cannabisnews.com: The Drug Czar Wins the Pot










  The Drug Czar Wins the Pot

Posted by CN Staff on November 11, 2002 at 10:19:14 PT
By Joseph Perkins 
Source: Joplin Globe 

John Walters had a great day at the polls on Tuesday. Voters in Nevada, Arizona, Ohio and South Dakota heeded calls by the nation's drug czar to reject putative drug "reform" measures that appeared on their state ballots.Nevada's Question 9 would have legalized the sale and use of marijuana. Walters visited the Sagebrush State twice this fall, warning voters that pot is an "addictive gateway drug" that can lead to use of cocaine and heroin.
Arizona's Proposition 203 would have decriminalized possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana. Penalties for getting caught with cannabis would have been reduced to mere fines, much like like traffic tickets. Ohio's Issue 1 would have amended the state's constitution, mandating judges to send drug offenders to treatment instead of jail. During an appearance last month in Ohio, Walters cautioned the Buckeye State voters, "It will weaken the tools that the institutions have to help people get into treatment." South Dakota's Constitutional Amendment A would have allowed drug offenders to argue to juries that drug laws are unfair and urge acquittals on that basis. The Coyote State would have been the first to sanction jury nullification, permitting juries to disregard established law. Drug legalization advocates were chastened by the Election Day results, after passage in recent years of more than a dozen ballot initiatives around the country relaxing state drug laws. "We have seen tonight how hard the drug war ideologues are willing to fight and how dirty they're willing to fight," said Bruce Merken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, one of the groups coordinating the multi-state campaign. Merken protests too much. For if there has been any dirty fighting by ideologues on either side of the drug war, it has been by those like Merken's group, like the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, that favor scrapping the nation's drug laws. Indeed, neither the Marijuana Policy Project or NORML or other confederate organizations come right out and tell voters that they advocate drug legalization, that they would allow the sale and use not only of marijuana, but also cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, LSD, ecstasy and every other imaginable controlled substance.Instead, they suggest to voters that they are merely interested in "reforming" the nation's drug laws to help the sick or to relieve the taxpayers of the unnecessary burden of incarcerating harmless drug offenders. And it's because drug legalization advocates hide their ulterior motive that voters in nine states so far have been duped into approving ballot initiatives allowing the sale and use of marijuana for supposed "medical" purposes. Marijuana has been held out during those initiative campaigns as a palliative for patients suffering from such diseases as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Despite the fact that there is no hard scientific evidence proving the efficacy of medical marijuana. And despite research showing that marijuana damages short-term memory, distorts perception, impairs judgment and complex motor skills, and alters the heart rate. And that marijuana use can lead to severe anxiety and can cause paranoia and lethargy. But, then, the sponsors of those "medical" marijuana propositions couldn't have cared less about the safety and effectiveness of the drug. They just wanted to get their stealth pro-drug measures enacted. They figured that if they could get voters to approve marijuana use for putative therapeutic purposes, they could eventually get those same voters to approve marijuana for non-therapeutic purposes -- as Nevada's Question 9 would have done. And so on, until they effectively legalized all drug use. This insidious plan has the financial backing of three billionaires, George Soros, a New York financier, John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix nationwide chain, and Peter Lewis, former CEO of Progressive Insurance. Sperling, who has spent $13 million to legalize drugs, is perhaps the most strident of the troika. "The government's drug-reform policy is driven by a fundamentalist Christian sense of morality that sees any of these illegal substances used as evil," he told Time magazine. But most Americans are not fundamentalist Christians, yet the vast majority oppose drug legalization. That's because they recognize the deadly scourge that illegal drugs represent. Now that Sperling and his fellow billionaires have been outed, now that their deceptive drug legalization crusade has been exposed, the public is wising up. That's why pro-drug ballot measures in Nevada, Arizona, Ohio and South Dakota failed on Election Day. Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune.Source: Joplin Globe, The (MO)Author: Joseph PerkinsPublished: November 11, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Joplin GlobeContact: esimpson joplinglobe.comWebsite: http://www.joplinglobe.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Marijuana Advocates Ready for Next Battle http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14705.shtmlState Voters Reject Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14671.shtmlMarijuana Legalization Backers Suffer Defeats http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14670.shtml 

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Comment #8 posted by legalizeit on November 11, 2002 at 22:34:22 PT
Perkins, go back to Sheriff Lobo
The surname "Perkins" always conjures up for me the image of the overweight deputy on the "Sheriff Lobo" TV series. My high school principal was a Perkins, and he was a total buffoon. This degenerate fills out my personal perception of that surname. (Don't get me wrong; I'm sure there's millions of great Perkinses out there; I have yet to meet one though!)Joking aside... Once again, I am incredulous that major metro papers not only allow space-heads like this to appear in print, they have said space-heads on staff!Anyone know how we could influence major media outlets to oust these "columnists"? They appear so rabidly pegged to one side in commentary that as far as I can tell it would be virtually impossible for them to produce a nonbiased news story on an issue. Imagine what hackneyed copy Pinhead Perkins would turn out if, sometime in the future, he were asked to produce a story on the passage of a marijuana reform measure? Maybe if confronted with such an assignment he would resign and do us all a favor!Yes, Mr. Perkins, the public IS wising up. But not in the way you and your Fourth Reich cohorts wish they would. Even with the lies and exaggerations you and ONDCP are dishing out, almost 40% of voting Nevadans supported legalization. Just imagine what the outcome would have been if the voters knew the real truth about cannabis? Say what you may, the tides are turning!
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Comment #7 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on November 11, 2002 at 13:01:28 PT:
Perkins web site update.....
....www.nutcase.com 
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Comment #6 posted by unknown pleasures on November 11, 2002 at 11:49:50 PT
Can't reason with madness
You can be make the most logically sound arguements in favour of re-legalization, show undisputed statistics of the billions and billions being spent, illustrate in black and white how prohobition simply makes things worse, and still, these people... just ignore it. They repeat their bullshit as if they never heard you, like a pre-recorded message. 
These prohobitionist live in their own twisted world. The problem is, they insist that everyone else live in that same world.The thing that gets me angry more than anything else though, is how they complain about billionaires funding these initiatives. Look who's funding the white house!!!In every recent election, the precentage of the vote a candidate has received was directly proportional to the amount of money that candidate spent on his campaign.
This is an inarguable fact of modern 'democracy': if you wanna win, you must be richer than your opponent. The government is so bought and sold, that to effect any change 'within the system' you have to throw more money at the issue than the GDP of a small african nation. These prohobitionists talk of 'stealth intiatives', 'secret intentions', etc. simply to distract the public from the arguement itself. They dare not answer to the points raised directly, or even publicly debate the issues. They simply obscure the arguements as much as possible, and let that crackly, old, broken record play on and on. 
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Comment #5 posted by krutch on November 11, 2002 at 11:10:27 PT:
Walters Victory not Decisive
A a large minority of voters in the states the author mentioned support reform of the drug laws. The author ignores the fact that in San Fran and Mass. reform did pass. I would not call the election a slam dunk for the DEA side of the argument. I would say the results point out just how contentious the issue is.Joseph Perkins and his ilk will ultimately hurt the anti-mj side of the argument. They do fight dirty and lie. We mirror our heros. His hero is John Walters.If the current drug laws are so damn wonderful, why are there still so many drug addicts in our country. Maybe it is because we treat them like criminals so they fear asking for help. Maybe it is because the Government focuses most of it's attention on the least harmful and least addictive of drugs. Maybe it is because people like John Walters and Joseph Perkins distort facts and lie all of the time. Who would want help from bigots?
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on November 11, 2002 at 10:59:45 PT:
Fear: the Goal of Terrorism
When Bash and Walters crow about drug reform policy initiative defeats, I can only say, "There is none so blind as he who will not see." The terrorists want to spread fear. Congratulations, federal officials you have played right into the terrorists' hands by spreading the fear yourselves. Now stand aside, and "put a little love in your heart." ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #3 posted by John Tyler on November 11, 2002 at 10:56:42 PT
Thoughts
Looks like Joseph Perkins still thinks cannabis users are members of the "degenerate races" and in need of jail time to cure their "addiction", less they harm themselves and others. Maybe someday, one of his friends, or relatives will get to experience the injustice of the cannabis prohibitions he espouses. I hope he understands the folly of his position. The reformers only want a sensible policy that reflects personal freedom and responsibility. 
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Comment #2 posted by goneposthole on November 11, 2002 at 10:55:44 PT
more antagonistic 
than bigoted.I don't know.It's something.Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
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Comment #1 posted by knox42897 on November 11, 2002 at 10:53:03 PT:
REFORMING DRUG AWS
I am going to ask the NRLE for the information to get some new initiatives on the ballot this year. You think the public is wising up? Well we got plans to make them wish they would of voted for Question 9.I will find out how expensive it is to put something on the ballot. The NRLE say its pretty easy since they have the info. Personally, I think we should have something like 300 reform initiatives.Shall the state of nevada amend the constitution to declare the war on drugs a failure.Shall the state of nevada amend the constitution to double the penalties for murder and rape, remove parol for repeat violent offenders and legalize 1 oz. of marijuana.Shall the state of nevada amend the constitution to increase by %200 prison rape and separate non-violent drug offenders from murder's and rapests. Shall the state build special prisons for non-violent drug offenders. Said "special prisons" to include congucal visits everyday, pool tables, cable tv, local phone calls for free, work out facility and individual shower's.Shall the state of nevada amend the constitution to require every state politician to test positive for marijuana, once a month for the duration of their elected office. Failure to test positive will automatically lose their jobs. The state will also ban state employees from ever seeking public office if said state employee tests negative for marijuana.Shall the state of nevada amend the constitution to allow police to park in front of bars and observe intoxicated persons driving and increase the fines of drunk driving by %200 and legalize 1 oz. of marijuana.Shall the state of nevada ammend the constitution to increase police officers salary by %20 andlegalize 1 oz of marijuana.Any other ideas to amend the fucking constitution?
Serious initiatives will be considered.LAS VEGAS NEVADANS FOR RESPOSIBLE LAW ENFORCEMENT IN AMERICA
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