Drug WarRant

Via Radley Balko: Dog shooting prompts police to change policies

Balko’s been in the forefront of getting the public aware of the outrageous amount of puppycide that takes place with law enforcement (and many of these killings are part of routine drug warrant enforcement).

Here’s a rare example where public reaction has resulted in real policy change.

Assistant Police Chief David Carter said a new policy that will go into effect July 1 addresses the options officers have when compelled to use force against dogs.

One of the most significant changes to the policy, Carter said, is that it is more specific on what constitutes a dangerous animal and when an officer can use deadly force against one.

The new policy clarifies that lethal force is authorized if officers decide there is “imminent danger of bodily harm” to themselves or another human, not when a dog is simply acting aggressively, Carter said. It requires a higher level of discretion; the old policy was less specific and said lethal force can be used if an animal is a threat to safety.

The new policy also explains alternatives to deadly force, including yelling at a dog, firing a Taser or using pepper spray.

There are other revisions as well, Carter said. The new policy raises the level of scrutiny on fatal dog shootings. If an officer does use deadly force against a dog, he or she must explain why lesser force was not used, and the incident will be reviewed by the entire chain of command — not just an officer’s sergeant, as is current policy, he said.

“It raises the stature” of dog shootings, Carter said. “We need to be as accountable for the shooting of a dog as any other force.”

They’re also going to institute trainging for cadets on how to handle aggressive dogs without lethal force.

Good news. It would be nice if it was more than just one police department…

Still immersed in the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival (I’m a judge) through this weekend.

It’s pretty sad that Kevin Sabet can’t handle comments and has to have them disabled when he writes at Huffington Post

Should the FDA regulate recreational drugs? – a new article at Time by Maia Szalavitz.

Regulation is the answer. Not sure that the FDA is.

Pot Legalization is Coming in Rolling Stone

Melinda Haag’s US Department of Pre-Crime by Russ Belville

Is the CIA a drug cartel? Mexican official blames CIA for drug war

A Mexican government official has told reporters that the CIA and other international security forces are not fighting drug traffickers, but rather they are managing the trade. This is the latest astounding claim about violence that has lasted more than six years and claimed more than 55,000 lives.

JUAREZ, MEXICO (Catholic Online) – Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico, made the claim which has people in Washington upset. While Villanueva is not the first person to make such claims, he is the highest-ranking official to do so thus far.
 
Villanueva told a reporter for Al Jazeera, “It’s like pest control companies, they only control, if you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs.”

Good article at Philly.com: Law enforcement likes getting realliy high off drug busts

IT HAPPENS before the news conference, before the plastic-wrapped bricks of dope are arranged on the table for the TV cameras and before headlines are made.

Cops calculate the “street value.” It’s a branch of mathematics in which economies of scale meet public relations.

By envisioning thousands of transactions that will never occur — and sometimes padding the numbers on top of that — law-enforcement agencies can wind up doubling, tripling, quadrupling, quintupling, sextupling or even septupling what the confiscated drugs are worth to the bulk-level dealers who got popped.

In the hands of a narcotics cop with a calculator, $2 million of heroin can become $9 million, $500,000 worth of meth can become $2.5 million, coke worth less than $1 million can become several million.

We’ve often noted the inflated values given by law enforcement and this article gives numerous examples.

Of course, the real problem is that the entire public relations game of showing off seizures is nothing more than blatant self-promotion. It has nothing to do with public safety. When a large shipment is seized, it doesn’t matter if you call it $1 million or $10 million — it’s merely a minor and temporary inconvenience to the economics of the black market and has no real impact on supply.

I’m taking a couple days off with a friend in Chicago, and then I’ll be a judge for the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival this week.

The Drug War Has Now Spread to Africa. Here’s Why – a good piece by Ryan Grim. The U.S.’s DEA is now going to Africa to go after Latin American drug traffickers who are transporting drugs to Europe, with the full knowledge that anything they do will only move the route, not stop it.

Sounds like an agency that’s looking to justify its own existence.

At Salon: Obama's Pot Problem

After holding the party convention in Denver and handily carrying this traditionally Republican state in 2008, Obama could be jeopardizing his reelection bid with a dismissive and even hostile approach to marijuana reform, a top issue for tens of thousands of local residents, including many of the activists who powered his last campaign.

Even if President Obama wins the election, if he loses Colorado and it appears to be because of his position on marijuana, then the entire political world will sit up and take notice.

You can already see the faint beginnings of the mad scamper away from prohibition by politicians…

See also: If Chris Christie is soft on drugs… by Rich Lowry.

If Chris Christie, arguably the toughest Republican in the country, is open to new approaches, there’s hope for everyone else.

Why we shouldn’t legalize marijuana by Charles Stimson, Senior Legal Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

Once again, the Heritage Foundation demonstrates that it wants nothing to do with the truth.

Marijuana is an addictive, gateway drug. It significantly impairs bodily and mental functions, and its use is related to increased violence. These are facts.

I love that “these are facts” link. Does it link to a source of facts? No, just to another hilariously misguided article by Charles Cully Stimson back in 2010. That particular article was soundly thrashed back then by me (Charles Cully Stimson lies with the authority and confidence of a career fabricator) and others (More people have fun with Charles ‘Cully’ Stimson).

Here’s another great line in Stimson’s new article:

Lacking curative or preventive powers, marijuana — unlike alcohol — is usually consumed to the point of intoxication.

Ah yes, the old Richard Nixon/Linkletter argument again.

Have fun.

Nice story: Pot-smoking moms tired of being judged by wine drinkers

“Being judged for doing something nontoxic and totally organic, enjoying a god-given plant, by moms who suck back two bottles of Chardonnay like sports drinks feels like s—,” complains Margaret. “Any hypocrisy is hard to swallow.” […]

“If I wanted to, I could sit with a glass of wine in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, with a cigarette pressed between my lips, under the influence of prescription narcotics — all the while holding my child in my lap,” says Serra Frank, founding director of Moms for Marijuana and mother of two, ages 9 and 12.

Not having been a parent, I can't fully understand what it's like. However, I've watched a lot of parents and have seen how incredibly stressful it can be. I can certainly imagine that something like a little pot to take the edge off now and then would be amazingly useful.

I've always liked Morgan Freeman. Here's another reason…

Morgan Freeman On Marijuana: Criminalization Of Weed Is 'Stupidest Law Possible'

Marijuana! Heavens, oh yeah. It’s just the stupidest law possible, given history. You don’t stop people from doing what they want to do, so forget about making it unlawful. You’re just making criminals out of people who aren’t engaged in criminal activity. And we’re spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can’t win! We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor. It’s stupid.

Gil Kerlikowske: Please Put Our Money Where Your Mouth Is

In other words, despite the ample evidence that treatment is the answer, and despite Kerlikowske’s willingness to admit that our status quo drug policy simply isn’t working, we’re actually increasing expenditures on strategies that have proven ineffective. While the minimal shift in spending on treatment is a positive development, it means little in the face of the billions that will continue to be spent on law enforcement.

UN Office on Drugs and Crime Launches Public Service Announcement on Transnational Organized Crime

Um, really? The way to fight Transnational Organized Crime is to create a Public Service Announcement?

But apparently, it's also a priority of the U.S.

Raising awareness of the cost of transnational organized crime to people and businesses is a priority action of President Obama’s Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime. The presence of the global illegal economy and the activities that sustain it – from bribery and money laundering to drug trafficking, environmental crime, and counterfeit goods, including pharmaceuticals – threaten foreign direct investment, economic growth, market integrity, and the ability of companies everywhere to maximize profits.

Belize

Marijuana possession may be decriminalized in Belize as the Central American nation joins a list of countries from Mexico to Uruguay whose leaders have called for alternatives in the U.S.-led war on drugs.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s government has appointed a committee to evaluate the decriminalization of up to 10 grams of marijuana

So what do you get when you take some paternalistic self-appointed academic policy wonks who write a book with good facts and flawed analyses and get them together with the Los Angeles Times?

Sing along with me: Reefer Madness…. Reefer Madness…

As 3 states mull marijuana legalization, experts warn: 'Beware'

“Legalization is unprecedented – not even the Netherlands has done it – it is entirely possible it will happen this year,” said Jonathan Caulkins, co-author of “Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know.”

“The effects will be enormous,” said Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, during an event at the American Enterprise Institute. […]

Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA, said his advice to federal officials would be “to sit down with the governor of the state and say, 'Look, we can make your life completely miserable — and we will – unless you figure out a way to avoid the exports.”

I stand by my compliments for the good stuff they included in their book, but, my God, they're a bunch of whiny know-it-all chicken-little idiots without a clue when it comes down to actually doing something about a clearly failed and destructive policy. Their desire to be “fair minded” turns them into nothing more than prohibition enablers.

Update: Mason Tvert responds:

“It’s surprising and disappointing to hear academics make such bold claims without a shred of evidence to substantiate them,” Tvert said to The Huffington Post via e-mail. “It is especially disappointing since people truly respect RAND as a research organization. Unless they retract these assertions, you will undoubtedly see our opponents citing this fanciful and baseless speculation as ‘fact’ in the future. Fortunately, RAND has shown a willingness to retract marijuana-related research, as they did when law enforcement complained about their research showing that medical marijuana dispensaries did not lead to increases in crime.”