Medical marijuana helps me avoid disabling pain.

NSAIDs like ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Aleve), celecoxib (Celebrex), and Vioxx (rofecoxib) caused near-permanent damage to my stomach. All of them are inappropriate for long term use; some were too dangerous for FDA approval in the first place. Even worse, they were all less effective than medical-grade cannabis at relieving my symptoms.

If Obama taps Ramstad as drug czar, we can count on four more years of culture war. Reckless pharmaceuticals, the FDA, and their lackeys with MDs are a threat to public health.

If Obama taps Ramstad, we will see four more years of nonsensical ideology over science and reason.

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I have never been able to understand why the word 'Czar' is used to describe the chief drug law enforcer. Maybe the US government looks at drug users and dealers as Bolsheviks? They would do well to remember that Vladimir Lenin won the October revolution...

Why should it be illegal to purchase new hypodermic needles in the USA? I can't imagine that there is one person who would think that since needles were available they would take up heroin use.

It is high time for the US government to admit it has lost the "War on drugs" and not bother to install a new 'Czar'.

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And he flip-flopped on his original plan to make cannabis legal. Oh well, nothing to see. Move along kiddies. :=(

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Why pick a drug czar at all? The failed "war on drugs" should be ended and all drugs legalized, regulated and taxed just like the lottery, gaming or pari-mutual betting. For Obama to eliminate the drug czar and homeland security would be a truly bold step in the right direction.

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the CIA can't make a profit on it and the banks who launder the drug money can't make a profit. until then drugs will not be legalized. it's to big a money maker to change.

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the borders of this piece?

'pasasges, malibu' rehab looks like David Geffen's guest house.

True 'drug' control, like Peace is simply not profitable enough.

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With all due respect to people who have dealt with substance abuse issues, I do not believe having a recovering substance abuser in a position of power in regards to policy is a smart idea.

While I don't believe we need a drug czar or this war on drugs to begin with, if we must appoint one, we need someone without biases who is willing to utilize science, not their own experiences. I just don't see that coming from an ex-drug abuser.

I'll draw on a quote from Dr. Andrew Weil M.D., "there are no good or bad drugs, only good or bad relationships with drugs." An ex-drug abuser who has had their life shaken up by drugs will have difficulty objectively looking at drug use versus drug abuse, which is the very core of the problem with the war on drugs. They are too likely to project their personal experiences with drug abuse to a population which predominantly consists of users rather than abusers. Our failure to distinguish these differences is overflowing our prisons and destroying communities, particularly low income and minority ones.

Optimally, we need a doctor or someone with a strong medical background who is willing to examine scientific evidence/data above all. Preferably with experience or advisors with experience in social work. We don't need a cop and we don't need a politician. Drug abuse has always been a public health issue, not a criminal justice one.

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Dear President Obama,

Please begin the process of ending the so-called "Drug War" by eliminating the position of "Drug Czar" from your administration. The arrogant and aggressive presumption that America needs a "Czar" of any kind is offensive, but even more so since what is truly called for now is a shift to compassion and reason.

I recommend that you immediately convene the U.S. Conference of Mayors to act upon recommendations made in the resolution they passed in June 2007. A panel of experts made up of people from several related disciplines would be a responsible, level-headed way to start.

I further recommend Ethan Nadelmann from the Drug Policy Alliance, Jack Cole from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Congressman Ron Paul as capable allies in the shift to a pragmatic drug policy.

Please heed the wisdom of Mr. Lincoln, stated so clearly,

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."

Abraham Lincoln
Apr. 11, 1865 - from his last public address

How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?

Sincerely,

Paul J. von Hartmann
California Cannabis Ministry
Mount Shasta, California

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http://change.gov/

Go directly to the office of President-Elect Obama at the above link [change.gov] and share your vision or story re life in America under a DRUG CZAR.

Click on "An American Moment" to share....it is SOoooo easy.
There are excellent points in this article or at the end from the Drug Policy Alliance:
What do you think? Do not let THEM decide for YOU !!!


...Harm caused by Cannabis prohibition
...Science vs Myth in Cannabis prohibition
...Police State deciding Drug Policy???

There are millions hurt by past government administration drug policies.... let's make our voices heard!!!!!
Congressman James Ramstad is not the MAN for the job!!!!

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Election Day was a success for marijuana initiatives across the country, thanks to the work of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and numerous state and local groups.

In Massachusetts, voters decriminalized the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. A campaign led by the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy and organized by MPP resulted in a 65 percent to 35 percent victory for the initiative.

In another state-level win, Michigan voters approved a medical marijuana initiative by a similarly lopsided margin. The campaign to pass that initiative was led by the MPP-backed Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care.

At the local level, two initiatives to make make adult marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority won big. One, in Hawaii County, Hawaii, was led by Project Peaceful Sky. The other, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was led by a coalition called Sensible Fayetteville.

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Tobacco kills about 430,700 each year. Alcohol and alcohol-related diseases and injuries kill about 110,000 per year. Secondhand tobacco smoke kills about 50,000 every year. Aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs kill 7,600 each year. Cocaine kills about 500 yearly alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug. Heroin kills about 400 yearly alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug. Adverse reactions to prescription drugs total 32,000 per year, while marijuana kills no one.

A November 4, 2002 Time/CNN Poll found that eighty percent of those polled felt marijuana should be legal only for therapeutic purposes. 72 percent felt recreational users should get fines rather than jail time, which is essentially decriminalization. The complete legalization of marijuana was favored only by 34 percent of respondents, but this figure is twice as large as it was in 1986. Marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco, and our drug laws should reflect this reality.

Throughout history, the legal and moral status of psychoactive drugs has kept changing. During the 17th century, the sale and consumption of tobacco were punished by death in much of Europe, Russia, China and Japan. For centuries, many of the Muslim domains that forbade alcohol sale and consumption simultaneously tolerated and even regulated the sale of opium and cannabis.

Each year, the U.S. government spends more than $30 billion on the drug war and arrests over 1.5 million people on drug-related charges. Over 318,000 people are now behind bars in the U.S. for drug violations, greater than the total number of people incarcerated for all crimes in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined.

Our government is calling for billions of dollars to fight a drug war it can't win. Roughly 75 percent of this money goes to enforcing laws and regulations, but only 15 percent goes to drug education and prevention, and a only a meager 10 percent goes to treatment for addicts.

During the 1950s, long-term prison sentences against drug users choked the courts, strained and disrupted prisons and drove black-market prices even higher. The latest casualty in the drug war has been our civil liberties: mandatory drug testing so we can all be “drug free”. Some of these tests have been struck down by the courts, where the government is the employer. But others have been upheld. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced these drug tests as “an immolation of privacy and human dignity in symbolic opposition to drug use.”

Even putting America under martial law will not solve the nation's drug problem. Iran executes hundreds of drug offenders. Malaysia has hanged dozens of drug users in the past few years. In neither country has the drug problem receded. In fact, in Malaysia, the addiction rate continues to rise. On the other hand, the Dutch government, with its liberal social and political philosophy, tolerates drug use, and the addiction rate is declining.

According to a 2003 Zogby poll, two of every five Americans say “the government should treat marijuana the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children.” Close to 100 million Americans, including over half of those between the ages of 18 and 50, have tried marijuana at least once. Military and police recruiters often have no alternative but to ignore past marijuana use by job seekers.

In 1996, California voters passed a law to regulate medical marijuana within the state. In 2000, voters in California approved an initiative allowing people who are arrested for simple possession of drugs to go through a rehabilitation program rather than through the court process that would result in prison. Since the program began, most agree it has been very successful. It results in less recidivism and is cheaper than imprisonment.

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Joe Biden created the Drug Czar job over 20 years ago. This was at the time when the US was
the biggest importer of hard drugs,like cocaine and heroin during Iran/Contra.

The job of the drug czar is to squash any positive information about nearly harmless plants like Hemp and mushrooms and advance the Fear in the general public of drug crazed maniacs roaming our streets and drive by shootings by rival drug dealers. They used the same shit back in the 1930's to get drugs illegal,back then it was because the poor were getting buzzed along with the rich kids,their Elders didn't like that.

The new guy will be very similar. Why? Big O
doesn't want to add to the sterotype of the 'Pot smoking Brother'. Which is exactly what white racist America would scream,loud and long. No matter that it has no basis in truth,it makes good public outcry.

Factor in the truth that pot is a 'Peace Herb' and you undercut the making of American Killers to send off on Illegal,immoral missions of vendetta or other countries for their region's two big O's...Oil and Opium.

The money we'd save from eliminating the drug czar job,the war on drugs and the money we could make in taxation of their legal usage
really needs to be on the table of any discussion on expanding our economy. The taxes
from legalization would pay for Big O's 'Healthcare Program'. If we're serious about doing 'whatever it takes to get the economy moving', then we'd better not ignore this incerdible potiental income sorce for the
Country.

If you want legalization,you'd better plan on going to DC and camping out on the Czar's office floor. Groups of people,to a politician,mean social uprising. So if quite a few groups of 20 or more show up,dressed business casual, will create great momentum as
a populace movement.

Failing that,we lagalize city by city,county by county,State by State, and if the feds want to raid us in legal zones,then the local National Guard can be called up to defend the People from the advances of the Tyrant. If the guard becomes too chickenshit....That's why we have the Second Ammendant.

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Because that's all the war on drugs is - a ruse! And, right now, it's an expensive ruse we cannot afford to budget.

We actually need to consider decriminalizing drugs and related contraband to actively produce and openly market drugs for both recreational and medicinal consumption. Let's think more about bolstering our dying economy than socially stigmatizing a few people we've been culturally brainwashed into despising sans a cause. America is broke, yet loaded with druggies with just enough available capitol to dredge our economy from the floor of this current fiscal abyss. Meanwhile, we're very discriminantly allowing one or two manufacturers, whose currently marketed controlled substances are just as dangerous, if not lethal, as weed, coke, heroin, or hash, to get over like fat rats. C'mon! The vast majority of the major pharmaceutical and medical commodity manufacturing companies are currently in litigation for products that have long-ass lists of lethal side affects that exceed their intended benefits 200 times over.

Let's be reasonable here. It's time to decriminalize drug and contraband possession, and leave the decision of use and consumption in the hands of the consumers the same way beverage companies do with that carbonated battery acid they're allowed to peddle to our kids from vending machines at schools. Wackenhutt and Blackwater have earned enough cash, picking up the over-populated penal system slack by detaining working stiffs ridiculously prosecuted for having a couple ounces of weed. Retain the services of these private jailers for housing prosecuted bankers, lying lawyers, and shady financier snails who are in line begging for bailouts to cover their criminal stupidity now made manifest in a globally tanked economy.

Let's democratically spread the wealth. Drug processing and manufacturing for sales more than guarantees jobs and tax-base improvements in every community in America where any sized market exists. Just ask the Avon ladies. It's high time, pun intended, that we stop being so sanctimonious and hypocritical. America needs that money! We have the necessary resources and regulations in place to sustain a very successful drug market, here and abroad. So, screw a drug czar appointment, unless the czar's job will be to negotiate, oversee, consistantly improve, and sustain operational drug production and global marketing in the United States of America. I say we use the drug czar to make 'Made In America!' mean something great again!

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When opiates and alkaloids are legalized, then Big Business will use drugs in their war on us.
So, "to each according to his need".
We need to get drugs to addicts, while making sure that they are not shared with others, or advertized to entice others.
The political solution is to equate opium with nuclear terrorism. Then ram legislation through that does the job right: once and for all.
The winning slogan might be: "One nuclear detonation can ruin your whole day."

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A Toke a Day Might Keep Alzheimer's Away

Who woulda thunk...

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...people could get their 'buzz' and not be forced to rely on easy to conceal powders, pills, and tabs that often lead to real addiction and out of control behavior. Legalizing would de-escalate the whole problem.

Concentrated alchohol developed when people couldn't get beer and wine during prohibition, you know.

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... how about abolishing the Drug Czar's Office altogether
and enact the multiple senate investigations and recommendations already done and fund there recommendations and initiatives to see if they were right... 10,20... 30 years ago!

hell... lets see if the abolitionist's got anything right from there [yet again]fear mongering!

here's a better idea... lets put the whole question of prohibition on the ballet and just let the voters decide! it is after all my money too!

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We don't need a czar! This is not Russia, but Bush wanted you to think we were tough like Russia, tough on crime and tough on drugs. LIES LIES LIES

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One of the most hopeful things about Obama's Dreams of My Father was his confession that he tried marijuana and cocaine as a young man. I thought that experience would make him less likely to demonize street drugs and their users.

Why must we wage war against one set of substances people use for pleasure and to address their pain while other substances like alcohol and prescription drugs are considered perfectly legitimate? In my opinion it's about class and race.

We should forget about funding a drug war and its militaristic czar and put the money into addiction treatment and building a society that people want to live in without being numb.It's a whole lot more effective to treat addicts than to imprison them.

Obama says he wants to quit funding ineffective programs, and this is perhaps the best place to start.

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turn away from the Reagan War on Drug Users. but I not very hopeful given his moves to the center since winning. I hope harm reduction becomes the basis of the Change we were promised. I have never liked then term Czar but it does reveal the authoritarian autocratic attitude of this who support the War analogy.

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But, unless you want gun-toting crazies walking the streets without a job, we have to provide retraining for these "drug warriors". I think the Congo would be a good place to get them working for a positive effect.

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Letter to President Elect Obama
Regarding the Selection of our Next Drug Czar…

Mental Health & Substance Use Professionals are signing-on and speaking out!

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