“War On Drugs” 40th Annversary protest at Controlled Substance Board
What: Informational picket and protest to mark 40th anniversary of “War on Drugs” at Quarterly meeting of the Wisconsin Controlled Substances Board.
Where: WI Department of Regulation and Licensing, 1400 East Washington Avenue Madison, WI 53703
When: Thursday June 16th. From 9-11 am on sidewalks outside, meeting starts at 9:30 am, Public Comment allowed at end.
June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s declaration of a “war on drugs” – a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world’s largest incarcerator.
On Tuesday June 16, 2011, the Wisconsin chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) will note the 40th anniversary of the “War on Drugs” with an informational picket at the quarterly meeting of the Wisconsin State Controlled Substances Board. (Agenda: http://drl.wi.gov/meetings_doc.asp?thismeeting=2774)
President Nixon ignored the recommendations of his own handpicked panel on marijuana, the Shafer Commission and instead chose to go down the path of drug prohibition.
In 1975, the Wisconsin Controlled Substances Board held public hearings on Wisconsin’s marijuana laws at 8 state locations. The results were an astounding 92% supported legalizing or decriminalizing cannabis. This came at a time when there was little discussion or understanding of the medical properties.
Despite these findings, the Controlled Substances Board, like Nixon in 1971, ignored the results. Instead, the Board became the driving force behind maintaining and sustaining marijuana prohibition in Wisconsin through the intervening decades up until today. It was the Controlled Substances Board who turned back marijuana decriminalization legislation in the late 1970s it was the Controlled Substances Board who helped kill the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act in 2010.
A long time figure in the Controlled Substances Board has been Dr. Darold Treffert, a Fox Valley psychiatrist who has served as chairman of the board off and on for several decades. According to their agenda, the board will honor Dr. Treffert: “E. Recognition of Darold Treffert, MD.”
Wisconsin NORML would also like to recognize both Dr. Treffert as a drug warrior and the Controlled Substances Board as an agency that ignores its own findings while helping sustain unjust drug policies that have caused great harm to Wisconsin and its residents. That a medical doctor would make a career out of keeping medical cannabis out of the hands of the state veterans, seniors, sick, disabled and dying that paid for his position and staff for decades is reprehensible. But this is why they were chosen as the location to mark this shameful anniversary in our nation’s history.
