Drug War Chronicle
(formerly The Week Online with DRCNet)
Issue #418
-- 1/13/06
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
Phillip S. Smith, Editor
David Borden, Executive Director
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- FEATURE:
FEDERAL
METH
PRECURSOR
STING
TARGETING
SOUTH
ASIAN
CONVENIENCE
STORES
DRAWS
PROTESTS,
ACLU
INTERVENTION
For
several
dozen
hard-working
South
Asian
immigrants
and
their
families
in
northwest
Georgia,
the
American
dream
has
turned
into
a
nightmare.
- FEATURE:
CANNABIS
CAUSING
SCHIZOPHRENIA
IN
BRITISH
MARIJUANA
POLICY
In
an
act
of
political
expediency
against
a
background
of
tabloid
hysteria
over
links
between
marijuana
and
mental
illness,
the
Blair
government
has
proclaimed
that
it
may
well
reclassify
marijuana
back
to
Class
B.
Or
maybe
not.
- FEATURE:
ALITO
HEARINGS
YIELD
INCONCLUSIVE
BUT
MOSTLY
BAD
FORECASTS
FOR
DRUG
WAR
ISSUES
Supreme
Court
nominee
Samuel
Alito
is
not
the
libertarian
kind
of
conservative
jurist,
and
his
record
on
issues
relating
to
drug
policy
tilts
decidedly
in
the
direction
of
government
power.
The
reach
of
the
Interstate
Commerce
Clause,
which
underpins
federal
drug
prohibition,
is
potentially
an
important
exception.
But
the
nominee
provided
too
little
information
for
anyone
to
do
much
besides
guess.
- FEATURE:
IN
THE
WAKE
OF
BOOKER,
SOME
SMALL
RELIEF
FOR
A
SMALL
FRACTION
OF
FEDERAL
CRACK
COCAINE
OFFENDERS
Last
year's
Supreme
Court
decision
in
the
Booker
and
Fan
Fan
cases
threatened
to
draw
retaliation
from
Congressional
hardliners
in
love
with
harsh
sentencing.
But
a
new
study
has
found
that
for
crack
cocaine
offenses,
at
least,
most
people
are
still
getting
very
harsh
sentences.
- LAW
ENFORCEMENT:
THIS
WEEK'S
CORRUPT
COPS
STORIES
Another
pair
of
drug-dealing
prison
guards,
a
drug-dealing
small-town
cop,
a
drug-dealing
big
city
cop,
and
a
really
big
time,
big
city
drug-dealing
cop
make
the
news
this
week.
- SENTENCING:
FEDERAL
APPEALS
COURT
UPHOLDS
MANDATORY
55-YEAR
SENTENCE
FOR
MAN
WHO
SOLD
MARIJUANA
WHILE
ARMED
Arguing
that
Congress
intended
to
severely
punish
crimes
involving
guns
and
drugs,
a
three-judge
panel
from
the
US
10th
Circuit
Court
of
Appeals
in
Denver
found
no
problem
with
a
55
year
sentence
the
trial
judge
had
issued
under
protest.
- SENTENCING:
NEW
JERSEY
LEGISLATURE
PASSES
BILL
TO
END
MANDATORY
DRIVER
LICENSE
SUSPENSIONS
FOR
DRUG
OFFENDERS
New
Jersey's
2004-2005
legislative
session
ended
with
a
bill
to
allow
judges
to
waive
a
previously
mandatory
six-month
drivers
license
suspension
for
any
drug
offense
passing.
But
bills
to
reduce
the
size
of
"drug
free
school
zones"
and
legalize
needle
exchange
failed
to
make
it
through.
- MARIJUANA:
BILL
TO
RECRIMINALIZE
MARIJUANA
IN
ALASKA
INTRODUCED
AND
MOVING
Attempts
by
Gov.
Frank
Murkowski
and
Alaska’s
law
enforcement
establishment
to
recriminalize
marijuana
have
been
slapped
down
multiple
times,
but
still
they
come
back
to
try
again.
- EUROPE:
LEADING
BRITISH
DATE
RAPE
DRUG
IS
ALCOHOL,
STUDY
FINDS
Alcohol,
not
illicit
drugs,
poses
the
greatest
date
rape
risk,
according
to
a
study
whose
results
were
published
this
week
in
the
New
Scientist.
- EUROPE:
ALBANIAN
HEMP
FARMERS
FREED
AS
JUDGE
RULES
IT'S
NOT
MARIJUANA
For
the
second
time
in
five
years,
Albanian
police
have
arrested
farmers
growing
industrial
hemp,
and
for
the
second
time
in
five
years,
an
Albanian
judge
has
told
the
cops
to
knock
it
off.
- LATIN
AMERICA:
US
SEEKING
TALKS
WITH
BOLIVIA'S
MORALES
ON
COCA,
TRADE
A
campaign
pledge
by
Bolivian
president-elect
and
coca
grower
Evo
Morales
to
decriminalize
the
leaf's
cultivation
could
place
him
directly
at
odds
with
US
policy
in
the
country.
For
once
US
diplomats
in
Bolivia
are
walking
softly.
- WEB
SCAN
NORML
Animation,
Budapest
Drug
Policy
Dialogue
- WEEKLY:
THIS
WEEK
IN
HISTORY
Events
and
quotes
of
note
from
this
week's
drug
policy
events
of
years
past.
- WEEKLY:
THE
REFORMER'S
CALENDAR
Showing
up
at
an
event
can
be
the
best
way
to
get
involved!
Check
out
this
week's
listings
for
events
from
today
through
next
year,
across
the
US
and
around
the
world!
this issue, one-page printer version
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