Monday, January 14, 2008

Drug Czar Watch I'm keeping an eye on the Drug Czar's "blog" 'cause I just want to see how he handles this one: MIAMI -- U.S.-directed seizures and disruptions of cocaine shipments from Latin America dropped sharply in 2007 from the year before, reflecting in part a successful shift in tactics by drug traffickers to avoid detection at sea, senior American officials disclosed Monday in releasing new figures. Conventional wisdom says that he'll take the "everything proves I'm right" road. You know, if seizures are up, that proves the war is working and we need to press our advantage by more funding; if seizures are down that proves the war is working, but we need to invest more to keep up with the bad guys. Second possibility: he's put so much face into his recent push about how well the Colombian and Mexican interdiction is working that he may just pretend this news doesn't exist. That means he has to avoid the press as well. Third possibility: a convoluted mix of explanations that say everything is exactly the way he expected it. The war is working in Colombia and Mexico, prices are still up and supply is still down and the lower level of interdiction is a sign that the traffickers have run out of drugs. Place your bets. Update: So far, Option 2 appears to be winning, though it's still too early to call it. 9:45:34 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Marc Emery agrees to 5 years in Canadian prison (updated) LInk Marc Emery, Vancouver's self-styled Prince of Pot, has tentatively agreed to a five-year prison term in a plea bargain over U.S. money laundering and marijuana seed-selling charges. Facing an extradition hearing Jan. 21 and the all-but-certain prospect of delivery to American authorities, Emery has cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors to serve his sentence in Canada. He also hopes it will save his two co-accused -- Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, who were his lieutenants for so much of the past decade. [...] If accepted by the courts in both countries, Emery said he will serve the full term and not be eligible for Canada's lenient get-out-of-jail-early rules. "I'm going to do more time than many violent, repeat offenders," he complained. "There isn't a single victim in my case, no one who can stand up and say, 'I was hurt by Marc Emery.' No one." Ian Mulgrew, the author of the article, goes on to editorialize pretty strongly that the Canadian government should step in... It's time for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to step in and say, sorry, Uncle Sam, not today -- not ever. Update: This report tells a slightly different story: Emery says his lawyers told him there was no hope to refute the U.S. allegations and the American offer also includes no jail time for his co-accused Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey. He says the American's have demanded a 10-year prison term, where he serves at least five years in custody, most of it in Canada. [...] Emery, who's been a vocal advocate for decriminalizing pot, says if the federal government agrees to the plea deal he could be going to serve time in a U.S. prison within the next 60 days. Still 5 years actually served, but with the idea of some of it in the U.S. Interesting, if this is true. Probably having a little bit of time served in the U.S. is a way for the U.S. prosecutors to save face? -- be able to say that they actually successfully extradited him, without taking the chance of Canada balking? Hope the lawyers are doing their job well with the negotiations (dotting i's, making sure there are witnesses to the terms, etc.). Call me cynical, but I can't help imagining some additional charges magically surfacing once Emery's in the U.S. Of course, remember that these are still preliminary reports. 11:54:49 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

California Appeals Court limits police ability to enter home when seeing marijuana This is a good ruling -- or at least a step in the right direction. In overturning a Pacifica man's conviction, the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco said officers may enter someone's home to preserve evidence of a crime - but only if the crime is punishable by jail or prison. Under a 1975 California law, the court noted, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of as much as $100, with no jail time even for a repeat offense. That means police who see someone smoking can enter only if they have the resident's permission or a warrant from a judge, the court said. Note that this only affects California, and that the police could still get a warrant, but it's a positive ruling to prevent police from entering houses just because they saw someone smoking a joint through the window. Police could still enter if they saw enough marijuana to reach a jail sentence, but they can't infer it. In defense of the search, prosecutors argued that police had reason to believe there was more than an ounce of marijuana elsewhere in the apartment - enough to subject Hua to a possible one-year jail sentence - and that Hua or others might be committing felonies by handing marijuana cigarettes to each other. The court said the first argument was based on "mere conjecture" and the second was a misinterpretation of the law, which prescribes the same maximum $100 fine for giving away a marijuana cigarette as for smoking it. Justice Mark Simons wrote the 3-0 ruling. There's another good point by the Justice -- I've always found that whole notion of passing a joint being considered the same as trafficking to be one of the most offensive aspects of marijuana criminal law (not that all of it isn't, of course). Naturally, some people aren't happy with this ruling, notably Deputy Attorney Ronald Niver who says he'll recommend appealing and had this bizarre statement: "It's difficult to accept the proposition that if you see marijuana in one room, you cannot draw the inference that there's marijuana in another room," he said. "It's like saying that if you see the streets are wet, you can't infer that it's raining." ??? [Thanks, Tom] 7:58:10 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []