Thousands of lives are damaged or destroyed in the drug war every day, but all for nought. Prohibition needs to end.
New, less harsh federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses went into effect this week, potentially affecting 4,000 federal cases a year. But will the US Sentencing Commission make those changes retroactive, bringing hope to nearly 20,000 currently imprisoned federal crack offenders? Stay tuned.
Ronnie Naulls thought he knew what to expect if the DEA came after his dispensary, but he never thought they'd try to take his kids. He's not the only California medical marijuana patient or provider with problems with child protective services or family courts, either.
"Arresting Marijuana Users Sends the Wrong Message to Children," "Drew Carey Cares About Medical Marijuana," "Cowards: Democratic Front-Runners Reject Marijuana Law Reform," "Bill O'Reilly Doesn't Want You to Get High," "What Motivates the Leaders of the Drug War?," "Blogging is More Addictive Than Marijuana."
Apply for an internship at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
A top narc admits he was dirty, a border drug squad deputy commander goes to prison, a deputy police chief is under investigation, and yes, another prison guard gets busted.
Congressional drug warriors have managed to pass an amendment that would bar federal funds for cities that establish safe injection sites. The measure is in conference committee and needs to be killed now.
When the Democratic presidential contenders had a chance to support marijuana decriminalization during Tuesday night's televised debate, only two out of seven did so.
The mere presence of illegal drugs in a home is not enough to justify child endangerment charges against parents, the Utah Supreme Court has ruled.
The Massachusetts Bar Association has decided to form a drug policy task force with an eye toward sentencing reform in the Bay State.
Southeast Asian countries' tough line on drug users is exacerbating the HIV/AIDS crisis in the region, experts in Bangkok said last weekend.
Executions for drug offenses will continue in Indonesia. The country's constitutional court upheld such punishments this week.
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New York Times on drug convictions and financial aid, conservatives against harsh crack sentencing law, Smith and Guard on Drug Truth Network, Tony Papa on the "preppy killer" facing more time for drugs than murder.
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) currently has two part-time, unpaid positions open. Apply today for either the nationwide Research Fellowship or DC-based Membership Intern position.
The 19th International Conference for the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm will convene in Barcelona this May. There's still time to apply to get on the program.
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David Borden, Executive Director
David Borden
Newsflash: California authorities are taking children away from their families because of their parents' medical marijuana.
Newsflash: The US federal government imprisons thousands of people for decades over minute quantities of crack cocaine.
Newsflash: Indonesia's Supreme Court says it's okay to kill drug offenders.
Newsflash: Anti-drug law enforcement crackdowns are driving people away from health services and causing more of them to get Hepatitis or AIDS.
And much much more. Every day, more than 4,000 drug arrests are made across the United States, their targets often getting ticketed, fined, jailed, prosecuted, sentenced, incarcerated. Arrestees can lose their cars, their homes, their livelihoods, their families, their reputations; suspects or bystanders can get shot or traumatized by no-knock raiders. Yet the drugs continue to flow and it is all for nought.
The more typical newsflash in the mainstream media is when someone was arrested or a drug operation was raided or some drugs were seized. But that's not really news, it's just the background of futile activity taking place all the time. When the dust settles, another family is reeling, another mound of taxpayer money is squandered, another Constitutional right has been sabotaged and undermined.
Newsflash: It's wrong to attack millions of people in the ways the drug war does, and the drug war doesn't work. Prohibition needs to end.
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Since Congress failed to act by Thursday to stop them, new, less severe federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses promulgated by the US Sentencing Commission are now in effect. That means some 4,000 federal crack defendants each year can now count on marginally shorter sentences. For those serving the longest sentences that could mean years off.
DEA crack cocaine photo
"We're very encouraged about this reform," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the
Sentencing Project. "What the Sentencing Commission is doing is terrific and long overdue."
Under federal drug laws adopted by Congress in the mid-1980s, crack offenders are treated much more severely than powder cocaine offenders. Selling five grams of crack carries a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence, while it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to merit the same treatment.
The Sentencing Commission, whose job it is to set federal sentencing guidelines, responded to the mandatory minimums by adjusting the guidelines to incorporate them, resulting in guideline sentences that were above the mandatory minimums. The Commission also tried, in 1995, to reduce crack cocaine sentences to match those for powder cocaine, a move that prompted Congress to reverse the Commission's recommendation for the first time in its history. Now, in frustration with congressional failure to deal with the rising clamor over the inequities of the federal cocaine laws, the commission has amended the guidelines to lower the base offense levels for crack convictions.
The differences this time are marginal, but will still make a difference for those facing federal crack time. For example, instead of a sentencing range of 12 to 15 years for a certain drug quantity, defendants will face 10 to 12 years.
But the Sentencing Commission has not yet decided whether to make those changes retroactive, a move that, according to a Sentencing Commission impact analysis published in October, could bring relief to nearly 20,000 crack defendants currently behind federal prison bars -- about 85% of them black. It has the authority to do so; the question is whether it has the political will. The commission recently extended the period for public comment on the retroactivity issue from October 1 to November 1, and has scheduled a November 13 public hearing.
prison dorm
The response has been intense, with the commission reporting that more than a thousand comments have been received -- most of them favoring retroactivity. That is at least in part because groups like
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) have launched a campaign to support the commission's long-held position that the racial disparity in cocaine sentences undermines the objectives of the country's sentencing laws.
It's not just FAMM. The American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Federal Public and Community Defenders, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and numerous other groups have weighed in in support of retroactivity.
"Retroactivity is huge," said Nora Callahan, executive director of the November Coalition, an anti-prohibitionist group that concentrates on drug war prisoners. "If it isn't retroactive, it isn't justice," she said.
"The commission has for years acknowledged the adverse impacts of the current sentencing structure, and that hasn't gone unnoticed," Callahan continued. "The system lacks transparency, consistency, and fairness. That's not the commission's fault, but it is the commission's responsibility to address these issues. Reducing the racial disparities resulting from the crack laws cannot be accomplished without retroactivity. If there is no relief, that will only breed more despair and disrespect for the law," she said.
"I'm encouraged about retroactivity because there have been thousands of comments sent to the commission supporting it," said Mauer. "The commission has both a moral and a practical reason to support retroactivity. In terms of equity issues, there is a strong argument for retroactivity there. The commission has been on record since 1995 recommending reform of the crack penalties, and it seems to us that anyone sentenced since then should certainly be eligible to receive these reductions. If the commission supports retroactivity, it would be entirely consistent with what it has been recommending for years."
The Sentencing Commission's crack sentencing guideline amendment that went into effect this week and its pending decision on retroactivity come as the federal crack laws are under attack from all sides. The Supreme Court is considering them in the recently heard Kimbrough case, and at least three bills to address the crack-powder sentencing disparity are pending in Congress.
"There is more momentum now than at any time since the laws were established two decades ago," said Mauer. "It is that overdue recognition that the laws don't make sense, they're ineffective, and they are having a terrible racial impact. It's very encouraging to see this critique of the crack laws coming from all these different directions. We don't know how it will all play out, but there is a growing consensus that some reform will take place."
Hopefully it will include those already imprisoned under the draconian federal crack laws, some of whom have been behind bars since 1992. If not, the bulging federal prison system could see ominous rumbling like it hasn't seen for a decade -- the last time crack prisoners got their hopes up, only to see them dashed.
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Ronnie Naulls never saw it coming. The church-going businessman, husband, and father of three young girls knew he was taking a risk when he opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Corona, a suburban community in the high desert of Riverside County east of Los Angeles.
Although he had played by the rules, obeyed all state laws, and successfully battled the city in court to stay open, Naulls knew there was a chance of trouble with law enforcement. He knew there was a chance of the federal DEA coming down on him, as it has done with at least 40 other dispensaries this year alone.
Naulls family (courtesy green-aid.com)
But when they did come down on him, it was far worse than he ever imagined. At 6:00am on July 17, the quiet of Naulls' suburban neighborhood was disrupted by the whir of hovering helicopters as heavily armed DEA agents stormed his home and collective. They seized cash and marijuana, they seized his property, they seized his personal and business bank accounts. They arrested him on federal marijuana charges.
But that wasn't enough for the DEA. The raiders also called Child Protective Services (CPS). With Naulls already hustled off to jail, his wife sitting handcuffed in a police car, and his home in a shambles after being tossed by the DEA, CPS social workers said his three children were endangered and seized them. Naulls and his wife were also charged with felony child endangerment.
The three girls -- ages 1, 3, and 5 -- were held in protective foster care, with Naulls and his wife only able to see them during a one-hour supervised visit a week. "My oldest girl thought she was being punished for doing something wrong," he said. "When we went to visit her, she said, 'Daddy, we're ready to come home now, we promise to be good.'"
But the Naulls couldn't tell their children the only thing that would comfort them -- that they would be coming home soon. That would violate CPS regulations because it might not be true. In fact, it took five weeks of hearings and heartache before a family court judge decided the children would indeed be safe with their parents. But the child endangerment charges still stand.
"I was numb, totally flabbergasted, outraged, and left speechless," said Naulls. "They told my wife we were endangering the kids because of the medicine we had in the house, but we only had some in a refrigerator in the garage that has an alarmed door and my own medicine in a locked container in my office -- the DEA broke that lock. Would they treat us that way if it had been prescription Xanax?"
The DEA was not apologetic about its handiwork. A DEA spokesman confirmed that its people had called CPS. "Any time we do an operation where children are present, we have a responsibility to call CPS," said Special Agent Jose Martinez. "But we don't make the decision about whether the children are endangered."
While it would not discuss particulars of the Naulls case, the Children's Services Division of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, of which CPS is a part, denies that medical marijuana use or presence is a reason for removal of children on the filing of endangerment charges.
"Drugs alone does not constitute a reason for removal," said Susan Lowe, director of the division. "More relevantly, the issue of medical marijuana does not constitute a reason for us to remove children. There have to be other issues present that indicate neglect or abuse."
That claim brought a sharp response from Oakland-based attorney James Anthony, who represented Naulls on land use issues related to his dispensary. While he supported Lowe's statement of the Riverside County CPS policy, he said it didnât reflect reality in the county.
"As a medical cannabis activist attorney and friend of the Naulls family, I would say that is very good news and seems to reflect a change of position -- or a position held at the top that has not filtered down yet to the working staff of CPS," said Anthony. "Riverside County CPS has an alarming reputation as quick to take children out of medical cannabis households and to press endangerment charges," he said. "The position the director laid out is exactly as it should be: medical cannabis is no more relevant to the best interests of children than any prescription drug -- the California Supreme Court said as much when it said that medical cannabis is as legal as any prescription drug," Anthony pointed out.
"In the Naulls case," Anthony continued, "what does the agency allege is the 'neglect or abuse'? Two loving parents? A nice middle-class home? Parents who care enough to avail themselves of legal, harmless, medicine to keep themselves well? The only abuse I'm aware of at the Naulls home was the abuse done by federal law enforcement when they invaded that home without warning and heavily armed -- terrorizing those poor children for no reason at all. The DEA could have called me and I would have advised my client to turn himself in -- it's not like he was hiding. If CPS wants to charge someone with child abuse, they should start with the DEA. Under their own standards as described here, there is no basis to prosecute Anisha Naulls for anything."
If there is any child abuse involved, it is coming from the state, agreed Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, a group concerned with abuses of the child protection system.
"What has been done to these children is government-sanctioned child abuse," Wexler said. "Whether one believes what Mr. Naulls did is legal or not, there is not a shred of evidence that running a medical marijuana co-op harms children -- and overwhelming evidence that foster care does children enormous harm," he said.
"The act of removal from everyone loving and familiar can traumatize a child for life, and the younger the child, the greater the likelihood for such harm," Wexler continued. "For a young enough child it's an experience akin to a kidnapping. Children often believe that they have done something terribly wrong and now they are being punished. That's reflected in one child telling her father 'Daddy, we're ready to come home now; we promise to be good.' All that harm occurs even when the foster home is a good one. The majority are. But several studies suggest that at least one in three foster children is abused in foster care. So these children have gone from a situation where they clearly were not abused, into foster care, where the odds are at least one in three that they will be abused," Wexler said.
"I warn all my dispensary clients that the federal government will try to capture and imprison you, but it hadn't occurred to me that the government will also kidnap your children," said Anthony. "It's just unbelievable, barbaric."
Anthony also works with Green Aid, a group originally set up to support Ed Rosenthal's legal battles with the feds in Northern California. Green Aid has set up a Naulls Family Defense Fund to aid the now impoverished family in its effort to stay together and out of prison.
Sadly, the Naulls are not alone. Veteran activists say child removals by CPS or the loss of custody battles in California family courts because of medical marijuana are not uncommon and becoming more frequent.
"Medical cannabis patients and providers getting their kids taken away is, unfortunately not new," said Angel McLary Raich, who won the first medical cannabis custody case in California in the wake of Proposition 215. Despite a variety of debilitating and life-threatening conditions, Raich and her patient outreach group Angel Wings, have since become a resource for other medical cannabis community members facing either the child protection bureaucracy or the vicissitudes of family court in child custody cases.
Raich, who is probably best known as the plaintiff in the Supreme Court's medical marijuana case, Raich v. Ashcroft, said involvement with medical cannabis as a factor in either child custody or abuse or endangerment cases is a recurring problem. "I know of many cases where the kids have been taken away permanently, others where they have to have supervised visitation."
"We think this kind of thing is horrible," said Noah Mamber, legal coordinator for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the medical marijuana defense group. "Even as we are making progress on the criminal front, with the cops becoming better educated, as well as other areas like employment and housing, as the legal intake person for ASA I find myself taking many, many calls where medical cannabis is an issue for CPS or in family court. I've probably had 30 or 40 in the last couple of years, and those are just the people who call us."
That means there is work to do, activists said. Some are undertaking an educational process with the family courts and CPS, while others are looking to the legislature for relief.
"No one seems to understand medical marijuana in this context," said Mamber. "There seems to be an unfortunate bias in CPS workers and family court judges. There are cases where there are no other issues except medical marijuana, and they will force them to quit taking their medicine if they want their kids. It is absolutely true that there are cases where patient parents are being treated unfairly by CPS and the family court system."
"An educational process for the courts and agencies is definitely needed," said Anthony. "They can act with the best of intentions, yet wield an incredibly devastating impact on families because of their lack of knowledge."
Raich pioneered such educational work in Alameda County. The work continues, she said. "I'm working on training law enforcement and dealing with CPS and family court," she said. "That's my real passion. I cannot tolerate watching other people lose their kids over this stuff. It is just so wrong."
If anyone is having problems with CPS or family court over medical marijuana issues, call her, Raich said. Her number is in the Oakland phone book and contact information is on her web site.
ASA is working to even the playing field for patients through legislative action, Mamber said. "As it is now, family courts and CPS don't seem to be aware of Prop. 215 and Senate Bill 420, so we need legislation to guide them. We have drafted a bill that would amend the child protection law so that the medical marijuana status of a parent cannot be the sole basis for removal of a child," he explained. "They need to quit forcing patients to stop taking their medicine. This measure won't stop CPS from doing its job, but it will stop it from persecuting medical marijuana patients."
All that is going to take time. In the meantime, said Raich, medical marijuana patients or providers with children need to play it extremely safe. "Make sure you're being a good parent," she said. "Make sure your cannabis is out of reach of the children, make sure your house is clean, there are no hazards, always plenty of milk and formula on hand. Don't grow in the house, don't dry in the house, don't have more pot than food in the refrigerator. Take a parenting class. Know what you need to do. And if the cops come to the door, don't let them in without a warrant."
As for Ronald Naulls, he's still a bit shell-shocked. "I'm a businessman and a network engineer. I don't have a criminal record and I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to have to fight the state to keep my daughters. I'm praying for God's love, and I ask everyone to pray for me. But this is more than just about me, this is a fight for the patients and for my family."
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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 brings us: "Arresting Marijuana Users Sends the Wrong Message to Children," "Drew Carey Cares About Medical Marijuana," "Cowards: Democratic Front-Runners Reject Marijuana Law Reform," "Bill O'Reilly Doesn't Want You to Get High," "What Motivates the Leaders of the Drug War?" and "Blogging is More Addictive Than Marijuana."
David Guard 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.
Thanks for reading, and writing...
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A top narc admits he was dirty, a border drug squad deputy commander goes to prison, a deputy police chief is under investigation, and yes, another prison guard gets busted. Let's get to it:
In New Haven, Connecticut, the former head of the New Haven police drug squad admitted last Friday to stealing tens of thousands of dollars left by the FBI in a corruption sting and taking thousands more in bribes from bail bondsmen. William White, 63, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government property and one count of conspiracy to take bribes. The flamboyant White, a 39-year veteran, was New Haven's top narc throughout the 1990s and collected much of the evidence used by federal anti-crime task forces to break up drug dealing organizations in New Haven and Bridgeport, but was always shadowed by allegations of evidence-fixing and missing drug money. He went down when the FBI caught him on video stealing $27,500 from the trunk of a car he was told belonged to a drug dealer. During the investigation, White also boasted that he had made a lot of money off bail bondsmen by accepting bribes to help them find fugitives -- a service police should provide in the normal course of business. That led to the bribery conspiracy charge. Legal documents introduced in court also show at least one case of detectives manufacturing evidence to bolster a potential drug prosecution. Charges were dropped in that case. White was fired after his arrest. Police Chief Francisco Orti later disbanded the narcotics unit. Some of its cases were turned over to the state police pending a review of the unit's performance.
In San Antonio, a former deputy commander of the Laredo Multi-Agency Narcotics Task Force was sentenced to eight years in prison last Friday for taking bribes from drug traffickers to let their loads pass unmolested. Julio Alfonso Lopez, 46, had pleaded guilty in July 2006 to extorting $44,500 from dealers to protect loads coming though Zapata County on the Texas-Mexico border. An FBI investigation found that Lopez had taken money from traffickers on four occasions in 2005 and 2006. He had been deputy commander of the task force for about a year when he was arrested in April 2006.
In Lynnwood, Washington, the deputy police chief is under investigation over missing cash, guns, and drugs. Deputy Chief Paul Watkins has been questioned by the FBI about his tenure as commander of the Investigations Division, where he oversaw property seized from suspects. The Lynnwood Police called in the feds after an internal audit showed that cash released to him could not be accounted for. In one case, Watkins allegedly signed for a package containing $14,000 cash, two handguns, and two grams of cocaine. That package never made it to the evidence room, and efforts to find it have been fruitless. He is also accused of at least five other instances of pocketing cash seized from suspects, and a federal grand jury in Seattle will look at the case shortly. Watkins is now on paid administrative leave from the department.
In El Dorado, Kansas, a prison guard was arrested October 24 for trying to smuggle contraband into the prison. Nikkia Shanae Abrams, 27, a guard at the El Dorado Correctional Facility, was busted carrying marijuana, tobacco, and vodka into the prison. She faces three counts of trafficking and contraband at a correctional institution. Each count carries a sentence of up to 11 ½ years in prison. Abrams was last reported in jail trying to make a $30,000 bond. She'll be back in court November 19.
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An amendment to a Senate appropriations bill that would bar cities that open safe injection sites from receiving federal education, health, and labor funding was adopted by the Senate last week. The bill is now in conference committee, where drug reform activists are working to kill it.
drug war bad guy Jim DeMint
Sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) in apparent reaction to talk about such a facility in San Francisco, the amendment to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education annual appropriation bill would cut off funding from those departments to any city that opens a safe injection site.
At least 27 cities in eight European countries, as well as Vancouver, Canada, and Sydney, Australia, are operating safe injection sites. They have been shown to reduce needle-sharing and the rate of new HIV and Hep C infections among injection drug users without causing increases in drug use or criminality.
No American locality has so far tried to establish such a facility. But in San Francisco, discussions are underway.
"Drug war extremists in Congress are trying to ban cities from adopting a drug policy reform that no US city has even adopted yet," warned Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, in an email to supporters in states whose representatives are on the conference committee. "That's how scared they are of the growing drug policy reform movement. And they might win unless you take action today. We're in a major fight and we urgently need your help because at least one of your members of Congress is a key vote."
The measure needs to be nipped in the bud, Piper warned. "If this amendment passes, we can expect members of Congress to try to pass bolder amendments, like denying federal aid to any city that decriminalizes marijuana and cutting off highway funding to any state that enacts alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug law offenses," Piper wrote. "Obviously no city will consider such reforms if it means losing all their federal aid. That's why we have to stop this amendment right here, right now. We have to show the drug war extremists that there's no support in Congress for escalating the war on drugs."
Residents of Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, New Jersey, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wisconsin need to call their senators now, Piper said. "The bill is now in conference. If we don't get this stricken from the final bill, it could be years or decades before this draconian ban is repealed," he predicted.
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Drug policy made an ever-so-brief appearance at the tail end of Tuesday night's televised debate among Democratic presidential candidates, and the results were disappointing for drug reformers. When NBC's Tim Russert asked candidates for a show of hands to indicate if they disagreed with Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's support for marijuana decriminalization, all except Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich raised their hands.
Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, former Sen. John Edwards, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson all declined the opportunity to take a progressive stand on marijuana policy. Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who has called for the legalization of drugs, was not invited to the debate.
Here is the transcript of the relevant portion of the debate:
Russert: Senator Dodd, you went on the Bill Maher show last month and said that you were for decriminalizing marijuana. Is there anyone here who disagrees with Senator Dodd in decriminalizing marijuana?
Senator Biden, Senator...
(Laughter)
Senator Edwards, why?
Edwards: Because I think it sends the wrong signal to young people. And I think the president of the United States has a responsibility to ensure that we're sending the right signals to young people.
Dodd: Can I respond just why I think it ought to be? We're locking up too many people in our system here today. We've got mandatory minimum sentences, they are filling our jails with people that don't belong there. My idea is to decriminalize this, reduce that problem here. We've gone from 800,000 to 2 million people, in our penal institutions in this country. We've got to get a lot smarter about this issue than we are. And as president, I'd try and achieve that.
And then it was on to a question about Chinese toys and a question about what candidates would wear for Halloween, and then the debate was over.
Look for detailed coverage of the various Democratic candidates' positions on a number of drug policy issues here next week, with a report on the Republicans' positions the following week. But if the Democratic contenders aren't interested in even giving decrim an approving nod, prepare to be disappointed in their other drug policy positions, too, and expect even worse from the Republicans.
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The mere presence of illegal drugs in a home is not sufficient to allow prosecution under a state law that says children are endangered when exposed to them, the Utah Supreme Court ruled last Friday. The court ruled unanimously in State v. Gallegos, which consolidated the cases of two women charged with felony child endangerment after police found drugs in their homes.
In one case, police found cocaine in a purse and a jewelry box on a dresser in a room where the mother and her three children were located. In the other, they found methamphetamine precursors in a set of plastic drawers in an outbuilding of a home where a 13-year-old lived with her mother.
The Utah law, similar to those in many other states, makes it a felony to allow a child "to be exposed to, to ingest or inhale, or to have contact with a controlled substance, chemical substance, or drug paraphernalia."
In both cases, defense attorneys argued that "exposure" must include actual risk of harm and that the mere presence of drugs in the home did not rise to that level. The state high court agreed.
"There must be an actual risk of harm... Exposure must go beyond mere visual or auditory exposure, such as exposure to images of drugs on television or an infant being able to see a controlled substance from the confines of a crib," Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote for the court.
"The child must have a reasonable capacity to actually access or get to the substance or paraphernalia or to be subject to its harmful effects, such as inhalation or touching. This seems a common sense interpretation of the statute," the court said.
If the mere presence of a controlled substance were enough to establish grounds for child endangerment, many people who use legal prescription drugs "would be committing felonies," the opinion noted.
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The Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) will form a drug policy task force, MBA President David White, Jr. announced last week. The task force will examine current drug policy and consider reforms, White said.
"We look to build a coalition from a broad spectrum of the Massachusetts health care, business and law enforcement communities. The coalition will take a hard look at the difficult questions of drug addiction and punishment of drug-related crimes," said White. "This is one part of our effort to improve sentencing in Massachusetts. Reforms of the current sentencing system will reduce crime, rebuild families and communities and save money," he added.
White's announcement came as a two-hour symposium on sentencing at the Statehouse Great Hall came to an end. During that symposium, panels of legislators, advocates, and attorneys suggested that the Bay State could see meaningful sentencing reform for the first time in years.
"I'm more optimistic than ever that we can have a useful discussion," said panelist state Sen. Robert Creedon Jr., Senate chairman of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.
Mandatory minimum sentencing came under attack from several panelists, including at least one law enforcement official. Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral said mandatory minimums make treating inmates with drug problems more difficult and constitute obstacles to rehabilitation.
"The sheriffs, we are on the forefront of reentry programs, but we are stymied by mandatory minimums that don't allow us to classify people for acceptance into some of our programs," Cabral said.
Other panelists at the symposium included Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox, Families Against Mandatory Minimums vice president and general counsel Mary Price, Washington state Rep. Roger Goodman (who leads the pioneering King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project), and several ranking Massachusetts elected officials.
White was named head of the MBA earlier this year. He has said that sentencing reform is one of his top priorities.
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Repressive law enforcement responses to injection drug users in Southeast Asia are undermining the effort to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region, analysts meeting in Bangkok said last week. Needle sharing among injection drug users could account for up to 50% of all new infections, they said.
Thai embassy protest in Washington (DRCNet's David Guard in foreground)
Harassment and arrests of clients at needle exchange programs means many avoid them, while heavy-handed police crackdowns in places like Thailand have driven users deep underground, away from needle exchange programs and treatment services.
In Thailand, where a government "war on drugs" killed a reported 2,500 people over three months in 2003, police often blur the line between dealers and users, hindering efforts to treat addicts, said Precha Knokwan of the Thai Drug Users' Network. "The drug users themselves are afraid that they might be a victim of the police," he said.
It's a similar situation in Indonesia, where prisons are full of HIV-positive drug users who have no access to services, said Aditya Anugrah of the Indonesian Drug Users' Association. "Drug policies in Indonesia do not separate users from dealers," he said. That leads to needle-sharing and the spread of HIV, he said. "Our policies are focusing on sending people to jail and treating them as criminals rather than as health problems."
What is needed is harm reduction, but that requires the cooperation of governments and law enforcement, said Daniel Wolfe of the Open Society Institute. "Harm reduction measures can only work if law enforcement understands them and helps to enforce them," he said.
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Indonesia's Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that sentencing drug offenders to death does not violate the constitution. The ruling came in a case lodged by three Australians who face execution for trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.
The three were among the "Bali Nine," a group of Australians busted together. Six were sentenced to death, two got life in prison, and one got 20 years. The ruling will be a blow to them, as well as to the 134 other people on death row in the archipelago, most of them there for drug offenses.
The Australians argued that the Indonesian constitution's clause on the right to life overrode the criminal code's stipulation that serious crimes can be punished by death. The constitutional court disagreed.
The death penalty for drug offenses continues to have strong support among Indonesian government officials, judges and prosecutors, and law enforcement. At least eight people have been executed there since 2000.
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Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we'd like to hear from you. DRCNet needs two things:
- We are in between newsletter grants, and that makes our need for donations more pressing. Drug War Chronicle is free to read but not to produce! Click here to make a donation by credit card or PayPal, or to print out a form to send in by mail.
- Please send quotes and reports on how you put our flow of information to work, for use in upcoming grant proposals and letters to funders or potential funders. Do you use DRCNet as a source for public speaking? For letters to the editor? Helping you talk to friends or associates about the issue? Research? For your own edification? Have you changed your mind about any aspects of drug policy since subscribing, or inspired you to get involved in the cause? Do you reprint or repost portions of our bulletins on other lists or in other newsletters? Do you have any criticisms or complaints, or suggestions? We want to hear those too. Please send your response -- one or two sentences would be fine; more is great, too -- email [email protected] or reply to a Chronicle email or use our online comment form. Please let us know if we may reprint your comments, and if so, if we may include your name or if you wish to remain anonymous. IMPORTANT: Even if you have given us this kind of feedback before, we could use your updated feedback now too -- we need to hear from you!
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November 2, 1951: The Boggs Act nearly quadruples penalties for all narcotics offenses and unscientifically lumps marijuana in with narcotic drugs. (Narcotics are by definition a class of drugs derived from the opium poppy plant, containing opium, or produced synthetically and to have opium-like effects. Opioid drugs relieve pain, dull the senses and induce sleep.)
November 6, 1984: The DEA and Mexican officials raid a large marijuana cultivation and processing complex in the Chihuahua desert owned by kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero. Seven thousand campesinos work at the complex, where between 5,000-10,000 tons of high-grade marijuana worth $2.5 billion is found and destroyed. Time magazine calls this "the bust of the century," and it reveals the existence of Mexico's sophisticated marijuana smuggling industry.
November 8, 1984: The international marijuana seizure record is set (still in effect today) -- 4,260,000 lbs in Mexico.
November 6, 1985: Upping the ante in the battle against extradition, guerillas linked to the Medellin cartel occupy the Colombian Palace of Justice. At least 95 people are killed when the Colombian military attack after a 26-hour siege, including 11 Supreme Court justices. Many court documents, including all pending requests, are destroyed by fire.
November 5, 1987: Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio breaks the story that Reagan Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg admitted to having smoked marijuana with his students "on a few occasions in the '70s" while he was a professor at Harvard. Two days later, President Reagan asks Ginsburg to withdraw his nomination.
November 8, 1987: The New York Times reports that Al Gore said he last used marijuana when he was 24. He said he first tried the drug at the end of his junior year at Harvard and used it again at the beginning of his senior year the next fall. He also said he used the drug "once or twice" while off-duty in an Army tour at Bien Hoa, Vietnam, on several occasions while he was in graduate school at Vanderbilt University and when he was an employee of a Nashville newspaper (The Nashville Tennessean). Three days later Gore is quoted in UPI: "We have to be honest and candid and open in dealing with the (drug) problem."
November 6, 1989: Former President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz is quoted by the Associated Press: "We need at least to consider and examine forms of controlled legalization of drugs."
November 5, 1996: California's Proposition 215 (The Compassionate Use Act) passes with 56% of the voting public in favor. Proposition 200 (The Drug Medicalization, Prevention, and Control Act) in Arizona passes with 65% of the vote.
November 4, 1998: Voters in seven states overwhelmingly approve nine medical marijuana and larger drug policy reform initiatives.
November 3, 1999: The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (CJPF) cosponsors a press conference and releases a letter to Drug Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey from distinguished American and Latin American leaders who reject the US export of the failed "war on drugs" to Latin America.
November 7, 2000: In California, citizens vote 61%-39% to pass Proposition 36, diverting nonviolent drug offenders into treatment rather than prison for first and second offenses. In Mendocino County voters approve a measure decriminalizing personal use and growth of up to 25 marijuana plants -- the Green Party-sponsored Measure G wins 52% of the vote.
November 3, 2001: DEA raids the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, a medical marijuana distribution facility, arresting its president, Scott Imler. City officials condemn the raid at a press conference attended by more than 100 center members.
November 5, 2002: Reuters reports that researchers say alcohol and violence pose more of an immediate health hazard than drugs for young adults who enjoy clubbing. Researchers say that drugs such as ecstasy, speed, cocaine and heroin are a serious problem in clubs, but assaults fueled by alcohol are the main reason clubbers seek hospital treatment.
November 7, 2002: Ruling in favor of NORML Foundation and Media Access Project complaints, the Federal Communications Commission says that public service announcements broadcast under the auspices of the White House drug office advertising program must identify themselves as being part of that program. As a result of the ruling, broadcasters are forced to insert tag lines proclaiming "sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy."
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The Marijuana Policy Project has two part-time, unpaid positions open:
Research Fellowship (nationwide):
This fellowship is unpaid but offers flexible hours and the ability to work remotely (all work can be done from home). The work will likely take a total of 60-80 hours, which can be spread out over a period of up to two months. The fellow will read and summarize MPP's substantial collection of studies and reports, on topics such as the effects of marijuana, marijuana use rates, and the impact of marijuana laws and policies. The goal of the project is to create user-friendly summaries that will provide staff and visitors to MPP's web site with an overview of each study.
Interested candidates should have strong writing skills and, ideally, some familiarity with medical and scientific research. Because this is an autonomous, work-from-home position, candidates should also have initiative and the ability to stay motivated without constant contact with co-workers. A familiarity with MPP and marijuana policy is desired but not required.
To apply for this position, please e-mail a letter of interest and a resume to [email protected]. Your letter should specify (1) why you are interested in working with MPP, (2) your view of marijuana policy, (3) whether you have any experience in marijuana policy, and (4) your experience working with research studies and reports, if any. Feel free to include any other information you deem relevant, not to exceed one page.
Membership Intern (Washington, DC):
This is an unpaid, part-time internship, for 8-20 hours per week, and is a chance to play a responsible role in a successful nonprofit organization. The Membership department coordinates MPP's fundraising, conducts donor research, oversees communications with members, maintains MPP's member database, processes donations, and submits grant applications. The Membership Intern will assist the department primarily by researching donors, which involves substantial Internet research. Additional tasks may be assigned as well.
To apply for this position, please visit http://www.mpp.org/internships and follow the application guidelines listed on that page.
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The deadline for submitting abstracts for "Harm Reduction 2008," the conference of the International Harm Reduction Association, is fast approaching. All abstracts must be submitted online by November 14, 2007. If you wish to share your experiences, best practice, research and ideas in front of an international audience, you are encouraged to submit an abstract of 200 to 300 words.
Visit http://www.ihra.net/Barcelona/Home for further information. Click here to find the guide for abstracts.
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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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