February 4, 1994: An
unpublished US Department of Justice report indicates that over one-third
of the drug felons in federal prisons are low-level nonviolent offenders.
February 4, 2003: Jurors
in the Ed Rosenthal trial hold a news conference at the federal courthouse
in San Francisco to call for a retrial, saying they felt "used" and "railroaded"
and that they would have acquitted Rosenthal if they had been allowed to
know that it was a medical marijuana case.
February 5, 1988: Manuel
Noriega is indicted in US on drug trafficking charges.
February 6, 2004: The
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejects the DEA's ban on hemp
foods.
February 7, 1968: In
a move likely spurred on by the Nixon campaign's "law and order" rhetoric,
President Lyndon Johnson creates the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs (BNDD) by combining the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) with the
Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (a sub-agency of the Food and Drug Administration).
February 7, 1985: Enrique
Camarena, a DEA agent stationed in Mexico who discovered that drug traffickers
there were operating under the protection of Mexican police officials,
is kidnapped outside of his office in Guadalajara. His body is found
several weeks later bearing marks of brutal torture.
February 7, 2001: After
a contentious confirmation process, new Attorney General John Ashcroft
declares, "I want to escalate the war on drugs. I want to renew it.
I want to refresh it, re-launch it, if you will." Ashcroft fails
to note that under President Clinton's two terms in office the number of
jail sentences nationwide for marijuana offenders was 800% higher than
under the Reagan and Bush administrations combined.
February 8, 1914: The
New York Times publishes an opinion piece titled "Negro Cocaine 'Fiends'
New Southern Menace."
February 9, 2000: Deborah
Lynn Quinn, born with no arms or legs, is sentenced to one year in an Arizona
prison for marijuana possession and violating probation on a previous drug
offense, the attempted sale of four grams of marijuana to a police informant
for $20. Quinn requires around the clock care for feeding, bathing,
and hygiene.
February 10, 1998:
The United Kingdom House of Lords announces an investigation into the recreational
and medical use of marijuana, including "the scientific case for and against
relaxing the prohibition on the medical and recreational use of cannabis."
