Drug WarRant

The most common Google search referral that I get is the phrase ‘Why is marijuana illegal?’ Not a day goes by without that search term at least once, usually many more times than that.

Read Why is Marijuana Illegal?.

Via TalkLeft
Oh, and their companion, an Al Gore III, was also arrested.
Just three of the more than one million people arrested this year for simple possession charges.

Via Atrios, this CBS news report Feds Allege Youth Camps Abuse

Among the abuses uncovered: suicidal girls were stripped naked and placed in solitary confinement in a dark cell with only a drain for a toilet, boys were forced to run with mattresses strapped to their backs, girls who threw up while running in the heat were forced to eat their vomit, and youths were tied to poles or hog-tied….

According to a June letter from the Justice Department to Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, investigators found the camps also lacked proper sanitation and educational services, and violated the youths’ First Amendment rights by “forcing them to engage in religious activities.”

The letter said youth were sometimes forced to get up in the middle of the night and walk around their dormitory with their hands on their head. Counselors were reported to have slapped and choked youths, and used pepper spray on them when they refused to exercise, or when they were tied up.

Further details and reports on these youth gulags, which were apparently not only tolerated by the state for many years, but actually encouraged as a form of “rehabilitation,” are available here and here.
Note that many of these youngsters are there for low level drug possession charges.
If you’re a parent, I ask you: Would you rather your child deal with the risks and temptations of drugs under your guidance and rules, or would you have them sent to a place like this?

Senator Proposes Taxing Illegal Drugs. This isn’t particularly new – 23 states have similar stupid laws.

Each gram of marijuana would be subject to a $3.50 tax.æ Other controlled substances would be taxed $200 for each gram or portion of a gram.æ For drugs not sold by weight, such as Ecstasy, every 50 doses would be taxed $2,000.

Note: for those of you who haven’t converted to metric yet, for marijuana that’s about $100 tax per ounce.
Keep in mind that this is not an easing of penalties — it is adding an additional penalty on top of criminalizing drugs. The idea is, once you’re arrested for possession of drugs, not only do you get the jail time and fines for the charge, but they also go after you for tax evasion because you probably haven’t bought the stamps (they don’t really expect you to).

A similar bill was passed in Kansas in 1987.æ Last year it collected $883,846 in revenue from people arrested in possession of drugs without stamps and $370 in stamp sales.

Most drug tax stamps are purchased by collectors, not drug dealers (the Texas one is quite entertaining).
These taxes are really a kind of dishonesty on the part of legislatures. If you want a tougher penalty for something illegal, then make that part of the legal penalty — don’t go around looking for some other hook.
Many of these taxes have run into legal trouble. Some of them have been termed unconstitutional due to the prohibition against self-incrimination. Others, if providing a serious enough penalty, have been determined to constitute double jeopardy (some Texas drug dealers in 1996 were getting off of their drug charges in court by putting a deposit down on their tax liability).
For now, those in St. Joseph, Missouri may want to spread the word that Republican Senator Charlie Shields wants to raise taxes. That could make it interesting.
Earlier this year, TalkLeft reported on a similar tax in Iowa. Protesters of the tax came up with the memorable line:

No taxation without legalization.

Portland, OR: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon
recently filed a complaint with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
over the agency’s effort to shut down the second annual Oregon Medical
Cannabis Awards Banquet, sponsored by Oregon NORML. Though the Banquet went
on as scheduled at the Doubletree Hotel, DEA officials approached the
venue’s management prior to the event and warned them that they could be
federally fined and prosecuted under the “RAVE Act” if it took place.

Under the provisions of the “RAVE Act,” formally known as the Illicit
Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003, federal law enforcement may prosecute
business owners if they make their property available for “the purpose of
manufacturing, distributing, or using any controlled substance.”

ACLU of Oregon spokesperson David Fidanque said that the DEA is misusing
the Act to try to silence opponents of the government’s drug policies. “The
only two instances the DEA has used this law have been against NORML, where
NORML was publicizing medical marijuana laws and their opposition to federal
law and federal policies,” he said. “We think it’s clear that the DEA did
this for political reasons because of their political opposition to NORML’s
politics.”

Findanque also noted that uniformed Portland police officers were posted
outside the banquet room doors, and that their presence may have violated
Oregon laws and city policies prohibiting police from spying on the
political activities of individuals and organizations.

This was a bad law that never should have been passed (Senator Joe Biden for all of you in Delaware), and despite the DEA’s assurance that it would not be mis-used, is bound to be used to harrass drug policy reformers. And Karen Tandy, the head of the DEA, has made it clear that she won’t specify the criteria the DEA uses.

Via NORML:

Washington, DC: The US Food and Drug Administration has granted
permission for investigators funded by California’s Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research (CMCR) to conduct the first ever human trial comparing
inhaled marijuana to vaporized cannabis. The clinical trial, which will be
conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams of the University of California at San
Francisco, will commence in early 2004, according to a news release issued
by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

The pending study will compare subjective effects, cannabinoid blood
levels, and carbon monoxide levels in inhaled breath in volunteers following
both smoking and vaporizing marijuana.

MAPS President Rick Doblin said that the use of vaporizer technology in clinical research “will demonstrate that we can address all reasonable concerns about the safety of marijuana as medicine.”

According to a previous laboratory analysis study completed earlier this
year by California NORML and MAPS, toxins in marijuana smoke produced by
combustion are eliminated by the use of a vaporization device. In that
study, marijuana vapors produced by the Volcano vaporizer were found to
consist overwhelmingly of THC, and contained only minute amounts (less than
5 percent) of a suspected carcinogen, according to a gas chromatography mass
spectrometer (GCMS) analysis of the vapor. By contrast, combusted smoke
contained over 100 other chemicals, including several polynuclear aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), carcinogenic toxins that are common in tobacco smoke.

In general, the respiratory hazards of marijuana smoke are due to toxic
byproducts of combustion, not the active ingredients of the plant, known as
cannabinoids. Vaporizers heat marijuana at a temperature sufficient to
vaporize cannabinoids (about 200Á C), but short of the point of combustion,
which is approximately 250Á C.

This is important, because the Drug Czar keeps using the “medicine isn’t smoked” argument to negate all medical benefits of marijuana (it’s all they have left). Eventually, the sheer magnitude of scientific evidence for medical marijuana has got to topple the administration’s war on the sick.

Yesterday’s Larry King show, included this exchange with Bill Maher and a caller:

KING: Oakville, Ontario, hello.
CHAMNEY: Hi, Mr. Maher, I’m absolutely thrilled to be speaking with you.
MAHER: Well, I’m thrilled to be talking to you, too.
CHAMNEY: My question for you is, do you plan on staying behind the marijuana
mission?
I don’t know if you’ve realized…
MAHER: I do.
CHAMNEY: But you’ve saved peoples’ lives up here in Canada and the United
States. It was because of you discussing it on TV and a Web site called The
Marijuana Mission that made my family understand what marijuana does for people.
And it actually stopped my grandma’s seizures. So, I’m no longer considered an
epileptic just because I smoke it every day. And I appreciate you so much. And
we talk about you up here all the time. You should run for Congress, sir.
MAHER: Thank you.
CHAMNEY: You remind me so much of my lawyer Alan Young, and he is the greatest
one up here speaking about marijuana and you keep on talking down there, buddy.
MAHER: You keep puffing as the president said, let’s roll. It’s a good
opportunity for me to bring up Tommy Chong. Tommy of “Cheech and Chong,” you
know he’s in jail right now. He was…
KING: I didn’t know.
MAHER: On the anniversary of 9/11, that’s how brazen this Justice Department is.
On the anniversary of 9/11, they arrested Tommy Chong for selling bongs over the
Internet, Larry. We cannot allow that to happen. Do you feel safer? Do you feel
safer now?
This is what I would like to say to the Bush administration about that. You
can’t have it both ways. Either 9/11 was such a transforming event and is such a
dire threat that we need the Patriotic Act, the Patriotic Act II which could
curtail a lot of civil liberties that we need to go to Iraq or you can bust
Tommy Chung. You can’t it have both ways. You can’t have the Patriotic Act and
curtail the civil liberties because 9/11 was that bad and also have the time to
go after Tommy Chung for selling bongs on the Internet. Can’t have it both ways.
KING: You favor the legalization?
MAHER: Of course. Another no-brainer. There’s a religion out there, too, having
to do with drug laws. It’s also nonsense.
KING: You’d legalize all drugs?
MAHER: I would. Yes. But obviously other drugs, it is a different situation,
because other drugs can be very dangerous…

From the Tahoe Daily Tribune: Czar: Drug test students

Youths are more dependent on marijuana than cigarettes or alcohol, provoking the White House drug czar to call for drug testing at middle and high schools.

John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, made the statement during a keynote speech at a conference attended by members of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting at Embassy Suites on Tuesday night.

Lies, lies, dangerous lies. Once again, Walters shows that he is willing to risk the health and safety of America’s youth in order to further his own personal agenda against marijuana.
Both tobacco and alcohol are a much greater dependency risk than marijuana (both in likelihood and severity of dependency). But Walters continually uses the fact that high numbers of marijuana users (not abusers) are in treatment (through criminal justice referral), which is not an indication of dependence, to actually downplay the dangers of alcohol and cigarettes.
So did anyone call him on it?

Walters was unavailable for comment afterward. He was whisked away by Secret Service to catch a flight back to Washington, D.C.

The crowd was full of military officials, undercover agents with goatees and long hair and clean-cut law enforcement officers.

Ah, yes. Lie to a sympathetic audience and run away.

Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit made a major ruling, directing a preliminary injunction to prevent the Federal government from interfering with non-commercial medical marijuana activities in states where medical marijuana is legal!
Thanks for the heads up from the wonderful folks at Brutal Hugs and also The Volokh Conspiracy (which has some excellent analysis).
In its ruling, the 9th Circuit relied on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (an approach that I’ve found very appealing, though not without concerns). It’s a strong ruling, and one that is likely to go to the Supremes (The Supreme Court earlier in Oakland had specifically noted that it was not ruling on Commerce Clause issues at that time).
The case is: ANGEL MCCLARY RAICH; DIANE MONSON; JOHN DOE, Number One; JOHN DOE, Number Two, Plaintiffs – Appellants, v. JOHN ASHCROFT, Attorney General, as United States Attorney General; ASA HUTCHINSON, as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Defendants – Appellees.

In simple terms, the appellants had asked the court to prevent the federal government from using the CSA (Controlled Substances Act) against medical marijuana growth, distribution and use that is non-commercial. They claimed court relief was required because the fear of federal harrassment affected their ability to provide for their medical needs.
Here are some quotes from the decision (pdf):

We find that the appellants have demonstrated a strong likelihood of
success on their claim that, as applied to them, the CSA is an unconstitutional
exercise of Congress’ Commerce Clause authority. We decline to reach the
appellants’ other arguments, which are based on the principles of federalism embodied in the Tenth Amendment, the appellants’ alleged fundamental rights
under the Fifth and Ninth Amendments, and the doctrine of medical necessity.

…[the appellants] contend that, whereas the earlier cases concerned
drug trafficking, the appellants’ conduct constitutes a separate and distinct class of activities: the intrastate, noncommercial cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal medical purposes as recommended by a patient’s physician pursuant to valid California state law.

Clearly, the way in which the activity or class of activities is defined is
critical. We find that the appellants’ class of activities–the intrastate,
noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for personal medical
purposes on the advice of a physician–is, in fact, different in kind from drug
trafficking. For instance, concern regarding users’ health and safety is significantly different in the medicinal marijuana context, where the use is pursuant to a physician’s recommendation. Further, the limited medicinal use of marijuana as recommended by a physician arguably does not raise the same policy concerns regarding the spread of drug abuse. Moreover, this limited use is clearly distinct from the broader illicit drug market–as well as any broader commercial market for medicinal marijuana–insofar as the medicinal marijuana at issue in this case is not intended for, nor does it enter, the stream of commerce.

The ruling also quoted one of my favorite states’ rights quotes (which I’ve mentioned here before:

(“It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that
a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”)

The final result:

For the reasons discussed above, we reverse the district court. We find that
the appellants have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits. This
conclusion, coupled with public interest considerations and the burden faced by the
appellants if, contrary to California law, they are denied access to medicinal
marijuana, warrants the entry of a preliminary injunction. We remand to the district
court for entry of a preliminary injunction consistent with this opinion.

An interesting little bit in the footnotes of the decision. Apparently the court feels strongly enough about the overall purpose of the activity being outside the scope of the Commerce Clause provisions for federal intrusion, that they wouldn’t even mind if the seeds came from elsewhere (in other words, bringing in seeds from Canada or… to grow non-commercial medical marijuana would not, in itself, be enough to trigger the Commerce Clause:

At oral argument, we questioned counsel for the appellants about the origin
of the marijuana seeds used by the appellants. Counsel for the appellants assured
us that they came from within California. Regardless, we find that the origin of the
seeds is too attenuated an issue to form the basis of congressional authority under
the Commerce Clause. In McCoy we discussed the fact that the film and camera in
that case were manufactured out of state. We expressed “substantial doubt” that
this fact (which was part of the statute’s jurisdictional hook in that case) “adds any
substance to the Commerce Clause analysis.” McCoy, 323 F.3d at 1125. Here, the
potential out-of-state production of seeds used by the appellants for their
noncommercial activity is a significantly attenuated connection between the
appellants’ activities and interstate commerce. If the appellees sought to premise
Commerce Clause authority in this case solely on the possibility that the seeds used
by the appellants traveled through interstate commerce, we would conclude, as we
did in McCoy with respect to the out-of-state manufacture of the film and camera,
that this, by itself, “provides no support for the government’s assertion of federal
jurisdiction.”

This is all great news, and a cause for celebration, even though (and perhaps to some extent because) it will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Update: Here’s a quote from Angel McClary Raich for you:

“Not too many people get to come up against someone who is as evil as (US Attorney General) John Ashcroft and actually win and that feels very good,” she said.

From the Georgia Ledger Enquirer

Walker, 39, was among three other men riding inside a gray GMC Yukon when it was stopped Wednesday night as part of a drug investigation.æ The unarmed man was fatally shot by a Muscogee County Sheriff’s Deputy after authorities said Walker failed to comply with the deputy’s commands to reveal his hands.æ The three friends were not arrested and were later released.æ Authorities later learned there was no information that Walker was involved in any kind of criminal activity.

In some communities, black teens are told to never run down the street because their parents fear the teens may be shot by some police officer who may mistake them for criminals….

When reports of an unarmed Walker being fatally shot circulated, blacks may have been shocked, but they were not surprised.æ Law enforcement has never been viewed as user-friendly in the black community.

And from WTVM (beware: linked page behaving erratically, particularly in Safari).

In a tearful interview, long-time best friend of Kenneth Walker says the thirty-nine year old was a role model to the community.

“He was a family man. He was man of morals and principles. He lived for his daughter,” says Tim Crumbley….

Walker was working at Blue Cross-Blue Shield at the time of his death. Both he and his wife were active in the St. Mary’s Road United Methodist Church.

The funeral for Walker is set for Tuesday, December 16 at St. Mary’s church. His wife Cheryl is requesting only family and friends attend the service.