Drug War Chronicle #1163 - June 29, 2022

Leftist Former Guerrilla and Drug War Critic Gustavo Petro Wins Colombian Presidency [FEATURE]

In an election that has overturned a decades-long status quo in Colombian politics, former leftist guerrilla and Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro won the presidency on Sunday. He beat his competitor, Trumpian businessman Rodolfo Hernández, by a margin of 50.44% to 47.03%, with 100 percent of the votes counted.

Petro's victory is the latest win in a Latin American "pink tide," with leftists recently winning presidential elections in Bolivia, Chile, Honduras and Peru, and poised to take power once again in Brazil.

What to do about the country's booming coca and cocaine trade and the violence that surrounds it was a central theme in the campaign -- with both candidates critical of a war on drugs intertwined with a ferocious counterinsurgency financed by the United States to the tune of $20 billion since the days of Plan Colombia and paid for with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Colombians.

Even the conservative Hernández, a wealthy real estate developer, suggested giving drugs to addicts as a means of ending drug trade violence. "If we give drug addicts free drugs, be it intravenous, aspiration, or oral, then the demand is over. Nobody buys again," Hernández said in a campaign speech last week. "And if they don't buy [drugs] because we give them to users, the sale is over and the drug is over."

Petro, for his part, has called for legalizing marijuana. "The issue of marijuana seems stupid to me to keep it underground," he said in a recent interview. "Ex-presidents' relatives do the business of exporting legal marijuana and, on the other hand, they throw bombs at the peasants and their children who produce marijuana in [the southwestern province of] Cauca. The possibility of legal exportation of marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes through licenses from the national government has friends with political power in Colombia. If Colombia does not get its act together, we're going to lose that business."

But he has also been harshly critical of broader drug prohibition. Last month, he asked whether "the million dead Latin Americans -- the majority Colombians and Mexicans -- has been worth it. Drugs are so demonized that it's politically correct to say 'let's ban them and start a war,' but we never consider the consequences."

Colombia "doesn't need more violence" to stop the drug war, he said. "The drug war is fought with capitalism. It is not with lead or with more violence."

He advocates for voluntary crop substitution instead of forced eradication for coca farmers and has promised to use marijuana as a substitute crop.

His position on coca and cocaine legalization was artfully unclear during the campaign, but there is a bill that would authorize a pilot project to directly buy coca from farmers in areas hardest hit by drug trafficking and state violence and allow the government to set a legal coca market price. While the bill gained some backing since in was introduced in 2020, it has languished in limbo under the anti-reformist outgoing President Ivan Duque. Whether the bill will now move under Petro will be an early indicator of his policy positions.

Sanho Tree is director of the Drug Policy Project at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies, and has been studying and traveling to Colombia for years. He was nearly at a loss for words.

"I'm still processing this," he told the Chronicle. "I didn't expect him to live this long, much less win. But they fear the vice president [the country's first female Afro-Colombian to hold the office, Francia Márquez] even more, so that's sort of an insurance policy. It's been 20 years of disappointment, horrors, and setbacks, so this is just a moment of unbridled joy," he said.

"This is a step forward for drug policy, human rights, and civil society, and you have Chile and Brazil -- if Lula wins as it looks he will, there will be a powerful triangular bloc in South America that could eclipse even US influence," Tree said.

And that's not the only potential new alignment Tree foresees. "With Bolivia and Peru, and now Colombia, we could see a regional coca bloc," he said.

And unlike his predecessor, said Tree, Petro will take the 2016 peace accords with the FARC seriously and actually try to implement them. The accords were supposed to bring peace to the countryside, but were opposed by Duque, and once the FARC demobilized, violent rightist paramilitaries and leftist guerrilla factions filled the vacuum as the state failed to provide promised alternative development assistance.

"Duque is an Uribista [ally of former ultra-conservative President Alvaro Uribe, who has been linked to the rightist paramilitaries] and hated the guerrillas," Tree said. "He never wanted peace and he sure wasn't going to help any of them. It was a huge opportunity lost and there was a huge sense of betrayal. In many ways, it is as dangerous as ever for NGOs and human rights defenders, and the state has done nothing. They should have seized the opportunity in 2016, but it was all about Trumpian vengeance instead."

Petro will "take the peace treaties seriously," Tree said. "He will invest in rural communities, and that will make a big difference in daily life for people. Right now, it makes a lot of sense for farmers to grow coca because it is such a valuable crop, but it is also very violent and dangerous. Many farmers would rather not be in that business, and if they don't have to participate in that economy, that could be really helpful."

Tree pointed to the positive experience of Bolivia under Evo Morales.

"With Morales in Bolivia, instead of forced eradication and violence, they stopped that and went a regulated supply -- 40 square meters per family -- and that allowed them to have food security and a predictable income stream, and that allows people to diversify local economies. You can do these kinds of economic experiments once you have a little food security."

Also, said Tree, "fumigation will be off the table."

There is an opportunity for positive change in Colombia, especially around drug policy. Now, it is time for Petro to prove himself.

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Medical Marijuana Update

Medical marijuana legislation gets thwarted in North Carolina, a governor's medical marijuana committee gets going in Kentucky, and more.

Kentucky

Kentucky Governor's Medical Marijuana Committee Meets for First Time. Faced with intransigent Republican opposition in the legislature, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) created the Team Kentucky Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee to try to chart a path forward. That committee met for the first time on Monday and heard testimony from Kentuckians both for and against medical marijuana as it seeks to provide guidance to the administration about how to move forward. More hearings are coming.

Louisiana

Louisiana Governor Signs Package of Mainly Medical Marijuana Bills. Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has signed into law a package of marijuana-related bills, the majority of them dealing with medical marijuana. One bill allows nurse practitioners and psychologists to recommend medical marijuana, another clarifies that devices used to inhale medical marijuana are not drug paraphernalia, another repeals the 10-license limit on dispensary licenses and leaves room for expanding the number of dispensaries, another bill makes the state Health Department the lead regulatory agency, and another bill allows non-state residents to obtain medical marijuana in the state. Edwards also signed bills that specify that the odor of marijuana alone is not probable cause for a search and that smoking marijuana in a motor vehicle operating on the roadway is illegal.

Minnesota

US Supreme Court Declines Review of Minnesota Ruling That Employers Do Not Have to Reimburse Workers for Medical Marijuana. The Minnesota Supreme Court had ruled that employers can't be required to cover the costs of medical marijuana to treat on-the-job injuries because marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Now, the US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of that decision, leaving the ruling intact and Minnesota workers out of luck. The US Solicitor General's Office argued that federal law preempts any state regulation requiring reimbursement for an illegal drug and was joined by the insurance company that was fending off the worker's claim. "If states could enforce laws compelling third parties to subsidize federal crimes, they could directly undermine congressional determinations," the Solicitor General's brief says. "For example, no legal principle would preclude a state from requiring private employers to reimburse the use of other federally prohibited products or substances, such as LSD and other psychedelic drugs, based on perceived benefits."

North Carolina

North Carolina Compassionate Use Act Stalled in House. The state Senate has passed a medical marijuana bill, the Compassionate Use Act (Senate Bill 711), but is now stalled in the House, and House Speaker Tim Moore (R) says it is unlikely to be taken up before the legislative session ends on June 30. The bill passed the Senate easily on a 36-7 vote and recent in-state polling shows wide support for its passage. The bill envisions a network of 10 medical marijuana suppliers, each operating up to 10 dispensaries to provide medicine for people who have registered with the state for the treatment of specified "debilitating medical conditions."

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This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

An Iowa deputy's pill habit got way out of control, a Pennsylvania cop gets in trouble for letting a drug gang use his apartment as a stash house, and more. Let's get to it:

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a Hanover Township police officer was arrested last Friday for letting a Wilkes Barre apartment he owned be used as a stash house by a drug trafficking operation with ties to Mexico. Officer Kevin Davis is related by marriage to the alleged gang leader, and authorities say he assisted the group in their operations. Davis was just one of nine people busted in the operation, which netted 10 pounds of meth, 2.7 pounds of fentanyl, 10 pounds of marijuana, and $15,000 in cash. He and most of the others are charged with possession with intent to distribute, corrupt organizations, conspiracy, and criminal use of communications facility.

In Bakersfield, California, a Kern County sheriff's detention deputy was arraigned Monday for allegedly bringing meth into the jail. Deputy Elizabeth Fernandez, a 21-year veteran, was found in possession of the drug during her shift, and was charged with being under the influence of drugs, drug possession, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Sheriff's officials said it was not clear if the drugs were for her personal use or if she was trafficking to inmates.

In Los Angeles, a former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer pleaded guilty June 10 to smuggling what he thought was meth through LAX in return for an $8,000 bribe. Michael Williams, 39, was instead the victim of a sting by authorities who suspected him of helping smuggle drugs past checkpoints at the airport. He met with an informant to receive the fake meth in a backpack and agreed to deliver it to an accomplice past the airport's security checkpoint. Then he did so. Then he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to one count of attempted distribution of methamphetamine. He's looking at a 10-year federal mandatory minimum.

In Le Mars, Iowa, a former Plymouth County deputy was sentenced last Tuesday to a whopping 40 years in prison for burglarizing multiple homes to steal prescription drugs. Aaron Leusink, 43, who served as a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officer, had pleaded guilty in April to 11 charges, including burglary, felonious misconduct in office, unlawful drug possession, and theft. Leusink went down after investigators viewing body camera footage of a possible "on the job inappropriate relationship" in an unrelated matter instead found footage of him breaking into a home and stealing prescription pills. A subsequent search of his home turned up more than 1,600 pills, many which appeared to come from the department evidence locker and others that linked him to five unsolved pharmacy burglaries. At his sentencing, Leusink told the judge he had become addicted to painkillers after surgery.

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LA Governor Signs MedMJ Bills, KY Governor's MedMJ Committee Meets, More... (6/22/22)

The US Supreme Court declines to overturn a Minnesota ruling that employers don't have to compensate workers for medical marijuana use related to on-the-job injuries, a Kentucky committee to plot a path foward on medical marijuana meets, and more.

Medical Marijuana

Kentucky Governor's Medical Marijuana Committee Meets for First Time. Faced with intransigent Republican opposition in the legislature, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) created the Team Kentucky Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee to try to chart a path forward. That committee met for the first time on Monday and heard testimony from Kentuckians both for and against medical marijuana as it seeks to provide guidance to the administration about how to move forward. More hearings are coming.

Louisiana Governor Signs Package of Mainly Medical Marijuana Bills. Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has signed into law a package of marijuana-related bills, the majority of them dealing with medical marijuana. One bill allows nurse practitioners and psychologists to recommend medical marijuana, another clarifies that devices used to inhale medical marijuana are not drug paraphernalia, another repeals the 10-license limit on dispensary licenses and leaves room for expanding the number of dispensaries, another bill makes the state Health Department the lead regulatory agency, and another bill allows non-state residents to obtain medical marijuana in the state. Edwards also signed bills that specify that the odor of marijuana alone is not probable cause for a search and that smoking marijuana in a motor vehicle operating on the roadway is illegal.

US Supreme Court Declines Review of Minnesota Ruling That Employers Do Not Have to Reimburse Workers for Medical Marijuana. The Minnesota Supreme Court had ruled that employers can't be required to cover the costs of medical marijuana to treat on-the-job injuries because marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Now, the US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of that decision, leaving the ruling intact and Minnesota workers out of luck.

The US Solicitor General's Office argued that federal law preempts any state regulation requiring reimbursement for an illegal drug and was joined by the insurance company that was fending off the worker's claim. "If states could enforce laws compelling third parties to subsidize federal crimes, they could directly undermine congressional determinations," the Solicitor General's brief says. "For example, no legal principle would preclude a state from requiring private employers to reimburse the use of other federally prohibited products or substances, such as LSD and other psychedelic drugs, based on perceived benefits."

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NE MedMJ Initiative Signature Deadline Looms, Swiss Ease Medical Marijuana Access, More... (6/23/22)

North Carolina House Republicans are blocking a medical marijuana bill that has already passed the Senate, opium sales continue at an Afghanistan opium market despite a Taliban ban, and more.

Medical Marijuana

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Initiative Campaign Has Only Two Weeks to Come Up With 50,000 Signatures. Things are looking grim for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the group trying to qualify an initiative for the November ballot. The campaign needs 50,000 more valid voter signatures in the next two weeks to qualify but has only gathered 35,000 signatures in months of signature-gathering. The campaign has been plagued this year by the loss of significant donors who had funded past efforts. "The reality is we need 50,000 Nebraskans to sign the petition in the next two weeks. Now it's on Nebraskans. The volunteers and patients have carried the water this far. It's on Nebraskans to go out and find a place to sign it," said state Sen. Anna Wishart, co-chair of the initiative. The same group qualified an initiative for the 2020 ballot, only to have it thrown out by the state Supreme Court.

North Carolina House Republicans Block Medical Marijuana Bill. The state Senate has passed a medical marijuana bill, the Compassionate Use Act (Senate Bill 711), but it now appears doomed in the House even though the legislative session still has more than a week to run. During a closed-door meeting Wednesday, House Republicans voted internally not to advance the bill. But the bill is not dead until the session ends, and it is theoretically possible that the bill could advance because budget negotiations are still ongoing.

International

Afghanistan Opium Markets Still Operating in Helmand Province Despite Taliban Ban. The Taliban may have issued an edict banning opium production and the opium trade, but it has yet to take effect in the poppy-growing heartland of Helmand province. Opium farmers there are still selling their harvests to smugglers, and they say they are doing it out of economic necessity in the now poverty-wracked nation. "People will sell it as long as they have it at home, it is not food. By selling it, people can make some money to feed their families," one farmer explained.

Switzerland to Ease Medical Marijuana Access. The Swiss government announced Wednesday that it will lift the ban on medical marijuana, in line with a March 2021 amendment to the Swiss Narcotics Act. As of August 1, patients will no longer have to obtain permission from the Federal Office of Public Health, but instead can get a recommendation from a doctor. "The decision to use a cannabis-based medicine for therapeutic purposes will rest with the doctor, in consultation with the patient," the government said. The government had allowed some 3,000 people to use medical marijuana, but the public health office itself described the process as "tedious administrative procedures" and said "Sick people must be able to access these medicines without excessive bureaucracy."

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Marijuana Banking Protections Again Excluded from Spending Bill, House Approves Easing Bupe Access, More.... (6/24/22)

The Mississippi Supreme Court upholds a black man's life sentence for marijuana possession, a Senate committee clears the way for people who have used marijuana to get jobs in the intelligence community, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Marijuana Banking Provision Stripped from Omnibus Stimulus Bill, New Banking Measure Introduced. A conference committee of lawmakers has stripped the SAFE Banking Act (HR 1996) out of the final version of an omnibus economic stimulus bill. The act was included in the House version of the bill, but not the Senate's. The move marks yet another defeat for efforts to provide protections for financial institutions that do business with state-legal marijuana businesses as Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) holds out for full-blown marijuana legalization. Meanwhile, a new bill similar to the SAFE Banking Act, the Capital Lending and Investment for Marijuana Businesses (CLIMB) Act, has been introduced with bipartisan support.

Senate Committee Approves Measure to Allow People Who Used Marijuana to Work in Intelligence Agencies. The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would allow intelligence agencies to hire people who have used marijuana in the past. The committee advanced the annual intelligence authorization bill, which included the marijuana provision. The move is "a common-sense change to ensure the IC can recruit the most capable people possible," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). National security officials have complained for years that the lifetime prohibition of marijuana use has limited the pool of qualified applicants to the intelligence agencies.

Mississippi Supreme Court Upholds Man's Life Sentence for Marijuana Possession. The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a life sentence for Allen Russell after he was found guilty of possessing 43 grams of marijuana. Such an offense normally carries a three-year sentence, but Allen was sentenced under the state's habitual offender law. He had previously been convicted twice of burglary and once of being a convict in possession of a firearm. The high court ruled that the sentence did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment and was in line with state law. Do we have to mention that Allen is black?

Drug Treatment

House Passes Bill to Remove Barriers to Medication-Assisted Treatment. The House on Wednesday approved the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act (HR 2482), which seeks to address outdated federal regulations that hamper doctors from being able to prescribe drugs such as buprenorphine that are used to treat opioid use disorder. The bill is part of a larger package that also eliminated barriers to accessing methadone, as well increasing funding and training for people with mental health and substance use disorders to enter the workforce. Current federal requirements that doctors receive a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine have left many rural counties without effective access to the drug.

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Supreme Court Rules in Favor of "Pill Mill" Docs, UN Human Rights Experts Call for End to Drug War, More... (6/27/22)

Drug charges account for nearly one-third of all federal criminal prosecutions, Pakistan moves toward licensing medical and industrial cannabis production, Spain moves toward medical marijuana sales, and more.

Opiates and Opioids

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Doctors Accused of Overprescribing Opioids. The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the convictions of two doctors accusing of running opioid "pill mills," making it more difficult for the government to prosecute doctors who overprescribe drugs. In seeking to distinguish between legitimate medical conduct and illegally overprescribing, the court held that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the doctor knew or intended to prescribe drugs in an unauthorized manner. "We normally would not view such dispensations as inherently illegitimate; we expect, and indeed usually want, doctors to prescribe the medications that their patients need," Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the court. The cases involved a doctor in Alabama whose clinic dispensed nearly 300,000 opioid prescriptions over a four-year period and a doctor who practiced in Arizona and Wyoming who operated mostly on a cash-only basis, but who also accepted property as payment, including firearms.

Sentencing Policy

US Sentencing Commission Quarterly Report Shows Drugs Remain Most Common Federal Offense. Enforcing federal drug prohibition accounts for nearly one-third of all federal criminal prosecutions, according the US Sentencing Commission's latest quarterly report. Drug offenses accounted for 32.3 percent of all prosecutions in the last two quarters, with methamphetamine accounting for nearly half (48.6 percent) of all drug offenses and fentanyl continuing to increase, now accounting for 11.8 percent of all drug offenses. Immigration was the second largest category of federal prosecutions, accounting for 26.5 percent of all federal prosecutions, followed by firearms offenses at 14.9 percent. No other federal crime category accounted for more than 10 percent of federal prosecutions. A decline in prosecutions that took place during the coronavirus pandemic has now ended, with about 5,000 federal drug prosecutions every six months.

International

UN Human Rights Experts Use International Day Against Drug Abuse and Trafficking to Call for End of War on Drugs. UN human rights experts have called on the international community to bring an end to the so-called "war on drugs"and promote drug policies that are firmly anchored in human rights. Ahead of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June 2022, the experts issued the following statement:

"Data and experience accumulated by UN experts have shown that the 'war on drugs' undermines health and social wellbeing and wastes public resources while failing to eradicate the demand for illegal drugs and the illegal drug market. Worse, this 'war' has engendered narco-economies at the local, national and regional levels in several instances to the detriment of national development. Such policies have far-reaching negative implications for the widest range of human rights, including the right to personal liberty, freedom from forced labor, from ill-treatment and torture, fair trial rights, the rights to health, including palliative treatment and care, right to adequate housing, freedom from discrimination, right to clean and healthy environment, right to culture and freedoms of expression, religion, assembly and association and the right to equal treatment before the law."

Click on the link above for the rest of the statement.

New Zealand Poll Shows Most Support Replacing Punitive Drug Laws with Health-Based Approach. A new poll produced by The Navigators on behalf of the NZ Drug Foundation finds that a solid majority of New Zealanders support replacing the 1975 Misuse of Drugs Act with a health-based approach. Some 68 percent of respondents favored the change. A strong majority -- 61 percent -- also favored drug decriminalization and introducing more support for education and treatment. The poll also showed that there is strong support for more funding to be provided for treatment and education (82 percent) and harm reduction initiatives like drug checking (74 percent).

Pakistan Moves to Allow Cannabis Farming for Medical and Industrial Use. The Ministry of Science and Technology will form an authority to regulate and facilitate the farming and use of cannabis, or "Bhang," as it referred to in the country. The authority will issue 15-year licenses for industrial, medical, processing, research, and development purposes. The Department of Commerce will issue licenses for cannabis exports.

Spain Moving Toward Allowing Medical Marijuana Sales in Pharmacies. A subcommittee in the Congress of Deputies has accepted a draft bill to regulate medical marijuana sales and referred the bill to the Commission on Health for a vote this week. While the proposed bill has very tight distribution rules, it is being lauded as the first step toward providing greater access. Once the bill is approved by the Health Commission, the Spanish Medicines Agency will have six months to draft appropriate regulations. The draft bill will make THC-containing flowers available by prescription for the treatment of specified illnesses and conditions.

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Supreme Court Rules for Crack Prisoners, CO Psychedelic Initiative Campaign Hands in Signatures, More... (6/28/22)

A major Swiss bank gets convicted of cocaine money laundering, a House committee wants a GAO report on federal psilocybin policy, and more.

Psychedelics

House Appropriations Committee Calls for Review of Federal Psilocybin Policy. In reports accompanying new spending bills, the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee are calling for a federal review of psilocybin policy, as well as letting researchers study marijuana from dispensaries and using hemp as an alternative to Chinese plastics. The report for the spending bill for Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies calls for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to analyze barriers to state, local, and tribal programs using psilocybin. The committee said the GAO should study the impact of federal drug prohibition in jurisdictions that allow psilocybin. The call comes as a psilocybin reform movement is gaining momentum across the country.

Colorado Activists Turn in Signatures for Psychedelic Initiative. The Natural Medicine Colorado campaign, the group behind an initiative to legalize psychedelics and create licensed psilocybin "healing centers," announced Monday that it had turned in 222,648 raw signatures. The campaign only needs 124,632 valid voter signatures, and this cushion of nearly 80,000 excess raw signatures suggests that the initiative will qualify for the November ballot. The measure would legalize the possession, use, cultivation, and sharing of psilocybin, ibogaine, mescaline (not derived from peyote), DMT, and psilocyn for people 21 and over. It does not set specific possession limits, nor does it envision recreational sales. The measure would also place responsibility for developing rules for a therapeutic psilocybin with the Department of Regulatory Agencies.

Drug Policy

At Oversight Hearing, Director of National Drug Control Policy Highlighted Biden-Harris Administration's Commitment to Tackling Overdose and Addiction Crisis. On Monday, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, held a hearing with Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office), to examine the federal government's response to the overdose and addiction crisis, including the Biden-Harris Administration's 2022 National Drug Control Strategy.

During the hearing, Director Gupta highlighted illicit drug seizures at the southern border and disruption of drug trafficking across the US; the need to expand treatment services; steps such as telehealth services to expand access to care for people in underserved communities; and overdose prevention efforts funded by the bipartisan Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022. Gupta and committee members also highlighted Chairwoman Maloney's Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act.

Supreme Court Rules Judges Can Weigh New Factors in Crack Cocaine Cases. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the First Step Act allows district court judges to consider post-sentencing changes in law or fact in deciding whether to re-sentence people convicted under the harsh crack cocaine laws of the past.

While the penalties are still harsh, they are not quite as much as they were prior to passage of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the ratio of quantity triggers for the worst sentences for powder vs. crack cocaine from 100:1 to 18:1. The First Step Act made those sentencing changes retroactive, giving prisoners the chance to seek reduced sentences. The decision was 5-4, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joining the court's liberal minority in the opinion.

The case is Concepcion v. United States, in which Carlos Concepcion was sentenced to 19 years for a crack offense in 2009, a year before passage of the Fair Sentencing Act. He sought resentencing "as if" the Fair Sentencing Act provisions "were in effect at the time the covered offense was committed." That is proper, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion: "It is only when Congress or the Constitution limits the scope of information that a district court may consider in deciding whether, and to what extent, to modify a sentence, that a district court's discretion to consider information is restrained. Nothing in the First Step Act contains such a limitation."

International

Swiss Court Convicts Credit Suisse of Cocaine Money-Laundering. The Swiss Federal Criminal Court has found the bank Credit Suisse guilty of failing to prevent money-laundering by a Bulgarian cocaine trafficking organization. One former bank employee was convicted of money-laundering in the case against the country's second-largest bank. The trial included testimony about murders and cash-filled suitcases. The court held that Credit Suisse demonstrated deficiencies in both the management of client relations with criminal groups and the implementation of money-laundering rules. "These deficiencies enabled the withdrawal of the criminal organization's assets, which was the basis for the conviction of the bank's former employee for qualified money laundering," the court said. Credit Suisse said it would appeal.

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