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Drug War Chronicle #587 - May 29, 2009

1. Feature: Effort to Bring Safe Injection Facility to New York City Getting Underway

Safe injection facilities for drug users have proven effective in Europe, Canada, and Australia. Now, harm reductionists and public health advocates are beginning a campaign to bring one to New York City.

2. Feature: Health Canada Adjusts Medical Marijuana Program, Doubles Number of People Providers Can Grow For -- From One to Two

Canadian courts have repeatedly told Health Canada that not allowing medical marijuana providers to grow for more than one patient was unjustifiable, so the agency now says providers can grow for two people. That's not what advocates wanted to hear.

3. Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Another jail guard goes down, a California cop takes the bait, an NYPD officer gets slapped, a Massachusetts cop gets busted, a Massachusetts trooper cops a plea, and a Houston drug test watcher gets greedy. Just another week in the drug war.

4. Please: Don't Shoot!

The killing of Tarika Wilson, an unarmed mother holding her child, and the maiming of that child, is an inevitable consequences of the overuse of SWAT teams and the growing paramilitarization of the drug war.

5. Law Enforcement: Supreme Court Holds Drug Purchasers Can't Be Charged With "Facilitation" Felonies for Calling Drug Dealers

A federal law that makes it a felony to use a communication device to sell drugs cannot be used against personal use drug buyers, the US Supreme Court ruled this week.

6. Medical Marijuana: Bill Passes Illinois Senate, Heads to House

The Illinois Senate has passed a medical marijuana bill. It now heads to the House, which could act this week, or defer action to the fall.

7. Medical Marijuana: New York Bill Wins Senate Committee Vote

With Republicans in the minority, this might be the year New York passes a medical marijuana law. It's one committee vote closer today, but the clock is ticking.

8. Public Opinion: Rasmussen Poll Finds 41% Favor Legalizing and Taxing Marijuana

A new Rasmussen poll shows support for marijuana legalization at 41% nationwide. That's in line with some recent polls, and suggests that while we're not quite over the hump yet, we're getting there.

9. Europe: Dutch Plan to Reduce Amsterdam Coffee Shop Numbers in Bid to Clean Up City Center

As part of an urban renewal and anti-crime plan for central Amsterdam, authorities there want to cut down the number of cannabis coffee shops in the city's famed Red Light district.

10. Europe: Danish Court Says Christiania Residents Have No Right to It

Pusher Street may be history, but the residents of Copenhagen's Christiania are still fighting for their right to remain. They lost a court battle this week, but the end is not here yet for the countercultural enclave.

11. Latin America: Attacks Made on Candidates from Mexican Party That Favors Drug Legalization

Mexico's Social Democratic Party advocates drug legalization -- and somebody doesn't want to hear it. At least four of the party's candidates have been attacked ahead of July's elections, and the party suspects the drug cartels.

12. Weekly: This Week in History

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

13. Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) and Help Stop the Drug War!

Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester fighting the good fight!

14. Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

"New Drug Czar Doesn't Care About Medical Marijuana," "If Pure THC Pills are FDA-Approved, What's the Big Deal About Marijuana Potency?," "Research Proves Marijuana is Not a 'Gateway Drug'," "Drunk Reporter Debates Marijuana Legalization In a Bar," "Christian Science Monitor Advocates Teaching Kids to Support the Drug War," "The Worst Argument Against Medical Marijuana," "Cool 'History of Weed' Video from Showtime 'Weeds' Program."

15. Job Opportunity: National Field Coordinator, Americans for Safe Access, Oakland, California

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research, is seeking a National Field Coordinator to work from its office in Oakland, CA.

Feature: Effort to Bring Safe Injection Facility to New York City Getting Underway

Last Friday, more than 150 people gathered at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City for a daylong conference on the science, politics, and law of safe injection facilities (SIFs) as part of a budding movement to bring the effective but controversial harm reduction measure to the Big Apple. Sponsored, among others, by the college, the Harm Reduction Coalition, and an amalgam of 17 different New York City needle exchange and harm reduction programs known as the Injection Drug User Health Alliance (IDUHA), the conference targeted not only harm reductionists but public health advocates and officials, law enforcement, service providers, and the general public.

John Jay College, NYC (courtesy wikipedia.org)
The Safe Injection Facilities in New York conference aimed to create public awareness of SIFs, provide evidence that they are cost-effective, and start developing a plan for implementing SIFS in New York. As the conference program indicates, organizers relied heavily on experts from Vancouver, where the Downtown Eastside Insite SIF has been in operation -- and under evaluation -- since 2003, to provide the evidence base.

The first SIFs opened in Switzerland in the mid-1980s. Since then, they have spread slowly and there are now 65 SIFS operating in 27 cities in eight countries: Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Norway, Luxembourg, and Canada. Although advocates have been working for the past year-and-a-half to bring an SIF to San Francisco, that effort has yet to bear fruit.

SIFS are credited with saving lives through overdose prevention, reducing the spread of blood-borne disease, reducing public drug use and attendant drug litter, and creating entryways to treatment and other services for hard-core drug users not ready to abstain. The results reported by the Vancouver delegation on Insite were typical:

  • No fatal overdoses at the SIF.

  • No increase in local drug trafficking.
  • No substantial increase in the rate of relapse into injection drug use.
  • Reductions in public drug use, publicly discarded syringes and syringe sharing.
  • SIF users 1.7 times more likely to enter detox programs.
  • More than 2,000 referrals to counseling and other support services since opening.
  • Collaboration with police to meet public health and public order objectives.

But despite such research results, the United States remains without an operating SIF. The obstacles range from the legal, such as the federal crack house law and its counterparts in many states, to the political and the moral. But for harm reduction and public health advocates, it is the failure to embrace such proven life-saving measures that has the stench of the immoral.

"The reality is that we have people shooting up in unsafe injection facilities as we speak," said Joyce Rivera, executive director of St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction and chair of the conference. "The reality is they are not shooting up in a safe, hygienic environment with the possibility of a transition into a range of care. That's what's not happening. As public health advocates, we are saying let's recognize that reality and create those safe facilities. Let these people enter through the portal of public health into a safe environment and start to pace their own change," she said.

"We have to acknowledge the social fact that people are shooting up in unsafe venues," Rivera said. "It's not some esoteric or academic argument. The question is what do we do about it? Public health is supposed to protect the community, and SIFs are a necessary evolution in our public health policy."

"The big issue here is that we know we have about 200,000 injection drug users in the city, and the needle exchange programs only serve a few thousand of them," said Robert Childs of Positive Health Project, one of the members of the IDUAH. "Most of them are getting needles from unregulated needle exchanges, shooting galleries, from friends. That is a large part of why New York City has the most HIV and Hepatitis C cases in the US and one of the highest rates of infection in North America," he said.

"The other big issue is that we're giving injectors the tools to inject, but not a safe space to do it," Childs pointed out. "Many shoot up in the public domain, in the bathrooms at Starbucks or McDonalds or White Castle, in libraries, parks, alleys, phone booths. They leave their syringes in locations that aren't evident to a non-injector, and that's a public health issue."

They also overdose. Drug overdose is the fourth leading cause of death in the city. While it is a tragedy for the victim, overdoses both lethal and non-lethal are also a burden to the city. "Taxpayers have to pay these costs," said Childs. "For an ambulance to respond to an overdose costs between $400 and $1,200, and that's going on many times a day every day."

It's not just ambulances. Failing to address injection drug use under prohibition conditions costs real dollars in other ways as well. Each new diagnosis of HIV in the city comes with a $648,000 price tag for life-long medications and medical care, and even that may be on a low end estimate. A case of hepatitis C often requires $280,000 to $380,000 for a liver transplant; for those cases that do not warrant a liver transplant, treatment costs anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000.

And it's not just taxpayers paying. According to Childs, local businesses, including service providers, spend thousands of dollars a year on plumbing repairs -- from needles disposed of in toilets for lack of biohazard containers.

Now, said advocates, it is time to move forward. The conference was but the opening shot in what will likely be a long and frustrating campaign.

"The conference went very well and it will be a bit of a lift," said John Jay Professor Richard Curtis, who addressed the topic of moving forward from here at the conference. "The evidence is piling up from Sydney and Vancouver and Europe, and that is helping us, too. But this isn't something the health departments and the politicians aren't quickly going to jump on the bandwagon for. We have to give them a push, and if we don't start working on it now, it'll never happen. We didn't get where we are today by behaving ourselves," he added, relating how his own needle exchange effort first faced official opposition before being accepted.

The audience included people from the city and state health departments, Curtis said. "The health officials are all very supportive... unofficially," he said. "They didn't want to be on the agenda, but they say they're supportive. But this is an election year, and that makes it hard for them."

There will be an organizing meeting in two weeks to map out strategy, Curtis said. "We'll see who is willing and able, whether there is an existing agency bold enough to forge ahead or whether we will have to create some alternative organizations. We want to put this issue on the table now."

"We're forming an action group to bring this into New Yorkers' consciousness," said Childs. "The people who do know about -- drug users -- are one of the most stigmatized populations in the city. We are going to a campaign similar to Vancouver about how these people are not bogeymen, but our sons and daughters. We're also trying to organize some media events around it. A group of lawyers will help by challenging some codes. And we'll be trying to work with our legislators and city councilors," he said.

But Curtis and others are not willing to wait forever. "I'm not hopeful that federal crack house laws will end any time soon," he said. "But we started needle exchanges by just doing it. If it has to come to that, we'll have to make them arrest us again. We need to back them into a corner at the very least."

Harm Reduction Coalition Western Coordinator Hilary McQuie has been involved in the ongoing SIF effort in San Francisco. Just because something isn't happening officially doesn't mean it isn't happening, she noted.

"I don't know much about shooting galleries in New York," she said, "but out here, it's no big secret that the bathrooms of service providers, drop-in centers, homeless shelters, soup kitchens are used for shooting up. What people are doing to try to make these current injection spaces safer is perhaps having safe injection instructions, syringe disposal devices, soap and water, things like that," she said. "Also, it's sort of semi-supervised. If someone's in the bathroom and doesn't come out, you can open the door and save them from an overdose. That happens every day in San Francisco."

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Feature: Health Canada Adjusts Medical Marijuana Program, Doubles Number of People Providers Can Grow For -- From One to Two

Faced with a series of federal court decisions striking down the federal government's Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR) as unconstitutionally restrictive, Health Canada responded this week by increasing the number of people for whom a medical marijuana provider can grow from one to two. The tepid reform drew loud condemnation from advocates and members of parliament.

The move comes more than a year after a federal judge threw out the one provider-one patient restriction as "arbitrary" and "not rationally related to legitimate state interests," and thus unconstitutional. The government lost again in the Federal Court of Appeal last fall, and the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal in a decision released last month.

According to testimony in that case, some 400,000 Canadians use medical marijuana. But little more than 2,800 have registered as patients with the MMAR. Only about 2,000 have registered as medical marijuana growers, and only about 300 of them are growing for someone other than themselves. As for actually receiving medical marijuana from Health Canada, as of July 2008, only 673 registered patients were doing that.

Medical marijuana patients and advocates have cited an unhelpful bureaucracy and lower quality marijuana from Health Canada's monopoly supplier as reasons for not using the government pot. Many patients turn to the "compassion clubs" that provide higher grade medical marijuana outside the scope of the MMAR, or else to the black market.

The new regulations are in force, said a Health Canada spokesman. "As a result of the Federal Court ruling, the government has moved quickly to address this regulatory void and has modified the regulations to allow one designated person to now produce marijuana for up to two authorized persons," spokesman Philippe Laroche said."This modification is currently in force."

Philippe Lucas (from vicgreens.com)
"This is a slap in the face to Canada's critically and chronically ill bordering on contempt of court," said Philippe Lucas, a member of the Victoria, BC, city council and founder of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. "As usual, Health Canada is doing as little as possible to meet the real needs of medical marijuana users in our nation. This means patients are going to find themselves once again struggling to fix a program that's been declared unconstitutional five times in the past five years."

The changes are an "outrage" and run contrary to the spirit of the court decisions, said Alison Myrden, an outspoken Canadian medical marijuana advocate. "None of us will settle for this," she told the Canwest News Service. "This is so disingenuous of our government, because we are sick and dying people. We'll have to go back to court again."

"This is ridiculous bordering on outrageous," said Jay Leung of the BC Compassion Club in Vancouver. "When you consider how sick and fragile a lot of these patients are, it's really quite criminal that they are spending all these resources to make medical marijuana inaccessible despite the fact that the courts keep ruling that those who are ill and can benefit from cannabis have the right to access it. They set up this shoddy program in order to avoid violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but this just shows that they are not really interested in helping ill Canadians."

It wasn't just activists. New Democratic Party MP Libby Davies, who represents Vancouver East, told Canwest the government's response was "abysmal" and would likely once again be struck down by the courts. "From the beginning, the federal government has been dragged kicking and screaming into accepting the use of marijuana for medical reasons," said Davies.

"There is no doubt this will not stand up to further legal scrutiny," said Lucas.

Liberal MP Keith Martin, who has introduced a private bill to decriminalize marijuana possession, said the new two-person limit showed the Conservative government was unwilling to disentangle concerns about illegal drug use and medical marijuana. "They lump them all in together," said Martin.

Saying he was "disappointed but not surprised," Lucas added that Health Canada has been intransigent under both Liberal and Conservative governments. "There has been a pattern of resistance and entrenching their failed policies, and it's been about the same under the last three health ministers. None of them have ever spoken about the program," he noted. "There has not been near enough public scrutiny. We need an investigation of the incredible cost to taxpayers when the government has to repeatedly spend money in failed litigation."

Lucas also warned that Health Canada could face suits for damages from aggrieved patients. "Health Canada is making itself increasingly vulnerable to civil suits," he said. "The patients of this country aren't going to put up with any more of this. I wouldn't be surprised to see civil litigation to strike the program or get reparations for Health Canada's intransigence," he predicted.

In the meantime, the Vancouver Island Compassion Society and its fellow organizations across Canada will fill the void -- despite being outside the purview of the law. "We operate with the support of our local communities and we're not seen as a police priority," Lucas said. "Since we are supplying more medical marijuana to patients than Health Canada and at no cost to taxpayers, there is little motivation to attack organizations that actually help critically and chronically ill Canadians instead of increasing their stress and anxiety."

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Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Another jail guard goes down, a California cop takes the bait, an NYPD officer gets slapped, a Massachusetts cop gets busted, a Massachusetts trooper cops a plea, and a Houston drug test watcher gets greedy. Just another week in the drug war. Let's get to it:

In Glendora, California, a former Glendora officer was arrested May 20 for allegedly stealing cash and methamphetamine last year during a sting operation. Former officer Timothy Radogna, 33, was charged with grand theft, drug possession for sales, and possession of drugs with a firearm. Glendora police conducted an "integrity investigation" against Radogna after receiving information he was failing to book drugs and cash into evidence. They left cash and meth in a bait car and asked him to book the evidence. He pocketed $1,000 and a small amount of meth. The three-year veteran was placed on leave after the sting last fall and fired in December. He faces up to nine years in prison.

In Houston, a Harris County drug test monitor was arrested May 21 for taking a $200 bribe to turn in a fraudulent drug test form. Community Supervision and Corrections Department employee Thomas Walker, 22, had worked for the county for only two months when he accepted money from an undercover district attorney's office investigator to report a clean urine sample when the investigator didn't provide one at all. He is charged with bribery and tampering with a government document. He has resigned after being told he would be fired. Walker faces up to 20 years in prison for bribery.

In Mashpee, Massachusetts, a former Mashpee police officer was arrested May 20 on drug charges after Barnstable Police executed a search warrant at his home. Former officer Joseph Kelley, who resigned from the force in February, is charged with one count of trafficking in opiate derivatives after police found 200 oxycodone tablets and various other pills and liquids. Police obtained a warrant for Kelley's home as part of an "ongoing OxyContin investigation," they said.

In New York City, an NYPD sergeant was acquitted May 21 of drug sales charges, but convicted of official misconduct. Sgt. Michael Arenella had been accused of supervising a rogue group of narcotics officers charged with stealing crack cocaine and cash from dealers and using it to pay informants. A state Supreme Court judge found him not guilty of sale and possession charges, but did convict him of official misconduct for falsifying police reports and for stealing $40 from undercover officers posing as drug dealers and giving it to an informant. With his conviction, he is automatically dismissed from the force. He faces up to one year in prison.

In Saugus, Massachusetts, a former Massachusetts state trooper pleaded guilty May 20 to cocaine conspiracy and distribution charges. Former trooper John Foley, 64, a 37-year veteran of the force, was arrested in December 2007 by FBI, DEA, and state and local officers for peddling cocaine in Saugus. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when sentenced July 29.

In New York City, a former New York City corrections officer was sentenced May 20 to three years in prison for smuggling drugs into Rikers Island. Tamar Peebles, 27, had admitted to accepting $1,500 from an undercover investigator and picking up what she thought was heroin and marijuana for delivery to the prison. She pleaded guilty to one count of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance and one count of receiving a bribe. Peebles was one of six city jail guards swept up in a 16-month sting operation that found guards willing to deliver contraband to inmates in return for cash. Cases for the other five are still pending.

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Please: Don't Shoot!

Dear Drug War Chronicle Reader:

The graphic to the left is from the web site of the Lima, Ohio, SWAT team. In January 2008, the team stormed the home of Tarika Wilson and Anthony Terry during an ordinary drug investigation. A member of the SWAT team shot and killed Wilson -- an unarmed 26-year old -- also blowing a finger off the one-year old son she was holding. Another member of the SWAT team killed two family dogs on a different floor. The police department removed the graphic from the web site following the incident. Wilson's killer was charged with two misdemeanors, acquitted, and continues to work for the Lima police department, though not for the SWAT team.

Created for emergency or very high-intensity situations (snipers, hostages and the like), today SWAT teams deploy more than 50,000 times per year, mostly in low-level drug raids. This is dangerous and wrong, as the killing of Wilson, the maiming of her child, and the image the SWAT team chose to represent itself before things went bad all demonstrate. Please watch our online video, "SWAT Raids -- No One Is Safe," please forward it to your friends, and if possible please post it on your web site. When you're done, please sign the "Petition for Responsible SWAT Reform" to limit SWAT raids to when they're truly needed.

Please consider donating to this effort, and thank you for helping to stop the "war on drugs."

Sincerely,

David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org

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Law Enforcement: Supreme Court Holds Drug Purchasers Can't Be Charged With "Facilitation" Felonies for Calling Drug Dealers

The US Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that a law making it a felony to use a communication device in "committing or in causing or in facilitating" a drug deal cannot be used against drug purchasers who use their phones to calls their dealers. The unanimous ruling came in Abuelhawa v. US.

US Supreme Court
In that case, federal agents had wiretapped a drug dealer's phone. Among the calls they intercepted were six calls between Abuelhawa and the dealer in which Abuelhawa twice arranged to purchase single grams of cocaine, a misdemeanor offense under federal law. But federal prosecutors in the case charged Abuelhawa with six felony counts of using a communications device to facilitate a drug deal, one for each phone call.

Abuelhawa was convicted at trial. He appealed to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the conviction, and then to the US Supreme Court, which has now overruled it and sent the case back to district court.

"The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) makes it a felony 'to use any communication facility in committing or in causing or facilitating' certain felonies prohibited by the statute," wrote Justice David Souter in the opinion. "The question here is whether someone violates §843(b) in making a misdemeanor drug purchase because his phone call to the dealer can be said to facilitate the felony of drug distribution. The answer is no," he wrote.

"Where a transaction like a sale necessarily presupposes two parties with specific roles, it would be odd to speak of one party as facilitating the conduct of the other," Souter elaborated. "A buyer does not just make a sale easier; he makes the sale possible. No buyer, no sale; the buyer's part is already implied by the term 'sale,' and the word 'facilitate' adds nothing."

Souter noted that Congress had amended the CSA in 1970 to make simple cocaine possession a misdemeanor, not a felony, and limited the communications offense by changing the words "drug offense" to "drug felony." "Congress meant to treat purchasing drugs for personal use more leniently than felony distribution, and to narrow the scope of the communications provision to cover only those who facilitate a felony," he wrote.

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Medical Marijuana: Bill Passes Illinois Senate, Heads to House

The Illinois Senate Wednesday approved SB 1381, which would allow seriously ill patients with certain debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana with a physician's recommendation. The measure passed by a margin of 30-28 with bipartisan support. The Senate defeated a similar measure last year.

Illinois State House
Attention now moves to the House, where a companion bill, HB 2514, passed one committee in March. But it is expected that the House will take up the Senate version for debate.

The spring portion of the Illinois legislative session ends after this week, and it is unlikely the House will act before that. But the legislature reconvenes in the fall.

"I'm very proud of my fellow senators for recognizing modern scientific research, listening to reason, and passing this very sensible bill," said sponsor Sen. William Haine (D-Alton), a four-term former states attorney. "This bill has been amended several times to address the concerns of law enforcement, and the version we're sending to the House would likely be the most strictly controlled medical marijuana law in the country."

Those amendments tightened requirements to participate in the program, lowered the quantities of marijuana allowed, and strengthened the role of the state police in oversight of the program.

"I've been pleading with our legislators to enact this law for five years now," said Julie Falco, a Chicago resident who has lived with multiple sclerosis for over 20 years. "This medicine not only helps me control my muscle spasms and pain, it has also allowed me to discontinue using virtually all pharmaceutical medications, most of which had horrible side effects. I don't just support this bill; I desperately need it to become law."

Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), sponsor of the House version of the medical marijuana bill, said he hopes that the recent Senate victory will give his wavering colleagues in the House enough political cover to send this legislation to the governor for signature. "Opposition to this bill is dwindling because all legitimate concerns have been addressed," Lang said. "I think that there is a true desire in the General Assembly to pass this bill for the patients who need it and I'm confident that my colleagues in the House will give this issue the attention it deserves."

The Marijuana Policy Project and the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative have both been active in pushing the Illinois bill.

Update: The measure passed the House Health and Human Services Committee unexpectedly quickly Thursday afternoon, increasing the likelihood of a House floor vote before the session ends Sunday.

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Medical Marijuana: New York Bill Wins Senate Committee Vote

With Democrats in control of the New York state Senate, a medical marijuana bill has for the first time been passed by a Senate committee. In previous years, medical marijuana bills had managed to pass in the House, but not in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The bill, S04041, passed the Senate Health Committee Tuesday. It must now pass the Senate Codes Committee before proceeding to a Senate floor vote. The identical House version of the bill, A7542, has been referred from the House Health Committee to the House Codes Committee.

Under the bills, New Yorkers suffering from a "serious condition" can be certified by a physician as benefiting from the use of medical marijuana. It also creates a registry program. Any patient or caregiver registered with the state would be able to possess up to 2 ½ ounces of marijuana and up to 12 plants.

With friendly leadership in both chambers, New York could become the 14th medical marijuana state. But time is running out -- the session has only about a month to go, and leaders have plenty of other issues on their plates.

Both the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project have been involved in pushing for the legislation.

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Public Opinion: Rasmussen Poll Finds 41% Favor Legalizing and Taxing Marijuana

According to the polling organization Rasmussen Reports, 41% of likely voters think the US should legalize and tax marijuana to help solve the country's fiscal problems. But 49% oppose the idea. A Rasmussen poll in February had similar results, with 40% favoring legalization and 46% opposed.

The not-quite-there numbers for marijuana legalization are in line with other polling results in recent months. A recent Zogby poll showing 52% for legalization is the high-end outlier and the only poll so far to show majority support for legalization nationwide.

In the most recent Rasmussen poll, a majority of Democrats (52%) supported legalizing and taxing pot, but only 28% of Republicans did. Independent voters split more evenly, with 41% supporting legalization and 47% opposed. Support for legalization was stronger among young adults than those over 40.

Even in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently said that legalization should be debated and where pro-legalization sentiment is assumed to be strong, a mid-month Rasmussen poll found that the public is not quite there yet. Some 45% of likely voters supported legalizing and taxing marijuana to help the state's fiscal crisis, but 46% were opposed.

The polls suggest there is work to be done by legalization advocates. Nearly half of likely voters (46%) believe marijuana is a "gateway drug" despite that notion being thoroughly discredited. Only slightly more than one-third (37%) said they didn't buy the gateway notion.

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Europe: Dutch Plan to Reduce Amsterdam Coffee Shop Numbers in Bid to Clean Up City Center

The Amsterdam City Council is considering and is expected to pass an urban renewal measure that will lead to the shuttering of one-third of the cannabis coffee shop in the city's famous Red Light district. Known as the Coalition Project 1012, after the postal code for central Amsterdam, the plan is designed to re-purpose and clean up the city's entryway around Dam Square and the Centraal Station.

The Bulldog coffee shop (courtesy amsterdam.info)
The project aims to combat the "general degradation" of the area, break up organized crime groups, and diminish the size and concentration of "criminogenic" activities -- those which generate crime. The famous coffee houses are targeted not because they are violating laws, but because supplying them with the merchandise has evolved into a task that is now handled primarily by organized crime groupings.

That, in turn, is a consequence of the incomplete nature of the Dutch's "gedogen" (pragmatic tolerance) approach to marijuana sales. While the Dutch tolerate the formally illegal sales of small amounts of marijuana at the coffee houses, there is no provision for supplying them. The Dutch tolerate the personal growing of up to five plants, but with the amount of cannabis consumed in the coffee house market, it would take an army of personal growers to supply them. As a result, and also because of tough enforcement of the personal grow laws, the provision of cannabis to the coffee houses has become the purview of organized crime.

Amsterdam currently has 226 coffee shops, 141 of them in the Centrum district, and 76 of them in the 1012 postal code including the Red Light district. Under the plan, the 76 Red Light district coffee shops will be reduced to 50 and the number city-wide to 192. The shops that must close will be given one three-year extension by this fall, and then must go out of business. Another dozen coffee shops may have to close because they are too close to schools.

The number of Amsterdam coffee shops peaked at 350 in 1997 and has been in decline since then. Some have been closed for violating the regulations surrounding them. But municipal authorities for the past decade have also been applying a "die-off" policy in areas where they think the concentrations are too high. In those areas, if a coffee shop goes out of business for any reason, the permit is withdrawn and cannot go to a new owner or operator.

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Europe: Danish Court Says Christiania Residents Have No Right to It

A Danish court has ruled that the residents of Copenhagen's Christiania neighborhood have no right to use the property they have called home since 1971. The ruling opens the way for the government to regain control of the hippie enclave.

entrance to Christiania, Copenhagen (courtesy Wikimedia)
Nearly 40 years ago, Copenhagen counterculture activists invaded a disused former naval base and created the self-governing community of Christiania in the heart of the city. More than 900 residents lived an anarchic, self-governing existence, complete with the famous Pusher Street, where cannabis merchants openly sold their wares.

But in 2004, the Danish government moved to reassert control over Christiania with an eye to redeveloping the property. It has also forced the shutdown of Pusher Street, resulting in clashes with police. But residents didn't respond only with rocks; they filed a lawsuit in 2006 seeking to block the government from reasserting control.

On Tuesday, the Danish Eastern High Court dismissed the lawsuit. But residents had expected that ruling, Christiania spokesman Thomas Ertman told the Associated Press. "I believe that we will appeal the case" to Denmark's highest court, the Supreme Court, he said.

"No Danes are above the law, neither are the residents of Christiania," said Peter Christensen, a senior member of the ruling Liberal Party. "I am very satisfied that the ruling came out this way."

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Latin America: Attacks Made on Candidates from Mexican Party That Favors Drug Legalization

Mexico's small, left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SDP) calls openly for drug legalization as part of its platform. Now, in the run-up to midterm elections in July, that stance may be attracting attention of the wrong sort. The party reports that at least four of its congressional candidates have been attacked while campaigning, and the party chairman is strongly suggesting that he thinks drug traffickers are behind them.

On Sunday, a PSD campaign worker was injured by flying glass after unknown assailants fired on the vehicle of PSD candidate Emmanuel López in Acapulco. Two days before that, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at PSD hopeful Celina del Carmen Ávalos in Tijuana. Two other party candidates were attacked in separate incidents in Mexico state earlier in the campaign. None were seriously injured.

In a Tuesday press conference, PSD leaders called the attacks "unacceptable" and demanded that the government act to halt them. All four attacks had been reported to local law enforcement, they said.

"He's out of danger," PSD chief José Carlos Díaz Cuervo said of the injured campaign worker. "However, it seems to us unacceptable, requiring of public outcry, that these attacks continue." The attacks signal "a clear intention to intimidate us... something we interpret as a sign we are doing well, disturbing precisely the interests that have this country prostrate before organized crime," the PSD chairman said. "It's time authorities said something about this. These acts of violence cannot be allowed to pass as campaign anecdotes," he said.

When asked directly if he thought drug traffickers were behind the attacks, PSD deputy chairman Luciano Pascoe said the party had no direct evidence to support that theory. "What we are beginning to find is that they (the attacks) are directed against the party, against the proposals, and this speaks of a political profile," Pascoe said. "What they won't achieve with bullets is to silence us."

But Díaz was less hesitant. "Doubtless, unlike the federal government, it appears the drug traffickers do understand that the regulation of that market would take the business away from them and would be a more intelligent way to combat them," he said.

The campaign comes as Mexico's drug war continues to roil the country. Upon taking office in December 2006, conservative President Felipe Calderón began deploying federal troops and police to rein in the so-called cartels, whose battles with authorities and among themselves left 1,500 people dead in 2006. But even as the number of federal troops and police rose to 65,000, with several Mexican border cities under virtual martial law, so has the prohibition-related death toll. It jumped to 2,700 people in 2007 and leapt dramatically to more than 6,000 last year. This year seems to be keeping up with that torrid pace, with some 2,500 people reported killed so far.

The PSD argues that drug legalization would increase public safety by constricting the money supply to the cartels. It also calls for legalization on public health and humanitarian grounds.

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Weekly: This Week in History

June 3, 1876: Fairgoers visit the Turkish Hashish Exposition at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where many partake.

May 29, 1969: The Canadian government forms the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical use of Drugs, which ultimately issues the famed LeDain report, recommending that simple possession of cannabis and cultivation for personal use be permitted. The report contradicts almost all of the common fallacies held by some of the general public. During an interview in 1998, LeDain blames politicians for the fact that virtually none of the commission's recommendations were made into law.

May 30, 1977: Newsweek runs a story on cocaine reporting that "Among hostesses in the smart sets of Los Angeles and New York, a little cocaine, like Dom Perignon and Beluga caviar, is now de rigueur at dinners. Some party givers pass it around along with canapes on silver trays... the user experiences a feeling of potency, of confidence, of energy."

May 31, 1996: Psychedelic guru Timothy Leary dies.

June 1, 1996: Actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson is arrested and charged with cultivation of fewer than five marijuana plants, after planting four industrial hemp seeds in full view of Lee County Sheriff William Kilburn in Lexington, Kentucky.

June 4, 1998: Common Sense for Drug Policy begins a $60,000 advertisement campaign on CNN and other outlets, timed to coincide with the June 8 UN drug summit, featuring a video of President Clinton at the UN with an overdubbed voice imitating the president and urging a change in drug policy (with a visual disclaimer saying it is not Clinton talking). On June 7, ABC Evening News covered the story.

May 31, 2000: Lions Gate Films releases Grass, the Woody Harrelson-narrated/Ron Mann-directed documentary about the history of marijuana in 20th century America.

June 2, 2004: Judge Paul L. Friedman of the US District Court of the District of Columbia strikes down a law passed by Congress blocking marijuana law reform groups from purchasing ad space in public transit systems. Judge Friedman notes that the federal government cannot ban certain types of speech because it disapproves of their content -- especially in light of the government's own advertising advocating for the punishment of marijuana users on these same trains and buses.

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Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) and Help Stop the Drug War!

Want to help end the "war on drugs," while earning college credit too? Apply for a StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) internship for this summer or fall semester and you could come join the team and help us fight the fight!

StoptheDrugWar has a strong record of providing substantive work experience to our interns -- you won't spend the summer doing filing or running errands, you will play an integral role in one or more of our exciting programs. Options for work you can do with us include coalition outreach as part of the campaign to rein in the use of SWAT teams, to expand our work to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act to encompass other bad drug laws like the similar provisions in welfare and public housing law; blogosphere/web outreach; media research and outreach; web site work (research, writing, technical); possibly other areas. If you are chosen for an internship, we will strive to match your interests and abilities to whichever area is the best fit for you.

While our internships are unpaid, we will reimburse you for metro fare, and DRCNet is a fun and rewarding place to work. To apply, please send your resume to David Guard at [email protected], and feel free to contact us at (202) 293-8340. We hope to hear from you! Check out our web site at http://stopthedrugwar.org to learn more about our organization.

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Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

Along with our weekly in-depth Chronicle reporting, DRCNet also provides daily content in the way of blogging in the Stop the Drug War Speakeasy -- huge numbers of people have been reading it recently -- as well as Latest News links (upper right-hand corner of most web pages), event listings (lower right-hand corner) and other info. Check out DRCNet every day to stay on top of the drug reform game! Check out the Speakeasy main page at http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy.

prohibition-era beer raid, Washington, DC (Library of Congress)

Since last issue:

Scott Morgan authors: "New Drug Czar Doesn't Care About Medical Marijuana," "If Pure THC Pills are FDA-Approved, What's the Big Deal About Marijuana Potency?," "Research Proves Marijuana is Not a 'Gateway Drug'," "Drunk Reporter Debates Marijuana Legalization In a Bar," "Christian Science Monitor Advocates Teaching Kids to Support the Drug War" and "The Worst Argument Against Medical Marijuana."

David Borden notes: "Cool 'History of Weed' Video from Showtime 'Weeds' Program."

David Guard posts numerous press releases, action alerts and other organizational announcements in the In the Trenches blog.

Please join us in the Reader Blogs too.

Again, http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy is the online place to stay in the loop for the fight to stop the war on drugs. Thanks for reading, and writing...

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Job Opportunity: National Field Coordinator, Americans for Safe Access, Oakland, California

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research. ASA works in partnership with state, local and national legislators to overcome barriers and create policies that improve access to cannabis for patients and researchers. ASA has more than 30,000 active members with chapters and affiliates in more than 40 states.

ASA provides legal training for and medical information to patients, attorneys, health and medical professionals and policymakers throughout the United States, and also organizes media support for court cases, rapid response to law enforcement raids, and capacity-building for advocates. ASA's successful lobbying, media and legal campaigns have resulted in important court precedents, new sentencing standards, and more compassionate community guidelines

The mission of Americans for Safe Access is to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis (marijuana) for therapeutic uses and research.

The field coordinator is responsible for building and maintaining ASA's field of organizers, and for maintaining communication between the field, ASA staff and ASA campaigns. The position is supervised and accountable to the Chief of Staff. This is a full-time, salaried position, based out of ASA's Oakland, CA headquarters.

Specific tasks and responsibilities include recruiting new volunteer organizers and managing their development; reaching out to field organizers from other organizations and to other key allies; scheduling and staff tabling outreach at public events and conferences; following up with new contacts from public events and conferences; conducting web and email outreach; collecting new contacts through internet, personal, and chapter-based outreach; adding new emails to email lists regularly; maintaining regular communication with key organizers & chapter leaders including convening monthly organizer conference calls; providing information, guidance, assistance, and training to local leadership; maintaining project and program-based materials and distributing such to organizers; maintaining relationships with field organizers from other organizations with other key allies; maintaining internet responsibilities including updating the website, managing listserves and discussion forums, and utilizing social networking tools; sending monthly action packets to organizers; coordinating regular trainings; visiting chapters and affiliates as needed; maintaining clear records of organizers, including updating contact information and tracking communication and activities; advising and participating in strategic planning with chapter leaders and key organizers; being a liaison with staff through regular meetings; setting up constituent meetings on legislation; coordinating grassroots actions based on current programs, projects and campaigns; organizing court support for medical marijuana defendants; writing campaign materials, activist alerts, updates, and letters to organizers; creating and maintaining political materials for national and state-based outreach; writing regular reports of grassroots activity for distribution to staff and the public; and posting to blog and discussion forums regularly.

Experience and qualifications include a minimum of 2-5 years experience in grassroots organizing; political campaign and/or lobbying experience preferred; a commitment to the mission and goals of Americans for Safe Access; computer literacy, and being comfortable with acquiring new skills; exceptional time management and prioritization skills; remaining calm under pressure; flexibility at setting (and re-setting) priorities and managing multiple projects; exceptional communication, organizational and diplomacy skills with strong written communication skills; a sense of humor, high ethical professional standards, and multi-cultural perspective; working well in a team environment; a flexible schedule, including availability to work occasional evenings and weekends, and to travel periodically throughout the state and nationally; and dedication to working closely and cooperatively in a community-based organization with diverse staff, volunteers, and community members.

If interested, please submit a cover letter and resume to [email protected]. No phone calls or faxes please.

ASA is an equal opportunity employer. People of color and women are strongly encouraged to apply.

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