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Prisoner Re-Entry: New Mexico Becomes Second State to "Ban the Box;" New Law Bans Criminal History Query on Public Job Applications
Gov. Bill Richardson (D) Monday signed into law a bill that removes one obstacle to employment for people with criminal convictions. The bill, SB 254, the Consideration of Crime Convictions for Jobs bill, will remove the question of public job applications about whether a person has been convicted of a felony, leaving such questions for the interview stage of the hiring process. The bill applies to job application for state, local, or federal public jobs. It does not apply to private sector employers. It passed the Senate 35-4 and the House 54-14. Known as "ban the box," such bills are designed to allow ex-convicts a better opportunity to re-enter the job market. Having a job is a key means of reducing recidivism. The measure passed the Senate 35-4 and the House 54-14. New Mexico now becomes the second state to pass such legislation. Minnesota passed a similar measure in 2009. Some cities, including Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and San Francisco have passed similar measures as well. "Lots of young people - and old people, too - have that one stupid mistake they made years ago," said Republican Sen. Clint Harden, a former state labor secretary who sponsored the bill. The bill gives them a chance to explain before they are shut out of the hiring process: "Yeah, I had a felony when I was 22, I got caught for possession with intent, I did probation, that was 15 years ago, and I don't do drugs now and yadda yadda," he told the Associated Press late last month. "We thank Gov. Richardson for signing the 'ban the box' bill," said Julie Roberts, acting state director of Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico. "The governor and the New Mexico legislature affirmed their support for people with convictions to be given this opportunity for a second chance. This bill will make our communities safer and keep families together by providing job opportunities to people who need them most." One in five Americans has a criminal record, and Roberts is one of them. She had a drug bust at age 18. "Since then, I've gone to college, I have had internships, I haven't been in trouble for eight years but I still have to check the box," she said. "There's a lot of people like me. This new law will allow individuals who are qualified for a position the chance to get their foot in the door," she said. "As a person with a criminal conviction, this law will not only help me, but others around the state who made a mistake years ago and are now rebuilding their lives." In addition to the Drug Policy Alliance, the bill was supported by the New Mexico Conference of Churches, the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of New Mexico, the New Mexico Public Health Association, the Women's Justice Project, and Somos Un Pueblo Unido.
Everything You Need to Know About Marijuana Legalization
As more states begin to consider reforming marijuana laws, legislators are struggling to sort fact from fiction in the marijuana debate. Fortunately, we've already made enough progress that we have plenty of practical experience studying the impact of marijuana reform. Our friends at NORML have compiled this useful and revealing information in a new report, Real World Ramifications of Cannabis Legalization and Decriminalization. It's an excellent resource that ought to help any reasonable person understand why ending marijuana prohibition will make the world a better place.
How Many Cops Does it Take to Bust a Marijuana User?
Via Radley Balko, here's a perfect example of routine policing in the war on drugs. If it sounds supremely pathetic, that's because it is:Another tip from a watchful citizen early Tuesday morning brought the Greensburg Police Department closer to exterminating the drug problem in the city.â¦The caller advised that there was suspicious activity, strange noises and unusual odors coming from the apartment. When GPD officers arrived, the strange smell was identified as "burnt marijuana," Chief Heaton reported.After identifying the apartment that was emitting the odors, the GPD attempted to make contact. But inside the apartment, no one answered.Working quickly to establish probable cause, the officers sought to obtain a search warrant from the office of the Decatur County Prosecutor.In the interim period before the warrant was granted, the GPD kept a secure perimeter around the residence, making sure that no one went in or out of the apartment, Chief Heaton explained."It definitely tied up our units (for about two hours)," Heaton said.The search warrant was secured and served at 1:23 a.m. Tuesday. Upon gaining entry to the apartment, the police found marijuana and proof of marijuana consumption and the five suspects were arrested. [Greensburg Daily News]What a horrible place Greenburg, IN must be if the police have nothing better to do than this and the newspaper has nothing better to do than report every agonizing detail of it. The whole thing is so impressively lame, I can hardly believe I'm reading it. Good luck "exterminating the drug problem" in Indiana's most boring city.
Seventh Grader Suspended For Touching Pill
No real need to provide commentary here- this truly speaks for itself! http://www.care2.com/causes/education/blog/seventh-grader-suspended-for-touching-pill/
For the record: State Department Report, NYC ODs drop, Guatemalan Top Cop & Head Narc Busted, Salvia Banned in Wisconsin
Even though there was no Chronicle last week--due to your editor's death-battle with a vicious Mexican bug; I only returned to the land of the living on Friday--things continued to happen anyway. Here are a handful of items that would have been in the Chronicle had there been one last week: On Monday, the State Department released its annual state on the world on drugs report. The report, called the 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy, was going to be the subject of a feature story last week before I got sick. I may still go with it this coming week. Also on Monday, the New York City Health Department reported overdose deaths fell in 2008 to the lowest level since 1999. OD fatalities fell from 874 in 2006 to 666 in 2008. Increased use of naloxane, an opioid agonist used to undo overdoses may get some of the credit. On Tuesday, Guatemala's national police chief and its head narc were arrested for links to drug traffickers and for the murders of five policemen. Police Chief Batlazar Gomez and anti-drug head Nelly Bonilla were arrested during an "investigation into a drug robbery (in April 2009) in Amatitlan, which those detained today are believed to have participated in", said Attorney General Amilcar Velasquez. Five police officers were killed during the robbery. The pair currently face charges of conspiracy, breaking and entering, abuse of power, making illegal arrests, drug trafficking, obstruction of justice, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. On Thursday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a bill banning salvia divinorum. That makes Wisconsin the 19th state to move against Sally D. A few states have limited its sale to adults, but most of those states have simply banned salvia. The Wisconsin bill, AB 186, bans the manufacture, distribution, or sales of salviaâalthough not its possessionâand backs it up with a $10,000 fine. I'm back at it now, and that means the Chronicle will be back on Friday. In the meantime, I'll most likely post a story or two in the blog just to see if you're paying attention.
The dubious dangers of enforcing drug laws
On FaceBook recently, a LEAP speaker commented that enforcing drug laws puts police officers at risk. Not so, I replied.
How Can We Stop Drug Gangs From Growing Pot in the Woods? Legalize Pot
One of the most embarrassingly mindless trends in the mainstream media's marijuana reporting is that of publishing one redundant story after another about the explosion of illegal outdoor cultivation in our national parks, while failing entirely to diagnose why it's happening and how it might be prevented:Â Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, but Mexican traffickers have taken it to a whole new level: using armed guards and trip wires to safeguard sprawling plots that in some cases contain tens of thousands of plants offering a potential yield of more than 30 tons of pot a year."Just like the Mexicans took over the methamphetamine trade, they've gone to mega, monster gardens," said Brent Wood, a supervisor for the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. He said Mexican traffickers have "supersized" the marijuana trade. [AP]This Associated Press report is over 1,200 words long, yet does not contain one single idea for addressing the problem. Not even a stupid hopeless drug war idea like "we need more funding for eradication," or "we need to get everyone to stop using marijuana." Apparently, the AP is simply content to point out to us that our most precious natural resources are being slowly destroyed by Mexican marijuana cartels and there isn't a damn thing anyone can do about it.But, of course there is. Illegal outdoor marijuana growing will immediately end the instant it becomes legal for Americans to grow their own marijuana on private property. People don't plant pot in remote wilderness because they like to go hiking. The reason they do it is obvious, but not so obvious that the AP should be forgiven for writing so much without mentioning it. Marijuana is illegal and until that changes, the problems associated with it will get worse every year. Keep that in mind. As devastating as our marijuana laws are today, they are actually causing greater and greater harm the longer they continue.
Debate: Should 'K2' Synthetic Marijuana be Made Illegal?
Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation says to ban it immediately and ask questions later:Research has linked naturally produced marijuana to health issues, including schizophrenia. With synthetic marijuana being even more potent, it is frightening to consider its potential damage.â¦Increasing numbers of children are purchasing synthetic marijuana products because they are legal and easier to obtain than cigarettes.â¦Let's face it: Anytime you consume an uncontrolled or unregulated drug or a drug with unknown effects, you are taking a risk. Products like K2 are not made in a controlled environment, and those who use it are playing Russian roulette.â¦The U.S. should move urgently to protect the public from yet another dangerous and potentially deadly class of drugs. [CNN]Grant Smith of the Drug Policy Alliance says to take a deep breath and remember that prohibition never delivers on its promises:When lawmakers consider regulating K2, they should keep in mind that the government has waged a futile war against marijuana and people who use the drug for decades.â¦Time and time again, elected officials have dropped the ball when it comes to regulating drugs. Lawmakers have preferred to lazily pass the responsibility of controlling a drug on to law enforcement and the criminal justice system.The problem is, we know from marijuana prohibition that law enforcement has no control over the drug market and the criminals who run it. Criminalizing K2 will only worsen the devastating harm our society already suffers under drug prohibition. Rather than regulation of the supply and ingredients of K2, criminalization leaves the question of what goes into the product up to drug dealers.Rather than passing regulations that bar K2 sales to minors, criminalizing K2 will essentially give dealers the green light to sell the product to whomever they please. [CNN]Nice job, Grant. You win. Every valid concern that exists here is better resolved by regulation than prohibition. If you don't want young people buying it, you can pass age limits. If you're concerned about what's in it, you can require more accurate labeling. If you don't want it sold in certain areas, you can use zoning laws to establish appropriate locations. Or, if you'd prefer to have no control over it at all, you can ban it altogether and let criminals make all these decisions.Pay attention, folks. The effort to ban synthetic marijuana products could be coming to your state before you know it and it's up to you to tell your legislators that regulation is the best approach. This fight could play out 50 different times and we'll win in more states if we start thinking about it now.
More on Police Dept. Blocking Officer From Speaking About Legalization
As I mentioned yesterday, LEAP speaker David Bratzer has been ordered by the Victoria Police Dept. not to speak at a city-sponsored harm reduction event. If they thought they could silence the case for legalization, their plan backfired:Â Â I agree with Pete Guither that it's a great segment. No matter what you think about drug policy, it just seems stupid and cowardly to deny this man his chance to speak. When opponents of legalization start resorting to this sort of petty obstructionism, it doesnât exactly reflect confidence. If the drug war is so frickin' great, it should be easy enough to defend it without attempting to silence its critics.
Former Cop Says Mayor Calvo Should Stop Complaining About the Killing of His Dogs
Check out this letter in The Baltimore Sun from an ex-cop who's pissed off about Cheye Calvo's efforts to monitor the use of SWAT teams. The writer apparently thinks police should be free to use as much violence as they choose without having to explain themselves to angry innocent citizens whose pets they kill.Radley Balko picks the whole thing apart masterfully, resulting in a rather useful point-by-point refutation of all the most common defenses of constantly using SWAT teams for everything. There isnât much else to say except that it still amazes me that anyone would dare condemn Calvo's advocacy. Guess what, if cops bust into an innocent family's home and kill their dogs, they're going to be extremely displeased. Everything that happened here is the fault of bad laws, bad procedures and bad cops. None of this is Cheye Calvo's fault, and any suggestion that he's overreacting is plainly ridiculous. You can't overreact to police coming into your home and shooting your pets! It's a really big deal. This wasn't a random accident that everyone can just put behind them. There is no such thing as an acceptable number of dog killings in the homes of innocent marijuana suspects. Things like that should never happen at all, and if they do, it should be discussed constantly until every contributing factor is identified and every responsible party is held accountable.
Police Dept. Blocks Officer From Speaking About Legalization
From our friends at LEAP:Active duty police officer and LEAP speaker/blogger David Bratzer was planning to accept an invitation to speak about drug policy and harm reduction at an official city government-sponsored event this week...until his police department's leadership stepped in and ordered him not to show up.More details here.
Thanks to the Drug War, Innocent People Fear Police
When a mysterious package of marijuana arrived at the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, police arrived moments later and murdered his dogs in a horrible botched drug raid. He was completely innocent, and now other innocent people who receive suspicious packages have to worry about being victimized by law-enforcement:Sloan and Anderson have a German shepherd named Cheyenne. Sloan said the Berwyn Heights fiasco sprang to her mind the instant her husband told her about the coffee grounds."Before he even looked in to see what kind of drugs they were, I called 911," she said. "I told them exactly what was going on. I'm like, I don't want them coming through my door with guns drawn, because I love my dog." [Washington Post]It's just so tragic that anyone would even have to worry about such a thing. Every single element of this problem is a symptom of prohibition, from the smuggling technique of intercepting packages at random addresses all the way up to the violent raids and dog killings that occur when police crash into private homes with big guns and no proof of guilt. It's a dreadful situation and no one is safe from it.For more on the horrors of paramilitary policing, here's an interesting piece from Radley Balko and some disturbing news from Pete Guither.
Oliver North Says Dumb Things About the Drug War
You've just gotta read this editorial from Oliver North, in which he claims, among other things, that the media never reports on the Mexican drug war (they do so constantly) and that the Obama administration is trying to legalize drugs ("legalization" isn't even in their vocabulary, remember?). The whole thing is just an impressively confused argument from a man whose extraordinary crimes against our nation will never be forgotten. The fact that this particular guy wants to see more aggressive tactics in the war on drugs is the best evidence that we need the opposite. For more on what a hypocrite scumbag Oliver North is, see this post from Pete Guither.
Which is More Dangerous: Marijuana or Machine Guns?
Via The Agitator, here's another vexing example of the inherent hypocrisy of performing heavily armed SWAT raids in the name of protecting the public:Police arrested Jonathan E. Whitworth, 25, of 1501 Kinloch Court on Feb. 11 on suspicion of possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and second-degree child endangerment.â¦SWAT members encountered a pit bull upon entry, held back and then fatally shot the dog, which officers said was acting in an uncontrollably aggressive manner.Whitworth was arrested, and his wife and 7-year-old son were present during the SWAT raid, Haden said. A second dog, which Whitworthâs attorney Jeff Hilbrenner described as a corgi, also was shot but was not killed. [Columbia Tribune]So this guy is charged with child endangerment for possessing a misdemeanor amount of marijuana, yet police are free to enter private homes and shoot the family pets right in front of innocent children. It seems the only thing dangerous about a small bag of weed is that police might get the mistaken idea that you're a major supplier and raid your home with guns blazing. As safe as marijuana is, it would be a hell of a lot safer if the cops didn't do these kinds of things.
Afghanistan The real Deal
All over America, every time you pull up at a Stop and Go for a pit stop, depending on the neighborhood, outside a few feet away from the door someone is hanging out. That person is dealing crack from Columbia, or heroin, from opium poppy grown in Afghanistan. Control of that opium poppy inspires and funds the Taliban. The opium / heroin sold in America, one million $2 bags a day, funds the Taliban. They pay their troops $250 - $300 per month. Jihad has little to do with the fighting - opium and heroin smuggling is what the war is about!
Sensible Washington needs volunteers to circulate I-1068
Sensible Washington is about to start circulating initiative I-1068. Volunteers to circulate the petition are needed. PDF copies will soon be available for download from the Sensible Washington site.
Colorado Congressman Fights Back Against DEA's Medical Marijuana Raids
The DEA's recent tough-guy tactics in Colorado aren't winning them any friends in the press, the public, or even in politics. Colorado Congressman Jared Polis sent a scathing letter to Attorney General Holder and President Obama demanding that DEA be required to uphold the administration's policy of respecting medical marijuana laws. Here it is in part:Despite these formal guidelines, Friday, February 12, 2010, agents from the U.S. Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided the home of medical marijuana caregiver Chris Bartkowicz in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. In a news article in the Denver Post the next day, the lead DEA agent in the raid, Jeffrey Sweetin, claimed "We're still going to continue to investigate and arrest people...Technically, every dispensary in the state is in blatant violation of federal law," he said. "The time is coming when we go into a dispensary, we find out what their profit is, we seize the building and we arrest everybody. They're violating federal law; they're at risk of arrest and imprisonment."Agent Sweetin's comment that "we arrest everybody" is of great concern to me and to the people of Colorado, who overwhelmingly voted to allow medical marijuana. Coloradans suffering from debilitating medical conditions, many of them disabled, elderly, veterans, or otherwise vulnerable people, have expressed their concern to me that the DEA will come into medical marijuana dispensaries, which are legal under Colorado law, and "arrest everybody" present. Although Agent Sweetin reportedly has backed away from his comments, he has yet to issue a written clarification or resign, thus the widespread panic in Colorado continues.On May 14, 2009, Mr. Kerlikowske told the Wall Street Journal: "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country." The actions and commentary of Mr. Sweetin are inconsistent with the idea of not waging war against the people of the State of Colorado and are a contradiction to your agency's laudable policies. [Westword]Right on. We're witnessing a conspicuous disruption of the White House's carefully crafted effort to reduce controversy in the war on drugs, and it's clear that the silence must soon be broken in Washington. It's easy to say "we're not at war," but until you order the soldiers under your command to lay down their arms, it won't be possible to sugarcoat any of this.
New Synthetic Marijuana Products: Are They Medicine?
Recent press coverage about synthetic marijuana products (commonly known as Spice and K2) is unsurprisingly leading more people to try them. Interestingly, the drug is catching on with sick people in Kansas, where medical marijuana remains illegal:Spice is designed to produce profoundly similar effects to herbal cannabis, so it makes sense that patients are finding it helpful. There's still a lot we don't know about it, but cannabinoid research is generally associated with a number of promising medical applications and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the drug has something to offer.At the very least, I'd give more weight to the claims from sick people who say it's helping them than to the claims from police and politicians that say it's potentially deadly.Update: Uh-oh, it looks like the prohibition effort in Kansas is moving faster than I thought:Topeka â The Senate on Thursday approved a bill that makes illegal the substances in K2 that law officials say produce a marijuana-like high. The legislation now goes to Gov. Mark Parkinson, who has said he supports the ban. [LJWorld.com]I suppose you can make something illegal pretty fast if you don't waste time on scientific research or rational discussion.
Opponents of Medical Marijuana Should Just Give Up
This month has brought some of the most high-profile backlash we've seen since Obama's new medical marijuana policy took effect. DEA raids of a grower and two laboratories in Colorado as well as an escalating campaign by the Los Angeles DA to completely prohibit sales on his turf have again raised the stakes in a debate that many believed was almost over.Given the rich history of obstructionism and demagoguery we've learned to expect from hard-line drug warriors, none of this is terribly surprising. But in light of the current political climate, it's really rather unclear what the opposition's gameplan is. Who's calling the shots? What's their motive? How do they expect this to play out? Having lost one public battle after another, it seems the anti-medical marijuana crusaders would want to perform some sort of cost/benefit analysis before wading once again into the political waters where they've been slowly drowning for a decade now.Does the DEA really want to defend raiding laboratories that do nothing but test cannabis for harmful impurities? What law-enforcement interest is served by this? They tried to frame it as an administrative matter necessitated by the lab's formal permit application, but they sure as hell didn't make an appointment before crashing in there. Maybe they're more interested in the clients than the lab itself, but even if you had a database of every medical grower in the state, what would you do with it? Arresting even one of them is a political minefield.Similarly, Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley's efforts to ban sales are so far out of step with everything around him that it's just impossible to guess what he hopes to accomplish. Even Attorney General Brown's guidelines explicitly permit distribution and there's no question at all where the people of California stand on this. Cooley is playing with fire here and he should really get a hold of himself before his madness becomes Exhibit A for the full-legalization campaign that's hitting the ballot in California this Fall.Under Bush, I tended to assume that periodic raids and harassment were a political strategy aimed at confusing legislators in prospective medical marijuana states, but the new DOJ policy preemptively nullifies whatever dubious value that tactic may have had. Presently, it seems that medical marijuana's most impassioned enemies are at war with an inevitable reality. This isn't going to go away because nobody wants that except you. A career in law-enforcement offers many opportunities to be a hero, but this isnât one of them.