One small uptick in cocaine prices after decades of decline has the government bragging for weeks on end. A look at the big picture shows that it doesn't really mean anything.
The Supreme Court Tuesday heard oral arguments in a pair of cases that will further refine just what discretion federal judges have when it comes to sentencing outside the now advisory sentencing guidelines.
Dr. Stanton Peele has written an excellent, level-headed handbook for parents, educators, and anyone else worried about teen drug use. Read it now!
When yet another DRCNet blog post went big last week, thanks to your donations our server was ready to handle it. We still need your support to continue this successful web campaign.
John McCain is Sick of Being Asked About Medical Marijuana," "Obama Comes Out Against Mandatory Minimums," "Does Partnership for a Drug Free America Oppose Random Student Drug Testing?," "Record Marijuana Seizures Mean There's More Pot, Not Less," "Harvard Scientists Build Very Cool Bong," "Drug War to Figure Prominently in Sen. Webb's Incarceration Hearing Tomorrow -- Available by Webcast," "Video of Ron Paul Debate Comments Opposing Drug War," "The Drug War Costs Each Taxpayer $530 a Year."
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Scheming cops, greedy cops, rogue cops ripping off dealers, and, of course, yet another jail guard falls prey to temptation.
Marijuana prohibition costs governments in the US more than $10 billion a year in law enforcement and more than $30 billion a year in lost revenues, a new study finds.
A religious challenge to Hawaii's marijuana law was rejected by the state Supreme Court late last month.
With the Pentagon sticking $1.4 billion in anti-drug aid for Mexico into its 2008 budget, Washington is preparing to radically ramp up its involvement in the drug war south of the border.
The national Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations in nine Asian countries have joined a growing number of such groups that have signed onto a consensus statement calling for humanitarian drug policies.
Holland's cannabis coffee shops have been operating openly for more than 30 years, but now it looks like the slow squeeze is on.
Vancouver's safe injection site has won another six-month reprieve from the Canadian government, but supporters are getting tired of jumping through hoops.
Faced with a booming trans-Atlantic cocaine trade aimed at insatiable European markets, some European countries have formed an organization to coordinate efforts to block it.
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Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
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David Borden, Executive Director
David Borden
When the drug czar announced a few weeks ago that cocaine prices had gone up -- a sign of success in the drug war, so he claims -- I was surprised but not shocked. I was surprised -- slightly -- because in most years for the last few decades the price has dropped and dropped and dropped. Retail, or "street" cocaine prices are about 40% of what they were in the early 1980s, and that's without adjusting for inflation. Factor in inflation and it's closer to 20%, a five-fold decrease.
The reason I wasn't shocked is simply because within this steep, long-term decline, there have been upticks now and then, maybe once every four or so years. I was surprised in the way that one is surprised when flipping two coins and seeing both of them come up heads. Most of the time that doesn't happen -- you either get two tails, one is heads and the other tails, or the first one comes up tails and the second one comes up heads. But in one out of every four tries, on average both of them will come up heads.
I was surprised again on Wednesday, when I saw the same story come up a second time a few weeks later, this time in the Los Angeles Times. But not very surprised -- ONDCP and DEA have an obvious incentive to continue to pitch a story that seems favorable to them for as long as there's interest in it.
Unfortunately, the key word here is "seems." It certainly seems like a big jump when you read what they told the Times: "[T]he cost of cocaine increas[ed] 24%, from $95.89 to $118.70 per gram over the six-month period ending in June." Okay, but when looking at the DEA information sheet, one learns that that number is an average including all cocaine purchases during the time period, both wholesale (trafficker to dealer) and retail (seller to customer). The retail average -- the meaningful quantity when it comes to the end result -- went from $145.42 to $166.90, a lesser 15% increase.
Ultimately, price is not really the end result to judge the drug program, of course. The final result of importance, setting aside civil liberties issues, is the net harm to society of both drugs and drug policies. Driving up prices can lead to more crime, for example, and more of those who are addicted suffering financial destitution and driven to extreme circumstances. Price -- in this case, the adjusted price for a pure gram -- is considered a measure of a drug's availability -- the higher the price of the drug, the less available it is, and the fewer expected users. Or at least that's the theory. In this discussion, retail price is defined as purchases of up to 10 grams, the range used by the DEA in its STRIDE data collection program.
If so, it seems pretty silly to talk about prices rising over half a year to $167, in light of this:
(You'll notice I'm missing a few years. I had trouble finding 2001-2006 data online this morning. I'd appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction, and I'll post a complete chart back here then and in our blog. The price data is from the aforementioned STRIDE program, divided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index figures.)
Given how small the street price of cocaine still is compared with the past, this recent news just doesn't seem to me like something to brag about. Also, the DEA's write-up says they analyzed data going back to April 2005, but only goes on to discuss what happened from December of last year. I wonder what that means.
Bottom line, when you're only presenting the last six months to reporters, after multiple decades of data show something different -- when you don't even present the entire time range that you analyzed in the very study you just completed, your argument is weak. Sorry, the drug war really is still failing, just like it always has.
You can learn more about the drug czars' data shenanigans by picking up a copy of "Lies, Damn Lies, and Drug War Statistics." Better yet, order one from us.
Update: Some good info on this from WOLA, and discussion in the Washington Post blog.
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The US Supreme Court Tuesday heard oral arguments in a pair of drug cases that will help clarify how much discretion federal judges have in sentencing under federal sentencing guidelines. When rendered, the court's opinion could impact the tens of thousands of people sentenced in the federal courts each year.
US Supreme Court
While one of the cases involves a man sentenced under the crack cocaine laws, which punish crack much more severely than powder cocaine, the court's decision will have no impact on the federal mandatory minimum sentence laws under which many drug offenders are subjected to lengthy prison sentences.
The court's taking up the two sentencing guideline cases comes as the nation's quarter-century-long experiment with mass incarceration is under increasing pressure. The federal prison population has expanded nearly ten-fold from 24,000 prisoners in 1982 to more than 200,000 this year, more than half of them drug offenders under the harsh regime of sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences.
The US Sentencing Commission is set to reduce the guidelines' crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity administratively November 1 unless Congress acts to block it, though it has not yet decided whether to make the change retroactive. While the proposed reduction is slighter than advocates have called for, if made retroactive it would help about 19,500 current prisoners, most notably those serving the longer sentences, by an average of 27 months or relief -- 1,315 current prisoners would receive sentences reductions of 49 months or more. At least three bills addressing that disparity have been filed in Congress. And just yesterday, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), a member the Joint Economic Committee, held a hearing titled "Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?"
The Supreme Court threw the federal sentencing structure into a sort of judicial chaos when it ruled two years ago in Booker v. US, and a related case, US v. Fan Fan, that federal sentencing guidelines, which had for the past two decades limited judges' sentencing decisions to finding the proper box on a sentencing grid, were no longer mandatory, but only advisory. Since then, federal district and appellate courts have struggled to determine just what that means, with some judges sometimes handing out sentences below the guidelines, which have in turn sometimes been overturned on appeal.
The two cases before the court represent different aspects of the federal sentencing conundrum. In Gall v. US, Brian Gall was convicted of conspiracy to sell ecstasy in Iowa, but rather than sentence him to the 30-37 months in prison suggested by the guidelines, his sentencing judge gave him probation, noting that he had walked away from the conspiracy years earlier and led an exemplary life since. The probationary sentence was overturned by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
In Kimbrough v. US, Derrick Kimbrough was convicted of selling crack and powder cocaine in Virginia. Citing Kimbrough's military service and the controversy over the crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity, his trial judge sentenced him to the mandatory minimum 15 years instead of the 19-22 years suggested by the guidelines. His sentence, too, was overturned, this time by the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
In Gall, the appeals court held that such an "extraordinary" departure from the guidelines required an "extraordinary" justification. In Kimbrough, the appeals court held that judges could not reject a guidelines sentence because of their disagreement with underlying sentencing policy.
In oral arguments in the two cases Tuesday, the court displayed some of the same confusion and ambivalence its previous sentencing rulings have generated on the federal bench. The court is caught between two seemingly irreconcilable goals: to ensure similar sentences for similar offenses, and to restore a measure of discretion to judges.
"It may be quite impossible to achieve uniformity through advisory guidelines, which is why Congress made them mandatory," Justice Antonin Scalia observed. But Scalia has led the bloc of the court that has moved to undo the mandatory federal guidelines scheme.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who helped author the guidelines and remains their strongest proponent on the court, accused Kimbrough's counsel, Michael Nachmanoff, of not offering the court a way out of its dilemma after Nachmanoff insisted that Booker required that judges be granted reasonable flexibility." You're saying either we have to make it [the sentencing guidelines] unconstitutional," he said, "or you have to say anything goes."
"Your position is not anything goes," Scalia jumped in in Nachmanoff's defense. "It's anything that's reasonable goes."
That led Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to ask, "How do we define 'reasonable?'" And so the argument turned in circles.
For his part, Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben, who argued both cases, argued that Congress intended to punish crack cocaine more seriously than powder, and judges should heed Congress' will. "For a judge to say Congress is crazy," Dreeben said, "is a sort of textbook example of an unreasonable sentencing factor."
"The guidelines are only guidelines. They are advisory," Scalia shot back, adding that sometimes sentences were too long.
While the tenor of oral arguments suggested a favorable ruling may be coming, especially for Kimbrough, observers of the court were reluctant to speculate. But they were not reluctant to talk about what it all means.
"Everyone is struggling" with the federal sentencing conundrum, said Doug Berman, professor of law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and author of the Sentencing Law and Policy blog. "Most prominently, they are trying to figure out what to make of this opaque standard of reasonableness," he said.
"If the Supreme Court reverses the circuit courts and upholds the trial courts, emphasizing the discretion district court judges have to reduce sentences below the guidelines, that could have a significant impact, especially on first offenders and others with mitigating factors," Berman said.
"The national debate over the excessive penalties prescribed under the federal sentencing guidelines for low-level crack cocaine offenses has infiltrated Congress, the advocacy community and now the US Supreme Court," said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project. "There is nearly universal agreement that current sentences for crack cocaine offenses are unfair and ineffective. The court's action will certainly influence the policy debate," he added.
"The Supreme Court's consideration of the magnitude of discretion afforded to federal sentencing judges is a step towards creating a more just sentencing system," said Mauer. "In light of recent events in Jena, Louisiana, and concerns about disparity within the justice system, a new consciousness about the unfairness and ineffectiveness of our criminal justice system has emerged," Mauer continued.
"These cases have to be considered against the backdrop of extraordinarily long terms for minor drug offenders," Berman said. "That the government can argue that sending Kimbrough to prison for 15 years is unreasonably lenient and the length of that sentence hardly gets questioned suggests that everyone has drunk the federal sentencing guideline kool-aid," he said.
For some groups with a deep interest in justice in sentencing, whatever the Supreme Court does won't be enough. "Whatever the court decides, the real solution to unjust crack sentences lies in Congress," said Mary Price, vice president and general counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "Even if the court permits judges to avoid unjust crack sentences called for by the guidelines, many defendants will still be sentenced under unjust mandatory minimum statutes. Congress made a mistake by basing sentencing almost exclusively on one factor -- drug quantity. Judges should be permitted to sentence based on all facts about the defendant and the offense, not just quantity. These cases show why mandatory minimum sentencing laws are unwise, unnecessary, and unjust."
It goes even deeper than that, said Chuck Armsbury of the November Coalition, an anti-prohibitionist group that concentrates on freeing drug war prisoners. "No amount of Supreme Court tinkering with the sentencing guidelines can guarantee an end to sentencing disparities," he said. "Most of the sentencing disparity is due to rules and results of deal making by informants, police and prosecutors working together secretly. The justices are unlikely to admit they can't determine the fairness of a hidden system's operations," he argued. "To fix this broken system would mean to rein in police, prosecutors and the snitch system producing substantial differences in drug sentences."
That's not going to happen through the Supreme Court chipping at the edges of draconian sentencing, Armsbury said. "Even if they win, the cases under review this week will likely join a long line of previous Supreme Court cases that failed to correct wrongful sentencing practices or result in the release of thousands of over-incarcerated people, the great majority convicted of drug crimes."
Still, if further reform of the draconian federal sentencing laws comes out of this pair of cases, some drug defendants will get lesser sentences, and that's a good thing. But as the critics point out, it's not enough. The mass incarceration juggernaut has been speeding along for decades now, and it's going to require more than some Supreme Court decisions tinkering at the edges to achieve fundamental change.
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Phillip S. Smith, Writer/Editor
Teens on drugs! Almost nothing in America these days frightens parents as or throws society into a conniption fit as much as the prospect of young people using drugs. That's why we have DARE, zero tolerance, drug dogs in schools, drug testing in schools, and all those other programs and policies designed to eliminate teen drug use.
There is, of course, legitimate reason for concern: No one wants charming little junior to grow up to be a junkie, no one wants his son to end up as a drug overdose statistic or his daughter to wander the streets selling herself for the next rock of crack. Less dramatically, no parents want their kids to fail to achieve their potential because they're spending their days sitting on the couch smoking pot or their nights driving around swilling booze.
But the programs and policies devised so far to eliminate or at least reduce teen drug use have demonstrably failed. For decades, about half of all teens report having used some drug, and even higher numbers report drinking. Naturally, parents, school administrators, and police call for redoubled efforts in the face of such numbers, as if more of the same failed approaches would result in a different outcome.
When it comes to teen drug use, it's time for an intervention, and who better than Dr. Stanton Peele, the New Jersey-based psychologist who has been studying and writing about addiction and related issues for decades? Peele is controversial -- he rejects the currently popular "disease model" of addiction, he scoffs at "abstinence only" approaches to recovery -- but his latest contribution, "Addiction-Proof Your Child," is calm, collected, and a common sense approach to grappling with teen drug use.
A primary message for parents from Dr. Peele is "don't freak out." As noted, teen drug use is so prevalent as to be normal, just part of adolescent life. Yes, there are indeed dangers related to drug use and drinking, but, as Peele shows, most teens use drugs without overdosing, becoming junkies or prostitutes, or otherwise destroying their lives. If your kid is smoking pot, it doesn't mean he is necessarily on the path to perdition, and the casual teen pot smoker certainly doesn't need to be stuffed into some kind of 12-step, just-say-no, abstinence-based treatment program. In fact, Peele argues, such programs may only make things worse. Reshaping a young person's perceptions so that he identifies himself as an "addict" is self-defeating and disempowering, Peele believes.
It's not that Peele thinks addiction is a myth -- quite the contrary. Peele has an expansive definition of addiction that includes not only dependence on mind-altering substances, but also phenomena like video gaming and internet porn addictions, and even food addiction, which he sees as a leading contributor to the current epidemic of teen obesity.
But unlike the molecular fetishists of the disease model of addiction, led by Dr. Nora Volkow and her well-funded legions of researchers at NIDA, Peele sees addiction not so much as a biopharmacological phenomenon, but as a behavioral one. As Peele titles one chapter, "The problem is addiction, not drugs."
Healthy, well-adjusted kids who are taught good values and personal responsibility are less likely to run into problems with drug use, or video gaming, or overeating, Peele posits. It makes sense. We all know people who used drugs as teenagers, and we all need to acknowledge that the fact that a kid smoked pot doesn't mean he is inevitably headed for skid row.
In "Addiction-Proof Your Child," Peele puts his decades of clinical experience in dealing with problematic (and not so problematic) drug use to work for parents, educators, and anyone else dealing with what can be a frightening issue. He is clear, compelling, and level-headed, and the book is full of easily digestible wisdom about what it takes to make an "addiction-proof" child.
"Addiction-Proof Your Child" is a desperately needed intervention in an area too often filled with hysterical fears. We don't want our kids to become junkies, but as Peele shows, there are much better and sensible approaches than relying on DARE cops and their horror stories or 12-step programs and their insistence on life-long identities as "addicts." DRCNet regularly offers books as premiums for our donors. This one needs to be added to our list right now. It is most useful, full of insights, and a healthy corrective to the misinformation and disinformation that all too often passes for drug education.
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When a DRCNet report last December about drug war prisoner Tyrone Brown made it to the top of the Netscape home page, our web server wasn't ready to handle the traffic -- 13,000 people read the article at that time, and more continued to afterward, but many more would have if the machine had been upgraded before the big hit rather than during it.
Thanks to support provided by members like you over the last several weeks, however, we were ready this weekend when DRCNet blogger Scott Morgan's "Why Do Police Really Oppose Marijuana Legalization?" hit the front page of Reddit.com and brought in 18,000 readers in a short period of time -- one in a lengthy series of hits in recent months that have dramatically increased our reach on the web.
As I'm sure you realize, the costs of the machine, while significant, are only part of the picture. Literally every staff member at DRCNet is involved in this web campaign, and that's a major devotion of resources that can only be sustained if you support us. Could you let us know that you're "in" by making a donation today, or by sending us an email to let us know if you will be soon?
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Please visit our site if you haven't in awhile -- you'll find a professionally redesigned site, daily blog posts, mainstream news links, an "activist feed" of bulletins from other organizations, and of course the weekly Drug War Chronicle and many other interesting items. With your continued support we will take the message about ending prohibition to more and more people in more and more ways this year and next!
To donate, 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.
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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 -- huge numbers of people have been reading it recently -- 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!
prohibition-era beer raid, Washington, DC (Library of Congress)
Since last issue:
Scott Morgan comments: "John McCain is Sick of Being Asked About Medical Marijuana," "Obama Comes Out Against Mandatory Minimums," "Does Partnership for a Drug Free America Oppose Random Student Drug Testing?," "Record Marijuana Seizures Mean There's More Pot, Not Less" and "Harvard Scientists Build Very Cool Bong."
David Borden posts: "Drug War to Figure Prominently in Sen. Webb's Incarceration Hearing Tomorrow -- Available by Webcast" and "Video of Ron Paul Debate Comments Opposing Drug War."
David Guard writes: "The Drug War Costs Each Taxpayer $530 a Year," and posts numerous press releases, action alerts and other organizational announcements in the In the Trenches blog. And please join us in the Reader Blogs too.
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DRCNet (also known as "Stop the Drug War") has a strong record of providing substantive work experience to our interns -- you won't spend the summer doing filing or running errands, you will play an integral role in one or more of our exciting programs. Options for work you can do with us include coalition outreach as part of the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act, and to expand that effort to encompass other bad drug laws like the similar provisions in welfare and public housing law; blogosphere/web outreach; media research and outreach; web site work (research, writing, technical); possibly other areas. If you are chosen for an internship, we will strive to match your interests and abilities to whichever area is the best fit for you.
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Scheming cops, greedy cops, rogue cops ripping off dealers, and, of course, yet another jail guard falls prey to temptation. Let's get to it:
In Zanesville, Ohio, two Zanesville police officers and a Zanesville hospital police officer were arrested Monday for allegedly extorting one drug dealer and plotting to rip off another one. Officer Sean Beck, 28, the alleged ringleader, Officer Trevor Fusner, 30, and hospital police officer Chad Mills, 29, all face federal charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Beck had extorted $7,300 from one drug dealer in exchange for his help ripping off another one and enlisted the other two to help him out. But that rip-off never occurred because Beck got greedy, hit his extorted drug dealer for another $1,000, and the dealer then snitched him out.
In Detroit, a Detroit police officer was indicted last week for stealing six kilograms of cocaine from a department evidence room. Officer Vincent Crockett, 39, is charged with possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and stealing government property. The cocaine went missing in March, and Detroit narcotics officers eventually enlisted the FBI in the investigation. If convicted, Crockett could face up to life in prison and a $4 million fine.
In Chicago, a former Chicago police officer was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for shaking down drug dealers with other corrupt officers. Former officer Erik Johnson faced up to 11 years, but got a break at sentencing because he helped investigate the leaders of the rogue cops, then-Officers Broderick Jones and Corey Flagg. His testimony also helped to convict Eural Black, Johnson's former partner and the only officer among the five charged to go to trial. The others have all pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
In Largo, Florida, a jail guard was arrested Tuesday on charges he sold drugs to inmates. Kevin Rix, 24, who has been a corrections officer since 2005, worked at the Largo Road Prison, where a three-month undercover investigation found that Rix provided drugs to inmates in exchange for cash, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He is charged with unlawful compensation, introducing contraband into a prison system, and trafficking in cocaine. He was last reported to be on the other side of the bars at the Pinellas County Jail.
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Last week, the Chronicle reported on yet another record high number of marijuana arrests, with more than 800,000 people busted for pot last year. This week, a leading researcher put a price tag on marijuana prohibition: $41.8 million a year in law enforcement spending and lost tax revenues.
According to public policy and economic development analyst Jon Gettman of Drug Science, author of the report, Lost Revenues and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws, governments at all levels spend $10.7 billion on arresting, prosecuting, and punishing marijuana offenders. At the same time, by maintaining the policy of marijuana prohibition, those governments are forgoing an estimated $31.1 billion a year in lost tax revenues by keeping the $113 billion a year marijuana industry in the underground economy.
Gettman's analysis is based primarily on official government figures on US marijuana supply, prices, and arrests. Perhaps even more surprising than the costs associated with pot prohibition is the huge size of the domestic marijuana market, which Gettman pegs at more than 31 million pounds.
"This report documents a massive waste of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of eradicating a government-forbidden plant, and the financial waste hit all-time high levels last year, as the FBI just reported there were a record 829,627 marijuana arrests in 2006," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Prohibition has done nothing to reduce marijuana use, which remains at about the level it's been for decades, but prohibition has created a massive underground economy that's completely unregulated and untaxed. The parallels with Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s, including the needless violence and a huge underground economy, are eerie."
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In a split decision, the Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled against a Big Island man who claimed he smoked marijuana as part of his religion and thus should not be prosecuted. In its September 21 decision in State v. Sunderland, the Court rejected Joseph Sunderland's argument that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protected him from prosecution, but failed to address his contention that privacy provisions of the Hawaii state constitution also protected him from arrest for using marijuana in his home.
Volcano National Park, Hawaii Island
The case started in 2003, when a Big Island police officer searching for a missing child spotted a marijuana pipe on Sunderland's kitchen table. Sunderland admitted the pipe was his, said he had used it to smoke marijuana that morning, and told the officer he had a right to use it for religious purposes. Sunderland presented a membership card in
The Cannabis Ministry, a religious organization headed by Roger Christie that uses marijuana as a sacrament.
Sunderland was subsequently charged with promoting a detrimental drug in the third degree, the Hawaiian version of a paraphernalia law violation. Before trial, Sunderland filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that his constitutional right to the free exercise of religion precluded his prosecution for using marijuana.
"I believe that God put the holy herb onto this earth to help mankind to better understand Him," Sunderland told the trial court.
The trial court disagreed with Sunderland's legal argument, and Sunderland was found guilty and fined $175. He appealed, and now the state Supreme Court has shot him down.
Citing precedent to reject the applicability of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the states, the court held that under controlling law, the state has a legitimate "compelling interest" in regulating marijuana use, and thus, "the free exercise clause of the First Amendment is not a viable defense."
But there may still be a glimmer of hope for both Sunderland and the rest of Hawaii's pot smokers. The Supreme Court did not address Sunderland's contention that Hawaii privacy protections should immunize his in-house marijuana use, arguing that he had failed to present it in a timely fashion. But in his dissenting opinion Justice Levinson suggested that such a right indeed exists.
The framers of Hawaii's constitution meant to limit criminal sanctions to cases where people are harmed, Levinson argued. "The issue is whether... a fundamental right to privacy... constrains the state from criminalizing mere possession of marijuana for personal use. My thesis is that it does," Levinson wrote.
Sunderland's attorney, public defender Deborah Kim, said she planned to ask the high court to address the privacy issue. "The court has ducked the question of whether the right to privacy prevents the police from enforcing marijuana laws when someone is using marijuana in their home for religious purposes," Kim said. "The question is still very much open."
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Move over, Plan Colombia -- here comes Plan Mexico. Tucked into the Pentagon's massive budget request is at least $1.4 billion in anti-drug aid for Mexico, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday. The aid package, which would be spread over two-years according to the report, represents a nearly twenty-fold increase over current anti-drug aid levels, which are estimated at about $40 million this year.
cash carefully stacked for camera following bust last March by DEA and Mexican authorities
US and Mexican officials speaking off the record told the Morning News the two countries have agreed on the aid package, which will reportedly include better training and high-tech tools to combat the drug trafficking organizations that are engaged in bloody wars among themselves and with the Mexican government, but will not involve US troops.
According to the latest reports, some 2,000 people have been killed in drug prohibition-related violence in Mexico this year, eclipsing last year's toll of 1,900. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has responded vigorously, deploying more than 20,000 Mexican army troops in drug producing states and cities plagued by cartel violence. That move has been harshly criticized by the government's own human rights office, but welcomed in Washington as a sign of strength and commitment.
Officials from both sides of the Rio Grande told the Morning News the power of the drug traffickers posed a threat to both countries. "We either win together or we lose together," said Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora in interviews last month.
The legislative process is weeks from completion, and officials said there will be hearings on the proposed massive aid increase in coming days or weeks. It will undoubtedly be challenged on the Hill, both by those skeptical of investing money in "corrupt" Mexico and by those skeptical of massive foreign anti-drugs programs. Still, it could well pass, given broader congressional concern about the border.
Some skepticism is coming from unexpected quarters. Phil Jordan, former head of the DEA's Dallas office, told the newspaper the aid could end up as money being poured down a rat hole. "Until you reduce US demand for drugs and weed out the immense corruption among Mexico's law enforcement, pouring more US money into Mexico won't necessarily solve the problem," he said.
Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora agreed in part with Jordan, but also raised another issue. "The US government needs to do more in reducing the drug consumption, and it needs to do its part in the equation of stopping the flow of cash and weapons," he said. "The US law is too flexible, too permissive when it comes to gun possession, and unfortunately many of those guns, particularly high-power assault weapons, too often end up in the hands of ruthless drug cartels."
Look for a coming battle in Congress as the defense appropriation bill moves forward.
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Nine national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from across Asia last Saturday signed onto a consensus statement aimed at promoting health-based measures to address drug use and fight the social stigma attached to drug users. The sign-on came after two days of meetings among Asian Red Cross and Red Crescent groups in Manila.
The groups signed onto the Rome Consensus on Humanitarian Drug Policies, the result of a collaboration between the Senlis Council and the Italian Red Cross to push for more progressive drug policies. In a December 2005 meeting in Rome, numerous European, Latin American, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern Red Cross/Red Crescent signed onto the statement. Some 58 national Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations have now signed the Rome Consensus.
The Rome Consensus on Humanitarian Drug Policies contains the following planks:
- To raise the profile of drug policy to the forefront of social concerns, recognizing that negative effects of drugs are felt at all levels of society.
- To advocate a comprehensive public health, harm reduction and humanitarian approach as key elements of drug policy in the full knowledge that this approach provides the optimal way of achieving the goals of alleviating suffering, reaching vulnerable people and addressing the global HIV/AIDS crisis.
- To acknowledge that the absence of a public health, harm reduction and humanitarian approach breeds stigmatization and marginalization of drug users, thus making reintegration harder.
- To stress on the Red Cross/Red Crescent unique auxiliary role to governments and to make a commitment ranging from the volunteer to the leadership level.
- To develop cooperation with the goal of encouraging public health, harm reduction and humanitarian oriented drug responses and activities, involving peers including drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS.
- To implement carefully designed and transparent information, communication and life skill development programs concerning drug use and HIV/AIDS, with particular focus on vulnerable groups including prisoners and mobile populations.
- To recognize the important contribution that can be made by peer groups, drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS.
In Manila last Saturday, Red Cross/Red Crescent groups from the following countries signed onto the Rome Consensus: Bangladesh, China, Fiji, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The Red Cross can play a "strategic role" in preventing drug abuse by mobilizing its volunteers to provide services that would improve the self-worth of at-risk individuals, said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippines National Red Cross, in remarks reported in Xinhua, the official Chinese news service. "We can also advocate with the government to harmonize the policies related to drug use problems based on humanitarian values," said Gordon, who is also a Philippine senator.
It is important to move away from punishment for drug users, said Yang Xusheng, representing the Red Cross Society of China. "Violence and force will only meet resistance," he said, while conceding that China has a long way to go on that score, especially given the discrimination and social stigma faced by drug users.
"Stigma kills," emphasized Massimo Barra, chairman of the Rome Consensus Leaders Group. "Indifference and discrimination kill more than the abuse of substances. Drug users are treated more as criminals than as sick people."
With groups like national Red Cross/Red Crescent societies coming on board for progressive, humane drug policies, international drug reform's long march through the institutions of civil society and, ultimately, government, takes another step forward.
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An increase in police raids on Dutch marijuana grows has caused prices to increase and potency to decline, the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute) reported Tuesday. Meanwhile, the city of Rotterdam announced this week it has ordered nearly a third of the city's cannabis coffee shops to close because they are too close to schools. Other locales could follow as concern rises over youth drug use.
downstairs of a coffee shop, Maastricht (courtesy Wikimedia)
According to the
Trimbos report [sorry, Dutch only], Dutch marijuana, or nedervviet, had an average THC level of 16%, down from 17.5% last year. At the same time, it now costs 20% more than last year, going for a little over $10 per gram. The price increase is the first one since Trimbos started monitoring pot prices in 1999.
According to Bloomberg News, Dutch police have stepped up raids on the estimated 40,000 home grows in the Netherlands. Police in Rotterdam reported earlier this year they had shut down 600 of the estimated 6,000 home grows there since 2005.
Growing more than five marijuana plants remains illegal in the Netherlands, even though authorities turn an official blind eye to regulated marijuana sales in the coffee shops, leading to a state of affairs known as the "back door problem." Marijuana is bought and leaves the coffee shops openly through the front door, but to supply themselves, coffee shop owners must deal with illicit growers who come in through the back door.
Rotterdam is also taking the lead on shutting down coffee shops near schools. "The sale of soft drugs will have to end by June 1, 2009, in a total of 18 coffee shops within 200 to 250 meters (yards) of schools," said the city council in a statement early this week. It said it was worried about soft drug use among vulnerable young people.
With a national government that would like to shut down the coffee shops, the Dutch marijuana business is under increasing pressure. At the back door, police are squeezing supply, and at the front door, local officials are pulling out the pad-locks. Don't expect the Dutch marijuana community to just roll over and take it, however.
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As the Conservative government of Prime Minister Steven Harper prepares to launch its already widely attacked new national anti-drug strategy (look for a Chronicle feature article next week), it has moved to deflect opposition somewhat by announcing this week it has granted another six-month extension to Insite, the Vancouver safe injection site for hard drug users. But granting Insite only a limited extension has drawn flak from harm reductionists and other site supporters who say it has been proven to reduce injection drug use, needle sharing and overdoses without increasing criminality or social disorder and deserves better than to be left on tenterhooks awaiting semi-annual renewals of its exemption from Canadian drug laws.
Insite brochure
The Harper government has made no secret of its ideologically-driven disapproval of safe injection sites, but has found stopping Insite politically unpalatable given the strong support it has in Vancouver and from experts around the world.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Tony Clement announced in a terse statement that he "has advised the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority which operates Insite, a supervised injection site, that their exemption under Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has been extended until June 30, 2008. This extension will allow research on how supervised injection sites affect prevention, treatment and crime to be continued for another six months."
The evidence of Insite's efficacy is already in, protested the Canadian AIDS Society in response to the limited renewal. The limited renewal is an "irresponsible decision on a public health program that is proven to work," the group said.
"This is the second time that the federal government has stalled on this decision and said that more research is needed. But the fact is, Minister Clement is asking questions that have already been answered and calling for research that's already been done," said Richard Elliott, executive director of the organization. "The evidence is unequivocal: Insite is saving lives and lowering the risk of HIV infection in one of the most marginalized communities in Canada, and increasing the chances of referring people who use drugs to addiction treatment services."
Uncertainty over Insite's continued existence is hard on staff, clients, and medical personnel alike, Insite worker Mark Townsend told the Toronto Globe & Mail Wednesday. "It's like constantly debating the same tiny speck of dust," Townsend said. "It's stressful on the ground for the human beings, the doctors and nurses involved with it. It's stressful for the people who work in the bureaucracy and care about people on the ground and are trying to put together programs that help people. The clients do get stressed about it as well. It's like you're constantly about to be fired from your job."
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Seven European countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean announced Sunday they have launched a new multinational agency to try to thwart the increasing volume of South American cocaine headed for insatiable European markets. The new agency, the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center, will help the various countries coordinate their efforts to find and seize cocaine shipments on the high seas.
The countries involved are Portugal, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Britain and the Netherlands.
Europe has been living a cocaine boom in recent years, with prices declining even as use tripled over the past decade, according to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs Addiction. Perhaps not coincidentally, US officials this week touted an apparent cocaine price increase as a sign anti-drug policies are working, but some analysts have suggested that the apparent price increase is due in part to diversion of cocaine from the US to European markets.
Much of the trans-Atlantic cocaine trade is believed to be centered in West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau. Arrests of Colombians in the latter country have raised fears that the leftist FARC guerrillas have expanded operations there.
Last year, European law enforcement agencies seized about 100 tons of cocaine. But Spain and Portugal, the Iberian countries that make up the southwestern gateway to Europe, accounted for 70% of the seizures.
"We are the Atlantic border of Europe," Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa said during a ceremony to inaugurate the agency. "Concern about the growing importance of the African western coast in this trade is one of the raisons d'être of this center," said Costa.
The US government will have observer status at the new European agency. The Europeans will be seeking expertise from American drug fighters who have more experience with Colombian trafficking and guerrilla organizations involved in the trade, said Tim Manhire, the executive director of the new agency.
"Clearly we will be looking to work with our American colleagues at trying to intervene in that environment," Manhire said. "Whether they are FARC members or not I couldn't say for sure, but clearly we know there are Colombians down there (in West Africa)," he added.
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Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we'd like to hear from you. DRCNet needs two things:
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October 8, 1932: The Uniform State Narcotics Act is passed, endorsed by the federal Bureau of Narcotics as an alternative to federal laws. By 1937 every state prohibits marijuana use.
October 7, 1989: Former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz tells an alumni gathering at Stanford Business School, "It seems to me we're not really going to get anywhere until we can take the criminality out of the drug business and the incentives for criminality out of it. Frankly, the only way I can think of to accomplish this is to make it possible for addicts to buy drugs at some regulated place at a price that approximates their cost... We need at least to consider and examine forms of controlled legalization of drugs... No politician wants to say what I have just said, not for a minute."
October 5, 1999: The war on drugs is "an absolute failure," says Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico at a conference on national drug policies at the Cato Institute. Johnson, who drew sharp criticism from anti-drug leaders for being the first sitting governor to advocate legalizing drugs, argues that the government should regulate narcotics but not punish those who abuse them: "Make drugs a controlled substance like alcohol. Legalize it, control it, regulate it, tax it. If you legalize it, we might actually have a healthier society." Johnson also meets with founding members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy; footage from the meeting appears on CBS evening news.
October 6, 2000: Former US President Bill Clinton is quoted in Rolling Stone: "I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places, and should be."
October 9, 2000: PBS begins a special two-day program entitled "Drug Wars." The series examines America's ceaseless efforts over the past three decades to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the country, and shows how the drug war wastes hundreds of billions of dollars, alters the criminal justice system, puts millions of people in jail, and allows organized crime to thrive.
October 10, 2002: Drug Czar John Walters travels to Las Vegas, Nevada and begins two days of making appearances around the state illegally lobbying against Question 9, a proposal to amend the state constitution by making the possession of three ounces or less of marijuana legal for adults. The measure is defeated at the polls the following month.
October 7, 2003: Comedian Tommy Chong begins a nine-month federal prison sentence for operating a glass blowing shop that sold pipes to marijuana smokers.
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Access Works! is a nonprofit organization providing harm reduction services including a syringe exchange. AW's mission is to improve the health and reduce the harm to people impacted by the use of drugs through support, intervention, education, and disease prevention. Access Works! provides services to individuals in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Area and is based in an inner city Minneapolis neighborhood. The organization is comprised of five staff plus volunteers. The executive director is responsible for the overall direction and leadership of the staff and agency, and for the planning and implementation of all programs.
Job responsibilities include supervising staff, writing grants, identifying and recommending new sources of funding, managing funding relationships, leading the development and implementation of a strategic plan, overseeing storefront programs and services, evaluating and recommending revisions to programs, coordinating and providing direction to the accountant on financial matters, and overseeing an annual organizational budget of approximately $300,000. In addition, the executive director is responsible for promoting and advocating harm reduction programming through participating in community planning boards; developing collaborations with other organizations; providing a visible community presence by networking, belonging to community planning groups and providing ongoing education regarding harm reduction principles to those who provide services to drug users; tracking and responding to legislative issues regarding drug use and paraphernalia, syringe access, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis; and maintaining relations with community police officers and responding to community concerns regarding the storefront.
A candidate must have a Bachelor's degree or equivalent, at least five years experience supervising staff and managing multi-source budgets, and experience in grant writing and sources of funding; be a strong communicator who is highly organized and well versed in Microsoft Office software; possess a harm reduction philosophy that includes a non-judgmental attitude, a comfort with and understanding of users, and a professional demeanor and leadership style that supports an open door policy, consistent rule setting, good client boundaries, and the ability to make the tough decisions; and own or be eligible for a valid Minnesota driver's license. No physical demands are required.
Please send resumes and inquires to: Access Works!, c/o Kathleen Starr, 2636 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406, or [email protected].
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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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DRCNet's Reformer's Calendar is a tool you can use to let the world know about your events, and find out what is going on in your area in the issue. This resource used to run in our newsletter each week, but now is available from the right hand column of most of the pages on our 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.
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