The House of Representatives Wednesday defeated the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would have barred the use of federal funds to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal. Supporters gained only two votes over last year, sparking discussion about what comes next.
DEA agents raided 10 Los Angeles-area medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday, the same day the LA City Council sent it a letter asking it to butt out. The raids were met by angry protests and civil disobedience.
Detailed compilation and analysis of which members of Congress voted which way on the annual Hinchey/Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment to bar the Dept. of Justice from undermining state medical marijuana laws.
Long-time San Francisco drug policy, medical marijuana, and human rights activist Virginia Resner died in her home town last week. She will be missed.
Do snitches have the right not to be named? A Philadelphia grand jury has indicted two people on witness intimidation charges for posting flyers outing an informant.
ONDCP's 'Cocaine Shortage' Announcement is Pure Fiction," "Rumors of a DEA Blog Prompt Curiosity & Concern," "Even Anti-Meth Activists Oppose the Drug War," "Letter from a Would-Be Medical Marijuana Patient," more...
A Michigan narc is accused of making off with a whole bunch of blow, an Alabama juvenile probation officer is accused of snitching for the bad guys, a Massachusetts trooper takes a plea in pain pill ring, and a Missouri cop goes to prison for ripping off drug couriers.
While Republicans happily pursue their "tough on crime" politics of fear and Democrats can barely be bothered to vote to protect medical marijuana providers, the US Green Party is calling for radical reforms of the criminal justice system and "cancellation" of the drug war.
Last week, the British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced it would revisit the issue of rescheduling marijuana back to a more serious drug schedule. Since then, a total of nine of Brown's cabinet members have admitted to smoking the weed.
If you get caught smoking marijuana or snorting cocaine in Singapore, be prepared for forced drug treatment and a long prison term. Authorities there announced this week they will begin applying the sanctions used against hard drug addicts to pot smokers and coke heads as of August 1.
Nervous about upcoming national elections, the Australian Greens have retreated from their earlier stance in favor of regulated marijuana, and possibly, ecstasy sales. Now their drug policy platform leads off with a plank saying they oppose legalization.
There is grumbling from Dutch police that policies toward marijuana growers -- both small-time and commercial -- are too lax.
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
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The House of Representatives Wednesday night voted down the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment to the Justice-Commerce-Science appropriations bill. The amendment would have barred the Justice Department from using federal funds to target medical marijuana patients and providers in the 12 states where it is currently legal.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey addresses 2005 medical marijuana press conference as Montel Williams awaits his turn at the podium
The vote came only hours after DEA agents upped the ante in its battle against medical marijuana in California by raiding 10 dispensaries in the Los Angeles area. And it came only a few days after the DEA opened a new battlefront in its war by sending letters to dispensary landlords threatening them with seizure of their properties or even criminal charges if they continue to rent to dispensaries. (See feature story this issue
here).
The vote also came after spirited debate on the House floor. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) related an emotional story about a close friend, a Navy SEAL, who died of pancreatic cancer, but used medical marijuana in his final months to ease his suffering. (Rep. Cohen distributed an email Thursday linking to a YouTube copy of his speech.)
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a cosponsor of the amendment, hit a similar note talking about the cancer deaths of his mother and brother. "If marijuana would have helped them, it would have been a horrible thing to think that federal agents would have come in and interfered with that, if their doctor had recommended it," he said.
But Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) said medical marijuana was no more than a stalking horse for potheads. "Most people who want to use it want to get high," he said. Weldon also made the false and outrageous claim that marijuana "does cause cancer. I've seen it."
Rep. David McNerney (D-CA), a freshman member and the only member of the Bay Area congressional delegation to vote against the measure linked medical marijuana to the broader war on drugs. "We are facing a drug crisis with meth and other drug use on the rise. Until we get a handle on the crippling drug use in our society, I cannot support the relaxation of current drug policy,'' McNerney said in a statement after the vote. "I have spoken to many law enforcement officials concerned about the effect of drug use on our communities, particularly in San Joaquin County. The problem is real."
Freshmen Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) spoke in support of the amendment.
"Not only does this amendment hurt law enforcement's efforts to combat drug trafficking, but it sends the wrong message. Marijuana is the most widely abused drug in the United States,'' said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ).
The vote was 165-262, the largest "yes" vote in the five years the amendment has been offered. One hundred fifty Democrats and 15 Republicans voted for the measure, while 79 Democrats and 183 Republicans voted against it.
While supporters did not expect to win this year, they had hoped to gain 15 or 20 votes over last year's 164 "yes" votes. Instead, the gained was a disappointing two.
The amendment's cosponsor, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), while disappointed in his colleagues, said he was "encouraged" by the vote. "It is unconscionable to me that the federal government would seek to not only deny, but arrest and prosecute, medical marijuana patients who are using the drug in accordance with state law to relieve pain and nausea associated with debilitating illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis," Hinchey said shortly after the vote. "What we tried to do on the House floor tonight was protect those patients and their doctors from unfair and inhumane efforts by the federal government to deny them the medicine they need. I am pleased that the medical marijuana amendment received a record level of support in the House and will help build upon this new level of support next year."
"We continue to make progress, but we are disappointed that with the DEA terrorizing California patients even as the House debated, Congress chose not to act," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). "New studies continue to demonstrate marijuana's medical benefits, and public support is overwhelming, but many in Congress seem not to care how many patients suffer."
Opinion polls typically put nationwide support for medical marijuana in the 70% to 80% range.
With the number of "yes" votes nearly static, some drug reformers frustrated by the disconnect between Congress and public opinion on the issue are wondering if there isn't a better way. "I don't know that trying to shut off funding to law enforcement is the correct approach," said Dale Gieringer, who, as head of California NORML, is directly in the cross-fire, or at least the neighborhood. "If we want to change the medical marijuana law, we should change the law. But what I'm hearing from Congress is that members are waiting for a new administration to show some leadership."
"We're going to be doing some serious thinking about what we do next," said Bruce Mirken, MPP director of communications. "We really thought we would do better. Although the public supports this, many members of Congress treat it as if it were radioactive," he said.
"The question is: Is this the right legislative vehicle? If so, there's something we're missing," Mirken mused. "Is there a more effective way to educate members about how people in their districts feel? Is there a way of turning up the heat on Congress? We have lots of questions, but we can't pretend we have the answers at this point."
For Al Byrne, spokesman for the medical marijuana group Patients Out of Time, the answer is "yes," there is a more effective way, and that's for the activists to step aside and let the medical community take the lead. "Until this body of reform organizations can regroup and understand that it is our collective behavior as well as that of our opponents that influences politicians and the media, we will not make significant progress," he argued. "Send LEAP, MPP, DPA, and NORML out again to represent a medical issue and all we'll get is more of the same from Congress and the media. We need to elevate the discussion by letting the doctors and nurses who actually know what they're talking about speak. Then we may find a different outcome," he said.
"We definitely need more doctors and scientists educating people," said DPA director of national affairs and Washington lobbyist Bill Piper. "Clearly, some members and their staffs need to be educated, but there are a lot who are sympathetic, but afraid, so it's not just a matter of education, it's also about changing the political culture in a 'tough on crime' town. What we need is a multi-pronged approach combining education, lobbying, and grassroots work."
This year, amendment supporters started out in a hole, Piper said. "We lost about a dozen members who voted for it last year, but are no longer in office," he noted. "There are also two liberal districts with vacancies, and Nancy Pelosi didn't vote as Speaker of the House, so we started out down 15. What was surprising and disappointing is that this year we lost nine Democrats who voted for it last year."
The congressional class of 2006, the so-called New Democrats, were also a disappointment, Piper said. "We only got half of them. Many of them are from districts that were previously Republican, and that may have had them running scared," he said.
Still, said Piper, rethinking the utility of Hinchey is worth doing. "We've gained 20 votes in five years and we don't really want to wait another five years," he said. "Ultimately, the long-term objective is to change the law. It is worth rethinking what we're doing, but ultimately, a bill isn't going to go anywhere without political support."
That's right, said Paul Armentano, senior policy analyst for national NORML. "I understand people's frustration that this continues to fall well short of passage," he said. "But I also realize that if the members of Congress are unwilling to take this baby step, they are unlikely to support even more far-reaching measures. This vote shows that Congress is still cowardly on these issues; to think it would be ripe for broader drug reform seems almost like wishful thinking."
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In what appears to be the latest move in an ever-escalating campaign of attacks against California medical marijuana dispensaries, the DEA Wednesday raided 10 Los Angeles-area dispensaries, seizing marijuana, marijuana products, cash, and two guns. The raids came the same day the Los Angeles City Council introduced an ordinance to regulate dispensaries in the city and approved a resolution calling on federal authorities to quit prosecuting medical marijuana providers operating legally under California law.
local news coverage
The raids did not go unchallenged, either by local officials or by activists. When DEA agents raided the
Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers Group (LAPCG) on Santa Monica Boulevard, they were met by more than a hundred protestors, who blocked access to the building and surrounded DEA vehicles to prevent raiders taking away people at the dispensary. Five people were arrested in that incident.
A DEA spokesperson in Washington told the Chronicle five arrests were made during the raids, but it appears those arrests were of people engaging in civil disobedience to protest the raids -- not dispensary owners or employees.
"Some people were arrested for civil disobedience after barricading the facility itself because federal agents were detaining people inside," said Kris Hermes, communications director for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the medical marijuana defense group whose rapid response network brings out protestors in response to such raids. "We had at least a couple of hundred people very agitated by what the DEA was doing, and some of them decided to obstruct the agents. The DEA was prevented from being able to process those inside and therefore released them," he said.
City officials who that same day had introduced an ordinance calling for a moratorium on new dispensaries in the city while it drafts regulations governing their operation, but who also called on the DEA to quit prosecuting medical marijuana providers, also reacted angrily. City Councilman Dennis Zine, who authored the letter, called the agency "bullies" at a pre-scheduled news conference that took place as the raids were ongoing.
"I am greatly disturbed that the Drug Enforcement Administration would initiate an enforcement action against medical marijuana facilities in the city of Los Angeles during a news conference regarding City Council support of an interim control ordinance to regulate all facilities within the city," Zine said. "This action by the DEA is contrary to the vote of Californians who overwhelmingly voted to support medicinal marijuana use by those facing serious and life-threatening illnesses," he said. "The DEA needs to focus their attention and enforcement action on the illegal drug dealers who are terrorizing communities in Los Angeles."
Despite the angry protests of patients, activists and elected officials, the DEA was unmoved. "The DEA is required to enforce the Controlled Substances Act," replied tight-lipped spokesperson Rogene Waite when asked about the opposition the raids are engendering. "There has been no change in our policy," she said when asked if the raids signaled a new offensive.
But despite the DEA's protestations, a ramping up of DEA activity directed at dispensaries seems evident. Dozens of dispensaries have been raided this year, including 11 in Los Angeles in January. Hundreds of medical marijuana cases are now pending in the federal courts in California. Last week, the DEA and the Justice Department announced the indictments of four dispensary operators, two in the Los Angeles area, one in San Luis Obispo, and one in Bakersfield. And earlier this month, the DEA and the Justice Department unveiled a new tactic in their war on medical marijuana: Federal authorities in Los Angeles sent a letter to dozens of dispensary landlords warning them they faced seizure of their property or even criminal charges if they continued to rent to the dispensaries.
"The DEA appears to be intensifying its campaign against medical marijuana," said ASA's Hermes. "There are not only the increased raids here in Los Angeles, but also the threats to property owners who choose to rent to medical marijuana providers. This is tantamount to intimidation, and it's a last-ditch effort by the federal government to undermine the state's medical marijuana law."
"It is an escalation, and it's very frightening," said Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). "They can't stop medical marijuana's momentum because truth, common sense, and decency are on our side, but in the meantime they can cause a lot of suffering for a lot of people."
For California NORML head Dale Gieringer, the raids are like the final twitches of a dying dinosaur's tail. "It's a rear-guard action by the DEA," he said. "They went after the heart of responsible medical cannabis activism by going after the California Patients and Caregivers group. That's where people met to deal responsibly with the dispensary issue. This is a slap in the face to Los Angeles, and I think people there are going to end up being as angry as they already are in Northern California," he predicted.
Still, said Gieringer, the raids won't stop the dispensaries. "There are already 400 of them across the state, maybe more, who knows?" he said. "If the DEA is trying to wipe out the dispensaries, they are now several years too late."
The battle between the federal drug enforcers and the people, patients, and elected officials of California over medical marijuana continues. Congress could have taken the wind out of the DEA's sails by passing the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would have cut off federal funding for the raids, but it chose not to Wednesday night, just hours after the latest raids took place. That means, at least for now, it's up to the people of California to protect themselves.
Medical marijuana supporters and fellow activists will be taking steps to do just that on Friday. ASA has called for demonstrations against the raids to occur across the state Friday morning. Civil disobedience has already broken out on Santa Monica Boulevard. Maybe there will be more to come.
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(In addition to the information we published Wednesday night in the Speakeasy blog, we have now identified which members not voting on Hinchey last year are newly-elected vs. which ones simply didn't vote on it.)
The Hinchey results are in, losing by a vote of 165-262. This is only a very slight improvement over last year, when we lost 163-259. Here's a summary of the key stats:
- 165 members of Congress voted for the Hinchey medical marijuana amendment this year (150 of them Democrats), but 262 members of Congress voted against it. Ten members did not have votes recorded (plus Pelosi, for some technical reason as Speaker).
- 78 Democrats voted against the amendment, while 15 Republicans voted for it.
- Nine members who voted Yes on the amendment last year switched their votes to No this time (hiss), and three who voted No last year switched to Yes.
- 27 members of Congress who are either newly-elected or did not have a vote recorded on the Hinchey amendment last year, voted Yes, only one of them Republican.
- 45 members of Congress who are either newly-elected, or did not vote on the amendment last year, voted No, including 24 Democrats and 21 Republicans.
- Two members of Congress who voted Yes last year did not vote on the amendment this year, and seven members who voted No last year also didn't vote this year.
Following is a detailed compilation covering all the stats listed above:
165 members of Congress voted for the Hinchey medical marijuana amendment this year:
Abercrombie (D-HI)
Ackerman (D-NY)
Allen (D-ME)
Andrews (D-NJ)
Baird (D-WA)
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bartlett (R-MD)
Becerra (D-CA)
Berkley (D-NV)
Berman (D-CA)
Bishop (D-GA)
Bishop (D-NY)
Blumenauer (D-OR)
Brady (D-PA)
Broun (R-GA)
Campbell (R-CA)
Capps (D-CA)
Capuano (D-MA)
Carnahan (D-MO)
Carson (D-IN)
Christensen (D-VI)
Clay (D-MO)
Cleaver (D-MO)
Cohen (D-TN)
Conyers (D-MI)
Courtney (D-CT)
Crowley (D-NY)
Davis (D-CA)
Davis (D-IL)
DeFazio (D-OR)
DeGette (D-CO)
Delahunt (D-MA)
DeLauro (D-CT)
Doggett (D-TX)
Doyle (D-PA)
Ellison (D-MN)
Emanuel (D-IL)
Engel (D-NY)
Eshoo (D-CA)
Farr (D-CA)
Fattah (D-PA)
Filner (D-CA)
Flake (R-AZ)
Frank (D-MA)
Garrett (R-NJ)
Giffords (D-AZ)
Gilchrest (R-MD)
Gonzalez (D-TX)
Green, Al (D-TX)
Grijalva (D-AZ)
Gutierrez (D-IL)
Hare (D-IL)
Harman (D-CA)
Hastings (D-FL)
Higgins (D-NY)
Hinchey (D-NY)
Hirono (D-HI)
Hodes (D-NH)
Holt (D-NJ)
Honda (D-CA)
Hooley (D-OR)
Hoyer (D-MD)
Inslee (D-WA)
Israel (D-NY)
Jackson (D-IL)
Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
Johnson (D-GA)
Johnson (R-IL)
Johnson, E. B. (D-TX)
Jones (D-OH)
Kanjorski (D-PA)
Kaptur (D-OH)
Kennedy (D-RI)
Kildee (D-MI)
Kilpatrick (D-MI)
Kind (D-WI)
Kucinich (D-OH)
Langevin (D-RI)
Lantos (D-CA)
Larson (D-CT)
LaTourette (R-OH)
Lee (D-CA)
Lewis (D-GA)
Loebsack (D-IA)
Lofgren (D-CA)
Lowey (D-NY)
Maloney (D-NY)
Markey (D-MA)
Matsui (D-CA)
McCarthy (D-NY)
McCollum (D-MN)
McDermott (D-WA)
McGovern (D-MA)
McNulty (D-NY)
Melancon (D-LA)
Miller, George (D-CA)
Mitchell (D-AZ)
Moore (D-KS)
Moore (D-WI)
Moran (D-VA)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murtha (D-PA)
Nadler (D-NY)
Napolitano (D-CA)
Neal (D-MA)
Norton (D-DC)
Oberstar (D-MN)
Obey (D-WI)
Olver (D-MA)
Pallone (D-NJ)
Pascrell (D-NJ)
Pastor (D-AZ)
Paul (R-TX)
Payne (D-NJ)
Perlmutter (D-CO)
Peterson (D-MN)
Porter (R-NV)
Price (D-NC)
Rangel (D-NY)
Rehberg (R-MT)
Renzi (R-AZ)
Rodriguez (D-TX)
Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Rothman (D-NJ)
Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Royce (R-CA)
Ruppersberger (D-MD)
Rush (D-IL)
Ryan (D-OH)
Sanchez, Linda T. (D-CA)
Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schakowsky (D-IL)
Schiff (D-CA)
Scott (D-GA)
Scott (D-VA)
Serrano (D-NY)
Sestak (D-PA)
Shea-Porter (D-NH)
Sherman (D-CA)
Sires (D-NJ)
Slaughter (D-NY)
Solis (D-CA)
Sutton (D-OH)
Tancredo (R-CO)
Tauscher (D-CA)
Thompson (D-CA)
Tierney (D-MA)
Towns (D-NY)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Velazquez (D-NY)
Walz (D-MN)
Waters (D-CA)
Watson (D-CA)
Watt (D-NC)
Waxman (D-CA)
Weiner (D-NY)
Welch (D-VT)
Wexler (D-FL)
Woolsey (D-CA)
Wu (D-OR)
Wynn (D-MD)
Yarmuth (D-KY)
... but 262 members of Congress voted against it:
Aderholt (R-AL)
Akin (R-MO)
Alexander (R-LA)
Altmire (D-PA)
Arcuri (D-NY)
Baca (D-CA)
Bachmann (R-MN)
Baker (R-LA)
Barrett (R-SC)
Barrow (D-GA)
Barton (R-TX)
Bean (D-IL)
Berry (D-AR)
Biggert (R-IL)
Bilbray (R-CA)
Bilirakis (R-FL)
Bishop (R-UT)
Blackburn (R-TN)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boehner (R-OH)
Bonner (R-AL)
Bono (R-CA)
Boozman (R-AR)
Boren (D-OK)
Boswell (D-IA)
Boustany (R-LA)
Boyd (D-FL)
Boyda (D-KS)
Bradley (R-NH)
Brady (R-TX)
Braley (D-IA)
Brown (D-FL)
Brown (R-SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny (R-FL)
Buchanan (R-FL)
Burgess (R-TX)
Burton (R-IN)
Butterfield (D-NC)
Buyer (R-IN)
Calvert (R-CA)
Camp (R-MI)
Cannon (R-UT)
Cantor (R-VA)
Capito (R-WV)
Cardoza (D-CA)
Carney (D-PA)
Carter (R-TX)
Castle (R-DE)
Castor (D-FL)
Chabot (R-OH)
Chandler (D-KY)
Clyburn (D-SC)
Coble (R-NC)
Cole (R-OK)
Conaway (R-TX)
Cooper (D-TN)
Costa (D-CA)
Costello (D-IL)
Cramer (D-AL)
Crenshaw (R-FL)
Cuellar (D-TX)
Culberson (R-TX)
Cummings (D-MD)
Davis (D-AL)
Davis (D-TN)
Davis (R-KY)
Davis, David (R-TN)
Davis, Tom (R-VA)
Deal (R-GA)
Dent (R-PA)
Diaz-Balart, L. (R-FL)
Diaz-Balart, M. (R-FL)
Dicks (D-WA)
Dingell (D-MI)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Doolittle (R-CA)
Drake (R-VA)
Dreier (R-CA)
Duncan (R-TN)
Edwards (D-TX)
Ehlers (R-MI)
Ellsworth (D-IN)
Emerson (R-MO)
English (R-PA)
Etheridge (D-NC)
Everett (R-AL)
Faleomavaega (D-AS)
Fallin (R-OK)
Feeney (R-FL)
Ferguson (R-NJ)
Forbes (R-VA)
Fortenberry (R-NE)
Fortuno (R-PR)
Fossella (R-NY)
Foxx (R-NC)
Franks (R-AZ)
Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Gallegly (R-CA)
Gerlach (R-PA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Gillmor (R-OH)
Gingrey (R-GA)
Gohmert (R-TX)
Goode (R-VA)
Goodlatte (R-VA)
Gordon (D-TN)
Granger (R-TX)
Graves (R-MO)
Green, Gene (D-TX)
Hall (D-NY)
Hall (R-TX)
Hastert (R-IL)
Hastings (R-WA)
Hayes (R-NC)
Heller (R-NV)
Hensarling (R-TX)
Herger (R-CA)
Herseth (D-SD)
Hill (D-IN)
Hinojosa (D-TX)
Hobson (R-OH)
Hoekstra (R-MI)
Holden (D-PA)
Hulshof (R-MO)
Hunter (R-CA)
Inglis (R-SC)
Issa (R-CA)
Jefferson (D-LA)
Jindal (R-LA)
Johnson, Sam (R-TX)
Jones (R-NC)
Jordan (R-OH)
Kagen (D-WI)
Keller (R-FL)
King (R-IA)
King (R-NY)
Kingston (R-GA)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klein (D-FL)
Kline (R-MN)
Knollenberg (R-MI)
Kuhl (R-NY)
Lamborn (R-CO)
Lampson (D-TX)
Larsen (D-WA)
Latham (R-IA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lewis (R-CA)
Lewis (R-KY)
Linder (R-GA)
Lipinski (D-IL)
LoBiondo (R-NJ)
Lucas (R-OK)
Lungren (R-CA)
Lynch (D-MA)
Mack (R-FL)
Mahoney (D-FL)
Manzullo (R-IL)
Marchant (R-TX)
Matheson (D-UT)
McCarthy (R-CA)
McCaul (R-TX)
McCotter (R-MI)
McCrery (R-LA)
McHenry (R-NC)
McHugh (R-NY)
McIntyre (D-NC)
McKeon (R-CA)
McMorris (R-WA)
McNerney (D-CA)
Meek (D-FL)
Meeks (D-NY)
Mica (R-FL)
Miller (D-NC)
Miller (R-FL)
Miller (R-MI)
Miller, Gary (R-CA)
Mollohan (D-WV)
Moran (R-KS)
Murphy (R-PA)
Murphy, Patrick (D-PA)
Musgrave (R-CO)
Myrick (R-NC)
Neugebauer (R-TX)
Nunes (R-CA)
Ortiz (D-TX)
Pearce (R-NM)
Pence (R-IN)
Peterson (R-PA)
Petri (R-WI)
Pickering (R-MS)
Pitts (R-PA)
Platts (R-PA)
Poe (R-TX)
Pomeroy (D-ND)
Price (R-GA)
Pryce (R-OH)
Putnam (R-FL)
Radanovich (R-CA)
Rahall (D-WV)
Ramstad (R-MN)
Regula (R-OH)
Reichert (R-WA)
Reyes (D-TX)
Reynolds (R-NY)
Rogers (R-AL)
Rogers (R-KY)
Rogers (R-MI)
Roskam (R-IL)
Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Ross (D-AR)
Ryan (R-WI)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sali (R-ID)
Saxton (R-NJ)
Schmidt (R-OH)
Schwartz (D-PA)
Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Sessions (R-TX)
Shadegg (R-AZ)
Shays (R-CT)
Shimkus (R-IL)
Shuler (D-NC)
Shuster (R-PA)
Simpson (R-ID)
Skelton (D-MO)
Smith (D-WA)
Smith (R-NE)
Smith (R-NJ)
Smith (R-TX)
Snyder (D-AR)
Souder (R-IN)
Space (D-OH)
Spratt (D-SC)
Stearns (R-FL)
Stupak (D-MI)
Sullivan (R-OK)
Tanner (D-TN)
Taylor (D-MS)
Terry (R-NE)
Thompson (D-MS)
Thornberry (R-TX)
Tiahrt (R-KS)
Tiberi (R-OH)
Turner (R-OH)
Upton (R-MI)
Visclosky (D-IN)
Walberg (R-MI)
Walden (R-OR)
Walsh (R-NY)
Wamp (R-TN)
Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Weldon (R-FL)
Weller (R-IL)
Westmoreland (R-GA)
Whitfield (R-KY)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wilson (D-OH)
Wilson (R-NM)
Wilson (R-SC)
Wolf (R-VA)
Young (R-FL)
10 members did not have votes recorded (plus Pelosi, for some technical reason as Speaker):
Bachus (R-AL)
Boucher (D-VA)
Clarke (D-NY)
Cubin (R-WY)
Davis, Jo Ann (R-VA)
LaHood (R-IL)
Marshall (D-GA)
Michaud (D-ME)
Stark (D-CA)
Young (R-AK)
78 Democrats voted against the amendment:
Altmire (D-PA)
Arcuri (D-NY)
Baca (D-CA)
Barrow (D-GA)
Bean (D-IL)
Berry (D-AR)
Boren (D-OK)
Boswell (D-IA)
Boyd (D-FL)
Boyda (D-KS)
Braley (D-IA)
Brown (D-FL)
Butterfield (D-NC)
Cardoza (D-CA)
Carney (D-PA)
Castor (D-FL)
Chandler (D-KY)
Clyburn (D-SC)
Cooper (D-TN)
Costa (D-CA)
Costello (D-IL)
Cramer (D-AL)
Cuellar (D-TX)
Cummings (D-MD)
Davis (D-AL)
Davis (D-TN)
Dicks (D-WA)
Dingell (D-MI)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Edwards (D-TX)
Ellsworth (D-IN)
Etheridge (D-NC)
Faleomavaega (D-AS)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Gordon (D-TN)
Green, Gene (D-TX)
Hall (D-NY)
Herseth (D-SD)
Hill (D-IN)
Hinojosa (D-TX)
Holden (D-PA)
Jefferson (D-LA)
Kagen (D-WI)
Klein (D-FL)
Lampson (D-TX)
Larsen (D-WA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lipinski (D-IL)
Lynch (D-MA)
Mahoney (D-FL)
Matheson (D-UT)
McIntyre (D-NC)
McNerney (D-CA)
Meek (D-FL)
Meeks (D-NY)
Miller (D-NC)
Mollohan (D-WV)
Murphy, Patrick (D-PA)
Ortiz (D-TX)
Pomeroy (D-ND)
Rahall (D-WV)
Reyes (D-TX)
Ross (D-AR)
Salazar (D-CO)
Schwartz (D-PA)
Shuler (D-NC)
Skelton (D-MO)
Smith (D-WA)
Snyder (D-AR)
Space (D-OH)
Spratt (D-SC)
Stupak (D-MI)
Tanner (D-TN)
Taylor (D-MS)
Thompson (D-MS)
Visclosky (D-IN)
Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Wilson (D-OH)
... while 15 Republicans voted for it:
Bartlett (R-MD)
Broun (R-GA)
Campbell (R-CA)
Flake (R-AZ)
Garrett (R-NJ)
Gilchrest (R-MD)
Johnson (R-IL)
LaTourette (R-OH)
Paul (R-TX)
Porter (R-NV)
Rehberg (R-MT)
Renzi (R-AZ)
Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Royce (R-CA)
Tancredo (R-CO)
Nine members who voted Yes on the amendment last year switched their votes to No this time (hiss):
Brown (D-FL)
Burton (R-IN)
Butterfield (D-NC)
Clyburn (D-SC)
Dicks (D-WA)
Jefferson (D-LA)
Meeks (D-NY)
Smith (D-WA)
Thompson (D-MS)
... while three who voted No last year switched to Yes:
Emanuel (D-IL)
Peterson (D-MN)
Renzi (R-AZ)
There are 27 members of Congress who were either elected for the first time last November, or did not have a vote recorded on the Hinchey amendment last year, who voted Yes, only one of them Republican:
(Most are freshmen; the several marked with an asterisk were members of Congress last time but did not vote on the amendment.)
Broun (R-GA)
Christensen (D-VI)*
Cohen (D-TN)
Courtney (D-CT)
Ellison (D-MN)
Giffords (D-AZ)
Gonzalez (D-TX)*
Hare (D-IL)
Hirono (D-HI)
Hodes (D-NH)
Johnson (D-GA)
Kanjorski (D-PA)
Loebsack (D-IA)
Mitchell (D-AZ)
Murphy (D-CT)
Norton (D-DC)*
Perlmutter (D-CO)
Rodriguez (D-TX)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schakowsky (D-IL)*
Sestak (D-PA)
Shea-Porter (D-NH)
Sires (D-NJ)
Sutton (D-OH)
Walz (D-MN)
Welch (D-VT)
Yarmuth (D-KY)
45 members of Congress who are either newly-elected, or did not vote on the amendment last year, voted No, including 24 Democrats and 21 Republicans:
(Most are freshmen; the several marked with an asterisk were members of Congress last time but did not vote on the amendment.)
Altmire (D-PA)
Arcuri (D-NY)
Bachmann (R-MN)
Bilirakis (R-FL)
Boyda (D-KS)
Braley (D-IA)
Buchanan (R-FL)
Cannon (R-UT)
Carney (D-PA)
Castor (D-FL)
Davis, David (R-TN)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Ellsworth (D-IN)
Faleomavaega (D-AS)*
Fallin (R-OK)
Fortuno (R-PR)*
Gerlach (R-PA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hall (D-NY)
Hastert (R-IL)*
Heller (R-NV)
Hill (D-IN)
Holden (D-PA)
Johnson, Sam (R-TX)
Jordan (R-OH)
Kagen (D-WI)
Klein (D-FL)
Lamborn (R-CO)
Lampson (D-TX)
Mahoney (D-FL)
McCarthy (R-CA)
McNerney (D-CA)
Murphy, Patrick (D-PA)
Poe (R-TX)
Roskam (R-IL)
Sali (R-ID)
Shays (R-CT)*
Shuler (D-NC)
Smith (R-NE)
Souder (R-IN)*
Space (D-OH)
Stupak (D-MI)*
Taylor (D-MS)*
Walberg (R-MI)
Wilson (D-OH)
(At least two of these, Souder & Hastert, are known to be have always been strong opponents of medical marijuana.)
Two members of Congress who voted Yes last year did not vote on the amendment this year:
Michaud (D-ME)
Stark (D-CA)
... and seven members who voted No last year also didn't vote this year:
Bachus (R-AL)
Boucher (D-VA)
Cubin (R-WY)
Davis, Jo Ann (R-VA)
LaHood (R-IL)
Marshall (D-GA)
Young (R-AK)
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Long-time San Francisco drug policy, medical marijuana, and human rights activist Virginia Resner died July 18 in her home town following a lengthy struggle with breast cancer. She was 60 years old.
Virginia Resner (second from left) receiving Randall Award, with Nora Callahan, Randy Credico, Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad (courtesy hr95.org)
The daughter of a labor attorney, whom she credited with inspiring her activism and devotion to justice, Resner joined the drug reform cause in the early 1990s after being exposed first-hand to its ravages. One day in 1991, Resner came home from work to find federal agents searching her home for evidence to use against her companion, Steven Faulkner, who had been involved in a plan to sell drugs. Faulkner ended up with a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence as a first-time, nonviolent drug offender, and Resner's career as an activist was off and running.
Tormented by the plight of women and families torn apart by harsh drug war practices, Resner became the California state director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. In that position, she played a key role in the effort to obtain presidential clemency for Amy Pofahl, who had served nine years of a 24-year sentence for a drug trafficking offense. Pofahl was granted clemency by President Bill Clinton in 2000.
Resner also joined up with East Bay marijuana activists Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad in creating the traveling "Human Rights and the Drug War" exhibit, which featured photos of various drug war prisoners, their families, and information about their cases. That effort eventually produced a book, coauthored by Resner, Norris, and Conrad, "Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War."
Resner received the 2001 Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Drug Policy Alliance for her efforts on the book.
Most recently, Resner was president of Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, where she was intimately involved in the legal struggles of "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal. Despite her struggles with cancer, she managed to attend his court hearings and handle administrative items for his defense.
She will be missed.
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A federal grand jury in Philadelphia Tuesday indicted two people, an accused drug dealer and his girlfriend, for passing out flyers naming a confidential informant in his federal drug case as a snitch. No law protects informants from having their identities made public, but federal prosecutors pushed -- and succeeded -- in this case for an indictment on witness intimidation and conspiracy charges.
The information on the flyers came from the Who's A Rat? web site, which lists information on more than 4,300 informants and 400 undercover officers. US Attorney Patrick Meehan called the web site "the new enemy" of law enforcement and its snitches.
"It's a by-product of the stop-snitching culture that we should all find deeply disturbing," Meehan said at a news conference, and "has the potential to compromise countless prosecutions across the country."
Meehan conceded the web site is protected by the First Amendment, but decided to indict the pair anyway for trying to intimidate witnesses.
The two are Joseph Davis, currently serving a 17-year sentence for PCP trafficking, thanks in part to the informant targeted in the flyers, and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Adero Miwo. Davis and the informant were both indicted in the PCP case, and the informant, known as "D.S." turned state's evidence and testified against Davis.
Davis and Miwo allegedly then distributed flyers naming D.S. as a snitch on windshields, utility poles, and mailboxes in the West Philadelphia neighborhood where he lived. Relying on information posted on Who's A Rat, the pair produced flyers accusing him of informing and showing his photo, along with the following comment: "This guy is a drunk, and heavy weed smoker, and a recognized car thief among his peers. He is the one who needs to be taken off the streets," according to court documents.
Davis, who is already behind bars, faces up to another 10 years in prison, while Miwo faces up to three years.
Law enforcement authorities across the US have complained loudly that the "stop snitching" movement that has spread around the country is preventing them from solving crimes. Who's a Rat isn't helping, they complain.
Such web sites show a "profound lack of respect" for the legal system, complained JP Weis, head of the Philadelphia FBI office. "The warped message" on city streets, he said, "is that it's somehow worse to provide information about a crime than it is to actually commit a crime." And that, Weis said, is "mind-boggling."
Neither Weis nor Meehan addressed why there is a "profound lack of respect" for the legal system or what role the drug war, much of it built around coercing people into becoming informants, has to do with the situation.
Who's a Rat spokesman Chris Brown told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the web site posts public information submitted by others and is protected by the First Amendment. Brown said he "can't believe that someone got indicted for hanging a flyer" and that such publicity only "makes the site that much more popular."
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Along with our weekly in-depth Chronicle reporting, DRCNet has since late summer also been providing daily content in the way of blogging in the Stop the Drug War Speakeasy, as well as Latest News links (upper right-hand corner of most web pages), event listings (lower right-hand corner) and other info. Check out DRCNet every day to stay on top of the drug reform game!
Speakeasy photo, with flappers (courtesy arbizu.org)
This week:
Scott Morgan brings us "ONDCP's 'Cocaine Shortage' Announcement is Pure Fiction," "Rumors of a DEA Blog Prompt Curiosity & Concern" and "Even Anti-Meth Activists Oppose the Drug War."
David Borden does analysis of Wednesday night's medical marijuana vote, and prints a "Letter from a Would-Be Medical Marijuana Patient."
David Guard has been busy too, posting a plethora of press releases, action alerts, job listings and other interesting items reposted from many allied organizations around the world in our "In the Trenches" activist feed.
Join our Reader Blogs here.
Thanks for reading, and writing...
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A Michigan narc is accused of making off with a whole bunch of blow, an Alabama juvenile probation officer is accused of snitching for the bad guys, a Massachusetts trooper takes a plea in a pain pill ring, and a Missouri cop goes to prison for ripping off drug couriers. Let's get to it:
In Detroit, a Detroit narcotics officer was suspended July 19 for allegedly stealing 13.2 pounds (six kilograms) of uncut cocaine from the department's evidence room. Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings did not identify the officer, saying he had not yet been charged with a crime, but she did say he had access to the evidence room and was suspected of replacing the coke with another substance. The stolen dope was valued at $2.4 million, she added.
In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a juvenile court probation officer is accused of taking bribes in exchange for tip-offs on police activities. Fayette County Juvenile Court Probation Officer Denny Driver, 37, was charged with one count of bribery Tuesday. Officials were tight-lipped about what Driver allegedly told to whom, but he was arrested after an investigation by Fayette County Sheriff Rodney Ingle, Fayette Police Investigator Ronald Stough and Drug Task Force agent Mark Allison. Driver has now been fired and awaits an August 13 preliminary hearing.
In Worcester, Massachusetts, a state trooper pleaded not guilty July 19 to charges related to his role in an Oxycontin ring. Trooper Mark Lemieux, 49, a former member of the Bristol County District Attorney's Drug Task Force, is accused of conspiring with his ex-partner in the state police, his live-in girlfriend, and a hired gun to distribute the popular pain reliever from June 2006 to May 2007. He was a task force member from 2002 until December 2006. Lemieux and crew went down after a supplier they had contacted got busted and agreed to wear a wire. Charging documents say police have Lemieux twice picking up money from the dealer while in uniform and in an unmarked police car.
In St. Louis, a former suburban St. Louis police sergeant got four years in federal prison July 20 for his role in a cocaine conspiracy. Former Hillsdale Sgt. Christopher Cornell, 45, was indicted along with five other St. Louis-area men is what prosecutors called a conspiracy to distribute cocaine throughout the metropolitan area. Members of the group confessed to plotting to rip-off low-level drug runners by arranging for shipments to pass through Hillsdale, where Cornell would pull them over and take their drugs. He copped to one count of use of a communication device to facilitate a felony.
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While Republicans generally continue the "tough on crime" hard line that has served them so well for decades and Democrats can barely be bothered to vote against DEA raids on medical marijuana providers, the US Green Party is calling for radical reforms in the criminal justice system to slow the mass incarceration juggernaut and undo biases against blacks, Hispanics, and the poor.
Cliff Thornton on the campaign trail
Green leaders this week called the US's status as world leader in incarceration -- in both percentage terms and real numbers -- a "shame on America" and expressed alarm at the systematic racial bias in the American criminal justice system. While they used the case of the "
Jena Six" -- six black high school students from Jena, Louisiana, now charged with attempted murder for a schoolyard brawl in which no white students were charged -- as a hook, the Greens quickly honed in on the broader issues of criminal justice fairness and the drug war.
"The case of the Jena Six is emblematic of how people of color in the US face prosecution and sentencing," said Clifford Thornton, , Green candidate for governor of Connecticut in 2006 and cofounder of the drug reform group Efficacy. "The Jena Six prosecution is one of the more blatant and scandalous examples of how our justice system regularly criminalizes black and brown people -- especially children."
The Greens also cited a recent Sentencing Project study that found severe racial and ethnic disparities in how people are treated by the criminal justice system. The report found that blacks are imprisoned at a rate more than five times that of whites and Hispanics are imprisoned at a rate nearly double that of whites.
Green leaders listed several urgent measures to overhaul the justice system:
- Federal monitoring of prosecutorial practices and sentencing patterns in all jurisdictions where such disparities are evident, in accord with civil rights laws.
- Cancellation of the war on drugs, which Greens have called "a war on youth and people of color." The party notes that: "According to the DEA, FBI, Department of Justice, police agencies, and numerous public interest groups and researchers, 72% of all illegal drug users and most of those involved in the drug trade are white, while African-Americans make up only 13% of all illegal drug users and a tiny percentage of drug importers. Despite these numbers, the overwhelming percentage of those incarcerated for drugs are black."
- Abolition of the death penalty.
- Repeal of zero tolerance and mandatory sentencing statutes, which enlarge the power of prosecutors and erode judicial discretion.
- An end to abuses of the plea-bargaining system, which have resulted in the imprisonment of innocent people who lack the financial resources to defend themselves sufficiently in court.
- An end to the privatization of the prison system, which creates economic incentives to put more people behind bars, since corporate prison owners and contractors increase their profits when more cells are filled up. Greens have drawn links between privatized prisons and draconian drug laws, the targeting of poor people and people of color for prosecution, mandatory and severe sentencing, high death penalty rates in some states, and other policies.
Does your party have these platform planks? Why not?
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In the week since new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that his government will consider rescheduling marijuana from a Class C (less serious) to a Class B (more serious) drug, nine members of his cabinet have admitted smoking weed. The announcements are likely to both embarrass the Brown government and open it to charges of hypocrisy if it moves to make marijuana use, possession, and sale subject to harsher penalties.
Marijuana was down-scheduled to Class C in January 2004 under the Tony Blair government, but the move has been controversial from the beginning and is even more so today with much of the British media and political class seemingly in the grip of cannabis psychosis.
The Brown government has asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to investigate if marijuana is now so much stronger than before and the links between it and mental illness are so strong that it should be moved back to Class B. Less than two years ago, the ACMD investigated the same question and decided marijuana should stay where it was.
The cascade of dope-smoking admissions began in the middle of last week when Home Minister Jacqui Smith, whose office is in charge of the rescheduling review, admitted that she had smoked pot while an Oxford University student in the 1980s.
"I did break the law... I was wrong... drugs are wrong," she said in what is the now obligatory mea culpa and ritual abasement that must accompany any admission of drug use by prominent politicians. She did not say whether she thought she would have been better served by being hit with the harsher penalties once again facing marijuana users if the drug is rescheduled.
Smith was only the first of seven current cabinet members to admit past marijuana use last week. The others were Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, Transportation Secretary Ruth Kelly, Business Secretary John Hutton, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Andy Burnham, Skills Secretary John Denham, and Deputy Labor Leader Harriet Harman. Two other cabinet members, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears had previously admitted to past pot smoking.
Deputy Labor Leader Harman was typical of her fellow pot-smoking cabinet members, all of whom said their use was experimental and long past. When asked if she, too, had indulged, she replied: "I did, when I was at university, smoke cannabis once or twice." But since then, she's gone straight, she said: "I have indulged in the odd glass of wine but not cannabis."
The opposition Conservatives have forsaken the opportunity to jump the Labor government over the issue, most likely because many members of the Tory shadow government have also admitted past marijuana use. Current Conservative leader David Cameron has repeatedly refused to say whether he used drugs before becoming a public figure, despite persistent rumors that he did more than smoke a little weed in the past.
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Beginning August 1, marijuana and cocaine users caught in Singapore will face mandatory treatment at Drug Rehabilitation Centers, the Central Narcotics Bureau announced Wednesday. That means cocaine snorters and pot smokers will be given the same shot at "rehabilitation" as other drug users in the Southeast Asian city-state. Previously, marijuana and cocaine users were not eligible for treatment and faced stiff prison sentences.
Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau logo
But they better get it right the first time. People who undergo treatment and relapse and get arrested again will face a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence and three strokes of the cane. Third offenders are looking at seven years and six strokes of the cane.
People who undergo "rehabilitation" and suffer relapses face a mandatory minimum seven-year prison sentence, as well as between six and 12 strokes of the cane.
Singapore has some of the world's toughest drug trafficking laws, and its Misuse of Drugs Act includes the death penalty for some drug offenses, including the trafficking of more than 660 grams (slightly more than one pound) of marijuana. Now, it will also have some of the world's harshest marijuana law enforcement directed at users.
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The Australian Green Party has taken another step back from positions adopted earlier this decade calling for the regulated distribution of marijuana and other "social drugs," such as ecstasy. For the first time, the party has made its opposition to drug legalization part of its drug policy platform.
Just to make the party's retreat crystal clear, the opposition to legalization is the first item in the Green drug policy platform: "The Australian Greens do not support the legalization of currently illegal drugs," the plank bluntly states.
The Green Platform prior to the 2004 national elections was quite different. It called for "the controlled availability of cannabis at appropriate venues" and "investigations of options for the regulated supply of social drugs such as Ecstasy in controlled environments." But under the direction of current party leader Sen. Bob Brown, the Greens in January 2006 removed any reference to marijuana or other soft drug legalization from the platform, instead calling for the formation of a national drug policy institute.
The retreat comes in the run-up to parliamentary elections this year and the context of a political reaction to the limited drug policy reforms adopted by various states, hyperbolic scare campaigns about marijuana potency and its links to mental illness, and high rates of methamphetamine and ecstasy use. The Greens in particular were hammered hard as "drug legalizers" in 2004 by the governing Liberals, as well as by social conservative parties like Family First, and may be hoping to appear more palatable to the opposition Labor Party.
Sen. Brown said as much in announcing the policy shift Saturday. "It doesn't leave the Greens open to misinterpretation from Family First and Pauline Hanson," he said. "It maintains our concern that while drug dealers should be dealt with under the penal code, the victims should be helped."
Brown said the party had relied on the best expert drug advice for its change of policy. "It has honed our policy and brought it more up to date with world's best practice," he said.
Currently, the Greens hold four Senate seats (out of 76), obtained with 7.7% of the vote, which, under Australia's system of proportional representation, allows them a chair at the table. Although the Greens captured 7.2% of the vote for House members, they won no seats. They are competing in every constituency in the country in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Still, while the Greens have clearly shifted the public emphasis of their drug policy -- they also call for crackdowns on drug sellers -- the meat of the Green drug policy platform is far superior to anything adopted by the major Australian parties, or the major parties in the US, for that matter. The second plank in the platform is a call for harm reduction, the fifth calls for a public health approach, and the sixth says people should not be imprisoned for drug use alone.
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Dutch police are publicly grumbling that marijuana policies which turn a blind eye to people growing five plants or fewer should be toughened, and so should those that target commercial growers. While growing marijuana plants is technically illegal in Holland, prosecutors routinely ignore grows of fewer than five plants, just as they ignore possession of up to five grams.
But a police spokesman quoted in the Amsterdam newspaper Volkskrant thinks small time growers are growing for profit. They can make up to $5,000 a year on five plants, complained Detective Ben Janssen.
Commercial growers are also getting off too easy, Janssen said. "At the moment they get community service of 60 to 80 hours. There should be a clear signal that (marijuana production) is unacceptable," he said.
Dutch police bust about 8,000 commercial grows a year, according to figures published in the Telegraaf.
Commercial marijuana growers supply Holland's famous marijuana coffee houses, but the Dutch government refuses to regularize that component of the domestic marijuana business out of fear of running afoul of international treaty obligations. Dutch growers and activists call it the "back door problem," since the marijuana sold in the coffee shops can leave out the front door with a wink and a nod from the authorities, but the marijuana being supplied must come in the back door, leaving growers and coffee shops stuck in a grey market.
Janssen also called for a crackdown on grow shops, where seeds, lights, fertilizers, and other marijuana growing equipment is sold. "They are the way in for organized marijuana growing," he said.
There is little to suggest an imminent crackdown on home pot growers by the Dutch authorities, but the public complaining by police is a clear indication the Dutch marijuana business cannot let down its guard.
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August 2, 1937: The Marijuana Tax Act is passed by Congress, enacting marijuana prohibition at the federal level for the first time. Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry Anslinger tells the Congressmen at the hearings, "Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."
August 2, 1977: In a speech to Congress, Jimmy Carter addresses the harm done by prohibition, saying, "Penalties against a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana for personal use. The National Commission on Marijuana... concluded years ago that marijuana should be decriminalized, and I believe it is time to implement those basic recommendations."
July 29, 1995: In an interview with the editors of the Charlotte Observer, Pat Buchanan says he favors measures that would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for relief from certain conditions. "If a doctor indicated to his patient that this was the only way to alleviate certain painful symptoms, I would defer to the doctor's judgment," he says.
July 29, 1997: A large number of Los Angeles sheriff's deputies swarm into the home of author and medical marijuana patient Peter McWilliams and well-known medical marijuana activist Todd McCormick, a medical marijuana user and grower who had cancer ten times as a child and suffers from chronic pain as the result of having the vertebrae in his neck fused in childhood surgery. McCormick ultimately serves a five-year sentence, while McWilliams chokes to death on his own vomit in 2000 after being denied medical marijuana by a federal judge.
July 27, 2000: Referring to one of drug czar Barry McCaffrey's tired lines, Salon.com publishes "Fighting 'Cheech and Chong' Medicine," an article showing that the entire genesis of the government's new media campaign, the motivation for making the Partnership for Drug Free America's donated ad time and making it a billion dollars worth of taxpayer funds, was a direct response to the passage of medical marijuana initiatives in California and Arizona in 1996.
July 31, 2000: In Canada, Ontario's top court rules unanimously (3-0) that Canada's law making marijuana possession a crime is unconstitutional because it does not take into account the needs of Canadian medical marijuana patients. The judges allow the current law to remain in effect for another 12 months, to permit Parliament to rewrite it, but says that if the Canadian federal government fails to set up a medical marijuana distribution program by July 31, 2001, all marijuana laws in Canada will be struck down.
August 1, 2000: The first Shadow Convention convenes in Philadelphia, PA, with the drug war being one of the gathering's three main themes.
July 27, 2002: The Associated Press reports that a regional director of Mexico's main intelligence agency was slain in the border city of Tijuana, the 11th person killed over the last week in what authorities say is an escalating drug war.
July 30, 2002: ABC airs John Stossel's special report, "War on Drugs, A War on Ourselves," which critically points out the futility of the government's current approach to drug control policy.
July 28, 2003: James Geddes, originally sentenced to 150 years for possession of a small amount of marijuana and paraphernalia and for growing five marijuana plants, is released. Geddes had said, "How can it be that the President, his wife, the Vice President and his wife, the mayor of Washington DC, even the Speaker of the House can do these things, but I must pay dearly?"
July 31, 2003: Karen P. Tandy is confirmed by unanimous consent in the US Senate as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Tandy was serving in the Department of Justice (DOJ) as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. She previously served in DOJ as Chief of Litigation in the Asset Forfeiture Office and Deputy Chief for Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and 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.
August 1, 2004: The Observer (UK) reports that the US blames Britain's 'lack of urgency' for its failure to arrest the booming opium trade in Afghanistan, exposing a schism between the allies as the country trembles on the brink of anarchy.
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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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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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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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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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