Yeah, until you went and blurted out the plan.
Nice going, Becks.
Well, if you were looking for places to cut huge piles of completely useless spending, that would be an excellent place to start.
Apo, are you offering to donate your annual pot budget to the Feds? Mighty white SWPL comradely of you.
I was actually rooting for Tommy Chong to get the Drug Czar nod.
But how do you ask someone to be the last person to be busted for a mistake?
Mmm, hash brownies.
Which are basically what you get from a dog that craps pot.
How many seeds can one man plant,
Before they're allowed to grow?
And how many ski trips can one girl have,
Before she sleeps in the snow?
And how many flowers can one boy reap,
Before he's allowed to sow?
Good news. Too bad it comes just a little to late to keep Mexico from destroying itself.
8: Which are basically what you get from a dog that craps pot.
Not true, in my experience. Dogs that eat pot get the runs. So its more like a hash mudslide.
How much do Mexican crime lords make from pot? I thought cocaine and heroin were the issue, and have no coherent policy ideas there.
Yeah, it's mostly coke. It's really hard to see what policy options the US has, but the situation is getting really bad (over 1000 people have been killed so far this year) and shows no signs of stopping, so it's starting to look like we're going to have to do something at some point. The administration seems to be ruling out militarizing the border, which would probably be the worst choice, so that's good, but aside from that statements have been pretty vague. One idea that's being kicked around in Congress is stepping up enforcement of laws regulating the import and export of firearms. Almost all of the druglords' guns seem to be smuggled in from the States, so cracking down on that might be one way to at least reduce the intensity of the violence.
14
... Almost all of the druglords' guns seem to be smuggled in from the States, ...
Says who?
Dogs that eat pot
I don't think you're grasping the concept.
14: on the other hand, it's spilling over into US cities (Phoenix, mostly, but also San Diego), so joke's on us.
Says who?
Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), citing the ATF. It's in an AP story which I read in my local paper today but which I'm sure is readily available online.
How dare those Mexicans take guns that should be owned by freedom-loving Americans.
18: I think at this point it has been pretty well established by most major newspapers that that is what is going on. For example, see this article.
(Which I know you know, just trying back it up).
"Its mostly Maui Wowie, man, but it has some Labrador in it"
19: Aw! My childhood dog used to dig up all the flowers my mother had planted in half-barrels like that so he could sit in them. My dad constructed him a beautiful doghouse so he'd leave the pots alone, but he was relentless. Dogs + half-barrels = love.
I wondered how much of a dent California could make in its budget deficit by releasing all of the non-violent drug offenders, especially anything having to do with pot, and then it struck me that the idea was so far outside of mainstream opinion that I might as well advocate making all of our paper out of hemp.
25: Not so, Walt. Early release has been threatened in budget back-and-forths--though it hasn't been talked about in terms of relaxing marijuana punishments, non-violent everybody will be the first out the door. And Tom Ammiano, former SF Supe turned state assemblyman, has introduced a bill to legalize and tax marijuana to plug the budget hole as well.
Seriously? I'd heard about the Ammiano bill, but I thought it had the same shot as when Henry Gonzalez tried to impeach Reagan. Should I start making all my paper out of hemp?
It has no shot this year. But the idea is probably well within mainstream opinion defined as "what lots of people think" and well without it defined as "what major media outlets pretend to think because of what they think most people think."
The Los Angeles Times (which has a heavy libertarian strain in its editorial board) wants "a comprehensive policy" on medical marijuana,"not just a wink and a nod." And they want more research on its medicinal properties.
I don't think it's the right year for your hemp paper mill, but I think there are more than a few killings to be made by riding the edge of decriminalization.
Almost all of the druglords' guns seem to be smuggled in from the States
Edward Abbey would be pleased. This was basically his illegal immigration policy:
Or if we must meddle, as we have always done, let us meddle for a change in a constructive way. Stop every campesino at our southern border, give him a handgun, a good rifle, and a case of ammunition, and send him home. He will know what to do with our gifts and good wishes. The people know who their enemies are.
I think there are more than a few killings to be made by riding the edge of decriminalization
I'm surprised at you, Wrongshore. As if it's all about making a killing off the next trend. !! It's the way of things, though.
I just like the idea of Walt as a kind of Bugsy Siegel of hemp paper, building his empire on the legal fault lines.
I've been wondering if I should go presidential when posting about law enforcement stuff. Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was a deputy sheriff?
Coincidentally, I've been working on an operation all week to crack down on drug dealing in a certain area of downtown where there's the light rail line, a mall, and a park. Lots of crack being moved for 10 or 20 bucks a rock, so we're definitely not impacting the supply of coke into the country.
Better funding for mental illness and homeless issues would help. Loads of our chronic problem people are varying degrees of mentally ill and self medicate with narcotics. A lot of these probably people need to be permanently put in a mental health facility, but there's not much funding for that sort of thing. It would help to separate out the permanently broken people so that the homeless facilities could spend more time on the people who can actually get back on their feet.
A lot of these probably people need to be permanently put in a mental health facility, but there's not much funding for that sort of thing.
Nor is it easy to put anyone in a mental health facility if they don't want to be there, even if what they do want is delusional. It's important to honor the Constitutional right of mentally ill people to die muttering in the street.
Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was a deputy sheriff?
Probably a safer name than Schmittberger.
It's important to honor the Constitutional right of mentally ill people to die muttering in the street.
What's really sad are the ones who have these crazy health issues like heart/blood pressure problems, or MRSA infections and the jail won't take them.
What really surprised me as well is the degree that giving cash to the panhandlers is just throwing a match to a big pile of taxpayer dollars. They're just going to get loaded and then have to be dealt with by cops and firefighters.
What really surprised me as well is the degree that giving cash to the panhandlers is just throwing a match to a big pile of taxpayer dollars. They're just going to get loaded and then have to be dealt with by cops and firefighters.
Any suggestions? Not a challenge, a serious question.
Walking to the bank today, I saw a shady guy looking like maybe he was trying to break into a building that's being renovated, but was empty. Turned out he was just using the privacy of the doorway to fire up his crack pipe. Other than general displeasure, not sure how to feel about that. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing that will result in a safe, secure neighb.
A good friend did a rotation in the emergency psychiatric intake center of a major NYC public hospital. She said that a lot of the homeless people brought in had, basically, everything. Rickets, tuberculosis, hep A-C, AIDS, festering sores, rotting teeth, scurvy, schizophrenia, DTs---just, everything. They treat what they can, hold them for a day or two of feeding and rehydration, and then the doctors either have to file paperwork for an involuntary commitment or release them. I could not do that work, I don't think.
36, 37: As foundations go, Robert Wood Johnson is a fairly good one. Here's one of their newest projects:
Emergency room doctors noticed the difference. Many of their "super user" patients weren't coming around much anymore.
These troubled people, struggling with chronic illness - and often with homelessness and addiction - routinely appeared at Camden hospitals, racking up huge bills and straining already crowded emergency rooms. [...]
Then last year a pilot program employing a nurse practitioner, a social worker, and a community health worker began closely following these top users - even tracking them down in homeless shelters to help find them places to live. The team made sure patients checked their blood sugar, if necessary, and took their medications.
Early data show promising results: a significant reduction in ER visits, and huge savings. The effort could become a model for other cities.
Shorter RWJ: It's the shoe leather, stupid.
Further to Teddy: As much as we are on opposite sides of a pretty important ideological divide, I concur that having emergency first responders as our main mental health intake workers is just about the craziest, most useless thing that the government can do. It just doesn't work. Why arrest chronically homeless mentally illl people? 99% of the crimes they're charged with are non-serious "quality of life" offenses. There's obviously no point in assessing them fines, and they're hardly going to be "reformed" by even a fairly long jail sentence, because the problems they have that caused them to get arrested in the first place are not ameliorated by trying to instill in them some sense of shame for the social stigma that surrounds imprisonment. Quite the opposite, most of those folx have a surfeit of shame and despair in their lives already. Even if they're sentenced to treatment, our ridiculously underfunded and over-bureaucratized social services architecture usually can't provide them with all of the things they need, all of the time. So they get a couple of meetings and an apartment, but no health care. It's absolutely insane and immoral and Kafkaesque. What's more, keeping them constantly on edge and in fear of arrest probably causes more problems with violence than it prevents.
Capitalism. And. The. State. Just. Don't. Work.
Also, I'm unsympathetic to people from the suburbs or rich parts of the city who drive into neighborhoods like the one I live in to score. (Drugs or paid sex.) But the police have been arresting them for quite some time now and it doesn't make a dime's worth of difference. Legalize cannabis on an equivalent basis to alcohol. Decriminalize everything else. Use the "peace dividend" from ending the drug war, plus a reasonable sin tax on weed - $10 a quad maybe? - to fund a humane, free treatment system. Treat intoxication and addiction as the medical issues they are and you'll cut way back on ODs, child neglect, murder and everything else. Plus, as a benefit to the people of the rest of the world, drug money and weaponry (both licit and illicit) from the US will stop flooding their countries with corruption.
This isn't original, or radical or rocket science. It's reasonable public policy that an actual democracy would rush into practice.
Sigh.
Any suggestions?
The shelters are a great place to donate. They will take money, or will tell you the type of items they need. The panhandlers acting like they need food are pure scam. They all know where to get the meals and aren't going hungry.
Gladwell had a good article on the homeless a couple years back.
http://www.theroadhome.org/pdfs/Million%20Dollar%20Murray.pdf
Doesn't seem like the sort of thing that will result in a safe, secure neighb.
Yeah, that's why we do those operations to discourage people from trying to turn nice walkable places like the parks into an open air drug market.
Open air drug markets are so much more pleasant than those sterile, old fashioned indoor drug malls.
What you really need is a mixed use drug promenade, with transit access and fun things for the kids to do. Face painting! Cultural events!
Local drug shares are an interesting option, except you get those deliveries of seasonal harvests and have to figure out what to do with a huge amount of some obscure drug all at once.
43: Like Christiania! Before it got stamped out by the fascist Danish state.
44: you kid, but I've seen it happen. "Dude it's Saturday night and all we have is 3 grams of 5meo-DIPT. You couldn't have at least made some more AMT? I don't feel like spending another 14 hours itchy and horny." "What can I tell you, the precursors are tough to find this time of year."
What's more, keeping them constantly on edge and in fear of arrest probably causes more problems with violence than it prevents.
Certain types of that stuff does help. Our downtown bike squad sergeant meets with the shelter employees to get their input on what to take a hard line on to keep things orderly and make it easier for the shelter to do its job. Most of the homeless would still rather be on the outside than in the jail.
Also, I'm unsympathetic to people from the suburbs or rich parts of the city who drive into neighborhoods like the one I live in to score. (Drugs or paid sex.) But the police have been arresting them for quite some time now and it doesn't make a dime's worth of difference.
This surprises me at least somewhat. I mean, I get that the whole flaw in teh drug war is that, as long as there's demand, supply will find it, but, speaking as an ex-suburbanite, it seems like Real City Cops + Real Urban Drug Dealers would be incentive enough to find a local source.
I've chased a couple cars of suburban kids off my street, but now that the drug dealer lives rather stably next door, there's not really the opportunity.
Actually, I can live with the handoffs in front of my house, as long as they stay the fuck out of my park.
Something like 47 is pretty heartening, and not just because it redounds to the credit of bike cops.
Probably the most frustrating thing about our society, esp. at this time, is that sensible, shoeleather-based solutions are so deprecated. Shit, just this morning DA Morgenthau was on NPR talking about his non-prosecutorial duties, and he was listing all the police youth athletic association type activities, and I was reminded of the staggering bullshit around midnight basketball. Yes, the sort of thing that the fucking prosecutor for Manhattan favors is definitely just some liberal feel-good money-waster.
God, Republicans are assholes (who work really hard at making our country a worse place).
I just got a whole ounce of decent weed for $160 and it's having a noticeable negative effect on my productivity. Maybe the drug warriors were right.
It may just substitute for other forms of procrastination, though. But the problem with drug use is that once you get really high you're pretty much locked into procrastinating for the next X hours.
$160 an oz???? If its going to be on sale, I need to start smoking again.
We are never going to treat the Drug Tzar with the seriousness his position deserves until he unleashes some Drug Pongrom. Only until we have violent riots by an armed mob intoxicated with hatred against helpless people, while the police and the army look on, will we get a handle on drugs.