cannabisnews.com: Dr. Tom O'Connell: Mike Gray said it all.





Dr. Tom O'Connell: Mike Gray said it all.
Posted by FoM on July 10, 1999 at 18:53:57 PT
by "Tom O'Connell"
Source: The Kubby Files
Published in '98, Mike Gray's "Drug Crazy" took six years to write; he completed the final chapter just after passage of 215 in Nov. '96. His extensive research allowed him to be remarkably prescient in predicting just how the brand-new initiative would be received by the drug war powers-that-be:
"The coming engagement promises to be bloody because the outcome of the whole war is at stake. Prohibition, as policy, can only ratchet in one direction. Each failure must be met with more repression. Any step backward calls into question the fundamental assumption that repression is the solution. Ultimately every available gun will be brought to bear because marijuana is the pawl on the ratchet, the little catch that keeps the drum from unwinding. For sixty years, Harry Anslinger and his successors have put their backs to this wheel, laboring to hoist drug prohibition to the level of a national crusade. But if somebody jiggles that pawl and the drum slips, support for the current policy will plummet like a loose cage in a mineshaft, because it cannot sustain a serious evaluation." (Drug Crazy, last page- 198) The upcoming trial of the Kubbys and the Placer County DA's incredible decision to retry the Baldwins amply confirms everything Gray said- as does the relatively unknown scope of the law enforcement rampage against medical marijuana users and suppliers which has taken place throughout California since Jan. 1997. It may not be too late to document many of the cases retrospectively, and place them in a database. The totals may not only surprise us; they could dramatically show to the public what an enormous fraud the drug war really is. It's not about keeping teens from smoking pot; it is about keeping the arrest machine busy with their parents and older siblings. Dr. O'Connell is a retired Army surgeon who uses his extensive medical training and experience to serve as a drug policy analyst and editor for DrugSense:http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm The Kubby Fileshttp://www.kubby.com/Saturday, July 10, 1999
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