Drug WarRant

So it appears that President Bush is prepared to eliminate entire budget lines to reduce the deficit:

He plans to fulfill his pledge to halve the record $413 billion federal budget deficit by submitting a 2006 budget next month that includes nothing for some programs. He wouldn’t name them.

“We will present a budget that wisely spends the people’s money, that cuts the deficit in half, that will enable me to get up in front of the people and say those programs that aren’t working won’t be getting extra money, and some of the programs won’t be getting any money at all,” he said.

I can give you a big jump start on that deficit reduction:

Total Federal drug program: $12.6 billion (via ONDCP)

Just zero that baby out. After all, the GAO has consistently given the DEA and ONDCP failing grades for accomplishing anything, and I think we can survive without the $145 million spent on the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign or the $23 million for drug testing. We can get along without busting sick people who take medical marijuana (let the states handle it). And we don’t need to investigate people who make glass pipes.
We could probably find a couple of other pockets of money that could be saved in this effort. Federal prison costs could be reduced without the clogging from those pesky non-violent drug criminals, and think what we could save in eradication chemicals in Columbia and Afghanistan.
Just trying to do my part to help the President. Think he’ll listen?

TalkLeft notes that the first post-Booker decision is out already, and it doesn’t sound good. Judge Paul Cassell took the Supreme Court’s decision that sentencing guidelines are no longer mandatory to mean that they should be followed in every case except rare exceptional cases.
“bullet” TalkLeft also has the 9th Circuit decision to eliminate the need for the “knock” part of “Knock and Announce” Warrants.

Tom Coleman (of the Tulia drug cases) has been found guilty of perjury — something that rarely happens, and even though the particulars of his conviction seem less than earth-shattering, it’s still a victory for the victims that he accused.
The full story at Grits for Breakfast.

Link

Mexico City — Smoke billowing from the engine compartment led police to discover a large stash of marijuana hidden aboard a luxury bus, the federal Public Security Department said Thursday.

Police had seen the bus stopped along the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway early Thursday and noticed that smoke was pouring out of the engine area, the agency said in a news release.

They went to offer help, but found no driver or passengers.

When they turned to putting out the flames, the officers discovered packages of burning marijuana that had been hidden in part of the engine compartment.

You can bet the Mexican government is going to be proud to point out their seizure of that 660 pounds of pot. Ours would.

Via NORML, a new Congressional Research Service Report (pdf) notes that the U.S. is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop.

In all, more than 30
countries in Europe, Asia, and North America grow hemp, although most banned
production for certain periods of time in the past. The United States is the only
developed nation in which industrial hemp is not an established crop. Great Britain
lifted its ban in 1993 and Germany followed suit in 1996. In order to help reestablish
a hemp industry, the European Union instituted a subsidy program in the 1990s for
hemp fiber production. …

The countries exporting hemp products to the United States vary considerably
from year to year. Over the last five years, the most consistent exporters of raw and
processed hemp fiber to the United States have been China, the Philippines, Poland,
Romania, Canada, and India. The leading exporters of hemp oil have been the
Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Republic of South Africa, and
Italy. However, according to industry reports, Canadian growers are expanding
production of varieties for health food and bodycare uses. Consequently, Canada
could be poised to become a major source of U.S. hemp seed and oil imports. …

Strictly speaking, the CSA does not make Cannabis illegal; rather, it places the
strictest controls on its production, making it illegal to grow the crop without a DEA
permit. DEA officials confirm issuing a permit for an experimental plot in Hawaii
in the 1990s (now expired), and they confirm that DEA still has not ruled on an
application submitted in 1999 by a North Dakota researcher. Hemp industry
officials assert that the security measures the DEA requires are substantial and costly,
and deter both public and private interests from initiating research projects requiring
growing plots.

Why should we allow our farmers to compete in the world market?
NORML Executive
Director Allen St. Pierre said. “This report should help to galvanize
support among US farmers, industrialists, and environmentalists for the
legalization and regulation of hemp as an agricultural commodity.”

Strange contradictions…
I reported Tuesday about a videotape showing Sunni Muslims executing a drug dealer.
Now we have a report in the LA Times that US officials are claiming that Sunni Muslim insurgents are not only smuggling drugs to finance the insurgency, but using drugs to allow them to keep fighting after they’ve been mortally wounded.

Top military officials consider the discoveries to be evidence not just of drug use among insurgents, but also of smuggling operations that they say the Sunni Muslim rebels in Fallouja may have been using to finance the insurgency.

“They are just as likely to be indications of drug smuggling as insurgents being doped up to provide stamina or have the courage to fight and die,” a senior military official in Baghdad said. …

“One guy described it as like watching the ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ ” corpsman Peter Melady said. “People who should have been dead were still alive.”

Of course, this may all be true. Sometimes it’s just a matter of whether the drug activity is OK’d by your leaders.
The U.S. Military has its own contradictory and complex relationship with drugs (and has historically as well).
You’ve got situations like the Iowa National Guard story, where guardsmen who tested positive for drugs were sent to Iraq anyway, and then kicked out when they returned. And you’ve got the military’s need for speed in order to keep pilots on edge. And don’t forget Afghanistan, where the drug war is conflicting with the war on terrorism.
Anybody know if there’s been a good scholarly work done on this complicated military/drug relationship? Seems like there’s some fascinating material there.

“bullet” John at truehigh.com has finished the next part of his rebuttal to the Drug Czar’s version of Marijuana Facts and Myths.
“bullet” Baylen has the info on a Democratic State Representative who wants to shred the constitution a little bit more by denying drug offenders who have served their time the right to associate or travel in certain areas.
“bullet” Grits for Breakfast continues coverage of the Tom Coleman trial.
“bullet” I’ve long talked about the lack of credible evidence for major concerns regarding marijuana and driving. While I don’t recommend driving stoned, all research indicates that it’s much less dangerous than alcohol, fatigue or even distractions such as cell phones. Dana Larsen at Cannabis Culture has put together a new compilation of the existing data in: Stoned Drivers are Safe Drivers. [Thanks, Scott]

Strange report from the Nogales International (AZ):

When an unmarked white panel van occupied by heavily armed officers dressed in camouflage enter a house just off a state highway, passersby might wonder what is happing.æ More so when they are escorted by a local law enforcement special operations team. …

But when you find out it was an operation coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ), getting answers is complicated if not impossible.

According to the Nogales Police Department, two federal search warrants were served by the DEA on Monday, Dec.æ 20 at 10:30 a.m.æ The activity also was reported to the Nogales International by motorists, including the driver of the newspaper’s delivery van, nearby neighbors and others.

Still, several attempts to gain information from Tony Ryan a special agent in charge in Tucson, and Ramona Sanchez, the public information officer in Phoenix were stymied because, they said, under rules established by Department of Justice does they are not allowed to talk about cases still under investigation. …

And after a reporter for the Nogales International made calls bi-weekly for four weeks to Ryan and Sanchez still no further information would be released.

One might be assured that such efficient coordination exists between federal and local law enforcement, but finding out what crimes they are fighting and who the criminals are is a different story. [emphasis added]

If it’s the DEA working with local law enforcement, it has to be a drug bust, I would think. So why the secrecy? Usually the DEA likes to brag about seizures. Almost makes you wonder if it was a bit of a mistake and they don’t want it publicized? To not release the names or charges of those arrested? What kind of country are we living in?

This was an important case regarding U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Essentially, the Guidelines were found unconstitutional, but the court didn’t eliminate them entirely. They simply excised the unconstitutional parts and made the guidelines not mandatory. The decision is a mixed bag, but generally good news for reducing runaway sentencing. It remains to be seen how Congress will respond.
For much more comprehensive description of the Court’s ruling, see TalkLeft here, here, and here.

In a 6-1 ruling:

Blocks of marijuana found in the “back room” of a Colorado Springs liquor store can’t be used as evidence against the store manager because he could reasonably expect privacy from searches of the back area under the U.S. Constitution, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday. …

“Galvadon was the night manager and the sole person in control of the store,” Martinez wrote. “He used the back room to conduct the business of the store and maintained the right to exclude public access to the back room. … For these reasons, we find that Galvadon maintained a reasonable expectation of privacy in the back room.”

It’s nice to see the courts still give a nod to the 4th now and then.