20 POINTS REGARDING DRUG PROHIBITION AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION

1. Is there a connection between drug prohibition and political
corruption? Before exploring that question, it's important to
remember that correlation does not equal causation. But certain
minds may draw lines between certain points.

2. The State of Illinois, where I live, is notorious for political
corruption. Our previous Republican governor is currently in prison
for his misdeeds.

3. Ongoing federal investigations are inching closer our current
governor (a Democrat), with one of his top fund-raisers currently
serving time. Another investigation near the current governor
involves a financial contributor accused of taking state funds to
perform drug tests for the state, but then failing to perform those drug tests.

4. Legislators in Illinois rarely resist the lure of anti-drug laws.
Just last year new enhanced marijuana growing penalties were adopted,
despite the existence of already harsh laws.

5. Illinois has a useless medical marijuana law that was adopted in
the late 1970s. It remains on the books, but it offers no legal
protection or supply for users.

6. Legislators in Illinois like to pretend that medical marijuana is
a controversial issue that could hurt them at election time. A
proposed medical marijuana bill that might actually help users has
been kicked around committees in the legislature for several
sessions. The original sponsor, who suffered from AIDS, has since died.

7. While the medical marijuana bill has languished, Illinois
Democrats have held the Senate, the House, the Governor's mansion and
just about every other position of power in the state, recklessly
pushing the state deeper into debt. Still, many legislators from both
parties say they favor propaganda over science when it comes to
medical cannabis. Furthermore, they suggest serious political fallout
could come from supporting medical marijuana.

8. The medical marijuana voter initiative that passed in neighboring
Michigan last month was approved by a majority in every county in the
state. Not a surprise, as opinion polls show consistent general
support for medical marijuana, even in Illinois.

9. I spoke with Barrack Obama on the phone very briefly about a
decade ago. I was working as a newspaper reporter and he was a state
senator co-sponsoring a bill that was supposed to reign in political
corruption in Illinois (the bill was called "The Gift Ban Act"). I
left a message seeking comment, but Sen. Obama didn't call back
until a week after the story was published. He said there must have
been some confusion in the office and that he just missed the message
until that point. I was busy working on something else when he
called, so I said it was too late. By that point in my career, I knew
that if a politician wanted to be quoted on an issue, they returned
the call immediately. If not, they wouldn't.

9. The Gift Ban Act was challenged on constitutional grounds and
eventually replaced with other legislation. Corruption remains
embedded in Illinois political culture as evidenced by points 2 and 3 above.

10. One of Barrack Obama's final bills to be pushed though the
Illinois legislature before he started his campaign for the U.S.
Senate banned the herbal drug ephedra. Unlike the Gift Ban Act, the
ephedra ban stuck.

11. The former Republican governor who is now serving time in prison
once vetoed a bill that would have allowed educational institutions
to study industrial hemp in Illinois. He said he worried about the
message being sent to people with drug problems. Taking kickbacks
from many - including, allegedly, at least one anti-drug organization
- - apparently did not send the wrong message.

12. Every autumn, state police use state helicopters to look for
marijuana fields. More often than not they find wild hemp fields
that don't produce intoxicants. The officers burn those fields
anyway. The wild hemp returns the next year.

13. Over the past several years, Illinois has made at least 40,000
marijuana arrests annually.

14. Political corruption arrests happen in the state, but they
certainly don't happen by the thousand.

15. In Illinois, the political system almost always works for
powerful special interests, rarely for the little guy. Last week,
citing budget problems, the current governor shut down several public
parks and historic sites used by common people. There was no talk of
plans to stop using helicopter fuel and police time to torch
non-intoxicating weeds.

16. Nor was there talk of how medical marijuana generates revenue in
some states, and how hemp generates revenue in some countries.

17. It's not difficult to appreciate the attractiveness of drug laws
for corrupt politicians. Keeping the law enforcement apparatus
permanently trained on an issue like illegal drugs, which permeates
our culture, makes every citizen is a suspect (hence the alleged need
for drug tests at work and school).

18. If law enforcement has to worry about anyone ingesting cannabis
at any time, even with a doctor's recommendation, how many law
enforcement resources will ever be available to investigate political
corruption?

19. In Illinois, watch for the influence of special interests and
political cronies to see bills actually turn into laws. Who are the
special interests who keep pushing drug prohibition?

20. Or are the politicians themselves the special interests in this case?