CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET A BONG?

According to one government study, smoking marijuana causes "cloudy
thinking." But a closer inspection of the details of the study, posted at
www.drugwarfacts.org , reveals that participants were given over a dozen
marijuana cigarettes per day. Cloudy thinking indeed.

Such was the information that flowed from guest speaker Kevin Zeese at last
Saturday's meeting of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i held at Central Union
Church.

Zeese, with the Washington-based organization Common Sense for Drug Policy,
pointed out that many of the studies funded by the federal government
actually provide more ammunition to end the failed war on drugs than to
continue treating drug abuse as a criminal problem. Unfortunately, Zeese
said, we are now at the point where budgets for law enforcement, including
interdiction and incarceration, are so awash in funding that to refocus on
drug abuse as a medical condition will be challenging at best.

The passage in many states of medical marijuana laws, Zeese said, shows that
attitudes can change. He outlined a four-part plan to provide a logical
alternative to the billions of dollars already poured down the rabbit hole
to fight a "war" which cannot be won in its current form:

1) Treatment on demand. (Many states require an individual be arrested
before treatment can be accessed by those who can't afford private
programs.)

2) Invest in kids. (After-school programs rather than the "educational"
brainwashes such as D.A.R.E.)

3) Restore justice, particularly where minorities and the poor are
concerned. We spend approximately $30,000 per year to incarcerate nonviolent
offenders who need to be treated for a medical problem.

4) A prohibition market vs. a regulated market. (Drugs are not made safer by
putting criminals in charge of production and distribution.)

For more fun facts about the neo-reefer madness sweeping the country, and
for a look at the realities that don't make the evening news, visit
www.drugfacts.org .