Is Recognising Science in the US Helping to Win the War on Drugs?

Yesterday, US president, Barrack Obama reversed one of most ludicrous Bush policies implemented in the last 8 years. With his signature, the ban on stem cell research using human embryos was lifted in the US as the science community cheered on. Stem cell research has the potential to change medical science as we know it and is considered one of the most important emerging sciences of this century. The use of embryos though is considered by pro-lifers as murder in the same way they argue against abortion. They claim that progressing science for the good of mankind is breaching the sanctity of life and a group of tiny microscopic cells has the right to live. It may sound like a bad sci-fi movie plot but for the religious folk, their beliefs are more important than actually doing something good for their fellow humans. Sounds remarkably like the "War on Drugs". Other pro science changes from the Obama administration include the support for needle exchanges, the end to federal raids on state sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries, reversing the last minute ruling by Bush that allowed medical workers to refuse duties that may upset their 'conscience' and more. It also happens that the once unthinkable proposal for cannabis legalisation is gaining momentum. Sparked by the election of a pragmatic president and the ongoing economic crisis, the call for legalisation has been heard all over the US. Joining the legalisation push over the last few weeks, has been the sudden surge of articles in major media outlets all over the world damning the "War on Drugs" and a call to rethink drug policies. The US media has especially been vocal on introducing regulated cannabis sales in a bid to tap the huge black market that evades any form of taxation. Last week, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill in California proposing the legalisation and taxing of marijuana to citizens over 21 years of age saying that over $1.3 billion dollars could be raised in government revenue. Others are estimating it is worth upward of $7 billion dollars for California alone. On a country wide scale that would put newly raised taxes up to about $50 billion dollars a year. Not to be sneezed at. 1960'S Anti Drugs Propaganda The more immediate actions though involve medical marijuana. Under the Bush Administration, the DEA would often raid dispensaries in the 13 states that allowed medical marijuana, although they had a legal licence under state laws. That has now stopped since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal authorities will abide by Obama’s election promise and honour existing medical marijuana laws approved by individual states. With science finally being recognised by the White House as essential to our future and states allowed to implement medically approved treatment with marijuana, the logic of cannabis legalisation might actually become a reality. It’s a pity it’s taken an economic disaster to open up debate but going against the embedded US anti-drug rhetoric was going to be tough without it. With the UN meeting in Vienna this week to set international drug policy for the next decade, there has been a huge increase in media articles slamming the "War on Drugs" and prohibition. All these factors are unique in that, the public are finally being exposed to a barrage of science, facts and evidence to counter the steady stream of propaganda and anti-drug lies that has infested our lives for the last 39 years.

Obama on Drugs

Obama on Drugs Barrck Obama won the Democrats South Carolina primary today by a whopping 54% It was double that of closest Democrat, Hillary Clinton at 27% I was starting to think Hillary was going to continue her romp to the November election as the Democrats candidate and probably president of the US. What a relief! Hillary is just more of the same we are used to in American politics and being a democrat no longer means what it used to. The need for America to vote in some fresh blood and usher in some change is not just a slogan but a reality. With Blair and Howard gone, there needs to be an even bigger clean out of the nation that dictates so much world influence. My main hope is that the bizarre 'War on Drugs' gets to be properly debated as a growing power base has started to question the tactics that have failed so miserably. Obama has stated publicly that he doesn't want to legalise drugs but has hinted at revisiting the US policy. I have no idea if full legalisation would work but something has to be done and with the exception of Republican, Ron Paul, no other presidential contender would make any positive changes. Obama has admitted to using drugs several times and is often quizzed about his book "Dreams From My Father". He wrote that he had used marijuana and cocaine. He said he had not tried heroin because he did not like the pusher who was trying to sell it to him. "I had learned not to care," he wrote. 

"I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though. ..." 

("Blow" is a street name for cocaine. "Smack" is slang for heroin.) 

At Central High School in New Hampshire, he was asked to give the students a sense of his "human side," and what his life was like when he was in school. 

"I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof-off in high school ... I made some bad decisions that I've written about. There were times when I got into drinking and experimented with drugs ... There was a whole stretch of time when I didn't really apply myself a lot." Jay Leno asked him in Dec. 2006 if he smoked marijuana. 

"Not recently, that was in high school" Obama responded. Leno then asked, "Did you inhale?" alluding to Bill Clinton's famous dodge. "That was the point," Obama said.

I find it easy to like this man. He is not afraid to tell the truth and approaches subjects like drug use completely in contrast to other US politicians. In 2001, Obama questioned the tough penalties for drug dealing, pointing out that selling 15 tablets of Ecstasy was the same class of felony as raping a woman at knifepoint.

And this common sense discussion that must have had the conservatives ranting... We need to tackle the nexus of unemployment and crime in the inner city. The conventional wisdom is that most unemployed inner-city men could find jobs if they really wanted to work; that they inevitably prefer drug dealing, with its attendant risks but potential profits, to the low-paying jobs that their lack of skill warrants. In fact, economists who've studied the issue--and the young men whose fates are at stake--will tell you that the costs and benefits of the street life don't match the popular mythology: At the bottom or even the middle ranks of the industry, drug dealing is a minimum-wage affair. For many inner-city men, what prevents gainful employment is not simply the absence of motivation to get off the streets but the absence of a job history or any marketable skills--and, increasingly, the stigma of a prison record. We can assume that with lawful work available for young men now in the drug trade, crime in any community would drop. -Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.257-259 Oct 1, 2006 Interestingly, Obama does not want to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. The other titbit of information is that amazingly, Obama is a cigarette smoker. I have not seen a political leader admit to being a smoker for a long long time. I am sure this will become a key issue if he wins the Democrats pre selection. How can someone run a country if they are so weak that they can't even give up cigarettes? or if he can't give up nicotine ... can he give up his drugs? We'll see.