Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Ogilvy and Mather execs charged today with conspiracy for drug war ad overcharges From AP: Advertising executives charged with cheating U.S. in $684M anti-drug campaign. A current and a former executive at the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency were charged Tuesday with conspiracy for allegedly overbilling the U.S. government for a campaign to reduce the illegal drug trade. .. According to the indictment, from May 1999 through April 2000, Early and Seifert engineered "an extensive scheme to defraud the United States government by falsely and fraudulently inflating the labour costs." Among other allegations, they are said to have directed employees to lie about their working hours after a 1999 analysis showed Ogilvy & Mather was going to get $3 million less than it had expected for its first year of work on the contract. Now if we can just go after the drug czar for conspiring to cheat the taxpayers by using tax money to fund lies and propaganda. (Hey, I can dream, can't I?) 9:48:53 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Green Tide - a study in absurdity by the Ontario police The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police last month released a study (pdf) on "the detrimental effects of Marihuana Grow Operations" called Green Tide. It's a fairly silly report, presented with the seriousness of a major scientific study, with charts and graphs and tables and "upper confidence values" and endnotes and 59 pages, but it actually means very little. I did enjoy the opening sequence that established in documentary style what a typical grow-op is like: Typically, a person -- usually with suspected ties to organized crime -- will purchase or lease a residential dwelling in an urban centre with over 2,000 square feet and a price of $200,000 to $500,000. The dwelling will have an unfinished basement to facilitate wiring, a fireplace to vent the powerful odour of the marihuana, and an attached garage to conceal vehicles used to transport the harvested crops. Once the dwelling is purchased or leased, a renovation crew makes structural changes to the dwelling, and installs heating systems, venting systems, and an electrical bypass to facilitate the theft of the electricity required for growing plants. Next, the growing equipment is moved in and set up. The growing equipment typically includes, among other things, multiple ballasts to boost electrical power, 1000-watt lights to grow the plants, fans to cool the electrical circuitry, and litres of liquid nutrients, fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides. Once the operation is set up, a "crop sitter" -- often a recent immigrant -- with little or no knowledge of the rest of the operation is paid a nominal wage to water the plants and generally tend to the daily upkeep. To avoid eliciting suspicion by neighbours, the crop sitter will sometimes have his or her entire family live in the dwelling. Periodically, a crew is sent in to harvest the marihuana and prepare it for sale and distribution. Then it gets into the meat of the painstakingly researched data. The study concludes that there were precisely between 2,276 and 11,380 grow-ops active in Ontario in 2003 (and that range is based on the scientific "police estimate" technique). It estimates that 1.2 million plants were seized, and: "Grow ops in Ontario may produce and house between approximately 127,000 and 1.2 million kilograms of marketable marihuana and related product over the 2000-2003 period." They also note that marihuana from grow-ops could be worth as much as $1.2 billion or perhaps $12.4 billion (note they seemed to come up with 1.2 a lot). The study then goes into the costs to Ontario from grow-ops, including theft of electricity ("grow ops will have stolen between approximately $16 and 160 million in electricity over the 2000-2003 period"), law enforcement costs (such as jailing those caught), dismantling costs, etc. It concludes that grow ops may cost Ontario as much as $260 million over the 2000-2003 period. The report recommends: In sum, investigations that further law enforcement's understanding of the connection between organized crime and grow ops are required. This will allow police to target the root cause of grow ops and encourage justice system personnel to seek tougher sentences. Of course, this comes out of the blue without any support from data, nor any indication that such a course of action would have a positive impact. What makes this study so funny is that every single negative factor could be completly eliminated with one move: Follow the recommendations of the Senate and legalize marijuana. 9:33:10 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Nominated for a Koufax! Drug WarRant has been nominated for a 2003 Koufax for Best Single Issue Blog. It's a real honor, and a great group of blogs to be listed with. Check them out, and check out all the other Kaufax categories at Wampum. 9:31:29 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

NORMLcast - New - Tune in tomorow NORML introduces the 'National NORMLcast', a weekly news and review of all things relating to cannabis-n-culture, pot-n-politics and language-n-law. Your host is radio personality, libertarian and Tampa-based entrepreneur Glenn Klein. Each Wednesday evening, starting at 10:00 PM (eastern), Glenn explores the 'world of weed' on air with producer and Executive Director of The NORML Foundation Allen St. Pierre. At showtime, follow the link at NORMLcast (RealAudio needed) 8:27:52 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

More on Mandatory Minimums Via Hit and Run, we get Debra Saunders' article today in the SFGate -- a followup to the 60 Minutes piece on mandatory minimums. When I reached Bogan on his cell phone, I asked him how many drug kingpins he thought were in federal prison today. Bogan answered, "My estimation is of the 85,000 drug traffickers in the federal system, there are probably fewer than 1 percent of whom you could call kingpins." She also notes: The worst part is that "60 Minutes" didn't touch on the most egregious case in the federal system, that of Clarence Aaron, who is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for a first-time, nonviolent offense that netted him $1,500. "60 Minutes'' executive producer David Gelber confirmed that federal officials wouldn't allow the show access to Aaron. ... and ends: But if you feel safer because first-time offenders are in for 12-1/2 years to eternity, it's because you've bought into an illusion: It's like feeling safer because Al Capone's accountant is doing more time than Capone. 7:32:21 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []