Drug WarRant

Nice editorial in the New York Times: American Mayors – Let Them Smoke Pot

What the Conference of Mayors resolved seems appropriate — and sensitive to the reality that public attitudes toward marijuana are liberalizing rapidly. In 1969, the Pew Research Center found that only 12 percent of Americans favored legalizing the drug. By 2010, that figure was 41 percent. In 2013, it was 52 percent, a majority.

At any rate, Mr. Holder’s dithering helps no one. The status quo is chaotic and untenable. If you live in Denver or Seattle and you are thinking of applying for a license to sell marijuana, you have a right to know whether federal prosecutors will move to seize your property and jail you.

Kudos to Tom Angell and the Marijuana Majority for their tremendous work organizing this wonderful resolution and getting so many people to write their Mayor (I did). It makes for a very strong argument that marijuana should be a local and state issue.

So this showed up today from Amazon. I’m looking forward to reading it, as soon as I get some time. I’d hurry up and review it, but it doesn’t really seem that Radley needs my review – he’s already got rave reviews on the cover from Norm Stamper, Anthony Romero, Arianna Huffington, Ron Paul, and Glenn Greenwald (who calls it a “must-read”).

I’d trust that.

As always…

Link

Chinese authorities have once again commemorated the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking by stepping up their drug enforcement efforts.

Ahead of the UN anti-drug day on Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency reports that six men were executed in China on Tuesday for separate drug-trafficking charges. Another four individuals were given death sentences, the report said.

So why are we doing this again?

Oh, yeah…

“We have to admit that, globally, the demand for drugs has not been substantially reduced and that some challenges exist in the implementation of the drug control system, in the violence generated by trafficking in illicit drugs, in the fast evolving nature of new psychoactive substances, and in those national legislative measures which may result in a violation of human rights.” – Yuri Fedotov

Thought I’d share with you a post I made on Facebook.

…

It would be a mistake to assume that the Voting Rights Act in any way ensured that all African Americans were able to vote. The biggest factor in suppressing minority vote is not even addressed by the Voting Rights Act — felony disenfranchisement.

5.8 million Americans are unable to vote because of our obsession with over-incarceration and the drug war, and it hits minorities hardest by a long shot. 1 in 13 African-Americans nationally are unable to vote. Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men can expect to be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. In states that disenfranchise ex-offenders, as many as 40% of black men may permanently lose their right to vote (source: Sentencing Project).

Drug war incarceration has been referred to as the “New Jim Crow,” and built right into our drug laws are enforcement incentives that make racist outcomes certain.

Despite the fact that blacks and whites use drugs at roughly the same rate, in our enlightened northern state of Illinois, blacks are 7.5 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites (see ACLU report released this month). Federally, blacks now make up 82% of crack defendants, up from 79% in 2009. In every aspect of the drug war you find similar results, with African Americans (and Hispanics) bearing a dramatically disproportionate share.

So go ahead and mourn the death of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which provided some useful election oversight in certain states and counties determined 40 years ago. Howl at the injustice of the Justices.

But if you really care about making sure all Americans are enfranchised, then you might be better off working to end this racist drug war.

The DEA just can’t contain itself. I’ve gotten multiple press releases from them about a special press conference today, where they’re going to get to show off their latest big bust. Must be a doozy, because they’re milking it (and teasing it) for all the publicity they can get.

DEA PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY ON MAJOR ENFORCEMENT OPERATION

The DEA and other federal law-enforcement partners will hold a press conference TODAY, Wednesday June 26th, to present the results of a significant law enforcement operation taking place throughout the United States and abroad. Because of the sensitivities and timing of these enforcement actions, details of this operation will not be available until the press conference.

When: Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 at 3 p.m. Eastern time

Please arrive early to allow time to be processed through security, particularly television crews. Only credentialed media may attend.

The World Drug Report for 2013 was released this morning by the UNODC. This is actually a useful report in terms of all the international information it contains, but of course it is also a product of the UNODC, and so any commentary within tends to hew to the standard pro-drug-war rhetoric.

In the preface by Yury Fedotov, I found this paragraph absolutely stunning:

We have to admit that, globally, the demand for drugs has not been substantially reduced and that some challenges exist in the implementation of the drug control system, in the violence generated by trafficking in illicit drugs, in the fast evolving nature of new psychoactive substances, and in those national legislative measures which may result in a violation of human rights. The real issue is not to amend the Conventions, but to implement them according to their underlying spirit.

Read that again and realize the enormity of what he is saying.

In essence, he is admitting that the UNODC’s drug war regime has absolutely failed to accomplish anything, that it is unworkable, that it causes enormous violence, leads to development of unsafe drugs, and results in human rights abuses. However, that doesn’t mean we need to change anything about it — we’ve just got to figure out how to implement it better.

Wow.

For an alternative World Drug Report that deals with the costs of the drug war, go to Count The Costs

As you may have heard by now, the US Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution on Monday urging radical change of federal involvement in marijuana laws. The resolution includes:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors reaffirms its support of fair and effective criminal justice and drug policies and reiterates its previous call for the reclassification of marijuana under federal law; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors recognizes that its members have differing views on how to treat marijuana in their cities, and believes that states and localities should be able to set whatever marijuana policies work best to improve the public safety and health of their communities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors believes that federal laws, including the Controlled Substance Act, should be amended to explicitly allow states to set their own marijuana policies without federal interference; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that until such time as federal law is changed, the United States Conference of Mayors urges the President of the United States to reexamine the priorities of federal agencies to prevent the expenditure of resources on actions that undermine the duly enacted marijuana laws of states.

Powerful stuff and a pretty strong indictment of the federal government and this administration.

So… what was the ONDCP’s response?

Twitter:

Thank you, @USmayors, for unanimously supporting the Administration’s approach to #DrugPolicyReform. More: http://t.co/QihhsHmQvR #uscm2013

As Dan Riffle noted: “It takes a special brand of cynicism to operate the ONDCP twitter feed.”

Update: It appears that the Mayors also somewhat contradictorily unanimously endorsed the drug czar’s overall drug policy statement. That could be explained by the fact that the administration’s drug policy document is full of good-sounding things that have little to do with actual drug policy.

BuzzFeed has a hilarious/horrifying piece: The 14 Most Ridiculous Things Police Bought With Asset Forfeiture

Just of few of them…

Michael McDougal, then district attorney for Montgomery County, Texas, spent over $400 on tequila, rum, and kegs and $139 on a margarita machine. The DA’s office even won first place at a county fair for best margarita. […]

A sheriff in Virginia was convicted for bribing two police officers with $420 in asset forfeiture proceeds. […]

Sheriff Bill Smith in Camden County, Georgia, spent $90,000 on a Dodge Viper for the county’s Drug Awareness and Resistance Education (DARE) program. […]

[the same] Sheriff Bill Smith spent over $35,000 in forfeiture funds to pay prison inmates, including building a “very nice party house” for the sheriff.

Getting ready to open a show in Chicago Saturday, which has kept me busy and on the road, and the NSA leaks story has been getting a lot of my attention, so I don’t have much today.

Should Pot Be Legal in Barrons.

Whether Congress realizes it or not, a good number of citizens want the problem fixed. The same Pew study that found a majority of people favoring legalization also found that 60% of Americans think the federal government should not enforce its prohibition in states that permit marijuana use. And 72% agreed with the proposition that federal enforcement of marijuana laws is not worth the cost.

Rep. Rohrabacher’s plan is as good a fix as any. It’s straightforward and sensible: The federal government can help enforce antipot laws in states that want them, but it must mind its own business in states that don’t want marijuana to be criminal.

Eventually, the federal government may repeal all of its laws against pot use, pot production, and pot dealing.

They could be replaced by laws no tougher than those that apply to liquor. Just as it was with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Congress could allow states to continue pot prohibition by local option, or to draft their own regulatory systems.

Given the unwillingness of many in Congress to even talk about marijuana, the day of full repeal is probably far off. But tending to the clumsy conflicts between state and federal governments is something that can and should be addressed right now.

We’ve been talking about Patrick Kennedy. Here’s another article about him.

Recovering drug addict Patrick Kennedy now leads fight against legalizing marijuana

By year’s end, Project SAM expects to be operating in 13 states, said Kevin Sabet, the group’s executive director and a former White House drug policy adviser. It already has affiliates in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Vermont and Rhode Island.

Kennedy’s trips will take him to two big pro-marijuana states: In 1996, California became the first of 18 to legalize medical marijuana, and in November Washington joined Colorado as the first to approve marijuana for recreational use. Kennedy will announce new affiliates July 1 in San Diego and July 10 in Seattle. After that, Sabet said, more affiliates will follow in Missouri, New York, Oregon, New Hampshire, Indiana and Maine.

I sure am curious to know where their funding comes from.

Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet sink to a new low in their letter in the New York Times responding to the Times editorial about the racial disparity that exists nationwide in marijuana arrests, which is all out of proportion to how marijuana is used in the population.

Kennedy/Sabet:

Second, legalization would exacerbate, not reduce, racial disparities in both our criminal justice and health care systems.

We can expect the legal marijuana industry to target minorities in the same way the alcohol and tobacco industries do today. There are eight times as many liquor stores in poor communities of color versus upper-class white areas. Additionally, even though they use drugs at roughly the same rate as whites, African-Americans are more likely to need treatment because of reduced access to health care and social supports. Communities of color will bear the brunt of marijuana legalization.

This is what it sounds like they’re saying (are they channeling Anslinger a bit?):

You don’t understand… if we legalize marijuana, those black people won’t be able to resist Big Marijuana and they’ll just go crazy smoking that reefer. And it’ll make them commit crimes and it’ll make them sick with nobody to help them. It’s just the… humane… thing to do — arresting black people. For their own good, you know.

Stay classy, guys.