MAPTalk-Digest Wednesday, December 5 2007 Volume 07 : Number 127
001 US CA: Gone with the weed
From: Allan Erickson <>
002 Why World AIDS DayShould Highlight the Need For Medical Cannabis
From: Allan Erickson <>
003 Raise a glass to your 21st amendment
From: Herb <>
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Subj: 001 US CA: Gone with the weed
From: Allan Erickson <>
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 08:08:56 -0800
Newshawk: allan
Webpage:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-weed4dec04,0,4139114.story?
coll=3Dla-opinion-center
Pubdate: Tue, 04 Dec 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Contact:
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Gone with the weed
How The Times' editorial board went from uptight to groovy on the issue =20
of marijuana.
It took decades for the Los Angeles Times to come to its current
position on marijuana, supporting its medical use and advocating
lenient enforcement and penalties for small-scale possession. Barring a =20
1914 editorial suggesting the legalization of opium to reap tariff
revenue, The Times' editorial board acted as an unrelenting drug
warrior, even using war terminology before "war on drugs" rhetoric
ramped up in the 1970s and 1980s.
On Dec. 5, 1956, The Times showed no mercy for a marijuana salesman:
A man convicted of selling dope to a minor may have 15 years in which =20
to think it over, which should be sufficient to make others careful at =20
least.... These were the first sentences locally under the new Federal =20
narcotics law passed at the last session of Congress. This law
considerably increases penalties and provides a death sentence for sale =20
of heroin to a minor.
The setting of such an example should strike fear into the dope
peddlers, who are not deterred by conscience.
Three years later, on July 12, 1959, editorial board responded to a
Pulitzer-Prize-winning Times series on narcotics that starkly depicted =20
addicts in Southern California:
[T]he temptation to treat the narcotic traffic as a feature of an
otherworld underworld is very strong. The result is that most people
who sincerely believe that they have a certain minimum responsibility =20
as their brother's keeper do not think of the dope peddler or his
victim, the addict, as a derelict brother but as somebody as alien from =20
them as the primitive Patagonian.... Nothing can be done about the
inveterate addict. He is as damned in this world as Judas is in the
next.
After the series ended a week later, The Times used its reportage as
the basis for its fight-drugs-abroad stance. Until the 1980s, The Times =20
would continually emphasize the need for Mexico to enforce drug laws at =20
the border:
Every legitimate feature of the U.S.-Mexican relationship presses for a =20
cleanup of the miserable narcotics traffic. It has helped to make the =20
boundary of the U.S. and Mexican Californias the dividing line between =20
respectable prosperity and squalid depravity. There is no reason why
northern good living should not overflow the frontier =97 no reason
except the tolerance on the southern side of the most inhuman of human =20
indecencies.
The Times sounded that note again on May 31, 1962, broadening its call =20
to include other countries:
President Kennedy has announced that a White House Conference on
Narcotics will at long last be held late this summer. This may be a
breakthrough in the war against a terrible enemy.... The fact is that =20
the narcotics traffic is not only a national threat, directly or
indirectly affecting every citizen, but is also an international
problem. Heroin and marijuana must be imported from other countries,
and thus far virtually nothing has been done to cut the foreign roots =20
of the vile commerce.
A year later, on Nov. 6, 1963, The Times shows, between editorials
filled with high-pitched anti-drug rhetoric, an early glimmer of a
sense of humor on drug issues:
That report about marijuana-hooked mice in the Hall of Justice
horrifies even the unimaginative. Suppose word gets around in mousedom? =20
Evolution would go into reverse. Hopped-up mice might take over the
world. Cats would become as extinct as brontosaurus. Human beings would =20
be half-tolerated, usually behind the woodwork, or bred for laboratory =20
experiments.... We are frightened.
On Aug. 18, 1966, The Times was serious again, but managed to sneak in =20
a pun:
A huge task force of Mexican agents backed by troops has launched a
"sweep" operation along the border, aimed at curbing this evil.... Such =20
activity on the part of our good southern neighbor, pursued vigorously =20
and consistently, should help ease the heavy burden carried by state, =20
local and federal authorities in the United States, by nipping the
illicit traffic literally in the bud.
By Oct. 29, 1967, The Times had to address the push to legalize
marijuana. It came out swinging:
We strongly believe=85that marijuana poses a threat to society, and that
legislation outlawing it should remain in force.... Experts note that =20
marijuana smoking, though not a true addiction, quickly becomes a
habit. In some cases it leads to experimentation with genuinely
addictive agents, such as heroin, and from there to crime to support
use of that expensive drug.... It requires little imagination to see
how young people can be dared or challenged or teased into their first =20
marijuana cigarette.... The Times strongly believes=85that nothing
should
be done with present laws that could be construed as making more
permissive, and thus encouraging, the use of marijuana.
But within two years =97 and they happened to be those key late-1960s =20
ones =97 The Times softened. On May 12, 1969, it wrote:
There is a growing realization that the penalties for simple possession =20
or use of marijuana are too harsh and unrealistic, particularly for
young first-time offenders.... Why=85is a second-time drunk driver =97 a
potential killer =97 given only a five-day mandatory jail sentence while
a student caught smoking marijuana may be subject to years in the
penitentiary?.... The Times does not condone the use of marijuana. By =20
no means. It is a dangerous thing, a dangerous habit, and every effort =20
must be made to stamp out the ugly traffic.... Branding a youthful
marijuana experimenter as a felon gives him a criminal record for life. =20
Therein lies the fault of the present system.
The Times continued its easy stance, mixed with a bit of its old
morality, on March 26, 1972:
The best approach would seem to be a pragmatic one, to regard private =20
marijuana smoking essentially as one of those "victimless crimes" where =20
social harm is slight or nonexistent, where interference by authority =20
is not really necessitated by any demonstrable threat to the community. =20
What an individual chooses to do in privacy is his business alone,
provided no harm is done to others. That choice may not be wise, or
likely to win moral approval, nor is there need to sanction it by law. =20
But neither is there need for interference by authority....
But when Proposition 19 aimed to legalize the personal use and
possession of marijuana, The Times said no on Sep. 13, 1972:
We believe decisions ought to be made more carefully, and frankly, more =20
reluctantly. The spread of drugs in America is of major concern.
Perhaps marijuana can some day be separated from the terrible hard
drugs, and made legal, like alcohol. But the linkage between pot
smoking and hard drugs, though discounted, is not disproven.
Despite its firm "no" on legalization, The Times did continue to
advocate reducing penalties on march 5, 1975, writing in favor of a
state bill to do just that:
What the bill says, in effect, is that the use of marijuana is a crime =20
=97 but only for two years. Defendants would not have to endure the
lifetime stigma of a record. That seems a most humane and progressive =20
approach.
Two years later, on Aug. 4, 1977, The Times is still against
legalization:
If Congress follows President carter's urging and removes the federal =20
criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of marijuana, the
action will neither reduce arrests dramatically nor end federal efforts =20
to curtail marijuana traffic.
On Feb. 14, 1979, The Times printed its first editorial in favor of
medical marijuana =97 a position it continues to hold today:
When safe and effective medicinal means are available to alleviate
human pain and distress, those means ought to be made available to
physicians for use by their patients. To add to the suffering often
imposed by disease the cruelty of withholding therapeutic relief is
inhumane and, we suggest, immoral.... Marijuana has been shown to be
effective in the treatment of many patients stricken with glaucoma or =20
suffering side effects from the therapeutic treatment of cancer....
California now has the opportunity to become the second state to
sanction the controlled prescription of marijuana.... We urge the
Legislature to act speedily to make that opportunity a reality.
By Oct. 5, 1986, The Times dropped the last vestige of its
tough-on-drugs past, arguing that the international drug war wasn't
working:
The Reagan Administration, pressing its luck after what it calls a
successful anti-drug campaign involving U.S. troops in Bolivia, has
begun to discuss similar deployments with other South American
nations.... The United States may gain a little in its struggle to be =20
drug-free with such drug raids, but they create political turmoil for =20
poor, drug-producing nations like Bolivia that will continue long after =20
U.S. troops are gone.... The raids are dramatic, but the war on drugs =20
will not be won on foreign battlefields.... The real key to stopping
illegal drugs is to persuade the prosperous consumers of the
industrialized world not to use them.
Even when the war was looking up, on Sept. 7, 1988, The Times stuck to =20
its guns:
Despite some recent highly publicized successes, the Reagan
Administration's so-called War on Drugs remains at best a stalemate =97 =20
especially along its most important front, in Latin America. The only =20
conclusion we can draw is that =97 regardless of the time, money and
manpower being devoted to attack narcotics trafficking as a police
problem =97 the dirty business is thriving. It does so precisely because
it is a business, and like any business it succeeds by responding to
one of the fundamental laws of economics =97 supply and demand.... This =20
is why the real answer to the problems that are posed by cocaine and
other illegal drugs lies not in cutting off the supply but in limiting =20
the demand.
And on April 4, 1990, before the non-inhaling president took office,
The Times asked everyone to layoff a baby boomer who admitted using
marijuana:
Like all too many baby boomers, T. Timothy Ryan, who is currently the =20
Bush Administration's nominee to head the Treasury Department's Office =20
of Thrift Supervision, smoked marijuana and tried cocaine about 20
years ago during the freer, flower-power era that stretched into the
early 1970s.... Ryan's candor =97 and regret =97 concerning his casual
drug
use is being used against him.... Americans are far less tolerant of
social drug use than they were 20 years ago, with good reason. But this =20
kind of persecution =97 who used drugs and when did they use them? =97 =20
should be discouraged to avoid blacklisting an entire generation.
And when Bill Clinton was about to take office, on Jan. 4, 1993, The
Times hoped his administration would refocus anti-drug efforts:
America's drug policy =97 a lethal mix of dead-end positions and unfair =20
laws =97 is now at a crisis state. And this is where the Clinton
Administration comes in. In his choice of the new federal drug czar,
President-elect Bill Clinton can redirect American policy away from its =20
no-win position. He knows, or should know, that there is no magic
bullet; but there is a very fast-growing consensus, especially among
caring and committed law enforcement people as well as among health
professionals, that America's drug problem is America's problem =97 not =20
Bolivia's or Thailand's =97 and that the way out of the problem is to =20
take on the drug habit directly here in the United States. That means =20
America must stop practicing denial and realize that it has a serious =20
drug problem and needs national AA-type programs to kick the habit and =20
clean itself up.
But on Oct. 23, 1996, The Times came out against Proposition 215, which =20
would legalize medical marijuana use. It's reasoning? Sloppy language:
Nobody's joking about Proposition 215, despite the laughs it got when =20
state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren got into a flap with Zonker, the eternal =20
hippie of the "Doonesbury" comic strip.... Proposition 215, an
initiative on the November ballot, would allow marijuana to be used for =20
medical purposes.... But while supporters of Proposition 215 insist
that its "meaning and intent" is simply to allow seriously and
terminally ill patients to use marijuana, the measure would in fact do =20
far more than that. It would allow physicians to prescribe marijuana
not only for life-threatening illnesses like cancer but for "arthritis, =20
migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief."
That phrase is a major, fatal flaw.
But the proposition passed, and The Times tried to get state and
federal lawmakers to clean up the law in several editorials, including =20
this one on Nov. 29, 1998:
Much confusion could have been avoided had Gov. Pete Wilson signed into =20
law a bill that would have provided marijuana to seriously ill patients =20
suffering from AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis. Those are much
stricter definitions than Proposition 215 contained. But Wilson vetoed =20
the bill twice. Marijuana is dangerous. It can impair defenses against =20
bacteria and can cause neurological impairment in the long term. But
properly controlled, it can reduce pain. The federal government could =20
help clear matters up.
And even as late as March 14, 1999, The Times wasn't ready to give into =20
"the people's will" on that proposition:
When Californians passed Proposition 215 in 1996 to legalize the
medical use of marijuana, then-Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren pledged never to =20
implement the measure, dismissing it as a "disaster" that will cause
"an unprecedented mess." Its status has been further clouded by adamant =20
federal refusal to recognize the California law and by the absence of =20
any state guidance to law enforcement agencies. Now, Lungren's
successor, Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, has changed the course of
implementing the voter-approved initiative. Working with police chiefs, =20
narcotics officers and medicinal marijuana advocates, he has promised =20
to find ways to implement what he calls "the people's will." That
sounds like a lot of leeway. The right path for California lies in more =20
in the center of the debate.
But by Aug. 31, 2000, The Times was ready to defend California's law
against federal government intrusion:
A confrontation has been escalating between the state of California and =20
the federal government since the state legalized medicinal marijuana in =20
1996. The big artillery came into play Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme
Court issued a temporary injunction barring distribution of marijuana =20
in the state for any use, even for terminal cancer patients. It is an =20
impasse that could have been predicted. It could also have been
prevented if the Clinton administration had shown responsible
leadership on the issue. The Clinton administration is obviously
reluctant to be seen as sanctioning a drug that many Americans
associate with the drug-abusing excesses of the 1960s, including those =20
of the president who "never inhaled." In fact, moving marijuana to
Schedule 2 would help rein in potential abuses....
The Times has kept up that defense through the Bush years, finally
relenting to the shift in public opinion on July 7, 2004:
It isn't surprising that the Bush administration clashed with
California over its 1996 voter initiative that approved medical use of =20
marijuana under remarkably liberal conditions. The Justice Department =20
raided medical pot farms, arrested medical pot distributors and
threatened to prosecute doctors for recommending or prescribing
marijuana to AIDS and cancer patients and other chronically ill people. =20
Today, however, the Justice Department's medical marijuana war seems
increasingly out of step with the whole country.
------------------------------
Subj: 002 Why World AIDS DayShould Highlight the Need For Medical Cannabis
From: Allan Erickson <>
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 20:06:34 -0800
Why World AIDS DayShould Highlight the Need For Medical Cannabis
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?
AID=16846
ae
http://morningdonut.blogspot.com/
- ---
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Subj: 003 Raise a glass to your 21st amendment
From: Herb <>
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 15:36:23 -0800
http://media.www.bsudailynews.com/media/storage/paper849/news/2007/12/
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Attachment: http://mapinc.org/temp/13kgknc3kpan_.html
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End of MAPTalk-Digest V07 #127
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