical marijuana law during a January meeting with the law’s biggest opponent, it has been revealed.

Carolyn Short, who led last year’s unsuccessful campaign to stop Proposition 203, which legalized medical marijuana in Arizona, refers to the meeting in a February 16 letter [PDF] to state Department of Health Services Director Will Humble, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times:

On January 10, 2011, [former Arizona U.S. Attorney] Paul Charlton and I met with Attorney General Horne to discuss our conclusion that implementation of Prop 203 would subject you and other ADHS employees to federal prosecution for violating the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”).

AG Horne suggested that he could file a declaratory judgment action, asking a court to determine whether the implementation of Arizona’s law would subject you and other ADHS employees to the risk of federal prosecution under the CSA.

Horne and Governor Jan Brewer put that idea into action last month, filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The suit asks the court to make a “declaratory judgment” on the legality of Arizona’s new law.

State officials claimed at the time that a letter to Humble by U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke prompted them to file the lawsuit. Though both Horne and Brewer openly opposed Prop 203 before voters approved it, Horne claimed to reporters last month that he and the Governor were taking a “neutral” (yeah, right) stance on the new law.

“Short’s letter lays rest to the notion of neutrality,” Stern reports in the New Times. “And it makes Burke’s May 2 letter, which merely reiterated that marijuana was against federal law, (okay, there was some new stuff about the potential risk to property owners, landlords and financiers), appear to be little more than political cover for Horne and Brewer to launch a pre-planned attack.”

Besides mentioning Horne’s idea for a federal lawsuit, Short’s letter lays the groundwork for the theory that state employees are at risk of being federally prosecuted for simply carrying out the wishes of Arizona’s voters.

Horne and Brewer claimed last month that their lawsuit — in which they are plaintiffs attempting to defeat the will of the voters — that they’re “concerned” about state employees being prosecuted.

Yet, according to New Times, U.S. Attorney Burke never threatened state employees in his own letter, and the idea that the Obama Administration would arrest state officials in Arizona (or in Washington, where Governor Christine Gregoire used an almost identical excuse to gut a law which would have legalized dispensaries there) is simply far-fetched — as in, it has never happened, anywhere, ever.

“Brewer and Horne could have let Burke and the DEA make the first move against Arizona voters, then defended the medical marijuana law as vigorously as they’re defending the immigration laws,” Stern writes. “Instead, the governor and AG appear to be working in concert with Proposition 203′s opponents to defeat the law by any means necessary.”

Marijuana and Losing Weight?

 

Two recent events have dimmed some of the glow of marijuana, the world’s most widely consumed illegal drug. The first event is a study showing possible adverse effects of chronic marijuana use, presented at the recent annual meeting of the Society for Nuclear Medicine (SNM) in San Antonio, Texas.

According to the scientists who conducted the study, chronic use of marijuana causes a decrease in some brain receptors that bind with THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis. Using a PET scan to capture images of the brain, the study leaders found that chronic consumption of marijuana can lead to a decreased number of cannabinoid CB1 receptors specifically. These receptors play roles in pleasure, appetite, pain tolerance and other psychological and physiological functions throughout the body. The extent to which this may cause mental or physical troubles remains to be determined.

Employing PET scan imaging, the researchers examined the brains of chronic marijuana users, and found that CB1 receptor activity was reduced by as much as 20 percent. Upon cessation of marijuana use, receptor activity returned to normal, suggesting no lasting adverse effects. The study involved injection of a radioactive isotope into the bodies of chronic marijuana users, and then observing cannabinoid CB1 receptor activity via the PET imaging, which takes a nuclear image of biological activity.

The decrease of CB1 activity is known as “downregulation.” And while no specific adverse effects of this occurrence in marijuana users has been identified by researchers, there is a presumption among them that the decrease is not good.

Yet the downregulation of CB1 receptor activity may hold promise for those who are overweight. In sharp contrast to the ominous undertones of the SNM research, a tantalizing study conducted in Europe and reported in the British medical journal Lancet in 2005, showed that downregulation of the CB1 receptor in obese people can lead to a leaner body type. In that study, suppression of CB1 activity in obese subjects resulted in reduced waist size, improved blood levels of HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, and improved insulin activity and overall reduction of symptoms of metabolic syndrome. This study suggests that downregulation of CB1 activity, at least in obese people, may be a good thing. So can pot help overweight people to slim down? The jury is out on that one.

Against of all of this science chatter about the negative or positive implications of reduced CB1 activity, another force is at work that may trouble pot smokers. The Dutch cabinet is moving to restrict access to the famed marijuana café’s of the Netherlands, limiting patronage to Dutch citizens, and forbidding access to foreigners. The Dutch bureau of tourism estimates that approximately twenty percent of all travelers to the Netherlands take advantage of the “coffee shops” that sell marijuana. Tourism officials in Amsterdam are fighting the proposed change of access, decrying that such a move would damage tourism to that city.

So what are we to conclude from all the activity around marijuana? There is an adage that the difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose. It is possible that very high use of marijuana may result in negative changes in overall function of the central nervous system, though this needs to be further established. At the same time, we may possibly have in pot a weight control agent. This seems to contradict the increase in appetite that most marijuana users experience. Further investigation into this is unquestionably needed.

Vilified by opponents and championed by users, marijuana remains a highly disputed drug. Studies show that occasional or medical marijuana use is far less harmful than use of either tobacco or alcohol, both of which are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. At present, not one marijuana-related death has ever been reported. Medical applications of marijuana, for pain, appetite and glaucoma are increasingly well established. And information from the U.S. government itself shows likely benefits of marijuana for the treatment of degenerative disorders of the nervous system.

The landscape for marijuana use is fluid, highly charged, and changing rapidly. Medical marijuana laws, medical marijuana dispensaries, and various scientific studies are pushing this medicine into the medical foreground, despite hue and cry from opponents. As investigators continue to explore the complexity of this age-old remedy and its use, we will likely discover more benefits and hazards associated with this highly popular drug.

Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer In Residence. Chris advises herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a regular guest on radio and TV programs worldwide. His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Read more at www.MedicineHunter.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/08/marijuana-trouble/#ixzz1Ou87kolU

Are you a RAT? Narcotic Detectives Turn To Public

Another waste of Tax payers hard earned money…..

In hopes of cracking down on illegal outdoor marijuana growers in Santa Barbara County, Sheriff’s Narcotics detectives are turning to the public for assistance. The Narcotics Division has received a federal grant to help it fund the production and distribution of fliers encouraging the public to help law enforcement officers identify and report non-medical marijuana producers.

Last year alone, the Sheriff’s Office destroyed more than 325,000 marijuana plants with a street value of more than $900,000,000, said spokesperson Drew Sugars.

The fliers explain what signs to look for when identifying someone who may be using forest or private land to cultivate marijuana. It is the hope of the detectives that by creating the fliers, they will not only educate people about illegal marijuana operations, but also minimize the danger to citizens and reduce environmental damage that can be attributed to unlawful marijuana growth.

read more: http://www.thcfinder.com/marijuana-blog/news/2011/06/are-you-a-rat-narcotics-detectives-turn-to-public#ixzz1Ou5Sm17H

CT Senate Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession

Afer five hours of debate, on Tuesday Connecticut became the 13th state in the Union to decriminalize marijuana. The state’s House of Representatives passed new legislation and Governor Dan Malloy is expected to sign off on it.

The House voted 90 to 57 in favor of SB 1014.

According to the new rules first-time offenders caught in possession of less than a half-ounce of pot will be hit with a 150 ticket; repeat offenders would get at least $200 but a maximum of 500 per offense. If you’re under 21, you’ll get a two-month suspension of your driver’s license.

“Final approval of this legislation accepts the reality that the current law does more harm than good — both in the impact it has on people’s lives and the burden it places on police, prosecutors and probation officers of the criminal justice system,” Malloy said in the statement.

State Sen. Toni Boucher (R-Wilton) in a statement on her website said that decriminalization sends the wrong message to the state’s youth about the risks of marijuana use.

“What kind of message does this send to our children?” Senator Boucher said in the statement. “This law undermines a fundamental lesson that our schools, social service programs and parents teach our children: that taking drugs is bad for you.”

Connecticut’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis however estimates the bill will save the state nearly $1 million in court costs and attorney salaries and net upwards of $1.4 million in new fines and fees.

read more: http://www.thcfinder.com/marijuana-blog/legalization/2011/06/ct-senate-decriminalizes-marijuana-possession#ixzz1Ou3YnfIL

R.I. State Police Want Medical Marijuana Grower Information

Photo: Ocean State Cannabis

​The new colonel of the Rhode Island state police wants state health officials to provide law enforcement with information about medical marijuana caregivers if they are targets of criminal investigations.

Col. Steven G. O’Donnell told The Associated Press that being able to verify whether an individual is authorized to grow cannabis at home would prevent unnecessary police search warrants and raids.

O’Donnell claimed it would save money on investigations and protect participants in the state’s medical marijuana program.

Regulations prohibit the Rhode Island Department of Health from publicly disclosing who is authorized to grow medical marijuana, or to use it to treat illness.

Medical marijuana patient advocates said they are not ruling out the involvement of law enforcement, but they want medical information to be kept private.

Medical marijuana is currently grown privately in Rhode Island. Governor Lincoln Chafee put plans for state-licensed dispensaries on hold after receiving a letter from the U.S. Attorney for the state that threatened to prosecute dispensary operators and landlords.