We are only a few weeks into the new year, but statehouse politicians across the country are already racing to see who can be next to introduce a bill that would require drug testing of people receiving public benefits. Within the last month, measures that would impose drug testing requirements have been introduced or are being contemplated in at least twelve states.
The bills typically require beneficiaries to pay for their own drug tests (to be reimbursed later if they come up clean) and force those who test dirty off the rolls for specified periods. They also typically require a period of drug treatment at the would-be beneficiary's expense.
Faced with serious budget deficits as the economy continues sputtering through a weak recovery, would-be populists and small government conservatives see public benefits recipients as easy targets in their battle to ease the burdens of the taxpayers. With many Americans struggling hard to make ends meet, the narrative that welfare recipients or people receiving jobless benefits are just lazy junkies living resonates in some quarters.
Never mind that there is a paucity of evidence that welfare or jobless benefit recipients use drugs at a rate different from the public at large -- at the high end, a Michigan program a decade ago had 10% of welfare recipients testing positive for drugs, while Florida's now halted welfare drug testing program reported only a 2% positive rate, mostly for marijuana, though with data too incomplete at that stage to really know -- drug testing bills remain extremely popular, especially among conservatives.
It's not just Republicans. Although conservative Republicans dominate the legislative politics of drug testing the poor, in two states, Democratic legislators are leading the charge, and in one, it's a Democratic governor who is coming up with the idea.
But no matter the party, the rhetoric of the drug testers is remarkably similar. It's almost like they're reading from the same script.
"The working man, we're all subject to drug testing, and if they're
gonna take the hard earned person's money and give it to someone on welfare, I think they ought to be tested the same way," Iowa Rep. Richard Arnold told
WHO-TV in Des Moines as he announced his bill to drug test people on unemployment.
"If a job applicant has to take a random drug test, it only seems fair that a welfare applicant should too," said Georgia Rep. Doug
McKillip (R-Athens). "We simply cannot allow the drug trade to be funded with government benefits," he told the
Athens Banner-Herald.
McKillips added that he wanted to apply any savings from the bill to paying for a tax cut on energy for manufacturers.
"If any of my employees fail a drug test, they're going to be fired," said Georgia Rep. Ron Stephens, a Savannah pharmacy owner and Republican Chairman of the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee. "It's leveling the playing field," Stephens insisted to
11 Alive TV in Atlanta. "It's making those recipients be subject to the very same regulations as those getting up going to work for a living," he added.
"Why in God's green pastures would we ever allow $1 of tax-supported assistance to go to an individual that is using illegal drugs?" South Dakota Rep. Mark
Kirkeby (R-Rapid City) told the
Rapid City Journal.
"I don't think any taxpayer in our state would say they're okay with funding a person's illegal drug use," Rep. John Mizuno (
D-Kalihi Valley), who chairs the Human Services Committee, told
KHON2-TV in Honolulu. Mizuno has introduced a pair of bills to drug test welfare recipients. "As taxpayers we need to save all we can, we don't need to raise people's taxes."
Such tropes have drug reformers, civil libertarians, and advocates for the poor crying foul. They accuse those pushing for drug testing of engaging in stereotyping and
scapegoating.
"We feel like there's an ideology at work here, a sort of anti-welfare mentality intersecting with the drug war mentality," said Jill Harris of the
Drug Policy Alliance. "They're using a budget crisis saying they want to reduce benefits for drug users as a way of pushing the drug war agenda."
"We look at it as basically another way to scapegoat the unemployed and blame them for the terrible economy they're in," said Rebecca Dixon, a policy analyst at the
National Employment Law Project.
"There is really no point to this," said Dixon. "There is no evidence that unemployed workers are more likely to use drugs than anyone else. You have to have a solid work history to qualify for unemployment insurance, and you have to be actively searching for work. These are people who were working but lost their jobs, and now we're trying to treat them like they're something different. This feeds into really ugly stereotypes and could cause employers to not want to hire unemployed workers. There's already been some discrimination, and this doesn’t help the situation."
If legislators want to see a drug-free work force, said Dixon, there's already a way to do that. "If employers want to drug test workers, they can, and nearly half of them have pre-employment drug screening," she said. "They can do that already without the government stepping in."
Despite lingering questions about the constitutionality of mandatory
suspicionless drug testing, bills are being filed or discussed that would require mandatory testing of welfare recipients in
Georgia,
Hawaii,
Kentucky (also includes state medical assistance),
Massachusetts,
Mississippi (all public benefits, plus prove US citizenship),
South Dakota, and
Tennessee.
In
Iowa and in
South Carolina, bills mandating
suspicionless drug tests for people receiving unemployment benefits are being bruited, while in
West Virginia, a bill that would require mandatory drug tests for workers in state-sponsored job training programs has been proposed.
Although the Supreme Court has not directly addressed the constitutionality of
suspicionless drug testing of people receiving government benefits, a divided federal appeals court threw out an earlier Michigan mandatory drug testing law on the grounds that it violated the Fourth Amendment's proscription of warrantless searches almost a decade ago. More recently, last year a Florida federal district court judge hinted strongly she would rule the same way as she granted a temporary injunction halting Florida's mandatory welfare drug testing law. A decision on whether to permanently throw out the law has yet to be made.
While the legal precedents may not be binding, they do allow advocates to make a strong case that such
suspicionless drug testing laws are open to legal challenge, which has helped blunt most of them in past years. Last year, for example, although at least a dozen states took up mandatory drug testing bills, only Florida's passed.
"The courts have said you can't treat everyone as a criminal because he or she is seeking public benefits," said
Rana Elmir of the
ACLU of Michigan, which successfully challenged the state's last attempt at mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients and which is keeping a close eye on bills moving again there now. "You don’t lose your constitutional rights just because you're poor," she said.
"The ACLU thinks the courts have been very clear that mandatory
suspicionless drug testing is unconstitutional, and it's also unfair and relies on mean-spiritedness and employs the ugliest stereotypes of the disenfranchised," said
Elmir. "It's part of an unrestrained attack on poor people."
Some drug testing legislators have finally wrapped their heads around the notion that going with mandatory,
suspicionless drug test language is a constitutionally risky business and are moving toward legislation that would require drug testing only of subsets of the population where a "reasonable cause" to suspect drug use can be cited. Bills using reasonable cause to test benefit recipients have already passed in Arizona, Indiana and Missouri.
Legislators in
Georgia and
Hawaii are hedging their bets by filing reasonable suspicion bills alongside mandatory welfare testing bills, while in
Michigan, the health department has just done a study of reasonable cause testing, and in
Pennsylvania, there is an ongoing pilot program for reasonable cause testing of welfare recipients. Both the Michigan and Pennsylvania measures should lead to efforts to pass broader reasonable cause bills later this year.
The move to reasonable cause drug testing bills means advocates cannot afford to rely on the courts as much as they do when confronting mandatory drug testing bills. And that means fighting the measures at the statehouse.
"This is forcing advocates like us to do a lot of defense," said Elizabeth
Farid, deputy director of the
National HIRE Project, which works to improve employment opportunities for people with criminal records. "We don't have the resources to move progressive bills forward and we're spending a lot of time trying to stop bad things like this happening. On the other hand, this really goes to the values of those conservatives and Tea Party members who've been behind the introduction of most of these bills," she noted.
"Bills that specifically target, for example, people who have a conviction for a drug felony might pass constitutional muster because that could be considered a basis for suspicion," said
Farid. "But whenever you have the specter of drug testing, you have to ask if it is really effective. Is it worth the time and money? We often don't even get to that."
"We need to look at this as a public policy issue," said the ACLU of Michigan's
Elmir. "Let's go to the experts and look at best practices. Those experts recommend that if Michigan is to have drug testing, it invest in training public employees to appropriately screen and identify those with addictions and help them through expanded treatment programs. Drug screening paired with expanded treatment has worked in other states," she said.
"We have to fight these bills, we have to educate our legislators and other elected officials, not only about the constitutional issues, but also about the way past programs have failed,"
Elmir said. "We like to believe our elected officials have good intentions in trying to help residents who use drugs, but mandatory testing is both ineffective and fiscally irresponsible. If Michigan must adopt drug testing, it should be guided by constitutional norms and focus on recovery rather than punishment."
Welfare or jobless benefits drug testing bills not only test the poor, they test the values of the nation,
Elmir said.
"When we look at our Constitution, it embodies the value that our laws apply fairly and equally to all, irrespective of one's individual wealth," said the ACLU of Michigan's
Elmir. "This is an important moment for these states contemplating these laws. It's our moment to set the standard for how we treat our most vulnerable residents. I hope we're on the right side of history."
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Colorado US Attorney John Walsh last Thursday sent letters to 23 medical marijuana dispensaries and their landlords across Colorado warning that they must shut down within 45 days or "action will be taken to seize and forfeit their property." The letter was sent to dispensaries operating within 1,000 feet of a school.
Colorado dispensaries (not necessarily this one) are under attack. (O'Dea at WikiCommons)
"Those who do not comply will be subject to potential criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado and the Drug Enforcement Administration," the US Attorney's Office elaborated in a press release.
The letters are of a kind with letters sent out by US Attorneys in California beginning in October. In both states, federal prosecutors are targeting dispensaries that trigger enhanced federal penalties by being within a 1,000 feet of a school, which does not violate state law in either state, but does result in enhanced penalties in federal prosecutions. The California threat letters have led to the closure of numerous targeted dispensaries, as well as the closure of dispensaries that were not directly targeted, but were intimidated by the signals emanating from the feds.
"When the voters of Colorado passed the limited medical marijuana amendment in 2000, they could not have anticipated that their vote would be used to justify large marijuana stores located within blocks of our schools," Walsh said in the release. The letters are "merely a first step to address this issue, and the office will continue to insist marijuana stores near schools shut down."
The Colorado dispensary scene exploded after then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden issued an October 2009 memo saying federal prosecutors should not use their resources to target patients and providers in compliance with state laws. But in June 2011, Ogden's successor, James Cole, issued another memo clarifying that state laws do not provide protection from federal prosecution.
Colorado dispensaries are taxed and tightly regulated, and had previously been relatively free of federal interference. It looks like that is changing now.
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Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) said last Friday she would no longer block medical marijuana dispensaries from opening in the state. The news came in a statement announcing that the state would not try again after a lawsuit she filed blocking implementation was dismissed in federal court earlier this month.
Brewer said she will direct the state health department to begin accepting and processing dispensary applications once a separate legal challenge over state regulations is settled. The pending state court lawsuit was filed on behalf of Compassion First, a group formed to advise those opening dispensaries, which has challenged restrictive health department rules restricting who can operate a dispensary.
"The State of Arizona will not re-file in federal court a lawsuit that sought clarification that state employees would not be subject to federal criminal prosecution simply for implementing the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (
AMMA)," Brewer said in the statement. "Instead, I have directed the Arizona Department of Health Services to begin accepting and processing dispensary applications, and issuing licenses for those facilities once a pending legal challenge to the Department's medical marijuana rules is resolved."
Brewer also sent a letter to Ann Birmingham
Scheel, acting US Attorney for Arizona, seeking clarification of the federal government's position regarding state employees who participate in regulating dispensaries. Brewer had tried and failed to gain that same clarification in her lawsuit.
"It is well-known that I did not support passage of Proposition 203, and I remain concerned about potential abuses of the law," Brewer said. "But the state's legal challenge was based on my legitimate concern that state employees may find themselves at risk of federal prosecution for their role in administering dispensary licenses under this law."
Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed, implementing the dispensary provision of the law is "the best course of action," Brewer said.
"The State of Arizona was fully implementing the provisions of Proposition 203 last spring," Brewer said. "That's when Arizona was among a host of states that received letters from the US Department of Justice threatening potential legal ramifications for any individual participating in a medical marijuana program, even in states where it had been legally approved," she reminded.
"Would state employees at the Department of Health Services, charged with administering and licensing marijuana dispensaries, face federal prosecution? This was the basis for calling a 'time out' in order for the State to seek a straightforward answer from the court. With our request for clarification rebuffed on procedural grounds by the federal court, I believe the best course of action now is to complete the implementation of Proposition 203 in accordance with the law."
But Brewer warned that she would shut things down in a hurry if it appeared state employees were really going to be prosecuted for their role in regulating the program.
"Know this: I won't hesitate to halt state involvement in the
AMMA if I receive indication that State employees face prosecution due to their duties in administering this law," she said.
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The New Jersey legislature last week passed a revised S 958, bill allowing pharmacies to sell syringes without a prescription. Gov. Chris Christie (R) signed it into law Tuesday. The legislature had passed the bill in December, but last week, Christie conditionally vetoed the original version of the bill, saying it needed to be tightened.
In his
veto statement, Christie said the bill should include "a requirement of purchasers to present a photo identification for proof of age" and should require the health department to provide information about syringe disposal and drug treatment programs to pharmacies.
The bill would allow for the purchase of up to 10 syringes without a prescription. It also decriminalizes the possession of needles bought from a pharmacy without a prescription.
New Jersey is one of only two states that still bans over-the-counter syringe sales. The other is neighboring Delaware.
The bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Reed
Gusciora (D-Mercer), Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), Assemblyman Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex),
Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-Bergen),
Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex),
Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Bergen and Hudson) and Assemblyman Thomas
Giblin (D-Essex and Passaic).
Now that the governor has gotten the language he wanted, he has signed the bill.
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The Canadian Liberal Party Sunday overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for the legalization of marijuana. The motion at the party's biennial convention in Ottawa passed with 77% of the vote.
Canada's Liberal Party voted to legalize marijuana at the Ottawa Convention Center Sunday (liberals.ca)
The vote pledges that, once elected, a Liberal government "will legalize marijuana and ensure the regulation and taxation of its production, distribution and use, while enacting strict penalties for illegal trafficking, illegal importation and exportation, and impaired driving."
The vote does not bind the party leadership to make legalization part of the party platform, but is intended to give direction on policy positions the membership wants the party to take. The party's
Young Liberals, who sponsored the legalization resolution, are pushing to make it part of the platform in 2015.
The convention also saw the party elect a new leader, former head of the party's Ontario wing Mike
Crawley, as it attempts to re-energize and reinvent itself after being reduced to Canada's third party in last May's elections. The Liberals had governed the country for most of the last century, but were reduced to 34 seats in the House of Commons in May, leaving the New Democrats to serve as opposition party to the ruling Conservatives.
"I am re-energized by all of you,"
Crawley said at the convention. "The party is clearly focused on the future."
"If you want to be part of a group of free-thinking, innovative, thoughtful, pragmatic, hopeful, positive, happy people, come and join the Liberal party," said interim party president Bob Rae in his speech ending the convention. "And after the resolution on marijuana today, it’s going to be a group of even happier people in the Liberal party."
Prohibition has failed, Rae said. "Do you really think it makes sense to be sending another generation of young people into prison when you realize that the most addictive substances that are facing Canada today are alcohol and cigarettes? Let's face up to it Canada -- the war on drugs has been a complete bust."
The Liberals half-heartedly embraced marijuana decriminalization when they held power a decade ago, but never got around to actually passing it. Now, having tasted defeat, the party is willing to go further, or at least the membership is. Let's see how closely the leadership is listening.
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Just days after Canada's opposition Liberal Party adopted a marijuana legalization resolution, a new poll suggests the Grits have their fingers placed firmly on the pulse of the electorate. The poll found that nearly two-thirds favor decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana, while only 20% support leaving the laws the way they are now.
The poll, conducted by Forum Research and published in the
National Post Tuesday, found that 40% of Canadians said marijuana "should be taxed and legalized," while 26% favored decriminalization. Respondents in every province produced majorities for legalization/
decrim, ranging from a high of 73% in British Columbia to a low of 61% in Quebec.
When it came to "it should be taxed and legalized," support was again strongest in British Columbia at 50% and lowest in Quebec at 36%. Support for legalization was at 42% in the Atlantic provinces, 40% in the Prairie province, and 38% in Quebec.
The poll is roughly in line with
other Canada polls in the past decade, although giving respondents both a legalization and a decriminalization choice may have lowered support for legalization somewhat. Four polls taken since 2004 had support for legalization ranging between 51% and 55%, while five polls since 2003 have found support for decriminalization (asked various ways) ranging from 59% to 83%.
In any case, this most recent poll is not good news for the Conservatives, who are attempting to push through their
draconian C-10 crime bill, which seeks increased penalties for some marijuana offenses, including mandatory minimum sentences for growing as few as six plants. Only 11% of respondents said marijuana penalties should be increased.
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A cluster of recent fatalities among ecstasy (MDMA) users in western Canada has been linked to tainted drugs. At least five people in Alberta and three in British Columbia have died in the past few weeks. In six of those cases so far, paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) has been found in toxicology reports.
Ecstasy -- or is it? (wikimedia.org)
The outbreak of deaths began last month in Calgary, and by December 29, Alberta Health Services sent out an
alert warning that "Ecstasy or a combination of toxic substances sold on the street as Ecstasy is the likely cause of three recent Calgary-area deaths."
Then, in
a new joint warning on January 11, the city of Calgary and Alberta Health Services announced that the province's chief medical examiner had confirmed that "
paramethoxymethamphetamine (
PMMA) and methamphetamine -- not previously associated with street drugs sold in Calgary as 'ecstasy' -- was present in toxicology results for each of five recent Calgary-area street-drug deaths."
On Thursday, British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall confirmed that
PMMA had shown up in one of the BC deaths, while toxicology reports were still outstanding in the two other cases.
PMMA is thought to be a less expensive compound to produce than ecstasy, similar in appearance, and produces similar, though stronger, psychoactive and physical effects. Its use as an adulterant has been linked to
earlier clusters of deaths in Norway and the Netherlands.
"There are some important differences in the toxicity of
PMMA compared to
MDMA" said Dr. Mark
Yarema, Medical Director of the Poison and Drug Information Service (
PADIS). "Although all have toxic effects,
PMMA is considered more toxic than
MDMA, with a higher incidence of seizures and elevated body temperature. Also, the onset of action of
PMMA is delayed and its initial effect may be milder. This is dangerous as it may result in users ingesting several tablets to achieve a desired effect, with potentially fatal consequences."
If Canada is going to continue to subject recreational drug users to the Russian roulette of buying drugs without quality controls or ingredients labeling in the black market, it behooves drug users to do what they can to protect themselves. They could start by checking in with organizations such as
DanceSafe or checking into
ecstasy testing kits.
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Here's our weekly look at medical marijuana news from around the country. There's plenty going on--and late breaking news from California Wednesday afternoon.
California
On January 11, the city of Upland filed a motion that would allow it to close the G3 Holistic dispensary. The motion seeks to vacate a stay granted by the 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside to G3 back in June. The co-op and the city disagree over whether the stay allows the dispensary to stay open despite an injunction granted to the city in August 2010 by the West Valley Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga.
Also on January 11, Mendocino County officials confirmed that the feds are threatening to sue over the county's marijuana cultivation permit program. The warning was delivered during a meeting a week earlier, county officials said. The program is already suspended pending resolution of a court case about whether local governments can regulate activities prohibited by federal law. Supervisors will consider amending its medical marijuana ordinance at the January 24 meeting.
On January 12, Shasta County medical marijuana advocates fell short in their effort to gather enough signatures to force a recent county ordinance restricting marijuana growing onto a ballot before it became law that day. Nor Cal Safe Access needed 6,544 valid signatures to place a referendum on the ballot. Organizers didn't have an exact count, but said they gathered "thousands." It wasn't enough. The ordinance bans growing inside residences but allows it in detached accessory structures and sets limits for outdoor growing regardless of how many patients live at a residence.
Last Thursday, federal prosecutors filed a forfeiture complaint against the Sacramento Holistic Healing Center. The feds said the center had been warned in October it was operating within a thousand feet of an elementary school and high school and told to cease operations.
Also last Thursday, the owner of the Regenesis Health dispensary in Adelanto was arrested by San Bernadino County sheriff's deputies. Ramsey Najor, 69, of Hesperia was arresting for violating municipal codes and suspicion of assault on a peace officer after he dragged a deputy with his car as he fled the scene.
Also last Thursday, the Sonoma County Planning Commission recommended a cap on dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county. The planners want to limit the number at nine. The Board of Supervisors will have to vote on it later. There currently are six permitted dispensaries in the unincorporated area of Sonoma County and another three pending applications. In addition there are four dispensaries within city limits: two in Santa Rosa, one in Cotati and one in Sebastopol. Those cities also have caps that prohibit additional shops. The remaining six cities in the county ban dispensaries.
Last Friday, Lake County authorities reported that dispensary numbers are dwindling. Supervisors decided last month that they are not authorized land uses in the county's jurisdiction and have moved forward with the abatement process to close them down. Of 10 dispensaries that were operating in unincorporated areas of the county, as few as three are still open.
Also last Friday, a second dispensary has opened in Murrieta despite a citywide ban. The Greenhouse Cannabis Club has been hit with thousands of dollars in fines and several code violations every day. Owner Eric McNeil said he plans to fight the ban in court. The first dispensary to open, the Cooperative Medical Group, which opened in July, is now closed by court order after going several rounds with the city's attorneys. They are still awaiting a final court decision in that case.
Also last Friday, the LA city council's Public Safety Committee approved a motion to ban dispensaries in the city. The motion now moves to the city council and Planning Commission, which next meets January 26. The motion would indefinitely shutter the estimated 300 dispensaries in the city. The motion is the work of Council Member Jose Huizar, who said he was responding to the Pack v. City of Long Beach ruling, which held that that city's ordinance, which is similar to LA's, violated federal law by attempting to regulate the sale of a federally banned drug.
On Tuesday, an East Palo Alto dispensary announced it was closing its doors because of threats from the feds. The Peninsula Care Givers Collective said it was losing its lease after its landlord received a letter from the federal government threatening to seize the building. The city had passed an ordinance in July banning dispensaries, but Peninsula Care Givers was already open by then and refused to close. The city had been pursuing civil remedies. East Palo Alto police Chief Ron Davis said the city had contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office for help in shutting down Peninsula Care Givers.
On Tuesday, the DEA and local law enforcement raided the Green Tree Solutions dispensary in Kearney Mesa. It was the fourth raid on a San Diego area dispensary in less than a week. The DEA raiders were met by protesting patients and advocates.
Also on Tuesday, the DEA raided three Costa Mesa dispensaries, along with their owners' homes. The targeted businesses were American Collective, Otherside Farms and Simple Farmer.
Also on Tuesday, the Monroe city council voted to extend a moratorium on dispensaries for 180 days, and will revisit the issue in 60 days.
Also on Tuesday, the Poway city council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries, collectives and cooperatives.The ordinance will go into effect within 30 days if the council adopts it at its February 7 meeting.
On Wednesday afternoon, the California Supreme Court said it would review two controversial medical marijuana cases. In Pack v. City of Long Beach, the appeals court held that federal law preempted the city's ability to regulate dispensaries and in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient's Health and Wellness Center, the appeals court held that cities could ban dispensaries altogether. The two rulings have been used by elected local officials to back away from regulating dispensaries and toward banning them.
Colorado
Last Thursday, federal prosecutors sent threat letters to 23 dispensaries and their landlords across Colorado warning that they must shut down within 45 days or "action will be taken to seize and forfeit their property." The letter was sent to dispensaries operating within 1,000 feet of a school.
Last Friday, state Sen. Steve King said he would reintroduce a drugged driving bill. The bill would set a per se limit on THC, meaning police would not have to prove actual impairment, only that the driver's THC levels exceeded the limit. Such laws are fervently opposed by the state's medical marijuana patients, who managed to block one last year.
Idaho
On Tuesday, a medical marijuana bill, HB 370, was introduced in the Idaho House. It is the brain child of Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow), who filed similar legislation last year. It got an informational hearing in the House Health & Welfare Committee, but didn't proceed. HB 370 would permit patients with debilitating medical conditions to be dispensed up to 2 ounces of marijuana every 28 days; they'd have to get it from state-authorized "alternative treatment centers."
Michigan
Last Thursday, the state Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a pair of medical marijuana cases that could clarify the state's murky law. In one case, the issues include when someone using marijuana must have consulted a doctor and received a state-issued registration card to be legally protected under the medical marijuana law. In the second case, the court must consider what constitutes an "enclosed, locked facility" under the law.
That same day, an Oakland County circuit court judge dismissed the case against seven employees of the Clinical Relief dispensary in Ferndale. Clinical Relief was the first dispensary raided back in August 2010, and since then Michigan's Court of Appeals has ruled that person-to-person marijuana sales through dispensaries are illegal, but that ruling hadn't been made when the Ferndale workers were arrested, so the judge dismissed the case. Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said she plans to appeal.
Montana
Last Friday, federal prosecutors filed charges against four more people in their ongoing offensive against the medical marijuana industry in the state. They are 33-year-old Christopher Durbin, 40-year-old Justin Maddock, 29-year-old Aaron Durbin and 33-year-old Trey Scales. Christopher Durbin also is charged with structuring, or making bank deposits of less than $10,000 in order to avoid IRS reporting requirements.
New Jersey
On January 11, Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon said he would file a bill that would keep the state's medical marijuana growers from running afoul of zoning laws. The move comes after several New Jersey communities have blocked dispensaries or grows through zoning laws.
Last Thursday, Gov. Chris Christie (R) said he would not force towns to allow medical marijuana facilities. He said he would veto O'Scanlon's bill if it came to that.
On Wednesday, patients and supporters rallied at the statehouse steps in Trenton to protest Gov. Christie's failure to implement the state's medical marijuana law. The protest and press conference came two years after the measure was signed into law. There are still no dispensaries in New Jersey.
Ohio
Last Thursday, backers of a medical marijuana initiative filed language with Attorney General Mike DeWine in a first step toward getting the measure on the November ballot. The Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2012, accompanied by nearly 3,000 signatures, will be submitted to DeWine to review the language summarizing the proposal. This is the second time the amendment has been submitted; the first proposal was rejected last year after DeWine said it did not fairly summarize the measure. If approved, backers will need to collect 385,245 signatures to get it on the ballot. A competing proposal, the Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment, has already been approved for signature gathering.
Virginia
Last Thursday, a bill, House Joint Resolution 139, requesting the governor to seek rescheduling of marijuana was filed in Richmond. Governors in four medical marijuana states have already called for rescheduling.
Washington, DC
On Tuesday, the DC city council approved emergency legislation limiting the number of marijuana cultivation permits in each ward to six. The measure came after residents of Ward 5 complained that because zoning restrictions closed off large swathes of the city to grows, their neighborhoods would be inundated.
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by Bernd Debusmann Jr.
Mexican drug trafficking organizations make billions each year smuggling 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 more than 45,000 people, including more than 15,000 in 2010 and approximately 12,000 last year. The increasing
militarization of the drug war and the arrests or killings of dozens of 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:
Thursday, January 12
In Nuevo Leon, military
personnel captured a high-ranking Zeta boss. Jesus
Sarabia Luis Ramos, "El
Pepito," was considered by authorities to be the fourth most important leader in the organization. He was known to operate in
Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and
Tamaulipas.
Sunday, January 15
In
Culiacan,
a Canadian national was gunned down. Salih Adabulazizz Sahbaz, 35, was apparently of Iranian or Iraqi origin and was carrying a large amount of cash on his person when he was murdered. The motive remains unknown. He is the third Canadian known to have been killed in Mexico so far this year.
Monday, January 16
In
Cuernavaca,
seven gunmen were killed in a fire fight with federal police. One officer was wounded in the clash. The gunmen were traveling in three stolen vehicles when police intercepted them.
In
Zacapetec,
Morelos,
the local police chief was shot and killed by three men on motorcycles while he was at a gas station. He survived the initial shooting but later died in a local hospital.
Tuesday, January 17
In Little Rock, Arkansas,
authorities indicted 22 individuals on trafficking charges for being part in a meth operation with links to Mexican cartels. Seventeen of those are now in custody. Police also seized 13.3 pounds of "ice" meth and seven vehicles, five weapons and $163,590.
In
Ciudad Juarez,
gunmen stormed a home and killed four individuals inside. Three of the dead were found in a bathroom where they had attempted to hide. Local media reported that at least some of the men had been released from prison six months ago.
In Nayarit,
police arrested a local cartel boss. Benigno Ibarra Valle, 30, "El Guero Pelocho," was the head of the "Pelochos," a local branch of the Sinaloa Cartel. He is suspected in the deaths of at least five police officers in recent weeks. Nine other individuals were also taken into custody.
In Lazaro Cardenas,
authorities seized 194 tons of meth precursor chemicals on a ship from China. The containers were all headed for Guatemala or Nicaragua.
[
Editor's Note: We are no longer going to keep a running tally of the death toll; the figures are too unreliable. The latest figures below were released by the Mexican government in January.]
Total Body Count for 2007 (approx.): 4,300
Total Body Count for 2008 (approx.): 5,400
Total Body Count for 2009 (approx.): 9,600
Total Body Count for 2010 (official): 15,273
Partial Body Count for 2011 (official): 12,093*
Total Body Count (official): 47,705*
* Official figures through September 30, 2011. Unofficial estimates put the entire year's death toll at around 16,000, meaning more than 50,000 people have been killed.
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Another small-time drug user murdered after being coerced into becoming an informant, another lawsuit filed. Just days after Tallahassee, Florida, agreed to pay $2.6 million to the family of murdered informant Rachel Hoffman comes news that a Washington state family is suing two counties over the murder of their son, who was killed by a drug dealer he set up for police after being busted himself.
William Reagan killed Jeremy McLean after a drug task force turned him into a snitch and didn't protect him. (
The parents of Jeremy McLean have filed lawsuits against
Cowlitz and
Wahkiakum counties, saying narcotics detectives coerced him into becoming an informant, then failed to protect him from one of the guys he helped get busted. McLean was 26 years old when he was murdered by William Reagan in late 2008, after Reagan was arrested with McLean's assistance.
According to court documents in the case, McLean "was forced to sign a plea agreement... in order to avoid incarceration." That agreement required McLean to become an informant for the
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force, which involved him helping police bust at least ten drug dealers.
The lawsuit charges that neither the
Cowlitz County Offender Services Division, which was charged with monitoring Reagan after his release, or the narcotics task force, took adequate actions to secure McLean's safety.
According to the lawsuit, once Reagan got out of jail on bail, he "immediately began selling and consuming drugs," which breached the terms of his release, the lawyers said. Yet, the lawsuit claimed, Offender Services never tested Reagan for drug use and never booked him back into the jail despite the alleged violations.
While out on bail, Regan "began publicizing his intent to kill Jeremy McLean for participating in Reagan's criminal investigation" and began looking for allies to help. McLean heard the word on the street and "made multiple requests" to task force agents to "help protect him, but they did not take action."
On December 29, 2008, an associate of Reagan's lured McLean to an RV where Reagan was hiding. Reagan shot McLean four times in the head, killing him, and dumped his body along the Colombia River. Reagan later pleaded guilty to murder, saying he was trying to keep McLean from testifying against him and other dealers, and was sentenced to life in prison.
"The officers of the narcotics task force used their authority as law enforcement to create an opportunity for Reagan to attack and murder Jeremy McLean that would not otherwise have existed," lawyers for the McLean family argued. His death was also "a direct result of Offender Services' utter failure to adequately supervise William Reagan" while he awaited trial on drug charges.
The family has filed three claims against
Cowlitz County, seeking $200,000 in damages on behalf of McLean and each of his parents and a single claim, also seeking $200,000, against
Wahkiakum County.
The lawsuit will not bring back Jeremy McLean, but any light it shines on the unsavory practice of coercing small-time drug offenders into becoming snitches will be welcome, especially if it results in changes in police practices.
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A Federal Way, Washington, police officer shot and killed a man last Friday afternoon after witnessing an apparent drug deal. The as yet unidentified man becomes the 2nd person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.
According to Federal Way police spokeswoman Cathy Shrock, the officer was on duty when she stopped at a Starbucks in a local mall and saw what she believed to be two men doing a drug deal. The shooting occurred when she approached the vehicle.
"One of the subjects in the vehicle reached for something under the seat," said
Schrock. "She told him, 'Don't move, I'll shoot!' That person went again for something under the seat, what she believed was a weapon, and he was shot."
The vehicle took off and was found about a mile away. The driver had fled and the passenger was dead of a gunshot wound. The driver, described as a white male in his
20s, was still at large at last report.
There is no word on whether drugs or a gun were found in the vehicle.
The unnamed officer has been placed on administrative leave. The neighboring Auburn Police Department has been called in to investigate.
Update: The Seattle Times later reported that the dead man was identified as Maksim Mayba, 21, and that police said they found heroin, but no weapons, in the car. The car driver has been arrested as well.
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Two men were shot and killed in separate incidents by police enforcing drug laws this week. California resident Angel Molina and Little Rock, Arkansas resident Angelo Clark become the 3rd and 4th persons to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.
Police told local media in
Shafter, California, that
Shafter police went to a residence during a drug investigation Monday night and when they arrived, they encountered two people in the driveway. Police said they were searching the two men when they found a gun on Molina, 37. Police said Molina then tried to grab the gun, and Officer Joseph Hayes shot him in the chest.
He was taken to the Kern Medical Center, but died less than an hour later. The district attorney's office is investigating the incident. Officer Hayes is on administrative leave.
In Little Rock,
police told local media a SWAT team was serving a pre-dawn search warrant at an alleged drug house when they were confronted by Clark, who they said was holding an AK-47 directed at officers. He was shot by police and died at the scene.
Police said they had been investigating the residence since early December and undercover narcotics detectives had bought crack cocaine from Clark, 31, who lived there. But there was no mention of crack being seized at the home. Instead police reported finding a small marijuana growing operation, pot plants, scales and other drug paraphernalia, a loaded AK-47 clip, and a .40 caliber hand gun.
The unnamed SWAT officer who pulled the trigger is now on administrative leave. The Little Rock Police Department is conducting separate detective division and internal affairs investigations.
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Jailers smuggling drugs in burritos, cops planting drugs, cops doing security for drug deals, and evidence walking out of the evidence room. It's just another week of police misconduct in the drug war. Let's get to it:
In Asheville, North Carolina,
drugs are missing from the police department evidence room. The word comes after an audit done after 380 pills were found missing in April. Now, it appears more drugs are missing and criminal cases are being dismissed. Local authorities said they are putting new procedures in place. Meanwhile, evidence pertaining to the missing drugs has been sent to the FBI, and authorities are vowing to arrest whoever did it if they can figure out just who that was.
In Costa Mesa, California,
the city of Costa Mesa will pay a $150,000 settlement to a man who alleged that a former Costa Mesa police officer planted drugs on him and that prosecutors did not inform him that a drug test on the substance would have exonerated him. Tim
Slappy was arrested and pleaded guilty to cocaine possession charges, only to learn months later that the substance wasn't cocaine at all.
Slappy was arrested in March 2009 by former officer Robert Harris after Harris produced a white substance on the ground while searching him. It was only because he was subpoenaed for a hearing about other complaints lodged against Harris in Newport Beach that
Slappy learned from Costa Mesa detectives that the substance found near him was not cocaine. The city does not admit any guilt.
In Los Angeles,
an LA County sheriff's deputy was arrested January 11 on charges he smuggled heroin stuffed inside a burrito into a courthouse jail. Deputy Henry Marin, 27, is charged with bringing contraband into the jail and conspiracy to commit a crime. Martin was booked and released pending trial. Three LA County sheriff's guards have been convicted and a fourth fired in recent years for smuggling or attempting to smuggle narcotics into jail for inmates.
In Atlanta,
a former Clayton County police officer was sentenced Tuesday to federal prison for taking bribes to protect drug transactions and stealing personal property from a driver during a traffic stop. Jonathan Callahan, 28, was sentenced to five years and two months for accepting $1,000 in cash to be present during a drug deal in a sting conducted by the FBI. He came to investigators' attention after a motorist he had stopped for a traffic violation complained Callahan had stolen two firearms from him. That netted him a civil rights violation conviction for violating the driver's right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
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January 23, 1912: In the Hague, twelve nations sign a treaty restricting opium and coca production.
January 21, 1943: The New York Times reports that swing-band leader Gene
Krupa pleaded innocent to a charge that he contributed to the delinquency of a minor by asking 17-year-old John
Pateakos to fetch marijuana cigarettes from his hotel room for him.
January 25, 1990: President George Bush proposes to add an additional $1.2 billion to the budget for the war on drugs, including a 50% increase in military spending.
January 22, 1992: The California Research Advisory Panel concludes that drug prohibition has a more harmful effect on society and the individual than illegal drugs.
January 24, 1992: A Washington Post editorial comments, "... performance testing appears to be more effective than the standard urinalysis now used in the industry both after accidents and on a random basis." It also mentions that 97 percent of railroad accidents are caused by fatigue, illness, stress and other factors not associated with drug or alcohol use, and states, "On an annual basis, the test is less expensive than periodic urinalysis, and it's far less intrusive."
January 25, 1993: Based on a tip that drugs were on the premises, police smash down the door and rush into the home of Manuel Ramirez, a retired golf course
groundskeeper living in Stockton, California. Ramirez awakes, grabs a pistol and shoots and kills one policeman before other officers kill him. No drugs are found.
January 25, 1994: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act extends
ONDCP's mission to assessing budgets and resources related to the National Drug Control Strategy. It also establishes specific reporting requirements in the areas of drug use, availability, consequences, and treatment.
January 25, 1995: The Marijuana Policy Project (
MPP) is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the District of Columbia by Robert
Kampia and Chuck Thomas.
MPP's mission is to provide the marijuana law-reform movement with full-time, organized lobbying on the federal level.
January 23, 1996: President Clinton nominates General Barry
McCaffrey to become the nation's fourth drug czar.
January 20, 1997: The Lymphoma Foundation calls for rescheduling of marijuana as a medicine and the reopening of the Investigational New Drug compassionate access program.
January 19, 1999: Twenty heavily armed officers from the Placer County sheriff's department in northern California raid the home of Steve and Michele
Kubby.
January 20, 2000: John
Warnecke, former friend and colleague of Al Gore at The
Tennessean, contradicts Gore's characterization of his past marijuana use as minimal. He notes that Al Gore was a regular user, and that he used marijuana for at least four years after he claims to have stopped.
January 21, 2003: Ed Rosenthal's federal trial for marijuana cultivation begins. Rosenthal was growing medically with authorization from the city of Oakland, California, but his legal team is barred by Judge Charles
Breyer from informing the jury of this. Rosenthal is ultimately convicted but sentenced to one day, time already served.
January 21, 2003: A Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) article discusses a Commonwealth Government report that found tobacco and alcohol accounts for 83 percent of the cost of drug abuse in Australia, dwarfing the financial impact of illegal drugs.
January 21, 2003: MAPS and California
NORML sign a contract for a $25,000 protocol study to evaluate the contents of the vapor stream from the Volcano Vaporizer.
January 24, 2005: The US Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, rules that police do not violate the Fourth Amendment when they use drug-detecting dogs to locate illegal drugs in the trunks of cars during a legal traffic stop.
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