Drug WarRant

Daniel Rubin: It was no joke at security gate

22-year-old Rebecca Solomon, a University of Michigan student, was going through security at Philadelphia International Airport when she was confronted:

A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.

Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on – the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.

She remembers his words: “Where did you get it?”

This is a nightmare scenario — particularly given today’s drug laws and the severity of sentences (not to mention being at an airport).

Until finally…

Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.

And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall.

Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened. […]

When she complained to airport security, Solomon said, she was told the TSA worker had been training the staff to detect contraband.

Now that this story hit the paper, the TSA worker is no longer employed.

Good.

I understand that the TSA needs to conduct training exercises, but there are proper ways to do that, and sneaking contraband into innocent people’s bags is not one of them.

I remember a story a couple years ago about the equivalent of the TSA in another country conducting training exercises. They snuck some drugs into suitcases and lost track of the suitcases. Oops. Hope none of those innocent travelers was going to a country where they execute people for smuggling drugs…

The Senate Judiciary Committee today passed S. 714, National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. This was Senator Jim Webb’s bill, and it could be extremely important. It still needs to pass the full Senate and the House, etc., but this is a critical step. It’s got strong bi-partisan support in the committee.

More on this at the NORML blog and ACLU blog.

Of course, getting the commission is only part of the battle. We need to get some good people on it, make them do their job, and then actually get someone to pay attention to the report when it comes out.

We have quite a history of not paying attention to Commissions when they deliver information that the government doesn’t want to hear.

…

And we’re not the only ones…

Take a look at Transform’s epic battle to get the Home Office to even release a 2007 report on the cost-effectiveness of drug enforcement efforts. In this updated post today, they really rip into the Home Office:

They had 6 years to address these obvious failings (in data collection and evaluation – let alone outcomes) and utterly failed. There can be no excuses.

The report also demonstrates that the various justifications (see below) given for its suppression during the strategy consultation, and for the following 2 years, were entirely spurious. The Home Office have behaved pathetically, like children in a playground with a secret, and treated the public with contempt in the process. They still are; note the ridiculous redaction of ‘SOCA’ throughout, except in a footnote referring to one of the redactions (they can’t even do censorship properly).

This saga was an attempt to conceal a piece of research that showed the policy in an unflattering light, and its censorship was purely political; a disgrace for the Government and particularly for the Home Office and ministers directly involved.

We will provide a more detailed analysis later, but worthy of note is the item in table 3 on page showing expenditure by police in 05/06 – £2 billion out of £3 billion total expenditure, £1.7 billion of which is ‘indirect costs of dealing with drug-related crime’. It looks suspiciously as if it fits with Transform’s analysis that enforcement creates the very costs that prohibition is supposed to reduce.

Danny Kushlick said:

“The withholding of this report demonstrates yet again how the Government is committed to the rhetoric and fantasy of success of the current strategy, whilst doing its damnedest to keep the truth out of sight of the public. The edifice of prohibition comes crashing down as soon as evidence is pitched up against it. Ultimately we are being duped into supporting a policy that is demonstrably failing to deliver anything even approximating to value for money”

Ouch.

Bailey returns with a follow-up to his first piece on the efforts to consider marijuana decrim in Washington State.

…..

Wednesday’s executive session of the state house’s Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness committee concluded its deliberation of HB 1177 (marijuana decrim) and HB 2401 (socialized legalization) with a smaller audience, no cameras, and it seems no better understanding of the pitfalls of prohibition than the week before. What follows is a painful to recount of how both bills failed to move forward, and how Washington will continue to go backwards.
Continue reading →

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday, 81% of Americans support legalization of medical marijuana.

I’ve got a question for the Democrats who keep saying that the party doesn’t dare waste its political capital on an issue like medical marijuana…. just how popular does something have to be before you’re willing to be seen on the dance floor with it?

I agree with Mark Kleiman:

And the demand that cannabis be shown to be better than something else, rather than merely safe and effective, before it’s approved strikes me as wrong-headed. People vary in their reactions to drugs, so giving doctors and patients more options is generally better.

This issue tests the commitment of the Obama Administration to science-based policy.

In case you missed it. NJ medical marijuana bill is signed into law

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has signed legislation granting chronically ill patients legal access to marijuana.

Corzine’s office said the governor signed the bill late Monday, his last full day in office. Gov.-elect Chris Christie will be sworn in Tuesday.

New Jersey is the 14th state to allow patients with diseases such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis to use marijuana to alleviate their pain and other symptoms.

The legislation allows for dispensaries to be set up around the state where patients with prescriptions can access the drug.

New York Times: Researchers Find Study of Medical Marijuana Discouraged

Despite the Obama administration’s tacit support of more liberal state medical marijuana laws, the federal government still discourages research into the medicinal uses of smoked marijuana. […] “The more it becomes clear to people that the federal government is blocking these studies, the more people are willing to defect by using politics instead of science to legalize medicinal uses at the state level,” said Rick Doblin, executive director of a nonprofit group dedicated to researching psychedelics for medical uses.

Wall Street Journal: Is Marijuana a Medicine?

Researchers say it’s difficult to get funding and federal approval for marijuana research. In November, the AMA urged the federal government to review marijuana’s position in the most-restricted category of drugs, so it could be studied more easily.

It’s a fairly detailed article about different aspects of medical marijuana use. One nice thing to see at the end of the piece…

… but a large 2006 study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, found no tie to lung cancer.

Scott Morgan: Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Don’t Attract Crime, They Prevent it

Banks are robbed constantly by angry gun-wielding assholes, but you’ve never heard anyone lobbying to keep them 1,000 feet away from schools and parks. Meanwhile, the biggest security threat at the dispensaries has typically been the DEA (and yes, they were routinely grabbing money from dispensaries at gunpoint until the DOJ told them to find something better to do)

The very notion of dispensaries attracting crime is largely illogical on its face, given that the whole purpose of their existence is to remove sick people from the black-market marijuana economy. Legal medical marijuana providers reduce crime on a massive scale simply by opening their doors each day.

I’m trying to set up a new backup system for my laptop and so far all I manage to do is crash, losing half-written posts in the process.

So let’s turn it over to you for a bit.

Drug sentences excessive, expert says.

University of Kentucky professor Robert Lawson has issued a report on Kentucky’s criminal justice system.

Kentucky’s 35-year drug war has led to unfair, “brutally harsh sentences,” overcrowding the state’s prison system with non-violent offenders, a study says.

That has helped push the state budget to the “outer edge of fiscal distress,” said Robert Lawson, author of the 60-page study.

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reported Lawson’s study is seen as a step toward revising drug punishments, which he claims have “failed miserably” by not distinguishing between minor offenders and major drug dealers.

This is potentially very good stuff. I’m anxious to read the report, and have contacted Lawson and asked if I could see it. If anyone else knows where I can get it online, please let me know.

And, of course, this is smart stuff, not only fiscally for the state, but in terms of proper focus of criminal justice system for it to be effective.

Naturally, the UPI report managed to find the knuckle-dragger who would give the most ridiculous response:

Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Larson disputed Lawson’s findings.

“You have to understand where Lawson is coming from,” Larson said. “He thinks government shouldn’t have as its primary function the safety of the public, and I do.”

This is both stupid and offensive. Offensive in that it’s like saying “My opponent doesn’t mind if terrorists blow up children in a day-care center, while I do.” Stupid because it isn’t about disputing findings, but rather about a knee-jerk response to any suggestion that any amount of sentencing might be excessive.

So I guess if someone suggests that we just lock everybody up for life if they commit any crime at all, then we have no choice but to do so, since apparently reducing sentences for any reason means that you don’t care about the safety of the public.

The truth, of course, is that bad sentencing policy doesn’t help public safety in any way, and is extremely likely to endanger it, as criminal justice resources are used inefficiently or without proper focus.

More at the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Seattle’s new city attorney to dismiss cases of pot possession

City Attorney Pete Holmes, who beat incumbent Tom Carr in November, said he dismissed two marijuana-related cases in his first day on the job, and several others are about to be dismissed.

In addition, his new criminal division chief, Craig Sims, said he is reviewing about 50 more cases. Unless there are “out of the ordinary circumstances,” Sims said, the office doesn’t intend to file charges for marijuana possession.

“We’re not going to prosecute marijuana-possession cases anymore,” Holmes said Thursday during a public interview as part of Town Hall’s Nightcap series. “I meant it when I said it” during the campaign.

We need more people like Pete Holmes running for city attorney and attorney general. How about some of you?

This is a very pleasant thing to see — a reporter for a major newspaper noting and pointing out how a federal drug warrior is actively lobbying against state laws.

Susan Greene: No one’s told drug-war soldier about peace breaking out

A Coloradan who works for the president’s drug-policy office is leading efforts to undermine the state’s constitutional amendment allowing cannabis for medical use. On the federal dime, Tom Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, is lobbying state lawmakers to gut the Colorado law.

Either Gorman didn’t get the memo about changes in federal drug policy, or he’s going rogue. Whichever the case, no one in D.C. seems to mind. […]

“Technically, if you ask me who I represent, it’s the Colorado Drug Investigators Association,” he tells me, oddly.

That technicality exempts him from longstanding federal laws prohibiting federal workers from lobbying, he claims. Meanwhile, he’s lobbying without having registered as a lobbyist, and says he’s doing so with the nod of his bosses.

They wouldn’t comment.

Of course, this article disturbs me in the fact that Gorman feels so confident that he can do what he does with impunity. The good part is that here’s one reporter who isn’t falling for it:

And a lobbyist is a lobbyist, no matter which government agency happens to be laundering his paycheck.

Here’s a real doozy: New year brings new round in fight to keep marijuana illegal by Sam Contakos. Sam is is a retired Johnstown [PA] businessman and former practicing physician. He also formerly served as a lecturer on the topic of drug abuse. And he’s a power lifter in Anti-Drug Athletes United. It was interesting to read that all their events are drug tested. So apparently Sam Contakos’ cognitive problems stem from another source.

This one is hard to pick apart piece by piece, because he goes all over the place. But when you read it, note how he puts in a number of facts about marijuana (as if to make the piece look more balanced) and then proceeds to pull conclusions about marijuana’s drawbacks out of thin air.

Check out this fascinating diversion within the OpEd:

With the increased interest for the legalization of marijuana, the findings of the Indian Hemp Commission are dusted off and presented to support the benignity of marijuana’s use. This was a strictly political commission empowered during the reign of Queen Victoria in 1893 by the British Government of India. There were no physicians on it.

The conclusion was that the use of cannabis by the people of was harmless, but it’s exportation to Britain was discouraged.

In fact (though not stated), the widespread use of cannabis was an effective means to control a couple hundred million subjects of the empire.

I hadn’t noticed an increase in the use of the Indian Hemp Commission report as a justification for legalization, especially since there is so much modern evidence of marijuana’s medical effectiveness and safety. And this notion that the British Empire used cannabis to control its subjects — that’s a new one to me (as is the notion that cannabis can be used that way).

Here’s another bizarre passage. In it, Contakos appears to actually downplay the gateway effect, because he thinks marijuana is the dangerous drug.

Those who wish to continue the enforcement of the draconian laws against the use and abuse of marijuana (and let there be no mistake that all marijuana use is truly abuse) seem to foolishly focus on the questionable fact that marijuana is an “introductory drug” to more serious forms of substance abuse.

Marijuana is, in fact, a very dangerous drug. There have been many huge studies that have shown this to be true.

Ah yes, the nameless huge studies that prove your point that nobody else has heard of. And I love the declarative statement “and let there be no mistake that all marijuana use is truly abuse” as if stating it that way makes something completely false to be true. It would be like me saying “and let there be no mistake that all Pennsylvanians are truly terrorists.” Sounds pretty strong, but it’s meaningless.

As is most of his writing.

Ethan Nadelmann has been selected to be part of Change.org’s Changemakers network. He talks about how The War on Drugs is a War on People

Change.org: If you could ask 1 million people to all do 1 thing to advance your cause or causes, what would it be?

Come out of the closet about your drug use. Drug war propaganda demonizes and dehumanizes people who use drugs. Let your fellow citizens – your colleagues, your friends, and your family – know the real face of the American drug user.

We need credible people, especially public figures, to stand up and say, “I contribute to society, I work hard, I love my family, and I am an otherwise law-abiding citizen – but I do not believe that people should be treated as criminals simply because of what they put into their bodies. This law is wrong.”

Outstanding video promoting Students for Sensible Drug Policy (about 10 minutes) with a lot of great people in it.

SSDP’s national conference will be in San Francisco in March, and they’re accepting reservations now (Titled “This is your Brain on Drug Policy.” I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it this year given my work demands.

In the Wall Street Journal, A Doctor’s Case For Legal Pot by David L. Nathan

So why do I support decriminalization? First, marijuana prohibition doesn’t prevent widespread use of the drug, although it does clog our legal system with a small percentage of users and dealers unlucky enough to be prosecuted. More to the point, legal cannabis would never become the societal problem that alcohol already is.

In most of my substance-abuse patients, I am far more concerned about their consumption of booze than pot. […]

The time has come to accept that our nation’s attitude toward marijuana has been misguided for generations and that the only rational approach to cannabis is to legalize, regulate and tax it.

California is free to make its own drug laws by Tamar Todd. A timely reminder about the power of the states, even today.

The Times is simply wrong to suggest that California does not have the authority to tax and regulate marijuana. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires states to criminalize anything. We could scrap our entire penal code tomorrow if we wanted to. States get to decide state law, not Washington. This is why California and 13 other states have been able to legalize and regulate medical marijuana despite continuing federal prohibition.

Certainly, even if AB 390 becomes law, the federal government could still enforce its marijuana laws against California residents. The reality is, however, the federal government does not have the resources to undertake sole — or even primary — enforcement responsibility for state drug crimes. More than 95% of all marijuana arrests in this country are made by state and local law enforcement agencies.

Maui Time Weekly has a nice feature on LEAP with their interview with David Bratzer. He really nails all the points beautifully.

DrugSense Weekly – a weekly review of the most interesting or relevant articles in the press and on the web related to drug policy reform.

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