Drug WarRant

We’ve talked often about the importance of jury nullification — the power of individual jurors to judge the law as well as the guilt of the defendant. It’s not an easy task — the court system is often stacked against the would-be nullifier.

But there’s another kind of nullification — judicial nullification. This is essentially when a judge says that he or she has had enough.

Of course, judges don’t have the same kind of power as a jury. They’re constrained by mandatory minimums and other limits on their ability to reduce or eliminate sentences. But they can still make a powerful statement.

A case in point is Federal Judge George Wu (thanks to Salem-News).

Federal District Judge George H. Wu issued a revised 41-page written sentencing order this week for former medical cannabis provider, Charles C. Lynch. In addition, the Judge also granted the defense’s request for reduced supervised restrictions as Lynch remains out on $400,000 bail pending appeal. Lynch’s Federal Public Defender filed an appeal Thursday, May 6.

“[T]his case is not like that of a common drug dealer buying and selling drugs without regulation, government oversight, and with no other concern other than making profits. In this case, the defendant opened a marijuana dispensary under the guidelines set forth by the State of California . . . . His purpose for opening the dispensary was to provide marijuana to those who, under California law, [were] qualified to receive it for medical reasons.”

The sentencing order states that Lynch was “caught in the middle of shifting positions” on the issue and that, “Much of the problems could be ameliorated…by the reclassification of marijuana from schedule I”

Of course, the feds don’t want to recognize that there’s a difference between Charlie Lynch and a criminal, but once a real human knows the facts, it’s hard to remain silent in the face of such injustice, and George Wu couldn’t.

There’s another important aspect to this case. Smart judges know the history of law, and understand that some bad laws end up living long after they have ceased to be supported by the country.

So what we do as individuals can have an impact here as well.

“While simple popularity is not a factor to be considered, the Court notes that it has received more letters in support of Lynch in this matter than in any other case in the undersigned judicial officer’s 16 years on the federal and state benches.”

Moms for Marijuana are proud women who are calling for the educated regulation of marijuana. Kudos to them.

Now remember, it’s Moms for Marijuana, not Marijuana for Moms. Don’t show up to dinner tomorrow with an eighth for her, unless she’s expecting it. I recommend lillies — that’s what I gave my mom.

A City Attorney who really knows his stuff. City Attorney John Russo from Oakland has an outstanding OpEd on the legalization of marijuana in California.

He hits a whole range of important points in a very clear way.

The Drug Czar will be talking about the new National Drug Control Strategy (to be officially released Monday) at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will address a Speakers Press Conference at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 12 in the Fourth Estate Restaurant.

Kerlikowske will speak on the Obama administration’s new national drug control strategy, due to be announced May 10. His remarks will be followed by a moderated question-and-answer session.

I wonder if any of the press will be willing to ask the tough questions, and who will be moderating.

If you don’t buy this drug war, we’ll kill this dog.

Really strange thinking from across the pond. Kathy Gyngell calls for stopping the reliance on evidence and science-based drug policy, and instead using your personal experience and reason to create policy.

Evidence is over-rated, experience and reason underrated. These are the clues to the poisoned chalice of secular, morally unimpeachable thought that the Conservatives must avoid drinking from if they are to make real change.

Of course, the mere notion that drug policy has been based on science and needs to change is absurd. That’s the problem. It hasn’t been evidence-based at all. Yet she wants to throw out what we need to do and instead advocate “for policy makers to draw on the real life, non laboratory, experience of those who have recovered from addiction.”

Yeah, that’ll work.

Drug War Chronicle – weekly update of drug war news and analysis from Stop the Drug War.org.

This is an open thread.

So sometimes us bloggers post something that really should resonate with the general public, and it just sits there. Certainly, this site and Radley’s and others have posted plenty of Drug War Victim stories. Some got some traction, others didn’t. Long term, they do very well (my Drug War Victims page is a heavy hitter, as is Radley’s Cato Raidmap page).

Then again, sometimes something hits just right viscerally, and it spreads like wildfire. Such was the case with the video of the drug raid in Missouri that I posted a couple of days ago. Radley had already posted it, Scott Morgan added his two cents, then it got picked up at FireDogLake, Boing-Boing, Opposing Views, Huffington, HorsesAss, Transform, NORML, etc. and went nuts on messageboards.

It built up so strong so fast, that the Mayor and Police Chief had to hold a press conference yesterday afternoon to address the issues.

In response to widespread “misinformation” developing on message boards and blogs, as well as a death threat toward Columbia police officers, Columbia Mayor Bob McDavid and Burton held a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Bloggers and others from around the world have bombarded the Columbia Police Department this week with phone calls, e-mails, and even a threatening fax concerning the search warrant. McDavid said it is important that the city’s police department continue to have the confidence of residents. An internal review is scheduled for completion in two weeks.

A couple of points…

1. Regardless of what one may feel about the officers involved in this case or any other, if someone issue death threats againg them, then that person is no friend of drug policy reform or justice.
2. They didn’t get misinformation from this site.

Anytime something goes viral, it happens so fast that some of the participants in the spread don’t take the time to sort through the details properly. (Remember the telephone game?) So yes, I saw comments that there were kids (plural), that there was a girl (it was a boy), that the dog was shot while in a cage, that the Corgi was killed, that both dogs were killed, etc. So I appreciate that the Mayor and Chief came forward to clarify some of those misconceptions that existed.

The real story isn’t any better.

The chief, who is personally conducting the internal investigation, walked reporters through his understanding of the incident. Three officers shot at the pit bull, and the first missed completely, which is when the corgi is believed to have been shot in the paw, he said. The pit bull acted aggressively toward a SWAT member again as they pushed into the home, which resulted in the animal being shot, he said. After being shot, it moved to attack a SWAT member, which is when the dog was killed.

One of the results of the viral video showing is that the Police Chief is now publicly saying that the warrant should not have been executed. That’s pretty huge.

The reason is a little bizarre.

Burton said the state of Missouri allows police 10 days to execute a signed warrant and that he thinks Columbia officers should have done so immediately in this case.

Investigators believed Whitworth was in possession of a large amount of marijuana and was considered a distributor. The raid ended with a misdemeanor amount of marijuana discovered and two of Whitworth’s dogs shot.

“It’s my opinion that it needs to be served as soon as possible,” Burton said of the warrant. “The contraband can be disposed of. If they are going to do that, there is not much point in serving the warrant.”

Burton said as of Feb. 12, the day after the SWAT team’s entry at Whitworth’s home, warrants have been ordered to be executed immediately.

They waited 8 days to serve the warrant.

Interestingly, an earlier report said:

Because the SWAT team acts on the most updated information available, the team wanted to enter the house before marijuana believed to be at the location could be distributed, she said.

“If you let too much time go by, then the drugs are not there,” she said.

Drug distributors traditionally have a history with firearms, which is why the SWAT team is used when executing such warrants, [police spokeswoman Officer Jessie] Haden said. If the SWAT team believed they could have executed the warrant successfully during the daytime when the wife and child were not present, they would have, she said.

So they waited 8 days, but couldn’t wait a few more hours until the wife and child weren’t present.

Something stinks. But that’s always true when you use SWAT to go after a plant.

Used to be, we had all these “drug free” goals — you know, like the 1986 crime bill that said we’d be drug free by 1995. Then Newt Gingrich said we’d be drug free by 2001. The U.N. said the whole world would be drug free by 2008. And two years ago, the Governor of West Virginia was going to make the state drug free.

Of course, none of these dim bulbs even knows what they mean by “drug free.”

But recently, we haven’t been hearing “drug free” very often. Even the stupid ones have come to realize that not only is “drug free” a meaningless impossibility, but that the public ain’t buyin’ it.

No, you have to travel to crazy-land to find someone selling that line these days.

A spokesperson for Church of Scientology International, Rev. Adams said that despite billions poured into “the drug problem” by governments, meaningful demand reduction will only come about “by involving everyone and bringing on all solutions, starting with education. No single group or government can do it alone, but together we can rid our communities of drugs in a single generation.” (PRWeb)

Sometimes I wonder if Drug Czar Kerlikowske is even able to hear his own words.

Link

Under drug and racketeering statutes and extradition agreements, 10 Mexican cartel leaders have been convicted in U.S. courts in the last two years but they’re quickly replaced by junior lieutenants willing to use violence to fight one another for control, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

“In Mexico, there are hundreds of thousands of young men who are in organized crime and are … ready to step up when a leader at any level is captured and taken prisoner,” said Tony Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas-El Paso and who studies border violence.

Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy R. Gil Kerlikowske agreed but says law enforcement efforts are making a difference.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt there are people who will replace those folks,” Kerlikowske said. “But it is the disruption of the cartels that is helpful and the chilling effect it causes.”

OK, maybe you can interpret him better than I can, but it appears that he just said: “Well it’s true that what we’re doing doesn’t make a difference, but at least it makes a difference.”

And apparently he has his own definition of “chilling effect,” which is something like “all that violence and death,” as in “they were chilling those guys by chopping their heads off.”

I think they did a good job of narrowing down the 800 submissions into a reasonably good set of choices for their campaign at FireDogLake

Just Say Now
Just Say No – To Prohibition
Vote Green
Stop Supporting Cartels
Marijuana Never Stole Your 401k
Liberty. Legalize Marijuana
Prohibition; Stupid Then, Stupid Now
Stop Funding Criminals. Legalize Marijuana
Marijuana: Pass it
Prohibition Kills
Campaign for Sensible Cannabis Reform
End Prohibition Again
Legalize Marijuana
Grass is Greener

Go and vote.

It’s nice to have FireDogLake working on this project.

It’s also nice to see some stirrings at other progressive sites, such as this mention by Marcos at Daily Kos, when talking about the Arizona issue:

The drug smuggler infestation (whether white or brown) at the border is at true crisis levels. But the drug issue has nothing to do with the immigration issue. Drug runners aren’t crossing the border looking to get jobs mowing lawns, and demanding to see immigration papers at a Tucson bus stop won’t make a dent in the drug cartels. […]

There are two broken policies here — the immigration system, which desperately needs reform, and the drug war, which is costing people their lives and essentially turning Mexico into a narco state in order to irrationally keep people from smoking freakin’ weed.

In Columbia, Missouri, SWAT teams storms into house, kills one dog in front of the 7-year old kid, wounds another, terrorizes the family. Cops find grinder, pipe and a small amount of marijuana and charge the father with possession plus child endangerment.

I think you can decide if the child was in danger and from whom.

See if you can make sense out of this:

Because the SWAT team acts on the most updated information available, the team wanted to enter the house before marijuana believed to be at the location could be distributed, she said.

“If you let too much time go by, then the drugs are not there,” she said.

Drug distributors traditionally have a history with firearms, which is why the SWAT team is used when executing such warrants, [police spokeswoman Officer Jessie] Haden said. If the SWAT team believed they could have executed the warrant successfully during the daytime when the wife and child were not present, they would have, she said.

So apparently, if they had waited until the next day, even with surveillance, the “drugs” would have been gone, presumably through underground tunnels, I guess.

Interestingly, in another article:

[Deputy Chief Tom] Dresner previously said that intelligence gathered before the raid did not indicate the child was in the home.

The video is disturbing to watch, but the really disturbing things are what happened before the video — the truly warped thinking that created the laws and the procedures that made people think this was a good idea.

Referring to a medical marijuana bill in Illinois…

“The passing of this bill is going to lead to more crime and drug use. Street gangs will open marijuana dispensaries and they’ll use the profits for selling that marijuana to buy guns and drugs and bail out fellow gang members,” said Phil Cline, former Chicago police superintendent.

The entire statement is absurd. The really outrageous part, however, is that Phil Cline believes that criminals will not only take over some dispensaries, but despite being listed in the phone book, and having a sign over their door, Chicago cops will be too stupid to find them.

When are the cops going to grow a set of balls and start pushing back at the insults given them by their union leaders and bosses, who keep claiming that medical marijuana laws are too hard for dumb cops to enforce?

… nor do they want to.

After claiming that they wanted to communicate with the public on a more regular basis, they started an ONDCP Update Newsletter in January. Then they had an issue in February. Then nothing. Finally, on May 3, they had a March/April issue.

A little embarrassing, particularly since hyping their new Open Government Plan in April.

But you’ve got to give them a break. They’ve been busy — it take a lot of work and time to find more creative ways to lie to the public.

Take a look at the latest “blog” entry: Drug Use in America — it’s a doozy.

Research and data serve as the foundation of ONDCP’s programs and recent statistics show that we need to act now to address this public health and safety issue and reduce the devastating effects of drug use.

Note the emphasis on research and data; then the sneaky mention of drug use (not abuse).

But how do they present that data?

The use of illicit drugs—including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, PCP, ecstasy, inhalants, methamphetamine, and the non-medical use of prescription drugs—is a significant public health problem. The use of these substances led directly to the death of 38,000 Americans in 2006—nearly as many as died in motor vehicle crashes that same year (43,000). In monetary terms, the use of illicit drugs cost the United States billions of dollars in health care, lost productivity, and other costs.

That is a truly diabolical paragraph. Based on the grammatical structure, when I first read it, it appeared that illicit drugs alone (including marijuana, of course) directly caused 38,000 deaths (particularly with the bookended “illicit drugs” phrase at the end of the paragraph).

But no. See how they improperly snuck in “and the non-medical use of prescription drugs” into the dashed clause that was detailing the kinds of illicit drugs? Impressive.

Lying through misdirection and implication. That was a hallmark of the John Walters ONDCP. Looks like the Kerlikowske ONDCP is really getting up to speed.

There are a lot of pathetic, selfish reasons to want the continuation of the destruction caused by prohibition — protecting drug war jobs, for example — but one of the worst is the celebrity drug addict who sees prohibition as his own personal intervention service.

I haven’t read the full article, but Robert Downey, Jr. (who I consider to be an occasionally brilliant actor) is interviewed in this month’s Rolling Stone.

During an introspective day on the beach where Kirn and Downey play word association (and coin the term “vaginal parfait”), the actor opens up about his opposition to drug legalization… […]

“All those years of snorting coke, and then I accidentally get involved in heroin after smoking crack for the first time. It finally tied my shoelaces together. Smoking dope and smoking coke, you are rendered defenseless. The only way out of that hopeful state is intervention.”

And in the Daily News

The bad boy actor admits he felt the safest he’s ever been when behind bars.

“When the door clicks shut, then you are safe,” says the veteran actor, who spent a good amount of time between 1996 and 2001 in prison for drug use and possession. “There is nothing aside from a rogue correctional officer that can do you harm if you have the right cellie. You are actually in the safest place on Earth. Safe from the intruders.”

For Downey, those intruders were his addictions…

Isn’t that nice.

All the dead people in Mexico, the recipients of prison rape, the overdose victims from unregulated drugs, the families torn apart by racist drug laws, all those who could handle their drugs but were made to pay anyway — I’m sure they’re all just pleased as punch that their lives were sacrificed in order to provide Robert Downey, Jr. with a celebrity intervention and safe house service.