Drug War Chronicle #493 - July 13, 2007

Feature: Medical Marijuana -- A Progress Report

A little more than a decade after California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, making it the first state to approve the use of medical marijuana, the movement continues its slow spread across the country. Now, medical marijuana is legal in 12 states (with varying degrees of protection), and roughly 50 million people -- or about one out of six Americans -- live in those states.

On the Pacific Coast, medical marijuana is legal from the Canadian border to the Mexican border (Washington, Oregon, California), as well as in Alaska and Hawaii. In the intermountain West, Colorado, Montana, and Nevada were joined this year by New Mexico as states where medical marijuana is legal. The other regional medical marijuana hotbed is the Northeast, where Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont allow its use, and only a veto from Republican Gov. Jodi Rell kept Connecticut from joining those ranks this year.

While it may be a bit of an exaggeration to speak of a pincer movement aimed at the heartland, medical marijuana is on the move. In addition to the 12 states where it is legal, a number of other states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York have seen progress in state legislatures and are inching closer to approving medical marijuana. Meanwhile, a medical marijuana initiative is getting underway in Michigan, and activists are eyeing similar initiative campaigns in a handful of other states.

But at the same time, the federal government remains staunchly opposed to medical marijuana. The Justice Department and the DEA continue to harass patients and providers, especially in California, where a loosely-written Prop. 215 has led to the most wide-open medical marijuana scene in the country. While the DEA, sometimes working with recalcitrant state and local law enforcement officials, has been raiding dispensaries for years, this week the agency unveiled a new tactic against them: It sent letters to dozens of Los Angeles area landlords who rent to dispensaries, threatening them with civil forfeiture and possible criminal action if they continue to rent to what the DEA considers criminal drug trafficking organizations.

Similarly, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) regularly sends out its shock troops to attempt to defeat medical marijuana legislation and initiatives at the state level. The DEA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) all attempt to block independent research on the therapeutic uses of cannabis and throw whatever obstacles they can imagine in the path of medical marijuana.

But the federal government is under attack by medical marijuana advocates coming from several different angles. In Congress, the most significant piece of medical marijuana-related legislation is the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would bar the use of federal funds to persecute patients and providers in states where it is legal. Hearings and a vote in the House on Hinchey-Rohrabacher are expected in the next week or two. While approval appears unlikely this year, supporters, including the group spearheading the effort, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), expect to pick up votes and edge ever closer to the needed majority.

In the meantime, there are three legal challenges to the federal hard line on medical marijuana:

• Aided by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project, University of Massachusetts-Amherst researcher Dr. Lyle Craker is suing the DEA in an attempt to break the government monopoly on the production of medical marijuana for research purposes. In February, a DEA administrative law judge ruled that Craker's request would be "in the public interest." The DEA is appealing that ruling.
• Apparently acting on the notion that the best defense is a good offense, the medical marijuana defense organization Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is suing HHS and the FDA over their position that "marijuana has no accepted medical value." Using the little-known Data Quality Act, which mandates that federal agencies set policies on the basis of sound science, ASA filed suit in February after two years of fruitless petitioning at the agencies. Yesterday, a federal judge heard arguments in a government motion to dismiss the case. An ASA motion for summary judgment will be heard next month.
• A 2002 petition to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III, IV, or V drug, filed by marijuana scholar and activist Jonathan Gettman that has been languishing for years awaits a government response this month. Current federal law considers marijuana a Schedule I drug with no accepted medical value.

Clearly, the medical marijuana movement is trying to advance on many fronts, and while the disparate groups that make up the movement may be on the same page, they aren't always reading the same paragraphs. With a movement that includes groups like MPP, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which seek an end to marijuana prohibition outright, and groups like the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), which seeks broader drug policy reform, as well as organizations like ASA and Patients Out of Time (POT), which focus exclusively on medical marijuana, it is little surprise that while there is broad strategic agreement, there are tactical differences.

Groups differ on the utility of acting at the state versus the federal level, over whether initiatives or legislative action is preferable, and over who should be the public face of the movement, among other issues. For some, even winning more victories at the state level is not as important as changing the parameters of the debate.

For MPP, which is hard at work in the states as well as on Capitol Hill, meaningful change will result from continuing to hammer away at the federal level, said Dan Bernath, MPP assistant director of communications. "There will probably be a vote on Hinchey-Rohrabacher within a week or two, and we think we will pick up at least 20 votes," he said.

But with the amendment having garnered 163 votes last year, an additional couple of dozen votes would still leave it well short of the 218 votes needed to ensure passage in the House. "It is not likely to happen this year," Bernath conceded, "but it is important that we continue to build momentum for the future. The safer it looks for politicians, the easier it is for them to vote for it."

While passage of Hinchey-Rohrabacher would not change the federal marijuana laws, it would effectively protect patients, Bernath said. "If the Department of Justice loses funding to go after medical marijuana in the states, that would be 100% protection for patients."

ASA, while supporting Hinchey-Rohrabacher, was quick to point out that the protection provided by Hinchey-Rohrabacher would only apply to patients in states where medical marijuana is legal. "Hinchey has been something for certain drug reform organizations and proponents to rally around to help turn the tide on medical marijuana," said ASA spokesman Kris Hermes, "but it is certainly not the be all and end all. It would unfortunately only protect patients and providers in those 12 states, but does little to address the concerns of doctors, patients, and caregivers in the rest of the country."

More promising for ASA, Hermes said, are the federal lawsuits. "The ruling by the DEA judge in the Craker case certainly adds to the growing chorus in support of doing further research on the subject," he argued. "And if we can win our case against HHS and the FDA, that would only build pressure on the government's position that marijuana has no medicinal value."

Some patient-oriented groups would rather concentrate on medium-term movement-building than short-term political victories. "While we accept the strategy of most people working within the movement, which is to change the law and get the patients their medicine, we don't always agree with the tactics," said Al Byrne, spokesman for Patients Out of Time, which has concentrated on educating the public and especially the medical profession about medical marijuana. "We need to let educators lead the movement into the future, not lobbyists, lawyers, and legislators," he argued. "Picking up the states one by one is worthwhile, but after a while it's sort of redundant. We don't think we will see real meaningful change until the medical community accepts marijuana as medicine."

Patients Out of Time has for the past several years worked to bring the medical community on board through its series of conferences on cannabis therapeutics, which bring together scientists, researchers, and medical professionals from around the country and the world to discuss the latest advances. POT's Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics is set for next April in California.

Winning more medical marijuana victories at the state level is not redundant for MPP. To get change at the federal level will require more states getting aboard the medical marijuana bandwagon, said Bernath. "The way change will happen is that when enough states adopt their own medical marijuana laws, the federal government will no longer be able to ignore this."

To that end, MPP will continue to push for passage of state medical marijuana laws, sometimes through the initiative and referendum process and sometimes through the legislative process. In Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York, medical marijuana legislation got some traction this year. "We can pick up next year where we left off," said Bernath.

DPA executive director Ethan Nadelmann, whose organization is working on medical marijuana bills legislation in Connecticut and New Jersey, was quick to add those states to the list. DPA sees more bang for the buck in legislative efforts than initiatives, he said. "Legislative campaigns cost money, but not as much as ballot initiatives, and they have the advantage of generating enormous amounts of free media," he said. "Since a major part of the medical marijuana effort is about public education, the more hearings you have and the more media they generate, the better."

Bernath also pointed to MPP involvement in a Michigan medical marijuana initiative campaign that is just getting underway and suggested there may be more initiatives in other states. "The polls are looking pretty good in Arizona, Idaho, and Ohio," he said.

"This is where MPP and DPA have a slightly different philosophy," said Nadelmann. "I hope the Michigan initiative wins, and it would be helpful if it did, but as a matter of resource allocation, I'm skeptical about the value added of spending all that money to win one more state. But that's a judgment call," he added.

NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre drew a distinction between states that accepted medical marijuana through the initiative process and those that accepted it through the legislative process. "The initiatives covered a greater number of stakeholders and are more functional than the ensuing laws, which are very narrow in scope, serve fewer stakeholders, and haven't changed the federal dynamic of those states' representation in Washington," he argued. "If you look at who is supporting Hinchey-Rohrabacher, it is the delegations from the Western and Rocky Mountain states where support is strongest -- the states where medical marijuana came about through the initiative process."

On the other hand, St. Pierre acknowledged, states that have legalized medical marijuana through the legislative process have fewer problems with recalcitrant law enforcement. "In large parts of initiative states like California, Washington, and Oregon, the police simply ignore the law," he pointed out. "But when a medical marijuana bill goes through the legislature, law enforcement is part of the process. The police got to have their say. They lost, but at least they were sitting at the table."

Eleven years ago, no patients were protected by state medical marijuana laws. Now, some 50 million Americans live in states where they could be, and that's progress. But it also means that some 250 million Americans continue without the protection of state medical marijuana laws, and despite tentative advances in the South and the Midwest, today those areas remain without any such laws. In the last few years, progress has been made, but at a painfully slow pace. Perhaps that will change next year, with a number of states well into legislative consideration of medical marijuana bills.

And perhaps things will change at the federal level the year after that, especially if the Democrats extend and deepen their control of Congress. But at this juncture, the only likely federal changes will come if one of the lawsuits turns out victorious, and that means going back to the states and whittling away at medical marijuana prohibition one statehouse or one popular vote at a time.

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Drug War Chronicle Book Review: "High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It," by Joseph Califano (2007, Public Affairs Press, 270 pp., $26.95 HB)

There's an old saying that there's nothing worse than a reformed smoker, and Joe Califano is making a strong bid to be the mother of all reformed smokers. The former four-pack-a-day, chain-smoking Secretary of Health Education and Welfare in the Carter administration who helped orchestrate the country's first major anti-smoking campaign has since gone on to create the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), nominally at Columbia University, which for the past 15 years he has used as a base for lecturing the nation on the dangers of drug and alcohol use.

For Califano, it seems, there is no such thing as non-harmful drug use. Oh, he will, hidden far down in some paragraph deep in the middle of a chapter, admit that most teen smokers or drinkers don't become pot smokers or most pot smokers don't end up as heroin addicts, but such a tiny admission comes only after he has besieged the reader with a relentless barrage of factoids suggesting just the opposite. One gets the impression that if Joe Califano had his way, it would be a tee-totaling world.

"High Society" is both Califano's argument for a massive offensive to reduce substance use and his blueprint for how to get it done. As a self-appointed leading advocate for public health adept at getting public attention, he deserves to be read by people interested in drug law reform, not least because they will invariably encounter his ideas among those too often on the other side of the issue.

Importantly for drug reformers, Califano explicitly articulates what is perhaps the most serious obstacle to ending drug prohibition: The argument that drug use is immoral because it enslaves drug users and robs them of free will. While that argument is rarely articulated in policy circles, one gets the sense that it is percolating beneath the surface. How can you legalize drugs when drug use is just "wrong"? (Forget for now the inconstancy and hypocrisy of arguing that pot-smoking is "wrong" but beer-drinking isn't, or it's only "wrong" if you're an alcoholic.)

But Califano deserves attention too because although he is often wrongheaded, he isn't always wrongheaded. Yes, substance abuse is a serious social problem. Yes, alcohol and tobacco kill lots of people. Yes, we can't arrest or imprison our way out of the problem -- for certain. Yes, drug treatment is under-funded, under-studied, and too often little more than a money-making racket. He's spoken out against mandatory minimum drug sentencing and called for repeal of the Higher Education Act's infamous drug provision.

Unfortunately for the cause of scientific rigor (and science-based drug policy), Califano and his CASA caliphate have proven more adept at advocacy and press release-writing than statistics. Califano has been famously caught out distorting youth drinking figures and over-hyping college drug use figures. Just last week, he was on CNN falsely warning that prescription drug abuse could be more popular than marijuana among kids.

With its barrage of factoids disguised as argumentation, "High Society" suffers from some of the same flaws as Califano's and CASA's other work. Some of his factoids are just plain deceptive, as when he lumps the cost of enforcing the drug laws, which is a policy choice, in with the costs of substance abuse or when he notes the rapid increase in teenagers in drug treatment for marijuana without mentioning that a majority of them were sent there by courts or schools as a reflexive response to getting caught smoking pot. Some are simple truisms disguised as scientific breakthroughs. "Alcoholics are likely to abuse other drugs!" he exclaims. That's more exciting (and scary) than noting that people who like one drug might like other drugs too.

Califano uses his onslaught of statistical half-truths and deceptions to push for more prevention, more and better treatment, more law enforcement (and certainly not drug legalization!), and a general crusade against substance abuse. No one is going to argue against more drug prevention -- if it imparts accurate information and not just scare tactics -- or more access to better drug treatment -- as long as it is not coerced treatment. But while Califano criticizes programs like DARE as ineffective, his own work suggests a certain susceptibility to the propagandistic impulse. And he is certainly a proponent of forced treatment. He thinks we have too many people in jail for drugs, but while we have 'em, we might as well force drug treatment on them, parole them on the abstinence model, and throw them back in the clink if they fall off the wagon.

He would also like to see more marijuana arrests. In fact, he points to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's jihad against pot-smokers, when New York accounted for almost 10% of pot arrests nationwide, as a good model.

Califano deserves to be read by drug reformers because he is going to be widely read by well-meaning people with an interest in substance abuse. His exaggerations, distortions, and hyperbole will need to be countered. And, as I noted above, he isn't all wrong. Still, he and CASA are pernicious enough that if you're going to read "High Society," I encourage you to do so at the library or to order a used copy. Califano has vowed to turn all profits from the book over to CASA, and we don't want to encourage them.

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We Want Pardons: Petition to Save Bush's Legacy by Persuading Him to Pardon Thousands of Nonviolent Drug Offenders

(Please click here to send a copy of this petition in your own name to President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and your US Representative and Senators if you live in the US.)

Don't just pardon Scooter Libby and Thanksgiving turkeys, President Bush!

We, the undersigned, ask you to save your legacy by releasing thousands of nonviolent drug offenders from federal prison before you leave office. Short of taking such a measure, you will be doomed to go down in history as a hypocrite.

Unlike President Clinton, you cannot point to a record of mercy toward people caught in the criminal justice system. While the overall Clinton record in criminal justice was not lenient, he did commute the sentences of 63 people, most of them neither wealthy nor powerful, including 29 nonviolent drug offenders.

You, by contrast, commuted only three prisoners' sentences prior to helping Scooter Libby, one every two years. You have pardoned four times as many Thanksgiving turkeys as people you've released from prison.

Even worse, in 2003 your attorney general, John Ashcroft, issued guidelines requiring federal prosecutors to always seek the maximum possible amount of prison time for defendants, with only limited exceptions permitted.

The measure we've called for will undoubtedly be controversial, but you will have defenders from across the political spectrum. Advocates will assist your staff in finding appropriate cases -- reopening cases you've previously rejected would give the project a good head start. Clemency petitions will undoubtedly start to pour in once you put the word out. You can answer critics by saying we need to redirect our resources toward national security instead. And it will be consistent with the sympathy you've expressed in the past, based on your personal experiences, for people who have struggled with substance abuse.

In the nation that is the world's leading jailer, which incarcerates a far greater percentage of its population than any other nation yet calls itself "land of the free," the president who helps to reverse that pattern will ultimately be recognized for it. Indeed, the "tough-on-crime" laws that have led us to this situation were mainly enacted for political reasons. Please pardon or commute the sentences of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders; please rescind the aforementioned Ashcroft directive; renounce your support for the drug war (at least in its current form); and call on Congress to repeal mandatory minimum sentences and authorize downward revision of most federal sentencing guidelines.

You have a year and a half left to prove that justice is for everyone -- not just for your friends. Will you rise to the occasion? History is watching.

(Please click here to send a copy of this petition in your own name to President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and your US Representative and Senators if you live in the US.)

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Appeal: A Victory is In the Works, With Your Help

Years of work have brought DRCNet and our allies near to an historic victory in Congress. Since 1998 DRCNet has campaigned for repeal of an infamous law, authored by drug warrior congressman Mark Souder, that delays or denies federal financial aid to would-be students because of drug convictions. Last month a committee of the US Senate approved a bill that among other things would remove the "drug question" from the federal financial aid form -- not quite full repeal, but close -- the fight is not over yet, though, and we need your donations to help us finish the job.

DRCNet's most recent work to bring this about include organizing sign-on letters under the banner of the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform (CHEAR), including one sent to US Senators and signed by 120 organizations including many of the nation's largest advocacy groups. We founded CHEAR in 1999 -- a few months after the law was passed, but before it took effect -- and have built it up ever since -- just one part of the multi-faceted effort we've put in to bring things to this point. (Visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com to learn more.)

 

Your donations will enable us to lobby hard the next few months to protect this victory and to push to turn it into something even bigger -- full repeal of a federal drug law, something that hasn't happened in the US since 1970. And your donations will turn this already successful campaign into a larger one taking on more "collateral consequences" of the drug war -- mobilizing the groups we've worked with already to repeal similar bans in welfare and housing and voting law, to get sentencing laws changed and more. We've been "pounding the pavement" going to the places we need to be to find the partners we need for this expanded effort, and we need your donations to pay for staff hours to continue and to put those connections to work.

 

So please make a generous donation to DRCNet today, to support this campaign, and to help us take it into the next stage. Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/donate to make a donation online, or send your check or money order to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. Donations to Drug Reform Coordination Network to support our lobbying work are not tax-deductible. Tax-deductible donations to support our educational work can be made payable to DRCNet Foundation, same address. We can also accept contributions of stock -- email [email protected] for the necessary info. Thank you in advance for your support.

 

Sincerely,

 

David Borden, Executive Director

P.O. Box 18402

Washington, DC 20036

http://stopthedrugwar.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2002 press conference DRCNet organized for CHEAR, with ten members of Congress participating.

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Feedback: Do You Read Drug War Chronicle?

Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we'd like to hear from you. DRCNet needs two things:

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Again, please help us keep Drug War Chronicle alive at this important time! Click here to make a donation online, or send your check or money order to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. Make your check payable to DRCNet Foundation to make a tax-deductible donation for Drug War Chronicle -- remember if you select one of our member premium gifts that will reduce the portion of your donation that is tax-deductible -- or make a non-deductible donation for our lobbying work -- online or check payable to Drug Reform Coordination Network, same address. We can also accept contributions of stock -- email [email protected] for the necessary info.

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This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

The allure of Oxycontin (and its profits) snags two cops, a deputy can't keep his paws off the meth, and a South Carolina cop gets charged with drug dealing. Just another week in the drug war. Let's get to it:

In Louisville, Kentucky, a Lebanon Junction police sergeant was arrested June 25 on charges he planned to sell Oxycontin. Sgt. Daniel Carr, 33, and his girlfriend were both arrested by DEA agents on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute the popular narcotic pain reliever. Federal officials said the arrests came after a months-long investigation that resulted in several purchases of the drug from an informant, culminating with a final buy attempt that ended with the pair going to jail. Carr, a career law enforcement officer, was fired immediately upon arrest. He and his girlfriend face up to 20 years in federal prison.

In Newark, New Jersey, a former Newark narc was sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison June 26 for his role in an Oyxcontin distribution ring. John Fernandez, 37, pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiring to possess the drug with the intent to distribute. According to federal officials, Hernandez sold more than 3,000 of the pills between September 2004 and September 2005. His defense attorney said Hernandez got the pills legally for injuries suffered on the job, but was persuaded to sell them by another Newark police officer who has also been charged in the case, but has been cooperating with authorities. Hernandez must report to federal prison by July 23.

In Deming, New Mexico, a former Luna County sheriff's deputy got a year's probation for stealing methamphetamine from a motorist. Former Deputy Tommy Salas pleaded guilty June 25 to a misdemeanor count of attempted possession of meth after being arrested in July 2006 for taking the dope off a driver at a traffic stop, but failing to log it in. Salas, who had been on leave since his arrest, resigned his position July 2 as part of the plea agreement, with his attorney saying "he needs to move on."

In Lake City, South Carolina, a Lake City police officer was charged July 2 with drug trafficking and other offenses. Officer Shanita McKnight, 34, went down after an investigation by the FBI, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the Florence County Sheriff's Office. She is also charged with extortion, and faces from 10 years to life in prison on the drug counts. Little other information has been forthcoming.

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Medical Marijuana: Rudy Giuliani Just Says No

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani rejected medical marijuana when asked about it at a campaign stop Tuesday, saying its supporters really just want to legalize the weed. The comment was not a major surprise, given the former New York City mayor's previous pronouncements on the subject.

"I believe the effort to try and make marijuana available for medical uses is really a way to legalize it. There's no reason for it," Giuliani said during a town hall-style meeting at New Hampshire Technical Institute. He added that there was no need for it. "You can accomplish everything you want to accomplish with things other than marijuana, probably better. There are pain medications much superior to marijuana," he said.

According to Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana (GSMM), an advocacy group sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project that seeks to take advantage of New Hampshire's key role in the presidential primary process to get the candidates on the record on medical marijuana, Giuliani has never said anything favorable about medical marijuana. That would put him right beside the other first-tier Republican contenders, among whom only Sen. John McCain has made the most tepid remarks about "states' rights" when asked about the issue. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney simply starts talking about marijuana as a gateway drug when asked about it.

The Democratic field has been much friendlier to medical marijuana, with no candidate rejecting it outright and several going on the record saying they would end federal raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is on the record as strongly supporting medical marijuana, while former Sen. Mike Gravel simply wants to legalize drugs.

In the Republican pack, Rep. Ron Paul is a strong supporter, and, somewhat surprisingly, Rep. Tom Tancredo, mostly known for his anti-illegal immigration stance, has consistently voted for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would bar the use of federal funds to raid patients and providers.

For a look at all the candidates' positions and pronouncements, visit the GSMM voters' guide pages.

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The Drug Debate: American Mayors Urge "A New Bottom Line" and a Public Health Approach for Drug Policy

Meeting at its annual convention in Los Angeles late last month, the US Conference of Mayors passed an historic resolution putting America's chief elected municipal officials on record urging a fundamental rethinking of the country's drug policies. The mayors called for a public health approach to drug use and abuse and "a new bottom line" in assessing how and whether drug policies reduce harms associated with drugs and society's effort to deal with them.

The US Conference of Mayors represents more than 1,100 mayors of cities with a population over 30,000. The non-partisan group plays a significant role in advocating for and setting national urban policies. Resolutions passed at its conventions become official policy.

The drug policy resolution, "A New Bottom Line in Reducing the Harms of Substance Abuse," was introduced by long-time drug reform advocate Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City. It was adopted after debate at the convention.

After a long series of "whereases" in which the resolution recites a now-familiar litany of drug war failures and excesses -- the huge number of drug war prisoners, the lack of spending on drug treatment, the failure of expensive law enforcement programs to affect drug price and availability, differential racial impacts, the ineffectiveness of the drug czar's office, massive marijuana arrests in the face of rising violent crime -- the resolution gets down to business:

"The United States Conference of Mayors believes the war on drugs has failed and calls for a New Bottom Line in US drug policy, a public health approach that concentrates more fully on reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social problems of their own; establishes quantifiable, short- and long-term objectives for drug policy; saves taxpayer money; and holds state and federal agencies accountable," the mayors resolved. "US policy should not be measured solely on drug use levels or number of people imprisoned, but rather on the amount of drug-related harm reduced."

The mayors identified a number of specific policy objectives they supported, including:

• Provide greater access to drug abuse treatment on demand, such as methadone and other maintenance therapies;
• Eliminate the federal ban on funding sterile syringe access programs;
• Establish local overdose prevention policies; and
• Direct a greater percentage of drug-war funding toward evaluating the efficacy and accountability of current programs.

While the mayors did not explicitly call for an end to the drug prohibition regime or even for an end to imprisoning drug users, the resolution identified the large number of drug law offenders behind bars and the racial disparities created by drug law enforcement as examples of "drug-related harm."

"The mayors are clearly signaling the serious need for drug policy reform, an issue that ranks in importance among the most serious issues of the day," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.

The drug prohibition regime appears increasingly hollow and rotted from within. The resolution adopted last month by the US Conference of Mayors is one more indication that what once was fringe thought is now going mainstream.

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Marijuana: California Superior Court Upholds Santa Barbara's "Lowest Enforcement Priority" Law

A California Superior Court judge Tuesday rebuffed an effort by the city of Santa Barbara to undo the city's voter-mandated policy of making the enforcement of the laws against marijuana use the city's lowest law enforcement priority. Voters approved the law, known as Measure P, last November with more than 65% of the vote, but recalcitrant city officials sued local activist Heather Poet, the initiative's proponent of record, in a bid to get the measure overturned.

The city argued that the law should be overturned because it interfered with state and federal marijuana law enforcement, but Judge Thomas Anderle disagreed, dismissing the case. "Nothing in [Measure P] prohibits enforcement of state law... Police officers can still arrest those who violate drug possession laws in their presence. The voters have simply instructed them that they have higher priority work to do," he said in his ruling. "Santa Barbara is free to decline to enforce federal criminal statutes," he added. "Indeed, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from impressing 'into its service - and at no cost to itself - the police officers of the 50 states.'"

Judge Anderle also cited California's ban on SLAPP suits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation, which bars officials from suing individuals for their political activities. Although the city claimed in court filings that it sued Poet only because it needed someone to sue to challenge the law, Anderle found that the lawsuit arose from "her constitutional right to participate in the process of formulating laws" and thus violated the SLAPP suit law.

"Today's ruling is a major victory for the democratic process and a resounding affirmation of voters' right to de-prioritize marijuana enforcement," said Adam Wolf, an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project, which represented Poet in the proceedings and which filed the successful motion to dismiss. "The people of Santa Barbara would rather local law enforcement focus on combating serious crime than policing marijuana use. Today's ruling confirms that the voters can make this fundamentally local decision about their community's safety."

"It was terrifying to be sued by my own government, and for a fleeting moment it made me feel maybe I shouldn't have gotten involved in the democratic process," said Poet. "But this decision proves we do have a voice and we should never be afraid to use it. It also affirms that people in Santa Barbara, and throughout America, can protect their communities by having police focus on serious crime, rather than marijuana offenses."

Measure P makes "investigations, citations, arrests, property seizures, and prosecutions for adult marijuana offenses, where the marijuana was intended for adult personal use, the city of Santa Barbara's lowest law enforcement priority." At least six other California jurisdictions have enacted lowest law enforcement priority initiatives as part of a broader effort to end marijuana prohibition in the state.

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Drug Testing: Tennessee Supreme Court Holds Off-Duty Marijuana Use No Reason to Deny Workman's Comp Claim

The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a machine-shop worker whose fingers were smashed in an on-the-job accident could not be denied workman's compensation benefits for admitted off-the-job marijuana use. His employer had sought to deny his claim, arguing that he had violated the company's drug-free workplace policy and that his off-duty pot-smoking had impaired his reaction time, causing the injury.

The ruling came in Interstate Mechanical Contractors v. Billy McIntosh, in which McIntosh's left hand was caught in a power roller machine after a new employee he was teaching to operate it engaged the rollers while McIntosh was setting a piece of metal. McIntosh lost parts of his middle and index fingers. While hospitalized, he tested positive for marijuana and admitted smoking it the night before he was injured.

Tennessee's drug-free workplace law presumes that any injuries to an employee who tests positive for illicit drugs are caused by drug use, but the law also allows employees to enter evidence to rebut that assumption. McIntosh successfully did just that. Although a state medical toxicologist testified "that the level of THC in McIntosh's system at the time of the injury would have impaired his reaction time," both McIntosh's co-worker and his shop foreman testified that he did not appear impaired. The injury he suffered was caused not by pot-smoking but by an inexperienced employee, McIntosh argued.

The trial court agreed, the company appealed, and now the state Supreme Court has upheld the original verdict. "In this case, the undisputed evidence... was that there would be no time to react if a person had a hand next to a roller when it was engaged," Justice William M. Barker wrote in the opinion. "The rollers immediately grabbed McIntosh's hand. McIntosh had no time to react."

Mark this down as a victory for workers.

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Barry Beyerstein: We Have Lost One of the Best

(reprinted from The Trebach Report)

When I say one of the best, I mean that in every sense of those words. Barry, who just died at the young age of 60, was a superb scholar, teacher, social activist, and human being. He was wise, compassionate, and kind to everyone with whom he came in contact. I cannot remember in all of the years I knew him -- almost half of his life -- any action on his part that was not gentle and caring and very, very wise.

My condolences to his wife, Susie, and his children, daughter Lindsay and son Loren. Thanks to Ethan Nadelmann and Kevin Zeese for telling me about this sad but important news.

Here are my reflections, somewhat meandering but that is how I am feeling this morning -- that and traumatized and a bit pissed at the sometimes cruel vagaries of fate.

It has been easy to follow Lindsay's progress because she has become one of the new breed of internet experts or bloggers, affiliated with, I believe, Google. Why do I remember those years ago, when a much younger Lindsay intrigued a visiting scholar from France because the French she learned in school and in which she was fluent -- was, well, classical and a modern French person rarely heard it anymore? Barry and Susie chortled as they told me that story. I am sure I do not have it exactly correct and hope I will be straightened out soon.

I first met him and his wife, Susie, when they attended one of my comparative drug policy seminars in London at Imperial College. This must have been in the early 80s or late 70s. My memory is not the best but I recall quite well that Bruce Alexander was also at the seminar. At any rate, I can recall that we had great Canadian professionals in attendance and that we all stayed in student housing at Imperial in the heart of London, or close to the heart. It was a fine time and we kept in contact ever since. By then I am sure that I had completed my first monograph on drug policy, The Heroin Solution. It covered the comparative history of drug control in the US and the UK -- and of course the history of heroin. Soon I went to work on the next one, which dealt with the then-current situation in the US, with a bit of comparative info on Canada and also of course on Britain. I wanted to title it The War on Us. The frontispiece quote would be "We have met the Enemy and it is Us." I am sure Barry liked that idea. My publisher convinced me to title it The Great Drug War. Even today, I do not particularly like that title. The biggest point here is that I could count on Barry and also Bruce to react to every twist in my research and to read all of the manuscript. What dedication and what enormous help! I quoted Barry extensively in an important footnote in that book.

Barry and Bruce were quite helpful as I later went about the process of setting up the Drug Policy Foundation, with the constant close help of Kevin and my wife, Marjy. Both Barry and Bruce were on the Advisory Board and provided wonderful guidance.

My family considered Barry and Susie's family an extension of ours, even though we did not keep constantly in touch. When our middle son, Paul, married Joanne Hughes in Seattle, Barry and Susie were in attendance.

Barry's interests went far beyond drug policy and in more recent years he was heavily involved in the skeptical inquiry/paranormal arena. This is a field beyond my ken and I cannot talk sensibly about it. However, I will attach links to other comments on him and I plan to write more about him in the near future. I will also issue corrections when anyone sends in information contradicting my chancy memory.

In closing this rambling memoir I recall a note Steve Jobs just sent out to the effect that we are all going to die and while we are here we damned well better live our lives so that we do that which is closest to our hearts and our souls and to our personal sense of ethics. All that -- and I would say without fear. Of life or of death. I would also say that Barry did just that, all of it.

Arnold Trebach

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Web Scan

PBS report on Alex White Plume and the Lakota hemp case

High Times interview with Carl Olsen, discussing his recently filed federal lawsuit seeking legal protection for the religious of marijuana, conducted by Jon Gettman

summer 2007 issue of The SSDP Voice

July issue of Heroin Times

NPR report on lifting of DC needle exchange funding ban

"Hard Road Home," Tony Papa on Julio Medina and the Exodus Transitional Community

summer issue of the Cannabinoid Chronicles

LEAP web site relaunched

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Weekly: This Week in History

July 13, 1931: The "International Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs" is convened in Geneva.

July 18, 1956: The Narcotics Control Act/Daniel Act is passed, establishing mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders.

July 14, 1969: President Richard Nixon sends a message to Congress entitled "Special Message to the Congress on Control of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs." The message asks Congress to enact legislation to combat rising levels of drug use.

July 17, 1980: Financed by wealthy ranchers and drug lords under Roberto Suarez Gomez, the "Cocaine Generals" of the Bolivian "cocaine coup" seize power. Within months it is learned that Pierluigi Pagliai and Stefano Delle Chiaie were right-wing Propaganda Due (P-2) terrorists with suspected kills on three continents and Klaus Altmann was none other than fugitive Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons. Barbie, who had sent hundreds of Jews to their deaths, had avoided prosecution when Americans in occupied Germany recruited him as an informer in 1947 and engineered his escape.

July 17, 1984: The Drug War and Cold War collide when the Washington Times runs a story detailing DEA informant Barry Seal's successful infiltration of the Medellin cartel's operations in Panama. The story was leaked by Oliver North and purported to show the Nicaraguan Sandanistas' involvement in the drug trade. Ten days later, Carlos Lehder, Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa, and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha are indicted by a Miami Federal grand jury based on evidence obtained by Seal. In February 1986, Seal is assassinated in Baton Rouge, LA, by gunmen hired by the cartel.

July 13, 1995: The New York Times reports the FDA has concluded for the first time that nicotine is an addictive drug that should be regulated.

July 13, 1998: The Associated Press reports that US drug czar Barry McCaffrey has created a controversy in The Netherlands over his erroneous claim that "The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States," which he explained by saying "that's drugs." In actuality the Dutch homicide rate is less than one fourth the US rate. The Dutch ambassador responds, "I must say that I find the timing of your remarks -- six days before your planned visit to the Netherlands with a view to gaining first-hand knowledge about Dutch drugs policy and its results, rather astonishing."

July 15, 1998: ONDCP Director Barry McCaffrey visits Switzerland to meet with officials responsible for drug policy and to see the heroin distribution program firsthand. Drug Czar McCaffrey makes clear the administration's concern about this program, noting that while such policies may bring short-term benefits, the US thinks they will in the long run prove detrimental to the well-being of Swiss society.

July 17, 2001: Madison, Wisconsin's Mayor Sue Bauman speaks out about the drug war in her State of the City address. She says:

"As a city and as a society, we need to put more monies into prevention programs and thus fewer into policing and the criminal justice system... It is time that the nation, the state, the county and the City view drug and alcohol abuse as a public health problem. Unfortunately, the emphasis for years has been on a war on drugs -- an attempt to end drug usage and alcohol abuse by punishing the users/abusers. This is a failed strategy."

July 19, 2001: The Washington Post reports that a confidential informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration compromised dozens of prosecutions across the United States by falsely testifying under oath and concealing his own arrest record, but the DEA continued to employ him for 16 years despite detailed knowledge of his wrongdoing, according to interviews, court records and an internal report by the agency.

July 19, 2001: In conjunction with a two-day NIDA-directed Ecstasy conference, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), introduces the "Ecstasy Prevention Act of 2001." An initial analysis by the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) shows that this new bill, while giving lip-service to generating more scientific data about the health consequences of MDMA (Ecstasy), directs over 22 million dollars to increased law enforcement, media propaganda, and the creation of a new MDMA drug test.

July 16, 2003: Philippine President Gloria Arroyo orders weekly public burnings of illegal drugs seized by the police, as well as the publication of mug shots of arrested drug dealers. "Let us put a face and identity to these people and get the public involved in hunting them down," says Arroyo.

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Job Opportunity: Harm Reduction Coalition, Oakland

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 is preferred. 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.

This position is based in Oakland, CA and the salary range is $43,000-46,000.

Responsibilities include coordinating activities related to syringe access, intake of training and technical requests, and individual level plans for syringe exchange program in need; responding to training and technical assistance requests within 48 hours; 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.

To apply, please fax your resume and cover letter to (510) 444-6977. No phone calls please. Deadline for applications is July 21, 2007, 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.

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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Job Opportunities: Marijuana Policy Project, Washington

The Director of Federal Policies must be an outstanding and hands-on manager, have strong political instincts and solid political or government relations experience, and be able to persuasively promote MPP's policy goals.

The overarching goal of the position is to pass medical marijuana legislation in the US Congress, while preventing bad bills from being enacted. Specifically, the Director of Federal Policies' responsibilities are as follows:

• Overseeing and effectively managing MPP's direct lobbying efforts in Congress, which includes managing the Director of Government Relations, who is MPP's primary congressional lobbyist; and advising the Executive Director on legislative strategy, including tactics for moving bills forward and fighting bad bills.
• Overseeing the work of two or more MPP grantees who are working to build intra-district coalitions to pressure targeted US House members to vote for MPP's medical marijuana legislation on the House floor.
• Overseeing and effectively managing MPP's New Hampshire Campaign Manager, who is working to get all Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to take public, positive positions on medical marijuana access.
• Building relationships with "grasstops" figures among MPP's supporter base, and facilitating contacts between these grasstops and members of Congress.
• Managing MPP's "War on Drug Czar" campaign, which includes coordinating legal efforts against the White House drug czar's meddling in local- and state-level marijuana policy reform efforts.

Additionally, the Director of Federal Policies manages the workload for the four-person department (which also includes one full-time intern in addition to the employees mentioned above), writes content for MPP's web sites relating to federal legislation, and writes sample letters for e-mail subscribers to send to their members of Congress.

The Director of Federal Policies reports to the Executive Director.

In addition to a competitive salary, the position includes full health insurance and an optional retirement package.

The Web Developer position requires the ability to perform exceptionally in a fast-paced, high-pressure campaign environment -- and is an excellent opportunity for someone who is meticulous and hard-working to become immersed in the technology aspect of a successful and good-sized nonprofit advocacy organization.

The Web Developer's primary responsibility is to maintain MPP's presence on the web. This includes, but is not limited to planning, implementing, and maintaining MPP web sites (including setting up the sites on a server, working with MPP staff to design the front-end interface (including graphics and interactive elements), and integrating the sites with MPP's content management systems); general web site maintenance for mpp.org and all other MPP-related sites (using XHTML and CSS standards-compliant technology); researching, recommending, and implementing cutting-edge Web technologies to help MPP achieve its goals; monitoring and regularly reporting on Web activity for all MPP web sites to the Director of IT, Chief of Staff, and Executive Director; carrying out ad hoc projects as assigned in order to relieve department-wide workload; and occasionally providing back-up help-desk support for MPP's staff when other IT staffers are unavailable.

MPP is a heavily Apple-based organization, so extensive experience with Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server is a huge plus. Ideally, the candidate will be comfortable working with and supporting Mac OS X systems, servers and applications.

Familiarity with and experience developing web sites and applications using JavaScript (W3C DOM, not specific to any browser), PHP, Perl, Python, and other Web-enabled scripting and programming languages are a plus; candidates who can demonstrate skills in this area are strongly desired.

The salary of the Web Developer is $40,000 to $50,000, depending on experience. Health insurance and an optional retirement package are included.

The Web Developer reports to MPP's Director of Information Technology, who in turn reports to MPP's Executive Director.

To apply, visit http://www.mpp.org/jobs/process.html and follow the instructions there. Interviews are being conducted on a rolling basis, so interested individuals are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

With more than 21,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, MPP is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit its use -- and believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. MPP has 23 staffers in its DC office, three staffers in California, five in Minneapolis, and one in New Hampshire.

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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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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 right-hand 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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