In my last post I referenced an article by Rick Steves and so far it has sparked 93 comments, some of them very interesting. The last one appeared under the name Arcfault and my purpose here is to make my response more public.

Arcfault wrote: ”As you say,"There are too many negatives with marijuana," well, there are FAR MORE negatives with NOT supporting its legalization.

I doubt that.

I have smoked marijuana and I have felt the negative effects. The severely impaired brain function for hours, much like alcohol. The big negative I see that is blindingly clear, alcohol can be tested and verified in the field with a breathalyzer. As far as I'm aware, marijuana cannot.

I have worked around pot smokers, something which I refuse to do now. They are a danger to me in my profession; they put my life at risk just so they can have their"high".

I also who have friends that are addicted to pot, socially addicted mind you. They cannot even talk to people without being high. They are so hooked on the high that without it they can't function. Sounds remarkably like an alcoholic.

So no, you have me pinned wrong. I have been on your side and I have experienced pot first hand. Frankly I see no reason to legalize it beyond medicinal purposes.

My Response: Arcfault, you had a bad experience with pot so I suggest that you do not use it anymore. But, literally millions of people have had very good experiences with it. Why should you get to decide the true nature of marijuana for every one? You say it is a hazard on the job and if this is correct I have no problem with your employer firing anyone who works while high. However, for 99% of all work place situations the statement that being stoned while there constitutes a danger simply is not true.

You talk about socially inept friends but I know people who use marijuana who are bright, energetic, articulate, and successful. In fact there are whole websites devoted to famous achieving people who use marijuana such as Louis Armstrong.

You know something, Arcfault; I do not like your girlfriend. I think she is bad for you. You spend too much time with her. She is too good a cook and you will gain weight causing lethal medical problems down the line. She is too flirtatious which means that she will cheat on you in the future leading to substantial heartache. You will lose a great deal of sleep over this making you a hazard to your co-workers. I am ordering you to break up with her. If you do not stop seeing her by the end of this week I will send the police to your door and they will throw you in prison. It is for your own good and I do not care what you yourself think of her.

Robert A. Levy, co-counsel to litigant Dick Heller in the 2nd Amendment case currently before the Supreme Court concerning the handgun ban in the District of Columbia, discusses the stakes in The Washington Times. He concludes by saying that, ”at root, the Heller case is simple. It's about self-defense: Individuals living in a dangerous community who want to protect themselves in their own homes when necessary. The Second Amendment to the Constitution was intended to safeguard that right. Banning handguns outright is quite plainly unconstitutional.”

The Showtime cable network is now showing a powerful documentary titled American Drug War: The Last White Hope. It includes some especially insightful comments from Judge James Gray and former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson.

When asked in an interview about motivation for making the film auteur Kevin Booth replied, “when my mom was dying from liver failure, she was in an ICU unit with several others facing the same fate, all from a life of hard drinking. I was hit with this horrible smell that sickened me so deeply that I instantly lost my appetite for alcohol. After attending my third funeral in a row, I realized that the corporate culprits, Smirnoff, Dewar's, RJ Reynolds, DuPont and others, would never be punished.” You can view the entire film here.

Cross posted on The Trebach Report

The Associated Press is reporting that for the first time in history more than one out of every one hundred American adults is in prison, 2,319,258 people overall. This of course is causing enormous expense with just the states spending more than $49 billion last year. Also, there is a racial component with one in thirty white males between the ages of 20 and 34 years old being behind bars, while the numbers for black males of the same age group is one in nine.

Cross posted on The Trebach Report

The Drug War Chronicle is reporting that American College of Physicians has endorsed the use of medical marijuana. The nation’s second largest doctor’s group, with 124,000 internal medicine specialists, wants more studies of medical use for cannabis and an end to government interference in that process.

In their position paper they state that, “additional research is needed to clarify marijuana’s therapeutic properties and determine standard and optimal doses and routes of delivery. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana, and the debate over legalization. Marijuana’s categorization as a Schedule I controlled substance raises significant concerns for researchers, physicians, and patients.”

One person who would have been delighted and vindicated by the above news was Dr. John Morgan, who ironically passed away on the same day that the physicians issued their statement. In a farewell to the good doctor piece posted on the Reason website Jacob Sullum tells an anecdote which illustrates just how much the drug reform movement specifically and the world in general has lost. After a conference panel in December during which Sullum had with some trepidation talked about the taboo subject of controlled use of amphetamines Dr. Morgan told him that, ” he agreed that concern about the ‘methamphetamine epidemic’ had made it difficult to talk about the drug's legitimate uses, which do not necessarily require a doctor's prescription to validate them. He said he had personally found methamphetamine tremendously useful during his education and career, calling it one of the safest drugs around when used responsibly. Coming from most people in most contexts, this would have been a startling admission. But coming from the eminently reasonable Morgan and delivered in his usual matter-of-fact tone, it cut through the hysteria and introduced a much-needed alternative perspective. Morgan made a career of doing that, and his well-informed skepticism will be sorely missed.”

Cross posted on The Trebach Report

Another courageous pioneer in the drug reform movement, Dr. John Morgan, has passed away. He died from leukemia on February 15th.

He was a tireless advocate of scientific rationalism when it came to the study of and policy towards marijuana. This approach produced an invaluable resource, the book Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts which he co-wrote with Lynne Zimmer and published in 1997. It remains the most reliable source of scientifically accurate information on marijuana yet written.

While he did not claim marijuana to be 100 percent harmless, he did argue that the evidence showed cannabis to be one of the most benign psychoactive drugs known to man. However, when he pushed for the legalization of marijuana he made it clear that it was not because the drug was largely safe but rather because there were some hazards that prohibition was ill advised. Morgan believed that a regime of regulation and control offered the best way minimize these dangers.

Dr. Morgan offered us a much needed rational, humane, courageous, authoritative voice and he will be missed.

Cross posted on The Trebach Report

Columnist Steve Chapman has a perceptive article in The Washington Times commenting on Barak Obama’s seeming inability to make up his mind on the subject of marijuana decriminalization. Chapman asserts that this, “episode reveals that as a candidate, Mr. Obama is more fond of bold rhetoric than bold policies. But it also proves the impossibility of talking sense on the subject of illicit drugs during a political campaign. That course of action would mean admitting the inadmissible: that the prohibition of cannabis has been cruel, wasteful and fraudulent.”

Cross posted on The Trebach Report

Ilana Mercer offers an eloquent and passionate defense of Ron Paul from the attacks by some libertarians with special attention paid to Reason magazine. She correctly points out that virtually all of them have never had to live in a situation where they had no fundamental rights. Mercer ends her essay by asserting that, ”Paul's vision is as close to The Good Life as we could hope to come in the current ideological climate. Only tinny ideologues encased in worthless ideological armor – worthless because it exists in the arid arena of their minds, not on earth – would turn their noses up at the prospect of Paul.”

Here is an important voice discussing the election that is not being heard anywhere near as much as it should be.