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This
Week
in
History
10/8/04
October 8, 1932: The Uniform State Narcotics Act is passed, endorsed by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as an alternative to Federal laws. By 1937 every State prohibits marijuana use. October 12, 1984: The passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act establishes the first Federal "mandatory minimum" sentencing guidelines, eliminating most judicial discretion in handing down prison terms. Over the following two years drug sentences increase by 71% nationwide. October 13, 1999: In a series of raids named "Operation Millennium," law enforcement in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador arrest 31 persons for drug trafficking, including Fabio Ochoa. Ochoa is indicted in a Ft. Lauderdale court for importing cocaine into the US, which requests his extradition in December. October 13, 1999: New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is quoted in the Boston Globe saying, "Make drugs a controlled substance like alcohol. Legalize it, control it, regulate it, tax it. If you legalize it, we might actually have a healthier society." October 14, 1970: President Nixon spearheads the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), legislation establishing today's "schedules" as a means of classifying drugs by their medical value and potential for abuse. October 14, 2003: At Emory University Law School, former President Jimmy Carter says, "All three of my boys smoked pot. I knew it. But I also knew if one was caught he would never go to prison. But if any of my [black] neighbors got caught, they would go to prison for ten, twelve years. No law school has had the temerity to look at what is fundamentally wrong with our legal system, which discriminates against the poor."
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