Drug War Chronicle #477 - March 16, 2007

Book Offer: Lies, Damn Lies, and Drug War Statistics

Normally when we publish a book review in Drug War Chronicle newsletter, it gets readers but is not among the top stories visited on the site. Recently we saw a big exception to that rule when more than 1,400 of you read our review of the new book Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics: A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Much of this reading took place during a week that had other very popular articles as well, so clearly the topic of this book, which was authored by respected academics Matthew Robinson and Renee Scherlen, has struck a chord. As well it should.

Please help DRCNet continue our own work of debunking drug war lies with a generous donation. If your donation is $32 or more, we'll send you a complimentary copy of Robinson and Scherlen's book to help you be able to debunk drug war lies too.

Over the coming weeks I will be blogging on our web site about things I've learned reading Lies, Damn Lies, and Drug War Statistics. Stay tuned!

Your donation will help DRCNet as we advance what we think is an incredible two-year plan to substantially advance drug policy reform and the cause of ending prohibition globally and in the US. Please make a generous donation today to help the cause! I know you will feel the money was well spent after you see what DRCNet has in store. Our online donation form lets you donate by credit card, by PayPal, or to print out a form to send with your check or money order by mail. Please note that contributions to the Drug Reform Coordination Network, our lobbying entity, are not tax-deductible. Tax-deductible donations can be made to DRCNet Foundation, our educational wing. (Choosing a gift like Lies, Damn Lies, and Drug Statistics will reduce the portion of your donation that you can deduct by the retail cost of the item.) Both groups receive member mail at: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036.

Thank you for your support, and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

David Borden
Executive Director

P.S. You can read Chronicle editor Phil Smith's review of the book here.

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Feature: Medical Marijuana Bill Passes New Mexico Legislature, Awaits Governor's Signature

Less than a week after the state House voted to kill medical marijuana legislation in the Land of Enchantment, it reversed itself, opening the door to New Mexico's becoming the 12th state to legalize the medicinal use of the plant. With minor changes approved by the state Senate this week, the only thing lacking is the signature of Gov. Bill Richardson (D). That appears to be only a formality, given Richardson's strong push to get bill to his desk.

This was the third effort to get medical marijuana through the state legislature. In two previous sessions, legislation passed the Senate, but never got to a floor vote in the House, for reasons having as much to do with legislative politics as with the virtues or liabilities of medical marijuana.

At the end of last week, it appeared that medical marijuana was again doomed in New Mexico after a House floor vote resulted in a 36-33 vote to kill it. But thanks to deft maneuvering by medical marijuana supporters and to Gov. Richardson leaning on the legislature, the bill came back from the dead this week.

Supporters of the legislation led by Reena Szczepanski, head of the Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico office, managed to get the sponsor of a similar bill in the Senate to fold the language of the house bill, the Lynne and Erin Compassionate Use Act, into his bill, SB 523. The Senate, which had already approved the Compassionate Use Act, then handily approved SB 523 late last week, and the House voted 36-31 to approve it on Tuesday.

"There was actually another bill introduced in the Senate, and it was on the Senate floor two days after the first bill failed, so we worked with Sen. Robinson, the bill's sponsor, to adjust the content of his bill so it was similar to the first bill, which had already passed the Senate," explained Szczepanski. "The governor also worked really hard to swing some votes in the House, a lot of representatives got a lot of calls from the public, and enough of them changed their votes to pass this," she told Drug War Chronicle.

"This bill will provide much-needed relief for New Mexicans suffering from debilitating diseases while including the proper safeguards to prevent abuse," Richardson said in a written statement. "I am pleased that the legislature did the right thing, reconsidered this important bill and supported a humane option for New Mexicans who endure some of the most painful diseases imaginable."

The bill will allow patients to use marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of debilitating medical conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, certain spinal-cord injuries, epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, hospice care and other uses approved by the state Department of Health. Unlike other medical marijuana states, patients will not be able to grow their own medicine. Instead, the state Department of Health will be required to set up a system to license providers and will distribute the marijuana to qualified patients itself. According to the bill, that system must be in place by October 1.

"When Gov. Richardson signs the bill, he will be sending a strong message that states can and should exercise their right to do what is in the best interest of their citizens free from intrusion from the federal government," said DPA's Szczepanski. "Governor Richardson's unwavering support for the medical marijuana bill is a courageous step in ensuring that the will of the people of New Mexico has been validated and for that we are grateful."

"We're just thrilled; it's been a long, hard battle," said cancer patient Erin Armstrong, one of two patients for whom the bill is named. "I always knew it would happen; it just took a huge amount of work and patience. We're thrilled to have the support of the governor and the majority of the legislature and for New Mexico to become the 12th medical marijuana state. This is a huge victory," she told Drug War Chronicle.

Not everyone was thrilled. Rep. John Heaton (D-Carlsbad), a pharmacist who had railed against medical marijuana last week, was at it again this week, arguing that marijuana weakened the immune system. "To move in this direction just makes no sense at all," he spluttered.

Rep. James Strickler (R-Farmington) dragged out the old "what about the kids?" routine. "You can't make a bill ironclad enough when it comes to our children," he protested.

And Rep. Manuel Herrera (D-Bayard), a cancer survivor, would apparently rather die than smoke pot. "I've survived this cancer five times, and I intend to fight it with whatever is available except marijuana," he vowed.

The state Republican Party also got into the fray with a Tuesday statement made available to the Chronicle that accused Richardson of supporting the bill because he got donations from George Soros and the Drug Policy Alliance Network. "Gov. Richardson has two very big reasons why he is eager for passage of this legislation -- though it was previously rejected last week by the House," the statement reads. "The first reason is a $25,000 donation by political activist George Soros to Richardson's reelection campaign on July 24, 2006. The second reason is a $25,000 donation made to Richardson's reelection campaign on July 20, 2006 by the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a subsidiary of the Drug Policy Alliance. These organizations are heavily funded by radical political activist George Soros. Is $50,000 enough to buy drug policy in New Mexico?" the Republicans asked. "After all, illegal drug use in New Mexico is already destroying thousands of lives a year. Methamphetamine use has reached epidemic proportions across New Mexico, and the governor is advocating for 'medicalized' recreational marijuana use."

But despite the GOP jab, Richardson, who will shortly become the first presidential candidate to sign a medical marijuana bill into law, has been a supporter of the issue for at least five years -- as was the previous governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, a Republican. And the bill passed has nothing to do with "medicalized" recreational use, but sets up a strict program with many safeguards for patients and the public.

Now, it will be up to the Department of Health to get a program up and running by October. It is not yet clear what that program will look like, said DPA's Szczepanski.

"There have been lots of possibilities discussed, and now everyone will be sitting down to examine what the best options are," she said. "We'll be leaning on the experience of other states -- what's worked and what hasn't. The law will go into effect July 1, and between then and October 1, patients will be able to get temporary registration cards, but getting the program up and running will take some time."

Still, said Szczepanski, there is plenty to celebrate now. "For the past three years, we've been so close, just a hair's breadth away, and it's been a real heartbreaker. It was a matter of persevering, helping patients and family members come to the capitol and talking to legislators one on one," she said. "I think that the truth finally prevailed; legislators couldn't continue to deny the patients after talking to them. But Gov. Richardson was also such a champion of this issue. He really worked this bill, and we owe the turnaround this week to him."

Provided Richardson signs the bill -- and there is no reason to suppose he will not -- New Mexico will join Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington as a state that has approved the medicinal use of marijuana. With medical marijuana bills moving in their respective state capitols, chances are increasingly good that at least two more states, Illinois and Minnesota, will join the club this year.

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Feature: Trouble Hits in Peru This Week Over Coca Eradication

The Peruvian government's campaign to eradicate coca crops in the Upper Huallaga River Valley hit a serious bump this week as coca grower leaders and other, supportive social movements in the city of Tocache first protested eradication, then clashed with police, then called a general strike that was still ongoing, according to the latest reports. The area is represented in the Peruvian congress by Nancy Obregon, one of the coca grower movement's most well-known national leaders.

[According to Obregon's office in Lima, she was on a five-day trip to Venezuela before returning to the country early this week and heading directly for Tocache and the nearby coca fields. Drug War Chronicle attempts to reach Obregon in Tocache have so far been unsuccessful. (Read our recent interview with Obregon and other movement leaders published in last week's Chronicle here.)]

Protests against the US-backed eradication effort began late last week, as hundreds of protesting coca farmers blocked highways in the area to demand an end to the project, talks between the government and coca grower (or cocalero) unions, and meaningful alternative development proposals. On Sunday, the protests erupted in a violent confrontation between growers and police that, according to local radio stations, left at least 10 people injured, including local growers' spokesman Wilder Satalaya.

Monday, Satalaya told reporters on the scene growers would raise the protests to another level. "According to what I have seen on Channel 7, the government will continue with the eradication. The coca growers will also be radical. The political leaders don't know yet what we are capable of. We will take roads and highways, we will take offices. When we start burning cars, perhaps the government will finally begin listening to us," he stressed.

National coca grower leader Elsa Malpartida, who sits in the Andean Parliament, told reporters Monday that cocaleros were seeking a moratorium on eradication until growers and the government could reach an agreement. "We have proposed a temporary suspension of this eradication during this conflict and we are willing to seek a political solution on this matter," she said after meeting with Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro and representatives of the national anti-drug agency DEVIDA. "The debate is still ongoing, but I believe that there is good will on both sides for reaching a quick decision. We trust in that and we wait for an answer later tonight or tomorrow," Malpartida said.

Malpartida called for a program of nationwide registration of coca farmers, who would "like to have some form of legalization." Coca growers are not the enemy, she said. "The real enemies are the producers of chemical cocaine. We speak of a war against drugs. But in order to engage in a war, one has to visualize the enemy first. In this case they decided that the enemy is the coca grower. They have attacked him for 30 years and there have been no results. And the drug traffickers are very happy about that," she said.

But that same day, Peruvian President Alan Garcia fired back at protesting cocaleros, saying that violence and extremism would not be tolerated. "The government will be firm and proceed with its efforts in forcefully eradicating coca plants since coca farmers are not voluntarily eradicating their crops," Garcia said. "The law is what needs to prevail in this situation and the government will not take one step back. These are people who do not abide by rules and thereby put themselves under the suspicion of supplying the drug trade. They justify their actions in the name of poverty."

Even as Garcia threatened, however, other social movements and even the mayor of Tocache joined with cocaleros in what was supposed to be a 48-hour general strike, but which has now been extended. "We support our farming brothers and sisters. They have always protested by themselves, but now we pledge our support in their cause to have the federal government stop forceful coca plant eradication efforts," declared Tocache Mayor David Bazan.

According to Peruvian news media, the strike has been successful. Shops were shuttered in Tocache and transportation has ground to a halt in the city and surrounding areas. Police have repeatedly removed stones cocaleros placed on highways to block traffic, but the cocaleros keep returning with more. Some 150 additional police were being sent this week to Tocache from Ayacucho to try to restore order.

Although government ministers traveled to Tocache Tuesday in a bid to cool matters, it doesn't seemed to have worked. On Wednesday, local cocalero leaders Julio Santolaya and Maria Paredes told reporters no government officials had talked to them and they were set to increase road blocks until the government agrees to end eradication. The Tocache Defense Front, made up of the social movements who are striking in solidarity with the cocaleros, also confirmed that protests will continue and deepen.

The country's largest coca grower union, the National Confederation of Agricultural Producers of the Coca Valleys of Peru (CONCPACCP) has also joined the fray. In a manifesto made available to Drug War Chronicle, the organization headed by Nelson Palomino defended growers' protests and warned of more to come if the Peruvian government does not alter its policies.

"We strongly condemn the acts of eradication in Tocache, just as we oppose the forced eradication of coca in general. We have had and will continue to have a dialogue with the government," said the CONPACCP manifesto. "Nobody can accuse us of not being eager to talk. But the government of the day instead mounts smokescreens and designs strategies to surprise us and stab us in the back. What does the government say to our proposals? Nothing. Why? Because the repressive structure is given from the United States and the government, to avoid losing its profitable games, must obey them," the group said.

"We seek to prevent new clashes like those that took place in years past because of peasant opposition to the forced eradication of coca fields," the CONCPACCP manifesto continued. "But there will be confrontations because the eradication continues and the growers aren't going to sit still for it because the peasants are going to defend their sole sustenance as agricultural producers."

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Drug War Chronicle Book Review: "Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics: A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy," by Matthew Robinson and Renee Scherlen (2007, State University of New York Press, 268 pp., $27)

(We reprint our widely-read book review of three weeks ago. Please click here to order a copy through our latest membership offer.)

There is probably not a single drug reformer alive who, at some point, has not sputtered into his coffee cup upon hearing some inane pronouncement from drug czar John Walters. We know what he is saying is wrong and unjustifiable. Sometimes we even go to the effort of thoroughly debunking one of his outrageous claims. It's not that hard to do, really, but up until now, no one had thoroughly deconstructed the claims made by the Office of National Drug Control Strategy (ONDCP, the drug czar's office), testing them against the norms of science and reason.

That has changed with the recent publication of "Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics," by Appalachian State University Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Matthew Robinson and Associate Professor of Political Science Renee Scherlen. Since the annual National Drug Control Strategy reports put out by ONDCP form the basis for crafting federal drug policy, this pair of professors decided to systematically put to the test the claims made by ONDCP as a foundation for those policies.

Every federal bureaucracy has to justify its budget, and it does so by setting goals and demonstrating how well it has or has not met those goals. But, as Robinson and Scherlen so admirably demonstrate with example after example of the misleading use of statistics and visual graphics, ONDCP is, in many, many ways, distorting reality to paint a rosier picture of its "successes" in waging the war on drugs. They do so in a calm, deliberate, and understated manner rather than engaging in a partisan attack on a set of policies they clearly feel are a disaster.

In order to gauge the accuracy of ONDCP pronouncements, the authors look at three broad sets of claims made by ONDCP: Claims of success in reducing drug use, claims of success in "healing" America's drug users, and claims of success in disrupting drug markets. Robinson and Scherlen examine the annual National Drug Strategy reports beginning in 2000 and extending through 2005 to look at what ONDCP says it is accomplishing in these three broad areas. These three categories describe what it is ONDCP is supposed to be achieving, but, as the authors so comprehensively illustrate, ONDCP is all too ready to resort to deceptive and misleading information.

Let's take claims of success in reducing drug use, for instance. In the 2001 National Drug Strategy, ONDCP produces a chart that shows a dramatic downward trend in teen drug use in the mid-1980s before remaining essentially stable throughout the 1990s. But since ONDCP and its mandate didn't exist before 1988, the chart is misleading. What it really shows is that throughout ONDCP's tenure, it has failed in its stated goal of reducing teen drug use.

Similarly, in the 2003 National Drug Strategy, in an effort to justify its prevention campaigns, ONDCP sought to show that Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign was effective in reducing teen drug use. But to do so, ONDCP relied solely on data involving 18-to-25-year-olds. Since the "Just Say No" campaign was aimed at kids, using data about young adults is "a selective and inappropriate use of statistics," as Robinson and Scherlen so gently put it.

ONCDP also has the curious habit of mentioning "successes" in one year, but failing to revisit them in following years when the numbers don't back them up. In 2000 and 2001, for example, ONDCP crowed about declining marijuana use, even though national drug surveys failed to back it up except in selective categories. But in the annual reports from 2002 to 2005, with marijuana use remaining steady, ONDCP doesn't make any specific claims regarding rates of marijuana use, nor does it provide easily accessible charts or figures. As Robinson and Scherlen note, "Indeed, it appears ONDCP ignores statistics that point to outcomes counter to the drug war."

Robinson and Scherlen go on to systematically dissect ONDCP claims about reducing drug use, "healing" drug users, and disrupting drug markets. Sometimes, they even find that the claims are justified, but this is rarely the case. What the authors repeatedly demonstrate is that ONDCP is unable or unwilling to accurately report its failures to achieve its goals and is willing and able to resort to statistical chicanery to cover up those failures.

In the final two chapters of the book, Robinson and Scherlen attempt a fair assessment of the drug war and ONDCP's ability to meet its self-imposed drug war goals, and offer a series of recommendations for what a more rational drug policy might look like. For one thing, the authors suggest, ONDCP ought to be either terminated or removed from the White House. For an accurate rendition of the numbers regarding drug use, they must be removed from the hothouse political atmosphere of the White House. Currently, the authors argue, ONDCP acts as a "generator and defender of a given ideology in the drug war."

"Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics" is surprisingly easy to read, and Robinson and Scherlen have done a huge favor not only to critics of current drug policy by compiling this damning critique of ONDCP claims, but also to anyone interested in how data is compiled, presented, and misused by bureaucrats attempting to guard their domains. It should be required reading for members of Congress, though, sadly, that is unlikely to happen.

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Quote of the Week: Sen. Jim Webb on the Incarceration Crisis

Criminal justice reformers appear to have a new ally on Capitol Hill. According to a transcription provided by the group FedCURE, freshman Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) gave the following response to George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program This Week when asked if he would consider being a vice presidential candidate on the next Democratic ticket:

"I am still finding my way around the Senate and I'm having a really good time in the Senate. We've -- this is a chance to put a lot of issues on the table. One of the issues which never comes up in campaigns but it's an issue that's tearing this country apart is this whole notion of our criminal justice system, how many people are in our criminal justice system more -- I think we have two million people incarcerated in this country right now and that's an issue that's going to take two or three years to try to get to the bottom of and that's where I want to put my energy."

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Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

An Oregon parole officer, a former Wisconsin prosecutor, a Houston crime lab tech, and a pair of New Haven narcs have all crossed over to the dark side this week. Let's get to it:

In New Haven, Connecticut, the city's top narc was arrested Tuesday on charges he stole thousands of dollars on the job. Lt. William White, head of the New Haven Police Department Narcotics Division, was arrested by the FBI after it caught him on video transferring $27,000 in department cash to his car. White is charged with theft of government funds and criminal conspiracy. Also arrested was narcotics Det. Justen Kasperzyk, who was charged with stealing less than $1,000, and three local bail bondsmen, who are charged with bribing White and other police officers to recapture fugitives they were seeking. On Wednesday, New Haven police announced they were disbanding the narcotics unit.

In Houston, a former Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) lab technician was arrested last month on charges he stole more than 50 pounds of cocaine from the agency's Houston crime lab and sold it over a five-year period. Technician Jesus Hinojosa, 30, smuggled the stuff out a brick at a time, selling them for $11,000 to $13,000 each, according to authorities. In all, a DPS investigation has found 57 pounds of cocaine missing from the lab. Internal DPS audit reports show that the agency was aware of security breaches at the lab since 2003. Hinojosa is charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and is jailed on a $1 million bond.

In Portland, Oregon, a Multnomah County parole supervisor has resigned after admitting to stealing marijuana from a department property room and smoking it in front of coworkers at a holiday party. Shadman Afzal, 43, had been on leave since the December 9 party at his house, where he began hitting on a joint in front of his fellow parole officers. One of them recognized the container the weed came in as having been seized earlier and logged in at the department's north office. No criminal charges have been filed. Although Azfal hasn't worked since December and officially resigned in January, he is using up vacation time until March 19.

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Medical Marijuana: Federal Appeals Court Rules Angel Raich Can Be Prosecuted, Even If Only Marijuana Keeps Her Alive

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday ruled that Angel Raich, an Oakland woman whose doctor says marijuana is keeping her alive, can still be prosecuted on federal drug charges. Raich and her attorneys had argued that the desperately ill have the right to use marijuana to keep themselves alive when all other drugs fail.

Raich is the woman who went all the way to the Supreme Court seeking protection for medical marijuana patients in states where it is legal. But she lost in a 2005 decision when the court held that patients and their providers could indeed be prosecuted under federal law even if their states had legalized it.

Raich suffers from a brain tumor, scoliosis, chronic nausea, and a number of other medical conditions. She uses marijuana every couple of hours to gain appetite and suppress pain on her doctor's recommendation.

The ruling does not mean Raich will be prosecuted. She filed the lawsuit preemptively, in an effort to avoid any possible future arrest. Because Raich's doctors believe medical marijuana is essential to her survival, she argued that for the government to deprive her of her medicine would violate the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that no person may be "deprived of life... without due process of law."

But in its opinion this week the three-judge appeals court panel ruled that the United States is not yet at the point where "the right to use medical marijuana is 'fundamental' and 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.'" The court did suggest, however, that if Raich were ever arrested, she could seek to mount a "medical necessity" defense.

"The court has just sentenced me to death," Angel Raich said in a written statement. "My doctors agree that medical cannabis is essential to my very survival, and the government did not even contest the medical evidence. Every American should be frightened by this ruling. If we don't have a right to live, what do we have left?"

"Today's decision marks a disappointing setback for rational medical policy as well as fundamental constitutional rights in America," said Robert Raich, attorney for the plaintiff. "We may ask the Supreme Court to review the case, and may ask the district court to review issues that the Ninth Circuit left unresolved."

"Today's ruling is shocking, but it's not the end of the struggle," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Last June, legislation to end the federal government's war on medical marijuana in the 11 states where medical marijuana is legal received a record number of votes in the US House of Representatives, and support has grown this year. This is literally a matter of life and death for Angel and thousands of other patients, and we will keep fighting on both the legal and political fronts until every patient is safe."

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Sentencing: Tyrone Brown is a Free Man!

Tyrone Brown, the Dallas man sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for smoking a joint while on probation for an armed robbery in which no one was injured, walked out of prison in Huntsville Thursday after receiving a conditional pardon from Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R). The pardon came after ABC News' 20-20 featured his story twice, helping to create a nationwide grass roots effort to win his freedom, Save Mr. Brown.

Brown was met by relatives and journalists, according to an Associated Press report filed from Huntsville. He broke into a broad smile as he embraced his mother, Nora Brown. "I didn't believe this day was going to come," he said.

Under the terms of the pardon, Brown will have to live with his mother, find a job, go to a therapist, and report to a parole officer. If he violates any of those conditions, the pardon could be revoked.

Brown was 17 when he was convicted of armed robbery. After he tested positive for marijuana once, Judge Keith Dean re-sentenced him to life in prison. The harshness of Judge Dean's sentence for Brown, which he has never explained, stands in sharp contrast to his treatment of well-connected, white John Alexander Wood. Wood was convicted of murder, but Dean sentenced him to probation, where he repeatedly tested positive for cocaine. But instead of sending him to prison, Dean gave him permission to quit reporting to his probation officer and quit taking drug tests.

With the glare of the national spotlight on the case, Judge Dean (by now ex-Judge Dean) joined a long list of local law enforcement officials calling on the governor to free Brown. Thanks to their efforts, as well as the efforts of muckraking media outlets and an aroused populace, one drug war prisoner has gone home. That leaves about 499,999 to go.

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Harm Reduction: Los Angeles County Okays Needle Exchange Program

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $500,000 needle exchange program Tuesday. The board approved the harm reduction measure, which is designed to save lives and dollars by reducing the rate of spread of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis B and C, on a 3-2 vote.

The city of Los Angeles and seven California counties already have approved needle exchange programs. Los Angeles County has an estimated 120,000 to 190,000 drug injectors, nearly half of whom are estimated to share needles.

The new needle exchanges targeting heroin users will be at the Asian American Drug Abuse Program, Bienestar Human Services, Common Ground-The Westside HIV Community Center, Public Health Foundation Enterprises (and through them, Clean Needles Now) and Tarzana Treatment Centers.

Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe voted against the program. "The problem that we have here is you're having the government be in a position of sponsoring a known drug that could lead to death and leads to dependence," Antonovich said. "I would rather put our money into rehabilitation and education encouraging a drug-free society instead of being politically correct and helping addicts remain addicts," he said.

But Supervisor Gloria Molina defended the program, saying its aim is to prevent AIDS. "This is a very simple program that's had unbelievable success, and it's unfortunate (that) it is not supposed to address, and it does not address, the rehabilitation of drug users. All it does is, hopefully, address the issue of prevention of HIV," Molina said.

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Medical Marijuana: Federal Judge Dismisses Charges Against Ed Rosenthal

A federal district court judge dismissed money-laundering and tax evasion charges against Ed Rosenthal Wednesday, saying federal prosecutors had vindictively re-indicted the "Guru of Ganja" after he publicly criticized them in the wake of his successful appeal of his 2003 marijuana cultivation conviction. In that case, Rosenthal was convicted after not being allowed to present evidence he was growing for medicinal purposes, but was sentenced to only one day in jail after the jury protested upon hearing the rest of the story.

The same judge who presided over Rosenthal's first trial, US District Court Judge Charles Breyer, ruled that prosecutors illegally retaliated against Rosenthal by re-indicting him for the acts that were the basis of his original conviction, which was overturned last year, and piling on with the tax evasion and money-laundering charges over a sum that amounted to less than $1,900.

Federal prosecutors tried "to make Rosenthal look like a common criminal and thus dissipate the criticism heaped on the government after the first trial," Breyer said in his opinion. That perception, he said, "will discourage defendants from exercising their First Amendment right to criticize their prosecutions and their statutory right to appeal their convictions."

While he dismissed the two financial counts, Judge Breyer let stand Rosenthal's indictment for growing marijuana for medical patients. But that doesn't give prosecutors much to work with because Breyer also noted that even if he were convicted in a new trial, they could not seek to sentence him to more than the one day that he has already served. That leaves them with the equally unpalatable options of appealing the decision to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals -- the same court that overturned the original conviction -- or pursuing a conviction where they cannot punish Rosenthal even if they win.

Assistant US Attorney George Bevan, the chief prosecutor on the case, helped Judge Breyer prove the case for a revenge prosecution. While Bevan told Breyer he would not seek additional prison time on the marijuana counts, he said he was "committed to doing the retrial and seeing the case to a conclusion." That remark came after Bevan told the court in October that Rosenthal had complained about not getting a fair trial because he could not mention medical marijuana. "So, I'm saying, this time around, he wants the financial side reflected, fine, let's air this thing out," Bevan said. "Let's have the whole conduct before the jury: tax, money-laundering, marijuana."

In Wednesday's ruling, Breyer noted Bevan's candor but said his comments only "confirm the appearance of vindictiveness."

"The government was clearly out of line to bring this case forward against me," said Rosenthal in a statement released by his attorneys. "The court's ruling is reassuring, but my continued prosecution on the marijuana charges is still malicious. To make me and my family go through a second prosecution to obtain, at most, a one-day time served jail sentence seems personally motivated."

"We are gratified that the court has recognized the vindictive nature of this prosecution and has reigned in the prosecutor," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, and author of the successful vindictive prosecution motion. "The additional charges brought against Rosenthal were clearly in retaliation for his criticism of the government. Taxpayer dollars should not be wasted on a vendetta carried out by a prosecutor against a defendant."

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Search and Seizure: Utah Supreme Court Holds Mere Odor of Marijuana Not Enough for a Warrantless Home Search

In a ruling last Friday, the Utah Supreme Court held that the odor of burning marijuana is not sufficient to allow police to enter a residence without a warrant. The ruling in Utah v. Duran means that in Utah, police will no longer be able to use the old "I think I smell marijuana" routine as a pretext for conducting warrantless searches of homes.

The case began in Price, Utah, in 2003, when police were called to a residence by relatives who claimed people were smoking marijuana inside. When police arrived, they reported that "marijuana smoke was leaking out the cracks of the trailer," thus giving them probable cause to seek a search warrant. But police feared the suspects were "in the process of smokin' up all the evidence," so they entered without taking the time to get a warrant.

Inside, they found three people, as well as marijuana. The three were arrested, and one of them, Bernadette Duran, sought to have the evidence against thrown out as the result of an unlawful search. Duran lost at the trial court level, but won in the state appeals court, and now that victory has been ratified by the state Supreme Court.

In its 4-1 decision, the high court said that while there are exceptions to the search warrant requirement, such as preventing the imminent destruction of evidence, smelling pot smoke is not one of them. "We decline to grant the aroma of burning marijuana a place on an exclusive, limited roster of exceptions to the requirement that a warrant be secured before a lawful search can occur," Justice Ronald Nehring wrote for the majority. "The aroma of marijuana must be accompanied by some evidence that the suspects are disposing of the evidence, as opposed to casually consuming it."

That was a step too far for the lone dissenter in the case, Associate Chief Justice Michael Willkins, who argued that the odor of pot smoke could at times justify a warrantless search. "In a case where illegal drugs are being burned out of sight but not out of smell, and where the quantity of drugs is unknown to the officers, a presumption that the drugs are being destroyed rather than merely consumed is not unreasonable," Wilkins wrote.

But thankfully, his was the dissenting opinion.

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Medical Marijuana: Minnesota Bill Approved by House Committee

The Minnesota medical marijuana bill, HF 655 is on the move. In the bill's first House committee test, the Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday passed the bill on an 8-6 vote. It now heads for the House Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee.

A companion bill is the Senate is also moving. That legislation passed the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee on February 19 and is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Rep. Thomas Huntley (DFL-Duluth), lead sponsor of the House bill, hailed the vote as a victory for humane, common-sense legislation. "Politicians in St. Paul should trust physicians to know what's best for their patients," he said.

Among those who testified in support of the bill was Shannon Pakonen, whose son was pulled out of class and interrogated about his medical marijuana use by schoolteachers earlier this week. Pakonen went public with his medical marijuana use by testifying about it before a Senate committee about how he uses it to treat involuntary tics related to his Tourette's Syndrome.

"My son should not have to be treated like a criminal on the basis that he is my son," Pakonen testified, adding that this incident is precisely why Minnesota needs a medical marijuana law to protect patients and their families from harassment.

With both the House and Senate versions of the medical marijuana bill moving, and a new bill in New Mexico on the way to the desk of a governor who pushed to get it there, Minnesota could be on the way to becoming the 13th state to recognize medical marijuana. It's already the law in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

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Marijuana: Grassroots Protest in Small Town Wisconsin After Drug Bust

When police in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, wrapped up a 16-month investigation into the drug trade there, they patted themselves on the back for rolling up 62 people, mostly in their twenties, mostly for small-time sales of marijuana and prescription pills. But while police got some expressions of community support, not everyone was happy.

On Monday, for the second time in as many weeks, a handful of teenaged protestors gathered near the courthouse downtown to protest the busts and call for the legalization of marijuana. According to the Stevens Point Journal, the young demonstrators held up signs reading "Be Wise, Legalize," and "Hemp Can Save the World" as passing motorists honked in support.

"People should be able to choose what goes in their body," said Ben Eisner, 18. "Caffeine has more deaths per year than marijuana," he told the newspaper. Legalization would promote healthier user habits, he said. "With legalization comes responsibility," Eisner said.

"I think it should be used the same way alcohol is used," said Eryn Edelbeck, 17, adding that abuse of alcohol is more damaging to long-term health than marijuana.

And support is broad -- one of the demonstrators, Eleni Schuler, 16, said she has never even used marijuana herself. "I just support the idea," she said.

With their friends and colleagues facing possible long years in prison, the group is vowing to return every week to draw local support, "possibly with the goal of starting a chapter of NORML…" Add another handful to the ranks of the reformers. And with every small town bust, another handful.

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Australia: NSW Greens' Call to Decriminalize Drug Possession Causes Pre-Election Stir

Drug policy is becoming a major campaign issue in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales (NSW). With an ongoing, highly publicized "epidemic" of methamphetamine use under way and elections now less than 10 days away, the NSW Green Party is calling for the decriminalization of drug possession -- even the dreaded ice, as meth is commonly referred to Down Under -- and Liberal and Labor party foes are attacking them for it.

Although Greens hold only a handful of seats in the state parliament, by throwing their support to the governing Labor Party in some key districts, they could end up holding the balance of power in the Upper House. The NSW Greens' leading Upper House candidate, Lee Rhiannon, has been the party's main spokesperson in the increasingly nasty exchanges over drug policy.

The Greens' position on the decriminalization of drug possession is not ad hoc. It reflects the party's formal platform on drug policy, adopted last October after extensive consultations with party members. The platform also calls for the stronger embrace of harm reduction measures and the decriminalization of marijuana growing for personal use.

While the Greens' drug platform is not new, Rhiannon's public reiteration of it Monday ignited a firestorm of criticism and mischaracterization. The Daily Telegraph blurted to its readers that the Greens were "effectively saying that ice junkies should be free to buy as much of the deadly substance as they want." The Daily Telegraph also described the Green position that decriminalizing drug possession was less dangerous than prohibition as "a bizarre defense."

Liberal leader Peter Debnam was also caustic, writing in his blog: "Any Member of Parliament who thinks we should decriminalize drugs, including 'Ice', should take a good hard look at themselves, do the community a favour, and resign" and "This drug is death to young people and it is undermining a whole generation."

While Debnam accused the Greens and the Labor Party of cooking up some sort of "ice deal," there was little sign of that from Labor Premier Morris Iemma. He responded to the Green drug platform by saying: "It is just an absurd, ridiculous and disgusting policy." Any MP who supported such a policy was "completely out of touch with reality," he said.

Just to make things perfectly clear, Labor Party secretary Mark Arbib added that while Labor was willing to cut an electoral deal with the Greens, it does not endorse Green drug policy. "There will be no watering down of the (Labor) party's tough drug laws or positions on other social issues," he said.

But the Greens are fighting back, against both the political attacks and the yellow journalism. "The allegation in today's Daily Telegraph that the Greens policy would allow people to buy unlimited amounts of the deadly drug 'ice' is totally false," Rhiannon said in a Tuesday statement. "The Greens policy does not support unlimited supply of any drug, least of all crystal methamphetamine. This attack on the Greens is an election scare tactic which will distract from the urgent task of protecting young people from ice. The Greens do not support drug use and our policy does not condone people using the new drug known as ice."

Rhiannon also went after Premier Iemma for both failure and hypocrisy. "The Iemma government has failed to deal with the increased use of ice," she said. "The use of crystal methamphetamine has increased during the term of the Iemma/Carr government. There are now more than 17,700 regular methamphetamine users and 14,700 dependent methamphetamine users in Sydney and the number is growing rapidly," she noted.

"The drug policies of the Labor government are failing to deal with the epidemic," Rhiannon continued. "What is needed are prevention initiatives that educate the target populations to the dangers of using the drug and effective and accessible treatment programs for dependent and addicted users."

In fact, as the Greens noted in a Wednesday press release, Labor actually quietly supports many Green harm reduction notions and treatment and diversion programs for meth users. "The Premier is quick to put the boot into the Greens for our approach to ice. But the reality is Labor has instituted innovative ice programs, based on the harm minimization principles advocated by the Greens," Rhiannon said.

Among those programs is a stimulant treatment program at two hospitals, the safe injection room at Kings Cross, and the "MERIT" program that diverts meth users into treatment instead of jail. "If we really want to make NSW ice free, these programs need to be expanded and receive a massive increase in funding," said Rhiannon. "Premier Iemma should shout these initiatives from the rooftops instead of hiding behind his tough "law and order" policies. It appears that he is more concerned about a political backlash. To successfully eradicate ice politicians must be willing to take action that may be at first unpopular. Without brave policy from government, ice will continue to wreak havoc in our society."

Perhaps Debnam, Arbib and Iemma should listen to prominent Australian physician Dr. Alex Wodak's interview last year with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Among Wodak's quotes of note: "Prohibition didn't work in America in the 1920s and it won't work now."

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Weekly: This Week in History

March 18, 1839: Lin Tse-Hsu, the imperial Chinese commissioner in charge of suppressing the opium traffic, orders all foreign traders to surrender their opium. In response, the British send expeditionary warships to the coast of China, initiating the First Opium War.

March 22, 1972: The Richard Nixon-appointed, 13-member National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommends the decriminalization of marijuana, concluding, "Marihuana's relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it."

March 19, 1983: Best known for her role in Just Say No, First Lady Nancy Reagan appears on the NBC sitcom Different Strokes, declaring: "Let me tell you a true story about a boy we'll call Charlie. He was only 14 and he was burned out on marijuana… One day, when his little sister wouldn't steal some money for him to go and buy some more drugs, he brutally beat her. The real truth is there's no such thing as soft drugs and hard drugs. All drugs are dumb... Don't end up another Charlie."

March 17, 1999: A report by the Institute of Medicine for the Office of National Drug Control Policy states that "there is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs" and "scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic values of cannabinoid drugs for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation."

March 16, 2000: Patrick Dorismond, an unarmed security guard, is shot and killed by undercover New York City police officers who had unsuccessfully tried to sell him marijuana in a "buy-and-bust" operation. [The shooting was the third time in 13 months that New York City police officers dressed in plainclothes shot and killed an unarmed black man. Under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, marijuana arrests rose from 720 in 1992, to 59,945 in the first eleven months of 2000.]

March 19, 2001: Mexican President Vicente Fox is quoted in the Associated Press: "[T]he day that the alternative of freeing the consumption of drugs from punishment comes, it will have to be done in the entire world because we are not going to win anything if Mexico does it, but the production and traffic of the drugs... to the United States continues. Thus, humanity will one day view it [legalization] as the best in this sense."

March 20, 2002: Reuters reports that British scientists found that motorists who smoke a cannabis joint retain more control behind the wheel than those who drink a glass of wine. Research from Britain's Transport Research Laboratory showed drivers found it harder to maintain constant speed and road position after drinking the equivalent of a glass of wine than after smoking a "spliff."

March 21, 2003: President Bush announces his intention to nominate Karen P. Tandy to be the Drug Enforcement Administration's new administrator. Tandy served in the Department of Justice (DOJ) as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. She also previously served in DOJ as Chief of Litigation in the Asset Forfeiture Office and as Deputy Chief for Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Earlier in her career, she prosecuted drug, money laundering, and forfeiture cases as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and in the Western District of Washington.

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Announcement: DRCNet Content Syndication Feeds Now Available for YOUR Web Site!

Are you a fan of DRCNet, and do you have a web site you'd like to use to spread the word more forcefully than a single link to our site can achieve? We are pleased to announce that DRCNet content syndication feeds are now available. Whether your readers' interest is in-depth reporting as in Drug War Chronicle, the ongoing commentary in our blogs, or info on specific drug war subtopics, we are now able to provide customizable code for you to paste into appropriate spots on your blog or web site to run automatically updating links to DRCNet educational content.

For example, if you're a big fan of Drug War Chronicle and you think your readers would benefit from it, you can have the latest issue's headlines, or a portion of them, automatically show up and refresh when each new issue comes out.

If your site is devoted to marijuana policy, you can run our topical archive, featuring links to every item we post to our site about marijuana -- Chronicle articles, blog posts, event listings, outside news links, more. The same for harm reduction, asset forfeiture, drug trade violence, needle exchange programs, Canada, ballot initiatives, roughly a hundred different topics we are now tracking on an ongoing basis. (Visit the Chronicle main page, right-hand column, to see the complete current list.)

If you're especially into our new Speakeasy blog section, new content coming out every day dealing with all the issues, you can run links to those posts or to subsections of the Speakeasy.

Click here to view a sample of what is available -- please note that the length, the look and other details of how it will appear on your site can be customized to match your needs and preferences.

Please also note that we will be happy to make additional permutations of our content available to you upon request (though we cannot promise immediate fulfillment of such requests as the timing will in many cases depend on the availability of our web site designer). Visit our Site Map page to see what is currently available -- any RSS feed made available there is also available as a javascript feed for your web site (along with the Chronicle feed which is not showing up yet but which you can find on the feeds page linked above). Feel free to try out our automatic feed generator, online here.

Contact us for assistance or to let us know what you are running and where. And thank you in advance for your support.

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Announcement: DRCNet RSS Feeds Now Available

RSS feeds are the wave of the future -- and DRCNet now offers them! The latest Drug War Chronicle issue is now available using RSS at http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/feed online.

We have many other RSS feeds available as well, following about a hundred different drug policy subtopics that we began tracking since the relaunch of our web site this summer -- indexing not only Drug War Chronicle articles but also Speakeasy blog posts, event listings, outside news links and more -- and for our daily blog postings and the different subtracks of them. Visit our Site Map page to peruse the full set.

Thank you for tuning in to DRCNet and drug policy reform!

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Job Listings: MPP, Minneapolis and DC

The Marijuana Policy Project has two new jobs available -- one located in Washington, DC, and the other in Minneapolis, MN.

The IT Director position is Washington, DC-based. The IT Director manages a four-person IT department, which oversees all of MPP's networking infrastructure, Web development, and data management. MPP is a heavily Apple-based organization, so extensive experience with Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server is essential. Candidates should be comfortable working in both the graphical user environment and at the command line level, as well as generally familiar with and comfortable using UNIX or Linux and Microsoft Windows XP. Experience managing Linux/UNIX servers and/or experience with Windows-based networking is a plus. The position also requires an ease with juggling multiple projects simultaneously and quickly, the ability to translate technical issues into plain English for non-technical staff, and a proven track record of successful project management in a deadline-driven environment.

The Campaigns Analyst position is Minnesota, MN-based. The Campaigns Analyst -- who is part of MPP's State Campaigns department -- assists with legal research in all areas of state and local ballot initiative law, including signature gathering requirements, campaign finance laws, attorneys general opinions, case law, and municipal codes; files all campaign finance reports; ensures that MPP's campaigns and initiatives comply with all relevant laws; advises MPP grantees and others who are running their own local marijuana-related ballot initiative campaigns; and acts as the first point of contact and manages the day-to-day activities for activists who are on the ground in each of MPP's campaign states/locales. A strong preference will be given to candidates who are lawyers, although we will consider other candidates as well.

For both positions, please visit http://www.mpp.org/jobs for full job descriptions, salary information, and instructions on how to apply.

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Job Listing: Syringe Exchange, Harm Reduction Coalition, California

The Syringe Exchange Program Specialist will be responsive to the technical assistance and training needs of California Syringe Exchange Programs and Local Health Jurisdictions. Candidates must possess organizational skills, training and technical assistance expertise and hands on experience with community-based syringe access. Experience with community organizing and familiarity with local service providers and communities preferred. The salary range is $43,000-$46,000 per year.

Responsibilities include coordinating activities related to syringe access as well as intake of training and technical requests, responding to training and technical assistance requests within 48 hours, coordinating individual level plan for syringe exchange programs in need, providing technical assistance on implementation strategies, developing regional, individual and group trainings, maintaining relationships with consultants and contract consultants on an "as needed" basis, attending staff and program meetings, working in tandem with HRC's other projects to organize and consolidate materials, publications, curricula, and fact sheets, and additional duties as required.

Ideal candidates are highly organized, independent thinkers with capacity to operationalize systems and streamline information through several projects. HRC values candidates with a strong work ethic, common sense, humor, and a commitment to human rights and social justice issues.

Please e-mail your resume and cover letter to [email protected] or fax to (510) 444-6977. No phone calls please. HRC is hiring immediately, so please act quickly if you are interested in the position.

People of color, formerly incarcerated people, and people with histories of substance use are encouraged to apply. HRC is EOE and offers a competitive salary with decent health benefits.

Background:

The Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC) promotes the health and human rights of people who use drugs by advocating for effective policy responses to fight HIV, hepatitis C, overdose deaths, and drug addiction. Since its inception in 1994, HRC has grown from a small group of syringe exchange activists concerned about preventing HIV, into the leader of a rapidly growing grassroots movement, shaping current public health and drug policy toward practical, compassionate harm reduction interventions. HRC provides technical assistance, training, and capacity building to support existing syringe exchange programs, health departments and community-based organizations in California. The goal is to expand syringe access in rural and urban areas.

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Announcement: New Format for the Reformer's Calendar

With the launch of our new web site, The Reformer's Calendar no longer appears as part of the Drug War Chronicle newsletter but is instead maintained as a section of our new web site:

• Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org each day and you'll see a listing of upcoming events in the page's righthand column with the number of days remaining until the next several events coming up and a link to more.

• Check our new online calendar section at to view all of them by month, week or a range of different views.
• We request and invite you to submit your event listings directly on our web site. Note that our new system allows you to post not only a short description as we currently do, but also the entire text of your announcement.

The Reformer's Calendar publishes events large and small of interest to drug policy reformers around the world. Whether it's a major international conference, a demonstration bringing together people from around the region or a forum at the local college, we want to know so we can let others know, too.

But we need your help to keep the calendar current, so please make sure to contact us and don't assume that we already know about the event or that we'll hear about it from someone else, because that doesn't always happen.

We look forward to apprising you of more new features on our web site as they become available.

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