The election of Barack Obama not only gave the United States its first African-American president but also its first openly admitting, former pot smoker. Yes, Obama, on many occasions and in humorous ways confessed to his past experimentation with marijuana. In 2004 he spoke out in favor of marijuana decriminalization. During his primary bid, Obama spoke out in favor of drug policy reform and medical marijuana usage, but as he inched closer to the presidency his tune changed. No longer did he mention the word "decriminalization," though at least he continued to support the rights of the sick to be prescribed marijuana by their doctors. Now that he is about to obtain the powers of the presidency, and is assembling his team, our compassionate leader is rumored to be buckling under DC pressure to nominate Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad as his new Drug Czar. Ramstad is a former alchoholic; however, his compassion for the addicted does not move beyond those zombified on state-sanctioned drugs, and his stance on marijuana is just as dangerous.

[/excerpt]

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. His definition fits America’s war on drugs, a multi-billion dollar, four-decade exercise in futility.

The war on drugs has helped turn the United States into the country with the world’s largest prison population. (Noteworthy statistic: The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population and around 25 percent of the world’s prisoners). Keen demand for illicit drugs in America, the world’s biggest market, helped spawn global criminal enterprises that use extreme violence in the pursuit of equally extreme profits.

Over the years, the war on drugs has spurred repeated calls from social scientists and economists (including three Nobel prize winners) to seriously rethink a strategy that ignores the laws of supply and demand.   
...

Enter Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization started in 2002 by police officers, judges, narcotics agents, prison wardens and others with first-hand experience of implementing policies that echo the prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition, now widely regarded a dismal and costly failure of social engineering, came to an end 75 years ago this week.

[/excerpt]

Once again, voters have rejected the Bush doctrine on drugs. They’ve rejected the lies put forward by drug warriors and law enforcement, and demonstrated — overwhelmingly — that truth, compassion, and first-hand experience are more persuasive than the deception and scare tactics of those who would take away our freedoms and confine us in cages.

In short, it is the cannabis community, not the Drug Czar, that is shaping America’s marijuana policy, and tonight we go to bed knowing that millions of Americans will wake up tomorrow with a better, brighter, and more tolerant future than they had today.
[/Excerpt]

As mayor of Wasilla in 2000, Palin championed a city council resolution opposing a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana for adults. Last March her administration asked the Alaska Supreme Court to reverse its 1975 decision shielding private marijuana use, arguing that the drug is more dangerous than it used to be.

In other words, Palin got to smoke pot without worrying about legal consequences and now wants to deny that assurance to fellow Alaskans doing exactly the same thing. "Palin doesn't support legalizing marijuana," the Anchorage Daily News reported in 2006, because she worries about "the message it would send to her four kids."
[/excerpt]

"We have to move beyond the concept of getting high and seek to become more mature human beings. " [Bill Richards] 

"I had the theological, philosophical, and clinical psychology background, and I had worked with the drugs in Germany," he says. "We did 10 years of psychedelic research in Baltimore, with grants from NIMH [National Institute of Mental Health]."

The team had been having marked success in treating alcoholism and neuroses with LSD and other psychedelics (in fact, the man who founded Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson, praised LSD's spiritual uses and wanted to distribute it as a supplement to AA meetings). But then an intriguing new avenue of research came about by sheer circumstance when a member of the research department came down with terminal cancer. "Since there were such promising results with alcoholics and neurotics, we wondered if it would be helpful for her," Richards says. "She was open to it."
....
Rick Doblin, the founder and president of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit organization devoted to advancing the study of psychedelics, is excited by the renaissance in research: "With psychedelic psychotherapy research at Harvard Medical School and spirituality/mysticism research at Johns Hopkins and the University of Zurich, we've re-entered the scientific mainstream," he says. "Our primary consideration now needs to be to pace the growth of research and our public education efforts so that we can build public support without triggering a backlash. Considering the dire need for healing and for global spirituality, this is a challenge that we should and must be able to meet."

--------

p.s. - my friend Troy works for MAPS (linked above).

University of California, Santa Barbara: Bong Rips Cure Cancer?

Not only cancer, but also MRSA. Yes, we've figured this out, now let's stop wasting DEA money on raids of (what should be) LEGAL MEDICINE!

The war on drugs

Three in four likely voters (76%) believe the U.S. war on drugs is failing, a sentiment that cuts across the political spectrum – including the vast majority of Democrats (86%), political independents (81%), and most Republicans (61%). There is also a strong belief that the anti-drug effort is failing among those who intend to vote for Barack Obama (89%) for president, as well as most supporters of John McCain (61%).

When asked what they believe is the single best way to combat international drug trafficking and illicit use, 27% of likely voters said legalizing some drugs would be the best approach -- 34% of Obama supporters and 20% of McCain backers agreed.

• One in four likely voters (25%) believe stopping the drugs at the border is the best tactic to battle drugs -- 39% of McCain supporters, but just 12% of Obama backers agree.
• Overall, 19% of likely voters said reducing demand through treatment and education should be the top focus of the war on drugs.
• 13% believe that the best way to fight the war on drugs is to prevent production of narcotics in the country of origin.

Considering Judge Roberts was a controversial pick to the White House, and holds controversial views about gun control and abortion, he managed to make the right decision here in favor of a non-Christian religious freedom issue:

For those of you following the Berwyn raid on the mayor's house where two dogs were shot and killed by excessive force, please see the latest from boingboing.net.

My good friend Tom Angell, now working with 'Law Enforcement Against Prohibition', contributed.

Article:
DC-area mayor whose dogs were shot dead in botched drug raid to speak out