cannabisnews.com: President's Experience Should Shape His Policies





President's Experience Should Shape His Policies
Posted by CN Staff on June 23, 2002 at 13:57:11 PT
By William C. Moyers
Source: Los Angeles Times 
If only America's so-called war on drugs could be recast in the spirit of my chance meeting with President Bush last year in the White House Rose Garden. "Mr. President, my name is William Moyers, I'm from Minnesota and I am a person in recovery," I said.Without batting an eye, the president grasped my hand and replied, "Sounds like we have something in common." I was all but a complete stranger to Bush. But in that moment we connected. And because I told him nothing else about me, I assume it was from the commonality of our experiences of having overcome the desperate condition of drinking too much.
I am a recovering alcoholic and addict. Whether the president labels himself the same, I don't know. But on that day at least, Bush knew exactly where I was coming from because, by his own account, he once drank too much and now he doesn't drink at all.Ironically, our handshake occurred just after the president had used the Rose Garden ceremony to announce his nomination of John P. Walters as the nation's drug czar. Critics within the drug policy reform movement denounced the appointment, saying Walters' track record showed he was no friend of addicted people. What's more, Walters has said he sees addiction as a moral or criminal issue, rather than an illness. In policy terms, that translates into funds going to law enforcement and supply suppression rather than to the kind of treatment programs that helped me and thousands of others.But flush with optimism that finally we had a president who understood the power of addiction and the possibility of recovery, I urged restraint in opposing the Walters nomination. Maybe now, I argued to my fellow policy reform advocates, the president's own experience would allow his administration to refocus the war on drugs, promoting effective prevention and treatment programs over previous policies that emphasized interdiction and tough law enforcement. My position was met with criticism from my colleagues in the addiction treatment field, solicited an angry call from a U.S. senator and sparked disdain from some of my fellow recovering alcoholics.Ultimately, the Senate approved Walters' nomination, after both he and the president spoke repeatedly about narrowing the treatment gap for the 3.5 million people that the federal government estimates need treatment but are not seeking help. For a while at least, it appeared that the administration's approach had been tempered by the reality that America's war on drugs required a more balanced approach.Note: William C. Moyers is vice president of external affairs for the Hazelden Foundation. His personal experiences were the basis for the 1998 public television series, "Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-000043884jun23.story?null Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author: William C. MoyersPublished: June 23, 2002Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Moyer's On Addictionhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/closetohome/home.htmlCannabisNews Articles - Addictionhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=addiction
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #25 posted by pppp on June 24, 2002 at 16:57:42 PT
experiment
BOLDLY UNDERLINED ITALICS?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #24 posted by p4me on June 24, 2002 at 14:43:11 PT
June 22nd "Now" Program
I want to put up a segment from last Saturday's presentation of Now with New York State Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer. Spitzer went after Merill Lynch because of the practice of pushing junk stocks on investors to gain millions off of investment banking fees. The subject at hand was the counter of some big securities firms taking their case to the bought and paid for Congress for protection.Moyers: "The New York Times said this week that the fellow trying to stir up congress the most is Phillip Purcell, the Chairman of Morgan Stanley. Is Morgan Stanley one of the firms you have been investigating?"Spitzer: " Yes. And they have acknowledged that publicly and I Don't think it speaks for things that their reaction has been to run to Congress to get us off the beat as you said."Now Morgan Stanley and cohorts know that this will not slip through Congress as a bill by itself so it will come in the form of an amendment. The amendment has already been floated and what Attorney General Spitzer is afraid of is that it will be secreted through using tricky methods so that the industry can get what it wants- total protection from state prosecution on anything. Bill Moyers says: "Reportedly what the industry wants, what Morgan Stanley and others want, would prevent you and every other state attorney general from imposing any law, rule, regulation, order, administrative action, judgement, consent order, or settlement agreement on any company. Now what would be the practical effect ...?Spitzer: "It would be an invitation to fraud." Moyers says in the notion of fairness all the securities firms want is uniform standard of federal regulations and that the 50 state juristictions are too costly and prohibitive. Switzer basically says bullshit but does specifically say that what they want "gets them (state attorney generals) out of the business entirely."Bill Moyers read as a chart is presented showing Golden Sach donated $1,492,000 and Morgan Stanley donated $940,000 to political causes in 2001-2, making them 1 and 2 on the list of securities firms contributors.Now the main reason I am putting this up has to do with presenting evidence of a bought and paid for Congress interested in doing the will of conglomerates and ignoring the interest of the people. So Spritzer's reply to the contributions influence is to say; "As we've discussed the problem is that the committee that has oversite, the committee that is supposed to represent the public simply doesn't have the distance, it doesn't have the willpower, it doesn't have the guts, to look at the problem objectively. And rather thanconfront the problem, they're trying to handcuff the people who are trying to protect the public."Everyone in Congress has got to go. You can go to jail over a joint but if you cheat the public out of billions you just buy a Congressman so you can keep ill-gotten gains. They do not put people in jail for scheming the public out of billions of $. Look at Enron, Arthur Anderson, or Jeb Bush and his Savings and Loan scandaled past.1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #23 posted by Industrial Strength on June 24, 2002 at 14:28:47 PT
thanks
Now I can be further verbally emotional...It would be funny if I somehow screwed it up...
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #22 posted by qqqq on June 24, 2002 at 12:13:24 PT
.....cool....
Thanx! p4me
I always wondered how this stuff was done.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #21 posted by p4me on June 24, 2002 at 11:42:42 PT
make that a backslash
In comment 20 I should have said a backslash I will end italics as in /I, inside brackets of course .1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #20 posted by p4me on June 24, 2002 at 11:33:11 PT
Industrial Strength
You put things in italics with the use of tags.You put tags inside of two brackets . If you put an "I" (without the quotation marks) for italics inside those brackets everything that follows will be in italics. If you put a "B" everything after the tag will be in BOLD. I have never used underline but I will try U and see what happens when I close this comment. You will need to instruct the program to cut off the italics or bold and you will use the again. This time put a foward slash followed by the I,B, or possibly U inside the bracket to end your instruction and return to normal text.If this is underlined, then a U inside the brackets underlines things1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #19 posted by p4me on June 24, 2002 at 11:22:13 PT
I respect Bill Moyers
I believe that Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose are the two bright spots for television journalism. Bill Moyers has a program called "Now" that comes on Saturday nights on PBS and I encourage everyone to watch it if for no other reason it is not in reruns.This last Saturday he had two very good segments. One was on the corruption of the Wall Street brokerage houses with the Attorney General of New York that went after Merrill Lynch and won them over to correcting the lies that result from pushing bad stocks just to collect the big fees for investment banking services. The attorney general said Morgan Stanley was leading the opposition to reform and wanted the federal government to step in because they said they could not function under 50 sets of state laws even though they have always worked under state rules. The purpose of this was to get Washington to control it and Morgan Stanley wanted a law passed that would all but abolish the SEC and rule out any investigation or law or regulation that could lead to prosecution. Morgan Stanley wants to be free to do anything without any chance of a lawsuit.He also had some very well informed journalist talk about the upcoming debate on the prescription drug plan coming before Congress. They showed some ads and she commented on their strategy and of course the nonprofit agency that is funding them is by the drug industry. I have this on tape and was going to summarize it because it showed the power of the drug companies and their tactics.I believe that Bill Moyers' program "Now" should be taped by everyone because it deserves at least a fast foward if you really want to know what is going on. One thing that really makes Bill Moyers and Carlie Rose so special is that they are respected as journalist by the people they interview and that allows them to have the top people on the subject come to camera.Bill Moyers was the Press Secretary for Nixon so he is well aware of spin and now as an old man he can take the spin off of things so you can get a good still picture of the subject. If you do not watch his program, you are missing something rare on television.1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #18 posted by kaptinemo on June 24, 2002 at 10:30:19 PT:
The same 'William' Moyers?
Also known as 'Bill' Moyers? Who also worked for the CIA? I guess he would know about drug addiction then...seeing as he was in at the time that the CIA was involved with the Hmong opium growers at the same time Special Forces personnel were transporting the opium down to the Mekong heroin labs on US planes...provided by the CIA's Air America. Yes, I'll bet he knows a thing or two about addiction, all right...
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by SpaceCat on June 24, 2002 at 10:29:37 PT
Hazelden
This guy is from Hazelden. All he wants to do is take the money now being used to throw us in jail and have it used to throw us into Hazelden. Hazelden regulary solicits Marijuana-dependency admissions with scare-tactics aimed at parents and news stories planted in the local media. He and they have no credibility, no matter what good they might actually achieve in the field of chemical dependency. This guy is a storm trooper in scrubs, Hazelden is a concentration camp with insurance forms. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by dddd on June 24, 2002 at 06:01:23 PT
...Wow I.S....
...Thank You...I like that "Uncle in the basement",thing, I'm weird enough to consider it somehow complimentry......... Yes,,,I guess I am rather entrenched here,,with my schizo **** identities.....I do lay down alot of weird,unnecessary ,cheap,,off topic rubbish,,and garish,verbose nonsense,with superflous clowning....
..I sometimes think that people are repulsed by my swaggering brashness,[I'm sure of it],,and,I know that I am somewhat annoying at times.......
 ..At the beginning of this year,,I became quite ill,,and I almost kicked the bucket!...yup,I.S.,,,,,damn near bit the big one,...I disappeared for a month or so,,and I was eminently flustered when I realized that my ramblings here were missed..........So,,,,I guess that is when my 'tenure' here was realized.......I'll always be here....and when I get really old,,I'm gonna be the Director,at FoMs Home for Retired Hippies!,,,,and I hope you will stay in touch.I'll be looking for youngsters like you to come visit the old Hippies,and read Richard Brautigan books to those who are well into their Golden Years!......always remember to try and be nice to old people,because hopefully,you will be one someday...
....cherrio.............from outer space......****
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by Industrial Strength on June 24, 2002 at 03:55:02 PT
4 x various consonants
I for one, although my tenure here is brief, would feel violated if I saw your anomious (wish I knew how to add italics)prose tagged on any other website. Your a part of C News, that strange uncle that lives in the basement...
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by dddd on June 24, 2002 at 01:19:11 PT
....I dont suppose you would want to reveal..
..the location of your website EJ?......In fact,,,,come to think of it,,,,I would recommend against it,, ,because it would compromise your nice mystique here at Cnews.,,,and then loudmouths like pppp,,and qqqq,would wander over to your site and cause a disruption,,and verbal mayhem...........I actually have a website too...It's a cheap piece of crap that hasnt been updated since 1999,when my friend was learning to do websites..........
I just checked,,and it's actually is still there......maybe I should try to get it going,and compete with FoM,,except my site would be loaded with cookies,,and I would make people subscribe,,and then when you logged on to my site,,I would be able to sell your name to some spam broker in New York,,and all of a sudden,everyone would start getting offers for free health insurance,and how to make millions with your own website!........nahh ,,too much of a hassle,,besides,,4q,and 4p are both under contract,,they are forbidden to comment anywhere other than Cnews till 2006.....dddd
http://come.to/Astoundment_Institute
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by E_Johnson on June 23, 2002 at 23:35:33 PT
I never post on my own web site
I have my own web site with a big forum but I never post there because I don't want it to end up about me. I consciously decided to just let a whole group of people colonize it on their own and shape their own community with me providing the rules and the enforcement and the services.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by E_Johnson on June 23, 2002 at 23:32:10 PT
You're never too old to act like a young fool
But flush with optimism that finally we had a president who understood the power of addiction and the possibility of recovery, I urged restraint in opposing the Walters nomination
But flush with optimism that we finally had a Democratic presidential candidate who understood what it felt like to smoke weed every day for eight years and see his best friend who sold him all that weed end up in prison while he ended up in the US Senate, I urged restraint in opposing the Gore campaign...Um no, unlike Bill Moyers, I was not that dumb.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by FoM on June 23, 2002 at 23:29:01 PT
Thanks qqqq
I'm quiting for the day. It's late and I'm tired but I wanted to say that I'm learning how to remove my feelings from the web site and am allowing it to become what it wants to be. I know it sounds like I'm giving C News a personality all it's own and it isn't a person so you really can't do that or can you? It has a personality. It has a personality because of everyone that contributes to making it that way. The Internet has allowed us to see in dimensions that we never would have known existed before because they didn't. We are in an awesome time of discovery and learning and I'm just so glad I am a part of it all with you and the others who enjoy C News.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by qqqq on June 23, 2002 at 23:19:39 PT
Right On FoM....
....I used to feel kinda guilty about wandering a million miles off topic here,,but,,obviously,,I got over it.....This is a nice place,,with nice people,,and even though I'm kinda bad,,,I try to be 'nice and bad'....
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by FoM on June 23, 2002 at 23:00:34 PT
qqqq
I remember when it didn't exist too and I like having the recent comment section a lot. The cool thing about C News is that it is equally a basic drug policy and marijuana news site but plus comments. Comments about what the article might make us think about, or as we see quite frequently, what is being followed closely by others. It's like a foundation for much more. It's a place where we talk, get mad, even cry and do our share of laughing too. When C News started I didn't have a feel for what it would be or become or what the heck I was doing. I'm still learning. I want C News to be a place where knowledge can be expanded. That's what I think it is becoming. When you develop a web site I think you need to let it find it's own way and keep certain guidelines for everyone's well being and then let it be what it will be. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by qqqq on June 23, 2002 at 22:48:15 PT
..I remember back when the "recent comments".
..thing didnt exsist,(or I didnt know about it)..........after I found it,.I bookmarked it,and started just going directly there,and bantering ,instead of reading new articles,and commenting.....anyway,,,about this article.....
...I didnt read the 'snipped' portion of this article,,and I'm not trying to downtalk Mr Moyers...but,,I have this "thing",about people in stories who meet the shrub,,,and they say he impressed them as being a nice,,genuine,,downhome,,honest friendly guy...big deal!,,,I'll bet that Suddam Hussein,or Bin Laden,would come across as "nice guys"...I'm sure that a great many people who met Hitler,came away with the impression that he was a good guy,who had something in common with them........I'm reluctant to bring Hitler into this,,but I want to know if anyone can give me a good reason,why GW Bush,is more or less credible,, than Hitler?..I realize that this may seem to be a volitile,and bombastic question,,but think about it...............It seems to me,,that the "administration" (the empire),,,has effectivly manipulated the American public into believing in some terrorist 'boogeyman',,and they continue to release these absurd unsubstantionated "warnings",about potential terrorist attacks....These "warnings",get more ridiculous every week!..like the recent "tanker trucks" alert.,, gimme a fuckin' break!,,,that's about like saying "guns may be used to kill people at any time!"......"Pillsbury Doughboy exposed as fraud!"...."Cheney may have not been truthful!"........"Government spending may be out of control!". ...."Kenny Boy lay,,may have had connections to Bush!"....."Money may have influence in politics!."....
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by p4me on June 23, 2002 at 21:33:41 PT
FBI report
I was wondering what kind of report the FBI would put up on their website when they finally put up the arrest numbers for the year that ended 6 months ago. We will see what the FBI does to inform the populace in this age of information. AT 12:15 AM this Monday there is nothing up yet at http://www.fbi.gov/The daily search for the use of the word marijuana at the NY Times yeilded one result because the young pitcher that just died may have had marijuana in his system and they specifically mentioned that that had nothing to do with his death which was hardening of the arteries.1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by FoM on June 23, 2002 at 20:02:25 PT
Industrial Strength
Glad I could help. It's a great feature. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Industrial Strength on June 23, 2002 at 18:07:11 PT
strange
how I must have seen the "recent comments" link 500 times but just failed to process what it was. Kind of like hiding the piano in the living room I guess.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on June 23, 2002 at 16:38:51 PT
Industrial Strength
You're welcome. The recent comment section is right next to the help section. It holds the most current 100 comments. It doesn't matter where on C News a comment is posted because it will always appear in the recent comment section. Next to the front page it is the most accessed link on C News. It's sort of like cannabis.com's quickview section.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Industrial Strength on June 23, 2002 at 16:22:58 PT
thanks FOM
I was not aware such a thing existed. Oh well.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on June 23, 2002 at 16:19:37 PT
What's this about?
Dan could have read your comment if he is around today on the recent comment feature. Here it is.http://www.cannabisnews.com/newcomments.shtml
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Industrial Strength on June 23, 2002 at 16:14:46 PT
Dan B, I search you out!
"I'd bet it makes you feel great to have your name in the subject line, doesn't it? That is why you keep writing smartass remarks to people you don't know after misinterpreting their comments, right? 
I was going to write a long diatribe about your insolence, but I have elected instead to keep my comments brief to avoid as much as possible a distraction from the task at hand which (and this obviously escaped your notice) is not to make self-absorbed punks like you feel superior.I advise you re-read my entire comment, conduct a brief review of the literature on tobacco smoke vs. cannabis smoke, and see if you can figure out for yourself why I find your remark about smoking 60 joints offensive, ill-informed, and plain stupid.Dan B"
All this in response to, verbatim "Also, Dan B, try smoking 60 joints a day and see what it does to your lungs." I think I may not be the only one guilty of misinterpreting things, or you happen to over react more than Mike Tyson when he forgets to take his Zoloft. Say what you will about me and my character, I still put all my weight behind the statement. You refuse to admit that the quantity of smoke inhaled perhaps may play just a small role in the pot vs tobacco/health consequences quandary? Obviously, pot is the much lesser of the two evils, but I don't know one pot head that smokes 20, 40, 60 ect cigarette sized joints in one day. If such a person does exist, I am 100% sure their lungs do not function as well, or more likely substantially worse, than if they did not inhale all that smoke. Do you deny this? Sorry to all who were not following the old thread, posting my thoughts all the way down probably would not have reached a certain Dan B.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment