Drug Prohibition: Still Stupid

[Pertinacious Tom]

Some pharmacies in Mexico passing off fentanyl, meth as legitimate pharmaceuticals

One author of that article was the subject of another recent one:

Keri Blakinger is many things: a former elite figure skater, an Ivy League graduate, a prolific criminal-justice journalist, a convicted felon.

What's going on in Mexican pharmacies is bad but the usual answer of cracking down still won't do anything but drive the black market elsewhere, where it won't be any better.

Even with fentanyl, imprisoning users isn't a great answer. It wasn't with alcohol either.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Makers of Moonshine

FL cracker style. An old cop once told my dad that "there was a still under every palmetto" back then.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

California might allow cannabis cafes

Last week, California State Assemblymember Matt Haney (D–San Francisco) introduced a bill that would allow licensed cannabis sellers in the state to also sell non-intoxicating foods and beverages to their adult customers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week.


The new bill, A.B. 374, would amend California law to allow licensees to sell freshly made foods that don't contain cannabis and beverages that don't contain alcohol. The bill would also allow sellers to host live musical performances and to sell tickets to same. The bill's passage would meet a growing need—and could result in a welcome proliferation of authentic cannabis cafes and similar businesses.


"Many people want to consume cannabis socially while having a sandwich or listening to music," Haney told the Chronicle. "We should allow that."


We should! Mostly, though, we don't.


In states such as California, where adults can legally buy cannabis, a common problem arises. Other than partaking inside one's home, legal spaces for cannabis consumption—third places—are limited or nonexistent. Commercial establishments where people may legally buy and eat food and buy and drink alcohol are ubiquitous—from bars and restaurants to sports stadiums to concert venues and more. But equivalent, Amsterdam-style spaces in which to enjoy cannabis with food are largely nonexistent.
...

Speaking of Amsterdam, they might quit allowing outdoor smoking.

Amsterdam moves to become less tourist/vice-friendly. "Smoking cannabis on the street in Amsterdam's red light district will soon be illegal," reports The Guardian. And city council members are considering a rule barring cannabis café customers from smoking on terraces too.

These are just a few of the measures that the Dutch city and popular travel destination is implementing or considering in order to make the city less of a tourist hot spot—and less profitable for bars, restaurants, shops, sex workers, cannabis cafés, and other businesses
...

They're also proposing making the hookers close up shop at 3 am instead of 6.

And that's it for today's episode of Meddlesome Fucks Around The World!

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

When you end alcohol prohibition but leave the state completely in charge of selling it, what happens?

Exactly what you'd expect: corrupt cronyism.

Oregon's Whiskey Ring Shows Perils of State Liquor Control

...
According to reports from The Oregonian, top government officials at the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) have been siphoning off elite and hard-to-obtain bourbons, such as various Pappy Van Winkle varieties, for their personal use. Even more explosively, OLCC officials reported also securing rare bourbons "hundreds of times" at the request of state lawmakers and other interests.

Oregon is one of 17 states known as a "control state" in which the government operates either the wholesaling and/or retailing of distilled spirits in the state. Nearly all the liquor the state receives goes to one warehouse, from which it is then distributed to various retailing outlets, known as "contract stores," that are operated by state-appointed liquor agents.

The way the OLCC siphoning process worked was alarmingly simple. The OLCC officials would email the warehouse supervisor, ask for a bottle to be set aside, then arrange to pick it up at the most convenient contract store. The warehouse supervisor reported that the practice predated her tenure at the OLCC, which means that it has been going on for at least eight years and likely for well over a decade.

This scandal is notably reminiscent of the recent Virginia whiskey scandal, in which a former employee of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority was caught selling insider information on which state-run liquor stores were expected to receive new caches of rare whiskeys.

At this point, it is evident that control state models are particularly ill-suited to handling the recent "bourbon bubble." Given that bourbon is enjoying a near-unprecedented popularity boom—combined with the fact that one cannot, by definition, simply ramp up production of 10- and 15-year whiskeys overnight—bourbon prices have skyrocketed.

In a control state, however, prices cannot float effectively to meet market demand. Rather, these states impose uniform government-mandated markups that lead to situations where a bottle of bourbon that might be worth $2,000 on the secondary (illegal) market is selling for $100–200 dollars in a state-run store. Inevitably, the rush to obtain these bottles is enormous and creates ideal conditions for insider jobs and abuses of power.

In contrast, if a private liquor store owner in a noncontrol state decides to hold back numerous bottles of rare whiskey for himself, he only hurts his own bottom line—and potentially turns off customers who would otherwise frequent his store. The customers themselves, in turn, can vote with their feet and instead start buying their booze from the competitor down the street.
...

 

[MR.CLEAN]

When you end alcohol prohibition but leave the state completely in charge of selling it, what happens?

Exactly what you'd expect: corrupt cronyism.

No shit right? I guess we have to thank Jesus's agents on earth.

 

[jocal505]

Pertinacious Tom, Today at 1:49 AM​

...
According to reports from The Oregonian, top government officials at the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) have been siphoning off elite and hard-to-obtain bourbons, such as various Pappy Van Winkle varieties, for their personal use.

Pick your naughtiness. Being cute, while very much breaking the law.

Yeah, sometimes it starts as naughtiness, and becomes an urban culture problem.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Biden's Marijuana Pardons Did Not Free a Single Federal Prisoner or Deliver the Expungement He Promised

Four Months After Biden Promised Marijuana Pardons, He Has Not Issued Any

Put a career drug warrior in charge of ending the stupid drug war and it's going to go about like this:

It has been more than four months since President Joe Biden announced that he would pardon people convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal or D.C. law. At the time, the Justice Department said it would "expeditiously administer the President's proclamation." Toward that end, it said, "the Office of the Pardon Attorney will begin implementing a process to provide impacted individuals with certificates of pardon," thereby "restoring political, civil, and other rights." Yet according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney's website, "the Application for Certificate of Pardon for Simple Possession of Marijuana is not yet available."

It's not clear what the holdup is. I've asked the Justice Department and will update this post if and when I receive a reply. But Biden, after reaping political benefits by announcing the pardons a month before the midterm elections, has not actually issued any. He got good press and may have helped Democrats in the midterms by motivating voters who care about drug policy reform. But his promise remains just that until he does what he said he would do.
...

He does still get credit for at least starting to talk about fulfilling his campaign promise. That's quite a turnaround for a career drug warrior like Biden, though I note no signs of progress on the Reagan/Biden drug war looting programs.

 

[Gouvernail]

Celebrating Tom resurrecting his old threads week!!!

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Jimmy Carter Sparked a Craft Beer Explosion by Getting Government Out of the Way

When President Jimmy Carter signed a bill legalizing homebrewing in 1978, fewer than 100 breweries were operating in the United States. Two years ago, a study of the country's beer scene found nine metropolitan areas with more than 100 active breweries.

...Carter's deregulation of homebrewing was a seminal moment. By scrapping a Prohibition-era law that mainly served to limit competition in the brewing market, he gave Americans the freedom to try out a new hobby—and some of them quickly turned professional.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, widely recognized as one of the first true craft breweries in the country, was launched in 1980 by Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, who started making beer at home. Jim Koch, who founded Sam Adams Brewery in 1984, similarly got his start by brewing at home. Neither of those brands would likely exist today without Carter.
...

I'm not a big beer drinker but happen to know that the Icehouse here in little old Fat Point has any kind of beer you could possibly want. Thanks, Jimmy!!

Now we should get around to letting people make our own whisky. There's a much bigger tax problem with that one though, so it's unlikely to happen. We'll continue to have century-old laws protecting a few big distillers.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

There are some reputable studies linking long-term inhalation of cannabis smoke with increased levels of paranoia...

Why do you lie?

Same reason as your fellow authoritarian drug warriors or do you have an original reason?

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Oklahoma Votes To Remain Stupid

Sort of...

...
Oklahoma's medical marijuana program, which is open to adults 18 or older, does not have a list of qualifying conditions, relying instead on physician discretion. As of August 2021, about 376,000 Oklahoma patients—12 percent of the adult population—had active licenses. According to survey results published last year, the conditions most commonly reported by licensees were anxiety (43 percent), depression (33 percent), sleep problems (27 percent), chronic pain (24 percent), and arthritis (13 percent).

The liberality of Oklahoma's medical marijuana program helps explain why the state has so many licensed growers (nearly 8,000) and dispensaries (more than 2,600). By comparison, Colorado, with a population about 46 percent larger, has between 700 and 800 stores selling medical and/or recreational marijuana.

"I feel like we already have recreational marijuana," Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt told The New York Times before the election. "It just doesn't seem like there are any barriers. Right now, I'm well aware there's a dispensary on every corner." The Times said Oklahoma activists hoped that "laissez-faire economic attitudes and growing support for marijuana legalization among younger Republicans could provide a pathway for recreational-use measures through the country's conservative heartland."

As economists Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner note in Can Legal Weed Win?, Oklahoma became an improbable model for marijuana reformers troubled by the problems that states like California have encountered in trying to displace the black market. Medical marijuana in Oklahoma is strikingly cheap and accessible, thanks largely to fast application approvals, low license fees, light regulation, and modest taxes. "When the bluest of blue-state liberal activists are looking to red states for guidance on regulatory policy," Goldstein and Sumner observe, "you know something's gone haywire."

I don't think it's "haywire" or even a bit surprising that taxes and regulatory barriers are lower in OK than in CA.

Seems that they're better at allowing cannabis businesses than they are at admitting that's what they are doing.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

In Libertarian Land, if you want to sell dope, you can sell dope.

If someone wants to sell drugs, they should at the least have to say what it is they are selling. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1903 worked then and works now. It is our only drug control law that has ever reduced addiction.

And then there's what I've been saying here for over a decade. But you'll continue to hear what you want, I suppose. It's kind of fun framing your distortion as a response to what I actually said. I call it the Olsonist treatment.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

TeamR's Military Version of the Stupid Drug War

...
One Mexico hawk, Rep. Mike Waltz (R–Fla.), has said the U.S. has a proven track record when it comes to fighting drug cartels with military might. "We've done this before," he said in January. "We had Plan Colombia then. We had special operations training." Plan Colombia had counternarcotics and counterterrorism elements and cost the U.S. roughly $12 billion between 2000 and 2021.


As Cato Institute Policy Analyst Daniel Raisbeck has written for Reason, Plan Colombia's aid did initially "help the Colombian military to severely weaken the once-formidable [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)]. But Plan Colombia's anti-narcotics element was an unqualified failure."
...
American counternarcotics efforts yielded similarly bad results in Afghanistan. The U.S. spent about $9 billion to tackle Afghanistan's opium and heroin production, only for the effort to be "perhaps the most feckless" of "all the failures in Afghanistan," according to The Washington Post's analysis of confidential government interviews and documents. By 2018, Afghan farmers were growing poppies on four times as much land as they were in 2002. Operation Iron Tempest, meant to cripple Afghanistan's opium production labs, folded within a year. "Many of the suspected labs turned out to be empty, mud-walled compounds," noted the Post.
...

I agree that we have done this before, so at least we can find one area of agreement, but repeating a couple of abject failures makes me tired of all the winning.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

When the nanny state actually takes kids

...
According to the Lookout, it seems that DCS first became involved after receiving an incorrect report stating that both parents were arrested—a scenario that would require the involvement of child protective services to ensure the children were cared for. However, the caseworkers still proceeded after finding that only Williams had been arrested. The Lookout reports that caseworkers obtained an emergency custody petition on the premise that "the children were neglected and there was no 'less drastic' alternative to taking the children from their parents."

Further, the Lookout reports that when Clayborne and Williams were subjected to urine drug tests six days later. Williams tested positive for marijuana, while Clayborne's test came back negative. However, when the couple was given rapid hair follicle drug tests, both tested positive for methamphetamines, fentanyl, and oxycodone. Both Williams and Clayborne deny using those drugs. And according to one Coffee County court administrator, the rapid hair follicle drug tests are "not court admissible."

Nevertheless, DCS argued in a petition to keep the children that "as a result of the drug screens, the children should be deemed to be severely abused." The couple's lawyers told the Lookout that they planned on challenging the results of the drug test but were told that the drug court does not "hold onto" the results of the tests.

The ordeal has placed tremendous emotional and financial strain on the couple. Their children are held in Tennessee, though the family lives in Georgia, necessitating frequent, costly trips. Clayborne told the Lookout that the children are incredibly distressed by the separation, and "her children cry when she speaks to them on the phone, and grab onto her when she ends her visits with them."

Unfortunately, Williams and Clayborne aren't alone. According to one study from Washington University in St. Louis researchers, as many as 1 in 3 children are the subject of a child protective services investigation by the time they turn 18. For black families, like Clayborne and Williams, the numbers are even more troubling—with over half of black children estimated to be the subject of an investigation.

"I just have to believe if my clients looked different or had a different background, they would have just been given a citation and told you just keep this stuff away from the kids while you're in this state and they'd be on their way," the couple's attorney told the Lookout.

On the bright side, this episode of Reefer Madness should result in some kids who grow up not liking the stupid drug war very much.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

Here you go Tom - a drug outrage for breakfast

Two US mothers sue hospitals over drug tests after eating poppy seed bagels

New Jersey mothers allege hospitals performed tests without consent and say poppy seeds were reason for false positive results

www.theguardian.com

 

[veni vidi vici]

Yes … decriminalize it all !

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Ethan Nadelmann: How To Legalize All Drugs

Podcast.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Here you go Tom - a drug outrage for breakfast

Two US mothers sue hospitals over drug tests after eating poppy seed bagels

New Jersey mothers allege hospitals performed tests without consent and say poppy seeds were reason for false positive results

www.theguardian.com

I'm with the ACLU as usual. From their complaint:

Upon admission, HUMC collected Kate’s urine to perform a drug test without her
knowledge or informed consent. HUMC conducted the test only because Kate was
pregnant, even though there was no medical necessity or justification for testing Kate
specifically or perinatal patients generally.

The ACLU says those tests violate state law. Maybe they do. Even if they don't, why is a corporation being deputized (or deputizing itself) to fight the stupid drug war this way?

 

[veni vidi vici]

I'm with the ACLU as usual. From their complaint:



The ACLU says those tests violate state law. Maybe they do. Even if they don't, why is a corporation being deputized (or deputizing itself) to fight the stupid drug war this way?

ACLU is long past its prime and is as bigoted as those it was formed to protect society from.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

ACLU is long past its prime and is as bigoted as those it was formed to protect society from.

Does that somehow mean they're wrong about those drug tests?

I think they're right.