TheAgitator.com
Drug War Outrage Links
Monday, July 26th, 20041) Get worried:
A radical scheme to vaccinate children against future drug addiction is being considered by ministers, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.Under the plans, doctors would immunise children at risk of becoming smokers or drug users with an injection. The scheme could operate in a similar way to the current nationwide measles, mumps and rubella vaccination programme.
Childhood immunisation would provide adults with protection from the euphoria that is experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and cocaine pointless to take. Such vaccinations are being developed by pharmaceutical companies and are due to hit the market within two years.
The Department of Trade and Industry has set up a special project to investigate ways of using new scientific breakthroughs to combat drug and nicotine addiction.
A national anti-drug immunisation scheme is one of the proposals being put forward by the Brain Science, Addiction and Drugs project, an expert committee of scientists appointed by the Government earlier this year.
Professor David Nutt, a leading government drugs adviser who sits on the committee, told the IoS that anti-drug vaccines for children are likely to be among the panel’s recommendations when it reports next March.
I’m pretty much speechless. Government forcibly injecting you to “protect” you from euphoria? If it hadn’t come from a major nnewspaper, you’d think this were a nutso conspiracy theory. Thanks to Thomas Pearson for the link. And for putting me in a crappy mood.
2) Singapore last week executed a man for possessing six pounds of marijuana. As Jim Leitzel points out, we’re much more enlightened here in the U.S. We put them in jail for 20 years.
3) President Bush is promising a crackdown on “soft” drugs, reallocating resources from fighting heroin and cocaine to fighting marijuana. Why? Because weed apparently is getting purer and more potent. The most laughable part of this story, however, are the statistics from CASA, an organization notorious for junk science and bogus numbers-pushing. Though teen marijuana use is down across the board, CASA still feels compelled to add that ” the number of children and teenagers receiving treatment for marijuana abuse jumped 142 per cent over the last decade, and that emergency hospital admissions of 12 to 17-year-olds in which marijuana was implicated rose 48 per cent in four years.”
Of course, the reason more teens are getting “treated” for marijuana is because drug war hysteria has more parents dumping Johnny into rehab at the first sign of a joint. Hell, sometimes, a joint isn’t even necessary. And by “implicated” in emergency admissions, CASA of course means “any time someone admitted to having smoked the stuff — ever.” Climb a tree and break your arm, tell the doctor you smoked a joint six weeks ago, and that’s an emergency room incident in which marijuana is “implicated.”
Good to know the Bush administration is wisely using taxpayer dollars to go after marijuana. After all, we haven’t had a terrorist attack in three years.
4) The Drug Policy Alliance looks at the 9/11 Report and misplaced law enforcement priorities.
5) Also, the state of Kansas is ensuring that the drug trade remains stocked with crafty, wily dealers. How? By weeding out all of the stuipd ones.
#5 has me absolutely stupefied.
Wha’?!?
Re #5
I’d best remember to buy my dirty bomb stamps. If I get caught in Chicago without them I might really be in trouble.
I wonder if the euphoria blocking imunization will also block adreline rush, endorphins, and that great feeling you get from intimate relations?
Willy, only until you get married. After that you can apply to have it removed (provided you sign a form agreeing not to commit adultery).
Talk about population control, right? Take away euphoria, take away orgasms, no one’ll have sex anymore.
Not only will that solve the teen pregnancy and abortion problems, it’ll solve pregnancy altogether. Sweet!
/sarcasm
They can have my euphoria when they pry it from my cold dead brain.
#5- since so many go free on a technicality, pass a law about tax evasion…you needed a stamp
_________
the cure for euphoria is called Monday morning.
what are they going to vaccinate the children with…drugs? It’s enough to make you reach for a spliff…
Childhood immunisation would provide adults with protection from the euphoria that is experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and cocaine pointless to take.
Jeez, it must be some good stuff if it makes such hard drugs as these seem “pointless to take.”
Anybody know where we can get a hold of this stuff?
Are alcohol and caffeine going to be exempt from the drug vaccine? What about sugar? Some people get euphoric from a chocolate bar or a bowl of ice cream. We could use this to cure the obesity epidemic as well.
i dont have any trouble with the vaccination thing as long as its voluntary.
#5 is the best. What’s next? - a ‘Terror Visa’ for those who want to enter the US without violating immigration laws?
Scary biscuits.
maybe a “terror work visa” so their wages will be taxable.
also, the IRS will be prohibited from communicating to law enforcement the terorists’ whereabouts.
#5 just can’t be real.
http://www.ksrevenue.org/pdf/TaxRates.pdf
Bron, the only plausible solution is that the guy who created it smoked his entire stash beforehand to avoid being caught out once it came in to effect.
One interesting consequence is that it suddenly becomes patriotic to smoke weed in Kansas, because you’re doing your little bit to fund the incarceration of evil drug-fiends.
Ugh. As a Columbia alum, I’m ashamed that CASA (#3) is under the same university.
#5 I believe. It sounds like the Connecticut state tax where you’re supposed to report any purchases you made out of state that you didn’t pay sales tax on (so CT can collect them). Yeah right.
And #1 : am I supposed to believe that the leading scientist for the euphoria vaccine is Dr. Nutt???
1) Vaccine to stop drug abuse and smoking addiction before it starts? How do they determine who’s at risk? Is it like the Hep B shot where they assume that all children will have anal sex and/or indulge in intravenous drug use? I don’t think the hackles on my neck have stood down since I read this.
2)
Here is a link to a list of ridiculous Singapore laws.
Methinks I won’t be visiting any time soon.
5) I’m guessing the government in Kansas is counting on the honor system.
I went to the Q&A section of the drug tax page. Almost pissed my pants after reading this one.
Q: Can I purchase drug tax stamps through the mail?
A: Yes. The purchaser will need to provide their mailing address in order for the Department to send the drug tax stamps.
Imagine the bind physicians will find themselves in when their patients can no longer be anesthetized. The obvious solution will be the development of drugs unaffected by this so called vaccine. This will cost billions which the drug companies will pass on to the consumers once again raising health care costs due to government intervention. Of course these new drugs will quickly find their way to the streets propagating the cycle.
Danno49:
Three, sir!
Actually, I find myself quite torn with disagreeing with #1 given the incredible amount of social and economic repercussions of hard drug use. If a vaccine can be developed isolating the effects of certain drugs (heroine, crack, etc.) it could have dramatic effects on communities prone to drug abuse.
Obviously, libertarian concerns are raised when an immunization program is mandated by government. But wouldn’t such immunizations be acceptible if parents were left with the decisions on whether to immunize their children?
Re: #5, the public is free to call the North Carolina Department of Revenue toll-free at 1-877-308-9103 to purchase one of their “unauthorized substances tax” stamps. They’re apparently prized by pot smokers and stamp collectors.
Ben,
MY child would NEVER do drugs so s/he doesn’t need the immunization. It’s the OTHER children from THOSE “communities prone to drug abuse.”
/cynicism
Doing a quick google,
other states have the same stamps.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/aztaxstamps.htm
Government forcibly injecting you to “protect” you from euphoria?
I didn’t see anything in the article suggesting a mandate.
And by “implicated” in emergency admissions, CASA of course means “any time someone admitted to having smoked the stuff — ever.” Climb a tree and break your arm, tell the doctor you smoked a joint six weeks ago, and that’s an emergency room incident in which marijuana is “implicated.”
I tried to find something at the link to justify such certainty about CASA’s definition of “implicated,” but could not. From what I did find, it wouldn’t surprise me if your interpretation were correct.
But considering the uncritical ease with which you insert government force into the first article (because “of course” that’s what these pleasure-hating puppets of the EU intend, even if they don’t say so), I think that perhaps you just needed to make both items worthy of such a traffic-inducing headline as “Drug-war Outrage.”
Come on. These are all interesting issues that require attention, but your hyperbole doesn’t help.
Tax Evasion. It’s how they got Al Capone.
It’s interesting how the U.S. government uses its heft to encourage other countries to follow its lead on the “Drug War”. It’s nice to see the liberalizing trend from Europe and Canada on soft drugs like pot.
Faster, please!
What if a kid who is immunized today, needs a similar but less illicit drug in the future. Will they have no effect? For example, what if s/he has an injury and needs morphine? What if s/he needs anti-depression drugs (which work similar to extacy, just not as immediate or strong as E)? Did you think of that, Dr. Nutt?
The British government’s policy on individual freedom is that it’s against it, on any issue, at any time, in any way.
“Childhood immunisation would provide adults with protection from the euphoria that is experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and cocaine pointless to take.”
So instead of yay fiends and heroin addicts, we’re gonna have more meth heads and prescription pain poppers?
When I was a teen, any excitement that I ever had was illegal, “immoral” and/or disrepsectful. If I couldn’t have drank then or done drugs, I would have done something to satisfy my excitement urges. Maybe more theft or fighting, maybe worse. The euphoria obtained by drugs can be obtained through other experiences, but those experiences aren’t going to be deemed “positive” generally.
Oh well, I’m not in charge. Good luck trying to immunize people from household cleaners and detergents which are the main ingredients to meth. All we need is more trailers full of that stuff.
Bronwyn wrote:
“Take away euphoria, take away orgasms, no one’ll have sex anymore.”
There was a movie about that: THX 1138
Do these injections classify as psycho-active? Just watch, about fifteen years after they’re introduced there will suddenly be thousands of manic-depressives roaming about. Then we’ll daclare war on depression and introduce drugs to counteract it.
BLOGWORTHY
The British are considering immunizing children against the effects of cocaine and other drugs. Radley Balko at the Agitator breaks open this Orwellian overture by a state toward its citizens. Be very afraid.
Gee. fub, it looks as though it’s being re-released?
um. . . let’s see if my html works here:
The THX 1138 frighteningly inexplicable website
Yay me!
*pats self on back*
Or better yet, let’s immunize pregnant women who are drug addicts so their children will be born with more defects than they would have with simply the heroin or whatever.
History certainly can’t teach us anything and I’ve never heard of thalidomide.
Aside from the fact that vaccinations won’t work to prevent the effects of the gene code in our daily lives, this is typical of the truly stupid ideas that Drug Warriors use to peddle their insanity.
John Kerry is a career Drug Warrior. What does this mean to the war on terror?
(The DNC support of the anti democracy and terrorist funding Drug War cost them millions of votes in 2000 and it will do the same in 2004. It is the oone issue common to the Greens, Nader, the Libertarians and Dennis Kucinich.)
Reports dating back to 1998 assert that alQaeda has been taking advantage of the $ 500 billion a year narco black market not only for financial ‘aid’ but that they are also getting tactical ‘comforts’ by using the Drug War fostered black market to flood the cultures of the free world with heroin to destabilize us. bin Laden calls this campaign the “silent jihad”. This also gives alQaeda and other terrorist armies unfettered access to the international smuggling routes across our borders and free access to the veins of our children.
John Kerry has known this for years and yet he supports the Drug War policy that gives these terrorist armies ‘aid and comfort’. Policies that supply alQaeda with the chemical weapon that they are using against us. On Sept. 21 2001 it was reported that Sen. Kerry said: “That’s part of their revenge on the world,” Kerry said. “Get as many people drugged out and screwed up as you can.” http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1701/a02.html?107616
These clips further illuminate the ’silent jihad’.
Heroin In The Holy War
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n000/a002.html?40800
Dec 1998, Indian Times
The crop will be opium and the farmer will be Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world. Bin Laden, accused by the United States of bombing two of their embassies in East Africa this summer and a string of other attacks, sees heroin as a powerful new weapon in his war against the West, capable of wreaking social havoc while generating huge profits, according to sources in eastern Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
–
Flowers Of Destruction
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1023/a09.html?48976
July 2003, Newsweek
Some militants view opium as something more than a source of cash; they say it’s a legitimate weapon in what they call a “silent jihad.” Khurshid, a 20-year-old Nangarhar native, says drugs are Afghanistan’s way of striking back at the West for sending “liquor, obsceneTV and pornographic films” into Afghanistan: “Immoral Western culture destroys the minds of our children, so it’s only just that we export opium and heroin to destroy Western youths.”
–
War On Terror Is Also A War On Drug Traffic
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n290/a08.html?30814
Feb 2004, Christian Science Monitor
“One Afghan drug trafficker reportedly provides lieutenants of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan with 2,000 killograms of heroin valued at $28 million every eight weeks”
While Drug Warriors minimize the issue by asserting that these drugs do not come into the U.S. the uncompartmentized market reality is that as bin Laden floods Europe, russia and Asia minor it leaves more of the east Asian and South American crops to be shipped to the U.S.
The 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: “Since the mid-1990s, the prevalence of lifetime heroin use increased for both youths and young adults. From 1995 to 2002, the rate among youths aged 12 to 17 increased from 0.1 to 0.4 percent; among young adults aged 18 to 25, the rate rose from 0.8 to 1.6 percent.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration further illuminates the issue.
“Of the 36 groups designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations, 14 (or 39 percent) are connected to drug activities, testified Steven W. Casteel, assistant administrator for intelligence of the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
He said they range from Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, the Shining Path in Peru and the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines.”
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n746/a08.html?21962
21 May 2003
The Daily Herald
As long as John Kerry supports the Drug War, that creates and fosters the $ 500 billion a year narco black market, terrorist groups and armies will thrive and grow.
John Kerry…Drug Warrior http://mysite.verizon.net/aahpat/kerr.htm
Good thing to know that GWB is not a drug warrior…oh wait…never mind.