Drug War Chronicle #624 - March 19, 2010

Millions of people have viewed -- and benefited from -- the film "Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters." The new Flex Your Rights film, "10 Rules for Dealing with Police," has taken things to the next level, in more ways than one.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy held its 11th annual national convention in San Francisco last weekend. It was the biggest one yet, and they couldn't have picked a more inviting locale.

Millions of people have viewed -- and benefited from -- the film "Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters." The new Flex Your Rights film, "10 Rules for Dealing with Police," has taken things to the next level. StoptheDrugWar.org is pleased to be the first drug policy organization to offer it to our members -- your donations will support our work of building the movement and fueling public debate, too.

After nearly a quarter-century of federal crack cocaine laws that disproportionately affected black Americans with far harsher sentences than for powder cocaine, the US Senate has passed a bill that would take a step toward eliminating that disparity. Advocates aren't sure whether to be pleased by the progress or disappointed by the ways in which it falls short.

The number of people doing time in state prison declined last year for the first time since bell-bottom jeans were in fashion, although just barely. Could we be seeing the first rumblings of a seismic shift in prison population trends?

A lying narc, a horny narc, and yes, another crooked jail guard make the corrupt cop news this week.

Mexico's prohibition-related violence took nearly another 300 lives this past week, including three US citizens connected to the US consulate in bloody Ciudad Juárez. That pushes the death toll since President Calderon sent in the army little more than three years ago over the 18,000 mark.

America's war on drugs -- or, more precisely, suspected drug users or sellers -- claimed two more lives late last week, as police conducting drug raids in Memphis and South Florida shot and killed two people in their own homes. In both cases, police said the homeowners were armed.

Will Rhode Island be the next state to decriminalize marijuana possession? It just took a big step in that direction this week, as a special legislative commission endorsed the idea.

The Illinois legislature apparently doesn't have enough serious issues to deal with, so it's launched an attack on the dreaded blunt wrap.

In 2006, South Dakota voters won the dubious distinction of being the only ones in the nation to reject an initiative allowing for medical marijuana. This year, they will have a chance to make up for that. The Secretary of State has just certified an initiative for the November ballot.

In the good old days, Danish hash smokers went to the counterculture enclave of Christiania, with its famous Pusher Street, to score. Now, after six years of police crackdowns on Pusher Street, you can still buy hash there, but the trade has spread throughout Copenhagen and the scene has grown more hard-edged. Can you say unintended consequences?

M-Cat is not a college entrance exam, but a nickname for mephedrone, an amphetamine-like drug derived from khat that is legal and increasingly popular in Britain. Now, after the deaths of two young men on Sunday were (indirectly) linked to its use, calls to ban it are increasing.

FelonVoting.ProCon.org, part of the ProCon.org family, is an in-depth web site presenting information and views from a variety of perspectives on the issue of felony disenfranchisement -- citizens losing the right to vote because of criminal convictions.

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

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