Drug WarRant

I really believe that the upcoming Supreme Court case Raich v. Ashcroft (documents) could be the biggest event in drug policy reform in the next four years, and I’ll be following it closely here. I’ll probably be adding a full page guide to the case shortly.
There’s a fabulous article (thanks, Scott) about Angel Raich in tomorrow’s LA Times. It’s a great overview of the person and the case, and worth checking out.

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Also: On Monday, Georgetown Law SSDP and the American Constitutional Society will be hosting a symposium on the case, featuring Eric Sterling, Executive Director, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation; Peter J. Cohen, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Mark Moller, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute; Sally Satel, M.D. and Author, American Enterprise Institute; Keith Stroup, Executive Director, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
6 pm to 8 pm – Georgetown Law – 12th Floor of Gewirz, 120 F Street NW – Washington, DC
Check it out if you can, and let me know about it.

From New York Newsday (Thanks, Herb):

[Security guard] Tomika Thomas told police she smelled marijuana when she spotted the 16-year-old boy standing alone under a tree outside Booker T. Washington High School when other students were in class or the cafeteria.

Thomas said she approached the student and tried to detain him, but he became aggressive, pushed her, then reached under his shirt.

“She thought he was reaching for a weapon. She drew and fired one time, striking him in the foot,” Sgt. Paul Accardo said.

Police found no drugs or weapons on the boy, who ran away after being shot and was caught by a second security guard.

Yep. She smelled marijuana.
I’m not excusing the boy’s alleged aggression, but this all started because she thought she smelled marijuana?
Is this to be the norm in our society now? If so, I want no part of it, and I call for some bright chemist out there to develop a THC-free Pot Purfume and Cologne. I’ll wear it proudly. And if I get hassled by a security guard or attacked by one of Lisa Madigan’s dogs, I’ll be happy that I am contributing to the demise of the prohibitionist’s sniff, and that some day in the future, we will no longer have security guards shooting 16-year-olds because of a supposed odor.

Illinois’ Lisa Madigan got her chance at the big time, arguing in the Supreme Court for Illinois v. Caballes. The case involves whether you can use drug sniffing dogs in routine traffic stops when there is no cause to suspect drug activity.

Standing before the justices, Madigan forcefully argued that police don’t violate the Constitution’s 4th Amendment in such circumstances because they aren’t actually conducting a search when they use a drug dog.

“A sniff is not a search and, therefore, requires no 4th Amendment justification,” said Madigan, in her first argument before the high court.

…

Madigan stood firm, forcefully arguing that police could use the dogs, without any evidence of criminal activity, on public streets or in parks or, even, around the outside of a person’s home.

Thanks, Lisa. So you wouldn’t mind, then, if I brought my dog up to you and had it sniff your crotch in public? After all, it’s not a search, so why should anyone mind?
Unfortunately, early appearances are that the Supremes are going to roll over and play dead on yet another 4th Amendment case.

It’s official. John Ashcroft is gone. The man who rose from losing to a dead man and did more to help the terrorists take away our freedom than anyone I know, is leaving, having declared a victory in making us safe from terrorists and crime (despite a perfect losing record in terrorist cases).
Listen to him one last time.
Replacing him will be Alberto Gonzales, the man who thought the Geneva conventions were outdated and quaint.
I don’t know what Gonzales will do regarding medical marijuana or the drug war (and a lot of people want to know — my google hits for Alberto Gonzales and medical marijuana have been off the charts). If anyone has background on any of his views on the drug war, please let me know.
It may not matter. I’m guessing that Gonzales will be a little less specifically driven than Ashcroft, but I think it’s most likely that it will be business as usual, with the ONDCP and the DEA driving the drug war and Gonzales nodding his approval as the rubber stamp of administration policy.
The only real question may be whether Gonzales’ view of the quaintness of the Geneva convention will translate to his views of the 4th Amendment. Also quaint?

Sometimes an article shows up that is so bad, so ignorant, or so blatant in its lies that you just can’t help marveling while you read it.
This was published in The Columbian:

Long before today’s extremely potent strains of cannabis were developed, there were individuals who suffered severe psychotic episodes when smoking marijuana (feral cannabis hemp). In fact, this phenomenon was the basis of “Reefer Madness,” the 70-year-old zombie movie about individuals who became crazed from smoking marijuana.

æææ Today, pro-legalization partisans complain that “Reefer Madness” and the thousands of scientific studies that document marijuana’s many insidious and dangerous side effects, are “just scare tactics” and insist that marijuana be given the same status as alcohol and tobacco.

æææ Today marijuana is so potent (compare taking 20 aspirin at a time instead of two) that it has become a leading cause of drug related medical and psychiatric emergency room episodes, impacting thinly-stretched medical resources.

Read the rest of it. It’s truly amazing. There are so many outright lies in the piece that I can’t count them all. Pointing them out is like identifying the sand on a beach.
The author, Sandra S. Bennett, is director of the Northwest Center for Health & Safety (her own organization) and is married to William Bennett (not that one). After her son died of a cocaine related death, she apparently decided to go into denial, start lying, and encourage the prohibition conditions that lead to the deaths of young people.

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If you support prohibition, you are part of the drug problem.

Check out Loretta Nall’s new U.S. Marijuana Party Blog.

I’ve talked a couple of times about the offensive DEA museum exhibit that’s currently on display in Times Square in New York (and opened, of course, on September 11): Target America: Drug Traffickers, Terrorists and You (See my earlier posts here and here).
This exhibit uses actual materials from the wreckage of the world trade center to promote the drug users are terrorists mantra.
Well, my friend Adam spent some time in New York last month and he stopped by the exhibit. He says it’s as bad as I imagined it. He actually got physically ill from seeing the way that the DEA exploited the 9/11 tragedy.
He couldn’t handle actually going through the entire exhibit (apparently there were some additional special rooms).
But as he left, he noticed that there was a gift shop.
And he bought me this.
When he gave it to me, I broke into uncontrollable laughter at the absurdity of it all…

The DEA. They destroy your country. They lay the blame for the violence they cause on the citizens they are supposed to protect. They sully the memory of those who died in 9/11 in order to glorify their own unconstitutional activities.
But it’s all good. At least you can buy a cute beanie-baby moose wearing a DEA T-shirt in the museum gift shop.

Ignorant Congressman Mark Souder threatens Canada.
From CTV

An influential U.S. Congressman is predicting a trade slowdown if Canada decriminalizes marijuana possession.

“I believe there’ll be more searches at the border both coming and going from Canada, which hurts our trade,” said Republican Mark Souder, in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CTV’s Question Period. “Trade is the anchor of our relationship and our friendship and anything that slows that down, complicates that.”

Souder is chair of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources.

Souder is such a tool. I mean, to continue to threaten Canada this way is not only bad foreign policy, but it really makes you look stupid. After all, private possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana is legal in Alaska, and Chicago is seriously looking at decriminalization. Are we going to threaten to block trade with Chicago?

I’ve neglected following up on the new Tulia due to other distractions, but it’s been well covered by the other drug policy blogs. Grits for Breakfast continues to be all over the story.
Be sure to read The Usual Suspects by Dave Mann of the Texas Observer.

When the arrests came two years later, residents of Palestine must have been surprised to learn that their small town apparently had more crack dealers than restaurants. On Oct. 13, teams from the Anderson County sheriff’s office, Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Marshall’s Service, and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) started at 7 a.m. and swept through tiny Palestine (population 17,000) to round up an astonishing 40 indicted drug dealers.

More arrests followed in the coming days. In all, a total of 72 Anderson County residents were detained on various state and federal drug dealing charges. After the arrests, the U.S. Department of Justice put out a celebratory press release that boasted of cracking a large Anderson County drug distribution ring.

“This coordinated effort shows the success that can be achieved when resources and people are pooled together,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Orwig said in the statement. Curtis Bitz, head of the Dogwood Trails task force, told the Lufkin Daily News, “There’s no question as to whether they did it or not.”

An examination of the charges, however, raises questions about the drug bust, especially about the sheer number of people charged as dealers. Could there really be 72 crack dealers in little Palestine? And is it only a coincidence that all 72 of them are black?

Keep the pressure on this one.

Via TalkLeft.
I’m a big fan of Durbin. He’s one of my senators and generally smart on drug and crime issues. He introduced the Truth in Trials Act to recognize the validity of state medical marijuana laws.
If you want to get an idea of how he works, check out this exchange (about halfway down the page) last year when Karen Tandy was nominated for head of the DEA.
I wish him the best of luck.