Today, three more members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs were reported to have resigned in protest after they were unhappy with explanations offered by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the man who demanded Nutt’s resignation. The resignations of Simon Campbell, Dr. Ian Ragan and John Marsden now bring to five the number of people on the once 31-member board who have left in protest since this saga began.

Supreme Court Justice Carlos Fayt said the court has reached a unanimous position on an expected ruling that would decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal consumption, which would be announced analyzed today.

If the court rules as expected, Argentina will become the second Latin American country in the last four days to allow the personal use of marijuana.

I’ve been absent from this blog for a couple weeks, taking a much needed vacation and trying my best not to think about marijuana policy. While away, I did what I usually do when I need to clear my head: I read some Mark Twain — in this case a collection of his topical writings, some too incendiary to be published during his lifetime.

And Twain, damn him, got me thinking about marijuana policy.

In a piece called “Corn-Pone Opinions,” first published 13 years after his death, Twain observes, “I am persuaded that a coldly thought-out and independent verdict on a fashion in clothes, or manners, or literature, or politics, or religion, or any other matter that is projected onto the field of our notice and interest, is a most rare thing — if it has indeed ever existed. … we shall merely conform and let it go at that. We get our notions and habits and opinions from outside influences.”

Twain’s essay was written many decades before public opinion polling showed that, once the results of an election are known, a far higher percentage will say they voted for the winning candidate than actually did so. As a race, we like to follow the pack and not stray too far from what we believe our friends and neighbors think.

And that tendency is what makes possible what Twain calls in another essay “the silent and colossal national lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses …” Such lies, he explains, are rooted not in what is said, but what is unsaid — by, for example, the millions of Americans who, when Twain was a child, knew slavery was wrong but said nothing. By silently acquiescing to what they thought was the majority sentiment so as not to stand out from their neighbors, they enabled a massive evil to be perpetuated for decades.

And so it is with our war on marijuana, an evil that persists because most of us silently go along with the colossal, national lie that the criminalization of tens of millions of our fellow citizens — and the arrest of over four-fifths of a million of them each year — is accomplishing something worthwhile rather than spreading injustice through every facet of society.

The answer — the only answer — is to break the silence. End the lies — and not just on this blog or drug policy listserves or other forums for the converted. We need to speak up at every opportunity — at work, at PTA meetings, at the barbershop, with friends and neighbors and co-workers. Even when it’s awkward. Especially when it’s awkward.

So how was your summer vacation?

For years prohibitionists, including our own Drug Enforcement Administration, have claimed — falsely — that the tolerant marijuana policies of the Netherlands have made that nation a nest of crime and drug abuse. They may have trouble wrapping their little brains around this:

The Dutch government is getting ready to close eight prisons because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them. Officials attribute the shortage of prisoners to a declining crime rate.

Just for fun, let’s compare the Netherlands to California. With a population of 16.6 million, the Dutch prison population is about 12,000. With its population of 36.7 million, California should have a bit more than double the Dutch prison population. California’s actual prison population is 171,000.

So, whose drug policies are keeping the streets safer?

This blog doesn’t often stray from the nuts and bolts of marijuana policy, but Alison Green, MPP’s chief of staff, has co-authored what we think is a pretty important book. In an effort to help nonprofits be effective in addition to being well-intentioned, Alison joined forces with Jerry Hauser of The Management Center to write, “Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Leader’s Guide to Getting Results”. The book is a manual to help nonprofit managers get better results by equipping them with hands-on, practical advice, from delegating tasks, to setting clear goals and holding people accountable to them, to hiring and firing, to staying organized and using your time effectively, to managing your boss.

Alison also writes an online management/career advice column for U.S. News and World Report.

The Senate passed the bill yesterday by a 14-10 vote. It now heads back to the House (which easily passed it last month) to accept the minor changes the Senate made to the bill. Gov. Lynch could then either sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.

Sandy’s ad is airing on WMUR and major cable stations including CNN, Fox, and MSNBC throughout the state. You can watch it here now:

Gov. Lynch has expressed concerns about the bill, but has not said what he will do once the bill reaches his desk. If you live in New Hampshire, please join with the courageous patients like Sandy and urge Gov. Lynch to sign the medical marijuana bill.

For years federal officials have been trying to scare Americans, especially parents, into believing that marijuana is dangerously addictive. Former drug czar John Walters loved to deploy frightening statistics, as when he told the Cincinnati Post in 2005,  “Nationwide, the number of teens seeking treatment for marijuana abuse or dependency was higher than for all illegal drugs combined.”

But the latest federal report on drug treatment admissions, released this week, shows that the majority of those in treatment for alleged marijuana abuse or dependence didn’t seek treatment at all: They were forced into it.

According to the new report, which covers 2007 admissions, only 14.8% of marijuana treatment admissions involved people of any age checking themselves in to get help.  That compares to 36.1% for smoked cocaine users and 58.1% for heroin users. And in contrast to those in treatment for these truly addictive drugs, 56.9% of marijuana treatment admissions were generated by the criminal justice system. That is, people — mostly young people — got arrested for marijuana, were offered treatment instead of jail and, understandably, chose treatment.

A few other interesting tidbits about those in treatment for supposed marijuana abuse or dependence: They’re disproportionately young, with over 40% aged 19 or under (as compared to 1.7% for cocaine and 2.7% for heroin). They’re more likely than those  in treatment for other drugs to be employed, which is particularly startling given that so many are so young they’re still in school. And they’re far more likely than users of other drugs to be receiving outpatient treatment, with only 2.2% receiving inpatient detoxification, compared to 16.8% for smoked cocaine, 30% for alcohol, and 33% for heroin.

All in all, this is a portrait of a population that bears little or no resemblance to a group of addicts. The majority appears to be receiving drug abuse treatment they don’t need in order to satisfy a legal system gone mad.

Last week the Washington Times reported that the Obama administration had reaffirmed the president’s position that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state medical marijuana laws and expected departments to reevaluate their policies in light of that position — signaling a death knell for Drug Enforcement Administration medical marijuana raids.

A particularly antediluvian group of prohibitionists called “Save Our Society From Drugs” is now sounding the alarm, urging their supporters to write President Obama in support of continued arrests. As usual with such groups, they never let mere facts get in the way of their argument, lacing their appeal which such whoppers as the claim that “no credible and replicable scientific evidence exists as to the medical efficacy” of marijuana.

Interestingly, SOS doesn’t trust its people enough to let them modify the prewritten e-mail text they provide. If you want to support President Obama’s stand, the White House Web site  provides both a link to send e-mail messages as well as phone numbers.