cannabisnews.com: Reefer Mad Man Reefer Mad Man Posted by CN Staff on March 21, 2003 at 13:01:52 PT By Jeffrey C. Billman Source: Orlando Weekly James McDonough is fuming. McDonough, Florida's first drug czar, is sitting on a makeshift dais in a ballroom of the Orlando Renaissance Hotel March 14 as part of a three-member panel convened for a town-hall meeting on substance-abuse policy. The panel was put together by groups for and against relaxing drug laws. McDonough, though, is clearly tired of answering questions from the former. "I do enjoy the occasional joint or so," says Brian Cregger, a University of Central Florida staff engineer and former vice president of UCF's NORML chapter. "There are good people out there who [smoke pot]." To which McDonough gives his standard reply: "Marijuana is a gateway drug. The more you liberalize drug laws, the more grief you will buy." The next questioner accuses McDonough of massaging pot-use statistics to make his policies look successful. You can almost see the steam coming from his ears. "No kidding. [Marijuana use] is down. The science is absolute. It's a bad drug." Then McDonough abruptly announces that he has to leave, but agrees to one more question so as not to appear to be ducking out. Up rolls a woman in a wheelchair who says she has Lou Gehrig's Disease. Marijuana, she says, has kept her alive for seven years. "Who are the politicians to tell me I can't live?" McDonough avers, saying pot isn't medicine, and that the therapeutic effects of THC need more study. When the moderator invites all three panelists -- McDonough, California Superior Court Judge James Grey and Orange County homeland security director Jerry Demings -- to make closing statements, McDonough declines. Then he bolts. In itself, the gathering wasn't particularly enlightening; those familiar with the drug-war debate would recognize the predictable rhetoric from all sides. But it was an interesting look into the personality of the man leading Florida's war on drugs. In this forum, McDonough was vulnerable. Grey, a decriminalization advocate planning a run for president on the Libertarian ticket, was a far superior debater. And the 40-person crowd was decidedly unfriendly, so McDonough was a long way from the comforting embrace of Gov. Jeb Bush and the GOP-controlled Legislature. He was out of his element, and he didn't like it. McDonough, now in his fourth year as director of the Florida Office of Drug Control, is a textbook hard-liner. He pooh-poohs anything that undermines his hard-and-fast doctrine of purging drugs from society. Decriminalization, needle exchanges, medical marijuana (which he once called a "stalking horse for the legalization of drugs"), all are pathways to societal destruction. He's alarmed at marijuana's growing acceptability -- a recent poll from Time Magazine indicated that 80 percent of Americans think medical marijuana is OK; and 72 percent say minor pot possession should mean fines, not jail. "As Florida is concerned, my state can and will do much to overcome the bad experience it has suffered in recent years from illegal drugs," he told a congressional subcommittee in 1999. "It does not intend to meet the challenge by making drugs legal." The November elections held vindication. As McDonough happily noted in an op-ed to the Washington Times, Nevada voters rejected an amendment to legalize small amounts of pot. Ohio voters rejected a "right to drug treatment" amendment; Arizona voters turned back a medical-marijuana initiative; and South Dakota voters rejected hemp legalization. "The net result was a broad-based rejection of the drug normalization campaign begun in the mid-1990s," he opined. He also finds encouragement in statistics showing a decline in Florida's drug use. In 2000, McDonough and Bush crafted a five-year plan to reduce substance abuse -- from 8 percent of the population in 2000 to 4 percent by 2005. The current number is 5.5 percent. Taken on the whole, those numbers indicate Florida's drug use is on the decline. Also, the 2002 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey showed that among teens illicit drug use was dropping across the board, though 12 percent and 31 percent of students still report using pot and alcohol, respectively, in the last 30 days. "That [downward] trend has to do with people becoming aware of the criminalization of their behavior and not reporting it," says Jodi James, head of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. The substance-abuse survey relies on students' admissions for its results. "I don't think people tell [McDonough] the truth." McDonough became a drug warrior in 1996 when he was named Director of Strategy for the national Office of Drug Control Policy. Before that, he boasted a long and storied career in the U.S. Army, serving in Africa and the Balkans. He made waves in 1998, writing a scathing op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal that called for President Bill Clinton's impeachment. A year later, he took the job as drug czar, a position created by Gov. Jeb Bush, who campaigned on anti-drug and tough-on-crime promises. McDonough's budget is about $500 million, $310 million of which comes from the state and the rest coming from federal grants. He's in charge of trying to minimize both the supply ( through interdiction ) and demand ( via prevention ) of drugs. When Jeb's brother became president in 2001, McDonough was on the list to become the nation's drug czar. McDonough made his mark by torpedoing a Florida medical-marijuana initiative. He traveled across the state lobbying elected officials and other high-profile politicos to oppose the measure. The proposal never reached the ballot. Two years later, a "right to treatment" measure - which decriminalizes possession of small amounts of narcotics for those who agree to treatment - survived McDonough's initial attempt to run it out of town, but eventually fell victim to the Florida Supreme Court, which declined to rule on language issues until just six months before election day, 2002. There was no time to mount a campaign, so backers of the issue bailed and pledged to raise it again in 2004. In 2000, McDonough was caught red-handed exaggerating data related to "designer drug" deaths. Though his report listed 254 casualties, they included a 4-year-old Orlando boy who died after a hospital gave him ketamine ( which is listed as a "designer drug" ), a 58-year-old St. Petersburg resident who died after heart surgery, and so on. But his biggest misstep came in 1999, when he advocated using the fungus fusarium oxysporum to eliminate Florida's marijuana crop. Even the state's Department of Environmental Protection protested, since toxins derived from it can be deadly to both humans and animals. It could also mutate and kill agricultural crops. Amid widespread protest, the plan died. For legalization advocates, those types of things weren't entirely unexpected. "Initially, when [Bush] appointed a military strategist as head of drug policy in Florida, we were pretty disgusted," Jodi James says. "But because of [open-government laws], we've been able to take a look at his strategy and help protect people. [The office has] given us a target." It's also opened up a line of communication between activists and the governor. They're now invited to forums and the state's annual drug-control summit -- which at least gets their voices heard, even if later ignored. McDonough's willingness to trade barbs with legalization advocates lends credence to a gathering that would otherwise be inconsequential. "He doesn't feel threatened by us," James says. Friday's forum, she notes, was co-sponsored by Common Sense for Drug Policy, Florida Foundation for Social Justice and Orange County Drug-Free Communities. And it taught her something about his character. "Director McDonough is far more compassionate to people than I am," she continues. McDonough's heart may be in the right place, but James thinks he's fighting the wrong battle. He blames the drugs for violence and crime, not irresponsible users or drug-war policies. "My strategy toward director McDonough is going to change. He blames the drugs; he doesn't blame the user, he doesn't blame the policies. We need to show director McDonough that it is not the drug that's the problem." DL: http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n425/a02.htmlSource: Orlando Weekly (FL) Author: Jeffrey C. Billman Published: March 20, 2003Copyright: 2003 Orlando Weekly Contact: feedback orlandoweekly.com Website: http://www.orlandoweekly.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:CSDP: http://www.csdp.org/UCF NORML: http://www.normlucf.org/ Drug War Facts: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/ Judge James Gray: http://www.judgejimgray.com/ Florida Cannabis Action Network: http://www.flcan.org/ Illegal Drug Use is Abuse and Not 'Fun' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13699.shtmlWar on Drugs is Lacking Fundamental Honesty http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13620.shtmlState's Drug Czar Says His Budget Will Rebound http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11471.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by malleus2 on March 23, 2003 at 07:09:30 PT Just goes to show their issue has no legs "In itself, the gathering wasn't particularly enlightening; those familiar with the drug-war debate would recognize the predictable rhetoric from all sides. But it was an interesting look into the personality of the man leading Florida's war on drugs. In this forum, McDonough was vulnerable. Grey, a decriminalization advocate planning a run for president on the Libertarian ticket, was a far superior debater. And the 40-person crowd was decidedly unfriendly, so McDonough was a long way from the comforting embrace of Gov. Jeb Bush and the GOP-controlled Legislature. He was out of his element, and he didn't like it."Yes...as are all Drug warriors who believe that they can snowjob people who know better. When they are not addressing some rubber chicken Ruritan group, they find they can only BS so much before someone calls them out on it.I am constantly reminded by them of the story about Gallileo being put on trial for his life by the Inquisition. He offered to prove what he wrote about by letting the Bishops look through his telescope...and they wouldn't do it.Their minds were made up; they didn't want to run the risk of someone trying to confuse them with the facts. Especially when they might have to apologize to all the families of those people they tortured to death in their Holy Inquisition (which is also where the idea of forfeiture began) by being forced to admitting they were wrong. (Gallileo's books remained on the Catholic Church's banned list from the Rennaiscence to the 20th Century; despite all the proof of him having been vindicated. Talk about stubborn.)McDonough is just like those BS spouting Bishops...and the man who wanted to release the dangerous fungus Fusarium Oxysporum - which has been proven in a French laboratory to definitely mutate and destroy food crops as well as the intended coca and poppy plants - is just as blindly, smugly dangerous as those Bishops were in supporting a morally bankrupt and indefensible dogma.America deserves better from it's civil servants...after all, we've been paying for this and other supposed 'civil servants' whose service has been anything but civil. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by freedom fighter on March 22, 2003 at 01:41:14 PT Only problem before cocaine hit the state of Flordia back then,,Good ole Colombia Gold.... Just a substance that never killed anybody until the good ole boys from the CIA too busy supplying the crack in L.A. Especially when Osma Bin Laden so busy training his toys..While Rumbumsfield so busy shaking Saddam Hussien's hand..How would I love to see the days of just simple good old times? ff [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by afterburner on March 21, 2003 at 18:58:34 PT: The Problem with Florida... is cocaine. As a major link during the cocaine invasion, Florida at one time had at least one third of its paper currency literally infected with cocaine powder. No wonder if they listen to the lies of John P. Walters, as Florida Drug Czar Jim McDonough surely does, that they cannot distinguish between a relatively harmless medicinal plant, like cannabis, and a highly refined white powder, used to overamp and enslave the will, i.e., cocaine.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by delariand on March 21, 2003 at 15:02:56 PT Blinded by denial "As Florida is concerned, my state can and will do much to overcome the bad experience it has suffered in recent years from illegal drugs," he told a congressional subcommittee in 1999. "It does not intend to meet the challenge by making drugs legal." Well, then florida isn't doing much to overcome the problems of illegal drugs is it? Despite all the evidence, you still can't see that the problems are just that, the problems of ILLEGAL drugs. LEGAL drugs don't have these problems. Why can't you see the obvious step between the two to fix the problem? [ Post Comment ] Post Comment