Posts in "Drug Legalization"

By Devon Minnema at 12:36PM

Dec 27, 2010

We Told You So -- Portugal's Drug Legalization

The Vacaville Reporter ran an AP Story by Barry Hatton and Martha Mendoza this morning announcing "Portugal's Drug Policy Pays Off." I don't like saying "we told you so," but it does feel good to say it after such a long and emotional debate to see the issue play out and prove true.

These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community -- mothers push baby strollers, men smoke outside cafes, buses chug up and down the cobbled main street.
Ten years ago, the Lisbon neighborhood was a hellhole, a "drug supermarket" where some 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneak into a hillside honeycomb of derelict housing to shoot up. In dark, stinking corners, addicts -- some with maggots squirming under track marks -- staggered between the occasional corpse, scavenging used, bloody needles.

L.E.A.P. come to Liberty University

L.E.A.P (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) is coming to Liberty University. President of L.E.A.P. Neil Franklin has agreed to come to Liberty to speak on the war on drugs in the United States and its consequences.

Franklin is a 33-year veteran of the Maryland State Police and the Baltimore Police forces. He oversaw 17 drug task forces, and instituted and directed the very first Domestic Violence Investigative Units for the Maryland State Police.

Neil Franklin will speak on November 18th at 7 P.M.

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By Wesley Messamore at 9:54PM

Jun 26, 2010

If Cannabis is Legalized, Portugal Could Be A Window into California's Future

In this video, I narrate my most recent article at CAIVN- Jack Hunter style. Opponents of cannabis legalization worry that it will have a detrimental effect on society. That feeling is understandable, but citing a Cato study, I take a look at Portugal where all drugs were decriminalized in 2001. Ten years later not only has Portugal avoided a nightmare of spiraling drug addiction, all signs indicate that drug use in Portugal has declined.

Take a look:

And please Digg it up. Don't have a Digg account? Get one!

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By Wesley Messamore at 2:09PM

Jun 15, 2010

The Government Wants You to Grow Cannabis!

Puts things in perspective a little (or maybe just confuses the crap out of you as it should):

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By Wesley Messamore at 2:41PM

Apr 28, 2010

Legalizing Marijuana More Popular Than Obama, Health Reform, and the War on Terror

From the California Independent Voter Network:

You read that right. Legalizing marijuana for recreational use by adults has more widespread support than President Obama's administration. Pot legalization is also more popular than the recent health care bill that passed in Congress and has higher approval ratings than our handling of the Global War on Terror...

On page four of AP/CNBC's poll report, respondents were asked if they thought the U.S. should treat marijuana and alcohol similarly. 44% thought that marijuana shouldn't be treated any differently than alcohol, while another 12% even wanted less strict rules for marijuana than for alcohol- making a whopping 56% in favor of pot legalization.

Read how marijuana legalization ranks against Obama's approval ratings, our handling of the War on Terror, and the number of Americans who support the new health care law here.

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By Shaun Bowen at 9:18PM

Apr 2, 2010

South Park Finally Tackles Drug Legalization

South Park has finally done and episode on marijuana legalization, joining the ranks of Family Guy and the Simpsons. The premise of the episode is that while in South Park medical marijuana is legal, KFC is not. Watch what happens as Cartman is driven to a black market to get his fix of The Colonel.

(Warning: South Park Studios is uncensored, so expect profanity in this clip.)

Watch the full episode here.

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By Matt Ciepielowski at 4:48PM

Mar 31, 2010

Prohibition through Taxation

Even as some pro-liberty activists push for marijuana legalization in California (Richard Lee, the sponsor of the ballot measure, even describes himself as a "Libertarian Republican") others are trying to use the referendum system to impose draconian taxes on alcohol. A proposed ballot measure would impose:

a 2700% increase in the excise tax for hard liquor (from $0.65 per 750 mL bottle to $17.57), a 5500% increase for beer (from $0.11 per six-pack to $6.08) and a whopping 12775% increase for wine (from $0.04 per 750 mL bottle to $5.11)

We'll probably see more and more sin taxes like these, on everything from tobacco to soda, as the government takes a bigger and bigger role in health care. Soon the state will be involving itself in everyone's unhealthy habits "for the greater good."

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By Matt Ciepielowski at 5:47PM

Mar 24, 2010

US to Escalate War on Drugs

Via BusinessWeek:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Mexican counterpart agreed to aid impoverished border towns and improve law enforcement cooperation, expanding a military offensive against illegal drug trafficking.
“The narcotics cartels are waging war on civil society,” Clinton told reporters....The group reviewed the next steps in combating drug traffickers as a three-year, U.S. program that provided $1.3 billion of mostly military equipment and training to Mexico approaches its end. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has put about 50,000 troops into the fight, particularly in border towns, only to see violence continue to escalate.

Of course, Clinton has already indicated that she won't do what is actually necessary to stop the violence in Mexico: legalizing drugs. According to the Huffington Post,

Clinton said the administration is "looking at everything that can work" to combat the drug cartels. But when asked by a reporter whether that included considering decriminalizing narcotics in the United States, she replied with a single word: "No."

So we are looking into everything that can work, except for the one thing that actually could work.

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By Rachel Kania at 8:35PM

Nov 10, 2009

SFL E-Leadership Online Lecture

Join the online lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Miron from Harvard University on "An Economic Analysis of Drug Legalization."

Dr. Miron is the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.

The talk will present economic arguments for drug legalization and discuss the evidence pertaining to this analysis. An important theme will be that that even if drug consumption is undesirable, prohibition is probably the worst possible approach for addressing these harms. At the same time, alternative approaches – including sin taxes, education campaigns, or subsidized treatment – have their own undesirable side effects. Thus, it is possible if not likely that a laissez-faire approach to drug consumption is the best that society can achieve.