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Drug WarRant
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Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
Painter gets life for .02 grams of shabu
That's right,
THE Quezon City Regional Trial Court [Thursday] sentenced to life imprisonment a painter for selling a 0.02 gram of shabu to a cop two years ago.
OK, I admit my first reaction was that it sounded excessive, but I had no clue what shabu was, and was thrown by the bizarre measure of .02 grams, so I needed to do a little research.
I quickly discarded the Japanese delicacy shabu-shabu -- it seemed unlikely that even in the Philippines someone would get life for selling .02 grams of thinly sliced beef cooked in boiling water.
So I checked the Vaults of Erowid, where shabu shabu was listed as slang for meth. OK, that makes more sense. But life in prison? Just how much is .02 grams?
Well, .02 grams is 20 milligrams. Your basic ibuprofen tablet has 200 milligrams of active ingredient, so we're not talking truckloads here. Again, Erowid comes in handy and tells me that 20 milligrams is one standard dose or maybe a couple of light doses of meth.
Life in prison.
Painter Salvador Sanchez, who lived in a squatter's shanty (clearly not making huge profits from either his painting or drug dealing), claimed that he was framed by the cop.
Here was the judge's official reason for dismissing the defense:
"The accused looks every inch a drug user and his bearing and demeanor in court -- head bowed, eyes sad and dreamy and the like -- do not convince,"
Ah, yes, "sad and dreamy and the like" -- sounds more like the description of an artist than a tweaker.
1:00:21 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Friday, May 27, 2005 |
Who wrote it?
Marty Lederman at SCOTUSblog continues to speculate about who is writing the Raich v. Ashcroft opinion (which, of course, might have some bearing on guessing the result).
His current view? Colonel Mustard wrote it using a Candlestick in the Library. Although it might have been Miss Scarlet...
9:16:52 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Paquita writes to me:
Poor Colombia, I love that country.
The Indians are like a slice of cheese in a sandwich, the AUC on the Northen
slope and the FARC on the Southern one. No ceasefire at all, the
paramilitaries are invading more and more. A lot of killings. The indians are terribly afraid and there is a lot of displaced people.
When we bought La Luna, Mama Miguel, a shaman said:
"The birds, the animals, the nature must know that we are back, that we are going to build a Kankurua (Temple), a place to talk with them.
Then everything will be balanced..."
It was for five years...
Then the U.S. came.
Read Paquita's Open Letter to the President of the United States George W. Bush at Guest DrugWarRants.
8:31:30 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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The Tennessee Tax Man Comes
A 60- year old man recovering from cancer who uses marijuana is busted for "a few baby-sized plants and a small amount of commercial weed." Before the case is even heard, the Tennessee Tax man comes and charges him for non-payment of the marijuana tax, seizing all cash, cars, and putting a lien on the house.
Yep. This is America.
Hire a lawyer to fight it? With what?
This story is developing at the blog of a relative.
Say Uncle has been all over this so-called tax, which is really another way to pile on charges and seize assets (note that 75% of the "tax" goes to the law enforcement agency that made the bust).
10:03:45 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Call off the war on drugs
This column in the Charlotte Observer by Bill Reeside, Jr. is just fun to read. It made me smile, which is important now and then.
Marijuana, tobacco, cocaine, beer, ecstasy, chocolate, Viagra, aspirin, codeine, French fries, Prozac. These are all things that people voluntarily put into their bodies to make themselves feel better. Some of these things can be bought at a convenience store. Some require a doctor's prescription and a visit to a pharmacist. Some must be bought under cover of darkness, with cash only, and with no certainty of the purity of the product. Some can be procured by children, others after you reach age 18, still others not until 21 and a few only at the risk of government sanction. Why have we stitched together this crazy quilt of dealing with the products that comfort us?
Puts it nicely in perspective. He goes on to show how poorly this system works, and then makes some concrete suggestions, including:
Here's what we can do on a local and state level:
Vote a resounding "No" on the bond issue that includes more money for jails. In 2004, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department made almost 3,000 arrests for drug offenses and issued more than 600 citations for drug paraphernalia. We don't need to fill the jails with people harming only themselves.
Charlotte City Council can free the police from enforcing silly "don't park on your own lawn" laws and "don't make or possess a crack pipe" ordinances and have them focus on rape, murder and property crime. Don't tell us we need more police officers while you are wasting the efforts of the current force.
9:00:19 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Schapelle Corby given 20 years
This is the Australian woman who had marijuana found in her bag at customs in Indonesia (quite likely innocent, based on what I've read). TalkLeft has been all over this one, so go there for the full coverage. I'm sure Jeralyn's pleased to know that bookings to Bali are already down 20%.
8:43:24 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Thursday, May 26, 2005 |
No More Tulias - federal legislation filed
Via Scott at Grits for Breakfast with additional information at Drug Policy Alliance:
Congresswoman Jackson Lee's bill would [prohibit] states from spending federal money on anti-drug task forces unless they have laws to prevent people from being convicted of drug offenses solely on the uncorroborated word of an undercover officer or informant.
The legislation is based on a law enacted by the Texas legislature in the wake of the Tulia, Texas scandal. That law was passed thanks to a coalition of Christian conservatives and civil rights activists. During the floor debate, conservative Texas legislators quoted the Bible and pointed out that Mosaic law requires corroboration, while civil rights leaders emphasized the need to reduce racial disparities and protect innocent people from going to prison.
This is what we need to see more of. Different groups with differing agendas realizing that the drug war is wrong in so many ways that they can work together to reverse some of the worst abuses.
This is a bill that should be fully supported.
10:31:00 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Once again, the Drug War Spectacularly Fails to Work
 Los Zetas are coming! Citizens and police in Arizona and California border areas are being warned by the Justice Department:
... a group of rogue Mexican military commandos may be headed this way. They're thought to be setting up new drug smuggling routes and it could bring new violence to the border area.
And yes, they could be very dangerous...because we trained them in the U.S. at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.
That's right. We find people of questionable moral character so that we can train them to go and assassinate/murder drug cartels. Then we send them into Mexico where there are enormous profits available in the drug trade to those who are ruthless and well trained!
Oops. They defected.
The Intelligence Bulletin we obtained says the Zetas are responsible for hundreds of violent drug-related murders. It says they've executed journalists, murdered people in Dallas, McAllen and Laredo, Texas. They even detained two DEA agents and recently they've shot at Border Patrol agents. At the Arizona border with Mexico agents are already seeing a major increase in violence.
We put them there! Is there no accountability?
In other news... China acknowledged in a nationally televised broadcast "that they have failed to stop surging narcotics abuse despite repeated crackdowns." This, from the country that routinely executes drug smugglers.
And yet, some people still seem to think that if we could just get a bit tougher, we could make prohibition work.
8:25:33 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Wednesday, May 25, 2005 |
Barthwell surfaces in a bizarre article from Williamsburg
In today's Virginia Gazette: Drug Forum Draws National Interest by editor Rusty Carter.
Well, it drew my interest as well, for a couple of reasons...
Drug prevention is so high on the radar screen that the White House is watching how a local initiative plays out.
The Historic Triangle Substance Abuse Coalition is hosting a town hall Wednesday night about the pros and cons of testing student athletes. A press conference has been scheduled to draw more attention, and a dozen students were planning a pro-testing picket.
That's right. Students were planning on protesting with picket signs demanding that they be required to pee in a cup.
Times have changed since I went to High School. I remember there were things that upset us, but the lack of a requirement to get drug tested to be an athlete wasn't one of them.
Of course, you may say to these picketers, "Go ahead. Get tested. Nobody's stopping you." Ah, but that's not really what they want. They want everyone else to be tested, too.
Further in the article, this paragraph jumped out and smacked me in the face:
More promotion came from Dr. Andrea Barthwell, herself a former deputy drug czar who now works on the local level in Chicago against marijuana usage. She helped defeat an Illinois bill to legalize marijuana.
???
Other than the fact that there hasn't been a bill to legalize marijuana in Illinois, that Andrea was exposed as a liar, and that now she's actually working selling marijuana... well, she was a former deputy drug car -- that part's true.
Here's my letter to Rusty:
Dear Mr. Carter,
I was... surprised by a couple of things in your article today.
First: you said: " More promotion came from Dr. Andrea Barthwell ... She helped defeat an Illinois bill to legalize marijuana. "
There was no bill to legalize marijuana in Illinois. There was a bill to stop arresting specific categories of sick people who use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, but that's a far cry from marijuana legalization. And to say that Andrea helped defeat the bill is generous at best. She created a series of programs with which she tried to influence legislation, but those fell apart when it turned out she had lied about her sponsors. She refused to debate the Congressman who sponsored the legislation, and didn't even show up for the hearing. Instead, at taxpayer expense, the Drug Czar himself came to interfere with the Illinois legislature.
You also say that she "now works on the local level in Chicago against marijuana usage." On the contrary. She has been hired by GW Pharmaceuticals to lobby for the approval of liquid marijuana (Sativex) in the United States.
Obviously the issue of drug testing is one that you have to deal with at your local level. Maybe drug testing is right for you, but you're going to need to seriously analyze the costs -- in terms of dollars, trust, and respect. Do you test athletes? All those in extra-curricular activities? What about those borderline kids who will be deterred by the notion of drug tests from participating in positive activities that could actually help them avoid drugs? Are you actually driving them further to drugs by having a testing program? What about the fact that the most comprehensive study of drug testing in schools shows that it doesn't work?
All of these things I urge you to consider and analyze for yourselves. But before you get excited about national attention -- be aware that one reason that issue is on the radar at the national level is that the drug testing industry is becoming a huge business. Many of these people don't care about your kids at all. Only the business of the drug war.
Sincerely,
Pete Guither, Drug WarRant
References:
If I left anything out, please feel free to write your own letter to editorATvagazette.com. As always, be polite.
UPDATE! In the article, it noted that Andrea Barthwell...
enlisted the help of John Pastuovic, whose Chicago public relations firm specializes in issues promotion. He's sent alerts to local and national media about Wednesday's press conference, including to the networks, cable news and major newspapers.
Turns out that John Pastuovic is also the U.S. Public Relations contact for... [drum roll] ...GW Pharmaceuticals (makers of the liquid marijuana called Sativex). [Thanks to Tim Meehan and Dan Forbes for the heads up]
So what's really going on here?
11:09:39 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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A Must Read: Arrested Development
A very powerful article by Gary Fields in the Wall Street Journal: Arrested Development.
The article shows that prison is only part of the societal destruction caused by the war on drugs. Once these non-violent prisoners are finally released, there are so many barriers set in front of them to obtain basic services and jobs that we're practially encouraging them to return to a life of crime and more prison at our expense.
Just read it.
8:24:10 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Hamid Karzai comes to Washington, does stand-up routine
Link
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has denied the US State Department predictions that Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a 'narco-state'.
He said the country could be free of opium in 5-6 years.
Man, that guy is funny!
With President George W Bush at his side after a meeting on Monday, Karzai said he is hopeful that poppy production will be down 20 per cent to 30 per cent this year.
... and he's got his own straight man!
Karzai then continued, "My sister is so fat..."
"How fat is she?" prompted Bush, to gales of laughter from the Washington crowd
Well, you get the idea.
Note: two months ago, a State Department report said the area in Afghanistan devoted to poppy cultivation last year set a record of more than 510,000 acres.
8:04:22 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Lessons from a Seat Belt stop
Via Radley Balko, comes this gem.
Here's the story in brief: Officer pulls over Estrela (age 19) who is not wearing a seat belt as part of the "click-it or ticket" seat belt campaign, targeting those who are under 18 and not wearing a seatbelt (officer thought he was younger). While investigating his age, the smell of marijuana is noticed and back seat passenger appears to be clutching something. Officer asks her to show him and it's a $10 bag of pot. Officer then gets consent to search the car and finds 101 tablets of Oxycontin and $3,980 in cash. Seat-belt violation now turns into felony drug bust with multiple charges and forfeiture of Estrela's car.
Now there are some basic lessons to be learned from this story;
- Don't smoke pot in the car.
- In particular, don't smoke pot in the car when you're carrying a bunch of illegal drugs and cash.
- If you're smoking pot in the car and carrying a bunch of illegal drugs and cash (see #1 and #2 above), wear your seat belt.
- When pulled over, don't hold your marijuana tightly in your fist.
- Never, never consent to a search. They may end up searching anyway, but you should never consent, even if you have nothing. You never know what someone else might have left in your car.
- If you carry lots of cash with you, be prepared to make a large donation to your local police agency (the police also seized the $353 Estrala had in his wallet).
- Big Brother is keeping an eye on you.
7:57:44 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Tuesday, May 24, 2005 |
Osteoporosis and the proper response to preliminary findings
So recent research suggests that excessive use of cannabis may have a connection with bone loss. What the research really has learned is some intereting possibilities for research into preventing bone loss having to do with cannabinoid receptors.
Now I'm waiting (and I probably won't have to wait long) for the first drug warrior to say "If you smoke a joint, your bones will be brittle."
What's nice in this story is that there are people who understand that preliminary research is just that.
A spokesman for the National Osteoporosis Society said: "It is always interesting to hear about these pieces of research and we will watch with interest to see what happens."
Yep.
Keep in mind that I am perfectly accepting of the possibility that there are dangers involved in long-term heavy use of cannabis. (After all, that is true of just about any substance in the world.) We should research them -- and at the same time we should be willing to research the potential positive benefits of cannabis. The existence of potential dangers does not diminish the clear fact that legalization is the best public policy.
But interestingly, every scare that has been trumpeted over the years regarding marijuana has turned out to be a lot of hot air and conjecture. And quite frankly, I'm not really worried that a smoking gun will be found. You see, the danger in drugs comes from suddenly discovering that, after a certain number of years of use, everybody taking that drug drops dead, or grows a third arm or something. And marijuana has had more testing than just about any drug in history. The laboratory has been the world and the guinea pigs have been a huge percentage of the world's population.
Believe me, if there were serious dangers, we'd have known it a long time ago.
12:30:01 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Mark Kleiman got it right
On eradication in Afghanistan:
One question not asked in the NY Times story is how much it matters to the drug problem in the U.S. whether the Afghan government cracks down on poppy-growing or not. [...] I can assure you that the answer to that unasked question is: "Damned little." [...]
So, from a U.S. perspective, the optimal amount of poppy eradication in Afghanistan is whatever amount is most likely to lead to good outcomes in Afghanistan.
And I don't see many scenarios where the U.S. advocating poppy eradication in Afghanistan helps us.
12:08:42 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Monday, May 23, 2005 |
No Raich decision today
The Supreme Court released decisions on five cases today, including the Livestock Marketing Case (one of the last from the December sitting besides Raich).
Raich was not included, and the next day for decisions is Tuesday, May 31 (after the holiday).
For full coverage of the case, go to my Raich v. Ashcroft page.
9:29:41 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Drug Dogs 0 for 31
Via Jim at Vice Squad:
A middle school in Pennsylvania was placed in "lockdown" at 2PM on Tuesday:
Students were kept in their classrooms while three dogs searched the building, looking for marijuana, cocaine, crack, amphetamines, heroin and ecstasy.
The dogs were claimed to have "alerted" on 31 lockers -- this school might be the very fulcrum of the global trade in illegal drugs. So the authorities padlocked the highly suspicious lockers (along with neighboring ones), then went about securing a search warrant.
No drugs were found. None.
Here's an interesting twist. The police are upset with the school officials. Apparently this was initiated by the school and the police cooperated and conducted the sweep, but the school made it sound like the police made the decisions. The most controversial decision was made by the school. They padlocked all the suspicious lockers while getting the warrant.
In the interim, hundreds of students filed passed the padlocked lockers of their classmates as school ended.
"My concern was that when other kids see that type of thing, a stigma is attached -- regardless if we find anything or not," said Upper Allen Twp. police chief James Adams.
Now this little story, in addition to being a stinging indictment of the school administration, has another implication. Remember the drug dogs? They alerted on 31 lockers? Now go back to the horribly flawed Supreme Court decision this year in Caballes (see here, here, here for background). The court ruled that the mere fact of a dog alerting on your car was enough to justify a full blown search.
It was bad enough when I was crunching the numbers based on a 90% success rate. When you see a drug dog performance that is at best 0 for 31 (could be worse if they actually failed to alert to lockers with drugs), then you realize that essentially all that's needed to rip apart your car on a whim with no cause at all is to just bring a dog along.
8:27:19 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Sunday, May 22, 2005 |
We get stoopider in Afghanistan
Via TalkLeft comes this article about an upcoming showdown (which I paraphrase):
Karzai: "You tortured prisoners!"
U.S.: "Oh yeah? Well... you have poppies!"
1:07:49 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Freeport, Illinois gets it
Freeport is a town of about 26,000 in the middle of a large agricultural area in Northern Illinois. And yet, the Freeport Journal Standard editorial today nails Congress as far as mandatory minimums and the drug war: Mandatory Minimums a Smoke Screen.
Lost in the debate over Terri Schiavo and the filibuster - two less harmful examples of the new GOP judicial obsession - is Congress' latest push to do an end-around a recent Supreme Court ruling that found the draconian sentencing guidelines imposed during the crime and drug war hysteria of the 1980s unconstitutional. One of those new creates a stricter definition of "gang crime," allowing alleged gang defendants to be federally prosecuted. Another imposes insanely harsh sentences for a variety of low-level drug crimes, even though alcohol and cigarettes still kill far more people each year in America - legally.
Both bills have drawn fierce opposition from human rights, religious and civil rights groups, and are vehemently opposed by the American Bar Association. But in their zeal to bang the old "tough on crime" drum, the GOP rages forward, undaunted and oblivious to the obvious hypocrisy.
For example, even as states across the nation, not to mention Great Britain, Canada and Russia, move toward decriminalization of small amounts of cannabis, the proposed new law requires anyone convicted in federal court of passing a joint to someone who ever set foot in drug treatment to prison for a minimum of five years - 10 years for a second offense.
Meanwhile, the average time served by convicted rapists in America is about seven years.
What's more, despite its obsession with low-level drug offenders of all stripes, Congress has done nothing to reverse the sentencing disparity for possession of crack - a scourge disproportionately found in black communities. Federal sentences for crack defendants remain far harsher than those for powder cocaine, a drug of choice favored by white America, including lawyers and Wall Street types with money to blow.
The Congressional push comes amid news last week of a dramatic shift over the past decade in U.S. drug policy from the most dangerous substances - cocaine and heroin - to the least harmful, diverting precious resources away from the prosecution of violent and white-collar crime. [...]
No, the real threat to America isn't "judicial activism."
It is the insanity of putting more and more Americans in prison for low-level drug crimes - leaving millions of broken families, newly dependent on government handouts, behind.
I don't agree with everything in the editorial, but it's positive and an extremely powerful statement -- clearly the editorial staff at the Journal Standard has researched the issue and knows the truth about mandatory minimums, the sentencing project study, crack cocaine disparities and much more. Nice to see.
12:55:45 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Monitoring Medicine Purchases a Sick Idea
Assistant Editor Michael Smith has it right in today's Galveston County Daily News:
Some in the Texas Legislature think the police ought to know how much cold and allergy medicine you're buying.
They want consumers' names entered in a log at the drugstore every time they buy remedies, such as Nyquil, Sudafed and Tylenol, that contain pseudoephedrine.
The rationale is that drug dealers and users are buying those products as ingredients for making methamphetamine, sometimes called "poor man's cocaine." [...]
The government and various other drug warriors say there is an epidemic of methamphetamine cooking and use in the state. They would like us to believe that a significant portion of that epidemic is accounted for by people who buy Sudafed at Walgreens for $8 a box, from which they are able to extract a minute amount of active ingredient.
We just don't buy it. [...]
Government should intrude into our private business only when there is an irrefutable cause for it, coupled with a profound and undeniable benefit in doing so.
We see neither here. We see the camel's nose at the tent flap. Let him in and soon he'll be monitoring your bed, rooting through your medicine cabinet, inventorying your bookshelves and rifling through your sock drawer.
Every day, more people wake up and see the drug war as a Big Brother invasion into ordinary people's lives.
It's about time.
10:54:45 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Be afraid, mothers and fathers. There's an insidious disease that infects the minds of the weak and gullible.
