cannabisnews.com: High Time for Reading High Time for Reading Posted by FoM on September 10, 2001 at 07:33:55 PT By Joel Miller Source: WorldNetDaily What kind of periodicals and books would you expect to litter the library shelves and bathroom stalls at the Drug Enforcement Administration? Apparently to keep a finger on the pulse (or, more likely, thrust a thumb in the eye) of the drug culture, the DEA regularly forks over taxpayer money for High Times – multiple copies according to a report obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information request, filed by the guys at the Smoking Gun. "The narcs must have been fighting over each month's copy," Smoking Gun opined, "because the Drug Enforcement Administration's in-house library is shelling out for three copies a month of the drug bible. …" Smoking Gun got its hands on the DEA's official library acquisition reports, which keep record of the publications to which the agency subscribes, along with the books it purchases. Some of the 2000 DEA library acquisitions include riveting legal scholarship, such as Vincent Johnson's book, "Mastering Torts: A Student's Guide to the Law of Torts" (Academic Press, 1999), which I understand reads a lot like John Grisham – only with characters slightly more believable and three-dimensional. Should DEA staff tire of reading industry publications like the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, they can always thumb through the library's copy of Michael Gross' 2000 tome, "My Generation: Fifty Years of Sex, Drugs, Rock, Revolution, Glamour, Greed, Valor, Faith, and Silicon Chips" (Cliff Street Books) and maybe head down to the lunchroom to whip up a recipe or two from Todd Dalotto's "The Hemp Cookbook: From Seed to Shining Seed" (Healing Arts Press, 2000). Mmm. Reading some of these books, however, must be less fun than breaking your toes. Though I haven't looked at it myself, Tom Andrews' "Codeine Diary: Confessions of a Reckless Hemophiliac" (Harcourt Brace & Co., 1999) probably requires an unhealthy dose of the junk just to make it through. And you might want to double the dose for this one: "Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents" by D. Hank Ellison (CRC Press, 2000). Either somebody over at the DEA has a pretty sadistic idea about bathroom reading, or we should start biting our nails. Drug warriors studying biochem warfare is not an encouraging sort of thing to find out. What, no-knock raids weren't lethal enough with conventional weapons? There was, interestingly enough, no mention of why it's fine for the DEA to subscribe to High Times, while simply owning a magazine that looked like High Times was used as pretext to search a woman's car in Davidson, N.C., last year. No drugs were found in the search, but the Davidson police maintained that the magazine cover photo seen in the car was probable cause for a rummage and rumple session through the vehicle. "He acted properly," said Assistant Police Chief Butch Parker about the officer. "He thinks he had reasonable suspicion, and we do too." (I wonder if the founders would agree that an image of a marijuana leaf – which, according to Jack Herer, Ronald Reagan once mistook for the Canadian maple leaf – is all that's needed to satisfy the demands of the Fourth Amendment.) I suppose this means Parker should be heading to Virginia to search the cars of DEA library staff. Possibly the most interesting purchase, however, was this: a copy of Herbert N. Foerstel's "Freedom of Information and the Right to Know: The Origins and Applications of the Freedom of Information Act" (Greenwood Press, 1999). Maybe someone at DEA wanted to find out if he could tell Smoking Gun to stuff a sock in its FOIA request. Better luck next time. Joel Miller is the commentary editor of WorldNetDaily. His publishing company, MenschWerks,recently published "God Gave Wine" by Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)Author: Joel MillerPublished: Monday, September 10, 2001Copyright: 2001 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.Contact: letters worldnetdaily.comWebsite: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/Cannabis News Articles - Joel Millerhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Joel+Miller Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by E. Johnson on September 10, 2001 at 13:21:31 PT Hey, the KGB read Solzhenitsyn too What kind of mental locks do you have to put on yourself to maintain an ideology in the presence of information that refutes it?You have to have constant surveillance, you have to have a boss who can spot weakening of resolve, and spies on his employees relentlessly to detect it.Ask any Communist. That was the key to the functioning of the KGB.They were constantly exposed to dissidents, they had to spy on and interrogate people with real honor and real ideals. They had to read Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov.In a system like that, nobody can be trusted.What do they put DEA agents through to make sure that they remain loyal to the cause, in the face of all the information they get about the cause?I can't imagine that it is a happy place to work. Their biggest enemy is an idea. There is no level of workplace scrutiny that can effectively stop the spread of an idea. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on September 10, 2001 at 09:10:34 PT rabblerouser rabblerouser I fixed it for you.It had a - instead of a _Don't you just love this language of computers we are learning. I remember asking Matt Elrod a question and called these things "side way lines" and he said oh you mean HTML Markups. I said I don't know but I've never forgotten. LOL! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by rabblerouser on September 10, 2001 at 08:44:29 PT locombia This one will pop your eyeballs.filled in wrong line, sorry.Sorry, it doesn't work here but it is there.You will have to go to the site and find it there. http://www.locombia.org/995037573/index-html [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by auto on September 10, 2001 at 08:25:48 PT A magazine is a reason to search? I am angry to hear that a magazine can give an officer a reason to search me or my car. What about Homes and Gardens?This is not justification to search someone. PERIODBarnes and Nobles sells High Times over the counter. Since when does your first amendment right become obsolete because the material is a little riske?This makes me especially angry since the DEA is a subscriber to this magazine...Give me a warrant I want to search the DEA's office..When I travel abroad, I tell people I am Canadian. If they know I am American they judge me and automatically hate me...even though they do not know me...It is the stigma of being an American. American Imperialism is a threat to most people in many parts of the world. Europeans think Americans are naive, cocky and hipocritical. Europeans think our political election process is the most corrupt in the entire world and it is amazing we claim to be a free and democratic society....A smokescreen I am afraid. We the people need to stnd up against they the government. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by rabblerouser on September 10, 2001 at 08:21:02 PT locombia message board concerning the current problems in ColombiaIt will shed some more light.If it is not in english, go to google and they will translate. http://www.locombia.org [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by John Markes - part 2 on September 10, 2001 at 08:10:57 PT Really?? One would think reading material for research would remain in the research library... Unless they're just a bunch of potheads. One wonders what they must be smoking, or otherwise partaking of, to look at their record, policy and activities... [ Post Comment ] Post Comment