Breaking News:Dangerous Delays: What Washington State (Re)Teaches Us About Cash and Cannabis Store Robberies [REPORT]

Police Raids

RSS Feed for this category

OH Legal Weed Initiative Hands in Final Signatures, Brazil Drug Raids Leave 45 Dead, More... (8/3/23)

It looks like Ohioans will get to vote on marijuana legalization this year, Singapore hangs yet another drug offender, and more.

Cocaine -- an Australian lawmaker says legalize it. Black market cocaine also finances conflict in Colombia. (Pixabay)
Marijuana Policy

Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative Campaign Hands in Final Signatures. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has handed in an additional 6,545 raw signatures after it came up 679 valid voter signatures short in its initial round of signature gathering. That should guarantee that their proposed marijuana legalization initiative will be on the November 2023 ballot.

"Today, our Coalition submitted 6,545 signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State, well above the 679 required to get on the ballot this November. I cannot express our thanks enough to everyone who came out to support this effort," said coalition spokesperson Tom Hare. "This submission validates what we've said all along: Regulating marijuana is popular in Ohio," he said. "We're looking forward to giving Ohio voters a chance to make their voices heard at the ballot this fall."

Under the initiative, people 21 and over can purchase and possess up to 2 ½ ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants, or 12 plants per household. The initiative also envisions a system of taxed and regulated marijuana commerce with a 10 percent tax on sales.

The initiative would need 50 percent of the vote plus one to win. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll last month had support at 58.6 percent.

International

Australia New South Wales Lawmaker Calls for Cocaine Legalization. In the wake of a series of high-profile shootings and killings in Sydney in the past month, a New South Wales Green member of the state parliament is calling for cocaine legalization.

"The worst thing for the drug lords right now would be a legal market, that's what they would fear the most," MP Cate Faehrmann said on Tuesday. "The war on drugs has well and truly failed. We're just doing the same thing day in day out. I think the only people who think that what we're doing is good is the criminals themselves."

The comments come as the Labor Party plans to hold a drug summit in the near future. In the meantime, NSW Liberal Party Shadow Health Minister Matt Kean said calls for legalization undermined the efforts of police and argued that policymakers' focus should be on "strong law and order policies."

Brazil Police Raids Kill At Least 45 People in Past Week. In a series of raids against drug trafficking gangs carried out after the killing of a police officer a little more than a week ago, police have killed at least 45 people. Ten were killed in the Complexo da Penha favela in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, 19 were killed in clashed with military police between Friday and Monday in Salvador, and the death toll has risen to 16 in an ongoing operation in the Baixada Santista region of Sao Paulo.

Human rights groups denounced the action in Baixada Santista as a revenge-motivated massacre, with residents also reporting threats and cases of torture.

"What happened in Guarujá was a massacre. The deaths were deliberate… The state of São Paulo must contain this wave of violence," said Dimitri Sales, president of the state council on the defense of human rights (Condepe).

The raids are all part of something called Operation Shield, which is aimed at the drug trade. The governor of Sao Paulo has said the operations were "clean" and that all the victims were suspected criminals, sparking even more concern from human rights groups.

"It is extremely concerning that the governor and security secretary declare that there were no [human rights] abuses before an investigation is even held… [This] is effectively an endorsement of arbitrary practices," said Oscar Vilhena, a lawyer and member of the Arns Commission, a human rights organization.

Colombia Signs Truce Agreement with National Liberation Army. The left-leaning government of President Gustavo Petro and the leftist guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional -- ELN) began a six-month truce Thursday, marking the beginning of an effort to reach a permanent peace agreement with the country's last remaining rebel group.

The government reached a peace agreement with the leftist guerrillas of the FARC, a much larger force, back in 2017, but FARC dissidents remain in the field. Like the ELN and rightist paramilitaries, all of the groups are involved in the lucrative cocaine trade.

More than 450,000 Colombians are estimated to have been killed in the multi-sided conflict that has gone on since the 1960s, much of it financed by the cocaine trade. The ceasefire is supposed to end attacks between guerrillas and Colombian security forces and can be extended in January if progress is made during peace negotiations.

Singapore Executes Third Drug Offender in Little More Than a Week. For the third time in less than 10 days, Singapore has executed a person convicted of a drug offense. Mohamed Shalleh Abdul Latiff, 39, was hanged at Changi Prison for trafficking under two ounces of heroin.

Mohamed Shalleh's hanging comes only days after authorities in the city-state executed Saridewi Binte Djamani, 45, and Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, 57, for drug trafficking, prompting an outcry from the United Nations and human rights organizations. At least 16 people have been hanged for drug offenses since Singapore ended a pandemic-related moratorium on the death penalty.

Chronicle Book Review: "The Riders Come Out at Night"

The Riders Come Out at Night: Brutality, Corruption, and Cover-Up in Oaklandby Ali Winston & Darwin Bondgraham (2023, Atria Books, 467 pp., $30 HB)

The killing of Tyre Daniels by Memphis police officers who were members of an aggressive anti-crime unit has reignited longstanding public concerns about police brutality and, more broadly, police culture. How is it that American police generate an Eric Garner, a Philandro Castile, a Breonna Taylor, a George Floyd, a Tyre Daniels, another dead person of color and another, on a regular basis?

As the brief list above suggests, and as the massive wave of protests in towns and cities across the land in the wake of the George Floyd killing confirms, thuggish, sometimes murderous cops are not just a Memphis problem. Almost every big city police department has its own legacy of scandalous brutality, much of it linked to the enforcement of drug prohibition. Oakland, California, is no exception.

In the case of the gritty East Bay city, it was the Riders scandal two decades ago that was so outrageous it generated mass protests, a criminal trial of the police involved, and a successful civil lawsuit that resulted in the Oakland Police Department force to operate under the supervision of a federal judge enforcing a consent decree.

In The Riders Come Out at Night, veteran investigative journalists Ali Winston and Darwin Bondgrahm use the Riders scandal as the fulcrum with which they pry open the inner workings of a police department long notorious for corruption and brutality. It's a tale not just of cop acting like criminals but also of a departmental culture more interesting in protecting its own than protecting the citizenry and elected officials more interested in playing "tough on crime" politics than ensuring that the police do not abuse the public.

Like the Memphis SCORPION unit now under the spotlight, the Riders were a specialized crime-fighting unit, celebrated for their aggressive tactics against drug dealers and other scofflaws and held up as an example for incoming rookie officers. A growing pile of police brutality complaints vanished into the police bureaucracy that was supposed to address them, and it took one of those rookie officers, sickened by what he was witnessing from his trainers, to finally bring the scandal into the open.

When it broke, it broke big, with four of the Riders eventually going to trial for the assaults and other crimes they committed (one of them fled and remains a fugitive to this day), only to escape criminal punishment after being vigorously defended by lawyers paid for by the police union. But they and the department could not escape a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of 119 Oakland residents that resulted in a federal consent decree forcing the department into oversight by a federal judge. That was 2003. The department remains under that consent decree to this day because it has been unable or unwilling to make the reforms necessary to satisfy the judge.

Since that 2003 consent decree went into effect, the Oakland PD has suffered renewed scandals on a regular basis, ranging from run of the mill police killings to the killing of four Oakland cops by one man in an incident that laid bare deficiencies in police training to the scandal around Oakland (and other) cops having sex with a troubled teen. And then there was the killing of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station—not by an Oakland cop but by a BART officer—and the Oakland Police's thuggish response to protests around that killing. And the spying on and attacks on Occupy protestors in 2011.

And on and on. It's as if the Oakland Police is a recidivist organization. The authors describe a culture within the department that has been historically racist, sexist, and anti-worker, dating back to anti-Chinese policing in the late 1800s, the Ku Klux Klan presence in the force in the 1920s, and the violent suppression of strikes in the 1930s. It bashed hippies in the 1960s and terrorized black Oaklanders in the 1980s and 1990s as it prosecuted the war on drugs.

It also generated a decades-long resistance movement, often led by the families of the people the department killed that has managed to impose reforms. And it eventually inspired the consent decree under which the department still labors, but it's always two steps forward, one step back.

As they examine this sordid history, Winston and Bondgraham concede that the department has changed, become less deadly and more transparent, and even occasionally capable of punishing miscreants within the ranks. But they argue that the transformations necessary to civilize policing in Oakland (and elsewhere) are greater than the institution of the police:

Whether policing in Oakland will ever get to the point where most people can agree it has been fundamentally transformed—no longer anything like the institution the Riders thrived in, no longer the force that terrorized Black Oakland after World War II and well into the 2000s—depends very much on whether there are broader societal shifts. So long as Oakland and the rest of America is riven by extreme race and class inequalities and the power of the federal government is not brought to repair the economies of destitute cities and rural areas, and deal with the intergenerational trauma that leads to despair and hopelessness, then it's very likely the police will continue serving more or less the same function they have for well over half a century: containing and repressing the symptoms of broader social problems through violence.

The Riders Come Out at Nightis thoroughly researched, compellingly written, and eye-opening. It is also an achingly timely examination of the role of police in society and how we figure out who will guard us from the guardians. This is a real contribution to the literature of policing in America, and it does not paint a pretty picture. 

Portland Shroom House Busted, Mexico Opium Poppy Production Up, More... (12/12/22)

A Denver rabbi busted for using magic mushrooms in his healing sees charges dropped, US drug wholesalers are leaving some psychiatric patients in the lurch as a crack down on distributing controlled substances rolls out, and more.

Psilocybin mushrooms. You still can't sell these legally to the public in Oregon, as Shroom House found out. (Pixabay)
Psychedelics Denver Drops Charges Against Mushroom Rabbi Who Promotes Religious Psychedelic Use. In the wake of voters' decision last month to legalize psilocybin, the chemical compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, the Denver district attorney announced last week that his office was dropping charges against Ben Gorelick, who had been arrested in February on charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Gorelick operates Sacred Tribe,, a multifaith community that combines psilocybin use and ideas rooted in Jewish tradition. The DA's office said it dropped the charges against Gorelick "in light of voters' decision" to pass Proposition 122, which legalized the growing and sharing of psilocybin by people 21 and over. While the February bust put an end to psilocybin ceremonies for the rest of this year, Sacred Tribe continued to hold Shabbat dinners and other activities

Portland Police Raid Shroom House, Store Where Psychedelic Mushrooms Were Being Sold Openly. Shroom House, a Burnside Avenue herbal shop that had been openly selling psilocybin mushrooms for the past two months amidst a rising crescendo of publicity is no longer selling psilocybin mushrooms after Portland police raided it last Thursday. Police said they seized 22 pounds of psilocybin, along with $13,000 in cash and made four arrests, including store owner Steven Tachie Jr., 32. Oregon voters passed on initiative in 2020 that decriminalized the mushrooms within narrow therapeutic confines and another initiative that decriminalized drug possession in general, but they didn't pass anything that allowed for the unlicensed sale of psilocybin mushrooms. Tachie and one other person are facing 10 felony counts of money laundering and 10 counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, police said.

Opiates and Opioids

Drug Wholesale Crackdown in Response to Opioid Crisis Is Making Access to Some Psychiatric Drugs Problematic. US drug wholesalers who have been hit with huge cash settlements over their role in the country's opioid crisis are responding by cracking down on "suspicious" orders from pharmacies. That move is preventing some pharmacists from being able to dispense a combination of stimulants and sedatives commonly prescribed by psychiatrists for patients suffering conditions such as anxiety and ADHD. The move by AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corp came after a $21 billion nationwide opioid settlement in July. Now, pharmacists are reporting that they are being cut off from distributing any controlled substances by the distributors after filling prescriptions for psychiatric drugs such as the stimulant Adderall, used for treating ADHD, and Xanax, used as an anti-anxiety drug. The distributors imposed the bans because pharmacies had filled prescriptions written by doctors who were frequent prescribers of controlled substances or who had filled prescriptions for both stimulants and sedatives for the same patients. Some members of the American Psychiatric Association complained that pharmacies were no longer comfortable filling some combination prescriptions out of fear of being blacklisted. "This is detrimental potentially to many patients who have comorbid anxieties along with ADHD, or sleep issues along with ADHD,"said Matthew Goldenberg, president-elect of the Southern California Psychiatric Society. "I think it's a trickle-down effect from the opiates."

International

Mexican Opium Poppy Production is Up, New Report Finds. A joint report this week from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the government of Mexico finds that opium poppy cultivation increased by 12 percent in the 2019-2020 season over the year before. Cultivation is occurring in areas that have long seen poppy crops, such as Oaxaca and Guerrero in the southwest, Nayarit in the west, and the northwestern Golden Triangle within the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Sinaloa. Faced with rising resort to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, opium production had been declining since the 2016-2017 season, but that trend was broken in 2019-2020. "Despite the eradication campaigns by the Mexican government, the opium gum market persists and continues to be a very profitable activity," the report stated. "Opium gum can be stored for long periods of time, allowing it to be marketed when conditions are optimal for the farmer."

Oakland Entheogenic Church Sues Over Raid, Thai Minister Discourages Pot Tourism, More... (8/19/22)

Wisconsin's Republican legislative majority is out of step with the people when it comes to freeing the weed, an Idaho medical marijuana initiative campaign takes a first step, and more.

Magic mushrooms. An Oakland church argues that they are a protected religious sacrament. (Greenoid/Flickr)
Marijuana Policy

Wisconsin Poll Shows Very Strong Support for Marijuana Legalization. A new poll from the Marquette Law School shows support for marijuana legalization in the state at an all-time high of 69 percent of registered voters. That's an eight-point jump since the school's last poll just five months ago. Eighty-one percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents, and 51 percent of Republicans said they back legalization in the latest poll. A GOP legislative supermajority entrenched through gerrymandering does not care. It hasn't even approved medical marijuana except for low-THC cannabis oil.

Medical Marijuana

Idaho Activists Launch Medical Marijuana Ballot Push for 2024. Activists organized as Kind Idaho have filed a proposed 2024 medical marijuana ballot initiative that is essentially identical to one it filed two years ago but which did not end up qualifying for the ballot. The measure would allow patients with qualifying conditions to buy medical marijuana at state-licensed dispensaries or grow up to six plants at home if a dispensary were unavailable or getting to one would impose a hardship on the patient. "Now the waiting game begins," said Joseph Evans, the group's treasurer. "We will be in contact again in five weeks when we come in to pick up and review the changes the [attorney general] suggests."

Psychedelics

Oakland Church That Uses Psychedelic Mushrooms as Sacrament Sues over Police Raid. The Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants, an assembly of the Church of Ambrosia, has filed a lawsuit alleging civil rights violations against the city of Oakland and the Oakland Police Department after police raided the church, which used magic mushrooms as a sacrament, in 2020. The suit charges that the police raid violated its 1st and 14th Amendment rights and that the city's land use code bars them from conducting religious ceremonies and sacraments with psychedelics and marijuana inside the church.

Oakland Police say the church was operating as a dispensary, and they acted after receiving a complaint. One officer, John Romero, applied for church membership, signed an agreement acknowledging the church is not a dispensary and bought 3.5 grams of marijuana, which the church says is intended for on-site consumption as part of its sacrament. Romero returned with a search warrant, damaged five safes, seized paperwork, inventory logs, $200,000 worth of marijuana and mushroom inventory, a computer, and $4,500 in cash. The church says it is about spirituality, not dope dealing."This is not just an excuse for selling drugs," church founder Dave Hodges said. "This is a sincere faith, and the work that I personally do with mushrooms is with the really high doses. There's no doubt in my mind that mushrooms were the first way our ancient ancestors understood there was more to this existence. They raided us like we were some kind of crime family they were taking down or a meth house," Hodges said. "They came in guns blazing, which they didn't need to do. They could've accomplished the same thing with two officers without their guns drawn. This was a classic smash-and-grab scenario where they took our sacrament, they took our money and they never filed any charges." The church is seeking a permanent injunction forcing the city to approve its land use application and to exempt religious use of entheogenic plants as part of the application process. "We would like for the Oakland PD to leave us alone and for the city of Oakland to consider us legitimate," Hodges said.

International

Thai Health Minister Says Pot-Smoking Tourists Not Welcome. Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul discouraged people from visiting the country only to smoke weed. "We don't welcome those kinds of tourists," Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters when asked about recreational marijuana use among foreign visitors. The comments come just two months after Thailand largely decriminalized marijuana, leading to an influx of tourists and the opening of "cannabis cafes." Marijuana tourism could be a boon to the country's important tourism industry, which was badly wounded by the coronavirus pandemic, but the government says recreational use of the drug is not okay. But that could change, Anutin said: "It might come in the near future."

Feds Charge Four Louisville Cops in Fatal Breonna Taylor Drug Raid, Thai Cannabis Tourism, More... (8/4/22)

Arkansas election officials knock a marijuana legalization initiative off the ballot -- at least for now -- San Francisco's new DA cracks down on drug dealers, and more.

Kentucky did not do it, but maybe the federal government can obtain justice for Breonna Taylor.
Marijuana Policy

Arkansas Panel Rejects Marijuana Legalization Initiative. The state Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday blocked a marijuana legalization initiative from Responsible Growth Arkansas from appearing on the ballot in November. The board rejected the popular name and ballot title for the measure, which has already accumulated enough voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. Responsible Growth Arkansas says it will appeal to the state Supreme Court. The board said it rejected the measure because members believed the ballot title didn't fully explain the measure's impact, but Responsible Growth Arkansas said the amount of detail demanded would make the ballot title "thousands and thousands of words long."

Law Enforcement

Feds Charge Four Louisville Cops in Breonna Taylor Case. The FBI has charged four Louisville police officers for their actions leading up to and during a March 2020 drug raid on the apartment of medical worker Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police gunfire after her boyfriend shot at what he believed to be intruders trying to break into the residence. Those charged include former Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison, and Kelly Hanna Goodlett, as well as current LMPD sergeant Kyle Meany was also arrested Thursday by the feds. The feds are charging the four with civil rights violations, which include charges of obstruction of justice for actions they took after the raid. The four officers largely escaped justice at the state level, with only one charged, and later acquitted -- not for shooting Taylor but for endangering the lives of neighbors by wildly shooting several rounds into the building. The killing of Taylor became a major rallying cry in the summer of protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

San Francisco DA Cracks Down on Drug Dealers. Newly-elected District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Wednesday announced tougher new policies to hold drug dealers accountable, saying anyone caught with more than five grams of drugs would no longer be referred to the city's drug court, that she will make use of sentencing enhancements for drug dealing within a thousand feet of a school, and will seek pretrial detention of fentanyl dealers in "extreme" cases. The move comes as Jenkins replaces former progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin, who was recalled amidst rising public concern over crime and squalor in the city. But the city's Public Defender called Jenkin's approach "regressive," saying it will disproportionately affect communities of color. "If District Attorney Jenkins truly wants to address the issues facing our city, she should not be relying on outdated and politically expedient soundbites about harsher enforcement," said Public Defender Mano Raju.

International

Brittney Griner Sentenced to 9 Years in Russian Penal Colony for Possessing Small Quantity of Cannabis Oil. American basketball star Brittney Griner was sentenced Thursday to nine years in a Russian penal colony after earlier being found of bringing cannabis oil into the country in her luggage. The guilty verdict was virtually a foregone conclusion in a criminal justice system that wins convictions in 99 percent of cases. Griner was detained by Russian authorities just a week before it invaded Ukraine, and her case is widely seen as part of the broader conflict between Russia and the United States over that conflict. Griner's attorneys say they will appeal the verdict. President Biden, who has been under pressure to win her release from her wife and the athletic community and whose administration is attempting to negotiate a prisoner swap for Griner, called her sentence "unacceptable," and vowed to continue all-out efforts to get her home.

Cannabis Cafes Emerge in Thailand. "Several" cannabis cafes have opened in Bangkok since the country decriminalized cannabis in June, despite the government's warning that the law's relaxation did not include recreational marijuana use. Recreational use has exploded under the new law, something that government officials have tried to discourage. Now, a parliamentary committee is working on a bill that could rejigger the rules and possibly impact the cannabis cafes. In the meantime, one café owner said his place had "hundreds" of customers every day. "Europeans, Japanese, Americans -- they are looking for Thai sativa. Cannabis and tourism are a match," he said.

Biden Signs Criminal Justice Reform Executive Order, RI Legislature Approves Marijuana Legalization, More... (5/25/22)

Rhode Island is set to become the 19th legal marijuana state, West Virginia announces a big settlement with drug manufacturers over their role in the opioid crisis, and more.

After congressional inaction, President Biden issues an executive order on criminal justice reform. (whitehouse.gov)
Marijuana Policy

Georgia Voters Approve Marijuana Legalization Ballot Question. State voters sent a strong signal to lawmakers Tuesday by overwhelmingly approving a non-binding ballot question on marijuana policy. Voters were asked: "Should marijuana be legalized, taxed and regulated in the same manner as alcohol for adults 21 years of age or older, with proceeds going towards education, infrastructure and health care programs?" A whopping 80 percent of them answered "yes."

Rhode Island Legislature Approves Marijuana Legalization. Both the House and the Senate voted Tuesday to approve a marijuana legalization bill, Senate Bill 2430. Gov. Dan McKee (D) is set to sign it into law today. The law will allow people 21 and over to possess, grow, and purchase limited amounts of marijuana. It also includes expungement and social equity provisions. Once the bill is signed into law, Rhode Island will become the 19th state to free the weed. Look for our feature story on this later today.

Opiates and Opioids

West Virginia Announces Settlement with Opioid Manufacturers. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Wednesday that the state had reached a $161.5 million settlement with two drug companies over their role in the opioid epidemic. The settlement came as the trial in the state's lawsuit against Allergan and Teva was nearing its end. Morrisey touted the settlement as "record-breaking," saying it was the highest per capita settlement in the country and blasted the two companies as "helping fuel the opioid epidemic in West Virginia by engaging in strategic campaigns to deceive prescribers and misrepresent the risks and benefits of opioid painkillers."

Criminal Justice

President Biden Signs Executive Order to Advance Accountable Policing, Strengthen Public Safety. Marking the second anniversary of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, President Biden on Wednesday issued a broad-ranging executive order to advance accountable policing and enhance public safety. The move comes after Congress largely failed to act on policing reform in the wake of the killing and the mass protests it generated. Among other provisions, the order creates a new national database of police misconduct, restricts the use of no-knock search warrants, bans the use of chokeholds and carotid restraints unless deadly force is authorized, requires new standards limiting the use of force for all federal agencies, restores the Obama administration's restrictions on the transfer of military equipment to law enforcement agencies, requires an updated approach to recruitment, hiring, promotion, and retention of law enforcement officers; requires all federal law enforcement agencies to track data on use of force; directs a government-wide strategic plan to propose interventions to reform the criminal justice system; and requires full implementation of the First Step Act.

MO Legalization Init Hands in Double Needed Signatures, Colombia Drug Lord Extradition Sparks Trouble, More... (5/9/22)

Austin voters say adios to no-knock warrants, Colombia's most powerful cartel gets unruly after its leader's extradition to the US, and more.

Colombian drug lord "Otoniel" upon his arrest last October. (Colombian National Police)
Marijuana Policy

Missouri Activists Turn in Double the Signatures Needed for Marijuana Legalization Initiative. Activists with Legal Missouri 2022, the folks behind a marijuana legalization constitutional amendment, announced Sunday that they had turned in more than 385,000 raw voter signatures in a bid to get the measure on the November ballot. That is more than twice the 171,592 valid voter signatures necessary to qualify, meaning that the measure has almost certainly qualified for the ballot. Initiative campaigns typically try to get a cushion of 20-30 percent more signatures that required to account for rejected signatures, but Legal Missouri has a cushion of more than 100 percent.

Drug Policy

Austin, Texas, Voters Overwhelmingly Approve Marijuana Decriminalization, Ban on No-Knock Warrants. Austin residents voted overwhelmingly in support of a municipal ballot measure that decriminalizes marijuana possession and bans police from using no-knock warrants. Some 85 percent of voters said "yes" to the measure. Now, the city council must codify the results into law, but the council already passed a 2020 resolution to end misdemeanor marijuana arrests, which will now become law. Similarly, officials said police in Austin execute just a handful of no-knock raids each year, but now that number will go to zero.

International

Head of Colombia's Gulf Clan Cartel Extradited to US. Dairo Antonio Úsuga, known as Otoniel, alleged head of the Gulf Clan cartel, was extradited to the United States last week to face drug smuggling conspiracy charges. Otoniel had been Colombia's most wanted man for the past decade before being captured in his jungle hideout last October. The Gulf Clan emerged out of rightist paramilitaries who worked with the Colombian government in the long-running civil war with the leftist FARC. Many in Colombia want him to supply information about atrocities committed by paramilitaries during the conflict, which officially ended with a peace treaty between the FARC and the government in 2016. He already faced Colombian charges of murder, illegal recruitment, kidnapping for ransom, sexual abuse of minors, terrorism, and illegal possession of weapons, as well as drug trafficking.

Colombia's Gulf Clan Cartel Stages "Armed Strike" After Leader's Extradition to US. In response to the extradition of their leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as Otoniel, to the US to face drug trafficking charges, the Gulf Cartel launched a four-day "armed strike" beginning last Thursday. They blocked roads and set fire to dozens of vehicles. The Interior Ministry said "more than a hundred vehicles (...) were hit" in the first two days of the action.

Colombian Military Deploys More Troops to Combat Gulf Clan Cartel. The Colombian military is beefing up its already extensive presence in the country's north in response to an "armed strike" called by the Gulf Clan cartel in response to the extradition of its leader Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as Otoniel, to the US to face drug trafficking charges. There were already about 50,000 government troops in the region, but now another 2,000 have been deployed. They would be tasked, among other things, with securing roads so that hard-hit commerce can be restored, he said. The Gulf Clan cartel, Colombia's biggest, is estimated to account for between 30 and 60 percent of all cocaine exported from Colombia.

Senate Legal Pot Bill Filing Bumped Back; Cops Begin to Move Away from Prextextual Traffic Stops, More... (4/15/22)

Bad behavior by the dope squad in Springfield, MA, leads to a consent decree with the Justice Department, the Senate pot legalization bill won't be filed this month after all, and more.

No-knock raids come under scrutiny in a new Washington Post report. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

Senate Marijuana Legalization Bill Filing Delayed. The Senate marijuana legalization bill championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, will not be filed later this month as the trio originally planned, Schumer said Thursday. Instead, he said, the senators are now on track to file the bill before the August recess. The House has already passed its version of a legalization bill, the MORE Act (HR 3617). The House has also repeatedly passed an interim measure aimed at providing access to financial services to state-legal marijuana businesses, the SAFE Act (HR 1996), but Schumer and his allies in the Senate have blocked action on that, saying they want the legalization bill passed first.

Medical Marijuana

Oklahoma Bills to Rein in Medical Marijuana Industry Advance. The Senate Business, Commerce and Tourism Committee advanced a number of bills to regulate the state's booming medical marijuana industry Thursday. House Bill 3813 would give Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority investigators the power to seize illegal medical marijuana products and to make arrests, as well as referring evidence, reports, and charges to law enforcement and prosecutors. It passed 11-0. The panel also passed House Bill 3208, which would enact a two-year moratorium on new medical marijuana business licenses, on a vote of 9-2. House Bill 4055 would require public utilities to provide the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority with reports concerning how much water and electricity a grow facility uses. It passed on a vote of 8-3. House Bill 4411 would remove a limit of two facility inspections a year on medical marijuana operations and require at least one inspection annually. It passed on a vote of 11-0. And House Bill 3971 would let the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority employ "secret shoppers" to verify that retail outlets are complying with laws. It passed 10-1.

Law Enforcement

Some Cops Are Moving Away from Pretextual Traffic Stops. For decades, police have relied on pretextual traffic stops—stopping a driver, frequently a Black driver, for a trivial infraction, such as no license plate light or an expired inspection sticker—as a tool for looking for drug and gun law violations, but the New York Times reports that some departments are now moving from the practice as evidence mounts that they "not only disproportionately snare Black drivers but also do little to combat serious crime or improve public safety, and some escalate into avoidable violence, even killing officers or drivers." The newspaper cited the death in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of Patrick Lyoya, an unarmed 26-year-old Black man who was pulled over for a mismatched license plate and, after a brief struggle, was apparently shot in the head from behind, but he was only the latest of at least 400 unarmed people killed by police in traffic stops in the last five years. Big cities such as Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Seattle have or are enacting policies restricting stops for minor violations, so has the state of Virginia, and smaller cities such as Berkeley, California, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and Lansing, Michigan.

No-Knock Raids Increasingly Common, Judges Act as Rubber Stamps. As part of a series of reports on how no-knock search warrants are obtained and executed, the Washington Post finds that "the dangerous police tactic has grown in use as judges routinely authorize requests for the surprise raids with little apparent scrutiny of claims by officers." It cited recent cases of raids turned deadly, including the killing of an unarmed Black man in a West Baton Rouge, Louisiana, motel room in a raid that turned up 22 grams of drugs, the killing of a 63-year-old Black man in his home in a raid that netted nine grams of drugs, and the notorious Houston raid that led to a gun-battle in which two innocent White homeowners were killed. The no-knock warrants are supposed to be carefully evaluated by judges, but “judges generally rely on the word of police officers and rarely question the merits of the requests, offering little resistance when they seek authorization for no-knocks,” a Washington Post investigation has found. The searches, which were meant to be used sparingly, have become commonplace for drug squads and SWAT teams." The Post found that at least 22 people have been killed in no-knock raids since 2015, 13 of whom were Black or Hispanic. In at least five raids, police killed someone who was not their target. There were also at least 24 other searches that ended in killings, but the newspaper was unable to determine what sort of warrant was involved.

Springfield, Massachusetts, Police Agree to Consent Decree Over Out of Control Narcotics Unit. The Justice Department in July2020 issued a report accusing the Springfield police narcotics unit of using excessive violence with impunity, and now, the police and the Justice Department have announced they have agreed on terms for a consent decree enacting a series of policing reforms. "Officers will report all uses of force, including punches and kicks, something which was not previously required in the Springfield Police Department," said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. "In addition, officers have a duty to intervene to prevent excessive force." The decree also calls for the city's new civilian police commission to have a budget and subpoena power. The police department's dope squad was disbanded in 2021 after the criticism, but the consent decree will apply to the entire police force. Police union leaders had no comment.

CO Psilocybin Legalization Initiative Campaign Getting Underway; US, Russia Clash at CND, More... (3/16/22)

Georgia cops will pay for a misbegotten massive pot bust, the US and Russia criticize each other in remarks at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, and more.

Psychedelics

Colorado Activists Finalize Decision on Psychedelic Reform Initiative. New Approach PAC and state-level activists have decided which of four psychedelic reform initiatives they filed will actually be the subject of a 2022 signature gathering campaign. They have requested permission from the state to begin signature gathering for Initiative 58, the Natural Medicine Health Act. The measure would legalize psilocybin, as well as creating "healing centers" where people could use the drug for therapeutic forces. The campaign will need 124,632 valid voter signatures by August 8 to qualify for the November ballot.

Law Enforcement

"Cartersville 64," All Busted for Less Than an Ounce of Weed, Win Settlement with Cops. Police in Cartersville, Georgia, went to a house on a report of gunshots on New Year's Eve 2017, claimed they smelled marijuana, entered the house without consent or a warrant, found less than an ounce of marijuana, then arrested all 64 people in the house, most of them people of color, for marijuana possession because it within "everyone’s reach or control." Prosecutors dropped the charges within days, but that wasn't the end of it. The Southern Center for Human Rights and a local law firm filed a lawsuit over the bust, and it has now been settled. The defendants — the Cartersville Police Department, Bartow County Sheriff’s Office and the Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force — will pay $900,000 as part of the settlement.

International

US Uses CND Session to Blast Russia, Reiterate Drug Policy Stance. In remarks delivered Monday by Todd D. Robinson, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs ("drugs and thugs") at the 65th meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, the US criticized Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as well as reiterating the US position combining public health and law enforcement approaches to the drug issue.

"For decades," said Robinson, "the UN Charter has stood as a bulwark to the worst impulses of empires and autocrats. Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is an attack on Ukraine as a UN Member State, on our Charter, and on the UN itself, including the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Russia’s choice for premeditated war is bringing catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. These actions contravene our commitments to protect the health and welfare of mankind, our single greatest purpose in the CND.

"Here, we speak together against those who believe they can violate the law for their own benefit – criminals, corrupt actors, and drug traffickers. How can we continue to speak against these bad actors when one among us is operating with similar lawlessness? We have lost trust in Russia as a UN Member State and CND member, and we will approach its participation in this and other UN bodies with serious skepticism. We must hold Russia accountable. In so doing though we cannot allow our critical work in the CND to be deterred."

Robinson added that the Biden administration's approach to drug policy "includes a focus on primary prevention, harm reduction, evidence-based treatment, and recovery support, and calls for public-private collaboration to remove barriers to high quality care, reduce stigma, and invest in evidence-based public health and public safety approaches," but added that " public health-focused efforts must also be complemented by effective international cooperation and law enforcement measures to reduce illicit manufacture and trafficking of drugs."

Russia Uses CND to Criticize West for Marijuana Legalization, Afghan Heroin, and Complain of Political Attacks. In remarks delivered Monday by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Syromolotov at the 65th meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Russia criticized its critic for criticizing its invasion of Ukraine and lambasted Western countries that have embraced marijuana legalization.

Referring to criticism from the US, Syromolotov said, "We are bewildered at the insistent attempts of some Member States to politicize the work of the current session. We are adamantly opposed to such black PR campaigns, which are not related to the mandate of the Commission. This approach damages the reputation of this important international body and could erode the trust of the world community in it. Russia is always committed to a constructive, substantive discussion in the Commission."

On marijuana: "It is unfortunate that today we see attempts to shatter this foundation and distort its essence, "said Syromolotov. "Legalization of free distribution of cannabis in such countries as the United States of America and Canada is a matter of serious concern for us. It is worrisome that several Member States of the European Union are currently considering violating their drug control obligations. Such approach is unacceptable. Strict compliance of all State Parties with their obligations under the conventions is the precondition for the smooth functioning of the global drug control regime. Russia is consistently advocating that only those States that are implementing the provisions of the conventions in good faith have the moral right to participate in the activities of the Commission. By applying a different approach, we risk undermining the authority of the Commission which is the policy-making body of the United Nations with prime responsibility for drug control matters."

On Afghanistan, whose opium production supplies a massive wave of heroin addiction in Russia: "Another matter of serious concern to us is the situation in Afghanistan," Syromolotov said. "Freeze on the national financial resources of Afghanistan made illicit opium poppy cultivation and production practically the only viable income source for the population."

Overdose Surge Hits Black Men the Hardest, Austin No-Knock Raid Ban and Decrim Inits, More... (1/19/22)

The prospects for home marijuana gardens in the Garden State grow dim, black men are bearing the brunt of the fatal overdose crisis, and more.

Black men are dying of drug overdoses at a rate higher than any other demographic group. (Creative Commons)
Marijuana Policy

New Jersey Unlikely to Allow Home Marijuana Cultivation. Marijuana legalization proponent and incoming state Senate President Nick Scutari (D) has signaled that home cultivation of marijuana will not be allowed once the state's adult-use market launches. That launch date was originally set for the middle of next month but is now running behind schedule.

Scutari said he "did not see (home cultivation) happening right now" because it would only further the illicit marijuana market. "I'm not against marijuana being grown at home for medical purposes and maybe even just recreational purposes," Scutari said. "But we've got to let this industry… it's not even off the ground yet."

The issue of home cultivation is creating a divide between activists and marijuana businesses, with legal operators interested in minimizing home grows and protecting market share, while activists argue that medical marijuana patients in particular should have the right to grow their own.

Austin Marijuana Decriminalization, No-Knock Raid Ban Initiative Approved to Go Before Voters in May. The Austin City Council on Tuesday approved an activist-led initiative to decriminalize marijuana and ban no-knock police raids. That was the final obstacle on the path to putting the issue before city voters in municipal elections in May. The council could have adopted the measure as an ordinance, which activists said they would have preferred, but it instead deferred, leaving the call to the voters.

"The City Council's vote to schedule an election on the Austin Freedom Act is a testament to the incredible work of our organizers and volunteers who are fighting for progressive change in their community," Mike Siegel, political director of Ground Game Texas, said. "Thanks to their tireless efforts, voters will have the opportunity in May to end the criminalization of marijuana possession and the dangerous practice of no-knock police raids."

Medical Marijuana

Florida Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Tighten Regulations on Medical Marijuana. Democratic and Republican lawmakers are teaming up in a bid to make it more difficult to buy and sell medical marijuana-related products, and they are aiming at Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in particular. Delta-9 THC is the most potent psychoactive compound found in marijuana, but Delta-8 also produces psychoactive effects and is considered legal under federal law because it has never been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.

Sponsored by Reps. Spencer Roach (R-North Fort Myers) and Andrew Learned (D-Brandon), House Bill 679 would increase regulations on Delta-8 and limiting the scope of products protected by the state's medical marijuana law. The bill would prohibit Delta-8 sales to people under 21, limit advertising toward children, create evaluation procedures for new products, and prevent medical marijuana treatment centers from selling licenses for profit.

Harm Reduction

Recent Overdose Surge Has Hit Black Men the Hardest. The Pew Research Center reports that amidst a record surge in drug overdose deaths, "while overdose death rates have increased in every major demographic group in recent years, no group has seen a bigger increase than Black men. As a result, Black men have overtaken American Indian or Alaska Native men and White men as the demographic group most likely to die from overdoses." Black men die of drug overdoses at a rate of 54.1 per 100,000, overtaking Native American men (52.1) and white men (44.2). Latino men died at a lower rate of 27.3 per 100,000, with Asian American men bringing up the rear with a rate of 8.5.

Drug War Issues

Criminal JusticeAsset Forfeiture, Collateral Sanctions (College Aid, Drug Taxes, Housing, Welfare), Court Rulings, Drug Courts, Due Process, Felony Disenfranchisement, Incarceration, Policing (2011 Drug War Killings, 2012 Drug War Killings, 2013 Drug War Killings, 2014 Drug War Killings, 2015 Drug War Killings, 2016 Drug War Killings, 2017 Drug War Killings, Arrests, Eradication, Informants, Interdiction, Lowest Priority Policies, Police Corruption, Police Raids, Profiling, Search and Seizure, SWAT/Paramilitarization, Task Forces, Undercover Work), Probation or Parole, Prosecution, Reentry/Rehabilitation, Sentencing (Alternatives to Incarceration, Clemency and Pardon, Crack/Powder Cocaine Disparity, Death Penalty, Decriminalization, Defelonization, Drug Free Zones, Mandatory Minimums, Rockefeller Drug Laws, Sentencing Guidelines)CultureArt, Celebrities, Counter-Culture, Music, Poetry/Literature, Television, TheaterDrug UseParaphernalia, Vaping, ViolenceIntersecting IssuesCollateral Sanctions (College Aid, Drug Taxes, Housing, Welfare), Violence, Border, Budgets/Taxes/Economics, Business, Civil Rights, Driving, Economics, Education (College Aid), Employment, Environment, Families, Free Speech, Gun Policy, Human Rights, Immigration, Militarization, Money Laundering, Pregnancy, Privacy (Search and Seizure, Drug Testing), Race, Religion, Science, Sports, Women's IssuesMarijuana PolicyGateway Theory, Hemp, Marijuana -- Personal Use, Marijuana Industry, Medical MarijuanaMedicineMedical Marijuana, Science of Drugs, Under-treatment of PainPublic HealthAddiction, Addiction Treatment (Science of Drugs), Drug Education, Drug Prevention, Drug-Related AIDS/HIV or Hepatitis C, Harm Reduction (Methadone & Other Opiate Maintenance, Needle Exchange, Overdose Prevention, Pill Testing, Safer Injection Sites)Source and Transit CountriesAndean Drug War, Coca, Hashish, Mexican Drug War, Opium ProductionSpecific DrugsAlcohol, Ayahuasca, Cocaine (Crack Cocaine), Ecstasy, Heroin, Ibogaine, ketamine, Khat, Kratom, Marijuana (Gateway Theory, Marijuana -- Personal Use, Medical Marijuana, Hashish), Methamphetamine, New Synthetic Drugs (Synthetic Cannabinoids, Synthetic Stimulants), Nicotine, Prescription Opiates (Fentanyl, Oxycontin), Psilocybin / Magic Mushrooms, Psychedelics (LSD, Mescaline, Peyote, Salvia Divinorum)YouthGrade School, Post-Secondary School, Raves, Secondary School