Drug legalization thread

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FRINGE: May 23, 2003; title stolen for lf posting

Is this still about why drugs should be legal and police dis-empowered vis-a-vis the drug war?

http://www.alternet.org/unarmed-marijuana-dealer-shot-face-cop-who-wont-face-charges

quote:

Unarmed Marijuana Dealer Shot in Face by Cop Who Won't Face Charges

...

Police did not knock. Instead, they used a battering ram to bust down the door, sending multiple heavily armed troopers into the house.

Friends who were inside the home explained that police fired their weapons without hesitation. They described how it was blatantly obvious that Cruice was unarmed, as he was wearing basketball shorts and no shirt.

Cruice was shot in his face and died on scene.

The friends were also quick to point out that there were no weapons. In fact, a police search of the property revealed that there were no weapons at all.

...

After the grand jury had decided not to indict this killer cop, Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson released a statement attempting to justify the fact that they knocked down the door of a good person and shot him in the face.

�Law enforcement officers have a tremendous responsibility as well as a dangerous job that sometimes requires them to make split-second, life-and-death decisions. That Derek Cruice was unarmed makes the outcome of this incident truly tragic. But it in no way alters the facts and circumstances that caused Investigator Raible and the other deputies in that fateful moment to perceive that their lives were in danger.�

# ? Oct 24, 2015 20:26

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 17:20

TapTheForwardAssist: Apr 9, 2007; Pretty Little Lyres

Really good news in Maine: the two competing marijuana legalization campaigns gave in and joined forces rather than continue to fight each other. So now their support and finances are united behind one single ballot measure, and they've got until February to finish collecting signatures (they have 40k out of 60k) for the 2016 ballot: https://bangordailynews.com/2015/10/26/politics/maine-marijuana-legalization-groups-agree-to-work-together/

Maine polling is kinda patchy but broadly suggests a majority in favor, and they're doing the vote during a presidential election year, in a year where legalization and its inevitability are going to be all over the news. I'm no Maineologist, but I like their chances now that they eliminated the internal rivalry that was the immediate threat to legalization.

The city of Lewiston is also voting this November on whether to legalize cannabis municipally, which two other Maine cities have done.

In other news, the Flandrea Sioux tribe in South Dakota is still pressing forward with legal ganja on their rez, but running into all kinds of arguments with SD authorities about who can enforce what. Apparently SD law allows you to be charged with misdemeanor possession if you have cannabis *metabolites* in your blood, even weeks after use. This could get interesting and potentially hilarious: http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2015/10/26/tribal-marijuana-legal-minefield/74636116/

# ? Oct 27, 2015 14:07

showbiz_liz: Jun 2, 2008

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

Apparently SD law allows you to be charged with misdemeanor possession if you have cannabis *metabolites* in your blood, even weeks after use.

loving christ. Do they think people are going around selling their weedblood to vampire stoners?

# ? Oct 29, 2015 17:50

Count Roland: Oct 6, 2013

This might be too obscure for the thread, but I'm not sure where else to ask:

Anyone here know anything about supercritical CO2 extraction in Canada? Its a method to make high purity oils. Its popular in the US but I don't know if its available in Canada yet, and if it is I don't know how people do it (buy machines, make it themselves, etc).

# ? Oct 29, 2015 18:04

Huzanko: Aug 4, 2015; by FactsAreUseless

http://marijuanapolitics.com/shame-on-drug-reformers-silence-on-2015-marijuana-legalization-in-ohio/

http://marijuanapolitics.com/shame-on-drug-reformers-silence-on-2015-marijuana-legalization-in-ohio/ posted:

Shame on Drug Reformers� Silence on 2015 Marijuana Legalization In Ohio

Russ Belville | October 12, 2015 12:00 pm

The Silence of the Lambs

You wouldn�t know it by reading the news or by viewing the webpages of major marijuana reform and medical marijuana groups, and if you did, some would offer no endorsement. But tomorrow, we are just three weeks away from residents of Ohio voting whether marijuana shall be legal for all adults to possess, use, cultivate, and process.

The Buckeye State might be legalizing both adult use and medical marijuana, in 2015 no less, a year before California might and easily five years before anyone would�ve predicted even talking about it. Why isn�t every drug law reform group making their get-out-the-vote push and shouting it from the rooftops?

After all, just three years ago the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) gave full-throated endorsements of Washington�s I-502. Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) funded most of I-502. That imperfect marijuana legalization initiative retained possession felonies at over 40 grams, retained criminal penalties for personal cultivation, and instituted a junk-science 5-nanogram per se DUID limit that all three groups vehemently oppose.

This week in 2012, NORML�s webpage featured an above-the-fold slide highlighting the former law enforcement officials who appeared in two TV commercials in support of Washington�s upcoming legalization vote. But NORML made no reference that I can find to two TV commercials featuring a retired former Cincinnati police captain supporting Ohio�s legalization next month.

In fact, late night comedy host Stephen Colbert has given more attention to legalization in Ohio than any of the major marijuana legalization organizations.

Damning With Faint Praise

NORML�s mentions of a marijuana legalization vote imminent in Ohio included founder Keith Stroup�s July blog on the issue, where he leads with the critics� opposition to the initiative, offers some context versus other legalization plans, and gives a half-hearted assurance that NORML will likely endorse the initiative. Then in September, NORML announced its endorsement of 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio as �A Bitter Pill to Swallow�, because it is an �Investor-Driven Initiative�.

That hardly makes you want to run to the polls and vote yes, does it? Not like NORML�s endorsement of I-502 in 2012, which promised �For the next nine months national NORML and its dozen in-state chapters will provide logistical, strategic, communications and fundraising support for Initiative 502� and had its advisory board member Rick Steves touring the state and pouring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in support. In 2015, not only is National NORML barely tepidly supporting legalization in Ohio, their state affiliate is openly fighting against 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio.

MPP�s board has decided to be officially neutral on 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio, but last week Dan Riffle (speaking for himself as a non-pot-smoking former prosecutor in Ohio and not as MPP�s Federal Policy Director) was the opposition argument to 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio to my supporting argument in a recorded discussion for This Week in Drugs with Sam Tracy and Rachelle Yeung. Certainly, listeners will appreciate the nuance that Riffle�s not speaking for the neutral MPP.

DPA has also remained virtually silent on 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio. But DPA head Ethan Nadelmann has said the initiative �sticks in my craw� because �what we�ve unleashed now is for-profit interests, big business interests, with no connection to this movement�.� But my sources tell me DPA might get behind the California legalization efforts of for-profit entrepreneurial billionaire Sean Parker, the big-business interest who founded Napster and invested early in Facebook. I don�t recall what Parker�s connection to this movement is, but Facebook has certainly been unfriendly to the movement.

When Business Plans Trump Civil Rights

The part that�s sticking in the craw of NORML, MPP, and DPA is not that the 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio would include the same personal public possession (1 ounce) as CO/WA/OR/AK; not the same 4 mature plants and 8 ounces at home as OR, 1 more mature plant than CO/AK, and 4 more than WA; not the legalization of an ounce of concentrates, equal to CO/OR/AK and four times WA; not the same type of legal pot shops to shop in and own, potentially more in OH than in CO/WA/OR/AK combined; not the same type of testing and processing facilities one could own to protect the public; not the establishment of a medical marijuana program that meets or exceeds those in CO/WA/OR/AK; and not the taxes that are roughly between what CO and WA have established. The Big Three drug reform orgs are happy with those parts.

It�s the grow part they don�t like. The 2015 marijuana legalization in Ohio designates ten plots of land totaling over 13,000,000 square feet as the only places legal commercial cannabis growth, cultivation, and extraction can take place. Those ten plots are owned by the ten investment groups that have sunk $2,000,000 each into this legalization campaign. To the reform organizations that have passed prior legalization laws thanks to the largess of three philanthropic billionaires, this legalization plan amounts to an oligopolistic money grab that limits commercial cannabis cultivation land to just a few rich people.

Their opposition to a few rich people in control of growing shouldn�t be confused with the medical marijuana laws eagerly supported by these same drug reform orgs. Laws like Connecticut�s that only allow a maximum of ten growers and require a $25,000 non-refundable application fee and $2,000,000 in escrow. Or New Jersey�s that allows only six growers. Or New York�s that allows only five growers. Or New Hampshire�s that allows only four growers. Or Minnesota�s that allows only two growers. For some reason, a handful of wealthy people getting rich selling marijuana (or non-smokable marijuana products in Minnesota and New York) to patients isn�t reason enough for the marijuana law reform organizations to avoid promoting or to outright oppose those laws.

Ohio�s grow oligopoly isn�t even as restrictive as those five medical marijuana states. While those states limit medical marijuana cultivation specifically to the holders of 10, 6, 5, 4, or 2 licenses, Ohio is limiting cultivation to ten already-owned plots of land. There is no limitation on how many licensed growers may be cultivating those 13,000,000 square feet. Already the owner of the Licking County property has agreed to lease 15 acres of it for a medical cannabis research facility. The owners of four properties have assured the Ohio Rights Group that they will be leasing to multiple artisanal small grows.

That flexibility is confirmed by the amendment itself, which states, �[no laws] shall prohibit the creation of transferrable and recordable legal descriptions or separate tax parcel numbers for any of the [grow sites].� It also allows the grow sites to �expand its structures and related operations to adjacent real property�. Best of all, unlike the licenses issued in other legal states, which can be subject to the whims of state and local lawmakers and regulators, these plots of land are constitutionally protected for the right to cultivate commercial cannabis. Furthermore, after four years, if these 13,000,000 square feet aren�t producing enough quality cannabis to satisfy demand, the state may open up more land for commercial growing.

Patients Can�t Wait!� Unless They�re Ohioans

Then there�s the medical marijuana part that you�d think Americans for Safe Access (ASA) would be trumpeting. Currently in Ohio, an adult with cancer or a child with epilepsy who needs concentrated cannabis oil can earn a misdemeanor with 30 days in jail for possession of a single gram or a felony with a year in prison for two grams. The initiative Ohioans are voting on in 22 days would legalize possession of a full ounce of such oil. Unlike any of the other 23 medical marijuana states, Ohio would allow �a patient with a medical marijuana certification [to] self-administer the medical marijuana� in the workplace, and unlike most of the 15 states that have passed cannabidiol-only oil laws, patients would have numerous locations in-state to buy it. But ASA�s Ohio advocacy page is silent on 2015 medical marijuana legalization in Ohio.

So, to recap:

NORML, MPP, & DPA enthusiastically supported Washington�s I-502, which retained 40 gram felonies, forbade home cultivation, and established a per se DUID limit so low medical marijuana patients and frequent adult consumers can never legally drive.
NORML, MPP, DPA, & ASA gave thumbs-up to medical marijuana laws in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and Minnesota that limited grow sites to ten or less, all in the hands of a wealthy oligopoly, in states where patients aren�t allowed to cultivate their own plants.
NORML, MPP, DPA, & ASA are lukewarm, neutral, or silent on Ohio marijuana legalization that would be superior to Washington�s I-502 and superior to the most recent medical marijuana laws, because the wrong oligopoly gets rich.

Since when did the marijuana legalization movement stop being about the civil rights of cannabis consumers to be free from prohibition and start being about the right way to enrich cannabis growers?

# ? Oct 29, 2015 18:50

OhFunny: Jun 26, 2013; EXTREMELY PISSED AT THE DNC

This is pretty big news I think. As drug use surges among middle class whites. The lock up and throw the key approach is being abandoned for actual pushes for treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/u...&pgtype=article

quote:

In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEOCT. 30, 2015
Photo

Amanda Jordan hugged her son, Brett Honor, last month outside a meeting for people with addictions and their families at First Baptist Church in Plaistow, N.H. Ms. Jordan's son Christopher died of a heroin overdose in September. Credit Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
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NEWTON, N.H. � When Courtney Griffin was using heroin, she lied, disappeared and stole constantly from her parents to support her $400-a-day habit. Her family paid her debts, never filed a police report and kept her addiction secret � until she was found dead last year of an overdose.

At Courtney�s funeral, they decided to acknowledge the reality that redefined their lives: Their bright, beautiful daughter, just 20, who played the French horn in high school and dreamed of living in Hawaii, had been kicked out of the Marines for drugs. Eventually, she overdosed at her boyfriend�s grandmother�s house, where she died alone.

�When I was a kid, junkies were the worst,� Doug Griffin, 63, Courtney�s father, recalled in their comfortable home here in southeastern New Hampshire. �I used to have an office in New York City. I saw them.�

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Stephanie Predel is off heroin. But the Bennington, Vt., area, where she lives, is in the throes of an epidemic.Heroin Scourge Overtakes a �Quaint� Vermont TownMARCH 5, 2014
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Victoria DeLong of Rutland, Vt., pointing out a house where drug dealing occurs. �We know what they�re doing in there,� she said.A Call to Arms on a Vermont Heroin EpidemicFEB. 27, 2014
Theresa Dumond said she works as a prostitute to support her heroin habit.Heroin in New England, More Abundant and DeadlyJULY 18, 2013
Noting that �junkies� is a word he would never use now, he said that these days, �they�re working right next to you and you don�t even know it. They�re in my daughter�s bedroom � they are my daughter.�

Photo

A photo of Courtney Griffin, who died of a heroin overdose in 2014, with her sister Shannon, left, and her mother, Pamela. Credit Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
When the nation�s long-running war against drugs was defined by the crack epidemic and based in poor, predominantly black urban areas, the public response was defined by zero tolerance and stiff prison sentences. But today�s heroin crisis is different. While heroin use has climbed among all demographic groups, it has skyrocketed among whites; nearly 90 percent of those who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white.

And the growing army of families of those lost to heroin � many of them in the suburbs and small towns � are now using their influence, anger and grief to cushion the country�s approach to drugs, from altering the language around addiction to prodding government to treat it not as a crime, but as a disease.

�Because the demographic of people affected are more white, more middle class, these are parents who are empowered,� said Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, better known as the nation�s drug czar. �They know how to call a legislator, they know how to get angry with their insurance company, they know how to advocate. They have been so instrumental in changing the conversation.�

Mr. Botticelli, a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 26 years, speaks to some of these parents regularly.

Their efforts also include lobbying statehouses, holding rallies and starting nonprofit organizations, making these mothers and fathers part of a growing backlash against the harsh tactics of traditional drug enforcement. These days, in rare bipartisan or even nonpartisan agreement, punishment is out and compassion is in.

The presidential candidates of both parties are now talking about the drug epidemic, with Hillary Rodham Clinton hosting forums on the issue as Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina tell their own stories of loss while calling for more care and empathy.

Last week, President Obama traveled to West Virginia, a mostly white state with high levels of overdoses, to discuss his $133 million proposal to expand access for drug treatment and prevention programs. The Justice Department is also preparing to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prisons as part of an effort to roll back the severe penalties issued to nonviolent drug dealers in decades past.

Continue reading the main storyVideo
Drugs and Politics
On the campaign trail, presidential candidates acknowledge the problem of America�s growing addiction to legal, prescription and illegal drugs, and discover the bipartisan appeal of drug policy. By AINARA TIEFENTH�LER on Publish Date October 30, 2015. Watch in Times Video �
And in one of the most striking shifts in this new era, some local police departments have stopped punishing many heroin users. In Gloucester, Mass., those who walk into the police station and ask for help, even if they are carrying drugs or needles, are no longer arrested. Instead, they are diverted to treatment, despite questions about the police departments� unilateral authority to do so. It is an approach being replicated by three dozen other police departments around the country.

�How these policies evolve in the first place, and the connection with race, seems very stark,� said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which examines racial issues in the criminal justice system.

Still, he and other experts said, a broad consensus seems to be emerging: The drug problem will not be solved by arrests alone, but rather by treatment.

Parents like the Griffins say that while they recognize the racial shift in heroin use, politicians and law enforcement are responding in this new way because �they realized what they were doing wasn�t working.�

�They�re paying more attention because people are screaming about it,� Mr. Griffin said. �I work with 100 people every day � parents, people in recovery, addicts � who are invading the statehouse, doing everything we can to make as much noise as we can to try to save these kids.�

An Epidemic�s New Terrain
Heroin�s spread into the suburbs and small towns grew out of an earlier wave of addiction to prescription painkillers; together the two trends are ravaging the country.

Photo

Courtney Griffin's father, Doug Griffin, in her bedroom, which he kept unchanged after her death. �We�ve pretty much given up what used to be our life,� he said. Credit Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
Deaths from heroin rose to 8,260 in 2013, quadrupling since 2000 and aggravating what some were already calling the worst drug overdose epidemic in United States history.

Over all, drug overdoses now cause more deaths than car crashes, with opioids like OxyContin and other pain medications killing 44 people a day.

Here in New England, the epidemic has grabbed officials by the lapels.

The region�s old industrial cities, quiet small towns and rural outposts are seeing a near-daily parade of drug summit meetings, task forces, vigils against heroin, pronouncements from lawmakers and news media reports on the heroin crisis.

New Hampshire is typical of the hardest-hit states. Last year, 325 people here died of opioid overdoses, a 68 percent increase from the year before. Potentially hundreds more deaths were averted by emergency medical workers, who last year administered naloxone, a medication that reverses the effects of opioid overdoses, in more than 1,900 cases.

Adding to the anxiety among parents, the state also ranks second to last, ahead only of Texas, in access to treatment programs; New Hampshire has about 100,000 people in need of treatment, state officials say, but the state�s publicly financed system can serve just 4 percent of them.

Since New Hampshire holds the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, residents have repeatedly raised the issue of heroin with the 2016 candidates.

Continue reading the main story
The Numbers Behind America�s Heroin Epidemic
A guide to the drug�s spread and impact.

Mrs. Clinton still recalls her surprise that the first question she was asked in April, at her first open meeting in New Hampshire as a candidate, was not about the economy or health care, but heroin.

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Last month, she laid out a $10 billion plan to combat and treat drug addiction over the next decade.

She has also led several discussions on the topic around the country, including packed forums like the one in Laconia, N.H., where hundreds of politically engaged, mostly white middle-class men and women, stayed for two hours in a sweltering meeting hall to talk and listen.

One woman told of the difficulties of getting her son into a good treatment program, and said he eventually took his own life. Another told Mrs. Clinton of the searing pain of losing her beloved son to heroin.

Many of the 15 Republican candidates for president have heard similar stories, and they are sharing their own.

�I have some personal experience with this as a dad, and it is the most heartbreaking thing in the world to have to go through,� Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, said at a town hall-style meeting in Merrimack, N.H., in August. His daughter, Noelle, was jailed twice while in rehab, for being caught with prescription pills and accused of having crack cocaine.

Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, tells audiences that she and her husband �buried a child to addiction.� And Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey released an ad here in New Hampshire declaring, �We need to be pro-life for the 16-year-old drug addict who�s laying on the floor of the county jail.�

Photo

Ginger Katz and her husband, Larry Katz, of Norwalk, Conn., lost their 20-year-old son Ian to a heroin overdose in 1996. She then started a foundation to try to end the silence surrounding addiction. Credit Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
Some black scholars said they welcomed the shift, while expressing frustration that earlier calls by African-Americans for a more empathetic approach were largely ignored.

�This new turn to a more compassionate view of those addicted to heroin is welcome,� said Kimberl� Williams Crenshaw, who specializes in racial issues at Columbia and U.C.L.A. law schools. �But,� she added, �one cannot help notice that had this compassion existed for African-Americans caught up in addiction and the behaviors it produces, the devastating impact of mass incarceration upon entire communities would never have happened.�

Now, all the political engagement around heroin has helped create what Timothy Rourke, the chairman of the New Hampshire Governor�s Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, says is an impetus for change, not unlike the confluence of events that finally produced a response to the AIDS epidemic. �You have a lot of people dying, it�s no longer just �those people,� � he said. �You have people with lived experience demanding better treatment, and you have really good data.�

Among recent bills passed by the New Hampshire legislature in response is one that gives friends and family access to naloxone, the anti-overdose medication. Mr. Griffin, just a few months after his daughter Courtney died, was among those testifying for the bill. It was set to pass in May but would not take effect until January 2016 � until Mr. Griffin warned lawmakers that too many lives could be lost in that six-month gap.

At his urging, the bill was amended to take effect as soon as it was signed into law. It went into effect June 2.

Other parents like him have successfully lobbied for similar measures across the country. Almost all states now have laws or pilot programs making it easier for emergency medical workers or family and friends to obtain naloxone. And 32 states have passed �good Samaritan� laws that protect people from prosecution, at least for low-level offenses, if they call 911 to report an overdose.

A More Forgiving Approach
A generation ago when civil rights activists denounced as racist the push to punish crack-cocaine crimes, largely involving blacks, far more severely than powder-cocaine crimes, involving whites, political figures of both parties defended those policies as necessary to control violent crime.

Photo

Mrs. Katz's son, Ian, at 17.
But today, with heroin ravaging largely white communities in the Northeast, and with violent crime largely down, the mood is more forgiving.

�Both the image and reality is that this is a white and often middle-class problem,� said Mr. Mauer of the Sentencing Project. �And appropriately so, we�re having a much broader conversation about prevention and treatment, and trying to be constructive in responding to this problem. This is good. I don�t think we should lock up white kids to show we�re being equal.�

So officers like Eric Adams, a white former undercover narcotics detective in Laconia, are finding new ways to respond. He is deployed full time now by the Police Department to reach out to people who have overdosed and help them get treatment.

�The way I look at addiction now is completely different,� Mr. Adams said. �I can�t tell you what changed inside of me, but these are people and they have a purpose in life and we can�t as law enforcement look at them any other way. They are committing crimes to feed their addiction, plain and simple. They need help.�

Often working with the police, rather than against them, parents are driving these kinds of individual conversions.

Their efforts include attempts to recast addiction in a less stigmatizing light � many parents along with treatment providers are avoiding words like �addict� or �junkie� and instead using terms that convey a chronic illness, like �substance use disorder.�

To further raise awareness, Jim Hood, 63, of Westport, Conn., who lost his son, Austin, 20, to heroin three years ago, and Greg Williams, 31, of Danbury, Conn., who is in long-term recovery from substance abuse, organized the Oct. 4 �Unite To Face Addiction� rally in Washington. Featuring musicians like Sheryl Crow, it brought together more than 750 addiction-related groups that are now collaborating to create a national organization devoted to fighting the disease of addiction on the scale of the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.

Photo

Families of Courtney Griffin, left, and Christopher Honor, right, prayed during a meeting for family and friends of addicts as well as addicts themselves at First Baptist Church in Plaistow, N.H., last month. Credit Katherine Taylor for The New York Times
�With heart disease or cancer, you know what to do, who to call, where to go,� Mr. Hood said. �With addiction, you just feel like you�re out in the Wild West.�

Ginger Katz of Norwalk, Conn., has equally lofty goals. After her son, Ian, 20, died of a heroin overdose in 1996, she founded the Courage to Speak Foundation to try to end the silence surrounding addiction, and she has developed a drug-prevention curriculum for schools.

For Doug and Pam Griffin Courtney is still their focus; her pastel bedroom is as she left it, with the schedules of meetings of Narcotics Anonymous taped to what she called her �recovery wall.�

�We�ve pretty much given up what used to be our life,� Mr. Griffin said.

But in addition to grieving and testifying at hearings and forums, the Griffins take calls day and night from parents across the country who have read their story and want to offer an encouraging word or ask for advice. They are establishing a sober house, named after Courtney. And they host a potluck dinner and church service once a month on Sunday nights at the First Baptist Church in nearby Plaistow, where they held their daughter�s funeral, for people with addictions and their families.

At the Sunday night service last month, more than 75 people filled the pews, including the family of Christopher Honor, who was Courtney�s boyfriend. He was also addicted to heroin. Last month, almost a year after her death, Chris, 22, died of an overdose � the 23rd overdose and third fatal one this year in Plaistow, a town of 8,000 people.

Chris�s mother, Amanda Jordan, 40, wanted to attend the Sunday night service last month, but it was just two weeks after she had buried Chris, and she worried it might be too soon to go back to that church, where Chris�s funeral was held. She sometimes thinks Chris is still alive, and at his funeral she was convinced he was still breathing.

She was afraid she would fall apart, but she and other family members decided to go anyway. During the service, her son Brett, 18, became so overwhelmed with emotion that he had to leave, rushing down the center aisle for the outside. Ms. Jordan ran after him. Then a family friend, Shane Manning, ran after both of them. Outside, they all clutched one another and sobbed.

�I�m a mess,� Ms. Jordan said after coming back inside and kneeling in front of a picture of Chris. In addition to yearning for her son, she had been worried that the Griffins blamed her for Courtney�s death. But at the church, the Griffins welcomed her. In their shared pain, the two aching families spoke and embraced.

Ms. Jordan, one of the more recent involuntary members of this club of shattered parents, said that someday, when she is better able to function, she �absolutely� wants to work with the Griffins to �help New Hampshire realize there�s a huge problem.� Right now, though, she just wants to hunt down the person who sold Chris his fatal dose. �These dealers aren�t just selling it,� she said. �They�re murdering people.�

# ? Oct 31, 2015 02:10

MaxxBot: Oct 6, 2003; you could have clapped

you should have clapped!!

quote:

"Because the demographic of people affected are more white, more middle class, these are parents who are empowered,� said Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, better known as the nation�s drug czar. �They know how to call a legislator, they know how to get angry with their insurance company, they know how to advocate. They have been so instrumental in changing the conversation.�

What the gently caress is wrong with these people? It's his loving fault that we need to "change the conversation" in the first place and he has never shown any evidence that he wants to do so. It seems like the new approach to the drug war is to talk about how bad it is while still defending the status quo.

MaxxBot fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Oct 31, 2015

# ? Oct 31, 2015 04:40

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Honestly, whatever works. If middle class white kids getting hooked on heroin leads to sentencing reform and a decline in the drug war, I'll take it.

But those kids have always gotten shuffled into drug treatment programs and rarely see jail (and rightly so, which is the article's point), so it remains to be seen the broader impact.

edit: I missed this last line the first time I read it, but this was also going through my mind. The consequences of this epidemic could easily be a backlash and push for harsher sentences for street level dealers and the like.

quote:

Right now, though, she just wants to hunt down the person who sold Chris his fatal dose. �These dealers aren�t just selling it,� she said. �They�re murdering people.�

# ? Oct 31, 2015 04:49

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

MaxxBot posted:

What the gently caress is wrong with these people? It's his loving fault that we need to "change the conversation" in the first place and he has never shown any evidence that he wants to do so. It seems like the new approach to the drug war is to talk about how bad it is while still defending the status quo.

Botticelli is pretty new; he's the replacement for the woman who publicly trashed Obama's position on drugs. Maybe he's an actually not-lovely ONDCP director, I've never read anything about him.

quote:

“You have people with lived experience demanding better treatment, and you have really good data.”

I found this line infuriating. I guess poor minorities can't have lived experience?

# ? Oct 31, 2015 11:02

Mr. Nice!: Oct 13, 2005; bone shaking.
soul baking.

Xandu posted:

Honestly, whatever works. If middle class white kids getting hooked on heroin leads to sentencing reform and a decline in the drug war, I'll take it.

But those kids have always gotten shuffled into drug treatment programs and rarely see jail (and rightly so, which is the article's point), so it remains to be seen the broader impact.

edit: I missed this last line the first time I read it, but this was also going through my mind. The consequences of this epidemic could easily be a backlash and push for harsher sentences for street level dealers and the like.

That last quote squares nicely with Ross Ulbrict's "harm reduction"

# ? Oct 31, 2015 13:28

woke wedding drone: Jun 1, 2003; by exmarx; Fun Shoe

MaxxBot posted:

What the gently caress is wrong with these people? It's his loving fault that we need to "change the conversation" in the first place and he has never shown any evidence that he wants to do so. It seems like the new approach to the drug war is to talk about how bad it is while still defending the status quo.

You see when others tried to change the conversation it was all "zabba doo dabba goo ga, you gots to get mah son out of prison blibble bleeble" *pulls out switchblade*

# ? Oct 31, 2015 14:54

fuccboi: Jan 5, 2004; by zen death robot

So I heard on NPR that docs will have to take a special test to prescribe medical marijuana in NY. How do I shop for a weed inclined doctor to heal my pains?

# ? Oct 31, 2015 18:29

computer parts: Nov 18, 2010; PLEASE CLAP

Slipknot Hoagie posted:

So I heard on NPR that docs will have to take a special test to prescribe medical marijuana in NY. How do I shop for a weed inclined doctor to heal my pains?

If it's anything like the other East Coast MMJ regulations, you'd probably have to find a guy who would swear you have PTSD.

# ? Oct 31, 2015 18:35

Dehry: Aug 21, 2009; Grimey Drawer

The Ohio issue 3 commercials are interesting.

The yes commercials have been airing during sportsball, while the no ads have been running during the local news.

The yes ads have someone on the screen hitting the points of: legalization, taxing what people already use, reducing prison populations, and creating jobs.

The no ads have a disembodied voice saying "Look at all these newspapers that oppose issue 3, it sets up a MONOPOLY, and your kids will eat pot candy"

The no group has also bought up all the digital signboards along I-75 in Dayton OH (although a few of them hilariously switch to yes ads in the rotation.)

# ? Nov 1, 2015 19:55

Harold Fjord: Jan 3, 2004; Can't post for 6 hours!

Dehry posted:

The Ohio issue 3 commercials are interesting.

The yes commercials have been airing during sportsball, while the no ads have been running during the local news.

The yes ads have someone on the screen hitting the points of: legalization, taxing what people already use, reducing prison populations, and creating jobs.

The no ads have a disembodied voice saying "Look at all these newspapers that oppose issue 3, it sets up a MONOPOLY, and your kids will eat pot candy"

The no group has also bought up all the digital signboards along I-75 in Dayton OH (although a few of them hilariously switch to yes ads in the rotation.)

I'm pretty sure the monopoly thing was latched onto by all people against legalization as a way to pry on the fence voters. Issue 3 is pretty lovely, so it was working for a while. See more people swaying back towards a yes as the day approaches, and have personally been trying to discourage yes's on Issue 2 to spite issue 3. You only need to vote against 3 once.

# ? Nov 1, 2015 21:40

AreWeDrunkYet: Jul 8, 2006

showbiz_liz posted:

loving christ. Do they think people are going around selling their weedblood to vampire stoners?

If the policy goal is to criminalize drug use, using the presence of metabolites in the blood as evidence makes sense. Only one way for those to be there, realistically.

# ? Nov 1, 2015 22:02

800peepee51doodoo: Mar 1, 2001; Volute the swarth, trawl betwixt phonotic
Scoff the festune

quote:

When Courtney Griffin was using heroin, she lied, disappeared and stole constantly from her parents to support her $400-a-day habit.

$146,000 a year just for heroin. Sure, that makes sense. Did anyone involved in this article even look at this poo poo critically? Like, heroin is kind of expensive and people who are hooked do some lovely things to get a fix, but I don't think anyone is pulling down bank branch manager level money with petty shoplifting and stealing from mom's purse.

# ? Nov 2, 2015 01:41

KillHour: Oct 28, 2007

Also, Google says heroin costs like :10bux:

a dose. Even if she's being completely ripped off by her dealer, there's no way you could do that much heroin and not be dead.

# ? Nov 2, 2015 04:25

Nintendo Kid: Aug 4, 2011; by Smythe

800peepee51doodoo posted:

$146,000 a year just for heroin. Sure, that makes sense. Did anyone involved in this article even look at this poo poo critically? Like, heroin is kind of expensive and people who are hooked do some lovely things to get a fix, but I don't think anyone is pulling down bank branch manager level money with petty shoplifting and stealing from mom's purse.

I could see the $400 a day quip actually only being the result of a long term ramp up, or a single big day, but the cops / parents throwing it out there as if she'd gone from 0 to 400 when she started.

# ? Nov 2, 2015 04:56

starry skies above: Aug 23, 2015; by zen death robot

I have a dream, that one day I can walk into a store and buy edible marijuana.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 00:41

Internet Explorer: Jun 1, 2005

starry skies above posted:

I have a dream, that one day I can walk into a store and buy edible marijuana.

Not going to lie, it's pretty awesome.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 00:43

The Maroon Hawk: May 10, 2008

Internet Explorer posted:

Not going to lie, it's pretty awesome.

I found out a few weeks ago that the dispensaries in Edgewater, CO are allowed to be open till midnight. What a time to be alive in this kickass state

# ? Nov 3, 2015 06:55

Pakistani Brad Pitt: Nov 28, 2004; Not as taciturn, but still terribly powerful...

The Maroon Hawk posted:

I found out a few weeks ago that the dispensaries in Edgewater, CO are allowed to be open till midnight. What a time to be alive in this kickass state

Yeah the 7pm closing times are a Denver city thing. Good on Edgewater for taking advantage of it -- Glendale and Lakeside and all the other micro 'cities' should too.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 07:20

TapTheForwardAssist: Apr 9, 2007; Pretty Little Lyres

In an LA Times in-depth article on how evolving weed attitudes can effect the election, they note that Bernie Sanders has come around to flat-out calling for legalization, and leading to questions as to whether other politicians will now jump in to being openly pro-legalization.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-politics-20151102-story.html

Meanwhile, Kevin Sabet keeps on fuckin' that chicken:

quote:

"It can easily be turned against them," said Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an anti-legalization group.

What happens, he asked, when a pro-pot candidate is confronted at a town hall by the parent of a child who had a "psychotic episode" after consuming a pot lollipop? "How do you defend against that?"

# ? Nov 3, 2015 13:15

Count Roland: Oct 6, 2013

starry skies above posted:

I have a dream, that one day I can walk into a store and buy edible marijuana.

I can't do it yet in my country, but I did buy some in Vancouver, Washington. Was neat.

(I was hesitant to buy some, since I had to get on a plane about an hour later. The people selling the stuff first suggested I take it across the border "it'll be fine", and when I indicated I didn't want to, they said I should take it just before going through airport security. So I did. Its somewhat surprising I made it to my destination, because I got high a a kite.)

# ? Nov 3, 2015 15:03

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

it is pretty hard to get so high that the plane goes somewhere else

# ? Nov 3, 2015 20:18

wilderthanmild: Jun 21, 2010; Posting shit; Grimey Drawer

800peepee51doodoo posted:

$146,000 a year just for heroin. Sure, that makes sense. Did anyone involved in this article even look at this poo poo critically? Like, heroin is kind of expensive and people who are hooked do some lovely things to get a fix, but I don't think anyone is pulling down bank branch manager level money with petty shoplifting and stealing from mom's purse.

Yea, I always heard some really big numbers on tv shows and documentaries for herion users daily spending, like $500 a day and such. It seems absolutely crazy and is probably a massive exaggeration.

I mean, relying on the methods available to the worst off addicts, there is literally no way to consistently get that much money.

Then again, literally every drug dealer I've seen in drugs inc claims to be pulling down more money monthly than the average person pulls down in a decade.

I think that people heavily involved in the drug trade, both on the user and dealer ends, just aren't good with estimating numbers.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 21:04

Harold Fjord: Jan 3, 2004; Can't post for 6 hours!

wilderthanmild posted:

Then again, literally every drug dealer I've seen in drugs inc claims to be pulling down more money monthly than the average person pulls down in a decade.

I'd guess that since they don't keep strict books they probably count all their income and not their profits. So they when they sell that ten pound bag and talk about how much they made from it they aren't thinking about that they need to reup.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 22:22

LuciferMorningstar: Aug 12, 2012; VIDEO GAME MODIFICATION IS TOTALLY THE SAME THING AS A FEMALE'S BODY AND CLONING SAID MODIFICATION IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS RAPE, GUYS!!!!!!!

Nevvy Z posted:

I'd guess that since they don't keep strict books they probably count all their income and not their profits. So they when they sell that ten pound bag and talk about how much they made from it they aren't thinking about that they need to reup.

Yeah, this would be my conclusion as well. "Yeah man, I just sold $10,000 worth of <substance>." They neglect to tell you that they had to shell out $7,000 to get it in the first place, and then spent another $100 in gas to distribute it, maybe.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 22:28

800peepee51doodoo: Mar 1, 2001; Volute the swarth, trawl betwixt phonotic
Scoff the festune

Most drug dealers make less than minimum wage.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w6592

# ? Nov 3, 2015 22:42

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

One smalltime weed selling guy I know basically copped to making roughly minimum wage and he works a lot of hours. It doesn't seem like a great job to me.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 22:48

800peepee51doodoo: Mar 1, 2001; Volute the swarth, trawl betwixt phonotic
Scoff the festune

The vast majority of people selling drugs do so to make a little extra on top of their lovely day job or so they can subsidize their own drug use. Almost everyone I've known who habitually used drugs sold drugs at some point or another. The only people making real money are the tiny minority way up the food chain.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 23:05

Squalid: Nov 4, 2008

wilderthanmild posted:

Yea, I always heard some really big numbers on tv shows and documentaries for herion users daily spending, like $500 a day and such. It seems absolutely crazy and is probably a massive exaggeration.

I mean, relying on the methods available to the worst off addicts, there is literally no way to consistently get that much money.

Then again, literally every drug dealer I've seen in drugs inc claims to be pulling down more money monthly than the average person pulls down in a decade.

I think that people heavily involved in the drug trade, both on the user and dealer ends, just aren't good with estimating numbers.

I checked out a forum for addicts and the users there reported values between $100 and $2500 a week. Many users reporting the higher figures noted they hadn't spent at those levels for some time, and were at the time of posting spending closer to $100 a week, often just because they couldn't afford to buy anymore. Those numbers were usually just for heroin, with users reporting additional expenditures on other drugs.

Spending $500 a day on a drug habit probably is unsustainable for all but the most fortunate addicts. However its plausible over the few months or years it takes for someone to burn through their savings, credit, job, and the good-will of friends and family.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 23:17

TapTheForwardAssist: Apr 9, 2007; Pretty Little Lyres

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

One smalltime weed selling guy I know basically copped to making roughly minimum wage and he works a lot of hours. It doesn't seem like a great job to me.

The Onion has been on target for longer than some goons have been alive, and this is my favorite drug article:

Undercover Cop Never Knew Selling Drugs Was Such Hard Work
NEWS March 5, 2003
http://www.theonion.com/article/undercover-cop-never-knew-selling-drugs-was-such-h-140

FAKEEDIT: when this article first published, I was sitting on the Kuwait-Iraq border waiting to invade. Cripes I'm getting old.

# ? Nov 4, 2015 00:18

wilderthanmild: Jun 21, 2010; Posting shit; Grimey Drawer

Polls are closed in Ohio now except for Hamilton County in which a judge ordered the polls to stay open due to "Technical difficulties" earlier in the day. Hopefully we find out today if weed is legal in Ohio.

# ? Nov 4, 2015 01:37