• Industrial utility:
• Hemp v. cannabis
• Cloth from bast-fiber, better than cotton (though not as soft), paper from hurd-pulp (without acids, less tree damage).
• Fuel (biomass, better than petroleum since no carbon dioxide increase, no greenhouse effect) and food (competitor with soy, very easily digestible vegetable protein called edestine). Need little fertilizer, resists pests, more adaptable to UV-B light.
• Medical regulation of glaucoma, cancer; cannabinol used for insomnia – active agent is DELTA-9-TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL (THC): slow to exit fat cells in body. Dr. Lester Grinspoon (marijuana reconsidered, 1971) found that decriminalized cannabis would only cost $20-30/oz. (30 cents/cigarette) while 1 dose of zofran (antiemetic) is $30-40.
• Prop 215 (1996, 56% yes, 44% no: still illegal to possess, but acknowledge utility for certain medical disorders (cancer, glaucoma, AIDS pain control, MS), less side effects than marinol; down side is that there may be carcinogenic problems, no regulation as per morphine/codeine, encourage lawlessness)

• Thought the readings were all pretty good. The Irvine Welsh is tough going as far as the reading, but he paints a vivid picture of heroin users in working class Edinburgh (say a word or two about Leith). The Schenck piece is brilliant as far as I’m concerned. I’d encourage everyone to read it twice. Prudential reasons (your teacher liked it – test) and good overview of what’s happening in America right now. One of the better syntheses of a lot of arguments about drugs (balanced by a review of the pharmaceutical industry). And the selection from Drug Crazy shows that the logical consequence of prohibitive measures is repression, clampdown.
• History: War on drugs can be traced over 80 years, indeed, over 90. Back to Food and Drug Act of 1906 (putting labels on products dropped narcotic use by 1/3). Effect of education? Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914: Hamilton Wright (Dr.) argued that opium and cocaine addiction could be prevented by criminalizing them (racist ideologies: "cocaine is often the direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negroes"). Prohibition begins in 1919. Prohibition ends in 1933. Marijuana Tax Act enacted in 1937 under Between 1973 and 78, marijuana possession was reduced to misdemeanor in 12 states (but no explosion in use).
• Main classifications of drugs (any substance that can alter biological function) (alcohol, caffeine, marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens [LSD, DMT, mushrooms, yage, peyote, cannabis], opiates [opium, heroin, morphine], amphetamines [speed, meth, uppers], barbituates [benzedrine, valium, downers], designer drugs [MDMA, MDA]). Of these, the ones that are most implicated in the war on drugs are clearly marijuana, cocaine (especially crack).
• Lots of rhetoric – media and ad people have donated 2.8 billion dollars to Partnership for a Drug Free America (96% remember the egg in the pan ad, and 98% of them know the message is drugs are bad for your brain). This is going to increase – now going to spend 195 million/year through 2004 on PDFA ads (vs. private donations).
• But despite all of the hype, it is very important to think clearly about questions of cause and relationship (mention the four types of relationship between drugs and behavior from last time again: spurious, direct causal, conditional causal, and common causal): Schenck pretty good at doing this, asks did the DRUG cause the shooting, or some deeper unhappiness that the individual tried to mask with drugs cause the shooting?
• Think clearly: Are drugs evil? Are medicines good? We may like their consequences, but when we play fast and loose with moral descriptors, we may come to reify our metaphors.
• Think clearly: Charles Tart’s Altered States of Consciousness. Bible of ASC work. Proud of my signed copy. Terms to know: SET and SETTING. Set is mental and emotional disposition. Setting is environment in which experience takes place. Have a great deal to do with interpretation of drugs, how they affect us.
• Causalties in the War on Drugs:
• Economic loss: (huge sink of tax revenues): Federal funding for 1998: 2.02 billion for BOP, 1.15 billion for DEA, 865 million for FBI, 815 million for Office of Justice Programs, 809 million for the DOD, 747 million for D of Edu, 35 million for FDA.
• In 1987, fed funding for war on drugs was 4.7 billion. In 1998, 16 billion. A 340% increase.
• Since 1970, federal antidrug budget has increased 3,700% -- laid out more than 300 billion in last 15 years (Schenck notes this is more than 3X as much as we spent on going to the moon)
• Conversely, from 1970 to 1988, inflation adjusted income of pharmaceutical companies has quadrupled to 81 billion – licit drug industry is becoming more lucrative as the illicit is becoming more penalized (use word intentionally)
• Penal state
• 1.5 million are arrested on drug charges each year (79% for simple possession), and more than 400,000 are in prisons for this

TOTAL BOP (FEDERAL) INMATE POPULATION: 131,633

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White: 76,268 (58.0%)

Black: 51,015 (38.7%)

Hispanic: 41,067 (31.2%)

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Robbery: 8,435 ( 8.1%)

Firearms, Explosives, Arson: 9,410 ( 9.0%)

Extortion, Fraud, Bribery: 5,378 ( 5.2%)

Property Offenses: 5,959 ( 5.7%)

Immigration: 6,918 ( 6.6%)

Continuing Criminal Enterprise: 675 ( 0.6%)

Courts or Corrections: 593 ( 0.6%)

National Security: 70 ( 0.1%)

Sex Offenses 810 ( 0.8%)

DOES NOT TAP CALIFORNIA (or other large state prison populations like TX, FL)

In 1987, Natl Law journal described prisons as "on the precipice" with 600K in prisons (more than populations of AK, VT, or WY). In 1989, soared to nearly 700K in prisons. More in prison than any other industrialized democracy. In 1989 426/100K in prison (unheard of in west) to 504 in 1991, then to 519 in 1993.

• Respect for the CJS: Not just the OJ trial, but the war on drugs is leading a lot of people – not just radicals, either – to ask why the government is still pursuing this course of action after 80 years of failure, why it isn’t diverting attention to attention, prevention?
• Proportionality: drugs get 82.4 months for 1^st time drug offense, whereas firearms gets 73.8, sexual abuse gets 66.9, assault gets 33.4, manslaughter gets 26.8, burglary gets 24.6, and auto theft gets 20 months. Reflect any kind of seriousness?
• Corruption: General Accounting Office report found that ½ of police officers convicted by FBI for corruption between 1993 and 97 were found guilty of drug-related offenses. Prohibition did this, too; by 1929, 25% of all federal agents had been fired for bribery, extortion, conspiracy, embezzlement, and submission of false reports (among others).
• Cops lie. Stretch to make a "good bust." Plant evidence. Have talked with them to this effect.
• Race: More than ½ of blacks arrested on drug charges get sentenced to time, while 1/3 of whites do. Average federal sentence is also longer for blacks by 50% than for whites. Due to felony convictions, more than 10% of black men have lost their right to vote (and 25% of black men are said to be ensnared in the CJS, in prison, jail, or on probation).
• Race linked. Crack cocaine associated with ghetto users. Quick intense high at an affordable price. Take you immediately out of the game. Crack cocaine is chemically identical to powder cocaine, delivery only difference, but is ALSO prosecuted very differently under federal sentencing guidelines. Mandatory laws require federal judges to convict anyone of possessing 5 grams of crack to 5 years in prison, minimum. It takes 100 times as much powdered cocaine and 20 times as much heroin to earn that sentence.
• Seizure – a major consideration: Supreme Court has ruled that personal property can be seized even if owner didn’t know it was being used for illegal activity. Even if acquitted, charges not filed, burden shifts to defendant to show that seized goods have no tie to drugs. 1993 Justice Dept. report noted: "Asset seizures play an important role in the operation of task forces. One big bust can provide a task force with the resources to become financially independent"
• Constitutional protections one of the most wounded in the war
• "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" (4^th Amendment, 1791): Great incursions under exigent circumstances.
• Terry stops: frisk without probable cause (safety for officer), extended in recent years (partially because of the drug crisis)
• Bennis v. Michigan (1996): Wife lost car (she’d paid most of it, working babysitting job) when husband was arrested for receiving oral sex from a prostitute after work. The seizure laws are runaway these days.
• Tecumseh (where D. Abrahamson is today): follow Vernonia (held that student athletes could be forced to submit to suspicionless drug testing, on safety grounds as well as paranoia about effects of drugs), argued now in OK that all students participating in extra-curriculars should be required to submit to random urinalysis.
• Wyoming v. Houghton (long held that can go through the driver’s bag during the stop of a car, but recently (1999) held that can search the bag of a passenger, even though the passenger has been ordered from the car, and can’t justify this on grounds of officer safety).
• Alternatives: How would something like a Dutch model (decriminalizing soft drugs) play out in an American setting? Needle exchange (as Mother Superior says, hygiene is important)
• Harm reduction. Consider education (and what is the difference between education and propaganda?). Consider counseling and treatment. Consider regulation (can limit to age like cigarettes, booze; can require prescription; can regulate dealers with licensing, hours of availability).