Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Good news (Rosenthal) and Bad news (Raich) First the good: Via TalkLeft -- Link: A federal judge threw out criminal charges today against an Oakland man accused of growing medical marijuana, ruling that authorities had vindictively prosecuted him because of remarks he made after he successfully appealed an earlier conviction. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco dismissed charges of tax evasion and money laundering against Ed Rosenthal, an author and activist who has been dubbed the "Guru of Ganja." Breyer declared that the government had improperly refiled the tax-evasion and money-laundering case last fall after Rosenthal successfully appealed his 2003 conviction for marijuana cultivation. "The reasonable observer will interpret the government's conduct as demonstrating that if defendants successfully appeal, the government will ensure that they face more severe charges and more prison time the next time around," Breyer said. "The government's deeds -- and words -- create the perception that it added the new charges to make Rosenthal look like a common criminal and thus dissipate the criticism heaped on the government after the first trial," Breyer said. This is great news and full vindication. Then the bad: Via The Drug Law Blog A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a California woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive is not immune from federal prosecution on drug charges. This one isn't a big surprise to me. Once the Supreme Court ruled against Raich in the main case, I held out little hope for the follow-up case. As Alex says, we need to turn to Congress to pass the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment this year. More: Raich, 41, began sobbing when she was told of the decision and said she would continue using the drug. "I'm sure not going to let them kill me," she said. "Oh my God." 7:23:57 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

HBO's addiction HBO opens up a big new project tomorrow night: Addiction, a 14-part documentary produced by HBO in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Now HBO has done some excellent work in the past, and I'm guessing that they have put some real effort into this piece, but, quite frankly, I'm not looking forward to it. Grant Smith at D'Alliance has a review of the first segment and seemed to find it a mixed bag -- Despite this and other down sides to this film, HBO's "Addiction" does manage to advocate on behalf of people who struggle with drug dependency. There are a number of sequences in the film that help to humanize drug users. Moreover, the film shines a bright spotlight on the managed care industry and its strong reluctance to provide benefit coverage for drug treatment, replacement therapies and counseling. All in all, it's worth checking out "Addiction" and using it as a vehicle to talk about the wisdom of diverting drug offenders into low-barrier, individually tailored drug treatment. Join Together is upbeat about it: An upcoming HBO series on addiction is being viewed as a unique opportunity to educate the public about a disease that affects more than 22 million Americans -- and many more family members -- but is widely misunderstood. ... and enthuses about the series of Townhall meetings in conjunction with the documentary (the one nearest me would have required me to be approved by A Safe Haven to attend). Siobhan Reynolds and the Pain Relief Network, on the other hand, are not at all thrilled (and I respect their opinion greatly). The Federal Government is gearing up for what appears to be their next big crackdown on pain treating physicians. The last time we saw this much propaganda in the press, several dozen physicians were then rounded up on Federal charges of drug distribution. Panic ensued and pain care for the seriously ill has been all but shut down. This approach of "stampeding" the population was pioneered by the Nixon Administration -- an event brilliantly portrayed by Edward Jay Epstein in Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America -- a book on the creation of the DEA as an extra-constitutional police force at the service of the Executive Branch. HBO is falling into line with their new series, "Addiction," which focuses on opioid dependence as though it were a disease. Most striking is the inclusion of pharmaceutical advertisements within HBO's announcement of "Addiction." Our nation's most esteemed physicians are also lending their credibility to this public relations effort, wringing their hands at the upcoming forum on opioid addiction. Ten million Americans were struggling to live with out-of control pain prior to the Bush Administration's attack on pain treating doctors. (Read More) Those who found care during the flowering of the pain movement have since been abandoned by a terrified and complicit medical profession. This kind of scientific back-peddling in the face of oppressive state authority hasn't been seen since the psychiatrists in the Soviet Union allowed themselves to be used in government efforts to repress political dissent. Here, patients are being systematically destroyed by the government, many become "drug war" convicts, all the while, academic pain physicians float above the carnage. I'll be interested to see what you all think of the HBO documentary. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere between horrid (drug war porn "stampeding" the population into a heightened fear of an addition epidemic) and mediocre (tear-jerking profiles combined with hard-hitting "exposes" regarding the lack of coerced treatment opportunities). But I don't expect anything groundbreaking regarding real solutions, nor do I expect much mention of prohibition as the source of most problems. [Thanks, Allan] 1:39:54 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []