Just the other day we discussed how the fundamentals of McCain Family's economy are strong. This editorial cartoon, which appeared in the Boston Globe, shares the same sentiment and pokes fun at the lavish lifestyle afforded to presidential candidate John McCain as a result of his drug-dealing wife, Cindy.

SAFER will be heading out to the 2008 national conference of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which will be held in Berkeley from October 17-19.

Along with having an information booth present, SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert will be a member of what is expected to be one of the more popular panels during the weekend: The War on Drugs Is A War on Young People. Tvert will be joined by Kris Krane and Micah Daigle of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, as well as attorney Omar Figueroa, to discuss how the prohibition of marijuana has a highly disparate effect on younger people.  

The panel will be moderated by NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano (left), who recently had a couple great pieces. One was a featured post on The Hill's Congress Blog, and the other -- which discusses the panel's subject -- appeared as an essay in In These Times. 

According to data compiled by the FBI, 74 percent of all Americans busted for pot are under 30. One out of four is 18 or younger.

We now have a generation (or two) that is so alienated that many young people believe the police are an instrument of their oppression rather than their protection.

While young people suffer the most under current anti-pot laws, they lack the financial means and political capital to influence politicians to challenge them. They also lack the money to adequately fund the drug law reform movement at a level necessary to represent and protect their interests.

As a result, marijuana arrests continue to climb unabated. And few in the mainstream press — and even fewer lawmakers — feel any sufficient political pressure to address it.

In a recent column about the upcoming election that appeared in the Greeley Tribune, the author refers to SAFER's "Cindy McCain: Drug Dealer" campaign and, in particular, its URL -- www.DrugDealerCindy.com -- as an example of a Web site name that sticks.

There are plenty lame-sounding Web sites devoted to campaigns or issues, many of them seemingly because Web designers either weren't creative, or the Internet is simply running out of names.

Other sites probably could have gone with other names, but chose ones that would stick in voter's minds, like DrugDealerCindy.com. The site is a project of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, which lobbies for the legalization of marijuana. The group calls Cindy McCain a drug dealer because her family owns a beer distributorship -- "As the head of (Hensley & Co.), Cindy makes millions of dollars dealing a drug far more harmful than marijuana: Alcohol."

 

There are those who would argue alcohol is not a narcotic in the traditional sense, but the Web site name is hard to forget.

As for that last statement, perhaps the author should check a dictionary for the definition of "narcotic" (note alcohol is mentioned and marijuana is not):

1. any of a class of substances that blunt the senses, as opium, morphine, belladonna, and alcohol, that in large quantities produce euphoria, stupor, or coma, that when used constantly can cause habituation or addiction, and that are used in medicine to relieve pain, cause sedation, and induce sleep.