AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE

AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE: Today’s idiotic rally against marijuana took a well deserved bashing today from new and surprisingly enough competent cops and courts reporter at the local newspaper, Jessica Musicar, with an especially poignant “kicker” saying “Expert calls county press release ‘fear-mongering’” above a headline of “Kaua`i officials to rally against pot legislation.”

Joining her expert in questioning the sanity of the organizers was a letter (last one) in today’s Honolulu paper from Pamela G. Lichty, President of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii and, more surprisingly, the usually vapid local paper’s Greek Chorus which was joined by many new names and nearly unanimous- with 66 out of 67 comments and counting at press time (*see some below)- in condemning not just the reason for the rally but the propriety of government officials conducting the rally and other related issues.

We’re not sure whether it will materialize but many of the commenters promised to go down to the rally to mock and ridicule the participants.

Though the Musicar’s article claims that “the demonstration is being led by the Kaua`i Police Department, County of Kaua`i Anti-Drug Program, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, among others” PNN has learned that, unsurprisingly, the “reefer madness” rally is the brain child (and we use that term loosely of course) of none other than Councilperson Mel Rapozo and his joined-at-the-hip, equally-craven doppelganger, Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho.

Seems that the idea for the rally got started when the babooze-meister himself sent a letter to as many pastors and religious leaders on the island as he could find asking them to rouse up their rabble to oppose the scourge of marijuana.

But, we’ve learned, not only are they urging government workers to attend but Iseri has notified the salaried attorneys in her office that attendance at the rally is “mandatory.” And, told the rest of the staff that they should “rearrange your schedule” to attend or if they couldn’t, to go after work, intimating that they were being offered time off to attend on the taxpayer’s dime.

These are the same staff that Iseri begged- and got- extra pay for recently in order to take care of a so-called “backlog of cases” that built up during the county furloughs, as we reported last week.

We’re not sure how many others in county government have been offered a similar “deal” but we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the answer is every single one of them.

It’s outrageous enough that that the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) and Prosecutor Iseri are, instead of simply enforcing the law, trying to tell the legislature what laws to enact. It’s even more outrageous that they would use the club of employment to force their underlings to support them, even if the employee disagreed with the “war on drugs,”- especially for as innocuous a drug as marijuana, especially compared to other drugs- as a misguided effort whose mid-20th Century mindset has run its course (according to the U.S. Justice Department).

The ultimate outrage is that Iseri has demanded some attend her stupid rally and used the bribery of time off- and/or the extortion of an implied threat that further employment might be jeopardized- to make sure they are marked present.

The lies about what goes on in California are abominable. The conflict of interest in supporting a big money ticket for the police and prosecutors- who not only receive grants for eradication and interdiction but get to keep the proceeds of their seizures for extra goodies that they can't ask the council for- is obscene.

The idea that they are using their position to try to stop a sane decriminalization policy toward general use and a saner still policy in providing a safe and legal means for patients who require medical marijuana is sickening.

But to do it all on the taxpayers’ dime is intolerable.

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*Here are a selection of the comments on the article in the local paper. All are “sic.”

hampstr: I lived in Venice, California, about 3 blocks from 2 medical marijuana clinics. There was never any violence or crime associated with either of the clinics. These claims are so ludicrous that I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It's not 1964 anymore. It's 2011 and we all know that marijuana doesn't doesn't lead to riots in the streets.

Jinx138: I have a problem with people publicly opposing or supporting anything in uniform. This falsly sugestes that they are speeking for the whole organization when they are only speaking for themselves.

sebastaloha: You should sit outside the dispensary here in town...the patients are from all walks of life, all ages, all socio-economic classes. There are no bars on the windows, no hardcore security thugs, and no fear of ripoff or prosecution. Its right in town, amidst all other businesses....they are well respected, and the neighboring businesses have no problems with them either. The city council backs them, and is involved in forming the rules and regulations that they abide by. No using the medicine on or around the premises, and if you have it acceessible in your vehicle you can be ticketed for open-container just as alcohol. Educate ourselves and your children

stop the lies: The police and prosecuting attorney are marching against pot, it is quite simple, they are afraid to lose their job. If we the people decide to decriminalize pot, how can they justify what they do for a living.

Sensei: Since when do government officials organize protest rallies against the government? The Constitution gives that right to the PEOPLE. These selfish government employees are afraid of not showing enough convictions to merit their employment. Our prisons are filled with these minor drug users, costing us taxpayers millions of wasted money.

ltereader: This article reminds me of Reefer Madness. Are we seriously still in the 30s?.. Over the years I've seen pot work wonders with those in pain, or undergoing chemotherapy (no nausea), and even a senior with parkinson's. Smoking pot stopped the shaking long enough for him to regain some dignity and eat a meal on his own rather than being fed by others. Sadly, he was always paranoid about smoking it because of the laws. People like this should be entitled to smoke without worrying!

kekaha dave: disinformation aka. the "reefer madness" propaganda machine of kpd, with them discrediting the DARE program with outright lies to children regarding the use of cannabis, medical or not, is due to them being threatened by the loss of federal funding for green harvest which has been shoring up their inflated budget for years. helicopters do nothing to fight the devastating ice problem which is the paramount drug problem on kauai. it is reprehensible and pathetic that a state agency formed to uphold the law, steps outside the bounds of their job description and attempt political influence against necessary law referendums. it shows that they are biased in their job, fearful of loosing that job while uninterested in the needs of patients, to the point they need to demonstrate against pending law reform. the police are going down a slippery slope towards discrediting themselves for what they will demonstrate for is irrelevant to the reality of 8,000+ patients' needs. to protect and serve?

AiMoKea: (M)y sister-in-law was dying of cancer a few years back and the ONLY thing that gave her comfort was MJ. I SAW it work for her and have been pro-medical MJ ever since and also feel very strongly that those who spew the false propaganda against it are truly ignorant on the highest (pardon the pun) level.

WHAT’S HE BEEN SMOKIN’?

WHAT’S HE BEEN SMOKIN’?: Where- or more to the point who- do we blame for the impossibly contrived and deceitful “reefer madness” in an article by clueless police beat reporter Paul Curtis in today’s local paper.

We could start with Curtis himself for the unchallenged regurgitating of the equally clueless KPD officer Mark Ozaki’s presentation to a church group.

Not even the DEA itself claims that (t)hose hooked on the “new,” more-potent, quick-growing strains of Kaua`i marijuana are... break(ing) into homes and vacation rentals seeking money to fund their habits”

Habits? Oh nooo- they must be mainlining it nowadays Gertrude.

But that’s just for starters. Later Ozaki claims that “(w)hat used to take a year now takes less than a month as these new pot plants can go from seed to harvest in 28 days”.

A whole lot of medical pot patients would like to get their hands on those seeds especially if they grow a biologically ridiculous “strain... comprised of 60 to 70 percent tetrahyrdocannabinol, compared to less than 20 percent just a few years ago”.

Ooooo- dat's some sticky bud. Stop holding out on us Mark. If that’s da kine the cops smoke think what a great recruiting tool it’d be.

Perhaps Curtis is just warning us that this crap is actually what these people think is factual and that it’s being foisted on our kids who know of course all this is an over the top pack o’ lies and so assume whatever pinheads like Ozaki claim about deadly drugs like ice is equally fabricated.

But if so, where is the rebuttal- a staple of the usual “he said she said reporting”.

Curtis makes it worse with the tired old post hoc proctor hoc fallacy of “the gateway drug theory” which is belied by the fact that those at the top of the societal rung commonly use the sacred herb regularly.

Did you know that most pot smokers started out on mothers milk? And all of them breath oxygen?

We might blame Editor Nathan Eagle whose credibility at the helm of the paper has taken a nose dive since reporter Mike Levine left and ceased to keep him honest if not for the fact that Curtis is now the “assistant editor” who has no higher editor on days that Eagle is off.

We could say that this parochially backward and insidiously destructive mindset begins at the top with kindly old brain-dead Chief Darryl Perry and his merry men of mental midgets at the police commission who seems satisfied with presenting this D.A.R.E style drivel rather than putting officers on the beat to do other things... like maybe, oh, maybe, let’s say... solve murders or something.

Congrats all around for doing the impossible- making KPD even more of a laughing stock.

But really it begins and ends with our elected officials who haven’t got the guts to stop this kind of frittering away of resources on green harvest operations, busting medical users (as the article describes) and of course devoting a full-time officer on a short-staffed force to spread utter bull-sh*t to our kids and other equally gullible groups like churches and business groups.

With public pressure the council on the Big Island has taken matters into their own hands, cutting off funding for the choppers and forcing the police department to stop busting users.

Until we put some pressure on our council to buy a clue- and some political guts- we’ll continue to see this kind of drivel in our faces over coffee each morning.

ANOTHER BARK IN THE DARK

ANOTHER BARK IN THE DARK: Anthony Sommer’s book KPD Blue (see left rail) continues be a Kaua`i best seller and to draw readers to this space with another dozen or so perusing its pages just this weekend.

In addition to exposing the corruption in the Kaua`i Police Department, the book details the political machinations that led to the removal of two chiefs and the no-so-coincidental resultant hiring of current chief Darryl Perry whose promoters saw to it that Chief KC Lum and Police Commission Chair Michael Ching were purged after Lum originally beat out Perry for the job.

The result for the island has been that, while Lum and his predecessor George Freitas were adherents of progressive tenets of modern policing who understood and kept up with the dynamics of the changing face of law enforcement, Perry remains something of a dinosaur.

And when it comes to drug policy Perry seems incapable of examining national studies and trends and seems entrenched in his own provincial rigid views rooted in the 1950’s if not the 1930’s marijuana scare campaigns.

There are few left who won’t admit that the war on drugs has been an utter failure. Drugs are more prevalent than ever, our jails are overflowing with non violent users and the streets are littered with bodies that are the result, not of the drug use itself but of the war being waged.

The rational examination of the absurd circular logic of “all drugs are bad because they are illegal and they are illegal because they are bad” has led to a movement including most of the past national “drug czars” and top leaders in law enforcement calling for an end to the war and a more rational harm reduction approach including the elimination of programs like D.A.R.E. which refuses to distinguish between more innocuous drugs like marijuana and destructive drugs like crystal methamphetamine or “ice”.

Studies, including a 2003 US General Accounting Office report, have shown that lumping all drugs together for the purposes of demonizing them equally in anti-drug programs like D.A.R.E has actually caused the use of more dangerous drugs and even related deaths when kids find out that they’ve been lied to about marijuana and assume the warnings about the more lethal drugs are equally untrue.

Worse still has been the appropriation of scarce funds to engage in these marijuana eradication programs which not only waste money and destroy medicine used for medical treatment but make scarce a substance far less harmful than “meth” which kids who can’t get marijuana any more flock to.

While it is certainly preferable that kids don’t ingest any drugs- alcohol and tobacco included- the undeniable fact is they do and always will and if we don’t engage in a little “harm reduction” we’re not just whistling in the grave yard but actually causing the rise in the use of the more harmful drugs.

Those whose ignorance perpetuates that increased harm should be the ones who are held responsible for the results.

Enter Perry who in his column in the local newspaper yesterday unequivocally joins the team of kid-killers who cling to outdated and outmoded ideas.

Presented in a Q&A format, yesterday’s “On The Beat” column was as usual characterized by another of those quite obviously solicited “Q’s” along the lines of “you’re so wise and good- please tell us how others could possibly be so stupid?”

In it, “Greg” asked.

Q: Recently there have been several articles in the newspapers about marijuana. The first was in the Honolulu Advertiser on May 25, “War on marijuana a waste of time, money,” and then the next day there was an opinion in The Garden Island, “Alcohol vs. marijuana,” but the worst one was The Garden Island editorial on May 31, “Red light for Green Harvest.” Then just the other day, “Don’t fear the reefer.” It seems as though you guys are being blasted from all angles for doing your job.

It also seems to me that the stupid editorial by The Garden Island didn’t help matters any. I supposed we should just let all the druggies take over. Sorry about my rant, but I’m just frustrated. Well, I want to get it from the horse’s mouth, where do you stand on this?

Predictably Perry responded

I certainly understand your frustration, as I have experienced those same feelings throughout my police career. The comments and criticism don’t change just the faces and names who believe that they know better... I do agree that it sent the wrong message to our community.

The problem is that it’s not a matter of “believing” anything or sending some kind of “message” except on the part of Perry who can’t seem to digest the facts that have emerged, especially the differences between substances.

It’s pretty scary to think about what it takes to say this but this sentence tells you all you need to know about what Perry thinks.

Drugs destroy families, whether it’s marijuana, crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, or alcohol.

Marijuana does not destroy families. It is a medically accepted treatment for a wide range of maladies and is used responsibly and recreationally by tens of millions of Americans. To lump all those drugs together with marijuana is an absurd constriction that doesn’t jibe with reality.

But Perry seems unable or unwilling to grasp that the data is in and that marijuana is a fairly innocuous substance which when used in a responsible manner has no long term ill effects.

To his credit he does acknowledge that treatment is a key to harm reduction for those who use dangerous drugs. But he still demands money for marijuana interdiction due to his inability to distinguish between harmful and innocuous substances.

He writes

Do we stop eradicating marijuana because the numbers were low on this mission? That is exactly what commercial growers would want so that they could continue to sell dope to your children. Or, do we continue in our efforts? Remember that in prior missions we eradicated thousands of marijuana plants that did not find there way into homes and the brain cells of individuals cruising the same highways as you do...

We have not lost the war on drugs and it is not a failed policy...

The contorted logic and “brain cell” warning are reminiscent of the reefer madness campaigns of the distant past. Yet Perry seems stuck in just that “boogey-man” model.

His conclusion, based on that illogic, is to continue to throw money down the rathole of marijuana eradication programs even criticizing those on the Big Island who put a stop to the practice.

Perry concentrates on a recent reported $27,000 that destroyed 75 plants asking of it was worth that much for so little. But he fails to ask the bigger question of whether no matter what the result is this a wise use of scarce funds.

What’s more he fails to mention that the $75,000 is a small fraction of the approximately quarter million a year that our county accepts from the federal government to fight the “marijuana scourge”.

And that doesn’t take into account the time that police officers put into the effort. What isn’t widely reported is that police in each of the state’s four counties have a contingent of officers who go to the other three islands to assist in the eradication efforts there, taking them off the streets and away from the efforts to stop methamphetamine use and violent crime.

Perry writes

I also disagree with the suggestion that the citizens on the Big Island got it right by deprioritizing marijuana and not accepting federal funds to conduct eradication missions. I can only imagine the negative impact this decision will have in the long-term.

Fortunately, the Drug Enforcement Administration will continue its efforts with the assistance of county police.

What is most dangerous here is that Perry’s attitude- which is shared by other island PD’s- seems to forget who is running things in this country... at least theoretically.

Just as the political apparatus of a democracy maintains civilian control of the military so do the civilian police commissions provide for oversight of our paramilitary constabularies.

If nothing else “KPD Blue” describes the lead up to how, in Perry’s case, that civilian control mechanism failed when independent elements of the civilian control were purged and the commission bowed to political pressure born of internal department attempts to control policy.

What we sadly have as a result is Perry- the old soldier whose vision has been warped by too many years in the trenches and too set in his ways, incapable of seeing contemporary reality, caught up in circular reasoning and in fact committing the very atrocities he seeks to end.

BREEDING DISCONTENT

BREEDING DISCONTENT: Did you ever take a substantial vacation on the mainland and upon return feel like you not just traveled 2000 miles but 25 years back in time, especially in terms of our various island institutions’ mindsets.

It’s simply amazing to see our legislators refuse equal state-granted civil rights for gays and lesbians while almost every state- even those with constitutional bans on same-gender “marriage” – have granted civil unions either voluntarily or upon court order... Most- even some the most rabid bigots- are slowly and inexorably giving up the monopoly on the word marriage itself.

It boggles the mind how while more states each year ban corporate campaign contributions and enact “CleanElections” public election financing, many of our lawmakers are actually trying to raise the corporate money ceiling and repeal even the pilot public finance program on the Big Island.

So much for the islands’ reputation- no not the ad-nauseum repeated “big lie” that we are “anti business” – of being the most progressive of all states, especially in the second congressional district.

The disconnect is even worse when it comes down to the most traditionally reactionary of our institutions- our police departments.

This week Larry Geller at Disappeared News has been highlighting the Big Island’s PD’s use of a taser to break up a high school fight. Despite the fact that reports on their lethality blanket the mainland press, our PDs- especially here on Kaua`i- are living in some world where tasers are still considered “non-lethal” and, instead of being used as they should be- only to avoid using “deadly force” (read: gun)- they are used for crowd control.

But don’t try to point these things out or you’ll be pilloried if not tased yourself..

Take the case of Maui State Rep. Joe Bertram III, (D-11th Mäkena, Wailea, Kïhei), who “dared” to echo our- and the US General Accounting Office’s – objections to and ridicule of the nationally discredited laughing-stock of the ‘just say no” aspects of the useless and lost “war on drugs”- the D.A.R.E program.

According to Derrick DePledge’s “Notebook” blog post last Friday

Bertram sent a letter to Maui police on Wednesday suggesting, in these tough economic times, that they stop funding Drug Abuse Resistance Education and the marijuana eradication task force program.

The representative, who wants to expand the state’s medical marijuana program, wrote that DARE has proven unsuccessful and the marijuana eradication program “infringes on the privacy of medical marijuana patients and the noise is a disturbance of the peace.”

Maui police, in a press release today, were not down with the ideas:

The Maui Police Department’s response from Deputy Chief Gary Yabuta is, “We were quite aware of Representative Bertram’s position on the legalization of marijuana issue; however, we find his criticism of the DARE Program offensive.”

Offensive? What kind of response is that- is that the best they can come up with?

Seems like they’ve been taking PR lessons from Kaua`i Chief Darryl Perry who started off on the wrong foot when he and then Police Commission Chair Tom Iannucci wrote some equally-inane, provocative newspaper articles.

When local columnist Juan Wilson dared to criticize their attitude they refused to clean up their act and in fact made sure Wilson’s column was killed by the sycophantic local newspaper.

Bertram is certainly gutsy, brash and outspoken and it’s possible he pissed off the MPD and PD’s in general when, according to another blog post from DePledge last week, he had the temerity to condemn the practice of arresting so-called “on line predators” for soliciting not actual minors but under cover police detectives

He called it an “imaginary crime” and later said that although it was “a poor choice of words” according to DePledge, “he would not back down from his main criticism of the law, which he described as the policing of thoughts since no minor was involved”

Attacks from local rhetoric-spewing Republican boss Willes Lee notwithstanding, it’s only in the last decade or so that American jurisprudence has allowed the once ridiculed notion of having “thought police” to become an actuality.

Of course Bertram was absurdly painted as being “pro child molester” even though he was defending a once-sacred constitutional right that has been tossed aside but this couldn’t have endeared him to many in law enforcement who chose the expediency of shredding the constitution over the legitimacy of good police work.

On the neighbor islands we occasionally elect not just unabashed progressives but intellectually honest legislators. It’s no mistake that we sent Patsy Mink to D.C. for years and have sent Gary Hooser, Mina Morita, Kalani English and others to butt heads with the likes of Sam Sloam and even Democratic representatives of the right-wing-nut privileged, mainland transplants who populate Honolulu.

So it’s especially head-scratchingly baffling that, despite the obvious bent of the electorate, at the same time we allow our governmental institutions- our councils, planning departments, police departments and the like- to operate like a hunting party of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals?

It’s understandable how city and county-based legislators are so blinded from hanging out in the city core all the time and hearing exclusively from people on O`ahu that they can think they are serving the will of the whole state. The city people have the access that rural O`ahu denizens and more so ocean separate neighbor islanders don’t.

So what allows the neighbor island institutions to be so reactionary when the people are seemingly a lot more intellectually honest?

Ordinarily, at least over time, local institutions will catch up with the will of the people. It takes a particularly uninvolved apathetic populace to countenance a fully entrenched corrupt institution that maintains the status quo.

And we “laid-back” islanders certainly resemble that remark.

DOUBLE DOG DARE

DOUBLE DOG DARE: The discredited Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program has been abandoned by many jurisdictions around the country as a program that, at best doesn’t work and more often if anything actually causes kids to use destructive drugs, especially the more dangerous types like methamphetamine or “ice”.

But apparently the vapid, poorly informed leadership on Kaua`i – specifically Mayor Bernard Carvalho and Police chief Darryl Perry- live in their own private little world of denial if an article in today’s local paper is accurate.

According to the article reporting on the statewide DARE Conference at the Hilton Kaua`i Beach Resort,

Kaua`i Mayor Bernard Carvalho praised the DARE program for its work with children to have them recognize and resist drugs and other temptations.

“Having police in the DARE program has its benefits,” he said... “The DARE program has a positive impact on young people...

But that’s not what the US General Accounting Office found in 2003 where they ripped the program new one and reported, among other things, that:

(T)he six long-term evaluations of the DARE elementary school curriculum that we reviewed found no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE in the fifth or sixth grade (the intervention group) and students who did not (the control group).

And as if to highlight one reason the program is a bust Perry and Carvalho announced that the newly rebranded “Operation Green Steam” had taken up the precious police resources of the undermanned and underfunded KPD to go after two marijuana growing plots recently, one in Kilauea and another larger, less reported, one in Hanama`ulu.

Though on the Big Island their county council has made marijuana enforcement the “lowest priority” for their police department and rejected the formerly named “Green Harvest” federal funds, Kaua`i continues to live in the dark ages.

According to the experts, DARE just makes the problems worse.

The reality is this. In the DARE “classes” kids are told that all drugs are equally bad and destructive and to” just say no”, even to this day. Although the DARE officials say they have changed the program since the GAO report, the reality is that this is still the basic underpinning.

When kids leave the class and hit “the street” they find out that different drugs, especially marijuana, have different and often far less of the horrible effects they are told of in the class.

When the kids find out they were lied to about marijuana- and even see that this “scourge” is prescribed as medicine for many- they naturally think that if they are being lied to about marijuana they are probably being lied to about use of everything from” ice” to “huffing” glue and paint to drinking alcohol and the ingesting of many other substances that cause permanent damage.

It isn’t just a coincidence that ever since the marijuana crackdowns started in the 80’s- especially on Kaua`i- that methamphetamine use has risen to epidemic proportions. People either can’t get marijuana anymore or find that, due to the eradication and enforcement efforts, it’s unaffordable. Many- especially those who discovered they were lied to in their DARE program in school- turn to a cheap and, what they think is probably a harmless, substitute.

One of the most bizarre statements quoted in the article came from Perry who spoke of President Barack Obama, who wrote about his drug use while in high school

Perry is quoted as saying

But with children being surrounded by well-known personalities that have histories of drug use, there are not enough mentors out there for children to learn from, Perry said.

He cited for example Barack Obama, a Hawai`i native now president of the United States.“He is one of thousands of students who graduated from Punahou, but why did he become the president?” Perry asked.

His presidency is attributed to several things, but his achievement is based on all the people involved in his life.

“The people in this room represent all that is right,” Perry said. “And we recognize you for all your work with young people.”

Was Perry saying that Obama’s success was attributable to the DARE program? Or did he just forget about Obama’s drug use.

It’s unclear what the heck he was talking about but he apparently was saying that kids need good roles models... like the DARE team.

But when the kids find out that the DARE lessons are a bunch of crap and that they’ve been bamboozled and sold a bill of goods that doesn’t jibe with their observations, their natural inclination is to actually reject everything the “good guys” say... and stand for.

And what are they to think when these “role models” tell them they will wind up in jail or dead if they ever touch any drugs including marijuana and then they see not just their parents with prescriptions for it but the president succeeding despite his youthful imbibement?

According to the article

Bill Arakaki, the Kaua`i Area Complex superintendent, said it is vital that DARE keep disseminating information to local youth.

Including bad information?

Arakaki along with Perry and Carvalho and the whole out-of-touch-with-reality anti-drug team seem to be living in the dark ages, rotely repeating whatever drivel the funders of DARE tell them to say and actually endangering our kids by feeding them demonstrably false propaganda.

Kids need to be armed with the ability to make good decisions and not lied to. The DARE program fails at that on just about every possible level and leaders on Kaua`i need to wise up to the fact that as long as they dare to be stupid, they are the ones to blame for the ice epidemic through their lockstep adherence to a discredited methodology.