Archive for Paul Armentano
Paul Armentano is the deputy director of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and the NORML Foundation. He is the coauthor of Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?
How to End Mexico’s Deadly Drug War
Albert Einstein declared, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He wasn’t describing the federal government’s nearly century-long war on drugs but he might as well have been. Despite ample lip-service for “hope” and “change,” the Obama administration’s cynical response to the escalating drug prohibition-related [...]
18Nov2009 | Paul Armentano | 74 comments | ContinuedWhy Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It
Among regular readers of this publication, the notion that America’s drug war brings more harm than good is hardly a news flash. But while the message of Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It may not be unique, its messenger, Orange County (Calif.) Superior Court Judge James P. Gray, [...]
1Sep2002 | Paul Armentano | 1 comment | ContinuedA Man’s Home Once Was His Castle
Few photos have inspired as many words as that of a young Cuban boy face to face with a MP-5 machine gun. The Associated Press photo of federal armed agents seizing Elián González from his Miami relatives aroused outrage among many Americans and—perhaps ironically—several congressional conservatives. And while the photograph was unique, the act it [...]
1Oct2000 | Paul Armentano | 0 comments | ContinuedThe War Against Drug-Speech
The “thought police” are back, and with a vengeance. Pending congressional legislation casts politicians and law enforcement as modern-day book burners. Legislators have their pick of three separate bills that would impose a ten-year felony sentence on anyone who communicates, by any means, “information pertaining to the . . . manufacture of a controlled substance,” [...]
1Jun2000 | Paul Armentano | 1 comment | ContinuedShattered Lives: Portraits From America’s Drug War by Mikki Norris, Chris Conrad, and Virginia Resner
Creative Xpressions Press • 1998 • 118 pages • $19.95 paperback Although many writers criticize the drug war, few, if any, more poignantly illustrate its human casualties than the authors of Shattered Lives: Portraits From America’s Drug War. Mikki Norris, Chris Conrad, and Virginia Resner paint a human face on the thousands of incarcerated Americans [...]
1Feb2000 | Paul Armentano | 0 comments | ContinuedBought and Sold: Drug Warriors and the Media
Americans pride themselves on their independent press. Yet some media outlets and networks are compromising their autonomy and objectivity by welcoming the federal government as a major paying advertiser. This alarming union is the latest outgrowth of the “war on drugs,” and the launch of a new $775 million White House campaign to promote its [...]
1Oct1999 | Paul Armentano | 1 comment | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
