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Drug WarRant
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Saturday, December 9, 2006 |
Must See TV
Tonight at 7 pm ET/PT on Global Television: Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey
Article:
IMAGINE A CANADA where marijuana is legal and a prescription gets you a hit of heroin or cocaine.
That's the proposal of Senator Larry Campbell, the former cop and mayor of Vancouver whose life inspired the Da Vinci's Inquest TV series.
Such controversial and contrarian views are at the heart of the provocative Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey, airing Saturday at 7 p.m. on Global as part of the Global Currents series of documentaries. [...]
"It's the hypocrisy of it that really appals me. I just can't quite figure out how we can call ourselves an enlightened society and still turn a blind eye to something that seems to be doing so much damage yet it would be so simply cured if only we would come to terms with our own feelings about substances."
Damage Done depicts many people who have wrestled with their stance on forbidden substances, most notably members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The group claims about 5,000 members and anyone can join, but LEAP was founded by police veterans who gradually concluded that the traditional war on drugs was illogical. [...]
"They have the strength of their own convictions. At one point in time they were just ordinary cops. They were just enforcing the law the way it was written. Something happened to change their minds. I think that in the process of that epiphany, if you will, they had to become stronger. It made them heroes, in my opinion," said Littlefield.
"And that makes them very filmic, so I kind of exploited that. The guy's riding his horse across the country to protest the drug war. What's more filmic than that. And the horse only has one eye. I mean, come on." [...]
Tenacity also paid off in securing an interview with former New York City cop Frank Serpico. His one-man crusade against dirty cops was made into a classic '70s movie starring Al Pacino.
"He's not a member of LEAP officially, although he totally supports them. He's just not a joiner, really, as you might think," said Littlefield. "I'm talking to him about potentially making another documentary about the roots of police corruption." [...]
"Global is airing a 45-minute version this weekend. There's also a 54-minute version which includes a couple of other American characters and that is what we refer to as the NFB version. It's hopefully going to be distributed all over the world and through the NFB's resources in North America and hopefully you'll even be able to buy your own copy one day."
11:39:27 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Open Thread
 Nice feature about LEAP member Jerry Cameron, and a positive response to the legalization call, in Tonyaa Weathersbee piece in the Jacksonville Times Union: Decriminalizing Marijuana
Washington Post Editorial: Commute This Sentence
A Clemency Case Not Even President Bush Can Ignore -- or Can He?
THE SUPREME Court this week declined to review the case of Weldon Angelos, leaving in place his obscene sentence of 55 years in prison for small-time marijuana and gun charges. The high court's move is no surprise; the justices have tended to uphold draconian sentences against constitutional challenge. But it confronts President Bush with a question he will have to address: Is there any sentence so unfair that he would exert himself to correct it?
So far, Mr. Bush hasn't found one. [...]
Update: Source corrected.
8:58:19 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Speaking Truth to Power
In the current issue of Drug Sense, Bryan Brickner has a feature article: Speak Truth to Power, where he talks about his experience in the debate that I moderated last month.
Great moments, like the ending of the drug war, will perhaps be inaudible to us. In other words, we often do not sense the meaning of moments as they happen. That being the case, when speaking truth to power, one should watch for when "the spell" begins to break.
The spell? The spell is the spell of power. It begins to break when the appearance of the reasons for believing become unbelievable. In the case of the drug war, the reasons for fighting it no longer produce fear. Without the fear of the illegal drug user -- in oneself and in others -- power has only one remaining effect, that of force. [...]
There's also an interesting juxtaposition in the section of the Drug Sense newsletter dealing with schools, and the levels of powers abused in the name of the drug war. On one hand you have the schools attempting to control what students say (Bong Hits 4 Jesus, the Carson High newspaper article on marijuana legalization and, from some weeks ago, the students who wore a marijuana leaf to support the medical marijuana bill in S.D.), while from a different abuse of power you have the student caught goofing around and pretending to snort Smarties candies who was told by the Principal that he'd have to go undercover and be a narc to avoid suspension.
8:48:21 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Friday, December 8, 2006 |
Web Geeks Needed
I'm helping out an organization that is needing some (volunteer or unpaid internship)expertise in web development to help put together a dynamic, interactive site for a major medical marijuana legalization effort.
The site should be a resource for chapters and volunteers to download and print literature and documents.
The site should sign up members, get details about them, and to store them in a database by region to communicate with them for specific actions in the future.
The site should facilitate interchapter communication among volunteers, (talklist or blog, etc.).
The site should attract and receive donations.
The site should allow people to contact their legislator directly.
Obviously, that will take more than simple html expertise, but there's a lot of open source and freely available web applications for those who know how to work with them.
Contact me if you'd like more details.
9:52:33 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Who Got Trans Fat in My Water Bong?
This OpEd by second year accounting student Joshua Rabon is a good read... and a great headline.
9:42:39 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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New Twists in the Kathryn Johnston case
There have been some additional developments in the case in Atlanta. New information shows that Fabian Sheets (who had been arrested for drugs and was trying to "cooperate") gave the police Johnston's address (whether that was a mistaken address or he was just making it up, we don't know). The police then screwed up royally.
Radley puts it all together in the only way that makes sense:
The pieces fit together like this: This raid was conducted based on nothing more than a tip from Sheats, a convicted drug felon who was looking for leniency. For whatever reason, he sent police to Johnston's home. The narcotics officers then hid behind the anonymity courts afford to informants, and fabricated the stuff about the buy. They took a shortcut. When the raid went bad, they chased down an informant they'd used in the past -- White -- and asked him to lie to cover their asses, just as White says they did.
Even worse, it now looks like they were willing to intimidate him if he didn't cooperate. ...
This case isn't going to go away. The press in Atlanta is pursuing it. The feds are investigating, and national bloggers are staying on top of it. And police chief Pennington seems to be doing all the right things in calling for full investigations. Atlanta may see some positive change out of this, and Kathryn Johnston's death may actually have some meaning.
12:26:09 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Thursday, December 7, 2006 |
Mycoherbicide update
Via Drug Policy Alliance
Your voices were heard. We're happy to report that Senator Biden has negotiated a significant change to the mycoherbicide section of the ONDCP bill. The change would prohibit the study from being conducted outside United States territories. This limits the study to a U.S. lab and ensures that there's no chance of an environmental disaster in Latin America.
Good job folks!
We urge you to keep up your calls to the House and Senate in opposition to the current version of ONDCP Reauthorization. It does not contain any provisions mandating that the drug czar set annual objectives for reducing drug overdoses and the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other infectious diseases. Further more, it changes federal law to prohibit more than five percent of High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) funding from being spent on drug prevention, threatening prevention programs in the Appalachia, California, Florida, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and the Northwest.
Thanks, Allan
11:50:17 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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What is Cruel and Unusual?
In a continuing travesty of justice, the appeal of Richard Paey's 25 year sentence for possessing his own pain medication was rejected by the Florida District Court of Appeals. For full details, see Radley Balko and Maia Szalavitz.
The dissent by Judge James Seals was the only positive moment:
suggest that it is cruel for a man with an undisputed medical need for a substantial amount of daily medication management to go to prison for twenty-five years for using self-help means to obtain and amply supply himself with the medicine he needed...
I suggest that it is unusual, illogical, and unjust that Mr. Paey could conceivably go to prison for a longer stretch for peacefully but unlawfully purchasing 100 oxycodone pills from a pharmacist than had he robbed the pharmacist at knife point, stolen fifty oxycodone pills which he intended to sell to children waiting outside, and then stabbed the pharmacist...
It is illogical, absurd, cruel, and unusual for the government to put Mr. Paey in prison for twenty-five years for foolishly and desperately pursuing his self-help solution to his medical management problems, and then go to prison only to find that the prison medical staff is prescribing the same or similar medication he had sought on the outside but could not legitimately obtain. That fact alone clearly proves what his intent for purchasing the drugs was. What a tragic irony.
The majority essentially said that they had no reason to question whether the sentence was cruel and unusual and that it was up to the legislature. Talk about defaulting on your charge to defend and interpret the constitution!
The thing is, I kind of understand it.
And it's probably also the reason that the U.S. Supreme Court let Weldon Angelos' 55-year prison term for marijuana stand by refusing to hear the case on Monday.
The courts just don't know how to deal with the phrase "cruel and unusual." How do you define it. If they say that Weldon's 55 year sentence is cruel and unusual, then the obvious next question is "Well, what about 54? 53? 52? 51? 50?..." The courts are terrified at the notion of being asked to draw specific lines for every crime, so they simply buck it back to the legislature and shake their heads with sympathy for the poor person rotting in jail for the rest of their life. The Justices spend 8th Amendment efforts on debating what form of death penalty is the least painful and run away from the real issues.
Sure, it's difficult. But it seems to me that it is the responsibility of the courts to find a way to address this. Otherwise they are completely abandoning the 8th Amendment to the whimsy of legislators, and sending the message that their is no jail term that is too long.
5:48:04 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Drug Czar to Kids -- Just drink alcohol and use steroids!
That does seem to be the message he's giving here -- he goes to a school to announce a massive $209,662 federal grant to a school district to do drug testing...
Well, unfortunately, for the Drug Czar, they've got some smart students in Florida:
Craig Zyburo, a Barron Collier senior, asked Walters why random testing targets these drugs only, while alcohol has been reported to be the most popular drug among high school students and there are more tobacco-related deaths.
"Unfortunately, alcohol does not stay in the blood long enough for the test to detect it," explained Walters.
Ah. So the purpose of these drug tests is to get kids to switch to alcohol? Now what about the fact that the tests are focused on athletes. Certainly that means they'll concentrate on performance enhancing drugs, right?
"Athletes should be tested for steroids only because that's the only drug they use," said Zyburo after the presentation. However, as Walters explained during a press conference held after the student assembly, the tests required to detect steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, are much more expensive. While a regular drug test costs between $10 and $40 each, steroid testing can cost up to $100 each.
So we'll just spend a lot of money testing for marijuana because we can.
Everybody line up and pee in a cup for the Drug Czar.
9:56:31 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Wednesday, December 6, 2006 |
Drugs found in Kathryn Johnston's home
Well, I guess this made it OK that they used military force to go in and kill this woman.
If I've got it right, the 1.93 grams they found would be about this much.
Look, I don't care if they found 1.93 tons of marijuana in her bedroom -- it still wouldn't justify the policy, let alone the piss-poor application of it.
11:21:34 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Action Alert: Mycoherbicides and the ONDCP
[Note: The messageboard is temporarily out of order this morning, so I'm putting the alert here.]
Mark Souder is trying to do some damage before he loses his subcommittee chairmanship.
CONGRESS TO VOTE ON POISONING PEOPLE THIS WEEK
Earlier this year we warned you about a bill in Congress that would revive controversial research on the use of toxic, mold-like fungi called mycoherbicides to kill illicit drug crops in other countries. This provision could unleash an environmental disaster of monumental proportions. But Congressman Mark Souder and Senators Hatch and Biden are rushing it to the House and Senate floors this week. Here are three things you can do:
1) Call your two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative today or tomorrow.
If you don't know who they are, simply call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give them your address. They'll connect you directly with their offices. You can also look them up online at http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=10054&l=134461 and http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=10054&l=134462 .
When you get a staffer on the phone, politely say something like:
"My name is [your name] and I live in [your city]. I'm calling to urge [the Senator or Representative] to oppose the ONDCP Reauthorization bill if it comes to the floor this week, especially its mycoherbicide provision. Please let me know how [the Senator/Representative] votes."
If they ask, the mycoherbicide section is Section 1111. The bill being brought to the floor is a combination of a House and Senate bill, so it doesn't have a bill number yet. It will be brought to the Senate floor under a unanimous consent agreement and to the House floor under suspension of the rules--both of which limit debate.
2) Phone calls are the most effective way of stopping this bill. But if you don't feel comfortable making calls or you don't have the time, we urge you to fax or e-mail your elected officials instead. You can contact your two Senators at http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=10054&l=134461 and your one Representative at http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=10054&l=134462.
3) Please forward this alert to everyone you know. Unless thousands of Americans contact Congress, this bill could pass by the end of this week.
Sincerely,
Bill Piper
Drug Policy Alliance Network
MORE INFORMATION
Mycoherbicides have already been extensively studied over the last thirty years - and the results make it clear that they are not an option for controlling crops of coca or opium poppies. They attack indiscriminately, destroying fruit and vegetable crops, and sickening animals and humans as well. The toxins mycoherbicides produce contaminate soil for years, so that nothing can grow where they have been. Mycoherbicides are so destructive that governments have even stockpiled them as weapons!
Incredibly, the proposal now before Congress advocates using mycoherbicides in "field studies" in countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan - something the world would certainly see as an act of biological warfare.
For more information on mycoherbicides, read the recent report commissioned by DPA, "Repeating Mistakes of the Past: Another Mycoherbicide Research Bill" (PDF: http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=10054&l=134463 ).
8:24:48 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Tuesday, December 5, 2006 |
And the momentum just doesn't stop -- now the AP
Another convert to the Kathryn Johnston story -- the Associated Press.
This is pretty amazing for the AP! Atlanta police give few details for 'no knocks'
Atlanta police often offer only cursory details when asking judges for so-called "no-knock" warrants that allow them to burst into homes unannounced, like the one used when an elderly woman was killed in a shootout with plainclothes officers as they stormed her home, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. [...]
An AP review of all no-knock warrants filed in Atlanta's Fulton County this year found that authorities often give scant detail when applying for the warrants, which are typically used to search for drugs and weapons. [...]
"One of the problems we have in the country are that lower-level judges who issue search warrants are notorious for being rubber stamps," said Donald E. Wilkes Jr., a University of Georgia law professor who studies the practice. "This is compounded by the fact that police tend to use these boilerplate allegations for no-knock search warrants."
Use of the warrants has ramped up as the war on drugs has intensified, said Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer who teaches police studies at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"The problem is that you do get cases where police bust down the wrong door and people die," he said. "And to me, it's not worth it. I don't really care if they flush the drugs down the toilet. I don't care if drugs are destroyed. So what? It's not like the drug war is being won." [...]
The NAACP is now calling for the establishment of a civilian review board with subpoena powers. On Sunday, the Rev. Al Sharpton called for a congressional inquiry into incidents like Johnston's and the fatal police shooting on Nov. 25 of 23-year-old groom-to-be Sean Bell in New York.
Wow! And while they should have credited Radley Balko somewhere in there, I'm also impressed with the fact that they were able to get experts to speak out without even needing him.
This is powerful stuff. And it could give some politicians cover. Even more reason to start asking questions of your local city council or your newspaper as to what safeguards are in place in your community.
6:13:39 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Glenn Greenwald on the 'House of Death'
Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory has picked up the 'House of Death' story big time with In the other "war" -- more of the same.
Glenn's been a strong opponent of the drug war (he even let me co-post there once) and his blog is extremely important -- sort of the voice of the rationally outraged liberal. He gives the issue a scathing treatment (and read the comments -- it seemed to uniformly outrage his intelligent readers as well). Perhaps with his chiming in, the story will get the additional attention and scrutiny that it deserves.
6:05:29 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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More 'Legalize it' articles
Sheldon Richman in the Times Gazette (Ohio): Time for government to end the drug war.
Vin Suprynowicz in the Las Vegas Review Journal: Hate to say I told you so, but keep those Kevlar jammies handy
Over the decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has heard many cases stemming from police violence against Americans justified by the so-called "War on Drugs." Never once have the justices seized the opportunity to rule -- as they are obliged to rule by their oaths of office -- "Oh, and by the way, your so-called 'War on Drugs' is totally unconstitutional under the Ninth Amendment. So cut it out." [Thanks, Russell]
This isn't exactly an article... There was a rather ignorant opinion piece in the Red and Black (University of Georgia paper) a few days ago saying that the police were right in the Kathryn Johnston case. Today there are two outstanding letters in response: one by Journalism student Dave Marck, Jr. and one by LEAP speaker Allison Myrden. Read them here.
And by the way, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published an OpEd by Radley Balko. Nice.
Update: More at Grits for Breakfast. See the series at the Lone Star Iconoclast. Also check out the Operation Trick or Treat post.
9:21:27 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Monday, December 4, 2006 |
Why did Kathryn Johnston die?
Let's take a look at it in basic terms. First -- essentially all the violence, from both the drug warriors and the drug traffickers, is a direct result of prohibition. It is a major side effect of the drug war. What is the purpose of the drug war? Well, theoretically, its purpose is to prevent people from using certain drugs. Marijuana, mostly, since that's the most popular illicit drug. And it's to prevent people from voluntarily using marijuana (marijuana isn't like rape or murder or theft -- it isn't done to a person by someone else -- it's a choice).
[Now, forget for a moment the fact that it doesn't actually work. Assume it does.]
So when you killed Kathryn Johnston, that was to prevent someone from voluntarily smoking marijuana. In other words, you cared more about the supposed harm to a drug user who was doing it to himself, than the life of an innocent person.
How morally bankrupt do you have to be to make such a choice? How many people are you willing to kill to accomplish your goal? How many innocent deaths do you accept in order to stop someone from smoking pot and hanging out on Pete's couch? If one innocent person dies and 10 people stop smoking pot, is that a good trade-off? How many lives and families are you willing to destroy to stop someone from voluntarily taking heroin?
And horror of horrors, what if (as most certainly is the case), all your killing of innocent people didn't really have a significant impact on drug use or abuse. When you realize that you have killed these people for nothing... what will you tell their children?
6:26:08 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Open Thread
It seems that I'm seeing a lot of "Legalize It" articles (of differing approaches) in recent days. In addition to Cynthia Tucker's excellent piece, here's one in Sandusky, Ohio by Evan Goodenow (note the Kathryn Johnston mention). There's this one in the Cambridge Evening News. And there's one in the Edmonton Sun. Is it just me, or has there been a slight increase in the willingness of the media to give this idea coverage? Perhaps the education efforts of all the drug policy reformers are actually bearing fruit in this way?
If you want an opportunity to write letters to an article that's less positive, you need look no further than the OpEd by former ONDCP speechwriter Kevin Sabet in the Washington Post today. He acts like he's being reasonable, yet the way he dismisses the discussion of legalization is dishonest.
The Agitator has been covering Atlanta extremely well (of course) and discovered (gasp!) that there may have been other cases where the no-knock warrant was used without proper foundation.
With the Kathryn Johnston (elderly lady killed in her home in Atlanta) and Sean Bell (unarmed bridegroom killed in New York with police firing 50 bullets) incidents fresh in the media, it seems to me there is an opportunity here to visit with your local city council member and ask what the policies are for SWAT or other military-style engagements by the local police and what safeguards are in place.
9:53:59 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Sunday, December 3, 2006 |
Shopping
With the holidays coming up, I wanted to do my part to give you some interesting opportunities for gifts. So Drug WarRant now has TWO comprehensive stores for your shopping convenience.
First, there is the Drug WarRant CafePress store, now with the new Incarceration Nation dark shirt line, but still with all of your old favorites, including the DEA Targets America line, the End Prohibition Now items, and the most popular item -- our marijuana leaf thong.
Then, we now have the Drug WarRant Amazon store. This is an expansion of our old bookstore page, now with a variety of excellent book recommendations, plus DVDs, CDs, hemp foods and clothing, and other fun products (you can even get that great Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon necktie that I wear all the time).
Great deals, great products, and by ordering through Drug WarRant, I get a few cents. It's all good.
1:28:57 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Going to the dogs
Alternet reported a bizarre new trend: purchasing bullet-proof vests for police dogs at $500 to $1,800 per vest. Apparently this trend comes from the shooting death of a NJ police dog (who shot in the eye and wouldn't have been helped by the vest). Additionally, the vests are so heavy they cause all sorts of problems for the dogs.
No apparent concern for those with whom dogs come in contact -- innocents such as Myra Gutierrez (bit in the breasts and arms) and Indiana schoolgirl Courtney McGarry (bit in the face), or the suspect who had his penis severed by a police dog named Scooby.
If there are dogs who need bullet-proof vests, it's not the police dogs. The vast majority of dogs that get shot... are shot by police. 'Cause they always shoot the dogs. No really, they always shoot the dogs. That's right, they always shoot the dogs.
12:06:04 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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The House of Death
This is a gruesome story that has been, up to this point, almost exclusively covered by NarcoNews. But now, while the American press won't touch it, the UK's Observer has extensive coverage in today's edition.
The House of Death is the story of U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security officials' willingness to use an informant that, multiple times, and with their knowledge and permission, commits first-degree murder, on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. And even the deaths of innocents were accepted in order to keep the operation going.
'If Congress and the media start to look at this properly, they will be horrified,' [former Special Agent in charge of the DEA offfice in El Paso] Sandy Gonzalez says. 'It needs a special prosecutor, as with the case of Valerie Plame [the CIA agent whose name was leaked to the media when her diplomat husband criticised Bush over Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction]. But Valerie is a nice-looking white person and the victims here are brown. Nobody gives a shit.'
[Thanks, Tom]
11:29:26 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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