xxdr_zombiexx

'A phony 'drug war' war defeats free speech'
St. Petersburg Times | 2.22.2004

By Robyn E. Blumner

The beauty of Jefferson's marketplace of ideas is that it opens our society to all voices and all arguments, presuming the most persuasive will rise to the top.

But those who promote the War on Drugs find this a dangerous concept. Drug reform makes too much sense and in recent years has been too compelling to voters. Already, seven states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana through voter initiatives (and two more states through legislation) and a recent Gallup poll shows that 74 percent of Americans are on that side of the issue.

To combat this outbreak of common sense, the drug warriors have fought back with antidemocratic and repressive methods.

In the mid-1990s, the Cato Institute had its tax-exempt status threatened by a New York Republican congressman incensed over the think tank's sponsorship of a program on the failed drug war.

A few years later, former Republican congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr, successfully pushed an amendment to prevent Washington, D.C., from counting the votes on its medical marijuana initiative. The American Civil Liberties Union overturned the bar in federal court; and when the votes were finally tallied, the initiative passed with 69 percent approval.

Barry McCaffrey, as drug czar under President Clinton, had to be sued after he threatened doctors in California with the revocation of their prescription-writing privileges if they recommended marijuana to patients. The Bush administration continued the policy. But it was set aside by a federal appellate court that said the threats violated the free speech rights of doctors and patients.

And now Congress has just approved a law blatantly censoring pro-drug reform messages.

It was the brainchild of Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., the religious right's water carrier who, as chairman of the District of Columbia Subcommittee, blocked city ordinances with which he disagreed such as those authorizing publicly funded abortions and needle-exchange programs. Late last year, Istook added an amendment to the omnibus spending bill that cuts off $3.1-billion in federal funds from transit authorities nationwide if they accept ads for their bus, train or subway systems promoting the reform of drug laws. Large transit systems in big cities could forfeit tens of millions of dollars if they don't comply. San Francisco has at least $100-million at risk, New York at least $75-million and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority $85-million.

So once again those who favor a less militant approach to the nation's drug war - and only want the freedom to make their case to the public - have been forced to trot back to federal court to secure their First Amendment rights.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Drug Policy Alliance, among other groups, filed suit against U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and the Washington Metro, after the D.C. transit system refused to accept a paid ad by the groups that proclaimed: "Marijuana Laws Waste Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Lock Up Non-Violent Americans." The suit asks that the Istook amendment be found unconstitutional and that the court rule that no funds shall be withheld from transit systems that accept drug reform ads.

The case should be a legal slam dunk. If free speech means anything in this country it is that a drug reform ad should be permitted to occupy the same bit of public space as an antiabortion ad or a gun control appeal. "Congress keeps forgetting that there is no drug exception to the Constitution," says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

And get this: While drug reformers are being gagged by Congress, the same spending bill provides $145-million for communicating the opposite message. That whopping sum, funded by taxpayers, is to be used to buy ads promoting the drug war, with a special emphasis on demonizing marijuana.

What is really going on here? Nadelmann theorizes that for people like Istook, Attorney General John Ashcroft and drug czar John Walters, the war on drugs is less about crack and heroin than it is about marijuana. "It's about the culture clash," Nadelmann says, "It's about continuing ways to wage war against the '60s and '70s."

As Ashcroft continues to send DEA agents into California to raid legal medical marijuana dispensaries and Walters uses the public weal to campaign against drug reform initiatives on state and local ballots, it is clear that Nadelmann is right. This is not about upholding the law, but fighting a movement. The drug warriors are fiercely antagonistic toward the shift in public opinion on medical marijuana and other drug reforms; and their authoritarian impulse is to shut down the free marketplace of ideas.

Apparently, the competition is getting to be a bit too stiff.

© Copyright 2002-2004 St. Petersburg Times.

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Torture Good, Healthcare Bad, Marijuana Evil.

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Suetaz

Ain't that the truth! Well said, all of it. Great article. Thanks Doc, that made me smile. The more articles I read like this, the more encouraged I am to fight.

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Higher Self

Thank All-That-Is the courts have kept these tyrannical, 'christianese' speaking maniamls somewhat at bay from completely shreading free speech and the sharing of ideas.

There's nothing more scary than the folks in power deciding they know what's best for everyone else.

Know your heritage, appreciate what our founding fathers attempted to create, and never allow the govenrment to undermine the freedoms that are yours by right. All men were created equal, and are endowed with certain unalienable rights... Some folks have forgotten these things.

Why not create a Federal Initiative process where the people institute change through a real democratic process that is a true reflection of the will of the people, not by self serving politicians who serve special interest, that are not yours.

GrooveGuardian

Very Intelligent article, spread the word. Marijuana legilizeation is inevitable, the people need to spread the word if we want change now though.

THE_ODA

At least they admit it's really a war against a culture they don't agree with. It's not the Marijuana, they know it's harmless.

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A Piper in the Town

WNB

Great article.

I think one hundred years from now, people are going to look back on the Drug War as one of the most insane policies ever sponsored by the US government.

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War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

xxdr_zombiexx

But they wont come out and say this. This is why I hammer on the GOP angle all the time.

They have set out to demonize anyone who contradicts them. Look at what they have done in the last 20 years turning "liberal" into a dirty word, like "n_____".

It's just ugly.

Marijuana is such a threat to oil pricing and pharmacy profiteering - their main contirbuters - that they have to suppress it to keep profits up.
Otherwise, lots of people can grow a renemable resource.

Imagine if people had their own oil well. Same differnce. The GOP would be all about land theft and would craft laws telling people they cant touch the oil on their own property so BP and Standard can make gargantuan profits.

it's not about concern for the children at all, as evidenced by the Assistant Principal story - setting up a youth to have his life ruined, to be framed by a baggie of weed. Thats evil, my friends.

Starting viciously with Nixon, the GOP war on drugs was also a war on Hippies and "the counter culture" Nixon is on tape saying he wont let the "hippies" win. Reagan and King George the First re-escalated the war.

Clinton - the best Republican President ever, just stood and watched while 5 million lives were ruined, and he appointed Barry McCaffery - architect of the Highway of Death in Gulf War I - as Drug Czar, and that man definately was not voting for social programs.

The Cheney Administration HATES marijauan and marijuana activists.
Hell, the GOP STILL calls anti-war protestors "hippies". And you can see from John Asscough's jihad, he hates hippies, freedom, protests, freedom of speech, and so forth.

xxdr_zombiexx

Like SEGREGATION

BloodNOil

MY representative (Dianna DeGette) voted against the bill.

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It's like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain!!

teufelfisch

I agree, wholeheartedly. It may be a war on drugs to uninformed people whom still buy the Reagan propaganda. To those of us whom understand that marijuana is harmless, it's a war against those who have the courage to dream.

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