A new book takes a new look at crack.
There have been a couple of hiccups as marijuana legalization rolls out in Minnesota, Florida's attorney general thinks voters are too stupid to know that pot would remain federally illegal if the state legalized it, and more.
Wisconsin's Democratic governor signs a bill heightening penalties for fatal drug overdoses, Israel's Health Ministry says patients can be prescribed marijuana beginning in December, and more.
Four veterans are suing New York marijuana regulators over the application of social equity provisions, New Hampshire's governor signs a fentanyl and xylazine test strip decriminalization bill into law, and more.
The man who was once Colombia's most powerful cocaine traffickers gets decades in US prison, New Hampshire will study the state liquor store model for potential legal marijuana sales, and more.
New York sees its first marijuana farmers market open today, Australia sees its first federal marijuana legalization bill filed, and more.
When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey (2023, One World Press, 427 pp., $30 HB)
Black journalist Donovan X. Ramsey grew up in Columbus, Ohio, in the crack-dominated 1980s and 1990s, where he learned "crackhead" as an insult before he even knew what it meant. One reason he didn't know what it meant was because no one in the community talked openly about the drug crisis ripping through Columbus and other cities across the country after crack took off in the early '80s.
Later, that silence struck him as weird. "It was like growing up in a steel town where nobody talked about steel," he writes in When Crack Was King. After establishing himself as a freelance journalist whose credits include the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic and Ebony, Ramsey set out to chronicle the crack epidemic of his youth. Five years and hundreds of interviews later, this book is the result.
One place where Ramsey makes an invaluable contribution is in setting the stage for the arrival of crack. He writes about the victories and promise of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and how, as the country began exporting manufacturing jobs abroad in the 1970s and '80s, the Black vision of achieving the American dream turned to grief and despair. It wasn't just declining economic prospects, though; it was a determined political counterattack led by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan that, based on Nixon's 1968 Southern strategy, demonized the Black community, unleashing our decades-long experiment with mass incarceration and filling prisons with Black bodies.
Grief and despair may have weakened Black defenses against crack and made it all to easy to slip into the drug's intense embrace -- and crack addiction ruined the lives of countless people -- but it was the flipside of grief and despair that make the crack trade so attractive to so many. With the civil rights revolution of the 1960s came aspirations toward Black upward mobility, as evidenced by popular culture programming such as Fresh Prince of Belair, The Jeffersons, and the Cosby Show, and in Black neighborhoods across the country where good jobs were vanishing, involvement in the crack trade offered not only upward mobility and its outward signs -- expensive cars, gold chains, high-dollar sneakers, and the like -- but for many in the industry, the more basic goal of finding enough money to put food on the table. If grief and despair drove use, envy and foreclosed opportunity drove the corner rock-slingers and those who rose above them into the trade.
As Ramsey narrates the history of crack, When Crack Was King provides a useful corrective to the hysterical coverage the drug got amidst the epidemic. He demolishes the notions of "crack babies" and "super predators," and exposes "crack heads" as real human beings with problems, not zombie harbingers of the apocalypse. And he dissects the draconian drugs laws passed amid the moral panic around the death of basketball star Len Bias -- laws that led to tens of thousands of Black men and women disappearing behind bars for years or decades. If crack decimated inner city neighborhoods, so did the war on crack.
(As for crack destroying the inner city, comedian Chris Rock had something to say about that: "Crack is everywhere, crack everywhere… you know what they say? 'Crack is destroying the black community.' 'Crack is destroying the ghetto.' Yeah, like the ghetto was so nice before crack! They say that shit like everybody had at least a mansion, a yacht and a swimming pool… then crack came by and dried it all up!)
One of the more unique and enrichening features of When Crack Was King is Ramsey's use of the stories of four survivors of the crack era to paint a deeper portrait of the drug's impact. We meet Lennie Woodley, a girl from a broken family in South Central Los Angeles, where factory jobs had fled, leaving "gangbangers, hustlers, and pimps" to fill the vacuum. Fleeing sexual abuse by an uncle, she took to the streets as a young teen, falling into a life of prostitution salved by crack addiction. It is not a pretty story, but it brings home some ugly realities.
We also meet Elgin Swift, a white kid from poor, multi-racial Yonkers, New York, whose dad was a crack addict and who slung rocks on the side to make enough money for food, bus fare, and other household essentials. He came through the crack era wounded but sound and, having parlayed his crack-selling skills toward more socially acceptable ends, now runs a chain of automotive dealerships.
And then there's Shawn McCray from the projects in Newark, whose basketball prowess got him into college and who barely escaped a prison sentence for selling crack when a judge showed him mercy. He stayed on the edges of the life, though, until dozens of his friends in the city's notorious Zoo Crew crack-selling machine were wrapped up and marched off to prison in a massive bust. After that, McCray walked away, turning his attention to youth athletics. He is now a major figure in Newark youth athletic programs.
Crack didn't destroy Elgin Swift or Shawn McCray, but the drug and society's response to it -- repression -- deeply impacted their lives.
And then there's Kurt Schmoke. Ramsey profiles the man who became the first Black mayor of Baltimore and who in 1988, in the midst of the crack wars, became the first major politician to call for drug decriminalization. That hasn't happened yet (except in Oregon), but Ramsey holds him up not only as a profile in courage but in pragmatism. Schmoke may not have achieved decrim, but he delivered the first major blow to the drug war paradigm by speaking out. (And he managed to get city-sponsored needle exchanges going in 1994)
A heady mix of urban ethnography, social history, and political and cultural critique, When Crack Was King is a worthy addition to the literature of the drug.
back to top
There have been a couple of hiccups as marijuana legalization rolls out in Minnesota, Florida's attorney general thinks voters are too stupid to know that pot would remain federally illegal if the state legalized it, and more.
Marijuana Policy
Florida AG Reaffirms Opposition to Marijuana Legalization Initiative, Claims Floridians Too Stupid to Know Pot Would Remain Federally Illegal. Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) on Wednesday submitted a new brief to the state Supreme Court arguing that it should reject the marijuana legalization initiative from Smart and Safe Florida because its summary does not explicitly say that marijuana is illegal under federal law.
That could deceive state voters who may be ignorant of the policy conflict between the states and the federal government on marijuana, Moody argued. "Most Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice," she claimed to support her position.
Smart and Safe Florida found Moody's position incredible, saying it "strains credulity well past the breaking point to think that the average voter is unaware that marijuana is illegal at the federal level."
She also argued that the initiative is crafted to unfairly benefit the marijuana company Trulieve, which is the main financial backer of the campaign.
"This carefully curated ballot summary misleads in ways that, though sometimes subtle, are likely to influence voters -- and to do so in a way that entrenches the Sponsor's monopolistic stranglehold on the marijuana market to the detriment of Floridians," it says. "In its pursuit of a larger customer base and greater profits, Trulieve has invited millions of Floridians to join it in reckless violation of federal criminal law. Trulieve may be reckless enough to stake an entire business model on the whims of federal prosecutors," it continues. "But it cannot invite Florida voters to permanently amend their governing charter by promising that the amendment will do something ('allow' recreational marijuana) that it will not do."
It's not immediately clear what the next steps are in the case. It's possible the court may schedule oral arguments now that both sides have laid out their main arguments in written briefs.
Minnesota Legal Marijuana Hiccups. The first days of marijuana legalization in the state -- beginning August 1 -- have brought at least two police raids on shops they said were skirting the law. Police raided a tobacco shop in Mahnomen on the White Earth Reservation that was selling marijuana and a shop in Faribault that was selling plants.
While non-native parts of the state must wait for regulators to come up with regulations to guide legal marijuana commerce, sales have already begun on one reservation, Red Lake. The White Earth Band, however, says sales are illegal without a permit from the tribe.
Meanwhile, in Faribault, Total Tobacco was raided on August 1 when local law enforcement seized 22 pot plants. The store said it thought it was selling legal plants because the seedlings had not yet reached a state of maturity when THC levels would rise enough to be illegal.
Charges are pending in both cases.
International
Montreal Police Raid Magic Mushroom Shop for Third Time in Three Weeks. The FunGuyz magic mushroom shop is shut down again after being raided Thursday for the third time in three weeks. Police said they seized four kilograms of psilocybin in bulk form, 753 grams of psilocybin edibles, 1,643 psilocybin tablets and slightly more than $10,000 in cash.
Police first raided the shop on July 11, the day it opened and arrested four people. But the owners, who said they were advocating for psychedelic legalization, reopened, sparking a second raid on July 20, with five people arrested. One person was arrested in this latest raid.
Quebec law enforcement is growing tired of the game, and the provincial Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions says police have been granted an injunction to seize the building and prevent it from opening for a fourth time.
back to top
Wisconsin's Democratic governor signs a bill heightening penalties for fatal drug overdoses, Israel's Health Ministry says patients can be prescribed marijuana beginning in December, and more.
Psychedelics
San Francisco Magic Mushroom Churches Have Authorities Befuddled. At least two magic mushroom churches where residents can purchase the hallucinogenic fungus have opened this year in the city, and the city has yet to figure out how to respond. One is Zide Door, an offshoot of a similar operation across the bay in Oakland; the other is the Living Church in Lower Nob Hill.
Magic mushrooms are illegal under both state and federal law, but were declared a lowest law enforcement priority in the city in 2022. Last December, police raided a Haight Street storefront for illegally selling magic mushrooms, but that raid generated criticism from Supervisor Dean Preston, who questioned why city police " chose to use extensive resources on a drug bust for substances the city considers to be of lowest priority." That case remains unresolved.
City officials have yet to move against the magic mushroom churches amid speculation that the churches may resort to a religious exemption defense to any potential charges. A handful of churches across the country have won the right to use psychedelics ceremonially, although San Francisco attorney Graham Pechenik, who specializes in marijuana and psychedelic law, warned that the religious argument is not all-encompassing.
"Merely claiming to be a church and having customers 'join' the church is unlikely to provide a shield against prosecution, and even providing church services under a defined set of beliefs may be insufficient to win in court," he said.
Sentencing Policy
Wisconsin Governor Signs Drug Dealer Murder Bill into Law. Gov. Tony Evers (D) last Friday signed into law Senate Bill101, which increases the penalty for first-degree reckless homicide involving drugs. The bill moves the offense from a Class C felony to a Class B felony and makes drug dealers and userseligible for sentences of up to 60 years if they are involved in a fatal overdose.
The bill has been criticized for lacking protections for people who use drugs with others, including Good Samaritans who call for help when someone overdoses. The ACLU of Wisconsin blasted Evers for signing it into law.
"The decision by Gov. Evers today to sign SB 101 into law represents a step in the wrong direction in Wisconsin's fight against drug overdoses. If we've learned anything from the failed War on Drugs, it's that we cannot incarcerate our way out of addiction and drug use. Yet, after decades of abject policy failure, we are still repeating the same mistakes," said James Stein, deputy advocacy director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
"The law enacted today is deeply misguided and counterproductive. It further entrenches us in destructive cycles of criminalization and punishment that devastate our communities -- particularly Black and Brown communities -- while doing little to nothing to combat drug problems. While purporting to crack down on drug distribution, SB 101 could lead to an increase in fatal overdoses, as people might be less likely to seek medical attention for someone overdosing out of fear of prosecution. In addition, an extensive body of research -- as well as our own lived experiences -- tells us that punitive drug laws don't reduce drug use, addiction, or overdose," Stein continued.
Foreign Policy
DeSantis Doubles Down on Deadly Force Promise Against Mexican Drug Cartels. As he continued to pursue the Republican presidential nomination last Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down on an earlier commitment to use force against Mexican drug cartels to block the flow of fentanyl coming through the southern border.
"Day one, we're declaring it to be a national emergency," DeSantis said. "I'm going to do what no president has been willing to do. We are going to lean in against the cartels directly, and we are going to use deadly force against them."
That would involve the use of the US military in lethal offensive operations in Mexico, something that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has angrily rejected. But it is only one of a panoply of increasingly aggressive policy prescriptions aimed at the cartels coming out of Republican precincts as the death toll from fentanyl overdoses rises.
International
Israel Health Minister Says Patients Can Be Prescribed Medical Marijuana Beginning in December. The Health Ministry has announced that doctors will be able to prescribe marijuana to patients beginning in December. Currently, patients need a license to use medical marijuana.
The change is intended to make it easier for patients to get access to the drug and to remove bureaucratic obstacles. The ministry said it will review the changes after one year.
(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)
back to top
Four veterans are suing New York marijuana regulators over the application of social equity provisions, New Hampshire's governor signs a fentanyl and xylazine test strip decriminalization bill into law, and more.
Marijuana Policy
New York Lawsuit Challenges Application of Marijuana Social Equity Provisions in State Law. Four veterans have filed a lawsuit against the state's marijuana regulators, the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board. The lawsuit charges that although service-disabled veterans are listed as a sub-group of social equity applicants who are supposed to be prioritized for licenses, the regulating agencies have established a process that makes having a marijuana-related criminal conviction an initial eligibility requirement, disqualifying disabled vets who would otherwise be eligible under the social equity provisions.
"The statute specifically included those individuals as individuals that would be prioritized with respect to applying for and gaining approval of an adult use retail license," said plaintiff's attorney Matt Morey. "The regulations that were then adopted, well not necessarily prohibiting any disabled service veteran from applying, they would have to then satisfy the other various CAURD (conditional adult-use retail dispensary) requirements, which is that they were convicted of a marijuana-related offense prior to March 31 of 2021," Morey said.
The lawsuit has resulted in temporary injunction from the judge in the case that bars the state from issuing any new licenses or approving any new retail outlets to open. That injunction will last at least until Friday when the judge will hear arguments about whether the current program is constitutional.
Psychedelics
Ayahuasca Church Moves to Maine. A church that uses ayahuasca as a sacrament in its services has relocated from New Hampshire to Maine. The church, Pachamama Sanctuary, has obtained 40 acres of land in Casco to serve as a retreat center and spiritual sanctuary.
"People in the community come here to make a connection with the spirit, with God, higher power, whatever they decide to call it," said Derek Januszewski, founding pastor of the church.
Januszewski said the church moved not because of legal hassles in New Hampshire -- there were none -- but because of zoning problems with their old building.
Although ayahuasca contains DMT, a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the US Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that a small religious sect originating in Brazil, the Uniao Do Vegetal (Union of the Vegetable) was entitled under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to use it for religious purposes. It is not clear if the Pachamama Sanctuary is part of that church.
Harm Reduction
Manhattan US Attorney Warns He Could Shut Down New York City Safe Injection Sites. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said Monday that two city-approved safe injection sites are operating in violation of state and federal law and that he could be forced to act if the situation does not change.
"I have repeatedly said that the opioid epidemic is a law enforcement crisis and a public health crisis," said Williams. "But I am an enforcer, not a policymaker." The situation is "unacceptable," he added. "My office is prepared to exercise all options -- including enforcement -- if this situation does not change in short order."
Although widely accepted in Europe, Australia, and Canada, safe injection are considered illegal in the US under the "crack house statute," which bars people from maintaining property where controlled substances are consumed. A Philadelphia safe injection site effort was blocked by the Trump-era Justice Department, and that case remains unresolved as the Biden Justice Department attempts to negotiate a settlement.
But faced with a growing drug overdose crisis, New York City did not wait for the resolution of that case or for lawmakers to change state law and instead okayed two safe injection sites in December 2021.
New Hampshire Decriminalizes Fentanyl, Xylazine Test Strips. Late last week, Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signed into law House Bill 287, which decriminalizes fentanyl and xylazine test strips by removing them from the state's definition of drug paraphernalia.
Fentanyl was implicated in 410 of the state's 486 drug overdose deaths last year.
Under previous state law, only needle exchange programs were allowed to distribute test strips. People in possession of test strips who were not needle exchange workers or clients could be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
back to top
The man who was once Colombia's most powerful cocaine traffickers gets decades in US prison, New Hampshire will study the state liquor store model for potential legal marijuana sales, and more.
Marijuana Policy
Gallup Poll Now Has Republican Majority for Marijuana Legalization but Partisan Gap Remains. New polling data from Gallup on partisanship among the American electorate shows that a majority of Republicans -- 55 percent -- now support marijuana legalization, but Democrats supported it at a much higher level -- 83 percent. Support among independents was not measured.
While Democrats have historically been more likely to be legalization supporters, the partisan gap has widened over the past decade because support among Democrats has risen much faster than among Republicans. Overall, though, support for legalization among all Americans remain near or at an all-time high -- with majorities of self-identified Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all backing legalization.
New Hampshire Governor Signs Bill for Commission to Study State Marijuana Sales. Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has signed into law House Bill 611, which will create a commission to study on how the state could handle legal marijuana sales in a way similar to the state liquor store model already in place in the Granite State.
"New Hampshire has an opportunity to safely regulate the sale of marijuana with a model few others can provide," Sununu said. "By establishing a commission to study state-controlled sales, this bill will bring stakeholders from across New Hampshire together to ensure that preventing negative impacts upon kids remains our number one priority."
The state-control model of cannabis legalization the governor favors was met with widespread skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature earlier this year, but the legislature has failed to pass any form of legalization so far.
Drug Policy
Former Leader of Colombia's Gulf Clan Cartel Sentenced to 45 Years in US Prison. On Wednesday, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, known by various aliases, including "Otoniel," a citizen of Colombia, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry to 45 years’ imprisonment for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise as a leader of the multibillion-dollar paramilitary and drug trafficking organization known as the "Clan del Golfo" (CDG -- the Gulf Clan).
Úsuga David was also sentenced to 45 years' imprisonment for engaging in a maritime narcotics conspiracy and 45 years' imprisonment for engaging in a narcotics importation conspiracy. The sentences will run concurrently. As part of the sentence, the Court ordered Úsuga David to pay $216 million in forfeiture. The defendant pleaded guilty to all three charges in January 2023.
Úsuga David controlled an armed force of about 1,800 men, mainly recruited from former rightist paramilitary groups and operated Colombia's biggest drug trafficking organization until his arrest in 2021 by the government of Conservative then-President Ivan Duque. He was then extradited to the US to face charges, although there are also suggestions that he was extradited to avoid having him answer questions that could link rightist paramilitaries to Conservative Party politicians.
"Otoniel led one of the largest cocaine trafficking organizations in the world, where he directed the exportation of massive amounts of cocaine to the United States and ordered the ruthless execution of Colombian law enforcement, military officials, and civilians," said Attorney General Merrick Garland. "This sentence sends a clear message: the Justice Department will find and hold accountable the leaders of deadly drug trafficking organizations that harm the American people, no matter where they are and no matter how long it takes."
San Francisco Jail Population Jumps as Drug Arrests Mount. For the first time in years, the jail population in the city has hit the 1,000 mark, driven largely by a renewed emphasis on drug arrests. The average daily jail population was 1,277 in 2019 and dropped to 850 in 2020 amidst the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
Even though crime reports in the city are down slightly over last year, drug arrests are up a dramatic 36 percent, especially since the city launched an initiative on May 30 to arrest people for public drug use. That push tipped the jail population past the 1,000 mark; it hit 1,001 on Tuesday.
David Mauroff, executive director of a nonprofit called the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project, which provides resources to people who are awaiting criminal trial, said the increase in arrests has squeezed his organization's ability to properly serve clients.
"The city has now decided that arrest, prosecution and incarceration is the answer to our public safety issues," Mauroff said. "It's been demonstrated by volumes of research and science that the war on drugs failed."
Drug arrests are not the only thing fueling the jail population jump. The Public Defender's Office has been holding sit-in all summer to protest court backlogs that have denied more than 1,100 people the right to a speedy trial. The office said 115 people have been held in jail for months or even years past their speedy trial deadlines.
back to top
New York sees its first marijuana farmers market open today, Australia sees its first federal marijuana legalization bill filed, and more.
Marijuana Policy
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Ban on Drug Users Possessing Guns. The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has struck down a 1968 law that bars illegal drug users from possessing firearms. It was the latest blow to US gun laws after the Supreme Court last year changed the legal standard around gun restrictions.
"In short, our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person's right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage," Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. "Nor do more generalized traditions of disarming dangerous persons support this restriction on nonviolent drug users."
The ruling comes in the case of Patrick Daniels who was convicted of being a drug user in possession of a firearm after a traffic stop in which marijuana roaches and two loaded guns were found. The 5th Circuit's ruling only applies to Daniels, but open the door for other people convicted of that offense within the circuit to seek similar redress. The 5th Circuit includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
New York's First Marijuana Farmers Market Opens Today. The state's Cannabis Control Board announced Wednesday that the state's first marijuana farmers market will begin today in New Paltz in the Hudson River Valley. The activity is sanctioned under the board's new Cannabis Growers Showcases (CSG) program.
The New Paltz market includes licensed growers Queen Farms and Empire Farm 1830, as well as retailer Legacy Dispensers. It will be open Thursday and Friday afternoon and Saturdays from 1:00pm to 8:00pm. The market will continue through year's end or until a brick and mortar pot shop opens in the village.
At least for now, there is no onsite consumption, nor is alcohol being sold. Onsite marijuana consumption would require additional permits from the state Department of Public Health.
Drug Policy
Oregon Governor Signs Package of Addiction, Mental Health Bills. Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday signed into law six bills aimed at addressing the state's addiction and mental health problems.
"As your Governor, I am fighting for a behavioral health system that really does work across our state," Kotek said prior to signing the bills. "We do need to improve outcomes."
The bills are:
- Senate Bill 1043, which directs hospitals to provide two doses of Narcan, the opioid reversal drug, upon discharge to patients with a substance use disorder.
- House Bill 2395, which makes it easier to distribute Narcan to people who need it most.
- Senate Bill 238, which directs the Oregon Health Authority, the Department of Education and Drug Policy Commission to create a curriculum on the dangers of certain drugs.
- House Bill 2757, which better funds a coordinated crisis services system that includes suicide and mental health crisis hotlines.
- House Bill 2513, which directs local planning committees to coordinate with local behavioral health networks on services provided to the community. The bill aims to target the slow rollout of Measure 110.
- House Bill 3610, which creates a task force to study both alcohol pricing and addiction services.
International
Australia Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill Filed for First Time. For the first time, a federal marijuna legalization bill has been filed in Canberra. The bill was filed by Greens Party Sen. David Shoebridge.
"This is the first time a bill has been introduced to Federal Parliament that could, with the support of both houses, create a legal home grow and commercial cannabis market across the country," the Greens said.
About 80,000 Australians are arrested every year for marijuana possession.
"It's time to stop pretending that consumption of this plant, consumed each year by literally millions of Australians, should still be seen as a crime," Shoebridge said.
The bill comes after state legislatures in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia received bills from the Legalize Cannabis Party to legalize marijuana for personal use.
back to top