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(formerly The Week Online with DRCNet) Issue #416 -- 12/23/05
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" Phillip S. Smith, Editor
subscribe for FREE now! ---- make a donation ---- search Table of Contents
1.
New
DRCNet
Book
Offer:
"Tulia:
Race,
Cocaine,
and
Corruption
in
a
Small
Texas
Town"
One of the most cutting scandals in the drug war in recent years was Tulia, where a rogue cop framed 40 people -- 10% of the African American population in the small Texas town -- on drug charges, sending many of them to prison, only to be released years later after nationwide media scrutiny forced authorities to review the cases. Though Officer Tom Coleman was known to have broken the law himself, his credibility was somehow considered sufficient by judge and jury. The sordid episode led to legislation by Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee to rein in federally funded drug task forces and try to prevent such abuses from happening again.
We are pleased to offer "Tulia" as our newest membership premium -- donate $35 or more to DRCNet, and we will send you a complimentary copy at your request. We also continue to offer Arnold Trebach's "The Great Drug War: And Rational Proposals to Turn the Tide," also free with a donation of $35 or more -- donate $65 to order both! Other offers are still available as well. Click here to contribute online and order your copies of Tulia or the Great Drug War. We can also accept donations by check or money order; send them to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. (Note that contributions to Drug Reform Coordination Network, which support our lobbying work, are not tax-deductible. Deductible contributions can be made to DRCNet Foundation, same address -- the portion of your gift that is deductible will be reduced by the retail cost of the gifts you select.) Lastly, please contact us for instructions if you wish to make a donation of stock. Thank you for supporting DRCNet -- click here to read David Borden's update on our work and reasons why DRCNet is important to the cause.
2.
Feature:
Feds
Target
San
Francisco
Medical
Marijuana
Dispensary
--
DEA
Agents
Face
Angry
Protestors
DEA agents operating under a federal search warrant early Tuesday morning raided two residences linked to San Francisco's HopeNet medical marijuana dispensary, rousting HopeNet operators Steven and Catherine Smith from their beds, handcuffing them, and seizing marijuana plants, prepared marijuana, and cash. That afternoon, dozens of patients and activists organized by the medical marijuana defense network Americans for Safe Access (ASA) blocked DEA agents from entering the HopeNet Clara Street facility for several hours. But the agents returned later that evening after the crowd had dispersed, breaking down the door and searching fruitlessly for more marijuana. They had better luck at a nearby warehouse, where they seized 500 plants.
In last week's joint San Diego raids, the DEA was careful to accuse the raided dispensaries of operating outside California law, as it did in the only other feds-only dispensary raid since it got a green light from the Supreme Court, whose June decision in Gonzalez v. Raich held that federal drugs laws trumped California’s medical marijuana law. Federal officials have conducted raids or prosecuted at least 29 other medical marijuana patients or providers since the state law came into effect in 1997. The DEA made no such claims about HopeNet, nor did it have the cooperation or participation of local law enforcement. HopeNet is consistently described by people familiar with San Francisco's dispensary scene as adhering scrupulously to California's medical marijuana laws. That made no difference to the DEA, which does not recognize any such thing as medical marijuana. "This was a two-year investigation into marijuana trafficking based on an anonymous tip," said DEA San Francisco spokeswoman Casey McEnrey. "This is about distributing marijuana, and we believe some of the marijuana cultivated at the locations we raided was going to HopeNet," she told DRCNet. "We target drug trafficking organizations, and that includes those who supply them." Although no arrests have resulted from the raids in the last two weeks or from the last federal raid on San Francisco medical marijuana operations in June, arrests in the HopeNet case could be coming, warned McEnrey. "No charges have been filed yet, but the investigation is still ongoing, and we are working with the US Attorney's office," she said. What they will find, according to local observers, is an operation that not only rigorously screened patients, but also provided medical marijuana for free to poorer patients and worked tirelessly with city officials and other interested parties to craft dispensary regulations the city, its residents, and the dispensaries could live with. "HopeNet is one of the most respected patients' groups in San Francisco and has worked closely with patient activists to assure safe and affordable access to medical cannabis," said Dale Gieringer, head of California NORML. "They are a shining example to the community," said Anthony Bowles, whose California Marijuana Party office is next door to HopeNet's Clara Street storefront. "This was a real problem area, really blighted before Steve and Catherine came along, and they brought nothing but solutions. HopeNet is one of the best dispensaries here in San Francisco. They are an amazing role model. It was a comfort to be in there; they had a really good vibe. This is a real shame," he told DRCNet. "HopeNet is serving a thousand patients and providing meds to low-income patients for free day in and day out. It is perhaps the most well-run and patient-friendly co-op in the city," said ASA campaign director Caren Woodson. "They played by the rules, and they have been heavily involved in recently completed effort to craft a regulatory umbrella for dispensaries in the city," she told DRCNet. "It is especially outrageous that the feds would target HopeNet. We're scratching our heads."
"We are questioning the use of federal resources on this," said ASA's Woodson. "There are lots of other law enforcement issues that need attention, and this is a city that is resolute about medical marijuana with respect to the feds. This city has worked hard to find ways to locally control dispensaries, and it is working. Neither the city of San Francisco nor the activists and patients are going to stand down. These tactics by the DEA are meant to intimidate us, but it isn't going to work." But after Tuesday afternoon, it may be the DEA that is feeling a bit intimidated. After finding a HopeNet business card at the Smith residence, four DEA agents in two black pick-ups showed up parked across the street from the dispensary shortly before noon. According to a first-person account by freelance San Francisco journalist Ann Harrison, the agents exchanged words with Catherine Smith's son, Will Curran, who had shown up to open for the day, but retreated back to their vehicles when queried as to whether they had a search warrant. Meanwhile, angry patients and activists began gathering in front of the dispensary, with the crowd reaching an estimated 50 or 60 people holding aloft ASA's stop-sign shaped "Stop Arresting Medical Marijuana Patients!" signs. Chants of "DEA out of California" rang out as the grim-faced agents waited inside their vehicles. San Francisco Police units arrived, but observed without interfering on either side. The standoff eventually turned into a press conference with the arrival of city Supervisors Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi, two strong supporters of San Francisco's dispensary scene. Both had played key roles in the arduous process of crafting the city's dispensary regulations, which are set to go into effect in one week. Noting that HopeNet was in the Soma (south of Market St.) district he represents, Daly said the city had spent months negotiating the regulations in an effort to avoid DEA raids. If the feds don't "butt out," said Daly, the anger evident among the crowd would only grow stronger. "The DEA and the Bush administration need to understand that San Francisco is committed to upholding patients' rights to medical cannabis," said Mirkarimi. "I have no idea why they are doing this, they hold all the cards. No matter what legislation we craft, we always have to look over our shoulder." Mirkarimi also said he had asked the San Francisco Police not to cooperate with the DEA and not to confront the protestors. Shortly after Mirkarimi spoke, the SFPD melted away. And shortly after that, so did the DEA agents, who either had not yet obtained a search warrant for HopeNet or were exercising discretion in executing it. While the crowd claimed victory, it was only temporary. After the crowd dispersed, and under cover of nightfall, the DEA returned to HopeNet, kicked in the door, and executed its search warrant. HopeNet does not store medical marijuana on the premises for security reasons, so the agents contented themselves with ransacking the place, seizing some packing materials, and leaving. They had better luck at the HopeNet warehouse nearby, where they made their biggest plant haul of the day. Still, patients and protestors had engaged the DEA in a public face-off on the streets of San Francisco for an afternoon and held them off. "It was a standoff between the feds and the patients and the feds backed down," said ASA's Woodson. "They didn't dare come back until it was dark. That shows they are afraid to do this in the public view, and they will continue to have patients and activists standing up for this. We will not be intimidated." The protestors were ready to do civil disobedience if necessary, Woodson said. "We were set up to form a human chain to not let the agents get inside, and we had legal support ready to go." It didn't come to that this time. But with the Supreme Court having given the green light to more raids with their June Raich case decision, there is likely to be a next time.
3.
Feature:
Congress
Scales
Back
HEA
Drug
Provision
--
Will
Now
Apply
Only
to
Students
Busted
While
in
College
In a rare scaling back of a punitive federal drug law, Congress has decided to restrict the range of a provision of the Higher Education Act that takes financial aid for college away from students who have drug convictions. Currently, the provision applies to any drug arrest, no matter how trivial in nature or far in the past. While the new form of the law will still apply to minor offenses, and to past offenses committed while in school, it will no longer count drug offenses committed at a time when the applicant was not in school and receiving federal aid.
Authored by leading congressional drug warrior Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), the HEA drug provision blocks students with drug convictions from receiving financial aid for specified periods. According to the latest figures from the US Department of Education, the provision has so far stopped at least 175,000 potential college students from receiving financial aid, as well as an unknown number who, knowing or believing that they would be denied aid, did not bother to even fill out the application form. Since the provision began to bite 5 1/2 years ago, a broad coalition of student, academic, civil rights, justice reform and addiction recovery groups organized known as the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform (CHEAR), organized by DRCNet, has been fighting to repeal the drug provision. With Rep. Souder and his allies up against the likes of the NAACP and the American Council on Education, Souder retreated from the law he authored, saying he had never intended the provision to apply to old drug convictions, only to students who committed drug offenses while in college receiving federal aid. But the six years it took Souder to get his "fix" enacted suggest his efforts were less vigorous than his media campaign. The so-called "Souder fix" is what passed Congress, leaving CHEAR members pleased but not exactly thrilled. "We are partially excited to see that Congress has enacted this partial fix," said CHEAR campaign director Chris Mulligan. "But there is unfortunately still plenty of work to be done. College students caught with a joint are still going to lose their financial aid and have to leave school, and that's no good," he told DRCNet. "It is certainly significant that Congress has recognized there is something wrong with this law and enacted changes to it, and students all around the country deserve credit for forcing Congress to act," said Tom Angell, communications director for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, one of the key players in the coalition. "That said, we are disappointed that Congress didn't completely repeal the HEA drug provision," he told DRCNet. While Angell said SSDP would continue to fight for repeal on Capitol Hill, he said he thought the best shot at outright victory would come through the courts. The ACLU Drug Policy Project announced just weeks ago that it was seeking potential plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the HEA drug provision, most likely on equal protection and retroactivity grounds. "We will come back next session and continue to work this in Congress, but at this point, it seems like our most realistic option is to file a lawsuit," Angell said. That message was reiterated by outgoing SSDP executive director Scarlett Swerdlow in a statement Wednesday. "After seven years of political rhetoric and empty promises, Congress has finally acted to help some students affected by this terrible policy," said Swerdlow. "But this partial reform is like slapping a band-aid on a gaping wound. Tens of thousands of students will continue to be yanked out of school every year because Congress failed to listen to our concerns. The only option outraged students have left is to take action in the courts." DRCNet executive director David Borden was not so quick to give up on Congress. "The Higher Education Act still has to come back for reauthorization next year, and an education conference committee will be a friendlier venue than the budget group headed by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), no friend to repealing or reforming the drug provision," Borden said. "The Senate actually passed a further reaching rollback of the provision, but discussion of it got crowded out by the weekend's frenetic schedule, and they defaulted to the House version. We have a strong argument for saying this issue should be revisited next year in that context -- it's not like they looked at this in HEA reauthorization as is supposed to happen and the Souder fix is what they decided on." The previous Senate version would have eliminated questions about drug possession from the federal financial aid form. And rather than taking the steam out of the effort for full repeal, the partial reform won this week could make the coalition's work easier, Borden argued. "Souder can no longer pose as the reformer," he said. "We're the reformers. That won't be ambiguous anymore." While Borden conceded that a partial reform presents political challenges to pressing further, he argued that Wednesday's vote could be more a springboard to full repeal than an obstacle in its path. "We just won a partial victory," he said. "Even if it's not everything we want, it is a positive indicator of the potency of this issue and our efforts, not a negative one -- this is an occasion for encouragement, not discouragement." Borden continued, "How often does Congress scale back a punitive drug law? Not very often. This is a mildly historic occasion." The battle for full HEA drug provision repeal is far from over. Now defenders of the measure will have to defend it on two fronts: the legal and the political. And the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform is not going away.
4.
Feature:
Bolivians
Elect
Evo
Morales
President
--
Indigenous
Leftist
Coca-Grower
Leader
Wins
Sweeping
Victory
In a surprising show of electoral strength, indigenous coca-grower leader and Movement to Socialism (MAS) party head Evo Morales won an outright victory in Sunday's Bolivian presidential election, gaining 54% of the vote in a field of eight. The majority vote means Morales will not have to face a run-off decided in the congress, where being the leading popular vote-getter does not automatically ensure being named president.
Morales campaigned hard on themes guaranteed to raise hackles in Washington, and relations with the United States are almost certain to be tense and conflictive. He is an ardent critic of US efforts to wipe out coca cultivation and vowed to end forced eradication of crops and move to legalize cultivation of the coca leaf, whose traditional use in the Andes dates back thousands of years. At the same time, he has vowed to go after cocaine producers and traffickers, or, as he put it this week, "zero cocaine, not zero coca." He also called for nationalization of Bolivia's immense natural gas reserves. And he has, at least rhetorically, aligned himself with Washington bogeymen Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro as harsh critics of US-style free market economic policies, known as "neoliberalism" in Latin America, and as "anti-imperialist" critics of US foreign policy in general. "For the first time in 500 years, Bolivia will return to indigenous rule," said the Institute for Policy Studies Drug Policy Project's Sanho Tree. "This election is a flat rejection of both the drug war in Bolivia and neoliberalism," he told DRCNet. "I have yet to meet anyone in the Andean countries who actually supports US drug policy in the region unless he is on the payroll." "The election of Evo Morales is the product of our failed drug policy," said Adam Isaacson of the Center for International Policy, a progressive Washington think tank. "The US government is getting what it has coming to it." "The size of Evo's victory is going to make it easier for him across the board for a number of reasons," said Kathryn Ledebur of the Cochabamba-based Andean Information Network. "He is not going to have to make concessions to other parties to form a coalition, which probably would have forced him to water down MAS positions, and he now has more of a mandate than any president in recent history," she told DRCNet. "Winning big doesn't solve all his problems, but it does make things easier."
"I expect Evo to bring eradication down to next to nothing, although he may even increase the emphasis on interdicting cocaine," said Isaacson. "They are currently allowed by law to grow 12,000 hectares of coca in the Yungas, but Evo and the cocaleros have argued that is way too little. For the next six to nine months, they will be studying the size of the legal coca market and looking at legitimate demand. That should determine the amount of coca that can be grown legally," he said. "There is going to be strong debate over eradication," Isaacson continued. "The US basically wrote Bolivia's coca law and has poured a lot of resources into Bolivian police and military eradication units over the years with no great results, but they still won't want to give it up. Evo can probably counteract that pressure, however, by putting more resources into interdiction and going after trafficking and money-laundering, and he may even be able to decriminalize coca production." There is decrim and then there is decrim, said AIN's Ledebur, and trying to suppress the cocaine traffic has been a losing proposition everywhere. "Evo has come out and said that decriminalization of the leaf is not the same as cultivation everywhere," she pointed out. "And he is talking about zero cocaine, but it is the market that determines the extent of coca production, not policy," she said. Another key question is how the US will respond to any coca-related moves by Morales. So far, the official response has been low-key, although threats of decertification rumble ominously in the background. But those threats may be more bark than bite. "If you are Bolivia, the two countries approaching you right now are the US and Venezuela," said Isaacson. "The US is saying 'You better toe the line or we'll decertify you,' while Hugo Chavez is saying 'Hey, you want some cheap oil?' There is also Brazil," Isaacson continued. "Evo has very good relations with Lula, and the two countries have a lot of economic ties." "The US government remains rather circumspect about the whole coca issue, and we hope they continue to do so," said Ledebur. "Now that Evo has been elected, the US reaction is better than it had been in the past," said Isaacson. "The US Embassy had a policy of no contact with Evo, but a high-ranking official will be meeting with Evo within weeks. They are going to try to engage with him," Isaacson predicted. "The US government has to be guarded, as it has been this week, because it is clear US policy in Latin America is in crisis," said Birns. "Whatever direction you look, there are huge problems. On drug policy, the US has given up all hope of maintaining a credible anti-drug policy in the region," he said, pointing to American acquiescence in allowing Colombian paramilitary drug lords to avoid extradition. "That undermines US anti-drug policy throughout the region," he said. "Given the United States' poor track record with international drug policy, the US government has no right to bully other countries to follow our failed model. The ban on international trade of coca-based products has no basis in science or public health," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Coca deserves the same opportunities to compete legally in international markets as coffee." Birns also pointed to Bolivia's Latin American neighbors as a possible counterbalance to the US. "Venezuela and Brazil should both help out," he said. "Brazil is the major consumer of Bolivian natural gas, and the eastern third of the country is heavily populated by Brazilians. They have a stake in a stable Bolivia. Along with Venezuela, Brazil will make important moves to help Bolivia nationalize. If Morales can do that, he will be in relatively good shape." It is a new era in Bolivia. The country's indigenous people, oppressed for five centuries, are now preparing to govern Bolivia, and they are determined to bring coca with them into the 21st Century. Andean indigenous nationalism has been aroused, as have notions of communitarianism and social justice based on indigenous traditions. Evo Morales has awakened a tiger; now he must prepare to ride it.
5.
Appeal:
David
Borden
Makes
a
Case
to
Support
DRCNet
for
2006
Dear DRCNet reader: I am writing today to request your financial support for DRCNet's work in 2006. Would you be willing to visit our web site right now or before the end of the year to donate online? (Mail-in info appears below as well.) My case – in addition to the details of our work, which I describe below – has two parts to it. First is that groups like ours can do more work, and more powerfully, when supporters like you contribute, and do so on a regular basis. Otherwise, we are left not only with smaller resources on which to draw, but also with financial uncertainty, which in turn makes it harder to plan long-term efforts. The second part of my case is that I believe DRCNet is playing certain unique roles in the drug policy reform movement that would be hard to replace and which are essential to the overall effort. First, we are the only organization with a large list (multiple tens of thousands) that uses its list to literally build new organizations, and to systematically support the work of all the other organizations in the movement. At least three other drug reform groups have grown out from DRCNet, and more such work in 2006 is on the way. Our newsletter, Drug War Chronicle, is a major movement-building, movement-empowering force every week. It is also the only truly journalistic level of publication that our movement offers to the public. Secondly, DRCNet is the only full-purpose national membership group that formally calls for an end to prohibition outright, and as such we have a crucial role to play if our issue is to eventually progress beyond marijuana legalization and sentencing reform or harm reduction for other drugs to get to the core of the issues that plague our inner cities, degrade the lives of addicts and dilute our freedoms and constitutional rights. One of the programs I describe below takes a step toward addressing that level of the drug policy debate in a more ambitious way than has ever been done before. For all these reasons, I hope we can count on you to become or remain a supporter of our organization. Would you be willing to make a donation right now, or before the end of the year? Please contact us if you would like specific information on your past donations. Our web site for credit card donations is https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate/ – mail-in information appears below as well.
First, some 2005 highlights:
On the lobbying side: As you probably know, the bulk of our legislative advocacy at DRCNet has been the spearheading of the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act, a law that has stripped over 175,000 would-be students of the college aid eligibility since going into effect 5 1/2 years ago. We have devoted as much of our resources to this campaign as we have because it is the only drug law that the US Congress in the current political climate is willing to scale back, because it is the drug law that has the singular most amount of support in Congress for repealing, and because it is a phenomenal issue for reaching out to mainstream organizations and beginning the process of getting them involved in drug policy reform. Congress has just scaled the law back in part by enacting a reform from a House of Representatives education bill attached to the recent budget bill. This is a rare event and a victory. We are angling to get a further-reaching reform that had appeared in the initial Senate bill considered during HEA reauthorization next year.
Though we are eager to see our advocacy branch out into more drug war issues, we also believe it is important to continue what we’ve started and that the financial aid issue has much more potential for building bridges and helping people now. Through this route, DRCNet will also expand in a significant way into the arena of state legislation and policy reform. It came to our attention over the last year that while most state legislatures have never voted to deny financial aid benefits to people with drug convictions, most such people are losing their state aid as well due to the intertwined nature of how federal and state financial aid systems work. DRCNet will shortly release (again under the auspices of CHEAR) our first report, detailing the impact of this issue at the state financial aid level. State legislators have told us this will be the most important thing for enabling them to fix this problem. If we can’t repeal the drug provision in Congress this year, maybe next year we can gut or reduce its impact by getting people aid back at the state level. And in doing so, we will forge relationships with state politicians and organizers, some of whom will be willing to do more to stop the drug war in the future; and we will build the expertise needed to help them do it. And a program that blends education with advocacy: our National Perry Fund Campaign, a series of events in different cities that raise funds for our scholarship program assisting students who have lost their financial aid because of drug convictions. In addition to being a charity, the Perry Fund is also an awareness campaign – it has been covered by BET, the Associated Press and the Boston Globe, among other outlets – and it is a way of establishing contact with a class of people who have been hurt by the drug war – hundreds of people who've lost their financial aid because of a drug conviction have registered with the Perry Fund through our "pre-application" form. The ACLU recently announced that it is seeking people affected by the drug provision for a pending national class action lawsuit – the Perry Fund database is the “big list” for finding such people, and we are calling it to find them plaintiffs. Also, because a scholarship fund is “respectable,” we have been able to bring political officials out in ways they had not done before. For example, our Seattle Perry Fund reception last June featured US Rep. Jim McDermott in his first public showing of support for ending the drug war. The Perry Fund campaign will continue at some level in 2006. On a budget of a few hundred thousand dollars a year to get all this done, DRCNet is a bargain. But unless you step up to the plate it won’t happen – we can’t do this with grants alone. So please consider making a generous donation today, or by the end of the year. Again, our web site for credit card donations is https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate/ – consider signing up to donate monthly – or donate by check or money order to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. (Note that contributions to Drug Reform Coordination Network, which support our lobbying work, are not tax-deductible. Deductible contributions can be made to DRCNet Foundation, same address.) Lastly, please contact us for instructions if you wish to make a donation of stock. Thank you for your support. I hope to hear from you soon – please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments, and take care. Sincerely,
P.S. The sooner we receive your donation, the sooner we can move forward on all these plans. Please donate today if you can!
6.
Methamphetamine:
Patriot
Act
Extension
Deal
Puts
Souder-Sensenbrenner
Meth
Bill
on
Hold
Yesterday's last-minute maneuvers on Capitol Hill extending the Patriot Act as is for one month means a methamphetamine bill inserted into the reauthorized version of the act is now on hold. The Combat Meth Epidemic Act, sponsored by drug-fightin' Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), would impose federal restrictions on the purchase of popular cold remedies and other medications containing pseudoephedrine, a chemical used in home meth cooking. It would also create new prison sentences of up to 20 years for people who sold or cooked meth in a home where children reside (even if they are not present at the time the offense occurred). Souder and House Judiciary Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) had folded the meth bill into the Patriot Act as a means of avoiding a House floor vote and getting the measure passed in a hurry. As it turns out, that was a mistake. The Patriot Act renewal has been stalled as Democrats and Republicans fight over the degree to which Americans must sacrifice civil liberties and traditional protections from government spying in the unending "war on terror." The five-week extension agreed to yesterday means the Patriot Act continues in effect as is, without the modifications proposed for "Patriot II." And, according to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), the vote to extend the Patriot Act likely means it's back to the drawing board for the meth bill and its authors. "One thing is clear," Feingold wrote in an e-mail message Wednesday night, "what happened in the Senate over the past few weeks shows that this conference report is dead." The sponsors of the meth bill hoped to sneak it into law by attaching it to what they thought would be a popular anti-terrorism bill. They got a rude lesson in the vagaries of the political process in a Congress poisoned and polarized around fundamental issues of national security and individual liberty. For the rest of us, it means there are at least a few more weeks when we can use Sudafed and similar products to deal with our sniffles without a federal case being made of it.
7.
Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
It won't be a Merry Christmas for a South Carolina sheriff's deputy who made a small fortune protecting a meth dealer or for a Louisiana police chief who sold crack on the side. Here are the details: In Anderson, South Carolina, Anderson County narcotics officer Matthew Durham, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday on drug trafficking and official misconduct charges for accepting payoffs from a drug dealer. Durham admitted providing information to a methamphetamine trafficker in exchange for $5,000 a week and said he earned at least $200,000 for his efforts. The 10-year Anderson County Sheriff's Office veteran now faces up to 35 years in prison -- 10 years for the official misconduct and 25 years for drug trafficking. A sentencing date has not yet been set. In Lutcher, Louisiana, Police Chief Corey Pittman faces up to 120 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of cocaine distribution in federal court Wednesday. Pittman, 29, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years on each count when he appears for sentencing in March. He is being held without bond in an undisclosed location, according to federal officials who announced the plea in a New Orleans news conference. Pittman was arrested August 17 after making three different crack cocaine sales to an undercover federal agent during the summer. All three sales were recorded on audio or videotape, the feds said. Pittman has been police chief since being elected to the post in 2002, but will now be fired for being a convicted felon.
8.
Prescription
Drugs:
Alabama
to
Join
Growing
List
of
States
Tracking
Prescriptions
Beginning next month, Alabama will join at least 20 other states in tracking patients' prescriptions for frequently abused drugs. The prescription drug databases are described by proponents as aimed at preventing addicts and drug dealers from "doctor shopping" to obtain large quantities of drugs such as Oxycontin or Xanax, which are popular on the black market. But they come at a time when tens of millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain and doctors are increasingly leery of prescribing large doses of popular pain relievers for fear of prosecution.
Police will be able to access the database after presenting probable cause to the state health department. Doctors and pharmacists will be able to access the database to check up on their own patients, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. In a concession to patient privacy advocates, disclosing database information will be a crime. Prescriptions must be reported for all Alabama Class II to Class IV drugs (identical to Schedule II through Schedule IV drugs under the federal Controlled Substances Act). Such drugs include tranquilizers, stimulants, and opiates. Prescriptions for drugs such as antibiotics will not be tracked. The law was pushed by Sen. Larry Means (D-Attalla), who told the Birmingham News he filed a bill after two local teens died of Oxycontin overdoses. "We're not trying to stop prescription drugs. We're trying to stop doctor shopping and over-prescribing," Means said. "I think the program will work, and we will save some lives." According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 20 states have established similar databases. They are California, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
9.
Latin
America:
Peruvian
Coca
Leader
Nancy
Obregon
Arrested
Peru's CPN Radio reported December 16 that coca grower leader Nancy Obregon was arrested earlier in the day in the Upper Huallaga River valley town of Tingo Maria. According to the network, the National Police held Obregon on an arrest warrant issued after she and fellow cocalero leader Elsa Malpartida failed to show up for a sentencing hearing on charges they incited riots during cocalero strike in Tingo Maria in May 2004.
Obregon and Malpartida are the top leaders of the National Confederation of Coca Growers, one of the leading cocalero groupings, and have been militant in opposing government eradication programs and demanding the right to grow the traditional Peruvian crop. As far as DRCNet can determine, Obregon continued to be held as of press time. Obregon was a speaker at DRCNet's 2003 "Out from the Shadows" conference in the city of Mérida, in the Yucatan province of Mexico. Click here to read Drug War Chronicle's interview with Obregon.
10.
Heroin:
British
Study
Finds
a
Different
Sort
of
User
The stereotypical heroin addict may be just that, according to a study of continuing heroin users who either escaped dependency altogether or managed to live controlled, productive lives while dependent on heroin. Published December 16, the study from the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, Kings College, London, found there is a largely hidden population of people who use heroin without causing serious harm to themselves or others. While most research on heroin users draws on populations in drug treatment or the clutches of the criminal justice system, this study's sample (51 in-depth interviewees and 123 people surveyed via the Internet) consisted almost entirely of people who were either working or studying, owned or rented their own homes, and had never been arrested. The users in this study also remained in good health and enjoyed full social lives, they reported. Some respondents were long-term users but not addicted. They reported avoiding dependency by following "using rules" that limited the frequency with which they indulged. Those rules included not only avoiding everyday use, but also avoiding involvement in a "heroin scene, not injecting the drug, and not using if they couldn't afford it. Other respondents were addicted but used heroin in a controlled, stable fashion over long periods of time, limiting amount rather than frequency. "Sustained heroin use does not inevitably lead to dependency, and that dependency will not always cause users significant problems -- particularly involvement in crime and personal degeneration," the study concluded. "We have demonstrated that, for some people, using heroin does not strip them of the ability to make conscious, rational and autonomous decisions about their drug use." While conceding that they do not know how large the subset of controlled heroin users is among the heroin-using population, the study's authors nonetheless see policy implications in their findings. The notion of controlled use could be applied in drug treatment and harm reduction settings, encouraging users to see themselves less as addict victims and more as people in control of their own lives. It should also cause policymakers to rethink laws criminalizing drug possession, they authors suggested, although with little hope that will happen. ================ 11.
Europe: Hungarian Paramedics Agree to Keep Police Away from Drug
Emergencies
The Hungarian National Ambulance Service has agreed to instruct its paramedics to no longer call the police when dealing with overdoses and other drug emergencies, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union reported (HCLU). The policy change comes as the result of a campaign led by the HCLU, which has emerged as a leading force for drug law reform in the East European nation. Following frequent complaints from drug users that paramedics providing medical care would turn them in to the police, the HCLU convinced the ambulance service that its practice not only violated patient privacy rights, but also had harmful social results. Drug users feared to call for help in emergencies for fear of arrest, even in cases where the lack of fast action could result in death, the HCLU argued. While the ambulance service officially changed its policy with an official order in July instructing local services to not automatically call police in drug-related emergencies, the policy change was apparently slow to sink in with some paramedics. In one recent case, the HCLU informed the National Ambulance Service that policemen were waiting for one overdose victim when he arrived at the hospital. That complaint bought an official reprimand for the regional service and a clarification that paramedics must respect the July policy change and respect the privacy of drug users in the future.
11.
Europe:
Hungarian
Paramedics
Agree
to
Keep
Police
Away
from
Drug
Emergencies
The Hungarian National Ambulance Service has agreed to instruct its paramedics to no longer call the police when dealing with overdoses and other drug emergencies, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union reported (HCLU). The policy change comes as the result of a campaign led by the HCLU, which has emerged as a leading force for drug law reform in the East European nation. Following frequent complaints from drug users that paramedics providing medical care would turn them in to the police, the HCLU convinced the ambulance service that its practice not only violated patient privacy rights, but also had harmful social results. Drug users feared to call for help in emergencies for fear of arrest, even in cases where the lack of fast action could result in death, the HCLU argued. While the ambulance service officially changed its policy with an official order in July instructing local services to not automatically call police in drug-related emergencies, the policy change was apparently slow to sink in with some paramedics. In one recent case, the HCLU informed the National Ambulance Service that policemen were waiting for one overdose victim when he arrived at the hospital. That complaint bought an official reprimand for the regional service and a clarification that paramedics must respect the July policy change and respect the privacy of drug users in the future.
12.
Caribbean:
New
Bermuda
Drug
Chief
Hints
at
Marijuana
Law
Review
In a surprising turnaround just two weeks after being appointed Bermuda's National Drug Control Minister, veteran drug-fighting police leader Wayne Perinchief said Saturday he would review the island nation's marijuana laws. The remarks came in response to a question about decriminalization at weekend press conference. As recently as two weeks ago, Perinchief was doing his best Harry Anslinger imitation, telling the Bermuda Royal Gazette marijuana was a dangerous gateway drug. "The myth that marijuana is benign should be expelled," he said, relating a tale of old friends of his. "Every one of the guys who started on the 1960s and 1970s on marijuana went on to heroin or certainly cocaine and they either had an early demise or to this day they are in financial difficulties or real dire straits socially. It was hip in the 60s to smoke pot, now they are struggling. I know these people. Marijuana is a big step because you are moving to criminality. It's criminal use of an addictive substance." But in that same interview, he also confessed that marijuana use was socially acceptable in Bermuda, and on Saturday he said he was concerned that so many young people were being penalized for it, some by being blocked from going to college. Many people were calling for decriminalization, he noted. "We have to consider going forward in this modern age and keeping in sync with other countries," Perinchief said. The marijuana laws had a "disproportionately punitive effect on young people," he added, noting Bermuda students being blocked from college over small-time possession charges. "It opened my eyes, I wasn't entirely shocked by it but it was a wake up call. You can take your message from that. It is something I will be reviewing." It's not just young Bermudans who suffer under the country's zero-tolerance pot laws. With its drug dog searches of incoming cruise ships, the tourist destination regularly catches and punishes visitors carrying small amounts of weed. Expect to be jailed, fined $1,000, deported, and barred from returning for at least two years. As if you'd want to after such an experience -- but that could change if Bermuda changes its marijuana laws.
13.
Latin
America:
Dying
Brazilian
Woman
Freed
After
International
Appeal
Two weeks ago, Drug War Chronicle wrote about the case of Iolanda Figueiral, the 79-year-old Brazilian woman weighing less than 90 pounds and dying of cancer who was rotting away in a Brazilian prison after being convicted of drug trafficking charges over 19 rocks of crack cocaine found in a house she shared with her adult son. The case provoked the Penitentiary Pastoral of the Archdiocese of the State of São Paulo and her family to seek relief and an international outcry to win her release. Spearheaded by retired Rio de Janeiro Judge Maria Luisa Karam and taken up by the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, the effort paid off Tuesday when Figeuiral was released pending appeal. Under current Brazilian law, drug trafficking is considered a "hideous" crime like rape or murder, and accused persons are not allowed to be free on appeal. But a ruling by Sao Paulo state court Judge Joao Coimbra Mazzoni cut her loose. The terminally ill Figueiral will now most likely be allowed to die at home. But after four months in prison, Figueiral is now down to about 70 pounds and her cancer is more advanced. The great-grandmother of 15 tries to make a living by gathering and selling cardboard, but lacks money even for necessities like a new colostomy bag. According to the Folha de Sao Paulo, Figueiral this week had to patch her old bag with a plastic shopping bag. Her attorney, Rodolfo Pettena Filho, praised the decision. "She is not a public menace prisoner. She is in a terminal stage of her disease and didn't deserve to die in prison, far from her family," he told the newspaper. "It was a fair and judicious decision, because justice must also be human and look at poor persons." Brazil is the second largest consumer of cocaine behind the United States and has been riven by violent confrontation between drug "commandos" and law enforcement authorities. Brazil may have a cocaine problem, but Iolanda Figueiral isn't it, and now she will have the chance to die among her family and friends instead of behind bars.
14.
Web
Scan:
Reason/Cato
9th
Circuit
Raich
Brief,
CounterPunch
on
Bryan
Epis,
Drug
Truth
Network
Reason/Cato amicus brief for Raich 9th Circuit
15.
Weekly:
This
Week
in
History
December 24, 1912: Merck patents MDMA. Its psychoactive effects remain unknown for more than 60 years, but the drug then become popularized under the slang term "ecstasy." December 28, 1992: ABC Television airs a major special on the drug war in Bolivia which, according to the Bush Administration, is our "best hope" for winning the drug war in South America. ABC concludes decisively that there was no hope and that the war on drug production has already been lost. December 29, 1988: Judge Mark Polen, in State v. Mussika, comments, "There is a pressing need for a more compassionate, humane law which clearly discriminates between the criminal conduct of those who socially abuse chemicals and the legitimate medical needs of seriously ill patients..."
16.
Weekly:
The
Reformer's
Calendar
Please submit listings of events concerning drug policy and related topics to [email protected]. December 15-30, San Francisco, "Confessions of a Dope Dealer," solo performance by Sheldon Norberg. Thursday, Friday & Saturday evening performances except Christmas and New Years, at Climate Theater, 285 9th St., visit http://www.adopedealer.com for further information. December 29, 7:00pm, Salem, OR, MERCY public meeting for the local medical cannabis community. At 1675 Fairgrounds Rd., admission free, $20 day use fee for facilities, visit http://www.mercycenters.org/events/Meet_PUB.htm for info. January 4, 2006, 6:00pm, Eugene, OR, Cannabis Liberation Front meeting and Eugene Cannabis TV show filiming. At Community Television of Lane County (behind Sheldon High School), visit http://www.mercycenters.org/events/Meet_CLF.htm or http://eugenecannabistv.home.comcast.net for info. January 4, 2006, 7:00pm, St. Paul, MN, screening of the ABC/Johhn Stossel report "The War on Drugs: A War on Ourselves," sponsored by the Freedom Movie of the Month Club. At The Liberty Center, 799 Raymond Ave., admission free, RSVP at http://movies.meetup.com/203/events/4358983/ online. January 13-15, 2006, Basel, Switzerland, "Problem Child and Wonder Drug: International Symposium on the occasion of the 100th Birthday of Albert Hofmann." Sponsored by the Gaia Media Foundation, visit http://www.lsd.info for further information. January 21, 2006, 4:00pm-3:00am, Brickell, FL, "8th Annual Medical Marijuana Benefit Concert," benefit for Florida NORML hosted by Ploppy Palace Productions and Tobacco Road. At Tobacco Road, 626 South Miami Ave., admission $10, 21 years or over with ID, visit http://www.ploppypalace.com or e-mail [email protected] for further information. February 3, 2006, Oakland, CA, NORML Winter Benefit Party, at the Oakland Sailboat House, Late Merritt. Admission $60, advance reservations required, e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.canorml.org for info. February 9-11, 2006, Tasmania, Australia, The Eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA), coordinated by Justice Action. For further information visit http://www.justiceaction.org.au/ICOPA/ndx_icopa.html or contact +612-9660 9111 or [email protected]. March 29, 2006, 6:00pm, New York, NY, "Drug Policy for the Union Man," forum for members of the Local 375 District Council 37, presented by LEAP, DPA, CJPF and ReconsiDer. At 125 Barkley St., two blocks north of Old World Trade Center, contact Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected] for further information. March 30, 2006, 8:00pm, Los Angeles, CA, MPP Party at the Playboy Mansion, tickets $500, visit http://mppplayboyparty.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=153214 for further information. April 5-8, 2006, Santa Barbara, CA, Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics. Sponsored by Patients Out of Time, details to be announced, visit http://www.medicalcannabis.com for updates. April 9, 2006, noon-6:00pm, Sacramento, CA, "Cannabis at the Capitol," medical marijuana rally sponsored by the Compassionate Coalition. At the California State Capitol, west steps, visit http://www.compassionatecoalition.org or contact Peter Keyes at (916) 456-7933 for info. April 20-22, 2006, San Francisco, CA, National NORML Conference, visit http://www.norml.org for further information. April 30-May 4, 2006, Vancouver, BC, Canada, "17th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm," annual conference of the International Harm Reduction Association. Visit http://www.harmreduction2006.ca for further information. June 3, 2006, 1:00-11:00pm, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 10th Legalize! Street Rave Against the War on Drugs. Visit http://www.legalize.net or contact Jonas Daniel Meyerplein at +31(0)20-4275626 or [email protected] for info. If you like what you see here and want to get these bulletins by e-mail, please fill out our quick signup form at https://stopthedrugwar.org/WOLSignup.shtml. PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank you. Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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