cannabisnews.com: Altered Minds





Altered Minds
Posted by CN Staff on August 28, 2003 at 22:23:15 PT
By Jacob Sullum 
Source: Creators Syndicate 
In the 1980s, not many people could plausibly claim stronger anti-drug credentials than Nancy Reagan. But Forest Tennant could. "It's great for the Reagans to get up and say, 'Let's do something about the drug problem,' but I don't know who's going to do it," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1986."Only true professional people like myself can do very much with the drug problem."
The remark was characteristically haughty, but Tennant had the training, experience, and reputation to back it up. A physician and researcher with a doctorate in public health, he operated a chain of drug treatment clinics in California and was widely cited and consulted as an expert on drug abuse and addiction.Tennant has published hundreds of scientific articles, testified in high-profile trials, and advised the NFL, NASCAR, the California Highway Patrol, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The Times described him as "riding at the forefront of the current wave of anti-drug sentiment."So when the folks at the Hoover Institution who produce the PBS show "Uncommon Knowledge" were looking for someone to debate drug policy with me, Tennant must have seemed like a natural choice. Imagine their surprise when he ended up agreeing that the war on drugs has been a disastrous mistake.To be sure, Tennant is not completely comfortable with the idea of treating all psychoactive substances the way we treat alcohol. Among other things, he worries about underage access and legal liability issues.But Tennant concedes that only a small percentage of drug users become addicted, that the drug laws are not very effective at preventing abuse, and that any increase in addiction that follows the repeal of prohibition is apt to be small. Equally important, he has come to realize after decades of dealing with addiction that the war on drugs imposes tremendous costs in exchange for its dubious benefits.Tennant says the September 11 attacks had a big impact on his thinking about drug policy. He recognized that the connection between drugs and terrorism, cited by the government to justify the war on drugs, was actually a consequence of prohibition, which makes the drug trade a highly lucrative business and delivers it into the hands of criminals. "We've got to take the profit out of it," he says.Tennant is also troubled by the impact that U.S. drug policy has on countries such as Colombia, where it empowers thugs and guerrillas, sows violence, undermines law and order, and wreaks havoc on the economy. And he believes the war on drugs has fostered systemic corruption in the United States. "We need to try something different," he says.As a first step, Tennant would like to see states experiment with various approaches to drug policy, including decriminalization of marijuana, a drug he considers much less dangerous than the government claims. He thinks it plausible that in 15 years Americans will be able to purchase pot legally.This is the same man who made waves in the 1980s by promoting a home eye test kit to help parents detect and deter drug use by their children. Parents were supposed to administer the test every few days, beginning when their kids were about 7. No one could have accused Forest Tennant of being soft on drugs.Tennant is by no means the only former drug warrior who has become a critic of current policy. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), founded last year, includes more than 400 current and former police officers, judges, federal agents, prosecutors, and parole, probation, and corrections officers. The group is headed by Jack Cole, a 26-year veteran of the New Jersey State Police who worked in narcotics enforcement for 14 years."After three decades of fueling the U.S. war on drugs with over half a trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies," says LEAP, "illicit drugs are easier to get, cheaper, and more potent than they were 30 years ago. While our court system is choked with ever-increasing drug prosecutions, our quadrupled prison population has made building prisons this nation's fastest growing industry. . . . Meanwhile people are dying in our streets and drug barons grow richer than ever before. We must change these policies." As an attorney quoted in a recent Seattle Weekly article about LEAP observed, "The news story is not that the war on drugs has failed. It's who's saying it now."Source: Creators Syndicate Author: Jacob SullumPublished: August 29, 2003Copyright: 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.Contact: info creators.com Website: http://www.creators.com/Related Articles & Web Site:LEAPhttp://www.leap.cc/Former Cop Says Legalize Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17103.shtmlThe Point of Departureshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17079.shtmlCops Against The Drug Warhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17059.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on August 30, 2003 at 09:20:57 PT
15 Years
No that isn't acceptable. The law change is way over due. With the polls in our favor I am hoping for a much shorter time frame.
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Comment #7 posted by rchandar on August 30, 2003 at 02:45:31 PT:
article
"in 15 years" is possible...if EVERYTIHNG, and i do mean EVERYTHING, goes right.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 29, 2003 at 11:03:38 PT
EJ Very Nice
I have a dream too!Mine is just like yours.
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on August 29, 2003 at 11:00:22 PT
LET FREEDOM RING
Did anyone watch MLKII on TV last night?I never realized how patriotic his speech was. It made me all emotional.I have a dream --that one day we shall be judged by the content of our character, and not by the contents of our urine.
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on August 29, 2003 at 08:55:28 PT:
The quiet mutiny is getting louder
Sr. Lehder, I do share your general pessimism concerning elected officials, but the wallet is increasingly playing a more important role in the matter. Although the American capacity for self-delusion can be a powerful obstacle, it's largely dependent upon who says what in government. And many of them can, despite being in the heady spend-spend-spend other people's money atmosphere of government, can still read a ledger sheet. The incarceration party is over.The DrugWar generals can make all the plans they want; their troops have stopped grumbling and some have begun doing what the Russians in the First World War did. Namely, they are leaving the trenches and turning their backs on an increasingly obvious stupid policy that cost many of THEIR lives, pointlessly. When more State governments begin taking increasingly harder looks at their budgets and realize the days of using taxpayer largesse to cover locking up potheads is (as it's always been) too expensive, they'll quietly begin to shy away from further incarceration.The Revolt of the Judges in refusing to render full sentencing guideline punishments against non-violent illicit drug users is another example of the troops leaving the trenches. The judges may be Federal, but they live in their respective States, and can see what the DrugWar is costing the States.This is forcing a major showdown, the kind that can result in the most dangerous of governmental actions: a Constitutional Convention. Many of us here can remember the hue and cry from many States about 'Unfunded Federal Mandates' that came in the form of various regulations that the States were forced to adopt to receive Fed monies. Well, much of that money has simply dried up; the much vaunted 'budget surplus' was pee-ed away early on and now the States are forced to cut back on most things.But the Feds still insist that the States use State monies to chase and lock up potheads. Money they don't have anymore. Push is coming to shove, and States are 'getting their backs up', quietly, and considering their options regarding early release and other programs - for people whose model deportment in prison, incarcerated there for non-violent drug charges, meant they NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE TO BEGIN WITH.If the Feds continue with their intransigence, and their demand to States to continue funding anti-drug operations, then the States will have no choice but to openly refuse to cooperate in taking part in them. They will be forced to plead de facto bankruptcy. The Feds, being the arrogant b*****ds they are, will make like King George III did to our Founders and demand even more action when none can be afforded. This could well cause that Convention I mentioned to become necessary.Then all bets are off. 
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Comment #3 posted by ekim on August 29, 2003 at 07:23:01 PT
just some of the long list of events for LEAP
http://www.leap.cc/events/events.php
22 03 Mesa Boeing Campus Rotary Club 11:00 AM Jack Cole Mesa Arizona USA 
 LEAP Executive Director Jack Cole talks to the Mesa Boeing Campus Rotary Club about the failed Drug War. Building 510, across the street from Falcon Field, Mesa, Arizona. 
Sep 23 03 Scottsdale Lions Club 06:15 PM Jack Cole Scottdale Arizona USA 
 LEAP executive director finishes his day with the Lions at the hometown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale. 
Sep 23 03 Scottsdale Airpark Rotary Club 12:00 PM Jack Cole Scottsdale Arizona USA 
 LEAP Executive Director Jack Cole discusses drug prohibition with the Scottsdale Airpark Rotary, 15636 N. Clubgate Drive, Scottsdale Arizona. 
Sep 23 03 Kiwanis Club of Scottsdale 07:00 AM Jack Cole Scottsdale Arizona USA 
 LEAP executive director Jack Cole explains drug policy to the Kiwanis members at the McCormick Golf Club. 
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Comment #2 posted by Lehder on August 29, 2003 at 05:09:34 PT
dress rehearsal is over, now the show
" He thinks it plausible that in 15 years Americans
   will be able to purchase pot legally."Only 15 years! And how many drug arrests? 30-50 million, more?The Politburo and dictators who would not respond to the most basic needs of their citizens were too corrupt and selfish to consider any reform or allow any mercy as they drove their people into poverty, humiliation and prison. The final straw that bankrupted their gulag, coincidentally?, were the Taliban, their shoulder launched missiles and a decade of endurance and courage while stoned on hashish in Afghanistan. So much for dress rehearsal. This I find easily plausible within one year, not fifteen: A nuclear armed Osama bin Laden, dictator of Saudi Arabia and wildly popular leader of a 2.2 billion strong Islamic world. Fix up your old bicycle, oil it well, find a good seat, relax, and watch the big show as our infallible leaders, guided by the Lord their God, direct their drug and terror war to the full glory of its ineluctable culminations. Try as we have, I often think there's not much else that can be done.
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Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on August 29, 2003 at 04:30:05 PT
Casualties of War
"The nation reached a sad milestone in late August. With the death of an American soldier in a roadside bombing on August 29, the number of soldiers killed in Iraq after the official end of the war reached 139, exceeding the "postwar" casualty count."http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8736"Tennant says the September 11 attacks had a big impact on his thinking about drug policy. He recognized that the connection between drugs and terrorism, cited by the government to justify the war on drugs, was actually a consequence of prohibition, which makes the drug trade a highly lucrative business and delivers it into the hands of criminals. "We've got to take the profit out of it," he says.""We need to try something different,"-Forest TennantThose four thousand or so wounded GI's coming home from Iraq don't deserve much mention; nor do the wounded and dead Iraqis. They just don't count.  A similar situation exists with the war on cannabis and cannabis users. How can the profit be taken out of the drug trade? 
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