Look who opposes sentencing reform

Former Top DOJ Leaders Oppose the SSA

So a bunch of folks wrote to say that they oppose the notion of reducing the mandatory minimums for drug offenses. After all, they have found those mandatory minimums useful for their jobs, and it’s not like they’d abuse that power. As they say…

Existing law already provides escape hatches for deserving defendants facing a mandatory minimum sentence. Often, they can plea bargain their way to a lesser charge; such bargaining is overwhelmingly the way federal cases are resolved. Even if convicted under a mandatory minimum charge, however, the judge on his own can sidestep the sentence if the defendant has a minor criminal history, has not engaged in violence, was not a big-time player, and cooperates with federal authorities. This “safety valve,” as it’s known, has been in the law for almost 20 years. Prosecutors correctly regard this as an essential tool in encouraging cooperation and, thus, breaking down drug conspiracies, large criminal organizations and violent gangs.

Right. Make the mandatory minimums so high that defendants don’t dare take their chances with a jury trial, and give breaks to those who can give someone up, encouraging lying and giving a disadvantage to those who don’t know anything.

So who are the pillars of society who wrote this letter? Ah yes, some familiar names…

William P. Barr
Former United States Attorney General

Michael B. Mukasey
Former United States Attorney General

Samuel K. Skinner
Former White House Chief of Staff and Former United States Attorney, Northern District of Illinois

William Bennett
Former Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

John P. Walters
Former Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

Mark Filip
Former United States Deputy Attorney General

Paul J. McNulty
Former United States Deputy Attorney General and Former United States Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia

George J. Terwilliger III
Former United States Deputy Attorney General and Former United States Attorney, District of Vermont

Larry D. Thompson
Former United States Deputy Attorney General and Former United States Attorney, Northern District of Georgia

Peter Bensinger
Former Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration

Jack Lawn
Former Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration

Karen Tandy
Former Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration

Greg Brower
Former United States Attorney, District of Nevada

A. Bates Butler III
Former United States Attorney, District of Arizona

Richard Cullen
Former United States Attorney, Eastern District, Virginia

James R. “Russ” Dedrick, Former United States Attorney, Eastern District, Tennessee and Eastern District, North Carolina

Troy A. Eid
Former United States Attorney, District of Colorado

Gregory J. Fouratt
Former United States Attorney, District of New Mexico

John W. Gill, Jr.
Former United States Attorney, Eastern District, Tennessee

John F. Hoehner
Former United States Attorney, Northern District, Indiana

Tim Johnson
Former United States Attorney, Southern District, Texas

Gregory G. Lockhart
Former United States Attorney, Southern District, Ohio

Alice H. Martin
Former United States Attorney, Northern District, Alabama

James A. McDevitt
Former United States Attorney, Eastern District of Washington

Patrick Molloy
Former United States Attorney, Eastern District, Kentucky

A. John Pappalardo
Former United States Attorney, Massachusetts

Wayne A. Rich. Jr
Former United States Attorney, Southern District, West Virginia

Kenneth W. Sukhia
Former United States Attorney, Northern District of Florida

Ronald Woods
Former United States Attorney, Southern District, Texas

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37 Responses to Look who opposes sentencing reform

  1. Servetus says:

    It’s good that prohibitionists choose to provide us with lists of names of their fellow accomplices. It makes it that much easier to subsequently select and charge the guilty parties with human rights crimes.

    • primus says:

      That won’t happen. The system WILL protect them. Technically, they are operating within the current law, we are not. ‘Technically’ will get them off. If you wait for the system to punish these sociopaths, you will be frustrated.

      • Servetus says:

        The System will TRY to protect them. It cannot do so perfectly, or completely.

        For example, if any of the signed former federal prosecutors run for public office, their names will surface on our Prohibitch Watch List. Their political campaign can then be portrayed using the Internet as morally indefensible. Under no circumstance must we allow the System to go unchallenged.

        George Orwell knew that the goal of the totalitarian state is to control people by discouraging or frightening them into not even thinking of rebelling. Totalitarian states achieve control, Hannah Arendt wrote, “by systematically crushing human spontaneity, and by extension human freedom. It ceaselessly peddles fear to keep a population traumatized and immobilized. It turns the courts, along with legislative bodies, into mechanisms to legalize the crimes of state.”

        The belief that we cannot successfully confront the prohibitionists, either domestically or through international law, is defeatism. The System cannot be allowed to win so easily, and it’s not true that it can’t be beaten. Ending the Viet Nam War is one example of how it was once beaten, and beaten badly. Fighting totalitarianism is better than not fighting it at all.

  2. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Sometimes I wonder if these people ever wonder why they’re losing.

    Other times I wonder if they realize that they’re losing.

    …and then there’s Stupid Patrick. Every time I think of him I draw a blank.

    This morning I received a fundraising appeal from the anti-pot group Project SAM that opens with “huge news!” Apparently “the President just stated, plainly and emphatically, that he is ‘not in favor of legalization.'” Project SAM’s co-founder and chairman, Patrick Kennedy, says Barack Obama uttered those words “at a YouTube Town Hall” linky

  3. Empathic Warrior says:

    My Heart is Heavy and shares the Pain of Those enduring Unjust Sentences. BackstabberLand. Word and Deed must be Delivered to the inside, that we do indeed Care. How? I knoweth Not. Appallingly most Unsplendid. Checkmate Looms. Oh Dear Lord.

  4. Nick says:

    Can you get any lower than the names on that list? Would I be out of line for wishing they were on a different kind of list?

  5. The nicest thing I can think of calling these government retiree’s are
    Cultural Imperialists.
    http://tinyurl.com/444ky

    To save you some time:
    Cultural Hegemony http://tinyurl.com/2geth2

  6. claygooding says:

    There is the deck of cards we the people need when this shit unwinds.

  7. B. Snow says:

    Semi-OT, but semi-related and interesting:
    ‘Stop The War On Drugs, Says Top Republican’

    “Rob Portman will call President Obama’s clemency plan “a Band-Aid on a deep wound” in a speech Tuesday. Can conservatives end the war on drugs?”

    But, If you read down to the end – He sneaks in the B.S. ‘bait & switch’, that would (surprise) allow the ‘Incarceration Complex’ We know and hate, to continue under a different “Mask” = aka ‘Involuntary Rehab Centers’ as an ‘Alternative to Prisons’

    “Instead of taking the easy path of executive action, I would ask the president to come to Congress and work with us to pass our legislation to reform federal prisons, leveraging our criminal justice system to incentivize long-term solutions based on what we know works to help people get out of prison and stay out, things like diversion programs and drug courts, job training, and treatment for addiction and mental services,” Portman says.

    (emphasis mine)

    Somebody needs to call-out this “Non-Reform” for what it is = a new coat of paint (a whitewashing of previous policy), a bit of “astro-turf”, and a bit of possibly(?) unintentional “Sock/Meat-Puppeting” by Portman.

    *To Be Fair* – IDK, if Rob Portman actually/(fully) realizes that “drug courts” would essentially carry on with current failed policy/tactics under a new-ish name.

    I wonder if we called him out on this – IF he might acknowledge this point and the following argument or not?

    That while some addicts may need rehab, people using drugs aren’t necessarily addicts or drug abusers – merely drug users/consumers.
    Along with the acknowledgement – that as a general rule, people have to “seek/want” ‘Rehab’ for it to have a significant chance of working.

    And an important note: By “seek/want” ‘Rehab’ = I do not mean – “wanting” to avoid a prison sentence, OR “seeking” a plea bargain!

  8. ezrydn says:

    “Former,” as in “has been.”

  9. Howard says:

    Watch this video. The audio is rather poor unfortunately. But pay particular attention to the brain scan shown.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqHassCMX-0

    Now ask yourself, how many of those on the list opposing the SSA consider CBD correctly listed with THC as a Schedule I substance. I’d say the vast majority of them (but I can’t know for sure).

    It’s one thing to be on the wrong side of history. It’s an entirely different matter being on the wrong side of humanity.

  10. Hang/'em/all says:

    Every single one of these prohibitionist parasites has helped increase drug use, atomize society, impoverish citizens, spread illness, increase unemployment, destroy lives, imprison productive people, subvert democracy, shred the Constitution, empower the ignorant & brutal, facilitate mass surveillance, destroy the educational system, hold people in ignorance, manipulate and censor the media, and enrich a tiny puritanical minority of mega-millionaires and corporate bosses.

  11. Jeff Trigg says:

    Every one of them a Democrat or Republican, appointed to be powerful prosectors by the Democrats and Republicans. Same with almost all of our judges. Justice system?

  12. primus says:

    What these has-beens think is irrelevant. Looking at Bloomberg.com today, there are three articles on the marijuana market. The sharks smell money in the water. The end is nigh. Once the Wall Street Boys figure out how to get rich with cannabis, it’s all over but the shouting, for they will tell their paid servants to go back to congress and pass new laws whereby these WSB’s can make even more money.

  13. kaptinemo says:

    The more they get squeezed, the more they’re flushed out into the open…making it ever so easy to question their (false) altruism and illustrate their true motivation: money.

    It’s almost too painful to watch, really. They painted themselves into this particular corner, which is now being illuminated by an opportunistic media, which previously aided and abetted our persecution.

    But, as predicted here long ago, when there’s blood in the water, the LameStream Media doesn’t care who bleeds. It’s the prohib’s turn to bleed, this time. Splashing about and making distress noises poorly disguised as bluster is another mistake. Kinda draws more unwanted attention, not less.

    More and more, I can’t help but feel this is the final moments of a decades-long kabuki or Greek Tragedy, a preordained climax, with the prohibs the unlucky sods that hitzusen or the gods are about to put the whammy on.

    We’re not on the 300 MPH train, anymore. We sprouted wings and took off. The prohibs are left behind…and the train is approaching a frakkin’ huge thick brick wall. A very messy political physics lesson is about to be taught to those who thought themselves invulnerable.

    This is one trainwreck I won’t avert my eyes from; I don’t want to miss a single microsecond.

    • allan says:

      We’re not on the 300 MPH train, anymore. We sprouted wings and took off.

      droned, cloned and stoned…

  14. thelbert says:

    WARRIORS ON DRUGS: spice more popular than pot with the federal government running things. http://tinyurl.com/mp8rs7d

  15. Servetus says:

    The British are undergoing a coke revolution. One result is the cocaine metabolite, benzoylecgonine, has contaminated the purified English water supply. What that means is no, you won’t get a buzz drinking the water. However, nothing was mentioned about potential false positives on drug tests.

  16. thelbert says:

    wonder why john ashcroft didn’t sign. maybe he wants people to forget that he ever went to washington and worked for george bush.

  17. CJ says:

    they are almost as bad as we are with all the formers. doesnt it frustrate you guys, as it does me, the list of formers here? its like a slap in the face, it does make me think of all the interviews, documentaries etc. etc. where the people speaking on our behalf are always “former president of the planet america” “former gold medalist poppy grower” “Former undisputed world heavyweight champion” and i think to myself: just how much more powerful things would be if the people on our side would’ve said and done something while they were still “active world heavyweight champion” “active president of the planet earth” etc. LOL. I’m sure there are more formers in their camp then ours though.

    hey on a side note, sometimes i think i should figure out a way to get my own blog since i say sometimes irrelevant things. But this is interesting. Listen to this. So you know those tylenol PM’s and basically at the pharmacy any sleep aid you look at it always containts that one ingredient that starts with a D. In fact recently nyquil released a drink that is pure sleep aid as it doesnt contain anything but that D substance. Well guys how humiliating for me as a heavy heroin lover but a few days ago i was rushed to the hospital… believe it or not, i overdosed on the D substance in all those sleeping aids… yes it was stupid and i dont condone it but the amazing thing is that it was this OTC thing that almost did me. I would never be able to live it down, if thats how id gotten got you know?? I think of the friends ive lost to this war on drugs and think of myself dying like a fool to a sleep aid. But this is no joke. before ridiculing me though i know i was a fool let me say that, some time ago id started taking these OTC sleep aids because theyre easy to steal and with erratic intake amount of opiates, sometimes the sleep hours can be hell because youre last shot was 10 hours ago and your body isnt quite in withdrawal but its not serviced anymore so youre just in a weird uncomfortable place so the sleep aid sorta helped but the real weird thing is, and nobody else that i know has felt this but for me there was this really sweet sort of body high i got off them. it was mellow, it reminded me of rolling to be honest. but it was only the first few times, after that nothing but as i upped the dose i could feel it slightly in the background well this weekend id taken some, a few hours later i took more and i realized it was there and i wanted to continue to feel it so i took even more (were talking about 13-14 pills at this point) 45 minutes later and bang i couldnt breath, it was horrible. my body dried out like a prune. it was crazy. the breathing was the worst. i was rushed to the hospital. very scary. i will say the ER doctor at montefiore in the Bronx was awesome though really cool. by the time i left we were joking about how awesome and easy access it would be if he let me leave with the IV still in my arm. LOL. but damn! that OTC was way worse than any illicit thing ive done so what pathetic irony, seriously!!!

    last things i wanna say, over my birthday (March 24) Canadian supreme court was hearing the testimony for the people granted special care in heroin maintenance and pretty much the future (immediate anyway) of heroin maintenance in Canada is kind of hanging on to the court situation. I was able to speak with a vancouver reporter covernig the case, one Andrea Woo who told me that as soon as theres any update she will report it but here we are in May now (right) and everything is still stuck regarding this case.

    The last thing is, in weird and great news, add another European country to the list of countries doing heroin maintenance. In big news, Norway has begun considering heroin maintenance. The reason this is kinda strange is because apparently Norway is one of the countries that has dragged it’s feet in the past regarding maintenance treatment. well i can only applaud a country that hesitated with methadone and buprenorphine (two of the evilest drugs in the world and whose manufacturers, advocates etc. should be war criminals since were talking war criminals) but that wants to do heroin maintenance, the best most successful treatment in the world. way to go Norway!

    • Crut says:

      .
      .
      Had to look up Diphenhydramine. It’s interesting in the “Adverse effects” it says

      Acute poisoning can be fatal, leading to cardiovascular collapse and death in 2–18 hours, and in general is treated using a symptomatic and supportive approach.[19] Diagnosis of toxicity is based on history and clinical presentation, and in general specific levels are not useful.

      So wait, an FDA approved drug is deadly, but they don’t know what specific level would cause fatal toxicity? Hmm, seems like a factoid that could be useful…

  18. CJ says:

    oh my!! wow, i came here first but then started doing my usual searchers and i saw something i had to share here and if id have seen it first idve said all this first, im sorry. here please check this out:

    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/825108#2

    okay, wow, half way through it i jumped out of my seat. holy cow. Listen to this! So, that second woman pictured, Dr. Sullivan. I am a former patient of hers. I was so happy to read this article but when i got to that second page, after reading all the great things and i saw this, well i must say as soon as i saw the two pictured women well of course my smiling face drew into a frown because on pictures alone i knew the wonderful people from Belgium whom came here to share this huge information, this wonderful life saving information would be met with some HEAVY DUTY resistance. The two women pictured, well, one of them, has a VESTED interest in the promulgation of Suboxone. Dude, this woman feels about suboxone the way I feel about heroin but im not a doctor on a powerful board. First of all it breaks my heart to think of these wonderful people from Belgium coming here with a manila folder loaded with this wonderful information, but to make your presentation and sitting in the crowd guaranteed a person whose financially married to a company who would loath to have HAT in this country. This not so wonderful wonder drug called suboxone would be destroyed by HAT.

    They give their presentation and these women, and like i said, one who treated me privately for months, and they knock it but make no mistake HAT is the most effective treatment in the world. Nothing works better, nothing is more cost effective, nothing. And the whys and hows etc. are at the very core of the drug problem. No doubt I’d be wearing a business suit everyday, married with children if i was on HAT or buying my daily supply at dollar per bag rates at the local pharmacy.

    The women argued that people given this treatment, were they given enough methadone first? Well why are we even comparing? The whole point behind methadone, when you read material on it here in the US, one of the first points is “it provides opiates without euphoria” well hello, we take heroin FOR EUPHORIA. So what are you really substituting? LOL. So they dissent, they say, well they werent given enough methadone. As a person whose failed methadone treatment many times, i can tell you personally whether it was detox maximum 30 mgs or clinic based 200 + mgs, there is NO DIFFERENCE. NONE. The more you do, yes you will get drowsy, THATS IT. no euphoria, no happiness, no warm feeling, no fulfillment. Yes, take copious amounts and you will want to sleep. That’s all. It doesnt matter how much they give you. It’s not designed to do what heroin or oxy, roxi, percs etc. do.

    The woman who treated me shrugged this HAT off and said, if a full agonist (methadone) doesnt work, i think you should go in the direction of a partial agonist/antagonist (suboxone) okay, so let me get this right, i want an agonist, as a heroin addict, so i get an agonist that really isn’t an agonist in methadone, supposedly the closest legal option to what i really want (heroin) well because illegally (cant give a narcotic to an addict to treat addiction is our american law) morphine, dilaudid, oxy etc. would work way better at substituting heroin than methadone ever could. so methadone, the closest we can get to dope legally, DOESNT WORK, let me get this right, instead of getting closer to heroin, she says we should MOVE AWAY from that direction, move further away from agonist to partial agonist/antagonist. can anybody explain how the hell that works? Basically, we want to copy something, but our copy is a cheap version, and when our cheap copy doesnt work, we think using an even cheaper copy is the way to go? LOL. That just defies logic.

    Whats more this woman advocates not only suboxone but those naltroxone injections. LOL !! God i could laugh so hard i could cry my friends. I have to tell you, i was in her office and by then id done the suboxone dance a half a hundred times, but i remember listening to the familiar pitch and i just kept thinking, “so we are the people who want something and become homeless, disease-ridden, emaciated, etc. etc. to get it, and im being advised to take something that isnt remotely close, but is such a spazzy, pubescent child of a med that if you dont do it just right will send you into the most unbearable withdrawal imaginable, and AND AND it will block any opiate effects. Yes, i am telling you i want heroin, i live my life in daily fear of withdrawal and ive sacrificed every imaginable physical possession to get this and avoid that and youre telling me that what i need is something that will ruin what i want most in life and will give me the worst version of the thing i want least in life if i dont do it perfectly and i am living proof of an inability to follow directions perfectly. this makes a lot of sense!”

    its painful to know that, here in NYC, i was something like X amount of blocks away from a hospital that i and people in my family have frequented for many a year and in that hospital were people i dream of being involved with (HAT administrators) and while they were here, they gave a presentation of the thing that i know wouldve saved alot of dead people and yet at that conference were people who would never in a million years advocate what they’re advocating. They were invited with smiles by enemies to an enemy camp to discuss their work. Savage man. savage. breaks my heart really. God, i dont know what else to say. I’m so upset right now. I need to numb myself from the fury and pain and anger i have towards someone who i know/knew who should be and in the past few days could’ve been a trailblazer for HAT in America (she does have that kind of position at one of the biggest most powerful hospitals in the world) but rather suboxone/naltroxone BS is so far up there shes blind and shot it down. I wish I wouldve known they were coming because i wouldve handcuffed myself to their luggage and demand they take me back to belgium with them. that or i couldve at least told them not to waste their time with these suboxone loving fools at columbia and that if they were going to present HAT glory to anybody at Columbia they shouldve to Dr. Carl Hart. Where was Dr. Hart?! God I’m so upset. time for oblivion thanks for reading this rant my friends. sorry. i dont see people i know in the news all the time especially when its about the one thing im more obsessed with than anything else (HAT.)

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Don’t you worry now CJ, there’s not much chance of such a widespread outbreak of common sense in the U.S. so that nice lady’s investment is safe and she’ll keep getting her divvies.

  19. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    The National Bureau of Economic Research says that what they call “Medical Marijuana LAWS” (MMLs) haven’t led to any negative effects as predicted, with the exception of one that the hysterical rhetoric crowd just plain never thought of, an increase of 6-9% increase in “binge” drinking. Of course that’s a d’oh, how the heck did we miss that one, no doubt being so wrong would drive the idiot prohibitionists to drink. In fact, only a lousy 6-9%? I suppose that a person can only do so much binge drinking so maybe that was all of the increase possible.

    http://www.nber.org/papers/w20085#fromrss

    Just FYI I refuse to acknowledge that the fiction of merrywanna addiction is real, or that an increase in people choosing to enjoy cannabis is per se a negative. Nor will I pretend to understand how some eggheads can seriously come to the conclusion that a 12% increase in the latter could result in a 27% increase in the former. That’s more an indication of gross innumeracy and makes all of their “conclusions” suspect. Perhaps migration from States without to States with”MMLs” might account for those increases.

  20. claygooding says:

    http://www.cato.org/blog/john-walters-cato-drug-wars

    John Walters on Cato and Drug Legalization

    Drugs can indeed cause harm, but so can alcohol, tobacco, double-black diamond ski slopes, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and driving on the highway. Many current harms (e.g., accidental overdoses), result from prohibition, which makes it harder for users to determine quality. Walters view that all drug use leads to irresponsible intoxication is utterly inconsistent with the evidence. “snip”

    Walters is a clown but a dangerous one,,he has lied to America so long he would pass a lie detector test on his own propaganda.

    http://www.cato.org/blog/limitations-state-marijuana-legalizations

    The Limitations of State-Level Marijuana Legalizations

    Even after legalization, it’s still very difficult — and potentially dangerous — to operate a marijuana business in Colorado.

    The big problem: pot shops and producers still can’t work with banks, which see marijuana as too risky of a business due to federal prohibition. This is true in Colorado, where state law says marijuana is legal but federal law says it’s not.

    This means marijuana businesses can’t take conventional loans, and they have to operate with only cash. And although several levels of government have tried to address the issue, they’ve had no success so far. “snip”

    I wonder why nobody has opened a civil suit against the DEA for refusing to remove marijuana from Schedule 1 so banking regulations can be written,,until then the Federal agency is putting legal businesses and innocent bystanders in harms way,,,sadly they will only show up after some people have been murdered or maimed in a violent robbery of a dispensary.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      The most effective, accomplished liars are those who have fallen for their own bullshit.

  21. Tony Aroma says:

    sadly they will only show up after some people have been murdered or maimed in a violent robbery of a dispensary.

    That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? How else are they going to keep showing us how dangerous the drug business is. The fact that the danger is actually caused by those purported to be be protecting us from it, is irrelevant. To them, anyway. Kind of like if the fire department were able to pass legislation requiring that all homes be built out of gasoline-soaked rags.

  22. Servetus says:

    Ancient Forms of Drug Consumption Alert: Alcohol and drugs: not just for modern man (or woman) anymore. And not limited to just the Middle East and South East Asia. A new research publication uncovers the anthropology of intoxication in prehistoric European societies.

    In the research, four different types of archaeological documents were examined: the macrofossil remains of the leaves, fruits or seeds of psychoactive plants; residues suggestive of alcoholic beverages; psychoactive alkaloids found in archaeological artifacts and skeletal remains from prehistoric times; and artistic depictions of mood-altering plant species and drinking scenes. These remnants include bits of the opium poppy in the teeth of a male adult in a Neolithic site in Spain, charred Cannabis seeds in bowls found in Romania, traces of barley beer on several ceramic vessels recovered in Iberia, and abstract designs in the Italian Alps that depict the ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms..

    …

    “Far from being consumed for hedonistic purposes, drug plants and alcoholic drinks had a sacred role among prehistoric societies,” says Guerra-Doce. “It is not surprising that most of the evidence derives from both elite burials and restricted ceremonial sites, suggesting the possibility that the consumption of mind-altering products was socially controlled in prehistoric Europe.”

    Reference:

    Guerra-Doce, E. (2014). “The Origins of Inebriation: Archaeological Evidence of the Consumption of Fermented Beverages and Drugs in Prehistoric Eurasia.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. DOI 10.1007/s10816-014-9205-z.

    Some things never change despite the ill-intended efforts of federal prosecutors and prohibitionists. Human drug consumption for non-medical uses is one of those things. Prohibition not only results in human rights crimes against drug consumers, it also defies human tradition going back to the Neolithic (c. 10,200 BCE, ending between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE).

  23. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    The NFL has announced that they’re going to increase the threshold for a “positive” urine screen for inert metabolites produced by cannabis consumption. But before those big sweaty mens start celebrating the smarter ones should be aware that the NFL is also going to start testing for HGH. What does that have to do with cannabis? Nothing, except that the HGH test makes synthetic urine fail because the test can tell it isn’t human urine. I wonder, are people going to be confused by the sudden rash of big sweaty mens caught for providing non-urine urine for testing? Will Spectrum Labs figure out how to make their synthahol taste like human urine? Will anyone outside of a few cannabis law reform wonks ever wonder about the societal perversity inherent in authorities obsession over the color of other people’s urine? Stay tuned…

    • kaptinemo says:

      “Will anyone outside of a few cannabis law reform wonks ever wonder about the societal perversity inherent in authorities obsession over the color of other people’s urine?”

      And there it is. What I call the ‘Alice Point’. The point at which absurdity becomes normality…and what was once rationally considered as normality is viewed as absurd.

      The whole idea of prohibition on it’s face is demonstrably absurd. History is littered with the bones of nations that tried it. Yet, today, it’s the ‘norm’.

      Standing up for your rights and freedoms in the face of prohibition’s strictures on them is considered weird and unusual in this society – while being forced to pee in a cup for a job is somehow ‘normal’. The Founders would have suggested that they dispense with the cup for economy’s sake…and open their mouths, instead.

      And who sees what’s happened to this country over the past 4 decades being as weird and unusual? The very people most concerned about rights and liberties, namely, the reformers. The ones who were previously on the societal ‘outs’. Albert Nock’s ‘Remnant’

      We’re the canaries in the mineshaft, and until lately the air was getting toxic. But now the ideals that we and others in this society held fast to and defended are starting to re-assert themselves, as in the re-legalization efforts.

      The real normality is finally returning, slowly, fitfully, and is being fought every step of the way by those who favor and profit from absurdity (if not outright insanity) and the way it distorts our society.

      And they imply we’re sick and perverted because we want to change the laws? Alice would feel right at home.

  24. DdC says:

    #FireLeonhart

    DEA Chief Michele Leonhart Should Resign
    http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread28064.shtml

    DEA Chief Dials Back Drug War Bluster
    http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread28063.shtml

  25. DCReade says:

    It’s worth noting that the “informer exception” clause for mandatory minimum drugs cases is well-known for being extended to the ringleader of a smuggling or trafficking organization in return for snitching on subordinates. They’ve even gone into WITSEC, the witness protection program, and had their prison stays cut short in order to live under what amounts to supervised house arrest.

    Just so we’re clear about the morality at work here.

    It’s already inexcusable when low-level offenders in consensual crimes are pressured in interrogations with gloating threats of prison time- and prison rape- in order to convince them to nark on their suppliers. But the nadir of corruption isn’t reached until someone’s granted leniency in return for turning in their subordinates- who in turn are encouraged to do the same, until the hard time finally lands on the people at the bottom of the network, who have no one below them to turn in.

    Perhaps the most famous case of that sort is Frank Lucas

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lucas

    Another notorious case is Danilo Blandon, the Nicaraguan Contra-affiliated supplier of Freeway Rick Ross of Los Angeles

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Danilo_Bland%C3%B3n

    Also, Rayful Edmond of Washington D.C.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayful_Edmond

    and Nicky Barnes

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Barnes

    (All of those guys got their own BET “American Gangster” episode, with the exception of Danilo Blandon. Although Blandon most likely makes a cameo appearance in the episode about Freeway Rick Ross (a non-snitcher, fwiw.) I haven’t seen that episode. I’ve seen the other ones listed, though. )

    There’s even some uncertainty and a significant lack of information about the fate and current whereabouts of Carlos Lehder Rivas, one of the founders of the Medellin Cartel, who received a deal in return for his testimony against one of his former warehouse foremen, former Panamanian chief of state Manuel Noriega

    http://www.fear.org/carlos1.html

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Lehder

    (It’s worth noting that when WITSEC lists someone as “incarcerated”, the meaning of that word is uncertain. “Incarcerated” may not necessarily mean “in a prison.”)

    There are many other similar cases, featuring less well-known “kingpins” in the drug business who turned informant on their customers, partners, subordinates, etc.

    So there’s your Criminal Justice system, American Style. There’s your Law and Order. There’s your Pure and Holy Drug War.

  26. DCReade says:

    Addendum on the above comment, re: WITSEC

    Here’s an explanation of the treatment provided to “incarcerated protected witnesses”, from the website Gorilla Convict- apparently, the Federal informants are held in “cheese factories”- special prisons inside prisons. Lots of interesting details:

    “Q.What did the guys in there talk about and what type of stuff was going down?

    A. WI- It was surreal, you had guys talking about murder like it was nothing. Guys had 20 to 30 murders and would have like five, seven or twelve years. I couldn’t believe it and wouldn’t if I wasn’t there. Dudes got busted for 5000 kilos, got two or three years and kept all their assets. Guys wives were flying in on private jets, the feds used to take Sammy the Bull to a hotel to fuck his wife. Shit, a guy, Jimmy Chagra had a fucking federal judge murdered and got a parole. Just all types of cases the public would not believe and they’re all being released into the witness protection program. If the government really needs you, you can get away with anything…”

    more at the jump, below

    http://www.gorillaconvict.com/2011/09/witsec/

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