More news on medical marijuana, Barbara LaWall, and prohibition

Here is a sequel to my earlier story about Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall's crusade against Prop 203 which would legalize medical marijuana.

LaWall continues campaign against medical marijuana

That story and an anti-Prop 203 blog post also in yesterday's Tucson Citizen raised a number of comments about the origins of marijuana prohibition, so I posted this story today. It's amazing how many times in our history xenophobia has been used as a wedge issue to control the US population.

Alcohol and marijuana: The origins of prohibition

My new blog link on the Citizen is here: Tucson Progressive.

Arpaio on a hit list? So, what else is new?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a media whore.

The big news out of Maricopa County yesterday was that (reportedly) a Mexican drug cartel has put a $1 million reward on Arpaio's head.

So, what else is new?

Arpaio has built his nationwide reputation as the toughest sheriff in the US on the backs of inmates and immigrants. I suspect there has been a price on his head for many years-- thanks to his notoriously poor treatment for inmates and his immigrant sweeps in Phoenix, as well as in the deserts around it.

CNN and other major news channels are carrying the story ab out Arpaio's text message threat today. I found a link to the text message image on theNoisy Room blog.

Right off the bat, I'm suspicious of this text message. Do drug dealers have particularly bad spelling skills? Here is an excerpt:

"Miyon d dolares por la k?besa d arpayo i dies mil dls por kualkier amerikano ..."

I can't even count the numbers of spelling errors in this message fragment. I can understand that Mexican drug dealers may not be able to spell English words very well, but this text looks like really poor Spanglish. I can see spelling a few words wrong to make the message harder to trace, but, personally, I think this looks like a hoax.

Brewer, beheadings, and those pesky facts

You're entitled to your own opinions but not your own set of facts.
-- Senator Harry Reid, during the televised bipartisan healthcare negotiations.

Those pesky facts. We don't like facts in Arizona-- or science for that matter.

Arizona Legislator Russel Pearce's penchant for making up facts about undocumented workers has catapulted him and his baby (SB1070) to national notoriety.

Not to be outdone, unelected Republican Governor Jan Brewer has started ginning up fear-mongering sound bites about beheadings and drug-smuggling illegal immigrants to keep ahead of her fellow reactionary ideologue Republican challengers in the governor's race.

Although right-wingers would like to blame convention cancellations and a tourism slump on Congressman Raul Grijalva's call for an Arizona boycott, Brewer is doing her part to further destroy the state's economy by signing SB 1070 and continuing to tell blatant lies about undocumented border crossers, the drug trade, and violence in Arizona.

Rather than rehash the facts -- or lack of them. Here are a few well-written blog posts on the subject:

Follow the Yellow Brick Road… “Gun-Fighting, Drug-Smuggling, Be-Headings, Oh My!”

Beheadings & Tourism. That's the Ticket.

Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. John McCain lying with impunity
This one includes a video link to Brewer lying about illegals beheading innocent Arizonans.

Quick Thought of the Day

And here are 2 stories about the $250,000 public relations campaign-- started by Governor Brewer to combat the boycott Arizona fervor. Now it looks as if the PR folks also will be battling Brewer's own negative campaign tactics. (And this woman is somehow ahead in the polls???)

AZ battles negative image

JAN BREWER GETS $250K TO COUNTERACT HER OWN RHETORIC.

I hope Brewer enjoys the protest rallies at the governors' conference this coming weekend.

Is sex becoming too expensive?

Two pills have revolutionized sexuality—The Pill and The Little Blue Pill.

Just as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first birth control pill in 1960 sparked the Sexual Revolution, FDA approval of Viagra in 1998 sparked a second wave of the Sexual Revolution for Baby Boomers.

Enovid (FDA approval in 1960) and Ortho Novum (FDA approval in 1962) liberated early Baby Boomer women from the threat of unwanted pregnancy (since abortion was not yet legal in the US).

Viagra (sildenafil citrate) liberated Baby Boomer men from the threat of erectile dysfunction (ED).

With all of this freedom, you’d think that all would be well in bedrooms across America. Well, guess again.

A recent article in the New York Times suggests that sex may be too expensive for men who use Viagra regularly. The astute Times reporters calculated that at $15 per pill, Viagra-aided sex twice a week would cost $1500 per year.

What’s a guy to do? Medical researchers have come to the rescue with natural ways to guard against ED. Their advice: Have sex more often and exercise!

Reporting in The American Journal of Medicine, Koskimaki and colleagues suggest a use-it-or-lose-it strategy to prevent ED. They found that “regular sexuality activity preserves potency.” In their study, men who had sex less than once a week were twice as likely to have ED as men who reported having sex once a week. Furthermore, they reported that the more sex a man has, the less likely he is to develop ED.

Since ED is often a symptom of other health problems—particularly diabetes or poor cardiovascular health—medical researchers also suggest exercise as a natural way to improve erectile function, as well as overall health.

Reporting in the same journal, Selvin and colleagues studied the relationship between five cardiovascular risk factors—diabetes, smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, and obesity— physical activity, and ED.

They found that the prevalence of ED among men with diabetes was over 50%. (This is a particularly scary statistic since diabetes is on the rise in the US.) Furthermore, this research team reported a strong association between lack of physical activity and ED.

So, if you have a middle-aged spread, your sex life isn’t what it used to be, and you can’t afford to use the little blue pill regularly, get off the couch and exercise.

Drug Wars: Follow the Money

Immigration, violence, drug policy, and world economics...it may seem odd to lump these four issues together, but I believe they all are connected.

In order to regulate drug use, US law defines what is a drug and outlines legal vs. illegal drugs and over-the-counter vs. prescription drugs.

Legal drugs happen to be those that are manufactured in first world countries—like the US and Europe. These include alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription drugs. Except for a few US pot farmers and designer drugs like methamphetamines and crack which are manufactured locally, most illegal drugs are manufactured in third world countries. These include marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Interesting observation, huh?

If you look at the issue of legal vs. illegal drugs, the designations have nothing to do with public health or death rates. Smoking cigarettes kills more people worldwide than anything else—period—yet cigarettes are legal, freely available, and pretty much uncontrolled. Efforts by public health advocates and the Food and Drug Administration under the Clinton Administration to classify tobacco as a drug were thwarted by the Republican Congress. Although all of the drugs listed above are addictive, the nicotine in cigarettes is one of the most highly addictive substances.

Since the legal vs. illegal designation is not related to health or addiction, what is it related to? My theory is that economics and geo-politics play a role. Pharmaceutical companies and illegal drug manufacturers are in direct competition for the hearts, minds, and wallets of the addicted.

A year ago or so, National Public Radio reported increase heroin use in small towns in America-- areas that had never seen this in the past. How did this big city vice get a toe-hold in the heartland? The answer is capitalism + addiction. Heroin had become a cheap alternative for rural folks who were addicted to Oxycontin, a prescription pain-killer. Capitalistic, illegal drug dealers were undercutting the pharmaceutical companies' prices. Both heroin and Oxycontin are analgesics. Oxycontin addicts-- particularly those who had lost there health insurance-- were turning to heroin to feed their habits and alleviate chronic pain. There are multiple other examples of legal and illegal drugs competing for market share. Medical marijuana competes with prescription drugs that also help cancer patients handle pain. Recreational marijuana competes with alcohol and some prescription drugs for users who just want to mellow out and competes with tobacco for users who enjoy the act of smoking.

From a public health standpoint, what would happen if marijuana—and perhaps other currently illegal drugs—were legalized and taxed in the US? Would the death rates from drug use increase? Probably not -- if we get cigarette smoking and obesity under control at the same time. Would marijuana use increase? Maybe but usage most likely would be as price-sensitive as cigarette usage is now. Would medicinal use of marijuana increase? Probably because it would be available to patients and other uses would be discovered. Would drug violence in the US and Mexico decrease? Hopefully-- if we can also control the flow of guns back and forth across the border.

What would happen economically if marijuana were legalized for medical and recreational use and taxed, as alcohol and tobacco are now? First of all, tax revenues would increase. Drug dealers would lose a major income stream. Mexico, other 3rd world countries, and some areas of the US would gain a major cash crop. Legalization of marijuana won’t eliminate illegal immigration and drug-related violence in the US, but I predict it would have an impact. Mexicans are coming to the US for jobs because their economic system is broken. A big cash crop that has a ready market in the US and worldwide would be a boon to Mexico and many other poor countries and will make living in these countries economically viable.

OK, so, I know that marijuana legalization won’t eliminate the immigration "problem" completely in the US, but to what extent do we really want to eliminate it? Remember those aging Baby Boomers? As they-- we-- retire and eventually die, the US will need workers to replace them. We will have a labor shortage in the future without immigrants and their children.

Now that the dark days of the Bush Administration are over, I'm glad that people in the government are looking at drug policy. I'm also heartened by the efforts of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The war on drugs has not worked-- just as Prohibition didn't work in the 1930s. Illegal drug use and drug-related violence have increased since Nixon declared the war. The drug war is a failed experiment and has been allowed to continue for too long.

Originally published on Muse Views, May 8, 2009.