Read The Agitator

Posted on October 20, 2005 by Pete Guither

Radley Balko’s got a ton of excellent posts right now about the horrors of the drug war:
“bullet” Because what we need is more killing

In April of this year, the Pinellas County, Florida SWAT team tossed three flash-bang grenades into a home suspected of nonviolent drug offenses. The devices woke up and startled one resident of the home, 3 year-old Kamau Walker. Shortly thereafter, cops put three bullets into the back of Kamau’s father, Jarell Walker, as he lay prostrate on the ground, killing him. Cops contend Walker was reaching under the couch for a gun, though the only gun found was hidden in the cushions of a couch on the other side of the room. Eleven months earlier, St. Petersburgh police (also in Pinellas County) put 14 bullets into the truck of 17 year-old Marquell McCullough, killing him. Cops later conceded they had pursued the wrong man.

Outrage ensued. A new policy has been issued this week. It’s worse.
“bullet” Militarizing Mayberry
SWAT teams in a town with a population of 2,701? Madness!
“bullet” Militarizing Mayberry Ct’d
Lawsuit filed against drug task force for terrorising two women over a hunt for marijuana. Good.
“bullet” Wrong House
“bullet” Wrong House Part II
“bullet” Wrong House Part III (a follow-up on the Bel-Aire, Kansas Sunflower Debacle)
“bullet” Painkillers
The DEA’s war on pain relief is especially damaging to low-income areas.

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We refuse to learn

Posted on October 20, 2005 by Pete Guither

Surging Mexican violence draws comparisons to Colombia.

In describing the surging drug violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere in Mexico, Flores and other law enforcement officials and analysts are increasingly referring to Colombia, where the Medellin drug cartel and other criminal organizations waged war on the government and killed hundreds of people during the 1980s.[..]

The threat in Mexico is rising because of a shift in the drug trade, U.S. anti-drug officials and drug-trade specialists say. Mexico – and not Colombia – is now headquarters for the Western hemisphere’s most important drug traffickers.

“Since the fall of the big Colombian cartels from Medellin and Cali, the power center in the Latin American drug trade has shifted to Mexico,” said Ron Chepesiuk, journalist and author of “Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel.”

“The violence is getting worse, I suspect, because the Mexicans are playing a bigger … more lucrative role in the trade.”

We’ve seen this for so many years. If you push down somewhere, it pops up somewhere else. Prohibition has absolutely no impact on the availability of drugs — it just costs money, destroys lives and land, creates wealthy super-criminals, and corrupts law enforcement. Can’t anybody do a cost assessment?
No. Take a look at Uribe. If anyone should have a first-hand awareness of the costs of prohibition, it’s him. And yet at the recent Summit of the Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (see this article by Dan Feder), President Uribe talked about increasing efforts, not only in Colombia, but in neighboring countries.
One point of interest (worth reading in Feder’s article) is that Uribe did feel compelled to address calls for legalization (could they be getting louder?). He, of course, dismissed such calls, but his justifications were absurd and contradictory. He even admitted that he tended away from the use of “cold reason” when thinking about it.
It seems to me that the future of Latin America depends on a choice of two directions:

  1. The countries pull together all their spine and refuse to allow the U.S. to continue its destructive drug war inside their borders, or
  2. Latin America eventually self-destructs (along with the Southwest border of the U.S.)

Of course, it doesn’t help that in many cases, the drug war is actually a cover for political agendas, access to valuable resources, and military positioning.

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LEAP is on a roll

Posted on October 19, 2005 by Pete Guither

Another good article about prohibition — Law officers calling for end to ‘war against drugs’ by Lisa Hoffman with Scripps Howard News Service, which has been picked up by a few media outlets. Again, this features members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who are doing an incredible job of getting the message out there.
This one shows, by contrast, just how bankrupt the arguments of the ONDCP are. After the article shows some very good points from LEAP about the failure of the drug war and noting that…

“This is not a tie-died group,” said Mike Smithson, who runs the group’s speakers bureau.

… the ONDCP sputters into the picture with the usual hand-picked manipulated statistics, emotional non-sequitors, and ad hominem attacks…

Perhaps not, but they are misguided and far out on the fringe of the drug issue, said a spokesman for the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy.

“It’s simply an irresponsible message to put out there,” said Rafael Lemaitire, deputy press secretary for the anti-drug office.

By any measure, Lemaitire said, the drug war – which employs police work, public education and treatment to attack the problem – has been effective in driving down drug use in America. In 1979, at the peak of the drug epidemic, 14 percent of the U.S. population said they had used drugs in the past 30 days. Now, that number is 6 percent.

And, he said, everyone knows at least one person whose life was ruined by drug use, and whole neighborhoods and communities besieged by drug-related crime. To give up on the battle would mean more misery, criminality and despair, he said.

“It’s ludicrous to think that any law enforcement person would want to put people and communities at greater risk,” Lemaitire said.

Hmmm…. imagine, in a democracy, a federal agency whose purpose is to lie to the people through both informal and coordinated media blitzes, to interfere with the election and lawmaking process by campaigning against local voting initiatives and state/local bills, to attempt to stifle and suppress contrary factual speech, and to promote and support policies that are contrary to the common good of the people. Meet the ONDCP.
Anyway, contrats to LEAP on all their recent coverage (Norm Stamper in the LA Times, Howard Woolridge’s ride, etc.). This is a very important organization to support, and they do great work with their speaker’s bureau. If you’ve got connections with a local Rotary Club or similar organization, why not try to arrange to get one of their speakers. It’s a great way to reach local leaders who may be more likely to open their minds to the subject when an ex-cop is talking.

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In your face, Karen Tandy

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Pete Guither

Via Cannabis News, Marijuana less cancerous than tobacco.
This United Press International article by Steve Mitchell, Senior Medical Correspondent, reports what we had a preview of before — that this whole business of prohibitionists touting that marijuana has higher numbers of carcinogens is irrelevant. The truth is that marijuana use does not increase your risk of cancer at all.
What made this article particularly interesting is that the UPI Senior Medical Correspondent, through a combination of analysis and reactions from others, called Karen Tandy what she is: a liar.

Karen Tandy, the DEA’s administrator, wrote in an article titled, “Marijuana: The Myths Are Killing Us,” which appeared in the March issue of Police Chief magazine, that the drug is hazardous to health and does not help patients. […]

Tandy did not claim marijuana caused cancer, but she implied it by saying, “marijuana smoke … contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke and produces high levels of an enzyme that converts certain hydrocarbons into malignant cells.”

She also said marijuana can cause anxiety and depression, particularly in teens. However, a study released last week from Canadian researchers found a synthesized version of a marijuana compound actually promotes development of new brain cells in rats, and this in turn was accompanied by a reduction in anxiety and depression.

Other risks of marijuana cited by Tandy included impaired cognitive function, such as short-term problems with perception and memory.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told UPI that Tandy’s assertions “run up against the known science,” which indicate the toxicity of the drug is minimal. […]

He noted that Dr. Tod Mikuriya, a psychiatrist in El Cerrito, Calif., had conducted a study with medical-marijuana patients and did not find evidence they developed cognitive impairments, paranoia, anxiety or other mental problems after they began using the drug.

“The government has insisted there are no pros and there are only cons of marijuana, but this is totally lacking in science and totally lacking in any realistic credibility,” Melamede said.

He predicted medical marijuana ultimately will be permitted in the United States.

“It’s unavoidable that it will eventually triumph because it works,” he said. “The government is lying and it will eventually win out in the end. It’s just a matter of how many people have to suffer between now and then.”

Good reporting UPI.
Wait, did I just say “Good reporting UPI?” What’s happening?

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Lester Grinspoon at Mother Jones

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Pete Guither

A very nice interview with Dr. Lester Grinspoon at Mother Jones today.
He talks about Marinol, Sativex, medical marijuana and the contrary pressures from pharmaceutical companies and patients regarding the legalization of marijuana.
One of the most interesting parts: he often talks with medical marijuana patients who are concerned about flunking work drug tests — he tries to get their doctor to prescribe Marinol. Even though Marinol doesn’t work as well as marijuana, the patient can continue to use marijuana and not worry about the drug test. The same will be true to a greater degree with Sativex, which will lead to a practical solution of legalization countered by the financial pressure of the pharmaceutical companies to push prohibition harder.
Also interesting — even though he’s an ardent proponent of medical marijuana, he sees no way long term to legalize medical marijuana without legalizing it for recreational purposes.

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Man tasered 19 times, medical examiner not sure of cause of death

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Pete Guither

Link
From what I can tell, 21 year old Patrick Lee was tasered up to 19 times, plus police used pepper spray and other “physical force.” Two days later, he died of cardiac arrest.

Blood testing at the hospital revealed the presence of both marijuana and LSD in Lee’s system.

“Mr. Lee’s death is a tragedy we should all learn from,” [medical examiner Bruce] Levy said. “Mr. Lee’s death is also a sober reminder of the dangers of the abuse of illegal controlled drugs.”

Ah, yes, it was the “presence” (no idea how much) of drugs that caused Lee’s excited delirium, which led to his death. Not the 19 tasers.
I’ve also heard that aspirin will kill you if you take a couple and walk in front of a bus.

[Thanks to scottp]
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Marijuana Arrests at Record High

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Pete Guither

Via NORML,

Police arrested an estimated 771,608 persons for marijuana violations in 2004, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 44.2 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

“These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders,” said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 41 seconds in America. “This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism.”

Of those charged with marijuana violations, 89 percent – some 684,319 Americans – were charged with possession only. The remaining 87,289 individuals were charged with “sale/manufacture,” a category that includes all cultivation offenses – even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, approximately 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger. […]

The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. for 2004 far exceeded the total number of arrests in the U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

What a waste of resources, of lives, of integrity.

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Conference in Hartford

Posted on October 17, 2005 by Pete Guither

Trinity College in Hartford, CT is hosting a drug conference this Friday and Saturday, organized by City Councilman Robert Painter. (See article in the Hartford Courant.)
While the blurb on the conference page…

The conference is organized to bring law enforcement groups; state agencies; state and city representatives; and national experts with creative talent, to meet the drug scourge head on.

… would lead you to believe that this is the same old one-sided “How can we make prohibition work better” conference, the reality is much more interesting.
Look at some of the people who they’ve invited to speak and lead sessions:

There’s also representatives from the Department of Justice, DEA, local police, a variety of social agencies, treatment centers, etc.
This is an amazingly impressive job by one community to really hear all the sides.
Could this be one more indication that, as a country, we’re breaking through that block, and starting to allow the public discussion of prohibition alternatives?

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Wow!

Posted on October 16, 2005 by Pete Guither

Let those dopers be by former police chief Norm Stamper, in today’s LA Times.
This is a must read. It is also a must-send, to all your discussion lists, to your friends.
A bold plan for the legalization of all drugs (with which I agree in almost all particulars) boldly stated by a law enforcement officer in a major metropolitan newspaper that gets national distribution. That’s hard to ignore.
I’m not going to even quote from it. Go read all of it.

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Police shoot dogs

Posted on October 15, 2005 by Pete Guither

Via Last One Speaks comes this story from Decatur, Alabama.
As long as they think you have drugs, your 4th Amendment rights don’t matter, your possessions don’t matter, the lives of your pets don’t matter, and in many cases, your life doesn’t matter.
Police in a minor drug raid shot two of three family dogs. That part’s not in dispute. Once we know this fact, in my mind the onus is on the police to defend and document their activities. The whole notion (as I have repeatedly said in this blog) of using SWAT-style tactics for drug raids is wrong and dangerous, and puts the prevention of flushing evidence above the lives of citizens.
So at this point, unless the police can better prove their story, my tendency is to believe the family whose home was invaded.
Police say they used fire extinquishers to subdue the dogs and only fired when necessary to protect their lives. The family said the police came in shooting the dogs, killed one immediately, shot the second one in the back as it fled and the third escaped by hiding under a table. The family also says that there was no fire exinguisher residue anywhere and they saw the police bring one in later.
Police say they found an undisclosed amount of marijuana, cocaine, paraphernalia, and cash (of course, once they find drugs they always find paraphernalia, since ordinary household items start qualifying). The family said that there was about 8 grams of marijuana, but no coke, and the $600 the police seized was for moving expenses (they were packed for a move).
8 grams of pot and $600 justifies shooting your dogs? Of course, I don’t believe that any amount of pot justifies busting down your door to begin with.
Oh, and this doesn’t help:

“There was a female officer that saw my mother’s dog laying there dead, and she walked by, saying, ‘good dog,’ and my mother had to sit there and see that,” Cagle said.
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