Drug War Chronicle #551 - September 12, 2008

Coming off a summer symposium that brought together experts in criminal justice and sentencing issues, the US Sentencing Commission has announced that it is making alternatives to incarceration one of its priorities for the coming year. With a record 200,000-plus people in federal prison -- more than half of them drug offenders -- that is a good thing.

In November, California residents will vote on a massive, complicated "treatment not jail" initiative known as the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA) and appearing on the ballot as Proposition 5. Battle lines are now being drawn.

The Higher Education Act (HEA) drug provision bars students with drug convictions from obtaining financial aid for specified periods. The John W. Perry Fund was created to help some of those students and to raise awareness of the injustice of the provision. This year, it is helping two students stay in school.

"Dying to Get High," by sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard Webb, is a groundbreaking work that provides an in-depth portrait of one of the country's most well-known medical marijuana collectives.

We have cops and prison guards getting into drug war trouble from coast to coast this week, from San Diego to Chicago and from Florida to Maryland.

California medical marijuana and marijuana legalization activist Eddy Lepp faces from 10 years to life in prison after being convicted by a federal jury of growing more 24,000 plants.

It's official -- An initiative making adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest law enforcement priority in Fayetteville, Arkansas, will be on the November 4 ballot. But local prosecutors and law enforcement officials say it doesn't matter.

Medical marijuana users all too frequently run into problems with medical practitioners who consider them nothing more than drug abusers. Now, a West Virginia victim of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is suing the doctor and clinic that dismissed him because he used pot to alleviate his symptoms.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón staked his political reputation on doing battle with the drug cartels. Now, with prohibition-related violence at record levels and violent common crime also on the rise, he is looking for more money to save his legacy.

Washington's war of words against Venezuela over its anti-drug interdiction efforts continued this week, as John Walters called the country a "global threat" because it does not cooperate in US anti-drug efforts.

Anti-drug vigilantism is not unknown in India or some other parts of the world, but it's not usually cheered on by the press. This week, it was in India's Orissa state.

An Irish judge has dismissed drugged driving charges against a young man based solely on the presence of marijuana in his system. That's not sufficient to prove impairment, he ruled.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

"Jonathan Caulkins vs. The Boring Drug War Debate," "If Salvia Isn't Toxic or Addictive, What's the Argument for Banning it?," "How to Use Drugs Without Ruining Our Lives," "Jurors Fight Back Against the War on Medical Marijuana," "Smoke a Joint, Get Your Boss Fired," "If the Drug War Makes Sense to You, Nothing Else Will."

Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to funders. We need donations too.

Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!

A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War Chronicle and more -- is now available.

Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to the events coming up the soonest, and more.