Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, by Reason Senior Editor Jacob Sullum
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July 1, 2003
Vol. 6 No. 26
In this
issue:
1. Smuggler's Blues
2. Interdependence Day
3. Blog for Your Supper
4. Quick Hits
5. New at Reason Online - Exodus and Anti-Exodus
6. Reason's print
edition
7. News and
Events
Enjoy an upcoming night of comedy with Bill Maher, Pauly Shore, and John Fugelsang at the world-famous Comedy Store in L.A. on July 7 to benefit the Marijuana Policy Project and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
Maher, Shore, and Fugelsang will be railing against marijuana prohibition in a night of humor and biting social commentary. You don't want to miss this show!
Visit MPP to purchase your tickets now. Seating is limited, so please don't wait.
Perhaps now that the flood of high-profile Supreme Court opinions is past, the seemingly escalating situation in Iraq can edge back to the front pages. At a minimum, it would be nice to hear the war hawks explain exactly why we shouldn't think the occupation is going off the rails.
The sniping and small-scale attacks on U.S. troops are bad enough. But the truly worrisome development is the continued lack of anything like a native Iraqi source of administration. Two recent incidents highlight just how hard it is going to be to create any civilian authority for the country.
British forces apparently thought they could depend on a local militia that seemed able to bring some order to an area in southern Iraq. But when an angry mob descended on the local police station, the militia headed for the hills. It only reappeared after several British MPs were dead.
Such incidents suggest a broader and deeper range of Iraqi civilian engagement is required. However, in a separate incident, the assassination of an Iraqi helping the coalition rebuild the country's energy infrastructure sends a powerful message to refrain from taking such jobs. Should this turn out to be just the first of a series of assassinations of "collaborators," U.S. and coalition forces will have a much bigger job than anyone expected.
Continued weapons sweeps in central Iraq have already taken on a parallel to Vietnam's perpetual search-and-destroy missions, although on a much smaller scale. The unknown at this point is whether there are a finite number of weapons to be found, or -- in what would be another ominous parallel -- whether weapons are being sent into the country.
The possibility that arms are being shipped in could help explain why the U.S. was so fired up to chase down a convoy heading into Syria. The idea that U.S. commanders had information that they had Saddam in their sights is a bit of stretch, whereas strict orders to seal the Syrian border without admitting that such orders exist makes a lot of sense.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51451-2003Jun30?language=printer
One of the most onerous parts of the Patriot Act is the section requiring banks and other financial institutions to do quick checks of their records for names that match investigatory targets of law enforcement. Banks were hit with such a blizzard of requests in 2002 that the feds actually went back and re-wrote the regs for the law. The idea was to make the process more streamlined and understandable for the banks. But customers are still out of the loop.
In fact, federal regulators are emphasizing to banks that any list of names sent down by the Treasury's Department's financial crime clearing house should be destroyed and kept from wide dissemination. The law makes it clear that banks cannot disclose the existence of any search to anyone but law enforcement, but regulators are apparently worried that the lists will take on a life of their own.
They have good reason for that concern. The Patriot Act ostensibly says that the presence of a customer's name on a section 314 information request should not be taken as evidence of wrongdoing or prod the bank into ending its relationship with the customer. But that is what some bankers are doing anyway.
Bankers are loathe to destroy all records of the 314 requests, otherwise how would they show their various federal bank examiners that they have complied with all relevant banking regulations? They need some sort of paper trail to show compliance. This is especially true when a request turns up no matching names, because the official Patriot Act directive is to do nothing in these cases. So how do banks keep track of these requests? At least some appear to be putting them on their "do not do business with" list.
To recap, a federal law designed to catch terrorists is now blacklisting innocent people from financial services because the initial pass of an investigation included them in the dragnet.
A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling is being trumpeted as extending First Amendment protections to bloggers and other do-it-yourself publishers. But it doesn't extend them all the way. The decision puts great weight on the non-commercial status of self-publishers, a status that may not be permanent.
There is clearly a difference between a full-blown newspaper and something like a forwarded e-mail or a moderated discussion. A participant in a list or discussion does not have the same power over content that an editor or a publisher does, and makes no representation that he or she is responsible for all the claims made by other participants in the discussion.
But bloggers who create content and take ads, even if it is for a nominal amount, are much more akin to newspaper publishers. Hopefully the courts will make it clear that bloggers can be as commercial as newspapers and retain similar protection against getting sued for libel.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59424,00.html
Quote of the Week
"It seems to me that someone building a house next to a nightclub should know what they are getting into." --Sarasota County Commissioner Paul Mercier, on a complaint about live music at Pop's Sunset Grill that resulting in a zoning ruling that banned music from the venue
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030629/NEWS/306290654/1060
One for the Books
Republicans seem intent on passing a Medicare prescription drug benefit that almost no one will like, will force seniors to divulge their financial situation to insurers and drug makers, will be insanely complicated, and will still cost billions and billions.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/30/bush/
Hurricane Season
The University of Miami has accepted the Atlantic Coast Conference's invitation to join the ACC. The rest of the spurned Big East will now sue the university right down to the last thong at South Beach.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-umaccpress063003,0,7479097.story?coll=sfla-sports-front
All the World's a Rage
Marines just back from Iraq may get routed to Liberia and its chronic civil war.
http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/249201.htm
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Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, by Reason Senior Editor Jacob Sullum
"Jacob Sullum has produced a thoughtful, sane, and logical analysis of our drug laws. Is that even legal?" -- Dave Barry, syndicated columnist
After decades of a futile war on drugs, Saying Yes makes public what many Americans discuss only in private: Drug use as it is described by politicians and propagandists is dramatically different from drug use as it is experienced by the silent majority of users--the decent people who, despite their politically incorrect choice of intoxicants, lead productive and fulfilling lives.
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