Drug WarRant

Jim Leitzel once again promotes the idea that higher taxes on alcohol will save lives. I’m skeptical.
However, I’d be willing to believe it would work if it was paired with the simultaneous legalization of marijuana, at low cost and heavily promoted as an alternative to alcohol. Now that could save some lives.
But merely raising alcohol taxes will disproportionately affect the very poor, who will find something… anything… And there are some substitutions that might not be as safe as quality-regulated drinking alcohol.

On Friday, 26-year-old Tarika Wilson, single mother of six, was shot by police in her home and killed. Her one-year-old son was also shot as she held him and will survive. Two dogs were shot and one died. Tarika’s boyfriend was arrested on suspicion of possession of crack cocaine.

Chief Garlock confirmed that the search warrant was executed at the correct address. He said officers were aware that children were inside the home because there were toys in the yard outside and on the front porch. […]
Police Maj. Richard Shade, a former SWAT commander for the department, said it’s not unusual for children to be inside homes raided by police officers. […]
“This is a terrible situation that resulted from a very dangerous situation that occurs when a high-risk search warrant is executed,” Chief Garlock said.

Yet apparently, nobody connected with the Lima, Ohio police force had the mental capability to consider whether a different course of action might be in order.
The people know better.
Last night, a crowd of 300 people marched with family members to express their sorrow and outrage.

“Remember that baby who is in a hospital and that woman laying on a slab being dissected because the Lima police overstepped their bounds,” Brenda Johnson, executive director of the community center, told the crowd before the march began.
Ms. Johnson said it was reckless for police to raid a home with so many children inside.
“This time it was someone else’s child,” she said. “Next time it could be your child, your grandchild.” […]
People prayed, sang, and chanted “truth and justice” in front of the home last night.
Many people wept as Pastor C.M. Manley of New Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church led them in song.
People laid stuffed animals in front of the home and placed a banner with prayers for the family. It also contained slurs against white police officers. […]
“Not all the police are bad. Some of them have children,” Pastor Arnold Manley of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church told the crowd. “But the majority of the ones in Lima are.”

Tarika Wilson was loved by family and community. They will not sit back and let this happen without demanding answers.

Lima Councilman Derry Glenn owns the house but did not live there. Mr. Glenn last night called for an independent investigation from the Ohio attorney general’s office.
“I am very upset about the way this happened,” he said. “I feel we need a thorough investigation. The first murder in 2008 came from a police officer.”

More Drug War Victims.

“bullet” Via Siobhan Reynolds of the Pain Relief Network: Pain group rallies to doctor’s defense

The New Mexico-based Pain Relief Network says it plans to file a civil lawsuit in Wichita federal court alleging the Controlled Substances Act as applied to doctors and patients is unconstitutional.

“bullet” “The Wire” is entering its fifth and final season on HBO, and it continues to get critical raves. There have been quite a number of articles about it recently, including this one by Gal Beckerman, and this one in Time, and on and on. Just Google “the wire” and you’ll get lots. Everytime “The Wire” gets mentioned, it’s another reminder to people that we have this troubled and troubling institution of drug prohibition. And that’s good.
I watched a number of episodes in the first season and thought it was excellent. But I don’t seek it out — not because I don’t like the show, but perhaps because I deal with the real drug war every day right here. So when it comes to entertainment, I prefer Stardust.
“bullet” This Chicago Sun-Times editorial delivered just the right kick of sarcasm in the title: Lawmakers Manage to Outlaw Licking an Obscure Plant

Those creatively efficient politicians down in the Illinois Legislature might be stumped on really important issues like funding the CTA or betting our future on casinos. But they are clear about saving us from ourselves — even if we don’t need it. Case in point: the salvia ban. […]
Legislators must have been on something to zero in on this obscure organic substance, sometimes called “magic mint” or “Sally D” by salvia afficionados. The last time we checked, Illinois was not besieged by a salvia epidemic. We don’t see the urgency in criminalizing a substance with no clear track record of causing people to act in a dangerous manner or hurt other people.
We don’t condone drug use. However, considering how overcrowded our prisons are with dangerous criminals, trolling around for more nonviolent drug offenders to punish is counterintuitive.

“bullet” “drcnet”

A fascinating post at Grits for Breakfast: Bush and Calderon on outs; ‘Merida Initiative’ may not pass Congressional muster
Given that internal forces in both countries are already very upset that the negotiation was done in secret, if Bush and Calderon are at odds, then Plan Mexico is on shaky ground indeed.
However, I can’t help thinking that the lure of fluid and corruptible taxpayer drug war dollars (both the spending and receiving) is so strong, that they’ll find a way to overcome their differences.

Naturally, Scott tracked this one down…

Customs officials on the other side of the Pond are on the lookout for curvy drug mules after customs officers arrested a woman for attempting to smuggle £50,000 worth of cocaine in concealed pouches built into her bra. Criminals are now being said to favor “tall, flat-chested women who don’t arouse suspicion when they have fuller figures.”

So, is the same thing true for men? Is this one of those times when being small is an advantage?
Not that I’m looking for a job or anything.

“bullet” An Open Letter to the Black Community On Behalf of Ron Paul by Robert A. Wicks

A Presidential candidate’s position on the war on drugs is the first legitimate political litmus test I have seen within my lifetime. […] Laws against drug use are no more justifiable than anti-miscegenation laws. They are laws which attack the root of the notion that all men are created equal by establishing that some have the right to rule over others, and those others have no similar right. What other justification is there for preventing an adult from inhaling, ingesting, or injecting the chemical of his choice into his own body? A large portion of the black prison population is imprisoned because of drug offenses. Many of those who are imprisoned for other offenses, such as property crimes and violent crimes are there as a result of the various violent consequences of the war on drugs. Ron Paul does not claim to be able to fix all this. As President, he can only Constitutionally stop the federal war on drugs, not those in which the states engage. But removing federal support for drug prohibition could have a tremendous impact nonetheless.

“bullet” I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but retired DEA agent Mike Levine has Bill Conroy of Narco News on his internet radio show to talk about the plane with 4 tons of cocaine that crashed in Mexico and was apparently used by the CIA and other U.S. agencies.
“bullet” Death by Drug War — via Radley Balko

The state of Washington’s position is clear: If someone calls 911 when a friend is overdosing, not only does the witness risk charges for possessing or selling drugs (which 911 callers in these situations have feared since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act), but he or she could be charged with homicide, too. The end result? Overdose victimsÖwho might survive with prompt medical careÖmay be abandoned and left to die.

If you get a chance, read the entire referenced article by Dominic Holden. It’s pretty powerful.

They’re not even trying to be optimistic about it.

But U.S. law enforcement officials and analysts caution that even with the unprecedented level of anti-drug aid to Mexico, violence could actually rise as drug cartels respond forcefully to increased U.S. and Mexican pressure.
One U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that 2008 “may prove to be even deadlier. We expect drug traffickers to respond aggressively to combined U.S. and Mexican actions and pressure.”
Growing U.S.-Mexico cooperation will force “drug cartels to increase the political ante by increasing the level of violence,” said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a political consultant with Washington-based Peschard-Sverdrup & Associates. […]
“When pressure on them [drug traffickers] increases or continues from law enforcement officials, the usual response is to kick up the violence, especially directed at government and law enforcement officials, which might explain why deaths of law enforcement officials are up,” said a senior U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Good thing we’re supporting an effective approach in Mexico.

Still, Arturo Yaöez, who trains detectives for the Mexico City government and has worked in federal law enforcement, questioned whether Mr. Calder÷n’s counter-narcotics strategy is really working.
“Where are the results, the numbers … ? Information is thin,” he said. The influence of organized crime “is growing across Mexico. How exactly are we winning?”

Plan Mexico is a proposal developed in secret to spend billions of dollars ratcheting up the drug war in Mexico — a proposal without the support of Congress, that generates strong misgivings in the people of Mexico regarding their sovereignty, and will probably increase the violence in Mexico without actually accomplishing anything. What’s not to like?

As you well know, it’s physically impossible to overdose from marijuana use — there are no legitimate recorded deaths as a direct result of smoking cannabis.*
That hasn’t stopped the occasional quack in the U.K. from attempting to assign deaths to cannabis use. (See here, here, and here.)
Usually, these idiots are treated with some derision, but simply allowed to continue on, but Dr Louay Al-Alousi faced the wrath of the dead boy’s parents — who hired their own pathologist.

A consultant pathologist who was found guilty of professional misconduct will discover whether he can practice without restrictions later this week.
Dr Louay Al-Alousi admitted the charge when he appeared before a General Medical Council hearing in January last year.
The doctor, who works for the University of Leicester and the University Hospital of Leicester NHS Trust, carried out flawed post-mortems on two teenagers.
He wrongly attributed their death to cannabis use. His mistakes were exposed by the parents of 16-year-old James Burgess, of Leicester Forest East.
James’s parents, Paul and Joanne, enlisted their own pathologist, while a coroner had a third expert examine James.
Both agreed his death was due to an unsuspected heart condition.
At the inquest, cannabis was ruled out as a cause of death and the family’s solicitor called for Dr Al-Alousi to be reported to the GMC.

It’s a shame that the parents had to do all that just to find out how their son died. Clearly they knew that it was a nonsensical post-mortem. It’s also troubling that the panel is even considering lifting restrictions on this quack.

Link

CHICAGO (AP) Ö Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds. Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.
The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race and ethnicity in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.
“The gaps between whites and nonwhites have not appeared to close at all,” said study co-author Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco.
The study appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Prescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose during the study, from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005.
The increase coincided with changing attitudes among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Doctors in accredited hospitals must ask patients about pain, just as they monitor vital signs such as temperature and pulse.
Even with the increase, the racial gap endured. Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Pharmacy said the race gap finding may reveal some doctors’ suspicions that minority patients could be drug abusers lying about pain to get narcotics.
The irony, she said, is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs.

Over at Daily Kos, I respond to kos’ post.
I expect some fireworks.
Update: I think I shocked Alex.