Getting medical marijuana bills passed in state legislatures is a long, hard slog. So far this year, only one bill has passed into law, the Rhode Island dispensary bill, which builds on an existing medical marijuana law. Two states' legislatures, Minnesota and New Hampshire, passed bills, only to have them vetoed. But there's still hope in a few places. Here's a rundown of medical marijuana at the statehouse this year.
The Drug Policy Alliance's 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference took place in Albuquerque last weekend. It was quite a show. Here's a scene report.
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.
The Mexico Drug War Update took a break last week, but the violence didn't. Here's the latest rundown and body count.
One New Jersey prison guard gets indicted and another gets sentenced. There's also another Customs officer lured by lucre, a meth-slinging Indiana cop, and a Colorado cop turned pill provider.
At a conference last week, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda bluntly accused the Mexican military of murdering members of the so-called drug cartels to avenge its own losses in the country's bloody wave of prohibition-related violence.
If the British government thought it could shut up David Nutt, the head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, by firing him, it thought wrong. Now, the newly liberated drug expert is calling for a Royal Commission to examine decriminalizing marijuana.
Los Angeles has been trying to regulate its mushrooming medical marijuana dispensaries for four years. It could be coming down to the wire next week, but storm clouds loom as city and county prosecutors argue that any medical marijuana sales are illegal.
The era of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses has come to an end in Rhode Island. But that's just a start -- you can still get up to 50 years for 10 pounds of pot.
Like other states, Tennessee is feeling the effects of the bad economy, and so is the state's budget. Now, the governor is seeking a 9% across-the-board budget cut, and that could mean -- God forbid! -- that the state might have to let some nonviolent prisoners get out a few months early.
Some legislators never met a psychoactive substance they didn't want to prohibit. Kansas state Sen. Peggy Mast (R) is one of them. Now, she wants to do to K-2 what she's already done to salvia divinorum and jimson weed.
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
"Tommy Chong's Prosecutor Says He Should Have Gotten More Jail Time," "Cheech and Chong vs. Bill O'Reilly: Worst Interview Ever," "'Buy American Pot!' Says American Marijuana Growers Association," "Drug Czar's Website Still Wrong About AMA's Medical Marijuana Stance," "DEA Website STILL Wrong About AMA's Medical Marijuana Stance," "Colorado Announces Plan to Tax Medical Marijuana," "As Long as the Drug War Continues, So Will the Corruption," "Marijuana is Practically Legal (But Only for Aging White People Who Live in the Suburbs)," "If You Care About Ending the Drug War, Watch This," "Will Foster is Almost Free. You Can Help Open That Prison Door By Acting Now," "Nice People Take Drugs."
Medical marijuana has gone mainstream. It routinely receives above 70% in public opinion polls, it has been legalized in 13 states, and this year 18 more states either tried or are still trying to pass medical marijuana laws. It was also the subject of legislative activity in four states that already have medical marijuana laws.
march in Madison, Wisconsin last month by the group ''Is My Medicine Legal Yet?''
But just because it's mainstream doesn't mean it's easy. The legislative process is notoriously slow, arduous, and fickle. At the beginning of the year, movement leaders thought we would see perhaps four or five states pass medical marijuana laws this year. That hasn't happened. This year, no state that didn't have a medical marijuana law has managed to get one passed, and in a pair of medical marijuana states that did pass additional legislation, recalcitrant governors proved to be obstacles.
Nevertheless, progress has been made, with prospects for more, whether this year or later. As 2009 enters its final weeks, here's where we stand:
PASSED BUT VETOED:
Minnesota: In May, the Minnesota legislature approved a restrictive medical marijuana bill, SF 97. The House version of the bill won on a 70-64 vote. The Senate, which had approved its version of the bill a month earlier, accepted the House version, passing it on a 38-28 vote. The vote was largely along party lines, with most Republicans opposing and most Democratic Farm Labor (DFL) members supporting the bill. In neither chamber was the margin of victory large enough to overcome a veto. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) quickly vetoed the bill. Blocked by a recalcitrant governor, Minnesota medical marijuana proponents are considering an end run around him next year. Under Minnesota law, the legislature can bypass the governor by voting for a constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana use. If such a measure passes the legislature, it would then go directly to a popular vote. With support for medical marijuana at high levels in Minnesota, proponents believe the measure would pass.
New Hampshire: The legislature passed HB 648, which would have created three nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries for patients, but Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed it. In October, the House voted to override the veto on a vote of 240-115, but the Senate fell two votes short on a 14-10 vote.
DEAD OR DORMANT:
Alabama: The Alabama medical marijuana bill, HB 434, sponsored by Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham) was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and died there without a vote when the session adjourned in May.
Connecticut: Two medical marijuana bills were introduced this year, HB 6156, introduced by Rep. Penny Bacchiochi (R-Sommers), and HB 5175, introduced by Rep. Mary Mushinsky (D-Wallingford). Neither bill received a public hearing. No medical marijuana legislation is likely to move in Connecticut until Gov. Jodi Rell (R) is gone. In 2007, medical marijuana bills passed both the House and the Senate, only to be vetoed by Rell.
Iowa: Sen. Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City) introduced a medical marijuana bill, SF 293, in March. That same month it got a hearing before the Senate Human Resources Subcommittee, but has had no action since.
Maryland: Maryland enacted an affirmative defense law for medical marijuana patients in 2003, but that doesn't protect them from arrest. HB 1339, sponsored by Delegate Henry Heller (D-Montgomery County), introduced this year, would have created a task force to make recommendations about changing the state's medical marijuana law. The bill received a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, but died when committee Chairman Joseph Vallario (D-Calvert County) refused to schedule a vote on it.
Massachusetts: A medical marijuana bill, HB 2160, was filed in January and referred to the Joint Committee on Public Health, which held a hearing in May. Since then, no action.
Missouri: For the third year in a row, a medical marijuana bill was filed, but went nowhere. HB 277, introduced by Rep. Kate Meiners, was stalled by the House leadership and assigned to the Health Care Policy Committee too late to be scheduled for a hearing this year.
North Carolina: The North Carolina medical marijuana bill, HB 1380 was introduced in April by Rep. Earl Jones (D-Guilford). It got a public hearing before the House Health Committee in June, but has not moved since.
South Dakota: A South Dakota medical marijuana bill, HB 1127, sponsored by Rep. Gerald Lange (D-Madison), managed to survive three restrictive amendments in the House Health and Human Services Committee before the committee voted to kill it on a 9-4 vote in February. The legislature will have one more chance to pass a medical marijuana bill early next year. If it doesn't, medical marijuana backers will place an initiative on the November 2010 ballot.
HB 1128, also sponsored by Lang, would have provided a medical necessity defense for medical marijuana patients. In February, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously killed it by referring it "to the 41st day." The session only has 40 days.
Tennessee: The Tennessee Medical Marijuana Act of 2009, SB 209, sponsored by Sen. Beverly Marrero (D-Memphis), and its companion measure, HB 368, sponsored by Rep. Jeanne Richardson (D-Memphis) were assigned to their respective Health and Human Services Committees, where they were ignored and died a quiet death.
Texas: A Texas medical marijuana bill, HB 164, introduced by Rep. Elliot Naishtat (D-Austin) was introduced in November 2008 and referred to the House Public Health Committee in February. No action has occurred since then.
STILL ALIVE:
Delaware: A medical marijuana bill, SB 94, sponsored by Sen. Margaret Rose Henley (D-Wilmington) passed the Senate Health and Social Services on a 4-0 vote in June. It awaits a Senate floor vote when the legislature reconvenes for the second year of its two-year session in January.
Illinois: The Compassionate Use of Cannabis Pilot Program Act, SB 1381, passed the state Senate by a 30-28 vote in May. It passed the House Human Services Committee on a 4-3 vote the next day, but has had no further action in the House. The bill may move when the House returns for the second half of its session in January. Gov. Pat Quinn (D) will give "serious consideration" to a medical marijuana bill that reaches his desk.
New Jersey: The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, which had already passed the Senate, was approved by the Assembly Health Committee on a 7-1 vote, but only after making it dramatically different from and more restrictive than the Senate version. At the behest of committee chair Herb Conaway (D-Burlington), who was responding to criticism that the bill's distribution and oversight provisions weren't tight enough, the bill was amended so that only "alternative treatment centers" could grow, process, and distribute medical marijuana. In the version passed by the Senate, patients could also grow their own or have caretakers grow it for them. In this latest version, there is no role for caretakers, because it also provides that only patients may pick up medical marijuana at a dispensary, or have a courier deliver it to them.The bill now heads for a floor vote in the Assembly. It also must go back to the Senate, which must approve the amended version.
New York: In New York, a medical marijuana bill, S4041, passed the Senate Health Committee in May, marking the first time a medical marijuana had ever passed the previously GOP-controlled state Senate. It must now pass the Senate Codes Committee before proceeding to a Senate floor vote. The identical House version of the bill, A7542, has been passed from the House Health Committee to the House Codes Committee. The bills are sponsored by Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) and Senate Health Committee Chair Tom Duane (D-Manhattan) and would create state-registered dispensaries for patients. Patients could not grow their own. The legislature is expected to return for a special session later this year, and proponents are pushing for a vote.
Pennsylvania: For the first time in memory, Pennsylvania legislators have a medical marijuana bill, HB 1393 before them. Introduced in April by Rep. Mark Cohen (D-Philadelphia), the bill has been in the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee ever since. Just last week, however, the committee chair, Rep. Frank Oliver (D-Philadelphia), scheduled a December 2 hearing on the bill.
Wisconsin: The Wisconsin medical marijuana bill, SB 368 was introduced late last month. Gov. Jim Doyle supports it. The bill is set for a December 15 hearing and could move quickly after that.
VOTES IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA STATES:
Hawaii: In July, the Hawaii legislature overrode Gov. Linda Lingle's (R) veto of SB 1058, which establishes a task force to examine problems and critical issues surrounding the state's medical marijuana law. The vote was 25-0 in the Senate and 38-9 in the House. Gov. Lingle has since refused to fund the task force, forcing interested legislators to create the informal Medical Cannabis Working Group to hear testimony.
Maine: In April, when faced with a citizen petition to amend the state's medical marijuana law, the Maine legislature punted, taking no action and leaving it to the voters in this month's election. The voters approved the measure allowing for the creation of dispensaries.
Montana: Montana already has a medical marijuana law, but several bills seeking to change it -- for better or worse -- saw action this year. SB 326, sponsored by Sen. Ron Erickson would have increased allowable amounts, added several illnesses to the list of qualifying conditions, and added child custody protections for patients. It passed the Senate 28-22, but failed on a tie vote to get out of the House Human Services Committee. Sponsors then tried a House floor vote to get the bill out of committee, but they needed 60 votes and only got 47. Similarly, HB 73, which would have allowed nurse practitioners and physician assistants to recommend marijuana to patients, died in the House Human Services Committee on a tie vote.
Two bad bills also died. HB 473, sponsored by Rep. Tom Berry (R-Roundup) would have barred anyone with a drug felony from ever becoming a registered patient. It died on a tie vote in the House Judiciary Committee. And SB 212, introduced by Sen. Verdell Jackson (R-Kalispell), attempted to force patients with more than a specific amount of THC in their system to prove their innocence if accused of driving under the influence. It was killed by a unanimous vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Rhode Island: In the only medical marijuana victory at the statehouse so far this year, the Rhode Island legislature in June overrode Gov. Donald Carcieri's veto of a bill to create a system of state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries. The override vote was a unanimous 68-0 in the House and a punishing 35-3 in the Senate. Rhode Island thus became the first state to expand an existing medical marijuana program to allow for state-licensed dispensaries.
Statehouse legislation is only one measure of progress in the drive to fully legalize medical marijuana use. Initiative victories, such as Maine's mentioned above, is another, as is the expansion of the dispensary supply infrastructure to states like Colorado or Montana is another. Increased mainstream support, such as last week's bombshell from the American Medical Association certainly bodes well for the future, as does the Obama administration's formalized policy of not targeting medical marijuana providers that are obeying their states' laws. But statehouses make state law -- for better or for worse -- and they are a place where reforms need to be taken, as well as an opportunity for them. By that measure 2009 has been a slower year than hoped -- but not a bad one.
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Jazzed by the sense that the tide is finally turning their way, more than a thousand people interested in changing drug policies flooded into Albuquerque, New Mexico, last weekend for the 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference, hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance. Police officers in suits mingled with aging hippies, politicians met with harm reductionists, research scientists chatted with attorneys, former prisoners huddled with state legislators, and marijuana legalizers mingled with drug treatment professionals -- all united by the belief that drug prohibition is a failed policy.
candlelight vigil outside the Albuquerque Convention Center (courtesy Drug Policy Alliance)
As DPA's Ethan Nadelmann said before and repeated at the conference's opening session: "We are the people who love drugs, we are the people who hate drugs, we are the people that don't care about drugs," but who do care about the Constitution and social justice. "The wind is at our backs," Nadelmann chortled, echoing and amplifying the sense of progress and optimism that pervaded the conference like never before.
For three days, conference-goers attended a veritable plethora of panels and breakout sessions, with topics ranging from the drug war in Mexico and South America to research on psychedelics, from implementing harm reduction policies in rural areas to legalizing marijuana, from how to organize for drug reform to what sort of treatment works, and from medical marijuana to prescription heroin.
It was almost too much. At any given moment, several fascinating panels were going on, ensuring that at least some of them would be missed even by the most interested. The Thursday afternoon time bloc, for example, had six panels: "Medical Marijuana Production and Distribution Systems," "After Vienna: Prospects for UN and International Reform," "Innovative Approaches to Sentencing Reform," "Examining Gender in Drug Policy Reform," "Artistic Interventions for Gang Involved Youth," and "The Message is the Medium: Communications and Outreach Without Borders."
The choices weren't any easier at the Friday morning breakout session, with panels including "Marijuana Messaging that Works," "Fundraising in a Tough Economy," "Congress, President Obama, and the Drug Czar," "Zoned Out" (about "drug-free zones"), "Psychedelic Research: Neuroscience and Ethnobotanical Roots," "Opioid Overdose Prevention Workshop," and "Border Perspectives: Alternatives to the 40-Year-Old War on Drugs."
People came from all over the United States -- predominantly from the East Coast -- as well as South Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe (Denmark, England, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, and Switzerland), Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico), and Asia (Cambodia and Thailand).
Medical marijuana was one of the hot topics, and New Mexico, which has just authorized four dispensaries, was held up as a model by some panelists. "If we had a system as clear as New Mexico's, we'd be in great shape," said Alex Kreit, chair of a San Diego task force charged with developing regulations for dispensaries there.
"Our process has been deliberate, which you can also read as 'slow,'" responded Steve Jenison, medical director of the state Department of Health's Infectious Disease Bureau. "But our process will be a very sustainable one. We build a lot of consensus before we do anything."
Jenison added that the New Mexico, which relies on state-regulated dispensaries, was less likely to result in diversion than more open models, such as California's. "A not-for-profit being regulated by the state would be less likely to be a source of diversion to the illicit market," Jenison said.
For ACLU Drug Policy Law Project attorney Allen Hopper, such tight regulation has an added benefit: it is less likely to excite the ire of the feds. "The greater the degree of state involvement, the more the federal government is going to leave the state alone," Hopper said.
At Friday's plenary session, "Global Drug Prohibition: Costs, Consequences and Alternatives," Australia's Dr. Alex Wodak amused the audience by likening the drug war to "political Viagra" in that it "increases potency in elections." But he also made the more serious point that the US has exported its failed drug policy around the world, with deleterious consequences, especially for producer or transit states like Afghanistan, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
At that same session, former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda warned that Latin American countries feel constrained from making drug policy reforms because of the glowering presence of the US. Drug reform is a "radioactive" political issue, he said, in explaining why it is either elder statesmen, such as former Brazilian President Cardoso or people like himself, "with no political future," who raise the issue. At a panel the following day, Castaneda made news by bluntly accusing the Mexican army of executing drug traffickers without trial. (See related story here).
It wasn't all listening to panels. In the basement of the Albuquerque Convention Center, dozens of vendors showed off their wares, made their sales, and distributed their materials as attendees wandered through between sessions. And for many attendees, it was as much a reunion as a conference, with many informal small group huddles taking place at the center and in local bars and restaurants and nearby hotels so activists could swap experiences and strategies and just say hello again.
The conference also saw at least two premieres. On the first day of the conference, reporters and other interested parties repaired to a Convention Center conference room to see the US unveiling of the British Transform Drug Policy Foundation publication, After the War on Drugs: A Blueprint for Legalization, a how-to manual on how to get to drug reform's promised land. Transform executive director Danny Kushlick was joined by Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies, Deborah Small of Break the Chains, and DPA's Nadelmann as he laid out the case for moving beyond "what would it look like."
"There's never been a clear vision of a post-prohibition world," said Kushlick. "With this, we've tried to reclaim drug policy from the drug warriors. We want to make drug policy boring," he said. "We want not only harm reduction, but drama reduction," he added, envisioning debates about restrictions on sales hours, zoning, and other dreary topics instead of bloody drug wars and mass incarceration.
"As a movement, we have failed to articulate the alternative," said Tree. "And that leaves us vulnerable to the fear of the unknown. This report restores order to the anarchy. Prohibition means we have given up on regulating drugs; this report outlines some of the options for regulation."
That wasn't the only unveiling Thursday. Later in the evening, Flex Your Rights held the first public showing of a near-final version of its new video, 10 Rules for Dealing with Police. The screening of the self-explanatory successor to Flex Your Right's 2003 "Busted" -- which enjoyed a larger budget and consequently higher production level -- played to a packed and enthusiastic house. This highly useful examination of how not to get yourself busted is bound to equal if not exceed the break-out success of "Busted." "10 Rules" was one of a range of productions screened during a two-night conference film festival.
The conference ended Saturday evening with a plenary address by former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who came out as a legalizer back in 2001, and was welcomed with waves of applause before he ever opened his mouth. "It makes no sense to spend the kind of money we spend as a society locking up people for using drugs and using the criminal justice system to solve the problem," he said, throwing red meat to the crowd.
We'll do it all again two years from now in Los Angeles. See you there!
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by Bernd Debusmann, Jr.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations make billions each year trafficking illegal drugs into the United States, profiting enormously from the prohibitionist drug policies of the US government. Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and called the armed forces into the fight against the so-called cartels, prohibition-related violence has killed over 12,000 people, with a death toll of over 5,000 so far in 2009. The increasing militarization of the drug war and the arrest of several high-profile drug traffickers have failed to stem the flow of drugs -- or the violence -- whatsoever. The Merida initiative, which provides $1.4 billion over three years for the US to assist the Mexican government with training, equipment and intelligence, has so far failed to make a difference. Here are a few of the latest developments in Mexico's drug war:
Wednesday, November 11
In Tijuana, several policemen were the victims of an assassination attempt after gunmen opened fire on them outside a hotel. A TV cameraman from TV Azteca who was at the scene to cover the event was detained and beaten with a rifle by a policeman, even after having identified himself.
Thursday, November 12
Business groups in Ciudad Juarez publicly called on the United Nations to send peacekeepers to quell the violence in the city. The groups, which represent various assembly plants, retailers, and others businesses, said they plan to submit a request to the Mexican government and to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism, was quoted as saying that "We have seen the UN peacekeepers enter other countries that have a lot fewer problems than we have." Ciudad Juarez has had 1,986 homicides through mid-October. Antonio Mazziteli, regional chief of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, quickly dismissed the idea, saying that he believed that the situation in Mexico did not warrant peacekeepers, as they have not been requested by the government.
Sunday, November 15
In Managua, Nicaragua, police seized a large cache of weapons thought to belong to the Sinaloa Cartel. The weapons -- which included 58 assault rifles, 2 mortars, 10 grenades, and 30 sticks of TNT -- were seized after a car chase and shootout with suspected cartel members, who managed to escape. Police are now searching for a Mexican national who is thought to be the group's leader and who has rented a house in Managua for at least the last month. Mexican cartels are known to have a strong presence throughout Central America, which is an important route for drugs coming from South America on their way to the US border.
In Ciudad Juarez, at least 15 people were killed in violence across the city. Among them were a seven-year old child and his parents from El Paso who were killed after being attacked by several gunmen. In a separate incident, a university professor was killed after his car was ambushed. His wife was left wounded. In another incident, soldiers killed a suspected cartel gunman while wounding and capturing another. In Sinaloa, a high-ranking public security official was shot 38 times and killed. At least 6 other people were killed in drug-related violence in other parts of Mexico, including an army officer who was attacked while driving on the Guadalajara-Colima highway.
Additionally, 11 teenagers were wounded in Durango after gunmen opened fire inside a crowded bar. According to some reports, the gunmen had been chasing after rivals that sought refuge in the bar.
Tuesday, November 17
In Chihuahua, three men were killed after gunmen attacked a baseball game in which they were playing. Seven people were killed in various incidents across Ciudad Juarez, and three were killed in Sinaloa. Additionally, two men confessed to having been involved in at least 45 homicides committed in the Ciudad Juarez area.
Body count for the week of November 4th-November 10th: 196
Body Count for Last Week: 97
Total Body Count for the Year: 6,580
Read the last Mexico Drug War Update here.
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One New Jersey prison guard gets indicted and another gets sentenced. There's also another Customs officer lured by lucre, a meth-slinging Indiana cop, and a Colorado cop turned pill provider. Let's get to it:
If we can't keep drugs out of the prisons, how can we keep them out of the country?
In Trenton, New Jersey,
a suspended prison guard was indicted Tuesday for leading a cocaine ring. Eugene Braswell, 30, who had been suspended from his job at Northern State Prison after he was arrested last year for shooting and killing a former inmate, is now charged with leading a narcotics trafficking network, which carries a maximum life sentence. He and five other members of his crew are charged with first degree intent to distribute cocaine, second degree conspiracy and third degree cocaine possession. They allegedly bought large amounts of cocaine in Texas than transported it for sale in New Jersey.
In Trenton, New Jersey, a Southern State Correctional Facility guard was sentenced last Friday to five years in prison for smuggling drugs and a syringe into the prison for an inmate. Guard Roy Solomon, 33, had earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree official misconduct. He admitted that he smuggled cocaine and a syringe into the prison in 2008. The eight-year veteran was suspended without pay in April. His employment status should be changing soon.
In McAllen, Texas, a former US Customs officer pleaded guilty Monday to bribery, cocaine trafficking, and immigrant smuggling. Raul Montano had been arrested in April. Prosecutors said he made tens of thousands of dollars by letting designated vehicles carrying drugs or undocumented immigrants through his inspection lane in Brownsville. Montano told the judge he had been strung out on coke.
In Topeka, Indiana, a Topeka police officer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of dealing methamphetamine. Deputy Marshal Zachary Miller, 28, was arrested by the IMAGE Drug Task Force and LaGrange County sheriff's deputies. He faces three counts of official misconduct, and one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
In Longmont, Colorado, a Longmont police officer was arrested November 12 for providing pills to a woman he had once arrested. Officer Jack Kimmett, 54, went down after a parolee complained that Kimmett was regularly providing Vicodin pills to his wife. The wife eventually admitted that Kimmett stole his wife's Vicodins to give to her when she needed them, that he had been paying the rent and utilities for her apartment, and that he admitted stealing tea bags, trash bags, and hot chocolate mix from a local business where he worked security. The woman agreed to do a drug transaction with Kimmett while police watched, and after it went down, he was arrested. He is charged with felony drug distribution, misdemeanor official conduct, and theft of less than $1,000.
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Jorge Castañeda, Mexico's foreign minister under President Vicente Fox, said Saturday that the Mexican military is engaging in the extrajudicial execution of members of drug trafficking organizations. The frank and surprising comments came as Castañeda spoke on a panel at the 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jorge Castañeda
"We are having more and more 'false positives,'" Castañeda said, referring to a term used in Colombia to describe people executed by the military and then described as guerrillas killed in combat. "Here in Mexico, apparent gang war killings are in fact being carried out by the military. Every time the cartels catch the police and military infiltrators and slice them up, the army says 'We're taking out ten of yours.' The statistics say that 90% of the killings are within the cartels, but the army is engaging in these killings."
President Felipe Calderon deployed the military against the so-called cartels in December 2006. Since then, more than 15,000 people have been killed in prohibition-related violence in Mexico, including more than 6,000 so far this year. Hundreds of police and soldiers are among the dead.
In response to a question asking for documentation of his assertions, Castañeda said: "The only known incident was a town in Chihuahua where the bodies of 29 sicarios (assassins) were found, with witnesses who said this was after they were detained. The press has not wanted to investigate this."
But the military can't keep its mouth shut, Castañeda said. "They go to bars and restaurants and get drunk and talk and they are going around saying how many people they have knocked off," he reported. "The 12 military officers killed by the cartels in Michoacan -- that's why the army went out and killed a bunch of other people."
Castañeda's comments come as the US State Department is preparing the process of certifying Mexican compliance with human rights conditions as part of the $1.4 billion Plan Merida anti-drug assistance package. The bill authorizing the aid requires that portions of it be withheld if the State Department determines Mexico is not in compliance.
Castañeda also criticized President Obama for turning a blind eye to human rights violations by the Mexican military. "Obama regrettably said that the human rights violations he was most concerned with was with the victims of the drug war," the former diplomat noted.
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Professor David Nutt, the former head of Britain's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), who was fired late last month by Home Secretary Alan Johnson for criticizing the government's drug policies as driven by politics instead of science, is now calling for a Royal Commission to study whether to decriminalize marijuana.
David Nutt
As head of the ACMD, Nutt had recommended that marijuana not be up-scheduled by the Labor government, but the government ignored that advice and moved marijuana back to a Class B drug, where it had been before the government down-scheduled it to Class C in 2004. Nutt and the ACMD had also recommended down-scheduling Ecstasy, another position the government rejected.
Nutt's firing three weeks ago has led to considerable criticism of the government from the scientific community. It has also led to the resignations of five members of the ACMD.
Now, Nutt has told BBC's Radio 4 that a Royal Commission examining decriminalization was a "sensible" idea that could bring "big health benefits." Nutt added: "We've seen some countries like Portugal make real progress in terms of drug-related crime and drug-related harms by decriminalizing drugs of personal use. You could make a moral position that why should people be imprisoned for possessing something that effectively will only harm themselves?"
The Dutch model was one worthy possibility, Nutt said. "I certainly am interested in the idea that we might de-penalize possession and even allow the Dutch model for cannabis -- the coffee shops -- which could potentially have many benefits. I think it's perfectly sensible to think about the Dutch model for cannabis and explore whether that might be a tenable way of allowing young people to get an intoxicant which is safer than alcohol, and which they could then use in a controlled, safe environment."
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For four years, the Los Angeles City Council has been wrestling with how to regulate the city's rapidly growing number of medical marijuana dispensaries. When the council started, there were four dispensaries in the city. When it initiated a moratorium on new dispensaries in 2007, there were 186. Now, there are close to a thousand.
medical marijuana dispensary, Ventura Blvd., LA (courtesy wikimedia.org)
This week the council came closer to adopting regulations, but it isn't there yet, and a vote is now set for next week. But this week, medical marijuana advocates fended off what would have been a fatal blow when two council committees rejected language that would have barred the sale of medical marijuana.
That language came from the office of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who, along with LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley, maintains that California's medical marijuana only allows collectives to grow marijuana -- not to sell it. That is not a widely shared interpretation of the law, and it was not a popular one, either with the city council or with the hundreds of medical marijuana supporters who jammed the council chambers during hearings this week.
Councilman Ed Reyes expressed frustration with the city attorney's office, saying, "I think they are very, very narrow in that they're taking their prosecutorial perspective."
Councilman Dennis Zine urged his colleagues to interpret state law in way that would not disrupt the way dispensaries currently operate. "Why don't we push the envelope to the edge and see what we can do?" he said.
After the council rejected the prosecutors' advice, DA Cooley reacted angrily and threatened to prosecute dispensaries regardless of what the council decides. "Undermining those laws via their ordinance powers is counterproductive, and, quite frankly, we're ignoring them. They are absolutely so irrelevant it's not funny," Cooley said, adding that state law and court decisions made it clear that collectives cannot sell marijuana. Most, if not all, dispensaries in the county were operating illegally, he said. "We don't know of one that's not engaging in just over-the-counter sales," he said.
Medical marijuana advocates beg to differ. The Union of Medical Marijuana Patients delivered a 23-page legal analysis of the issue to the city council that unsurprisingly came to a quite different conclusion from the prosecutors. "We're really disappointed because we have been thinking that the district attorney would have respect for what the City Council would come up with," said James Shaw, the group's director. "We're taking his threats as real."
Properly organized collectives can indeed sell marijuana, said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, the nation's largest medical marijuana advocacy group. "The idea that a nonprofit collective can't sell things is just a bizarre interpretation of the law," he said.
The council was supposed to vote on the ordinance Wednesday, but postponed the vote until next week, saying they needed to study late amendments to it. One such amendment, from Councilman Jose Huizar, would cap the number of dispensaries at 70. Another, from Councilman Reyes would create a system to audit dispensaries. Reyes also proposed reducing the required distance between dispensaries and schools, parks, and other places where children gather from 1,000 feet to 500 feet. Councilman Paul Koretz introduced a series of amendments based on the ordinance in West Hollywood, in effect for four years.
Perhaps the city council will get it all sorted out and actually pass an ordinance next week. But if the rejectionist attitudes of city and county prosecutors are any indication, the battle over medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles is nowhere near over.
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As of last week, Rhode Island sentencing reforms that eliminate mandatory minimums for drug offenses have taken effect. The sentencing reforms were embodied in H 5007 and its companion bill, S 039, which were passed by the General Assembly on October 29 and went into effect two weeks later without the signature of Gov. Donald Carcieri.
The new law strikes previous language mandating 10-year mandatory minimums for possession, manufacture or sale of between an ounce and a kilogram of heroin or cocaine, between one and five kilos of marijuana, and between 100 and 1,000 tablets of LSD. It also strikes 20-year mandatory minimums for quantities greater than those just listed.
It's not like it'll be a drug dealers' holiday, though. While it eliminates the old law's mandatory minimums, it keeps its maximums of up to 50 years in the first instance and up to life in prison in the second. And while it also eliminates minimum fines of $10,000 and $25,000, it raises maximum fines to $500,000 and $1 million.
Still, legislators and reform advocates were enjoying a hard-fought and long-sought victory. "I am thrilled that our hard work has finally paid off," said Rep. Joseph Almeida, sponsor of the House bill. "These sentences were enacted in a different era, at a time when policymakers around the nation believed that long sentences would act as a deterrent against drug use and drug dealing. Twenty years down the road we have seen that these policies are a failure. They have devastated our communities and driven up the prison population, costing tax-payers millions of dollars."
"It's a shame it took a disastrous economy and horrific state budget deficits for the evidence to finally sink in, but politicians at last are realizing that we as a society can no longer afford to pay for our prejudices," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "It's nice to see elected officials providing real leadership in rolling back the excesses of 1980s drug war hysteria."
For Rhode Island nonprofit Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), victory was sweet, but there are more battles to be fought. "We have always looked at this legislation as a starting point," said DARE's Executive Director Fred Ordonez. "Our hope is that this will help spark a trend among Rhode Island decision-makers to shift away from a tough-on-crime approach and towards a smart-on-crime approach."
Reform proponents led by DARE grafted together an impressive coalition of state and national organizations, including the Rhode Island ACLU, the Rhode Island Public Defender's Office, the Rhode Island Family Life Center, RICARES, the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association of Rhode Island, the Roger Williams Law School, the Drug Policy Alliance, and Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM).
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Faced with a demand from Gov. Phil Bredesen (R) that all state agencies slash their budgets by 9%, the Tennessee Department of Corrections has responded with a plan to free somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners before they have finished serving their sentences. Those eligible for release under the plan would be nonviolent offenders, including drug offenders.
According to a TDC statistical report, drug offenders make up 19% of all Tennessee prisoners and serve an average of 10 years. The state prison population has increased by 80% since 1993, with some 28,000 people now behind bars in the Volunteer State. This year, the TDC's budget is $700 million.
The department would have no recourse but releasing prisoners early if it were to implement the cuts called for by Gov. Bredesen, said Corrections Commissioner George Little. The department has scaled back spending and has 400 positions it is leaving unfilled he said. "This isn't scare tactics," he said. "We've got to make ends meet... We would not propose these sorts of very serious and weighty options if we were not in such dire circumstances. We've, frankly, exhausted all of our options other than, frankly, prison population management," Little said.
Little's remarks came on the first day of state budget hearings and were intended to show how the TDC would proceed if Bredesen went ahead with his plan to slice 9% from all state department budgets. Bredesen has said that declining tax revenues and the end of the federal stimulus program may force the state to reduce spending by up to $1.5 billion by the end of the next fiscal year.
Before the hearing, Bredesen told reporters he would try to avoid letting prisoners out early. "I obviously am not interested in returning hardened criminals back to the streets," he said. "But I've told each of them (departments) to come in and tell me, if I say you've got to have 9%, tell me how you can get it... The best thing to do is to get all the possibilities on the table and sort through it."
To achieve a 9% reduction, the TDC could simply release about 3,300 prisoners held in local jails at a cost of $35 to $42 a day. Or it could close one or two of the state's 14 prisons, which would result in the release of about 4,000 prisoners.
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An herbal preparation containing synthetic cannabinoids has show up in Kansas, and a prohibitionist Kansas politician has a reflex response: Ban it. The preparation, sold under the name K-2 is available over the Internet and at selected shops in the Kansas City and Lawrence areas.
K-2 is one of a number of compounds that have appeared on the market in the past couple of years containing synthetic cannabinoids. Another popular compound containing the synthetic cannabinoids is sold under the name Spice. According to Clemson University chemistry professor John Huffman, at least one of those synthetic cannabinoids, JWH-018, was created by one of his graduate students doing pharmaceutical research.
Who manufactures K-2, Spice, and similar products is unclear, as is where they are coming from.
Spice has already been banned by a number of European countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and Russia, as well as South Korea. While Spice, K-2, and other products containing synthetic cannabinoids are not listed as controlled substances in the US, there is some debate about whether they fall under the Controlled Substances Act's provisions banning analogues of controlled substances.
Kansas state Rep. Peggy Mast (R-Emporia) had never heard of K-2 before being approached by a local newspaper reporting on the phenomenon last week, but that didn't stop here from being ready to criminalize it. "I would be very happy to sponsor a bill to make this illegal," she said.
In an interview this week, Mast elaborated. Little is known about K-2, she said. It's dangerous, she added, without explaining how she knows it is dangerous given that little is known about it. "And that makes it potentially dangerous," said Mast. "I'm really concerned about the effect it can have on young people."
If there's one thing Mast does know, it's what to do when confronted with a substance about which you know little: Ban it. Mast sponsored successful legislation to do just that with jimson weed and salvia divinorum a few years ago. "I don't think the public should have ready access to anything that has not been studied," Mast said.
But until Mast gets around to introducing and passing a bill, K-2 remains legal in Kansas. And places like Sacred Journeys in Lawrence are selling it.
"A lot of people get a marijuana-like buzz when you smoke it, and that seems to be why a lot of people are afraid of it and attack it," said Rob Bussinger, a consultant at Sacred Journey. "We have teachers that come in and buy it, we have police officers that come in and buy it, military people who buy it," said Bussinger.
For chemist Huffman, banning new substances is a futile pursuit. "You ban one and they'll come up with another," he said.
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November 23, 1919: Mescaline is first isolated and identified by Dr. Arthur Heffter.
November 22, 1963: Aldous Huxley uses LSD to enhance his awareness as he dies.
November 22, 1975: Colombian police seize 600 kilos from a small plane at the Cali airport -- the largest cocaine seizure to date. In response, drug traffickers begin a vendetta known as the "Medellin Massacre." Forty people die in Medellin in one weekend. This event signals the new power of Colombia's cocaine industry, headquartered in Medellin.
November 24, 1976: Federal Judge James Washington rules that Robert Randall's use of marijuana constitutes a "medical necessity."
November 21, 1987: Jorge Ochoa is arrested in Colombia. Ochoa is held in prison on the bull-smuggling charge for which he was extradited from Spain. Twenty-four hours later a gang of thugs arrive at the house of Juan Gómez MartÃnez, the editor of Medellin's daily newspaper El Colombiano. They present Martinez with a communique signed by "The Extraditables," which threatens execution of Colombian political leaders if Ochoa is extradited. On December 30, Ochoa is released under dubious legal circumstances. In January 1988, the murder of Colombian Attorney General Carlos Mauro Hoyos is claimed by the Extraditables.
November 26, 2002: The Winston-Salem Journal (NC) reports that more than 30 drug defendants in Davidson County have had charges dismissed or convictions overturned since the officers investigating their cases were charged with distributing drugs and planting evidence.
November 20, 2009: Suffering from a rare bone disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, Irvin Rosenfeld marks his twenty-seventh anniversary of receiving a monthly tin of about 300 pre-rolled medical marijuana cigarettes from the United States government, as one of five living patients grandfathered into the now defunct Compassionate Investigative New Drug Program. At some point in the day he consumed his 115,000th marijuana cigarette, and set the world record for the consumption of cannabis cigarettes. All 115,000 cigarettes have been prescribed by US federally approved medical doctors from cannabis plants grown at the University of Mississippi in a test location and prepared for consumption in the research triangle area of North Carolina.
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prohibition-era beer raid, Washington, DC (Library of Congress)
Since last issue:
Scott Morgan writes: "Tommy Chong's Prosecutor Says He Should Have Gotten More Jail Time," "Cheech and Chong vs. Bill O'Reilly: Worst Interview Ever," "'Buy American Pot!' Says American Marijuana Growers Association," "Drug Czar's Website Still Wrong About AMA's Medical Marijuana Stance," "DEA Website STILL Wrong About AMA's Medical Marijuana Stance," "Colorado Announces Plan to Tax Medical Marijuana," "As Long as the Drug War Continues, So Will the Corruption," "Marijuana is Practically Legal (But Only for Aging White People Who Live in the Suburbs)," "If You Care About Ending the Drug War, Watch This."
Phil Smith alerts: "Will Foster is Almost Free. You Can Help Open That Prison Door By Acting Now"
David Borden highlights: "Nice People Take Drugs" playing cards.
David Guard posts numerous press releases, action alerts and other organizational announcements in the In the Trenches blog.
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