Drug WarRant

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Libby at Last One Speaks has this story about Marc Craven Caven, a career snitch who uses entrapment as his normal method of operation.
Here’s what he does. After getting hired by a police force, he goes looking for people who are working minimum wage jobs. Using fake business cards identifying himself as John King of Evergreen Construction and Landscaping, he offers them a high paying construction job. While stringing them along on the job offer, he asks them to buy him some pot. They do it in order to get a better job, but get arrested instead.
Caven’s been doing this in Oregon for over 32 years, and while a lot of cases have gotten thrown out of court (and despite Caven’s own criminal record), police forces continue to hire him and some poor hard-working employed citizens get their lives destroyed because they were offered a chance for a better job.
The real criminals here are the police departments and drug task forces who hired Caven, along with the district attorneys who prosecuted the cases.
As one defense attorney said: “The job of law enforcement is to catch criminals, not create them.”
Read the whole article
Update: Article had the name spelled both Craven and Caven. The name appears to be Caven, the activity craven.

I just realized that it’s been some time since I gave you an update on the HHS stalling tactics.
As a recap, this is about the efforts by Americans for Safe Access to use a new law called the Data Quality Act to force Health and Human Services to stop spreading false info about medical marijuana (a step which could, theoretically, assist long-term efforts to re-schedule medical marijuana). (Background post — Actual Petition(pdf) )
At the time, I was excited about this, because the law requires that the agency respond in 60 days. (What I did not realize at the time was that the law also allows the agency to grant itself extensions.)
The original complaint was filed on October 6, 2004.
On December 1, HHS responded (in part)

We have not yet completed our response to your complaint because of other agency priorities and the need to coordinate agency review of the response. We hope to provide you with a response within 60 days from the date of this letter.

On February 2, 2005, HHS responded (in part):

Your October 4, 2004, request for correction of information disseminated by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the medical use of marijuana is still under review. While the goal of the Food and Drug Administration is to respond within 60 days to such requests, we are unable to do so in this case. We anticipate that a response will be forwarded to you by April 1, 2005.

On April 5, 2005, HHS responded (in part):

We wrote to you on February 2, 2005, indicating that we would need additional time to complete our response to your request and expected to reply by April 1, 2005. At this time we are continuing to prepare our response but require additional time to coordinate Agency review. We anticipate that a response will be forwarded to you by April 15, 2005.

On April 20, 2005, HHS gave its “decision” (in part):

Both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the HHS Information Quality Guidelines provide that federal government agencies may use existing processes that are in place to address correction requests from the public. In the case of marijuana HHS currently is in the process of conducting a review in response to the petition for change that was submitted to DEA in October 2002 by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC), an association of public-interest groups and medical cannabis patients that includes the ASA. [2] In the course of the review, HHS will evaluate all the publicly available peer reviewed literature on the efficacy of marijuana

In English… they essentially said that they will not actually answer the question, but instead will refer it to the current marijuana re-scheduling petition and have the charges of misinformation answered through that process — a process that draws upon HHS recommendations. (Of course, one re-scheduling petition for marijuana took 22 years before finally being rejected, so this is obviously an attempt to bury the questions without response and at the same time keep from having to say anything that might end up helping the re-scheduling of marijuana.)
So ASA, on May 19, filed an appeal (according to the procedures, the appeal must be filed with… you guessed it…. Health and Human Services). In that appeal, ASA essentially said “You’re full of crap. Answer the charges.” (although they used different wording)
HHS had 60 days to respond.
On July 28, 2005, HHS responded (in part):

Your appeal of the denial of your Request for Corrections under the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) Guidelines for Ensuring the Quality of Information Disseminated to the Public, received by OPHS on May 20, is still under review.We could not respond within the 60 day guideline.At this time we are continuing to prepare our response but require additional time to coordinate Agency review. Our goal is to have a response to your appeal within 60 days of the date of this letter.

(That’ll be roughly one year from the start of the process)
It’s so nice that we have this Data Quality Act now, so we can get quick corrections of bad information in the government.
Oh, and by the way, in case you’re wondering why nobody’s using the Data Quality Act against the ONDCP… In their guidelines, they’ve actually exempted all statements made by ONDCP personnel to the press from being covered by the Data Quality Act.

“bullet” Keith Gottschalk used to be a talk show host here in Central Illinois and I got to know him through that and through his blogging as well. He’s got a column yesterday in Rabble (a progressive Canadian publication) about the Marc Emery situation: A U.S. view: An open letter to Irwin Cotler.

As a U.S. citizen I would be ashamed to have Mr. Emery, a Canadian citizen and politician, tried in the United States. It would be a grotesque violation of human decency and the right of people to be tried in their own nations for breaking their own nation’s laws.

Extraditing Emery to the U.S. will only embolden the U.S. DEA and other U.S. law enforcement agencies to continue to exploit what are often, in actuality, unilateral ‹mutual cooperationŠ treaties with other countries, and bring foreign nationals forcibly into the U.S. to serve draconian sentences for drug and other crimes that are handled quite differently where they live.

“bullet” Thomas Knapp has written a fascinating post: Something’s rotten in DEA’n’Marc, in which he speculates that the DEA action against Marc Emery may have some connection to Loretta Nall’s run for Governor.

Enter the DEA and the sudden, screeching halt to Loretta Nall’s livelihood. If you think that’s coincidence, give me a call — I’ve got some Enron shares I’m looking to unload. Unlike Bob Riley and Lucy Buxley, Nall doesn’t get a government paycheck to pay the bills while she tries to climb the political ladder. She has to work for a living. And the work she’s done for some time has been for POT-TV.

Let’s not take this lying down.

First and foremost, it is imperative that we fight the corruption of America’s politics by its own bureaucrats, using our money. Please, write your congresscritters and ask for an investigation into the ONDCP/DEA’s abuse of public funds and political power to stuff the ballot box.

“bullet” At Slate, Jack Schafer writes: Why Does Drug Reporting Suck? Still.
Quite interesting.

There was some additional information in the papers today, and I planned an update, but Radley’s done it very well already. Go read.
There’s no way that this killing can be justified. Because there is no justification for the police decision to bust into his house.
We must, as a society, come to the conclusion that busting down a door to make an arrest should be reserved for those rare situations where it is required to save the lives of citizens (like hostage situations). The prevention of flushing is not a sufficient reason.

…for getting people talking!
The blogosphere has been alive in the past day with talk of the drug war (as of this point, Feedster tracks about 50 blogs discussing Tierney and meth since his article appeared). All because a New York Times columnist dared to question it.
Oh, sure, there are debates about the numbers he used for use/abuse/addiction. The biggest critique (from Mark Kleiman) appears to be that the numbers are wrong because we don’t have good enough system to accurately identify the numbers.
But none of that is able to derail the major points that Tierney boldly lays out:

• Prohibition isn’t always the answer
• Media hype doesn’t help the problem
• Drugs are both good and bad, depending on how they’re used

And people are talking. Check out the comments at TalkLeft (65 at this point) and at Balloon Juice (47 at this point). In addition to some well-reasoned ones, there are the usual idiots…

• “Meth is bad. I know someone who was addicted. It was horrible. How can you want to legalize it?” (this is usually in response to someone who notes that prohibition actually caused the more dangerous aspects of meth)
• “I suppose you’d be OK with making murder legal as well, wouldn’t you?” (this is usually in response to someone who notes that meth exists as a problem even though it’s illegal)

Lots of blind spots out there. But discussion is good. Discussion is great!
People read the New York Times. And look at what they’ve been reading lately:

• Column: Debunking the Drug War (8/9)
• Cultural Differences Complicate a Georgia Drug Sting (8/4)
• Column: Handcuffs And Stethoscopes (7/23)
• Editorial: Cutting College Aid, And Fostering Crime (7/20)
• Column: Punishing Pain (7/19)
• OPED: Let A Thousand Licensed Poppies Bloom (7/13)
• Editorial: Playing AIDS Games In New Jersey (6/30)

Nice.
The first step is getting people so they’re actually able to talk about alternatives to prohibition. Many people don’t realize how huge a leap that is for those who have been conditioned all their lives.

Jesse Parker writes:

HEY F[*]CK YOU AND YOUR DRUG CULTURE, DRUGS MAKE YOU ANTI SOCIAL AND DESTROY THE HUMAN MIND, SO I HOPE YOU ALL DIE. ANYONE WHO IS OPPOSED TO THE DRUG WAR, WILL BATHE IN THEIR OWN BLOOD.

Thanks for dropping by, Jesse. You might want to turn off the caps lock. The bathing in blood thing is very colorful, though, in a secret covenant or apocalyptic kind of way.

Tierney: Debunking the Drug War

More tragedy. I’m going to have to update my Drug War Victims page with several new additions. Here’s the most recent:

Link

SUNRISE ‡ A poster outside Anthony Diotaiuto’s home Saturday summed up his friends’ anger over his death: “Did you find what you were looking for?”

The message was addressed to the Sunrise Police Department, whose SWAT team raided Diotaiuto’s house in Sunrise Golf Village early Friday morning searching for drugs. There, they shot the 23-year-old dead. Police thought there was drug activity at the house and that there could be violence because Diotaiuto had a valid concealed weapons permit.

Because he had a valid concealed weapons permit, the police felt it necessary to use a SWAT bust-down-the-door-and-scare-him-to-death approach, knowing that he was likely to be carrying a gun. How does that make sense? He worked two jobs a day. Couldn’t they have stopped him on his way to work?
Link

SUNRISE ‡ The SWAT team assembled outside Anthony Diotaiuto’s home in Sunrise Golf Village early Friday morning, expecting to find drugs and guns, authorities said.

Inside, Diotaiuto had been home for only a few hours after his night shift at one of the two jobs he kept to help pay for the home where he lived with his mother. He had a valid concealed weapons permit and kept a shotgun and a handgun for safety, friends said.

It was about 6:15 when the SWAT team smashed in Diotaiuto’s door and shot him dead.

Officers were right to expect him to be armed, said Lt. Robert Voss, spokesman for the Sunrise Police Department.

“He had a gun and pointed it at our officers,” Voss said Friday morning. “Our SWAT team fired.”

Later Friday afternoon, he didn’t sound as certain about whether Diotaiuto, 23, aimed his weapon.

“In all likelihood, that’s what happened,” Voss said. “I know there was a weapon found next to the body.” He also said he did not know if detectives found any drugs or whether Diotaiuto fired any shots.

Of course there was a weapon found by the body. They knew he had a concealed weapons permit. But now they’re not sure he actually pointed it. And by that afternoon he didn’t know if they “found any drugs or whether Diatoaiuto fired any shots.” What kind of crap is that? Are they completely incompetent or lying?
What were they looking for? The family wants to know.
Link

According to the search warrant, the police were looking for money, bookkeeping records, firearms and other evidence that Diotaiuto was a drug dealer. The warrant was provided to the newspaper by Diotaiuto’s family.

Cannabis and drug paraphernalia, along with firearms and a BB gun, were listed as items seized, but the warrant did not specify the amount of drugs or what type of paraphernalia was confiscated.

Sunrise Detective Michael Calise signed the search warrant, the newspaper reported.

Phone calls to the Sunrise police department were not returned on Sunday.

BB gun? Oh, come on. They seized a BB gun? And the other guns were most likely the legal guns that Diotaiuto had. So what did they kill him for? An unspecified amount of cannabis and drug paraphernalia. For all we know that’s a couple of grams of pot and some rolling papers.
I have a feeling we won’t be getting much more in the way of answers from the Sunrise Police Department until the inevitable lawsuit (the family has hired a lawyer).
But Diotaiuto’s mother is trying to think positively.
Link

Marlene Diotaiuto hopes to keep her son’s memory alive through a scholarship for children of single mothers.

“She is the unofficial mother to dozens of kids,” said Pamela Larson, who lived next door to the Diotaiutos for nearly eight years when they lived in Davie and remains close friends with Marlene Diotaiuto.

“She has mentored so many teens turning into adults. Children are completely her life. She knows what it’s like to be a hard-working single mom trying to put their kid through college.” […]

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. David Catholic Church, 3900 S. University Drive, Davie.

Instead of flowers, the family suggested donations in Anthony Diotaiuto’s memory to Marlene’s Angels scholarship fund, 2801 SW 87th Ave., Number 1003, Davie, Florida 33328.

Note: Watch the news video coverage here.

Peter Jennings learned a lot about the drug war during his tenure with ABC and began to question many aspects of the war. He ended up hosting an outstanding expose of the government’s lies regarding MDMA. He discussed it with the press…

“Government is best when government is most honest, especially for the younger generation, which is more susceptible to trying drugs,” Jennings remarked to the Palm Beach Post. “If they can’t rely on the government for good and honest information, then government has lost something enormously valuable, which is people’s belief in the government’s credibility.”

“This was an opportunity for us to look at whether or not the government isn’t its own worst enemy in trying to control illegal drugs,” Jennings says.

Thanks, Peter.