Acting Governor Gavin Newsom asks politicians to come out of the closet

At the California Democratic convention on April 13, Acting Governor Gavin Newson made a vibrant call for marijuana legalization and urged politicians to come out of the closet. The former San Francisco mayor is one of the key contenders for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination in 2014 — if Gov. Jerry Brown (D) decides not to run again.

Will we witness a stampede out of the closet?

Hear the whole address here: http://youtu.be/tta9yVNGqX4

As California activists seem to be resigned to a 2016 marijuana legalization initiative, a governor-candidate Gavin Newson in 2014 would certainly spice up the race.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”
“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Follow me on Twitter: @JDhywood
Become a better informed activist and support global drug policy reform!
Order your own copy of “Word War-D”

• The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
• A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
• A blueprint for global drug policy reform and controlled legalization

Media inquiries- book reviews – speaking engagements: contact promo@world-war-d.com

Please share this blog if you agree with its content

Imagine that lawmakers introduced legislation to effectively deregulate and drive underground an industry worth 3 to 5% of PIB and patronized by up to 25% of the population, removing all controls, resulting in tax revenue losses racking in the 10s of billions per year; these lawmakers would be called insane. Imagine that such legislation gave control of the deregulated industry to organized crime, producing 100s of billions of dollars per year in revenue for criminal and terrorist organizations. Imagine that it was used as a ploy for mass-incarceration and crass discrimination, an alibi for establishing a police state; these lawmakers would be called criminals.

You don’t have to imagine, such a wild deregulation is already in place, and your lawmakers enacted it bit by bit over the past 100 years, under the guise of the “War on Drugs” or “Drug Prohibition”.

100 years into prohibition and 42 years into the War on Drugs:

• Costs add up to trillions of dollars of taxpayers money, and mounting
• Lost tax revenue adds up to few extra trillions
• Death-toll adds up in the millions
• Drug use is the major cause of the spread of AIDS in most of the world
• Tens of millions of otherwise harmless drug offenders have been thrown in jail, ruining their social prospects, tearing families apart.
• Drug trafficking is the major source of income of organized crime and terrorist organizations worldwide, to the tune of $350 billion per year. Narco-trafficking destabilizes entire regions of the world, from Latin America to Central Asia through West Africa, sowing violence, corruption and chaos. It is bringing some countries such as Mali, Guinea-Bissau or Afghanistan to the verge of collapse.
• 220 million people use drugs worldwide and this number is growing steadily

Prior to their prohibition, the prohibited substances were used by royalties, popes, heads of state, celebrities and a large percentage of the common people. 100 year after their prohibition, the prohibited substances are used or have been used by a large percentage of the common people, as well as all kind of celebrities, heads of state (including the current US president and his tow predecessors), and probably quite a few royalties.

So, it is quite obvious by now that drug prohibition is not practically and efficiently enforceable; the prohibitionist model for controlling the use of psychoactive substances is clearly flawed and a paradigm shift is urgently needed.

Isn’t it time to ask the simple but fundamental question: “Can organized societies do a better job than organized crime at managing and controlling psychoactive substances?” If we cannot respond with a resounding “Yes!” To this fundamental question, then we must despair of our societies and their governments. Besides, the vast majority of psychoactive substances, including the two deadliest, tobacco and alcohol, are already legal.

The use of psychoactive substances is an issue of personal choice, while substance abuse is a health issue, which has been turned into a criminal issue with catastrophic consequences. The real crime is to give control of the illegal drugs marketplace to organized crime.

It is possible to reduce the harm of substance abuse and eliminate the harm of drug-trafficking, but it will take lucidity, courage and vision. Prohibition and free-market are not the only options. We must look for more intelligent solutions. Drugs must be properly controlled because they are potential harmful, and prohibition is clearly the worst possible form of control.

Far from giving up and far from an endorsement, controlled legalization would be finally growing up; being realistic instead of being in denial; being in control instead of leaving control to the underworld. It would abolish the current regime of socialization of costs and privatization of profits to criminal enterprises, depriving them of their main source of income and making our world a safer place.

If you agree with this message, please share it with your friends through email, social network, or any other mean you may think of.

Read more in “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

Take action: http://www.world-war-d.com/legalization-activism/action-alerts-for-drug-policy-reform/

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

Download a free 50-page excerpt: http://www.world-war-d.com/.

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Follow me on Twitter: @JDhywood

Check the Youtube presentation: http://youtu.be/kSsj2ct0o3s

Become a better informed activist and support global drug policy reform!
Order your own copy of “Word War-D”

• The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
• A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
• A blueprint for global drug policy reform and controlled legalization

Media inquiries- book reviews – speaking engagements: contact promo@world-war-d.com

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, the first Guatemalan President to be invited as a speaker to the Davos World Economic Forum, delivered on his promise to spark the drug policy debate in Davos. During a press conference on the opening day, Perez Molina called for a new approach towards regulating drugs, implemented “on a scientific basis” and geared at reducing the harms associated with the illegal drug trade.

“Prohibition, this war on drugs, has seen cartels grow and the results are not what we looked for, … There is a new trend towards drugs now – not war, but a new perspective and a different way of dealing with the problem” declared Perez Molina. Since taking office in January 2012, Perez Molina has advocated a regulatory approach to drugs, rather than the extremes of a full-blown war on drugs or free-market legalization.

Guatemala has been particularly affected by the War on Drugs because of its location on the most transited drug trafficking route in the world and has become a battleground between the two dominant Mexican drug cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the brutal and much feared Los Zetas. The two cartels are caught in a ferocious fight over the control of the Caribbean and the Pacific routes, with local populations caught in the middle. The cartels largely outgun the police and army, and corrupt all institutions, starting with the justice system.

The right-wing retired general found an unlikely ally in Davos with Georges Soros who joined him to announce a Drug Policy Reform summit in Tika, Guatemala, scheduled for June 2013. The summit will gather world leaders and policy organizations to discuss alternative drug control proposals in June 2013. According to the president’s official press release, the summit will be organized in coordination with the Soros foundation, as well as the Beckley Foundation and the Carter Foundation. Based in the UK, the Beckley Foundation established a Guatemala office in June 2012 and has worked closely with President Perez Molina and his government on issues of drug policy. The Foundation director, Amanda Feilding, met with President Molina in Guatemala on January 17 to deliver proposals for alternative drug policy options.

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a major advocate for drug policy reform, stressed the illegal drug trade’s harmful effects on developing democracies, declaring “Drug policy has endangered political stability and security in many countries, and not just in Latin America.” He then talked about the situation in Mali which has turned into a North African hub for the drug cartels since the Libyan revolution, on the route from Latin America to Europe via West Africa. The cartels have taken advantage of the instability and established alliances with guerilla groups and Islamist extremists, while the instability affecting the entire region from Nigeria to West Africa, Tunisia and Libya, has turned this impoverished country, once one of the most stable in Africa, into a regional and international nexus of Islamic extremism.

Perez Molina is increasingly taking a leadership position in the fight for drug policy reform on the world scene. In a recent interview to the UK Observer, Perez Molina declared: “I believe western countries fail to understand the reality that countries such as Guatemala and those of Central America have to live in. There has been plenty of talk, but no effective response. I believe, ultimately, that this is due to a lack of understanding on the part of western countries.” He added that western leaders must look beyond their domestic agendas. “A message should be sent to the leaders of the countries with the biggest drug markets. They must think not only of… the context of their country, but of what is happening in the world, in regions such as Central America, where this destruction, this weakening of democracy, is happening. They must be open to recognising that the struggle against drugs, in the way it has been conducted, has failed.”

By bringing the drug policy debate to the World Economic Forum, Perez Molina is reaching out to the business community, which could open up a new strategy in the push for drug policy reform. While pushing for reform with other Latin American leaders at the UN and at the Organization of American States, Perez Molina has powerful potential allies within the business community, which could help build up the pressure and fuel the momentum for reform, as a surprising number of companies have voiced support for a regulated drugs market.

Perez Molina expects a change of attitude in the US following the decisive victories for drug legalization in Colorado and Washington, and is building on the momentum it created: “There is going to be a change away from the paradigm of prohibitionism and the war against drugs, and there is going to be a process that will take us towards regulation. So I would expect a more flexible and more open position from President Obama in his second term.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/23/george-soros-guatemala-war-on-drugs

http://guatemala.gob.gt/index.php/boletines/item/2742-presidente-anuncia-cumbre-en-tikal-para-debatir-regularizaci%C3%B3n-de-drogas

Also at the Davos Forum, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla said Wednesday that her country, Mexico and Colombia have opened talks with U.S. officials to prepare for the legalization of marijuana in some U.S. states. In reaction to the Guatemalan government call for a debate on drug regulation, Laura Chinchilla declared that criminalizing drug use is “far from the solution”, but ruled out legalization in her own country for the time being. http://www.i4u.com/video-gallery/Laura-Chinchilla#zc3oyE7HYykelv1G.99

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

Download a free 50-page excerpt: http://www.world-war-d.com/.

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Follow me on Twitter: @JDhywood
Become a better informed activist and support global drug policy reform!
Order your own copy of “Word War-D”

• The reference book on the War on Drugs and prohibitionism
• A guide to psychoactive substances and substance abuse
• A blueprint for global drug policy reform and controlled legalization

Media inquiries- book reviews – speaking engagements: contact promo@world-war-d.com

The Beckley Foundation is getting ready to launch a global campaign for drug policy reform in conjunction with AVAAZ, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and a broad alliance of reform activists organizations from all over the world (http://www.breakingthetaboo.info/). The campaign will be launched together with the release of a major documentary “Breaking the Taboo”.  They intend to collect millions of signatures. Be part of it!

Breaking the Taboo supporters includes Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, ex -US presidents Clinton and Carter, ex Mexican presidents Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox, and former heads of states from Latin America and Europe.

Jeffrey Dhywood
Investigative writer,
Author of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”

“World War-D” on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/worldward
Twitter: @JDhywood
jd (at) world-war-d.com

As superstorm Sandy moves on, all our thoughts go to our friends in the affected zones. The extent of the destruction caused by superstorm Sandy is humbling. Cars and trucks tossed around like tinder in a stream, flooded subway stations, massive power outage, the most densely populated part of the US turned into post-apocalyptic ghost towns.

The worse part of it is that if global warming is for real, this is just a taste of things to come. With up to 1/3 of the world population living in low-lying areas, can we take the risk of ignoring the repeated warnings of the scientific community? A lot is at stake if they are right, with absolutely no way to change course, no plan B; if they are wrong, most of what needs to be done to mitigate climate change will improve the air we breathe, clean the water we drink and result in net increase in our quality of life.

I will be in Los Angeles, where my books are physically located, for few more days, until November 1st. if you order a print copy of “World War D – The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization”, before October 31st, I will sign it for you with a personal note. [productspage]
Or order from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984690409/

See what readers have to say about “World War-D”:

“The most thorough and complete book on the subject could possibly be!” Ed Borg, US

“An excellent, well researched and convincing read with copious references and follow up material. This book should be compulsory reading for all politicians, judges and police chiefs around the globe.” Chris Stevens, UK

“Jeffrey has certainly done his homework, researched causes and issues and come up with logical conclusions and solution, worldwide, to the problem. Those who have ears … let them listen.” Dr. Jay Polmar, US, Founder, www.Speedread.org

“Jeffrey has proven his credentials with enormous attention to detail in ‘World War D.’ The arguments are presented in a clear and cogent style written in a manner that will educate, inspire and promote a more positive view of this important issue. I can thoroughly recommend this book as a guide to action in the current drug situation worldwide.” Stuart Aken, author, UK, http://stuartaken.co.uk/

“World War D is a complete history of drug use, abuse, and policy. If you have not read any other book on this topic but have an interest, this is the book. Mr. Dhywood is like a Mike Wallace on steroids seeking facts and asking the right questions. The material presented is well ordered, showing the naked truth about who profits from the drug trade under the current prohibitionist laws, and the harrowing consequences to human beings throughout the planet. Finally he presents a list of options for a post drug war society with real and humane benefits for everything affected by the current system. A must read for anyone in the education, social services or legislative fields worldwide with an interest in truth and solutions. On the downside, some chapters would have benefited from the inclusion of a glossary of terms for anyone interested in the subject without basic knowledge of brain function. Highly recommended.” J.C., US

“Jeffrey Dhywood is a courageous man who has dedicated himself to a cause that continues to be disparaged. Drug legalization makes sense, and Dhywood is keenly aware that doing so would save countless millions of dollars and hundreds of lives each year. However, while there has been a groundswell of public support for marijuana legalization in particular, advocates are often painted as hippies and potheads and not taken seriously. Dhywood is serious enough to make a strong case for putting an end to drug prohibition globally, and is brave enough to face down critics with reasoned arguments.” Jeff Goldberg, Author, US.

“Jeffrey Dhywood is a man with the courage to say what other people are thinking, and the investigative zeal so necessary to acquire a thorough understanding of such a complex and emotive subject. The plain fact of the matter is that prohibition of anything – alcohol, drugs, weapons or anything else which a government decides its subject people should not be allowed to possess – does not work and has never worked. All that a ban achieves is to ensure that demand is stimulated, that organized crime will become heavily involved and, especially in the case of drugs, that the quality of the product will become so varied that every addict will literally risk death every time he or she buys a fix.
Jeffrey explains all this, and more, in a clear, logical and concise manner which even an averagely unintelligent politician should be able to grasp. He is the voice of common sense discussing a subject that most people avoid talking about, and which politicians refuse to discuss at all, relying instead upon blustering rhetoric which simply propounds the misconceptions of this most emotive issue.” Peter Stuart Smith/Thomas Payne (UK & France), author of “Uncommon Sense”

“World War D helps to expose the reforms needed for backing out of a War on Drugs that is a never ending quagmire of deception, ethically bankrupt political power plays, and economically motivated crime syndicates, for-profit prison systems, and morally bankrupt pot Doctors”, Eco-Green, US

“Jeffrey’s writings should not be ignored: it is well researched and he updates regularly. Read this man’s work and weep….Then ACT” Andria E-Mordaunt, UK, Harm-reduction activist

“Jeffrey’ well-documented insights offer an important frame of reference for anyone seeking ideas for the re-legalization not only of Marijuana but of all traditional medicinal plants that have become caught up in the government-induced drug paranoia.” Bill Drake, www.cultivatorshandbook.com

“Jeffrey Dhywood has done his research. My hope is that everyone will read this book and take action.” Mr. S. K. Allison