David Borden, Executive Director
David Borden
In Washington, a state where medical marijuana is legal, a judge decided that it isn't. That's technically not what happened, but for all intents and purposes it really is. Judge Anna Laurie convicted patient Robert Dalton for marijuana growing, because she didn't agree with Dalton's doctor's decision to recommend marijuana to him. Where did Judge Laurie go to medical school? How incredibly arrogant of her to play doctor. And how atrocious too -- Dalton, not a well man, could get up to six months in jail. As his attorney told the press, no patient in Washington is safe, if judges will behave that way.
In Sarasota County, Florida, a judge threw away the exclusionary rule for no good reason. A drug dog with the sheriff's office, Zuul, comes up with false positives in vehicles he sniffs half of the time. Judge Charles Roberts ruled that was good enough to justify police searching a vehicle -- but for a very special reason. Judge Roberts was swayed by the state's argument that every time they didn't find drugs, someone in the car admitted to using or possessing drugs in the recent past.
What?!?!?!?!? Along with the clear fishiness of the claim, what does past drug use, even recent, have to do with a drug dog's ability to tell whether drugs are in a car in the present? It would make more sense to argue that police were succeeding in profiling likely drug possessors, and that catching them with drugs actually in the car half of the time is a good enough percentage to justify a search. I would disagree with both those arguments -- partly because it would imply a 100% profiling success rate, which is not very likely, partly because I don't think 50% is good enough -- but it would make more sense than the argument actually used.
In effect the police and prosecutors attributed a "sixth sense" to their drug dog, beyond the sense of smell, enabling the dog to sense which cars don't have drugs in them, but whose owners have used drugs. But dogs don't have extra-sensory perception -- at least the law does not consider them to -- and a sitting judge should be able to recognize when an argument so obviously doesn't make sense.
So what is it that can cause an adult judge to play doctor, or to tacitly endorse a theory of canine "ESP"? Maybe it's that the war on drugs is spectacularly illogical in and of itself, but as judges they get immersed in it each day. To maintain a logical state of mind during drug cases would require judges to consciously acknowledge the corruption of the system they serve in, and the extent to which the law has turned them into perpetrators or at least enablers of injustice, a reality anyone might repress. And one thing gone wrong in the mind leads to another.
I'm not sure if that is really what's wrong with judges today, but something is wrong for all of this to be happening. Enough of overreaching, enough of twisted logic or no logic, enough of corrupted standards and intellectual integrity tossed to the wind. Judges need to stand up for truth and reason, and do so now, or they abdicate their status as arbiters of morality and justice. Wearing a robe to work and carrying a gavel isn't enough.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
Drugs as a kind of anti-Jesus?
There is this underlying theme of corruption, as if the drugs themselves have a kind of radiation or "area of effect" within which all touched by this dark halo gets corrupted. Someone happens to live with a suspected drug dealer? Well, guess the woman put herself in harms way by the choices she made, huh? And since she's kinda sorta fallen to the dark side and is working on the Drugstar she kinda sorta deserves a stray bullet or two, huh?
Humans will continue to deny it or severely underestimate their propensity for biased thinking (and consequently action) when the person on trial happens to be someone they like or someone they don't like. Like and likeness means the world to us humans. That's why Dave is such a good representative for the reform movement: well-dressed, tie and all, nicely groomed and someone people can relate to or even see as some kind of authority (because that kind of clothing conveys authority a lot better than dreadlocks, a smoking bong and a lot of "yeah man").
Whether it de clothing, race or some other visible sign of likeness and likeability psychological tests have consistently shown that a jury will jail less, punish less and award greater amounts of money in damages to those we like and look like.
Anyone interested in getting to know these compliance techniques better pick up Robert B. Cialdini's "Influence: Science and Practice". It's already sold at least a million and you just don't wanna be the last schmuck on Earth to read this gem.
In reply to Drugs as a kind of anti-Jesus? by Malkavian (not verified)
'Drugs as a kind of anti-Jesus?' OR, 'Jesus... another Drug?'
Good article with many good points and insights... and yes Dave is an excellent rep & looks normal... our suitor in the white collar world!
Problems too often occur as a result of those pesky, ubiquitous, 'unintended consequences' that our 'western judao-christian society' seems so well conditioned to deliberately ignore.
However, the 'intended consequences' of a machiavellian, ends justifies the means methodology, coupled with the abnegation of civic responsibility, the lack of judicial review, and the massive misconceptions about common-sense, directly, and deliberately, contribute to the injustices, and human rights violations, that always follow 'illegal laws'!
Biased thinking is antagonistic to common-sense!
For "common-sense', often thought of in mystical or metaphysical terms instead of an evolving cognitive skill, to truly exist the information that individuals use to formulate their opinions needs to be accurate and complete.
'Accurate and complete' information can not be obtained by limiting information sources to only those that reinforce, as opposed to challenge, preconceived 'truths'.
'Intellectual Dishonesty' is now deeply ingrained in american society, it's purveyors recognize it as a powerful tool in the man made arenas of political and religious theories, and is a dangerous form of deceitful self satisfaction, I call it mental masturbation, that amplifies the opinions and distortions of biased people.
One of my favorite 'intellectually dishonest' statements is "Drugs & Alcohol" as opposed to "Drugs... especially Alcohol". This is a perfect example of a 'slight of mind' designed to make users of the drug alcohol, the drug of choice of our european ancestors, 'more equal', though more dangerous, then the drug marijuana.
'Truth is treason in the kingdom of lies' - Ron Paul
Billy B. Blunt
Tacoma, WA
why "drug dogs" always pick cars with "users" in them....
because so many people use them, duh!
Judges practicing medicine ought to be illegal.. if not already!
Judges practicing medicine ought to be illegal.. if not already!
Just like it is illegal for doctors to practice law without a law license it should be illegal for a judge to practice medicine without a medical license.
Sounds like Judge Anna Laurie went to the same cunt school as Judge Judith Retchin (the bitch most responsible for the slow strangulation death of Jonathan Magbie, the 27-year-old quadriplegic she sentenced to prison for 10 days... because he defied her)!
Where are the 'Green Panthers' when you need them?
One of my greatest regrets, for when the drug war ends... and it certainly will... even if it takes 1 state at a time... is that the prohibitionist criminals responsible, including the judges above, will not be held accountable for such 'drug war' crimes against our civil rights.
If you dig deeper into the belief system that contributes to the psychosis (a symptom of mental illness where the afflicted experience delusions they believe are real. For example: Judges who think they are doctors) of the paranoid prohibitionist you'll find the same antiquated fundamentalist religious belief system that brought us the 'temperance movement' and the 1st Drug War... known as alcohol prohibition.
Billy B. Blunt
Tacoma, WA
Judges Need Prison Time
The judiciary is guilty of treason.
Jail judges for failing to dismiss drug inquisition cases.
Jail them for violating the 8th Amendment in sentencing.
Jail them for supporting criminal mercantilism.
Clean out the courts of these secretive society lackeys.
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/08/judge-dj-young-belongs-in-prison-for.html
Drug dogs with ESP --
amazing. They must be learning it from their trainers, cops who charge people with "intent to" crimes. And we all know that the cops (and their dogs) wouldn't be searching your car or your home unless you were doing something wrong.
Canine Sixth Sense
A false positive is something that requires five or fewer senses, not six.
The dope dogs are probably sensing an unconscious or subliminal cue from the canine officerâs speech or actions that causes the dog to react to give a false positive. If an officer really wants to search a car, he or she may not even be aware that they are communicating signals to the dog that will cause the animal to produce a positive reaction.
Unfortunately, among the many problems of this beleaguered nation, scientifically illiterate judges are the norm.  They tend to prove that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Judges, prosecutors and lawyers are typically men and women of letters, and the letters of the alphabet can spell out any degree of superstitious nonsense. There are many professionals like these throughout the country who cannot distinguish ideology from evidence based information. In the dog ESP case, ignorance is being used to bypass 4th Amendment protections.
Much of the problem can be laid at the feet of the American public education system and the local culture that determines the local school curricula. Unlike Europe, thereâs no firm national standard for what to teach in primary and secondary schools in individual states or school districts. This is the reason people in the Red States, and often elsewhere, end their high school years with little or no knowledge of logic, rhetoric, or world history. Science education is downplayed. The rest of the permitted curricula is made so boring that most students are thereby encouraged to never learn anything ever again. In this way, theyâre dumbed down to keep them subservient to special interests. Itâs one of the oldest means of oppression; one that was once responsible for preventing women and slaves from learning to read.
Of course, what goes around comes around. We are witnessing this countryâs education problem among American judges who are so mentally tweaked that they would justify a warrant based on someoneâs claim of a dogâs alleged sixth sense. America is made the laughing stock of the world with goofy stories like these. In a rational society, judges who practice medicine without a license, or who would sacrifice a personâs freedom on some idiotic assumption concerning a dogâs sixth sense, are judges who need to be removed from the bench.
Giordano
false posiive
There is an ex federal narcotics officer that is now teaching people about how tonot get busted and even he says that the dogs that the police and federal agents use can and are regularly "qued" to trigger on a car of someone they want to search but have no probable cause to do so. They induce a false positive by queing the dog and boom no more pesky rights tyo worry about we can do whatever we want...it happens more then most think
criminal virginia routine constitutional subversion
Drug dos used to be trained to sign in obvious ways- e.g. scratching and barking at a certain spot.
Now they "sign" by wagging their tail (or breathing) or ??? which they are doing when they are even nowhere near the victim's automobile.
This is obviously conspiracy to circumvent (subvert) the 4th Amendment by establishing the dog's mere presence as "probable cause" and is don in such criminal jurisdictions as virginia (as it was done to me, with the police video being "just grey static" with my lawyer not allowing me to testify at the suppression hearing because my contradicting the police testily would "only antagonize the judge".
That's criminal conspiracy to subvert the 4th amendment and is routine in such jurisdictions as criminal virginia (which places its cigarette protection racket above the constitution), sending a message that criminal mercantilism is ok.
http://wwwfreespeechbeneathushs.blogspot.com/2007/06/my-august-5-2006-ambush-police-video.html
more about criminal virginia-US federal Constitution Subversion
http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html
Douglas Willinger
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/
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