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Drug WarRant
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Saturday, August 9, 2003 |
Well, duh!
Bush Administration Misuses Science Data, Report Says. "The Bush administration persistently manipulates scientific data to serve its ideology and protect the interests of its political supporters, a report by the minority staff of the House Committee on Government Reform says." The New York Times article (also covered in other media) gives an overview of a new report called "Politics and Science in the Bush Administration."
Of course, the drug policy reform world has been quite aware of this fact. From the lies and exaggerations coming from the ONDCP to the ignorance of major scientific evidence on the part of the new Administrator of the DEA, science has been ignored and altered to fit the drug policy agenda of the administration.
This new report doesn't cover very much, and the one reference to drug policy is old news, but I thought it was worth including it here (full report available as a pdf - thanks to David Harris for the link):
The Administration undermined its ability to obtain scientific advice on substance abuse by using an apparent political litmus test for appointees to an important drug abuse research committee.
In 2002, Dr. William R. Miller, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at University of New Mexico, was invited to join the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse. This advisory committee guides policy and funding on drug abuse at NIH. Before Dr. Miller could be appointed, however, an official from Secretary Thompson's office called him to ask several questions. These questions included whether he was sympathetic to faith-based initiatives, whether he supported abortion rights, whether he supported the death penalty for drug kingpins, and whether he had voted for President Bush.
Dr. Miller recalled that Secretary Thompson's aide said, "I need to vet you to determine whether you might have any views that would be an embarrassment to the president." After Dr. Miller answered that he does support needle exchange -- a public health intervention proven to save lives but opposed by social conservatives -- the aide responded, "That's a problem." When asked whether he voted for Bush, Dr. Miller said that he had not. The aide asked, "Why didn't you support the President?"
The aide told Dr. Miller he would determine whether his views were acceptable. Dr. Miller was never called back, and his name was not on the final list of appointees. Informed of what happened, Dr. Donald Kennedy, past president of Stanford University and editor of Science, commented: "I don't think any administration has penetrated so deeply into the advisory committee structure as this one, and I think it matters . . . . If you start picking people by their ideology instead of their scientific credentials, you are inevitably reducing the quality of the advisory group."
10:37:19 PM | drug policy | Links | permalink |
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Friday, August 8, 2003 |
Odds and Ends
-- Media Awareness Project has a new letter writing alert regarding a US Attorney for Hawaii who used grossly inflated "ice" numbers in order to try to justify a weakening of constitutional protections. Go there and add your voice.
-- John Ashcroft is trying to control sentencing by requiring prosecutors to snitch on judges who use their own discretion and provide lighter sentences than Ashcroft wants. (Boston Globe)
-- The last issue of The Week Online with DRCNet is available online (beginning next week it will be called the Drug War Chronicle). Check out the article on the marinol prescription death sentence.
-- The new issue of Drug Sense Weekly is also out, with an excellent sampling of drug war news from around the world. (and thanks for the plug!)
-- If you have been denied financial aid for college due to a past drug arrest, check out the John W. Perry Fund scholarship. Also visit that page to see how you can help with donations or getting the outrageous Higher Education Act provision changed.
1:18:24 PM | drug policy | Links | permalink |
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Tuesday, August 5, 2003 |
"DEA Bad Girl Michele Leonhart"
The new nominee for Deputy Administrator of the DEA is a gung-ho drug warrior with questionable ties to a discredited super-snitch.
The Bush administration wants to head up the Drug Enforcement Agency with two women for the first time in the history of the agency.
The Senate has already confirmed Karen Tandy as DEA administrator by unanimous consent in a late-night session last Thursday. As Jason Vest reported in A New Hard-Liner at the DEA, Tandy has a history of "prosecutorial overzealousness" and "ignorance of key drug policy studies."
Now President Bush has announced his intention to nominate Michele M. Leonhart, Special Agent in Charge of DEA's Los Angeles Division, for the position of Deputy Administrator.
Leonhart has already established herself as another hard-liner who will not be popular in the drug reform community.
In June of 2001, she blasted ecstasy use at raves with her statement that "some of the dances in the desert are no longer just dances, they're like violent crack houses set to music."
She has also been a visible part of the DEA's attacks on California's medical marijuana laws. On January 9, 1998, when U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi announced in a press conference that the government would take action against California medical marijuana clubs (arguably the start of the DEA's current war against the sick), Leonhart was standing at his side.
Read the rest of the story...
10:23:49 PM | drug policy | Links | permalink |
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Monday, August 4, 2003 |
That's a lot of cocaine... or is it?
Bolivian police, acting on tips from the DEA and Spanish police, seized 5 tons of cocaine destined for Spain, the largest seizure in Bolivia's history. They found 2 tons on Friday, and another 3 tons in a mashed potato shipment on Saturday.
Now this is enough cocaine for over 4 million doses. Expect to hear quite a bit from the drug warriors on this topic in the next few weeks, and how they're "winning" the war on drugs. After all, 5 tons has got to put a huge dent in the supply, right? You'd think so, unless you looked at the DEA's own numbers and realized that they've seized around 1,000 tons of cocaine since 1986, without affecting the availability or street price in any significant way.
1:45:45 AM | drug policy | Links | permalink |
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Sunday, August 3, 2003 |
"Can Congress Get a Clue? (Karen Tandy and the DEA)"
Late Thursday night, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Karen P. Tandy as the new head of the DEA, following former administrator Asa Hutchinson's move to Homeland Security.
The Washington Post reported the confirmation, without mentioning some of the more disturbing facts of her past, or the lack of critical knowledge she exhibited in her confirmation hearing.
Jason Vest's excellent article in The Nation - A New Hard-Liner at the DEA details some of the issues which should have received close scrutiny by the White House, the Senate, or at least by the Senate Judiciary Committee, including the fact that her assignments as a Justice Department prosecutor and administrator involved:
- busting mail order bong sellers
- busting medical marijuana operations in California and Oregon
Additionally, Karen Tandy:
- was "disqualified and prohibited from directly or indirectly participating" in an investigation by Judge Albert Bryan Jr. because she read documents the court had ruled were protected by attorney-client privilege
- in one case waited until only three days before trial before giving defense attorneys over 60,000 pages of critical documents, all unindexed
- supposedly threatened to withhold family visits unless a defendant said what she wanted him to say
- seized the property of a defendant's family member even though there was no evidence he was involved
- changed the wording of a plea agreement without the knowledge of the defendant, defense attorney, or judge, in order to set up the defendant for a subsequent arrest
- failed to turn over exculpatory evidence in a cocaine trial
- seized the business and property of a man despite a lack of evidence - a judge was so upset by the lack of evidence that he dismissed the charges "with prejudice"
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Read the full story
1:43:12 AM | drug policy | Links | permalink |
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