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So Myron Lowyer, the Mayor Pro-Tem,  is suggesting that everyone provide some bodily fluids to see if they are  fit to govern the city of  Memphis?    How thoughtful.

I am sure the Drug Testing Industry will have no problems with this.    But wait we can’t test our elected officials!   The courts have ruled that its against the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure.

see: Federal Judge Strikes Down Drug Law in Louisiana

I find it odd that our elected officials who carry the most responsibility society are not required to undergo drug tests, but a Walmart greeter has to.   How absurd is that?

This is all showboating in Tennessee politics.  Nothing will come of it.

(Memphis 8/18/09) Everything looks like a normal campaign.

The cheering crowds, the candidates shaking hands with supporters. Frankly this is the stuff of America. But there are things that make this very much a Memphis thing. Former Mayor Willie Herenton, who’s in and out and in. And Myron Lowery the Mayor Pro-Tem, who says he’s tired of being dissed by Willie Herenton. ” He has said one thing and done another so many times,” Lowery said, “…people aren’t believing him anymore. He’s not going to dangle the citizens of this city or the news media like a puppet on a string.”

Myron Lowery says the next thing he said was sort of just a sarcastic comment. Lowery was just being, in his words, “flip.” He said maybe Willie Herenton ought to be tested for drugs. Herenton has denied having any substance abuse problem for years. Many of the other candidates say if drug testing is an issue, they’re ready. Candidate Charles Carpenter says he has no problem being tested, but says with all the other issues in the city, this issue shouldn’t take up so much time. ” One of the things I don’t want to see happen,” Carpenter says, “…and it’s already been threatened, that we make a circus out of this special election.”

Reverend Kenneth Whalum says all this talk about a campaign being a circus isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It depends upon what perspective a person looks at things, he says. He’d take a drug test, no big deal, he says. “I have no idea what Myron is talking about,” Whalum says. “it doesn’t matter to me what Doctor Herenton is doing or taking. I don’t care man. Who cares?”

Professional wrestler Jerry Lawler knows the value of a good show. In this case, he thinks that Myron Lowery asking former Mayor Herenton for a drug test is the first good idea Lowery has had. Lawler says he’d take a drug test. But as far as people worrying about this race becoming a circus, Jerry Lawler says it’s too late. It’s already a three ring smackdown. “I wrestle,” Lawler says, “…and travel to a different city every Monday night with the World Wrestling Entertainment group. I go all over the United States and I can tell you our city government and the Memphis race is the laughingstock of the country.”

Meanwhile, the Herenton factor is still being felt. Former campaign manager Carpenter says he talked with Herenton last week after the former mayor picked up a petition for the special election. ” I was just trying to understand what his strategy was about doing that,” Carpenter said. ” He indicated that he did have a strategy and a plan. He didn’t share it with me, but he indicated this week he’d be rolling out more information about that.”

In one week we should learn if Argentina will decriminalize small amounts of drugs based on an expected court ruling from the Argentina court system.  The Chief Justice has been hugely in favor of such action.   This will allow Argentine authorities to focus on cartels and dealers.    The stakes are high in this Roman Catholic country.    The country is polarized over this issue.

Source

The City government is criticizing an initiative of the Kirchner administration to decriminalize the possession of drugs in Argentina, which could take place next week following a highly-anticipated ruling of the Supreme Court.

City Cabinet Chief Horacio Rodríguez Larreta said the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs is “a shame” and a “lack of responsibility.”

Not admitting that your country has a problem is a shame.   Not being able to tackle the issue of drug addiction as a medical symptom is a lack of responsibility.   Why is it that right extremist always interjects fear in these kinds of issues?

The comments made by the City Cabinet Chief come as a reaction to remarks made by National Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández, who has backed policies to decriminalize users. According to Fernández, who formerly was Justice minister, the government should focus on drug traffickers instead of chasing users, who are normally punished for their addictions.

Yes, focus your resources on the distribution system not on the users.

Aníbal Fernández participated in talks of an experts committee that supported the liberalization of drug use in a controversial statement released last year.
Reacting to those remarks, Rodríguez Larreta said, “whoever is in favour of decriminalizing drugs in this country is watching the wrong tv station, its a shame and a lack of responsibility.”

What does watching TV has to do with this?   Is there another TV station that people should watch so that they can be responsible?    The fact is that it is irresponsible for a person not to consider decriminalizing as a means to solve a bigger problem.   Don’t allow your resources to be tied up on users.   The war on the users have been happening for decades and we still have a problem.   A much bigger problem I might add. 

He added that “even kids who are trying to recover from their addictions are begging the government to do something against drugs.”

What a statement of sensationalized  hogwash this is.  People with addictions have their own battles that they are facing each and every day.    Whether decriminalization is passed of not has no bearing on a person’s own battle with their own addiction.   

The City Cabinet Chief went on to say that “drugs are a social cancer, and the government and the judiciary have the duty to fight it.”