and now for something... sort of different. who are icons of the drug war, to you?

[RainDog]

people who were out front, either famous people or people who became famous b/c of their stances. I can think of quite a few - but I'll wait and see if all my choices are included before I add any.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. Bill Bennett, Barry McCafferey

Call it a Hall of Shame.

[ixion]

2. Gen. Barry McCaffery and Ray-Gun

come to mind as icons of this travesty of justice known as the the 'war' on (some) drugs.

[SteveM]

3. Bennett, McCaffrey, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, NAACP...

Bennett, the gambling & tobacco addict, and author of the disastrous "assault weapons ban" (the best gift a GOPer ever gave naive Democrats).

McCaffrey, who listened to drug-war critics early in his tour of duty, and decided he had had enough of them, and intensified the war.

Clinton, who would not speak up about the W.O.D., and set records for marijuana arrests.

Bush I, who started the big prison boom on the backs of low-level crack heads, and seized billions (via local LEOs) in booty under dubious legal interpretations.

NAACP, which witnessed the most effective scheme in history to jail vast numbers of YBMs, and said nothing. They still haven't said much.

Texas Sen. Price Daniels (D) with Ike (R), who constructed the big lie: "marijuana is the gateway to heroin" in the early 50s.

Nixon, for ignoring his own Shaeffer Committee report which called for legalization, and launched the modern W.O.D.

[saras]

4. For me it's always Harry Anslinger Jr. vs. Alexander Shulgin

Though there were certainly many other players, these two defined two of the fundamental mindsets involved, the worst and the best.

[RainDog]

5. maybe I should've said postive icons...

Lenny Bruce

Bob Dylan

Ginsburg

McCartney and Jaggar getting arrested...

that sort of thing.

[saras]

6. Hey, fifty-fifty. Shulgin is a personal hero of mine.

As were, to a lesser degree, Aldous Huxley, Robert Anton Wilson, Bear, and the Diggers.

I wasn't either that impressed or interested in the libertine aspect of drug culture - the overt rebellion, nastiness and general rock-n-roll attitude. So I didn't much track people's fights with the law - I thought more interesting folks were working behind the scenes, especially in the seventies and eighties.

But one thing I think we could do that would be helpful in reversing some of the damage of the Bush years, is definitely helpful (in a way the things like memory suppressants are NOT) for PTSD, and may also lead to a way to deprogram teabaggers, is http://www.maps.org/">psychedelic-assisted therapy.