Drug WarRant

At least that’s apparently the view Iran has of drug offenders.

Reminiscent of over-the-top villian movies where the bad guy tortures his victim to death, and then brings them back to life in order to exact more torture…

Iran to hang drug dealer twice

According to official state media, a doctor declared the man dead after the 12 minute-hanging, but when the prisoner’s family went to collect his body the following day he was found to still be breathing.

He is currently in hospital, but a judge reportedly said he would be executed again “once medical staff confirm his health condition is good enough”.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve talked about the Sunrise police before, but this is an amazing investigative report in the Sun Sentinel:

Cops. Cash. Cocaine. How Sunrise police make millions selling drugs by Megan O’Matz and John Maines.

In most drug stings, the police attempt to buy drugs from dealers. But in Sunrise, the police sell the drugs. And instead of trying to bust people in their community, they lure people to Sunrise from all over the country to buy cocaine from the police, and then take their money and cars.

They have a network of informants who go out and find buyers and get them to come to Sunrise. Some of these informants are paid (usually a percent of the take), while others are victims of previous reverse stings and now are working to reduce their sentences. One paid informant has made over $800,000 in the past 5 years.

This investigative report has amazing detail, down to the individual amounts that informants have been paid and the incredible amount of overtime paid to police (from their profits, of course).

Kudos to the writers for bringing all this detail to light and showing just how much the drug war is a profit-driven business.

Ethan gave a particularly stirring and effective speech at the Nantucket Project last week.

I enjoyed this quote defining who we are as drug policy reformers:

We’re the people who love drugs, we’re the people who hate drugs, we’re the people who don’t give a damn about drugs, but every one of us believes that the war on drugs is not the way to deal with the reality of drugs in our society.

Yep.

The speech is about 20 minutes, but it’s quite engaging, so the time flies by. Very nice job and worth a watch.

I struggled a little bit with his drug policy reform objective statement:

The objective of drug policy reform is to reduce the role of criminalization and the criminal justice system in drug control to the maximum extent consistent with protecting public safety and health.

I think it’s a good statement — he’s definitely on the right track and he’s trying not to make it even longer or more convoluted, but I guess my own bias is that I’m not sure that “reduce” is a sufficiently strong term when talking about the criminal justice system and drug policy. Because it isn’t just a matter of lessening the devastation of the criminal justice system, but also of recognizing that other methods besides the criminal justice system can be more effective in reducing the harms of drug abuse (without adding their own harms).

Perhaps adding two words: “…to reduce and replace the role of criminalization…” would strengthen that statement a bit.

Alternatively, I might take a different approach to the notion and say that the ultimate goal of drug policy reform is to achieve a system of drug controls whereby the negative effects of drug abuse are lessened to the extent possible without adding negative effects to society from the controls themselves. (That’s also not perfect, but I may continue to work on it.)

Rochester, New York, police apparently never heard of the First Amendment’s right to assemble. ‘Drug free zones’ proposal for Rochester neighborhoods

Rochester City Council member Adam McFadden is proposing a law that would create drug free zones in the city of Rochester. It would mean that police officers would have the authority to arrest anyone who is loitering in front of a home, a businesses or on a street corners…no questions asked.

Number of babies born with drug addition rising – that’s right – drug addition (same mistake is made in the body of the article).

It’s not just the spelling. The whole article is a joke.

So this is how science is conducted?

Cannabis causing strokes in young people, Irish medic says

When the blood vessel was examined by a neuropathologist, they found that the lining had “grossly thickened” and blocked off the artery resulting in the stroke. Prof Harbison said that this echoed findings in another of his patients, a heavy cannabis user who had had a blood vessel outside the brain biopsied after surviving a stroke. […]

“There is a level of concern that there is an association with particularly heavy users. We are seeing people coming in with strokes where we cannot find any cause but their cannabis use. This case and the other case leads you to think that there is a direct organic effect to it,” he said.

Well that explains it then, doesn’t it? If you can’t find another cause, and two of them are heavy cannabis users, you got yourself some cannabis deaths.

As science, it certainly seemed to impress Kevin.

Harmless? Cannabis linked to strokes and deaths in Ireland, Irish medic tells inquest: http://t.co/mnNmVu1qLg

Having a government shutdown while the DEA goes to work is like not having enough money to buy food for your children while still buying bullets to shoot yourself in the foot.

The Economist has been holding a week-long debate on the question of “Should Cannabis be Legal Everywhere” between Ethan Nadelmann and Neil McKeganey, moderated by Josie Delap.

There’s certainly no doubt among the internet community as to who is winning this particular debate, as the vote has been consistently 93% to 7% in favor of Nadelmann each day.

The usual character has shown up to make his scare argument about marijuana big business, use non-sequiturs about alcohol, and promote his book.

There’s still an opportunity to go over there and add your 2 cents to the discussion.

Many years ago, this used to be my hometown paper. Things sure have changed.

Don’t imprison this cancer patient – Quad City Times Editorial Board.

Investigators turned up no evidence of a widespread dope-dealing operation foisting marijuana into the hands of Quad-City kids. All of the evidence points to a cancer patient desperate for relief.

Yet prosecution continues under an unforgiving Iowa drug law that is far behind the rest of the nation. Twenty states, including Illinois, have legalized medical marijuana. Three more have decriminalized recreational use.

The same facts in a different state would leave Mackenzie labeled a homeopathic pioneer. In Iowa, he’s deemed a criminal so dangerous, county authorities have spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in investigation, raids and court appearances that will lead to even higher incarceration costs upon conviction.

All of this is being spent on the same defendant jailed for two months, until Scott County authorities suddenly realized they might be on the hook for his medical bills. Then he was released without bond.

This hypocrisy will continue as long as Iowa lawmakers ignore mounting evidence of marijuana’s medicinal qualities and its recreational harmlessness.

Pretty harsh words for an editorial, and very nice to see.

It’s bound to open up a few more eyes. The people need to wake up and realize that they will no longer put up with this kind of prosecutorial abuse, or the laws that allow it to happen.

Disappointing, though probably not surprising… US Supreme Court Rejects Marijuana Reclassification Appeal

The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear an appeal from medical marijuana advocacy groups who had challenged the DEA’s decision to maintain marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the category reserved for the most dangerous substances.

The court denied in summary order a petition for a writ of certiorari from the groups, led by Americans for Safe Access, which had sought Supreme Court review of a DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the DEA’s ruling that a change in marijuana’s classification required the Food and Drug Administration’s recognition of acceptable medical uses for the drugs.

Advocates of rescheduling marijuana have been trying to do so for more than four decades, but have been thwarted by DEA delays and intransigence. This was the third formal rescheduling effort to be blocked by DEA decision making.

It’s clear that the Court is going to defer to the government whenever possible in this area, and as long as the DEA has some kind of internal appeal process (no matter how dishonestly self-serving and delay inducing), the Supremes won’t interfere.

I gave up expecting any kind of judicial integrity from the court following the opinion in Raich. And, after all, this is a court that has as a prominent member someone who still believes in the literal devil.

With the executive branch having too many reasons (politically and financially) to keep demonizing marijuana, and Congress still being too spineless to do anything, it seems clear that continuing the push for reform through the states and through the grass roots is still the best approach to achieving reform.

Note: Kevin and I had a little discussion about the marijuana schedule issue last night.

Kevin: US Supreme Court rejects the reclassification of marijuana – read why reclassification is a lame issue anyway: http://t.co/qtQnyOLQrR

Me: @KevinSabet Tell that to Peter McWilliams… oh, you can’t— he’s dead.

Kevin: @DrugWarRant I didn’t say marijuana has no medical properties. It’s a matter of how we deliver them, but then again you’d rather misconstrue

Me: @KevinSabet McWilliams died, in part, because he wasn’t allowed to say the words “medical marijuana” in fed court, hence Schedule matters.

Thanks to all those who came out for my talk today on the Drug War’s Assault on Justice. We had a nice discussion afterward.

And thanks again to the sponsors:
Bloomington-Normal Coalition for Peace and Justice
Common Action Free School
Amnesty International Chapter IWU
Center for Engaged Citizenship IWU
Center for Human Rights and Social Justice IWU
Political Science Department IWU

I’m hoping that we’ll be able to put together a similar event at Illinois State University in the near future.

…

“Spring Awakening” — the musical for which I was Music Director/Conductor/Pianist — closed Saturday night with a fabulous show to a full house with a complete and immediate standing ovation. What a joy it was to be part of this project – so much creative work by these amazing students. It’s truly invigorating… and I’ll miss it.