In a decision handed down Thursday, the Canadian Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of Alberta medical marijuana activist Grant Krieger, who had been convicted of marijuana possession with the intent to distribute. The high court held that the trial judge had erred by directing the jury to find Krieger guilty.

Grant Krieger (courtesy cannabiscoalition.ca)

Two jurors objected at the time, one citing religious reasons and one citing reasons of conscience, and asked to be excused from the case, but the judge refused.

The judge's jury instructions were clearly unconstitutional, the high court ruled. "The trial judge's direction was not a 'slip of the tongue' to be evaluated in the context of the charge as a whole," the court wrote in its decision. "His purpose and words were clear. In effect, the trial judge reduced the jury's role to a ceremonial one: he ordered the conviction and left to the jury, as a matter of form but not of substance, its delivery in open court."

Krieger, who has legal permission from Health Canada to smoke marijuana for multiple sclerosis, is begging for a retrial. He wants to continue to use the courts as a forum for challenging the legitimacy of Canada's marijuana laws.

With election day little more than a week away, proponents of South Dakota's medical marijuana initiative are increasingly nervous about the measure's prospects in the face of a coordinated onslaught by the state's Republican political establishment, state and local law enforcement, and even the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office). Given South Dakota's social conservatism and a number of hot-button other issues on the ballot, including abortion and gay marriage, the assault by law enforcement only makes voter approval of the measure more difficult. But with no polling on the issue in the state since 2002 (when it got 64% approval), it is hard to gauge exactly where the vote is likely to go.

Known on the ballot as Initiated Measure 4, the medical marijuana measure would allow patients who suffer from specified medical conditions, have the okay of their doctor, and register with the state to use marijuana to alleviate their conditions. The measure also allows registered patients or their caregivers to grow up to six marijuana plants. If the measure passes, South Dakota would become the 12th state to legalize marijuana. If the measure fails, South Dakota would become the first state where voters explicitly rejected medical marijuana.

Beginning late last week, the organized opposition began fighting in earnest with a series of press conferences featuring Attorney General Larry Long (whom organizers were forced to successfully sue over biased ballot language), local law enforcement officials, and deputy drug czar Scott Burns. Burns called medical marijuana "a con" and accused initiative supporters of playing on the sympathies of voters to advance a dangerous agenda.

"It's a step backwards in South Dakota and a step backwards nationally," said Burns at a Sioux Falls press conference last Friday. "Do not fall for the con."

"The risk far outweighs the benefits," said Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls) Sheriff Mike Milstead at the same widely televised and reported press conference. "There's great concern about how easily this marijuana could fall into the wrong hands."

Some South Dakota law enforcement officials have gone further in their arguments against the measure. In a conversation with Drug War Chronicle Thursday, Hughes County (Pierre) Sheriff Mike Leidholt complained that initiative language barring registered patients from being prosecuted as drugged drivers because of residual metabolites in their systems would result in them being able to get away with driving while intoxicated. "If we can't test for the metabolite, how are we to enforce the law, or is that a free pass?" he asked.

Leidholt also expressed concern that marijuana grown for registered patients would escape into the larger market. "This measure allows any patient or caregiver to have up to six marijuana plants," he said. "One marijuana plant can produce up to 13,000 joints. If you have that much, what happens to the rest of it?"

[Editor's Note: We report, you decide. Assuming a joint weighs between one-half gram and one gram, that comes to somewhere between 15 and 30 pounds of smokeable bud. By our calculations, it would take a marijuana plant the size of a full-grown oak tree to produce that many joints.]

Leidholt conceded that marijuana may help a small number of seriously ill people in the state, but argued that that does not outweigh the need to keep marijuana off the streets. "I feel bad for those people, but the dangers are too great," he said.

That argument wasn't flying with Valerie Hannah of Deerfield, a combat medic in the Gulf War who know suffers chronic pain from nerve damage and who is serving as the primary spokesperson for South Dakotans for Medical Marijuana, the group behind the initiative. "We really need this for patients who are truly ill so they can have another means of release," she told the Chronicle.

Hannah and former Denver police officer Tony Ryan, who now lives in Sioux Falls, are the group's public face. Both are appearing in TV commercials airing around the state -- when they can squeeze in among all the abortion, gay marriage, tobacco tax, elected office, and other campaign commercials that are cluttering the airwaves.

"What law enforcement is doing is a real disappointment, but my biggest disappointment is Larry Long bringing in the national deputy drug czar to propagandize at press conferences," she said. "They're really starting to pull out the drug war money and going to town with it."

Hannah is in a lonely fight. No other medical marijuana patient in the state has yet stood up to be counted alongside her. But that is not surprising in a state where anyone who admits to marijuana use could be served with a search warrant and ordered to submit to a drug test, then prosecuted for "unlawful ingestion" of marijuana.

"People are scared here," Hannah said. "Not only are they scared to come out, some people who use medical marijuana have even told me they voted against it because they were afraid law enforcement would look at their ballots and somehow persecute them. It is past time for people to get over their fears and realize this is really all about sick and dying people."

While Hannah other initiative supporters are working frantically to secure victory on November 7, the outcome is "kind of iffy," she said. "Faced with all these false claims from law enforcement and the fear in the air in this state, I don't know how this will come out."

Hannah held out some hope though, citing surprising support among farmers and ranchers in the sparsely-populated, libertarian-leaning northwest part of the state. "That is good, but most of the votes are in the East, especially in Sioux Falls," she noted. With some 177,000 residents in the metro area, Sioux Falls accounts for about one-quarter of the state's population.

"Western South Dakota is a place where outlaws went to hide from the law -- and they stayed -- so it may be fertile ground for medical marijuana even if just for the tax money. But if they lose in Sioux Falls, they lose the entire state," said University of South Dakota political science Professor David Vick. "The city has been growing rapidly, and the small towns around there have become suburbs, and they vote like suburbs," he told the Chronicle.

Vick had a hard time imagining that the measure would succeed. "My opinion is that it will probably not pass," he said. "On the East side of the state, you tend to have values voters who vote along religious lines and conservative political lines. The only way I see this passing is if people vote for it in a backlash against government intrusion or fiscal conservatism. Of course, there are people who have found assistance from medical marijuana or know someone who has, and they could vote for it."

It now looks like an uphill battle in South Dakota, but we will not really know until the votes are counted.

November 2, 1951: The Boggs Act nearly quadruples penalties for all narcotics offenses and unscientifically lumps marijuana in with narcotic drugs. (Narcotics are by definition a class of drugs derived from the opium poppy plant, containing opium, or produced synthetically and to have opium-like effects. Opioid drugs relieve pain, dull the senses and induce sleep.)

November 1, 1968: The UK's Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence releases the Wootton Report, recommending that marijuana possession should not be a criminal offense.

October 27, 1969: Anthropologist Margaret Mead provides testimony to Congress: "It is my considered opinion at present that marihuana is not harmful unless it is taken in enormous and excessive amounts. I believe that we are damaging this country, damaging our law enforcement situation, damaging the trust between older people and younger people by its prohibition, and this is far more serious than any damage that might be done to a few over-users."

October 27, 1970: Congress passes the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. It strengthens law enforcement by allowing police to conduct "no-knock" searches and includes the Controlled Substances Act, which establishes five categories ("schedules") for regulating drugs based on their medicinal value and potential for addiction.

October 28, 1972: In a re-election campaign statement about crime and drug abuse, President Richard Nixon says: "As a result of our total war on drug abuse, the rate of growth in new heroin addiction has declined dramatically since 1969. By next June, we will have created the capacity to treat up to 250,000 heroin addicts annually -- a thirty-fold increase over the amount of federally funded drug treatment which existed when I took office... My goal for the next 4 years is for every American city to begin realizing the kind of victories in the war on crime which we have already achieved in the Nation's Capital -- where the crime rate has been cut in half since my Administration took office, and where heroin overdose deaths have almost disappeared... This kind of progress can and must be made all across America. By winning the war on crime and drugs, we can restore the social climate of order and justice which will assure our society of the freedom it must have to build and grow."

October 27, 1986: President Reagan signs The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, an enormous omnibus drug bill which appropriates $1.7 billion to "fight the drug crisis." The bill's most consequential action is the creation of mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses.

October 29, 1993: The administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Robert C. Bonner, resigns after three years in office to enter private law practice in Los Angeles. He disagreed with the Clinton administration's increased emphasis on drug treatment, saying it amounted to a decrease in emphasis on law enforcement and the pursuit of cooperation from foreign governments. "Drug treatment, particularly in this town, is the real feel good (method) for how you deal with the drug problem. It doesn't deal with any enforcement of the laws. It makes everybody feel all warm and fuzzy... I think treatment is being oversold," says Bonner.

October 30, 1995: President Bill Clinton signs legislation passed by Congress rejecting a US Sentencing Commission move to reduce penalties for crack cocaine offenses to bring them equal with powder cocaine.

October 27, 1997: After a four-year investigation and a five-month trial, a federal jury returns a not guilty verdict on one racketeering charge against two former US prosecutors who became lawyers for a drug cartel, but fails to reach verdicts on drug trafficking and other charges against the two lawyers.

October 27, 2001: The Guardian (UK) reports that a majority of Britons believe cannabis should be legalized and sold under license in a similar way to alcohol. Some 65 percent of those questioned in a poll agree it should be legalized and 91 percent said it should be available on prescription for sufferers of diseases like multiple sclerosis.

October 28, 2002: The New York Post reports that a Time/CNN poll reveals that 72 percent of Americans now feel that people arrested with small amounts of marijuana should not do any jail time, while just 19 percent favored sending pot smokers to jail. Nearly 60 percent of Americans still want marijuana possession to be considered a criminal offense -- but 34 percent now favor complete legalization. The new poll also offers good news to activists and lawmakers who are calling for the legalization of medical marijuana: 80 percent of those surveyed said they favored dispensing pot for medicinal purposes.

October 31, 2002 -- The Washington Post publishes a story about a rare interview with Benjamin Arellano Felix, the man accused of running Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel, from the La Palma maximum security federal prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico. Arellano said the United States has already lost its war on drugs and that violent trafficking gangs will thrive as long as Americans keep buying marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

November 1, 2002: Every prosecutor in the United States is sent a letter from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), urging them to make prosecution of cannabis crimes a high priority and to fight efforts to ease drug laws.

October 27, 2004: In an op-ed piece in the Paris newspaper Le Monde, Raymond Kendall, the chief of the international law enforcement agency Interpol from 1985 to 2000, calls drug prohibition "obsolete and dangerous" and says its continuation represents a missed opportunity for reform. He says prohibition has failed to protect the world from drugs and Europe must take the lead in reforming the drug laws, particularly at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs in Vienna in 2008.

• Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org each day and you'll see a listing of upcoming events in the page's righthand column with the number of days remaining until the next several events coming up and a link to more.
• Check our new online calendar section at to view all of them by month, week or a range of different views.
• We request and invite you to submit your event listings directly on our web site. Note that our new system allows you to post not only a short description as we currently do, but also the entire text of your announcement.

The Reformer's Calendar publishes events large and small of interest to drug policy reformers around the world. Whether it's a major international conference, a demonstration bringing together people from around the region or a forum at the local college, we want to know so we can let others know, too.

But we need your help to keep the calendar current, so please make sure to contact us and don't assume that we already know about the event or that we'll hear about it from someone else, because that doesn't always happen.

We look forward to apprising you of more new features of our new web site as they become available.

Ho-hum, the banality of drug war-related law enforcement corruption. More crooked cops trying to rip-off drug dealers, another one trying to rip-off his own department, and, of course, yet another prison guard trying to earn a few bucks on the side. Also notable this week is an overview of corruption along the US-Mexico border in the Los Angeles Times. It's well worth checking out, too.

In Chicago, two Chicago police officers trying to rip off what they thought was a drug dealer's cash stash went down in a sting operation Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Officers Richard Doroniuk, 30, and Mahmoud "Mike" Shamah, 27, used information from a co-defendant to obtain search warrants to search self-storage lockers. In two raids, they stole $31,100 in what they thought was drug money, reporting no cash seizure in the first raid and only reporting part of the cash in the second, but the money had actually been placed in the lockers by the FBI and Chicago police internal affairs investigators. Doroniuk, Shamah, and their co-conspirator have now been charged with conspiring to steal government funds.

In Columbia, South Carolina, the Associated Press reported October 19 that a former York County deputy has been busted for ripping-off $1,200 in cash that was supposed to be used in undercover drug deals. William Graham, 37, worked in the county's special drug unit and was in charge of keeping track of those funds. Instead he pocketed them. Now, he has confessed and repaid the money, but still faces charges of embezzlement of public funds and misconduct in office.

In Inez, Kentucky, a federal prison guard was indicted for taking $3,000 for smuggling drugs to a prison inmate, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Guard Alice Marie Stapleton, 30, now faces seven counts of drug possession and conspiracy to smuggle contraband into the prison. According to the indictment, a prisoner's mother delivered heroin and marijuana to Stapleton at a local motel and Stapleton smuggled them into the prison. The prisoner in question has already pleaded guilty to being part of the conspiracy, and his mother and her driver are preparing to do the same, so it looks like the state will have the witnesses it needs to convict Stapleton.

A bill before the Israeli Knesset that would send people to prison for up to three years for possessing a bong has caused a breach in the Israeli Justice Ministry and provoked the ministry's Office of Public Defense (similar to a public defender's office in the US) to not only reject the bong bill, but also call for an end to the persecution of soft drug users. Instead, the Public Defense said, law enforcement should concentrate on large-scale dealers and traffickers.

It was the Justice Ministry's Legislative Department that drafted the bong bill, which is now before the Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee. In addition to three-year sentences for bong possession, the bill proposes sentences of up to five years for bong sales.

But in her recommendation to the committee, Deputy Public Defense Attorney Dr. Hagit Lernau not only ripped the bill, but the arrest of pot- and hash-smokers as well. Hagit explained the "enforcement paradox" -- that harassing casual soft drug users can create greater social harm than benefit.

"The 'enforcement paradox' is that much greater when the issue in question is the use of drugs which cause relatively little harm to users and the nature of which is infrequent and, for the most part, ends with the beginning of serious employment and a person's domestication," Lernau wrote. "It is the social effect and not the drug use itself which ends up harming individuals. It harms their ability to evolve professionally and economically and become normally integrated in society."

Lernau also took after Israeli law enforcement: "Instead of ensuring and developing the necessary services needed for education, treatment and welfare, law enforcement chooses to concentrate on expanding criminal law despite the damages this causes," she wrote. "The result of this policy is dozens of criminal indictments on possession of several grams of cannabis drugs, without any practical wisdom to support it."

Israel should follow the example of Europe instead of trying to pass silly bong laws, Lernau added. The Europeans, she wrote, "concentrate efforts on mass importing/exporting and distribution, while taking a tolerant approach of explanation and treatment/rehabilitation towards users and drug cultivators for private use."

Até agora, tem sido ilegal cultivar maconha nos Países Baixos, mas um caso decidido na terça-feira fez uma fenda no dique a favor dos pacientes. Apesar de os famosos cafés da Holanda proporcionarem vendas de cannabis no varejo com a aquiescência do Estado Holandês, o país nunca redigiu nenhum dispositivo para tirar os cultivadores que suprem as lojas do mercado negro. Igualmente, apesar de a Holanda permitir que a maconha medicinal seja comprada nas farmácias, não deixa que os pacientes a cultivem eles mesmos.

Na terça-feira, de acordo com a Agence France Presse, um tribunal de apelações em Leeuwaarden no norte dos Países Baixos decidiu que o paciente de esclerose múltipla, Wim Moolag, e a mulher dele não deveriam ter sido processados por cultivarem uma planta que lhes renderia 20 gramas de maconha por semana. Apesar de que o tribunal tivesse declarado os Moorlag culpados de cultivo ilegal (e lhes houvesse dado uma multa de $314), o tribunal de apelações sustentou que o direito de Moorlag a tentar aliviar a dor relacionada com a doença dele anulava o interesse do estado em proibir o cultivo de maconha.

Moorlag debatera que não podia comprar maconha dos cafés porque podia conter fungos e bactérias especialmente perigosas para os pacientes de EM.

O advogado de Moorlag, Wim Anker, disse à agência de notícias Dutch ANP que a decisão teria amplas ramificações. “Isto significa que outros pacientes também podem cultivar legalmente a própria cannabis deles, não só os pacientes de EM, mas também as pessoas com AIDS”, disse.

Os procuradores holandeses, contudo, não vão jogar a toalha. Na quarta-feira, eles anunciaram que tinham pedido à Suprema Corte holandesa que anulasse a decisão do tribunal de apelações. “Nós apresentamos uma moção de recurso na terça-feira perante a Suprema Corte”, disse Marina Well, porta-voz da procuradoria em Leeuwaarden.

20 de Outubro de 2004: Uma coalizão inovadora de organizações profissionais negras se reúne para formar a National African American Drug Policy Coalition (NAADPC). A NAADPC busca urgentemente alternativas às políticas equivocadas de drogas que levaram ao encarceramento em massa.

22 de Outubro de 1982: O primeiro caso publicamente conhecido das cargas de cocaína dos contras no governo acontece em um cabograma da Diretoria de Operações da CIA. O cabograma repassa a mensagem de que as agências legais dos EUA estão cientes “das relações entre (uma organização religiosa dos EUA) e dois grupos contra-revolucionários nicaragüenses [que] envolvem uma troca (nos Estados Unidos) de narcóticos por armas”. [O material em parênteses foi inserido pela CIA como parte de sua desclassificação do cabograma. O nome do grupo religioso continua em segredo.]

23 de Outubro de 2001: O Ministro do Interior da Grã-Bretanha, David Blunkett, propõe a reclassificação da cannabis da Classe B para a Classe C. Logo, a cannabis é descriminalizada na Grã-Bretanha.

23 de Outubro de 2002: A Time/CNN realiza uma pesquisa telefônica de 1.007 adultos estadunidenses em dois dias (23 e 24 de Outubro). O resultado: Quase um em cada dois estadunidenses adultos reconhece que usou maconha, pouco mais que o índice de um para três em 1983.

24 de Outubro de 1993: O porte de psilocibina e psilocina vira ilegal nos EUA.

25 de Outubro de 1997: A respeito da Colômbia, o New York Times cita o Secretário Antidrogas dos EUA, o General Barry McCaffrey: “Que não reste dúvida nenhuma: Não participamos das operações antiguerrilheiras”. Menos de dois anos depois, no dia 17 de Julho de 1999, o Miami Herald informa: McCaffrey disse que era ‘uma besteira a esta altura’ tentar diferenciar entre esforços antidrogas e a guerra contra os grupos insurgentes”.

26 de Outubro de 1993: A Reuters informa que a National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) se juntou a grupos das tropas dos escoteiros, Elks Clubs e outros grupos comunitários em um programa no qual os participantes limpam partes do sistema rodoviário do Ohio. O Departamento de Transporte do Ohio negou a solicitação da NORML duas vezes anteriormente, debatendo que isso seria ajudar a dar publicidade a um grupo “ativista polêmico”. A American Civil Liberties Union entrou na briga e o procurador-geral do Ohio forçou os trabalhadores dos transportes a cederem.

26 de Outubro de 1997: O Los Angeles Times informa que doze anos depois que um agente antidrogas dos EUA foi seqüestrado, torturado e assassinado no México, surgiram provas de que os procuradores federais se fiaram em depoimentos perjurados e informações falsas, jogando dúvidas sobre as condenações dos três homens que agora cumprem sentenças de prisão perpétua no caso.

26 de Outubro de 2001: Na mesma tarde que o Congresso aprova novas restrições contra as liberdades civis, grupos de agentes da DEA caem sobre o LA Cannabis Resource Center, confiscando todos os computadores, arquivos, contas bancárias, plantas e medicamentos do centro. A DEA cita uma recente decisão da Suprema Corte como justificação de sua ação. O jardim de cannabis dos pacientes no local de West Hollywood é confiscado pelos agentes da DEA apesar dos altos protestos do Prefeito de West Hollywood e de muitos funcionários e moradores locais.

O gabinete italiano aprovou na quinta-feira o uso de derivados da maconha, como o spray sublingual Sativex, no alívio da dor, informou a agência alemã Deutsche Presse Agentur. A ação reverte a política antidrogas imposta pólo governo anterior do ex-Primeiro Ministro Silvio Berlusconi, que foi derrotado pelo atual Primeiro Ministro Romano Prodi no início deste ano.

“Estamos falando da terapia de alívio da dor. Isto não tem nada a ver com fumar baseados”, disse a Ministra da Saúde, Livia Turco, aos repórteres depois do encerramento da reunião do gabinete na qual a decisão foi tomada. “Estas drogas já estão em uso no Canadá, na Suíça e na Holanda”, acrescentou.

Apesar de o governo Prodi ter prometido relaxar as penas endurecidas para delitos de drogas promulgadas pelo governo Berlusconi, essa ação não tem nada a ver com aquilo, disse Turco. “Se alguém falar em cannabis, então todo mundo fica alvoroçado. Estamos falando de terapias contra a dor”.

Em Março de 2005, a polícia em Flint, Michigan irrompeu no Club What’s Next nas últimas horas da noite da sexta após testemunhar vários exemplos de vendas de drogas em ou perto da danceteria e fumo de maconha dentro do local, que estava realizando uma rave. Apesar de a polícia ter encontrado drogas ou apetrechos com apenas 23 pessoas (apesar das revistas corporais), eles prenderam as 117 pessoas presentes na cena. As restantes 94 pessoas foram acusadas de “freqüentarem uma bocada de drogas”, uma contravenção.

reide à rave de 2005 em Utah (cortesia do CMI Portland)

“A Corte Distrital errou ao encontrar delito provável para deter aqueles réus”, escreveu Farah em sua decisão. “Permitir que as detenções destes 94 réus continuassem seria permitir o tratamento conjunto de pessoas que tinham estado na danceteria durante cinco minutos ou cinco horas, pessoas que não pararam de dançar com aqueles que estavam próximos a uma transação de drogas, pessoas que estavam sentadas em uma mesa voltada para a parede com aqueles metidos em injúrias e acusar aqueles indivíduos presentes com consciência e conhecimento iguais das más ações”.

A ACLU do Michigan, que representou as 94 pessoas presas por estarem presentes, saudou a decisão com prazer. “O decreto-lei sob o qual as detenções foram feitas existe para proteger os cidadãos de Flint de bocadas de drogas reais. Nunca teve a intenção de ser usado aleatoriamente pela polícia contra cidadãos obedientes à lei que vão a danceterias para ouvir música e socializar”, disse a diretora executiva da ACLU Michigan, Kary Moss, em declaração emitida no mesmo dia. “O parecer do Juiz Joseph Farah vindica os direitos constitucionais dos nossos clientes e manda um recado forte às polícias de todos o país”.

“O parecer do Juiz Farah conclui corretamente que a polícia não tinha que se meter a prender nenhum deles”, disse Ken Mogill, advogado da ACLU Michigan que debateu o caso com Elizabeth Jacobs. “É uma vitória gratificante para cada um dos indivíduos obedientes e equivocadamente presos e para o império da lei na nossa comunidade”.

Ocupados, muito ocupados. Juízes consumindo cocaína, policiais traficando cocaína, policiais vendendo êxtase, pilotos da Força Aérea contrabandeando êxtase, químicos da polícia roubando da pilha de provas – e, claro, agentes penitenciários contrabandeando drogas para as prisões. Vamos ao que interessa:

Em Las Cruces, Novo México, a Comissão de Padrões Judiciais do estado entrou com uma petição na sexta-feira passada procurando a remoção de um magistrado da Comarca de Dona Ana com base em seus exames positivos por cocaína, de acordo com a Associated Press. O Magistrado Carlos Garza, 42, negou usar drogas e prometeu combater a ação. Garza foi suspenso pela comissão desde o dia 20 de Setembro, quando não obedeceu à ordem da comissão de se submeter a um exame toxicológico. De acordo com a comissão, desde então ele não passou por outro exame. A comissão também acusou Garza de tentar pressionar um agente de Mesilla durante uma batida de trânsito na qual o juiz estava em um carro com uma mulher “com a qual ele tinha uma relação pessoal” e pressionar o escrivão municipal a deixar limpa a carteira de motorista da mulher antes do tempo em um caso de condução em estado de embriaguez. Ele foi posto em liberdade vigiada pela Comissão de Padrões Judiciais no início deste ano nesse caso e ele disse que a acusação de ter usado cocaína era a continuação da vingança da comissão contra ele. Ele disse que os metabolitos de cocaína encontrados no organismo dele podem ter sido recebidos através de “exposição passiva”. Garza disputa a reeleição sem opositores nas eleições do mês que vem.

[N.E.: Incluir ou não o mero porte ou o simples consumo de drogas de parte do pessoal da justiça criminal entre os exemplos de corrupção é um dilema que a Crônica da Guerra Contra as Drogas enfrenta rotineiramente. Até agora, optamos por inclui-los, porque um juiz que consome drogas ilegais também pode ser um juiz que preside julgamentos e pronuncia sentenças contra outros usuários de drogas que fizeram a mesmíssima coisa (hipocrisia); e porque o juiz está infringindo uma lei que ele jurou cumprir (não obstante seja uma lei da qual discordamos). Mas, é preciso lembrar que há uma diferença entre o consumo de drogas por policiais ou juízes e o lucro com o tráfico de drogas ou outros exemplos de improbidade oficial.]

Em Durham, Carolina do Norte, um xerife-adjunto da Comarca de Durham foi preso em um reide antidrogas a um bar local e outros dois adjuntos foram despedidos por trabalharem como seguranças ali. O Adjunto Michael Owens, o dono do bar sitiado, foi acusado junto com quatro outros por traficar cocaína e conspirar para traficar cocaína e ele pode receber outra acusação de manter um prédio para fins de distribuição de cocaína. Os adjuntos Brad King e Keith Dotson, que trabalhavam nas horas vagas como seguranças para o clube, foram suspensos na mesma noite, informou o Durham Herald Sun e demitidos no início desta semana. As autoridades informaram confiscar 42g de cocaína durante o reide.

Em Biloxi, Mississippi, um ex-agente da polícia de Biloxi se confessou culpado na sexta-feira passada de vender êxtase, informou o Biloxi Sun Herald. Darrell Cvitanovich, que se demitiu da força após a sua detenção, pode pegar até 30 anos de prisão depois de admitir que vendeu quatro comprimidos de êxtase a um amigo. Cvitanovich, que é filho de um ex-delegado da polícia de Biloxi, foi preso em Junho de 2005 após uma investigação das alegações de que estava envolvido em atividades relacionadas com as drogas. Durante a busca da casa dele, a polícia encontrou 11 comprimidos de êxtase e uma pequena quantidade de metanfetamina. Ele foi acusado de porte de substância controlada com intenção de venda e transferência de substância controlada, mas, na semana passada, se confessou culpado apenas da acusação de vendas. Cvinatovich está livre sob fiança de $50.000 até a condenação.

Na Cidade de Nova Iorque, um piloto da Guarda Aérea Nacional dos EUA que levou um jato à Alemanha e voltou com 200.000 comprimidos de êxtase foi condenado na sexta passada a 17 anos e meio de prisão. O Capitão Franklin Rodríguez, 36, e seu cúmplice, o Sargento John Fong, 37, tinham se confessado culpados em tribunal federal após serem pegos pelo vôo de Abril de 2005. Fong aguarda condenação. O par caiu depois que os agentes federais viram Fong colocar 28 bolsas em uma BMW sedan e as acharam cheias de comprimidos de êxtase, de acordo com a Associated Press. Os procuradores disseram que Rodríguez transportara drogas várias vezes em vôos militares, trazendo centenas de milhares de comprimidos de êxtase aos EUA. Os federais encontraram mais de $700.000 em espécie no apartamento dele. Agora, eles os têm.

Na Filadélfia, uma ex-química civil da Polícia da Filadélfia foi presa no dia 11 de Outubro sob acusações de ter roubado drogas para consumo próprio, informou a Associated Press. Colleen Brubaker, 30, caiu sob suspeição em Abril e pediu demissão em Maio. Agora, as autoridades a acusam de pegar analgésicos opiáceos como Oxycontin, Percocet e Vicodin para fomentar o vício dela. Ela é acusada de porte de drogas, roubo, receptação, adulteração de provas, obstrução, adulteração de registros ou informações públicas e adulteração ou fabricação de provas físicas. Já que Brubaker era a química responsável por centenas de casos de drogas, os defensores públicos agora consideram a possibilidade de que alguns deles possam ter que ser retirados.

Em Stillwater, Oklahoma, um xerife-adjunto da Comarca de Payne foi suspenso sem direito a remuneração durante uma investigação da Agência de Controle de Narcóticos e Drogas Perigosas de Oklahoma, informou a Associated Press. Os funcionários municipais não querem falar sobre o que o Adjunto Brooke Buchanan, com 13 anos de serviços prestados ao departamento, é acusado de fazer, mas confirmam sim que um promotor especial foi nomeado para a investigação. A averiguação pode levar várias semanas até que qualquer acusação seja feita.

Em Lubbock, Texas, uma agente penitenciária da Comarca de Lubbock foi presa no domingo à noite enquanto chegava ao trabalho levando maconha, informou a KLBK-CBS 13 TV em Lubbock. Renata Hernández, 26, é acusada de introduzir uma substância proibida em uma instalação correcional. Ela pode pegar entre dois e dez anos de prisão. Embora os porta-vozes da polícia dissessem que achavam que ela estava trazendo a erva à cadeia para vendê-la, ainda não conseguiram provar isso.