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Police Kill Grandmother's Dog in Botched Drug Raid
I don't know what else to say about this, except that it's just like all the other inexcusably brutal, incompetent and entirely unnecessary drug raid killings we've covered here: As usual, the officers involved had every opportunity on earth not to shoot this woman's dog. She asked to put the dog in the bathroom and they said to go ahead and do that. Then, at some point, an officer went into the bathroom and killed the dog. The guy they were looking for hadnât even lived there in 12 years.
Reminder: Marijuana Already Exists
Via DrugWarRant, here's another concerned citizen who seems to think that marijuana was invented recently:Al Martinez: Do we need one more drug to shield us from reality?I predict that by the end of the year the sale of marijuana will become so common in L.A. that Mom will be able to say, "Timmy, run down to Vons and get me a quart of milk, a loaf of sourdough bread, a pound of tomatoes and two ounces of pot."First of all, there has never been a point during the life of Al Martinez when there wasn't a phenomenal amount of marijuana available for purchase in Los Angeles. Also, no one is even advocating for marijuana to be sold in grocery stores, and that will never ever happen, not even if George Soros were put in charge of U.S. drug policy. No reform to marijuana policy can occur without significant public support, so please just spare yourself the anxiety of speculating about bizarre policy changes that aren't being considered by anyone anywhere.This "do we need one more drug?" nonsense is embarrassingly stupid, yet manages somehow to gain popularity with the anti-pot crowd, due perhaps to the profound absence of more intelligent arguments such people might make.
BOYCOTT ALCOHOL UNTIL MARIJUANA IS LEGAL!
BOYCOTT ALCOHOL UNTIL MARIJUANA IS LEGAL! BOYCOTT ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES UNTIL MARIJUANA IS EQUALLY LEGAL. You can make your own wine from dandelions and
Legalize the one thing that can stop the pain and suffering of millions
My mother in law has MS. She has perscription pain pills, that do nothing to help. There are many american citizens out there that have to suffer from pain, that shouldnt have to.
Two I-1068 signature hotspots need volunteers today and tomorrow.
Two I-1068 signature hotspots need volunteers today and tomorrow.
Oregon Board of Pharmacy Reschedules Marijuana
On June 16th, 2010, The State of Oregon - Board of Pharmacy has officially rescheduled Marijuana from 'Schedule I Controlled Substances' to 'Schedule II Controlled Substances'.
One Thing After Another for Pain Patient
My wife and I just solved a problem getting the 90 days of pain medication we need to go see the grand-kids in Oregon and Montana. It was just a mis-communication with the doctor.
w. h. auden
this was supposed to be a nice information! its very exciting so watch out! w. h. auden
There's Only One Argument Against Legalizing Marijuana (And It's Wrong)
Opponents of legalization routinely regurgitate an endless array of flawed logic, mindless speculation, and apocalyptic prophecy anytime they're confronted with the case for marijuana reform. But regardless of whatever head-spinning mouthful they deliver, it invariably rests upon the same grand assumption: that legal marijuana means many more people smoking much more pot. Fortunately, we've made enough progress already to take that theory for a test-drive, and the results are delightfully underwhelming:Marijuana use is not on the rise.At least, that's the gist of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health done every year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2008 â the most recent data available â 6.1 percent of Americans 12 and older admitted using marijuana in the previous month.â¦And yet, during those same years, marijuana has been edging toward legitimacy. States with medical marijuana laws have made it possible for thousands of people to buy pot over the counter, in actual stores. Some police departments have started de-emphasizing marijuana arrests. [NPR]Imagine that. After decades of debate, the first stages of reform have taken hold and all the trains are still arriving on time. More than a decade after the first legal marijuana sales began taking place on American soil, the consequences we were told to expect can be found nowhere other than the imagination of our dwindling opposition. If rates of marijuana use aren't rocked by reform, then everything bad that's ever been said about marijuana is perfectly irrelevant to the legalization debate. The morons who think we're trying to "add a new drug into the mix" are shown to be badly confused, and we can move fearlessly towards dismantling the vast spectrum of nightmarish prohibition problems that we've brought on ourselves for no reason whatsoever.If our opponents have any integrity, if they truly want safer communities and just laws, then they'll someday be very pleased to learn that we've been right all along.
Police Corruption in the Egyption war on drugs
Egypt is facing growing calls for an independent probe into the police killing of a young man who was reportedly preparing to expose police corruption.
Legal Marijuana Will Not Increase Crime. Please Stop Saying That.
The closer we get to legalization, the more people are talking about it, and the more people are talking about it, the greater the likelihood of hearing bizarre and incoherent viewpoints:Those in favor also contend that if you remove the black market by making pot consumption legal â much of the marijuana-related crime would automatically go down.That is where I have to respectfully disagree.Money is legal, but criminals still rob banks to get it.The more marijuana there is out there being grown, the more of it there will be to be stolen.Criminals gravitate to wherever there is anything of value they can steal. [Oakland Tribune]Excuse me, but what the hell does that have to do with whether or not marijuana should be legal? Yeah, we're all familiar with the fact that people prefer to steal stuff that's worth money. What on earth is your point? I think the author might actually be arguing that prohibition somehow devalues the marijuana supply, which would have to be the stupidest understanding of drug laws I've ever encountered. So let me respond in very simple terms: marijuana will not be worth as much money when it is legal. Marijuana sales will take place in secure facilities, and thugs will be put out of business, so you'll be less likely to see stories like this in the news:Police said Arrington was selling marijuana to one of the victims in the back seat of a white Chevrolet Yukon when the two began arguing about the quality of the marijuana. Arrington allegedly pulled out a gun, shot the man with whom he was arguing, then shot two of the man's acquaintances, who were in the front seat. [Washington Post]That shooting took place a week ago and only a mile from my home, so I take this very seriously. Marijuana laws are a matter of life and death, and anyone who walks around spouting off opinions without thinking is making the problem worse. If we don't want people getting shot over pot deals in the back of SUVs, then we need to put it somewhere safe. We put money in banks, and sometimes they get robbed, but no one ever argues that banks are a dangerous way to store and distribute money. We don't need to prove that legalization is 100% perfect and invincible in every conceivable way in order to justify our position. We can easily show that it's the safest and best available option. If that's not enough for you, then you're either an obstructionist, an idiot, or both.
Ron Paul and Sarah Palin Discuss Marijuana Legalization
Well, you know what to expect from Ron Paul, but Sarah Palin's comments might surprise you (starts at 6:16):Though unwilling to support legalization, Palin clearly has some sympathy for marijuana users on privacy grounds and sort of gets the fact that marijuana enforcement is a stupid distraction from important police work. But you can't have it both ways. As long as police and prosecutors hold the power to pursue and punish people for pot, they'll continue to do so, and they'll say they were just doing their job when some poor soul gets their dog shot over a dimebag. There exists a rather fundamental incompatibility between prohibition and politeness.Still, Palin's comments are interesting in the context of the overall discussion. The whole point of the segment was to bring together representatives of the Tea Party movement and debate some sensitive issues. Listening to Ron Paul's opposition to marijuana laws and Palin's reluctance to defend them, you start to wonder if anyone in the right-wing activist movement still cares about fighting a war on marijuana.Obama has been attacked viciously from the right for almost everything he's ever said or done, yet when his administration talks about scaling back the war on drugs, the backlash never comes.
Cops Kill Father-to-Be in Botched Marijuana Raid
Drug Raids: Las Vegas Narc Serving Marijuana Search Warrant Kills Father-to-Be In His Own Bathroom A 21-year-old father-to-be was killed last Friday night by a Las Vegas Police Department narcotics officer serving a search warrant for marijuana. Trevon Cole was shot once in the bathroom of his apartment after he made what police described as "a furtive movement." Police have said Cole was not armed. Police said Monday they recovered an unspecified amount of marijuana and a set of digital scales. A person identifying herself as Cole's fiancée, Sequoia Pearce, in the comments section in the article linked to above said no drugs were found. Pearce, who is nine months pregnant, shared the apartment with Cole and was present during the raid. "I was coming out, and they told me to get on the floor. I heard a gunshot and was trying to see what was happening and where they had shot him," Pearce told KTNV-TV. According to police, they arrived at about 9 p.m. Friday evening at the Mirabella Apartments on East Bonanza Road, and detectives knocked and announced their presence. Receiving no response, detectives knocked the door down and entered the apartment. They found Pearce hiding in a bedroom closet and took her into custody. They then tried to enter a bathroom where Cole was hiding. He made "a furtive movement" toward a detective, who fired a single shot, killing Cole. "It was during the course of a warrant and as you all know, narcotics warrants are all high-risk warrants," Capt. Patrick Neville of Metro's Robbery-Homicide Bureau said Friday night. But a person identifying himself as Pearce's brother, who said he had spoken with his sister, had a different version of events: "The police bust in the door, with guns drawn to my little sister and her now deceased boyfriend," he wrote. "My sister is 8 ½ months pregnant, two weeks until the due date. But they bust in the door, irritated they didn't find any weapons or drugs, drag this young man into the restroom to interrogate him and two minutes later my sister hears a shot. They shot him with a shotgun, no weapon. For what? My sister is a baby, this young man is a baby, now my sister is at his house telling his mom her son is dead, and he is barely 21." Pearce herself told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Monday that police forced her to kneel at gunpoint in the bedroom and that she could see Cole in the bathroom from the reflection of a mirror. According to Cole, police ordered Cole to get on the ground, he raised his hands and said "Alright, alright," and a shot rang out. According to Pearce and family members, Cole had no criminal record, had achieved an Associate of Arts degree, and was working as an insurance adjustor while working on a political science degree at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He was not a drug dealer, Pearce said. "Trevon was a recreational smoker. He smoked weed, marijuana. Thatâs what he did," she told KTNV-TV. "They didn't have to kill him. We were supposed to get married next year, plan a black and white affair,â she said. "He was all I ever knew, we were gonna make it." LVPD Monday identified the police shooter as narcotics detective Bryan Yant, a 10-year veteran of the force. This is the third time Yant has controversially used his police firearm. In 2002, he shot and killed a robbery suspect, claiming the suspect, who was on the ground, aimed a weapon at him. But although the suspect's gun was found 35 feet away, a jury took only half an hour to find the shooting justified. The following year, he shot and wounded a man armed with a knife and a baseball ball who had been hired to kill a dog that had killed another neighborhood dog. Yants claimed the man attacked him and that he mistook the bat for a shotgun, but the man said he was running away from Yants when Yants fired repeatedly, striking him once in the hip. Because there was no death in that case, no inquest was held, but the department's use of force board exonerated Yants. Yants is on paid administrative leave while the department investigates. The family has hired an attorney to pursue a civil action. And another American has apparently been killed for no good reason in the name of the war on drugs. "Narcotics warrants are high risk warrants," said Capt. Neville. The question is for whom, and the answer is obvious: The people on the receiving end of them. The police? Not so much, as we have shown in our annual surveys of police casualties in the drug war.
O'Reilly Attacks Sting Over Legalization Comments
This new DPA video featuring Sting was more than enough to drive Bill O'Reilly over the edge yet again:As usual, every single "fact" presented here by O'Reilly is completely made up, as demonstrated in this fact-check from Jacob Sullum. But if Bill O'Reilly wants to spend his time on TV lying and complaining about drug policy reform in front of millions of people, I'm totally ok with it. Every stupid word he says about the drug war serves only to further legitimize the debate. People like O'Reilly are the reason we're winning, so the last thing we want from them is silence.
If the Drug War Worked, Cartels Wouldn't be Killing Politicians
Another sign that the Mexican drug war isn't going very well:Drug hitmen have forced a string of candidates out of municipal races in two states on the U.S. border and killed at least one mayoral hopeful, using terror to try to dictate who will run cities and towns along key smuggling routes into the United States.The violence is an alarming sign of the power drug traffickers still wield, despite an all-out war with security forces and President Felipe Calderon's vow to weaken the cartels. [Reuters]Well, if the cartels are out there killing politicians who won't cooperate, what does that say about the public officials who haven't been targeted? Hint: they might not be very trustworthy.No one knows for sure how many Mexican politicians have been bought out by the cartels, but it's something to think about before handing over millions of American tax dollars to the Mexican government to fund their war on drugs. It's bad enough that we're funding endless bloodshed and disorder, but if that money is just going into the pockets of the drug lords and their corrupt political operatives, well, I wouldnât even know where to begin.
Washington State 911 Good Samaritan Law to Prevent ODs Now in Effect
A law that provides some legal immunity for people who report a drug overdose in Washington state is now in effect. That makes Washington the second state to enact a "911 Good Samaritan Law." New Mexico was the first in 2007. Under the measure, if someone overdoses and someone else seeks assistance, that person cannot be prosecuted for drug possession, nor can the person overdosing. Good Samaritans could, however, be charged with manufacturing or selling drugs. The measure is aimed at reducing drug overdoses by removing the fear of arrest as an impediment to seeking medical help. According to the state Department of Health, there were 820 fatal drug overdoses in the state in 2006, more than double the 403 in 1999. The bill also allows people to use the opioid agonist naloxone, which counteracts the effects of opiate overdoses, if it is used to help prevent an overdose. Washington is the first state this year to pass a 911 Good Samaritan bill, but it may not be the last. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island are considering similar measures. Supporters of the new law held a press conference Monday to tout its benefits. âIn 2008, there were 794 drug overdose deaths in Washington state,â said Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, a drug overdose researcher from the University of Washington. âThese overdoses do not need to be fatal. Death often takes several hours to occur,â and people are often present. He said more information on the law is available at www.stopoverdose.org. âWeâre here today to encourage people who donât work in hospitals to help saves lives,â Attorney General Rob McKenna said. âMore people are dying now from prescription drug overdoses (than traffic accidents) and yet fewer people are aware of it,â McKenna said. He said drug overdoses are a hidden problem because they arenât as visible as, for example, traffic accidents.. Sen. Rosa Franklin, who worked to pass the bill, said she worked as a nurse before becoming a legislator and wanted to address a problem she saw and read about. She said this bill will save lives. âWe can no longer ⦠put our heads in the sand and say that drug overdose is not happening.â Alison Holcomb of the ACLU of Washington said drug overdoses wouldnât happen in an ideal world, and this law wouldnât be necessary. She said people do drugs to cope, find acceptance or escape. âWe can continue to condemn such people as morally deviant and treat them as criminals,â but, she said, that doesnât work. She said this law is an important step and a compromise agreement. âMy son, a bright, creative, compassionate and funny kid, began using prescription opiates ⦠during his senior year of high school,â John Gahagan said. Just weeks after graduation, his son died of a drug overdose. âThe 911 Good Samaritan Law will save lives,â he said, adding that his son was alone at the time of his overdose, but he knows parents of other teens who could have been saved. âThis law will only be effective if there is awareness of it ⦠Call 911 to save a life,â he said.
This Week's Dumbest Drug War Quote
Kurt Schlichter at Big Hollywood is overcome with fury at this DPA video, featuring Sting. His entire pro-drug-war rant is an impressive exhibit in mindless prohibitionist arrogance, but if anything stands out, it's this: Of course, thereâs also the perennial "America imprisons more people than anywhere else in the world!" meme. In fact, the only drug incarceration problem in America is that too few drug dealers are incarcerated. Listen dude, I don't think you understand how this works. Putting drug dealers in prison doesn't change the number of drug dealers on the street. It never has, and never will. If you want to put more of them in jail out of spite, that's one thing, but I hope you don't seriously still believe we can arrest our way out the drug problem. Even the drug czar is beginning to doubt that.It's one thing to daydream in smug self-righteousness of that magical day when every single drug offender is locked away forever. But even the idiots who say these sorts of things would be miserable if it actually happened. Why? Because the cost of doing that comes out of all our pockets, including Kurt Schlichter's. Unless you'd like to spend half your earnings every year keeping some guy in a cage and paying for all his food and clothing, then do us a favor and keep your mass incarceration fantasies to yourself. Pete Guither and Tony Newman have more.
Police Dept. Teaches Citizens How to Flex Their Rights
Police Chief Ken Burton in Columbia, MO took a lot of heat over that brutal SWAT raid in which two dogs were shot in front of a small child. Then, he surprised and impressed all of us by expressing his support for marijuana legalization in order to prevent such outrages in the future. Here's some more evidence that Chief Burton truly cares about protecting the public from police abuse:In the wake of reports showing disproportionate traffic stops of black motorists in Missouri urban areas, Columbia police statistics were released showing more balance here. The proportion of black detainees is lower than in 2007, the peak year.Columbia police find no reason to change their procedures, which they believe with good reason are not producing improper actions against racial minorities, but they have taken a good pre-emptive step by creating a video intended to inform citizens of their rights when confronted with police during a traffic stop or other questioning incidents.Titled "Ten Rules for Dealing with the Police," the video recently was shown by Chief Ken Burton to gatherings of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare and the Columbia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. [Columbia Tribune]Of course, the video was actually created by Flex Your Rights, not the Columbia Police Department. But it's fantastic to see law enforcement embracing our materials. Hopefully the positive press their efforts have generated will inspire other police departments to do the same.
DEA's "Project Deliverance" Will Undoubtedly Fail to Deliver
DEA acting chief Michele Leonhart, and her boss, US Attorney General Eric Holder, are bragging about a major, DEA-led operation that has netted 2,200+ arrests, with pounds of drugs and millions of dollars seized. "Project Deliverance" involved more than 300 law enforcement agencies, more than 3,000 DEA agents, and took 22 months. According to DEA's press release, they captured 1,262 pounds of methamphetamine, 2.5 tons of cocaine, 1,410 pounds of heroin, and 69 tons of marijuana, plus $154 million. Michele Leonhart announcing ''Project Deliverance'' Operationally, Deliverance was certainly a big project -- it's easy to see why they're excited. And for the thousands of people throughout the US who were arrested in it, it's a life-changing event, though for the worse. But will Project Deliverance make any real difference in drug use and the drug trade? Is the operation really a big deal, when examined next to the reality of drug use and the drug trade in the United States today? I hate to be a wet blanket, but if history is a guide, Project Deliverance will have no long-term impact on the drug trade. Though notable in its scale, the operation is only one of many carried out by the US and allied governments over decades. During that time, the measure of drug availability -- price, an increase implies a product is less available, relative to its demand* -- has gone in the opposite of the intended direction, and dramatically. For example, the average US street price of cocaine is less than a fifth in real terms than it was in 1980. Previous drug sweeps have seen their temporary gains erased in just one or two weeks. The reason is that the big sounding numbers touted by Leonhart, while large for the agency and our government, are small compared with the drug trade. Deliverance's 2.5 tons of cocaine constitutes less than one percent of the 300 metric tons of cocaine the government estimates are consumed annually in the US. So does the 69 tons of marijuana. They did get a few percent of the heroin, if numbers don't deceive, but even that's still small. And the 2,200 alleged dealers and traffickers arrested in Project Deliverance make up a similarly tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the US by the illegal drug trade. Some drug businesses will doubtless be extinguished by Project Deliverance, but others will have little difficulty replacing the lost supply or filling the open positions. And how much powder or weed did the investigators let go by during the 22 months it took to complete the operation? How much will they have to let slip by during the months or years it takes to mount the next one? In an uncharacteristically "big picture" review published a few weeks ago, the Associated Press declared the 40-year drug war a failure by every measure. Will media follow that lead and go beyond the surface in their reporting on Project Deliverance? I have a few suggestions for those intrepid reporters who would like to: Ask DEA or DOJ spokespersons if they expect the substances targeted in the sweep to be less available to US consumers of them, and if so for how long. Ask them if previous operations, individually or collectively, have had that effect. If they say yes, ask them to be specific as to what their evidence is, and compare it with numbers like the aforementioned cocaine prices. Do some follow-up, say two or three weeks from now. Ask government officials, cops who walk the drug beat, and drug users, what if any difference they saw in the supply of the targeted drugs, and if so if they see still any. Follow up again in one or two months. See if DEA will give you early access to the price data. Be forewarned, though, DEA reps will probably be less excited to address those questions than they were for the press conference. * Nitpickers and drug war defenders may point out that demand for cocaine has also dropped since 1980, and that the price drop could be explained that way. No dice -- frequent, "hardcore" cocaine and other drug use remained roughly constant despite a drop in the number of "casual" users, and it's the frequent users who account for the vast majority of the consumption.