Drug WarRant

Alternet reported a bizarre new trend: purchasing bullet-proof vests for police dogs at $500 to $1,800 per vest. Apparently this trend comes from the shooting death of a NJ police dog (who shot in the eye and wouldn’t have been helped by the vest). Additionally, the vests are so heavy they cause all sorts of problems for the dogs.
No apparent concern for those with whom dogs come in contact — innocents such as Myra Gutierrez (bit in the breasts and arms) and Indiana schoolgirl Courtney McGarry (bit in the face), or the suspect who had his penis severed by a police dog named Scooby.
If there are dogs who need bullet-proof vests, it’s not the police dogs. The vast majority of dogs that get shot… are shot by police. ‘Cause they always shoot the dogs. No really, they always shoot the dogs. That’s right, they always shoot the dogs.

This is a gruesome story that has been, up to this point, almost exclusively covered by NarcoNews. But now, while the American press won’t touch it, the UK’s Observer has extensive coverage in today’s edition.
The House of Death is the story of U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security officials’ willingness to use an informant that, multiple times, and with their knowledge and permission, commits first-degree murder, on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. And even the deaths of innocents were accepted in order to keep the operation going.

‘If Congress and the media start to look at this properly, they will be horrified,’ [former Special Agent in charge of the DEA offfice in El Paso] Sandy Gonzalez says. ‘It needs a special prosecutor, as with the case of Valerie Plame [the CIA agent whose name was leaked to the media when her diplomat husband criticised Bush over Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction]. But Valerie is a nice-looking white person and the victims here are brown. Nobody gives a shit.’

Outstanding opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Cynthia Tucker (the editorial page editor): Misguided drug war claims another victim

The investigation may reveal police incompetence, and it may reveal police malfeasance. Unfortunately, however, it is unlikely to point to the root cause of this tragedy — a foolish, decades-long effort to curb illegal drug use through arrests and incarceration. Raging on mindlessly, the war on drugs has caused untold collateral damage — leaving children fatherless, helping to exacerbate the spread of AIDS and filling prisons with people who, with minimal rehabilitation, might be contributing to society rather than draining its resources.

That only begins to tally the destruction, much of it inflicted on black communities. […]

Whatever led Atlanta police to the small, burglar-barred house in a downtrodden Atlanta neighborhood — contradictory claims have been offered about the search warrant — it’s clear that Johnston was no drug dealer. Even if she had been, her crimes would not have justified the intrusive and dangerous tactics police used. Those tactics flow from a failed policy that emphasizes arrests — any arrests, no matter the offender’s stature in the drug-trade hierarchy or the size of the cache of drugs. […]

It’s no wonder, then, that an estimated one-third of young black men are under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system — in prison, on probation or on parole. And once they’ve been tainted with a conviction, they struggle under its stigma for the rest of their lives. They’re less likely to get gainful employment, so they’re less likely to be attractive husbands or responsible fathers.

This country now imprisons its citizens at five to eight times the rate of most other industrialized nations, according to the Sentencing Project. We’ve learned nothing from an earlier period of Prohibition, which produced criminal gangs and an epidemic of lawlessness.[…]

And Kathryn Johnston? She’s not the first victim of our foolish, futile war on drugs. Sadly, she won’t be the last.

It’s a phenomenal piece. And very timely. We need people like Cynthia providing the reminder that the larger policy is implicated in Kathryn Johnston’s death, and not just the police that pulled the trigger or those who ordered the raid.
Update: This piece is even getting picked up in other papers.

This is not good.

The Supreme Court entered into a free-speech dispute Friday involving a high school student suspended over a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner.
The justices accepted an appeal from a school board in Juneau, Alaska, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit by the family of Joseph Frederick to proceed.[…]
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California [concluded] the school could not show Frederick had disrupted the school’s educational mission by showing a banner off campus.

The fact that the Supreme Court agreed to take such a silly case is troubling, although I don’t know enough about the appeal to know if it’s strictly an attempt to overturn the 9th Circuit free speech decision, or if it has more to do with the right to sue the school and principal over the case.
And of course, it will be high profile, with Kenneth Starr taking on the case for the school board.
We may need to follow this one closely…

The case will test school’s ability to regulate speech on illegal drugs, particularly when it is done off school grounds.

The government would very much like to be able to keep people from telling the truth about drugs. Would schools then be able to prohibit students from participating in groups like Students for Sensible Drug Policy? How many steps away would that be?

“bullet”1 in 32 Americans in jails, on parole

A record 7 million people – or one in every 32 American adults – were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday. […]

“Today’s figures fail to capture incarceration’s impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison,” Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group supporting criminal justice reform, said in a statement. “Misguided policies that create harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are disproportionately responsible for the increasing rates of women in prisons and jails.”

From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth.

“bullet”
The United States has 5% of the world’s population…

… but 25% of the world’s prison population.

We lead the entire world in incarceration rates.

And what the drug war has done to the black community…

• In 1993, under Apartheid, South Africa incarcerated 851 black males per 100,000 population.
• In 2004, under Prohibition, the U.S. incarcerated 4,919 black males per 100,000 population.

For what?

Grits for Breakfast wonders whether the new Congress will consider John Conyers’ “No More Tulias” legislation.

That bill would require corroboration for undercover testimony in drug stings using federal grant money, similar to Texas’ legislation that required corroboration for informants, signed by Gov. Perry in 2001 after receiving bipartisan support in both chambers.

Even though the Kathryn Johnston case doesn’t directly apply, the interest generated from it could help encourage such a bill.
I also have hopes for Truth in Trials Act (allowing federal defendants to mention medical marijuana in court), and the Hinchey Amendment (cutting off funds for federal intervention in States that have passed medical marijuana laws). There has also been some talk recently of Democratic Congress considering a shift in the Colombian funding away from eradication and military efforts and toward economic development (but I’m not holding my breath).

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 30, 2006, as National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs and activities.

OK.
Well, let’s see, I assume the Drug Czar will be observing this in some way… Oh, yes.

… it is an opportunity to reaffirm a commitment to a drug-free future…

Look! It’s the mythical drug-free bird. Catch it – quick! Dang.
Since he’s got the drug-free part covered, I figured I’d mention a few things he isn’t…

• Meth Epidemic? There’s been very little change (and maybe even a decrease) in first-time users of methamphetamines from the early 1970s to the present.
• The U.S. Government dispensed methamphetamine to our soldiers in World War II and Korea and even today, U.S. fighter pilots in Afghanistan were given amphetamines (a milder chemical relation) to stay awake on bombing runs.
• …”The term ‘meth addicted baby’ is no less defensible. Addiction is a technical term that refers to compulsive behavior that continues in spite of adverse consequences. By definition, babies cannot be ‘addicted’ to methamphetamines or anything else. The news media continues to ignore this fact. “In utero physiologic dependence on opiates (not addiction), known as Neonatal Narcotic Abstinence Syndrome, is readily diagnosable and treatable, but no such symptoms have been found to occur following prenatal cocaine or methamphetamine exposure.” (Open letter from 93 medical and psychological researchers)
• Much like the dangerous alcohol stills in the first prohibition, clandestine meth labs are a product of drug prohibition.
• Unfortunately, the American strategy of drug control since the early 20th Century has emphasized an approach of prevention based on instilling fear about a substance through dramatized descriptions and images of the consequences of use coupled with a notion of treating people with harsh punishments out-of-step with the harm caused by the drug. Historically, the domestic response to drug use has been to demonize the drug and the people who use it while exaggerating the impact of its use (“You’ll be hooked the first time you try it”). This strategy has been complemented in the past two decades with mandatory minimums, sentencing enhancements, and a ban on access to services such as public housing, income assistance, and federal educational aid as the result of a drug conviction. (Link)

And some stupid meth tricks…

• If you listened to government drug propaganda, you’d think that millions of teens were about to die from meth. It’s not true.
• A U.S. Attorney in Hawaii lied about the prevalance of the meth problem to try to convince lawmakers to amend the state constitution to expand wiretapping and search/seizure provisions.
• A prosecutor in North Carolina tried to charge meth lab defendants with two counts of manufacturing a nuclear or chemical weapon (a judge later laughed him out of court).

For more on meth, visit the Vaults.
Update: I almost forgot the biggest stupid meth trick — arresting 32 convenience clerks named Patel for not understanding American drug slang.

Join us tomorrow (Thursday) at Illinois State University for the Winter Hempfest from 2 pm to 10 pm in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center. There will be prizes, opportunities for making hemp jewelry and tie-dye shirts, plus bands, useful information, and more.
Schedule:

• 2:00-3:00 Bryan Alvarez
• 3:00-4:15 Andrew Kenning and Jamie Esler (jam session – bring your own instrument)
• 4:15-4:45 Pete Guither leads a roundtable discussion of current drug policy
• 4:30-5:30 Mike from Mother Murphy’s
• 5:30-6:30 Pappa Jim
• 6:30-8:00 Lost in Blue
• 8:00-10:00 Bag of Dank

It’s a comfortable and relaxed event. Come for a while and join in. Sponsored by Illinois State University’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy/Moblizing Activists and Students for Hemp — http://www.ProhibitionKills.org

It seems all of Radley Balko’s fine work is opening the crack just a little bit in public awareness. While his excellent book Overkill didn’t get the splash many had hoped for when it was released, it has picked up steam, and it’s getting referenced in a variety of articles, including Washington Examiner, Christian Science Monitor, and Popular Mechanics. (The Kathryn Johnston story in particular is starting to make more people pay attention.)

Link

“History teaches us that it will take a generation to render Afghanistan opium-free,” UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said in a statement.

Um, no. History teaches us that people who use the word “free” to describe some imagined future absence of drugs are morons.
Of course, Costa is using this to cover for the fact that his approach to international drug control is a ludicrous failure. His solution?

“I … propose that development support to farmers, the arrest of corrupt officials and eradication measures be concentrated in half a dozen provinces with low cultivation in 2006 so as to free them from the scourge of opium.”

There’s that word “free” again. But do you see what he’s saying? That the “arrest of corrupt officials” should be concentrated in just a few areas? That’s a plan?
The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime is pathetic. They should all take six months off and be required to do an internship at the Senlis Council, where they might learn something useful.
For a variety of reasons, poppies will always bloom in Afghanistan. There is no poppy-free Afghanistan in our future. The best and only truly workable solutions will include finding ways to coexist with this plant.