Power To The People: The Story Of John Sinclair

Nothing like a happy story to start off your Saturday. If you are as young as me, you might not know about how John Sinclair was jailed for almost ten years and subsequently freed. This is a story of how the people (and a few celebrity-musicians) came out of their houses and got together to show the powers that ridiculous drug laws are unfair and should not be used to persecute activists like John Sinclair.

Three days after a rally of 15,000 people coalesced to have him relieved of his sentence, he was freed.

Feinstein Claims War Supporters Are High

It isn't too often you hear U.S. Senators talk about drugs except when it is to crack down on them. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) bucked that trend last night.

Sen. Norm Coleman, Former Pothead, Current Hypocrite

Ah Republicans, they say one thing and do the other. Case in point, Senator Norm Coleman. Norm has been a strong defender of the strict marijuana laws on the Federal books, echoing his party's cries to throw the key away for drug offenders. Unfortunately for the Senator, his old friend from college wrote him an open letter on celebstoner.com chastising him for his policy reversal and reminding him that he loved to get high.

From Celebstoner:

Dear Mr. Coleman,

My friend Norman.

Years ago, in a lifetime far away, you did not oppose the legalization of marijuana. Years ago, in our dorm rooms at Hofstra University, you, me, Billy, your future brother-in-law, Ivan, Jonathan, Peter, Janet, Nancy and a wealth of other students smoked dope.

Sure, we had to tape the doors shut, burn incense and open the windows, but we got high, and yet we grew up okay, without the help of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's advice.

We grew up to become lawyers. Our other friends, as you go down the list, are doctors, professors, parents, political consultants and professionals. No one ever got cancer from smoking pot or diabetes from using a joint. And the days of our youth we look back fondly upon as years where we stood up, were counted and made a difference, from Earth Day in 1970 to helping bring down a president and end a war in Southeast Asia a few years later.

We smoked pot when we took over Weller Hall to protest administrative abuses of students' rights. You smoked pot as you stood on the roof of the University Senate protesting faculty exclusivity. As the President of the Student Senate in 1969, you condemned the raid by Nassau County police on our dormitories, busting scores of students for pot possession.

Well well Mr. Coleman. You turned into the people that you desipised the most from the time of your youth. The effects of marijuana are debatable but the penalties for using it should not. People that do have problems with marijuana should be given treatment, not jail time. As a former stoner, you should have sympathy for those that get high today as you once did (or still do??) at Hofstra.

If you now believe in such harsh punishment for using pot, shouldn't you be serving time in prison as well? If it is so pervasively destructive to anyone who uses it, how did you make it to law school, being Mayor of Minneapolis and Senator from Minnesota? Perhaps you can answer some of these questions in the upcoming battle for your seat next year.

Afghani Marijuana Patrolled By U.S. Troops

I have constantly asked why the hell we are in Iraq, but most people have an understanding about Afghanistan. Al Qaeda troops trained there with the Taliban's good graces. So we went in a couple months after 9/11 and routed the Taliban. Five years later the Taliban is regaining strength, the U.S. backed Karzai government controls the city of Kabul and not much else and the area is still a mess with a few thousand of our troops stuck in country. So what are we doing over there?

Apparently to guard marijuana crops. Not just one or two plants, entire fields of them. You think I'm kidding? Check out this video, Boozhy added a relevant song to the tape of the troops out there. According to the military, it is very easy for the opposition to hide in the pot forests.

How Much Does Your Bag of Pot Cost?

Street prices vary, or so they say. People pay $20, $50 or more for larger quantities. Willie Nelson lamented the current price in the movie 'Half Baked' a few years back. He would be shocked to see what the real cost is though.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, taxpayers were forced to spend $1 billion last year incarcerating and arresting citizens for marijuana offenses. Even without the advertising costs of anti-drug war campaigns with cute messages that have zero effect, the $1 billion dollar mark is impressive all on its own.

From Alternet:

According to the new BJS report, "Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004," 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses. Combining these percentages with separate U.S. Department of Justice statistics on the total number of state and federal drug prisoners suggests that there are now about 33,655 state inmates and 10,785 federal inmates behind bars for marijuana offenses. The report failed to include estimates on the percentage of inmates incarcerated in county and/or local jails for pot-related offenses.

Multiplying these totals by U.S. DOJ prison expenditure data reveals that taxpayers are spending more than $1 billion annually to imprison pot offenders.

As Alternet noted, that does not include local jail expenditures. The figures also neglect the economic costs of the offenders being incarcerated and not contributing to the economy in their jobs and as consumers. If there are nearly 11,000 federal inmates, the total amount must be far higher. The FBI reports that over 40 percent of drug offenses stem from marijuana, the highest numbers to come out yet. The question that pops into my mind is, don't they have anything better to do with our resources than busting people with grass?