Friday, March 19, 2004

Oooh look... the Drug Czar can do magic! Here's an amazing little item that slipped by me while I was out of town. I did not realize that the Drug Czar was so incredibly talented! You may recall last September in Seattle that the Drug Czar was criticizing a vote to de-emphasize marijuana enforcement activities, and he said: "The real issue is should we legalize marijuana," Walters said. "Let's have a debate about that." Well, naturally, I, and most other drug reformers said "Any time, any place." I even offered to pay my own way. Well it looks like there can be no debate. The Czar waved his magic wand last week in Las Vegas and declared that legalizing marijuana "is not an area for legitimate debate." Wow! The magnitude of his powers! Rather than actually debating, he was able to magically negate the existence of alternate viewpoints or awkward facts! Note: While you're at it, check out Steve Sebelius in the Las Vegas Mercury who seems to be almost as outraged about Walters as I am. 8:14:09 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Sloppy evidence and unethical state officials Ross, a defense attorney and regular reader of Drug WarRant (nice to know!), tipped me off to this story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Arnold Melnikoff is being fired for sloppy work. For years he's been working for the state of Washington, as a crime lab forensic scientist, doing tests that end up as evidence in trials, and often end up being the basis for lengthy prison sentences. An audit determined that he used improper procedures in his work -- an audit that was called because several of his "convictions" ended up exonerated by other testing. Ten of the 14 cases criticized in the audit as having "insufficient" data to identify substances could not be retested because law enforcement agencies had discarded the evidence, Logan said. The audit described Melnikoff's overall drug-analysis work as "sloppy" and "built around speed and shortcuts." In the previous five years, he'd handled 1,315 drug cases for almost 100 federal, county and municipal law enforcement agencies, according to State Patrol records. The kicker? The Seattle Post Intelligencer discovered that a year after the audit, state officials had not notified anyone about these flaws. Now, three days after their investigative report, the state is grudgingly releasing some of the information to some of the county prosecutors. Defense attorneys also weighed in yesterday, saying it wasn't up to crime lab officials to decide whether Melnikoff's alleged mistakes warranted disclosure. "That's like asking the fox to watch the henhouse," said Roger Hunko, president of the 750-member Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 7:46:22 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Interesting reads... TalkLeft has the unbelievable story of Miguel Mendoza Palominos, a poor Mexican who just received 10 years in federal prison for the crime of being duped into being a patsy for a marijuana grow operation. So now we'll spend about $25,000 a year to house him in prison and then we'll send him back to Mexico. Dumb. Also from TalkLeft comes this article by Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation: Suspicionless student drug testing is a humiliating, invasive practice that runs contrary the principles of due process. It compels teens to submit evidence against themselves and to forfeit their privacy rights as a necessary requirement for attending school. Rather than presuming our school children innocent of illicit activity -- as statistically, the overwhelming majority of them are -- until proven guilty, this policy presumes them guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Is this truly the message the Bush administration wishes to send to America's young people? You can make your voice heard here. LastOneSpeaks is on top of the continuing problem of spraying in Columbia and points out the new online version of the Columbia Week newsletter. State Department figures from 2002 found a resulting 15 percent decline in Colombian coca cultivation, but also showed a 23 percent jump in Bolivian cultivation and an 8 percent jump in cultivation in Peru. Even within Colombia, spraying has spurred a balloon effect, spreading cultivation to provinces and regions previously free of coca, including Colombia's highly biodiverse national parks. Just is case you want to know what our foreign policy in Latin America looks like, check this out. 7:28:52 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Canadian Senator takes on US and UN drug policies From the Senlis Council release on the 17th: Canadian Senator, Pierre Claude Nolin, strongly criticised the US led drug war at a press conference in Vienna today, following an International Symposium on Global Drug Policy organised by The Senlis Council in parallel to the 47th Session of the Commission on Narcotic drugs (CND). Senator Nolin served as the Chair of the Canadian Special Committee of the Senate on Illicit Drugs. “Drug war policies threaten the basis of democracy, economy and the rule of law in many countries or regions of the world,” Senator Nolin stated. “The world deserves drug policies that are global, effective and respectful of human rights,” he continued. “Sooner of later, governments of the world will have to, in the names of transparency and honesty, acknowledge that the drug war is a massive failure,” declared the Senator. “The war on drug discourse is outdated and disrespectful. It is time to make world leaders accountable.”  The Senator underlined the importance of society’s involvement in the creation of drug policies. “In a free and democratic society, the population should be part of the debate. Citizen involvement in the discussions about the future of drug policy is the magic ingredient.” This Canadian senator is one to watch. I like him. The Senlis Council, an international drug policy think tank has taken a strong position opposing UN drug policies and US influences in those policies in particular. “The dominant role played by the United States in determining UNODC policies should be scrutinised,” said Emmanuel Reinert, Executive Director of The Senlis Council. “It is unacceptable that a UN agency should find itself hostage to the political agenda of one country”, he continued.... “The present UNODC global drug policy has become another failed US war, but this time under a UN flag”, Mr. Reinert continued, “For the US to denounce harm reduction policies is deeply irresponsible. It is urgent for these programmes to be fully recognised by the UN drug control bodies to prevent a world health disaster.”... “We cannot simply sit back and let this situation continue. Current drug policy is failing dramatically,” he concluded, “It is time to face facts. This is a war without end. The US domination of the global drug policy is a dead end.” 12:46:57 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Congress is driving me crazy. LastOneSpeaks and TalkLeft have been covering the stupid new bills being proposed for drugged driving testing. From NORML: Please Tell Congress To Identify Impaired Drivers, Not Marijuana Smokers. Urge Your Congressman To Reject H.R. 3907 And H.R. 3922 NORML needs your help convincing Congress to reject a pair of bills that would criminally punish marijuana smokers for "drugged driving" simply if inactive marijuana metabolites are detected in their bodily fluids - even if the individual is neither under the influence nor impaired to drive. H.R. 3907, sponsored by Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV), demands that state legislatures amend their DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) to enact mandatory minimum penalties for anyone convicted of driving under the influence of illegal drugs. Under the proposal, states have until 2006 to pass and enforce DUID laws "approved by the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration," or lose portions of their federal highway funding. H.R. 3922, sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of legislators including Reps. Robert Portman (R-OH), Sander Levin (D-MI), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Mark Souder (R-IN) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), seeks to impose so-called "model" DUID legislation upon all 50 states - demanding they enact statutes sanctioning anyone who operates a motor vehicle "while any detectable amount of a controlled substance is present in the person's body, as measured in the person's blood, urine, saliva, or other bodily substance." These bills represent an all out federal assault on the marijuana smoking community. Because inactive marijuana metabolites (inert compounds indicative of past drug use) remain detectable in the blood, and particularly urine, for days and sometimes weeks after past use, this legislation seeks to define sober drivers as if they were intoxicated. Someone who smokes marijuana is impaired as a driver at most for a few hours; certainly not for days or weeks. To treat all marijuana smokers as if they are impaired, even when the drug's effects have long worn off, is illogical and unfair. Fortunately not everybody is supporting this legislation. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Porter's home paper) comes this scathing criticism: But there has not been even the slightest effort by supporters of this law to present any scientific nexus between the zero-tolerance standard Rep. Porter imposed in Nevada and the average driver's ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. Even putting aside such rational objections, by getting Washington involved in another effort to blackmail the states, Rep. Porter betrays the very principles for which he and his party supposedly stand.... Every state punishes motorists who drive while demonstrating actual signs of impairment. That is a righteous cause. But mandating that the states adopt standards -- potentially with no identifiable relationship to actual impairment, at that -- is not the role of Washington politicians or bureaucrats ... and Mr. Porter's constituents should let him know that. Other important figures have also shown reluctance: "We believe that as a basic principle states need to enact laws that meet their own needs," said Cheye Calvo, a transportation policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, goes further, advising its members not to adopt drug-impaired driving laws at all for the time being. Wendy Hamilton, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said her group supports efforts to curb drug-impaired driving.  But she cautioned it is difficult to set an across-the-board standard for all illegal drugs when they may affect driving differently - or not at all. "There needs to be more research," Hamilton said.  I've already given a fair amount of detail on marijuana and driving on this blog. Intelligent criticism, however, is unlikely to deter our House of Representatives, which could very likely pass these bills, unless everybody gets active to stop them. Take a moment now. 12:18:22 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []