Supreme Court Throws Out Oxycontin Settlement, Honduras Ex-President Sentenced as Cocaine Trafficker, More... (6/27/24)

A House subcommittee has moved to block marijuana rescheduling, a North Dakota marijuana legalization campaign faces an uphill battle in that reddest of red states, and more.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez as he was being extradited to the US. Now he will be here for a long while. (Honduras National Police)

House Committee Uses Justice Funding Bill to Block Marijuana Rescheduling. The House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee voted Wednesday to include a provision barring the Justice Department from using its funds to reschedule or deschedule marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. The bill keeps the existing rule that blocks the Justice Department from interfering in state-legal medical marijuana programs.

"None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to reschedule marijuana… or to remove marijuana from the schedules established under section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act," the bill says.

While the bill keeps the existing rule telling Justice to keep out of state-legal medical marijuana, the subcommittee added a new provision that would allow the department to spend money to enforce violations of school zone laws. This is the first time any restrictions have been imposed on the medical marijuana rider since it was first enacted a decade ago.

All of these provisions in the Justice Department funding bill are subject to further negotiations.

Hawaii Governor Signs into Law Bill Launching Expungement Pilot Program. Gov. Josh Green (D) has signed into law a bill creating a limited pilot program to expunge marijuana possession arrest -- but not conviction -- records, House Bill 1595. A separate bill that would create a task force to draft broader expungement legislation is pending and appears poised to become law.

The pilot program is limited to Hawaii County, which is the Big Island. With 14 percent of the state population, it is the second most populous county in the state after Honolulu County.

Bill sponsor Rep. David Tarnas (D) drafted a bill that would automatically expunge all arrest and conviction records for small-time pot possession, but it was gutted in the Senate Judiciary Committee and replaced with the pilot program. That move was at the behest of Attorney General Anne Lopez (D), who said the issue was budgetary.

"There simply isn't the money available for new kinds of projects that aren't deemed necessary or crucial to the recovery" following massive wildfires that tore through Maui last August," said Dave Day, special assistant to the attorney general. "We felt that a pilot project to show how that would work, and potentially what resources would be required for a larger expungement program, would be appropriate."

Tarnas is okay with it, calling the amended measure "a good first step" toward a broader, statewide expungement plan.

North Dakota Poll Has Bad News for Marijuana Legalization Initiative Campaign. A poll commissioned by the Brighter Future Alliance, an independent political action committee, has grim tidings for New Approach North Dakota, the folks behind a marijuana legalization initiative still trying to qualify for the November ballot.

The poll has a solid majority -- 57 percent -- opposing legalization. The number is dispiriting but not surprising, given that voters in this reddest of red states have previously rejected freeing the weed at the polls.

The poll also had former President Trump leading President Biden by 34 points and Republican candidates for statewide office leading their Democratic opponents by similar margins.

Opiates and Opioids

Supreme Court Throws Out Oxycontin Settlement, Rejects Bankruptcy Protection for Sackler Family. A narrowly and unusually divided Supreme Court on Wednesday blew up a deal that would have provided billions of dollars to combat opiate use but would also have shielded members of the Sackler family, who owned Oxycontin maker PurduePharma, from paying out more in civil lawsuits.

Under the agreement hammered out by state and local governments and victims, the Sacklers would have paid $6 billion into the opiate fund and given up ownership of the company, but would still keep billions more dollars safe from any lawsuits.

But writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Neal Gorsuch held that nothing in present law authorizes the Sackler discharge."

Joining Gorsuch in the majority were Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Comey Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Clarence Thomas. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

"Opioid victims and other future victims of mass torts will suffer greatly in the wake of today's unfortunate and destabilizing decision," Kavanaugh wrote.

The Sackler family suggested it will now return to negotiations.

"The unfortunate reality is that the alternative is costly and chaotic legal proceedings in courtrooms across the country," they said in a statement. "While we are confident that we would prevail in any future litigation given the profound misrepresentations about our families and the opioid crisis, we continue to believe that a swift negotiated agreement to provide billions of dollars for people and communities in need is the best way forward."

A lawyer representing more than 60,000 overdose victims said the decision was a major setback.

"The Purdue plan was a victim-centered plan that would provide billions of dollars to the states to be used exclusively to abate the opioid crisis and $750 million for victims of the crisis, so that they could begin to rebuild their lives," said attorney Edgar Neiger said in a statement. "As a result of the senseless three-year crusade by the government against the plan, thousands of people died of overdose, and today’s decision will lead to more needless overdose deaths."

But the father of one overdose victim praised the decision.

"This is a step toward justice. It was outrageous what they were trying to get away with," Philadelphia resident Ed Bisch said Thursday. "They have made a mockery of the justice system and then they tried to make a mockery of the bankruptcy system."

Law Enforcement

Honduras Ex-President Sentenced in US Court to 45 Years for Drug Trafficking. Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, once a staunch US ally, was sentenced in federal court in New York City Wednesday to 45 years in prison and an $8 million fine for turning the country he ruled into a "narco-state" that funneled South American cocaine to the US.

He had been convicted on federal drug and weapons charges in March. US prosecutors said he took millions of dollars in bribes from Mexican drug trafficking organizations and helped move at least 400 tons of cocaine to the lucrative American market. He was also accused of protecting drug traffickers and blocking their extradition.

Prosecutors put the value of the cocaine at "well over $10 billion" and presented cooperating witnesses who linked the conspiracy to more than 130 murders.

"Juan Orlando Hernández abused his power as the president of Honduras to send incomprehensible amounts of cocaine to the United States," prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said. "He was polluting this country with incomprehensible amounts of poison."