Peace and Justice of La Luz

We at Peace & Justice of La Luz are proud to have sponsored Mike Jones at the Otero County Fair. We were able to talk to hundreds of people who were curious about the subject. And if we did not convince them all that prohibition was a failure, we at least started this conversation in our community. Thank you, Mike Jones!

LEAPing to legal drugs

(J.R. Oppenheim/Daily News)

Drug warriors from across the country are banding together to ask people to support the legalization of drugs.

Judges, prosecutors, prison wardens, corrections staff and police officers have organized to educate the public about the damage and cost of the war against illegal drugs.

The premise of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, is the war on drugs cannot be won and the benefit of regulating, taxing and controlling these substances far outweighs the cost in tax dollars and human lives trying to suppress them. (more…)

Drug, alcohol treatment vital in solving problem

In spite of the nationwide prohibition of street drugs, New Mexico and Otero County, as well as the rest of the United States, has a persistently growing drug problem with increasing numbers of younger students using drugs and alcohol.

With that is the typically disastrous results of addiction, incarceration, unintended pregnancies, failing grades and school drop-outs. While education and law enforcement are making strides in stopping the illegal drug trade while educating our youth about the consequences of drug use, drug and alcohol use continues to be a devastating problem, suggesting once again that peer-pressure can be a stronger force than education. (more…)

Giving credit where credit is due while holding my nose, Glenn Beck has shown a rare moment of intelligence and sanity in his interview with Andres Rozental, former Foreign Minister of Mexico.

I will, however, question the Fox News statistic stating that US marijuana use is down 24% since 1998.

“The American Medical Association recognized addiction as a disease back in 1956. But only now are we beginning to see treatments that target the underlying biochemistry of that disease.”

“The addict’s brain is malfunctioning, as surely as the pancreas in someone with diabetes. In both cases, “lifestyle choices” may be contributing factors, but no one regards that as a reason to withhold insulin from a diabetic.” “Addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin flood the brain with the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical that induces a sensation of pleasure and trains the subconscious to remember everything that preceded that sensation.

Together with alcohol, nicotine and amphetamines, these make up the five drugs generally considered the hardest to give up; right now, some 22 million Americans are hooked on at least one of these substances. While each causes a distinct form of intoxication and a different range of side effects and health problems, all five hijack the same pathway, deep within the brain.”

Excerpts from “What Addicts Need” by Jeneen Interlandi and printed in Newsweek, March 3, 2008.