Investigating "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding" Part I

I hope this is people’s first time reading that title. Struggling to title my blog I found the answer was right under my nose. I wanted people to understand why I believe marijuana will be decriminalized soon and not think I am crazy. Hidden deeper was a desire for others to understand me, or at least my perspective on life. Discovering that President Nixon appointed a commission in 1971 to investigate cannabis sativa led me to believe there was hope.

The Schafer commission was headed by Raymond Philip Schafer, a Republican governor from Pennsylvania. Nixon selected nine members of the bipartisan commission, while congress appointed the other four. Their task was to investigate our country’s laws regarding marihuana and drug abuse in the US. They wrote two reports addressing Congress, the President, and the public.

The report can be found here, from druglibrary.org. It is long and boring to read at times, but its findings are very interesting. Especially considering this was a conservative commission, Nixon hoped they would deliver the proof he needed to start his “war on drugs”.

The report shocked people who knew about its findings, and was deemed irrelevant for the rest of America. Amid rumors over the commission’s findings Nixon began blasting their leader and other members. Ruining the members’ credibility and casting their report to insignificance. It was successful, their recommendations were ignored and Nixon’s “drug war” started a business that would grow into wasting billions of taxpayers’ dollars.

Think that billion dollar figure was bizarre? The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has a projected 2009 budget of over 14 billion dollars. ONDCP director, the “Drug Czar” was elevated to a cabinet-level status in 1993. However, this policy was reversed recently by President Obama when appointing new director Gil Kerlikowske. The press release from the White House can be read here. Kerlikowske is a military veteran with over 30 years of law enforcement experience; his previous position was Seattle’s chief of police.

Take a look at what ABC news says about the new “Drug Czar". Kerlikowske began his law enforcement career in 1972; his predecessor in Seattle was Norm Stamper. Stamper was a police officer for 34 years, is the author of “Breaking Rank: a Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing” and a strong advocate for marijuana policy reform. While our new Drug Czar’s views may not be as radical as Stamper’s, he is clearly open to the discussion. Seattle’s lowest law enforcement priority was the prosecution of small marijuana crimes; Washington is one of our 13 states with laws protecting medical marijuana patients.

The current administration’s recent statements and actions are indications of groundbreaking change in drug policy reform that should continue. I hope they will help lead our country down a scientific approach and a more sensible path to resolve this issue. Tomorrow I’ll be posting part II, with more details from The Schafer Report and about the ONDCP. Our politicians’ ignorance in the past has helped lead to our current “Drug War” crisis, don’t let America’s other problems blind you. Addressing and fixing our country’s drug problem will have a ripple effect across our Country and the world that no one can calculate.

Introduction to A Signal of Misunderstanding

I wanted an outlet. So I am giving in and starting a blog. I don’t have any idea what people will think about my perspective on life. It will probably be boring to most who stumble across it. I hope others will find it unique and something they enjoy reading. I spend countless hours surfing the web, reading anything that I might find interesting. I have a theory: sharing this information along with some of my opinions could help me justify my addiction to the internet. I’ll offer opinions on some of my hobbies; sports, books, TV, film, poker, and reading news online. I am a couch potato at heart and there are some sites I need to check every day.

Recently I have also started to get behind the effort to end America’s war on drugs. There is countless evidence that has made me believe America’s “war on drugs” is ending, one goal in this experiment is to help people understand why I believe this. Or you could say, to get people to stop looking at me like I am crazy for believing our government can make this massive shift to a sensible drug policy. I do smoke marijuana, so call me a pothead, but it doesn't change our failure to address this problem.

I have a lot of issues with this war we wage against our families; it is widespread in countries across the globe. This problem starts and stops with the United States. The New York Times discusses Hillary Clinton's admission that the US fuels the drug trade's rising violence on our Mexican border. We need to restore our leadership position in the world. A fair examination of our drug policy could help illustrate to the world that America can admit and correct past mistakes. I realize that is a strong statement and I believe drug abuse should be considered a public health concern not a criminal justice issue. Therefore we have been trying to address this issue using the wrong techniques and have only made this problem worst.

Our country has a lot of problems right now and I believe addressing our flawed criminal justice system is one of the many steps America needs to take to revitalize it. Senator Jim Webb recently introduced The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009; his Parade magazine cover story had some interesting stats. Below are some quotes from the story. I consider this legislation a critical cog in the rebuilding process America is going through. "Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals." Is one alarming fact the Senator cites on his web portal for the bill.

"America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness."

"The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners."

"All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year."