Drug WarRant

Alex at Drug Law Blog highlights an ongoing problem in California: the active subversion of law and the will of the people by state law enforcement.
We’ve often wondered and complained about law enforcement in California cooperating with federal authorities in their busts of medical marijuana operations. After all, the courts have said that, while the supremacy clause makes state law subservient to federal law when in conflict, it is not the state’s job to enforce federal law. And the courts have shown that federal law does not prevent the states from implementing and enforcing a medical marijuana program.
When law enforcement in California takes their oath of office, they pledge to uphold the Constitution of the State of California. Violation of that oath is reason for terminating their jobs. Period.
So how do you explain this letter from 2006, in which the California Police Chiefs Association actively entreat the DEA to assist them in arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana participants?

What the California Police Chiefs Association is requesting is that DEA become more actively involved in working with local law enforcemcnt to close these
distribution centers, seize their profits and all marijuana which might be located and
to take thcse cases into the federal judicial system.
We understand this is an issue of priorities with DEA, but it is the feeling of the
California PoIice Chiefs Association, and our members, that a concentrated effort
sustained over a period of time would send a strong message to local and county
government that “medical marijuana” is not allowed and that those who profit from
the sales and distribution of marijuana under the guise of “medicine” will face the
consequences.

Why does the California Police Chiefs Association continue to exist? Why hasn’t there been an investigation to determine what members were involved in this active attempt to overthrow the lawful government of California, and then to terminate and prosecute those responsible?
I never realized that Californians were doormats.

“bullet” More 10th Graders Smoke Marijuana Than Cigarettes. Maybe that’s bad. Maybe that’s good. But it certainly isn’t a vindication of the drug czar’s successes.
“bullet” Drug czar accuses reformers of secretly wanting to encourage teen use.
“bullet” More Obfuscation in Prince George‰s County. Officials are still not producing documents from the botched raid on Mayor Cheye Calvo.
“bullet” DrugSense Weekly
“bullet” “drcnet”

Regardless of the answers given (or not) by the Obama transition team to the questions below, the mere fact that they were asked and obviously resonated so strongly with people, is already making an impact.
Quite a few people have taken notice about the prevalence of drug policy questions (and I expect there will be more).
Tim King at the Salem-News writes

I am not surprised that the number one thing Americans are asking President-elect Barack Obama is whether or not he is going to legalize marijuana. Generations are changing and evolving and the taboos around cannabis are slowly falling away.

Chris Bowers at Open Left writes:

This is the sort of thing that can happen when voting is left open to the public: […]
Now, I don’t mean to mock the question, or the public in general, when I say “this is the sort of thing that can happen.” Quite to the contrary, as I explain in the extended entry, half the country has used marijuana, more people are arrested each year for marijuana than for violent crime, the nation overwhelmingly favors reduction in marijuana penalties, it is very relevant to our economic downturn, and it is a question that simply has not been asked of the incoming administration in other forums. It should be asked, and I am glad it is on track to winning.

He goes on to give five reasons why the marijuana question should be asked — good ones. And concludes:

This should be a question that the incoming administration has to answer. It is, after all, not a small problem, not an issue on which there is consensus, and has not been addressed elsewhere. The Internet has long provided an outlet for issues and questions ignored by gatekeeper media. It is nice to see that “Open for Questions” is proving no exception.

Contrast that rational analysis to this hackneyed reaction at OhMyGov (and what we’re likely to see more of in the mainstream media):

Instead, the most popular question to the Obama administration was whether or not the President-elect plans to legalize marijuana. That’s right, throw the economy, eliminating our oil addiction, handling terrorism and ending two wars out the window because Americans just want to smoke their pot and eat it too. […]
What exactly these trends say about Americans is nebulous at best. Given Obama’s popularity among young adults and their proclivity to find cool websites faster than an Illinois politician can get in trouble, it’s likely the data is skewed to overrepresent this group whose nightly habits don’t quite mirror Joe the Plumber’s.
On the other hand, Americans might just be fed up with politics as usual and are looking to sit back, relax, and watch their retirement funds disappear through a comfortable fog without being hassled by police.

You know, I like a good pot joke as well as anyone, but sometimes people need to acknowledge that legalization is not a Cheech and Chong movie.

Excellent job, people. The Obama transition team has got to be scrambling to figure out how to deal with this.
When they opened up for questions about what concerns Americans and let people vote on the questions online in a quick 2 or 3-day blitz (they’ll be doing it again next week), here are some of the ones that ended up in the lead…

1: “Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”

7: “13 states have compassionate use programs for medial Marijuana, yet the federal gov’t continues to prosecute sick and dying people. Isn’t it time for the federal gov’t to step out of the way and let doctors and families decide what is appropriate?”

11: “The US “War on Drugs” wastes billions every year tracking down and incarcerating non-violent users. What is your position on the legalization of marijuana? How do you feel about treating rather than imprisoning users of harder, addictive drugs?”

13: “How will you fix the current war on drugs in America? and will there be any chance of decriminalizing marijuana?”

15: “What kind of progress can be expected on the decriminalization and legalization for medicinal purposes of marijuana and will you re-prioritize the “War On Drugs” to reflect the need for drug treatment instead of incarceration?”

18: “The U.S. has the world’s highest incarceration rate, largely due to the War on Drugs. Our prisons are festering pits of rape, racism, and gang violence, and divert a lot of tax money to the corrupt prison industry. How can we fix this?”

22: “Would you consider the legalizing of growing hemp (not marijuana) for food, clothing and bio-fuel use?”

23: “Drug control policy in America is a mess, most specifically with regards to marijuana. Federal and state laws are in conflict all over the country. What do you plan to do about this? Will you allow the states to make their own determinations?”

28: “What about the use of Hemp and finally legalizing marijuana for personal use?”

29: “If we did not have over 2 million people in jail, many of which on marijuana charges, we would save billions a year and keep families together. Will you commit to a comprehensive drug treatment plan that will help keep families together?”

33: “What will you do to ensure that the government takes scientific research into account when making laws? Especially when it comes to questions about the legalization of marijuana and the use of medical marijuana.”

34: “On the campaign trail, you said you would put an end to the federal raids on medical marijuana patients. Will you implement this policy within the first year of your term?”

42: “Will you consider the decriminalization or legalization and taxation of marijuana as a recreational drug?”

43: “Do you support Barney Frank’s Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008 (HR 5843)? Ending the “Drug War” would save $ billions and stop ruining lives with harsh prison terms.”

44: “No one has ever died of a marijuana overdose. Marijuana doesn’t trigger a chemical dependency like prescriptions drugs. In fact, it is safer than alcohol by most common sense standards. So why is marijuana a Schedule I drug?”

46: “When are you going to decriminalize marijuana?”

With all the questions about the world that could be asked, 16 of the top 50 were on drug policy (mostly marijuana) — including the number one question!

At President-elect Obama’s site: change.gov, they have instituted a new system for people to ask questions and then others vote on the questions to bring them to the top of the pile.
It’s called Open for Questions
There are already over 5,000 questions, and currently in the top 30 or so is the question:

“Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”

It might be worth adding some questions about drug policy — but first search for ones that have already been asked and vote them higher (there are, for example, over 100 questions with the word “marijuana”).
—

Over at Change.org (that’s not the Obama change.gov site, but a separate private site) they have a section of Ideas for America, where you can also submit ideas and vote on them (and the top vote getters will be submitted to the Presidential transition team).
In the criminal justice section, the current top idea (by a rather significant margin so far) is “Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana” (“End the War on Drugs” is number 4). The top vote-getters are moved on to a second round.
—
Both Change.gov and Change.org require registering in order to submit questions/ideas or to vote.
I don’t know what kind of impact any of this can have, but I’m all for getting the word out in as many ways as possible to as many people as possible.
Update: The marijuana question at change.gov is currently 4th. Questions will be closed tonight at midnight and they’ll answer the top ones (new question opportunities next week).

Drug Czar John Walters will be hosting Ask the White House this Friday, December 12.
Send in your questions now. Of course, they’re pre-screened and selected and you don’t get a follow-up, so don’t imagine you’re going to nail him with a “gotcha” question, but feel free to give it a try anyway.
Three years ago, he “answered” one of mine.

Pete, from Bloomington, Illinois writes:
Isn’t there a problem with giving kids misleading information regarding marijuana that overstates the actual dangers? I worry that when they find out we’ve been lying to them about marijuana that they’ll stop believing us when it comes to more dangerous drugs. After all, when you call Canadian pot the “crack cocaine of marijuana,” the message kids may hear is that crack must not be too bad.
John Walters
Actually Pete, you‰ve got the question exactly backwards. Marijuana is a much bigger part of the American addiction problem than most people š teens or adults š realize. There are now more teens going into treatment for marijuana dependency than for all other drugs combined. And there are more teens now seeking treatment for marijuana than for alcohol. Today‰s marijuana is also twice as strong as it was in the mid 80‰s. One of the reasons we have such a serious problem with marijuana in our country is because of the misinformation that has been spread about it over the past 30 years š that marijuana is ‹harmlessŠ or a ‹soft drugŠ or a ‹rite of passage.Š These are all myths š and for too many Americans they are costly myths. We need to educate Americans about the real harms of marijuana if we want to sustain the gains we‰ve made over the past three years.
We‰ve recently released a report entitled ‹Marijuana Myths & Facts: The Truth Behind 10 Popular MisperceptionsŠ to help get the facts out about marijuana.

As you may know, the U.S. has put the Merida Initiative underway to help the Mexican government fight their drug war — $1.6 billion over three years, with $400 million going to Mexico this year for a combination of law enforcement training and equipment, and technical advice).
This sounds like a lot of money. So, it could have a major impact, right?
Not so much, according to Stratfor, the geopolitical intelligence site.

In terms of ready cash, Mexican organized crime can beat any offer the government can make. The Mexican cartels bring in somewhere between $40 billion and $100 billion per year. The Oct. 27 announcement that 35 employees of the anti-organized crime unit (SIEDO) in the Office of the Mexican Attorney General (PGR) had been arrested and charged with corruption illustrates the fact that not even the upper reaches of government are safe from infiltration by the cartels. In this example, top officials were paid up to $450,000 per month to pass information along to a cartel involved in cocaine trafficking. This kind of money is a huge temptation in a country where annual salaries for public servants run from $10,000 for local police officers to $48,000 for senators and $220,000 for the president. Organized crime can target key individuals in the Mexican government and convince them to provide information with a combination of lucrative offers and physical threats if they do not comply.

The attempts to “improve” prohibition come up against the indefatigable power of prohibition economics.

As if there weren’t already enough, Maia Szalavitz picks up some more:

Jim Ramstad was the sole sponsor of an earmark providing $235,000 to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a branch of a national anti-addiction group which believes that recruiting people into the Assemblies of God ministry will cure their addiction.

And get this…

Further, according to Teen Challenge, “Addiction is a sin, not a disease.” Consequently, the program does not allow the use of medication.

Maybe he asked for the earmark without knowing anything about Teen challenge?

But his ties to Teen Challenge seem close. Here’s a photo of him at a benefit for Minnesota Teen Challenge, with Tom Petters, the campaign contributor now charged with bilking investors out of billions.

The SSDP Facebook petition to President-elect Obama is now over 22,000 signatures.

There must have been some massive breakdown in procedure in the arrest of a suspect in Chicago early this morning by the FBI. Check out how they went about it.

Robert Grant, the FBI special agent in charge, called the house on the phone.
“I advised him that we had a warrant for his arrest, that there were two FBI agents outside his door
“I woke him up. So the first thing was, he asked if this was a joke. He tried to make sure that was an honest call.”
Once convinced, Blagojevich gave himself up to the agents on his front porch and was taken away in handcuffs to FBI headquarters where he sat for four hours before he was moved to court.
The governor’s children were apparently unaware of their father’s arrest.
“They were beginning to stir, and we left but they were not awake. But his wife was awake,” Grant said.

What’s that about? There’s something seriously wrong here. No flash-bangs? No smashing the door down with lots of men in black carrying machine guns rushing through the house killing dogs? No accidental shooting of children? After all, this was a guy who had an entire militia at his command.
And I’ve been told that such procedures are necessary for the safety of officers and civilians.
Instead…
What a notion. They called him on the phone to let him know that he was under arrest, and that agents were outside his house. Not even the startle of a doorbell or a knock. And so, the children remained asleep.
Hmmm.

Via Radley, Colbert King at the Washington Post, who has done more to shed light on Jonathan Magbie’s death back in 2004, continues with For Jonathan Magbie, a Catalogue of Injustice
For those who missed this case back then, Magbie was a quadriplegic (paralyzed from the chin down) since age four. In 1982, he got to meet President Reagan.
In 2004, Judge Judith Retchin decided to make an example of Magbie on a charge of marijuana possession(!) and sentenced him to death. Actually she sentenced him to 10 days in a jail unprepared to handle his medical needs and he died. Another victim of the drug war.
More at the ACLU blog.