| March 19, 2010 #641 | ||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||||
(1) STATE HOUSE: GROWING, DISTRIBUTING MEDICAL MARIJUANA AT ISSUE (Top) | ||||||||||
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AUGUSTA -- A legislative committee waded through 44 questions
surrounding the state's medical marijuana law Tuesday, including how
to regulate use by children and who will be authorized to grow the
drug for dispensaries. | ||||||||||
The Health and Human Services Committee is expected to vote out a
final version of the bill this week, but implementing a citizen
initiative to allow dispensaries to distribute the drug has proved
difficult. | ||||||||||
The committee delayed action on a proposal by Rep. Anne Haskell,
D-Portland, that would require dispensaries to buy marijuana only
from state-licensed, wholesale growers. The bill approved by voters
in November allows dispensaries to grow it themselves. | ||||||||||
The idea to restrict growing for dispensaries to wholesale
operations gained support from Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess,
R-Cumberland, who wants to "decouple" growing operations from those
who sell the drug. | ||||||||||
She said oversight by the state Department of Agriculture could help
with things such as pesticides and mites. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(2) BLARNEY STONED ON BATH SALTS (Top) | ||||||||||
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New-Wave Head Shops, Fast Becoming a Fixture in Ireland, Sell Cheap
and Legal Highs Thinly Disguised As Other Products
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Like plenty of hale and hearty young Irishmen, Chris knows just how
to unwind after a tough day at the office: He reaches for his bath
salts. | ||||||||||
He gets the water ready -- but in a glass, not the tub. Then, despite a warning on the box that it's "not for human consumption," he pops a capsule in his mouth and downs it with a swig. | ||||||||||
For the next few hours, he's happy and hopped up, full of energy for an evening of clubbing, without a hangover lying in wait. | ||||||||||
"I find it much less debilitating" than alcohol, confides the
29-year-old bookkeeper, who can pop two or three capsules a night.
He asked that his full name not be used. | ||||||||||
Such "bath salts" are popular these days throughout Ireland, not for
a relaxing soak at home but because many contain a party drug known
as mephedrone. They're part of the literally dizzying array of
products being sold in stores offering customers cheap and legal
highs, stuff marketed as bath salts or incense but designed to be
smoked, snorted or swallowed. | ||||||||||
The new-wave head shops are fast becoming a fixture in this island
nation, multiplying with astonishing speed from just a few several
years ago to as many as 100 today. Much of the growth has occurred
in the last 12 months, even as the rest of the Irish economy
underwent a painful contraction. | ||||||||||
Authorities are increasingly concerned about the potential effect of
head shops and their products on crime and the nation's health.
Parents, too, are worried about their children's exposure to
substances that mimic the effects of outlawed drugs such as cocaine
and marijuana. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(3) BORDER CITY OF NUEVO LAREDO RELIVES NIGHTMARE OF VIOLENCE (Top) | ||||||||||
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Mexico Under Siege
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Renewed Feuding Between Drug Gangs Spurs Old Fears Amid Dozens of
Deaths
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Residents of this scruffy border town thought they had seen the
worst of the violence five years ago, when rival drug gangs staged
wild gunfights in the streets and a new police chief was slain just
hours after being sworn in. | ||||||||||
The warfare gave way to an uneasy calm after one of the warring
groups took de facto control. The number of deaths here ebbed, even
as violence soared out of control in other border cities, such as
Ciudad Juarez, about 500 miles to the northwest. | ||||||||||
Now, like a recurring nightmare, dread again hangs over Nuevo Laredo
amid a new bloody feud that has ignited widespread fear of a return
to the earlier carnage. | ||||||||||
Dozens of people have been killed along the border in recent weeks
in clashes between northeastern Mexico's most powerful gangs: the
Gulf cartel and onetime allies known as the Zetas. Both are based
here in Tamaulipas -- a pistol-shaped state that hugs the Texas
border and Gulf of Mexico. | ||||||||||
Adding to the potential for skyrocketing violence, the Gulf cartel
has reportedly reached out for help against the Zetas by enlisting
the heavily armed trafficking group headed by Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman, based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(4) IN MILE HIGH CITY, WEED SPARKS UP A COUNTERCULTURE CLASH (Top) | ||||||||||
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Medical Marijuana Brands Like 'AK-47' Harsh the Mellow of Upscale
Potrepreneurs
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DENVER - Attorney Warren Edson would like to throttle the anonymous marijuana breeder who named a potent strain of weed "Green Crack." | ||||||||||
He's not too fond, either, of those breeders who have given strains
names like "Jack the Ripper," "White Widow," "AK-47" and
"Trainwreck."
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"How can I find them and strangle them?" Mr. Edson asks. | ||||||||||
His beef: Mr. Edson is in the vanguard of an aggressive movement to
make pot respectable -but decades of stoner culture keep dragging
him down. | ||||||||||
Medical marijuana is now legal in 15 states for patients suffering
certain conditions, including, in Colorado, chronic pain. More than
60,000 Coloradans have doctor recommendations allowing them to buy
marijuana; physicians are approving about 400 new patients a day.
Pot shops have popped up all over, including at least 230 here in
the Mile High City. | ||||||||||
Many of the new dispensaries are dingy and cramped, with bars on the
windows, psychedelic posters on the walls and a generally furtive
feel. | ||||||||||
But a growing number of potrepreneurs have gone upscale, investing as much as $100,000 to launch "wellness centers" that look like spas-and just happen to sell weed. This new breed of marijuana "pharmacist" is pushing hard to professionalize the industry. | ||||||||||
That means promoting a voluntary code of conduct at odds with the
traditional buck-the-system stoner culture. The new pot
professionals look down on neon cannabis-leaf signs, wince at
tie-dye Bob Marley posters, and cringe at the in-your-face swagger
of the names traditionally used to differentiate varieties of
marijuana. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy
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COMMENT: (5-8) (Top) | ||||||||||
New research out of Canada claims to have found the genes in poppy
plants that create painkillers in the plant. What does this mean for
the drug war?
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Hunters in Mexico are learning that the drug war means a lot less
peace and quiet. And, in Los Angeles, medical cannabis activists try
to preempt a city crackdown, while a longtime Hawaiian cannabis
activist was raided by the feds last week. | ||||||||||
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(5) U OF C RESEARCHERS FIND ELUSIVE OPIUM GENE (Top) | ||||||||||
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Pain Reliever Discovery
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University of Calgary researchers say they've pinpointed certain
elusive genes of the opium poppy, a discovery that could allow for
cheaper and more widespread painkillers. | ||||||||||
The genes are responsible for allowing the opium poppy to produce some of the world's most widely used pain relievers: codeine and morphine, said U of C biological sciences professor Peter Facchini. | ||||||||||
Enzymes encoded by the two genes have eluded scientists for at least
50 years, Facchini said. | ||||||||||
"These are the two that are unique in opium poppy that allow it, uniquely among plants, to make codeine and morphine," he said. | ||||||||||
The scientist has devoted 18 years to his research on the opium
poppy, and made the genetic discovery along with Jillian Hagel, a
post-doctoral scientist in Facchini's lab. | ||||||||||
Their findings, which were announced Sunday, will be published in a paper appearing in the online edition of Nature Chemical Biology. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(6) DRUG WAR IN MEXICO SHOOTS DOWN HUNTING (Top) | ||||||||||
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About 43% of the Country's Hunters Are From the United States. Their
Prime Areas Have the Most Intense Violence. | ||||||||||
LOS MOCHIS, Mexico - It was a fabulous day for duck hunting, quiet
and peaceful except for
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A police helicopter roared in over the mangroves, scattering the
ducks and hovering over the American hunters trying not to be seen
in their blinds. | ||||||||||
Suspected drug traffickers had killed six people, execution-style
with bullets to the head, near the marsh the night before. Now
police were searching for a possible seventh body that may have been
dumped in the water. | ||||||||||
"Oh, that's not good for business," guide David Warner said as the
helicopter clattered away over the marsh. | ||||||||||
Across Mexico, drug violence is putting a damper on efforts to
attract American hunters, a form of tourism that ranchers and the
government have been trying to encourage in recent years as a way of
bringing jobs to rural parts of the country. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(7) GROUP PUSHES BACK ON POT LAW (Top) | ||||||||||
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Dispensary Operators Gather Signatures for a Referendum to Block the
City's Ordinance
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Seeking to overturn the city's medical marijuana ordinance even
before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles
collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on
the law. | ||||||||||
The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to
turn in 27,425 valid signatures. | ||||||||||
"We're getting down to the wire here," said Dan Halbert, who runs
Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and has coordinated the campaign.
"It's going to be close."
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Halbert's dispensary on Venice Boulevard, which opened last year, is
one of hundreds that would have to close under the ordinance. That
law, which will probably not be in effect until May, caps the number
at 70. But it also makes an exception to allow about 128
dispensaries that registered in 2007, when the City Council adopted
a moratorium, to stay open. | ||||||||||
"They are just kind of arbitrarily drawing a line in the sand," said
Halbert, who argues that the competitive business environment would
eventually reduce the number on its own, leaving only the best-run
collectives. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(8) FEDS ALSO RAIDED ISLE RESIDENCES (Top) | ||||||||||
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At least six and perhaps as many as a dozen homes were raided Wednesday during a federal drug sweep on the Big Island. | ||||||||||
"I know of about six others who were raided," said Roger Christie,
founder and director of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, whose downtown
Hilo sanctuary and Wainaku residence were searched by federal
agents, assisted by local police. | ||||||||||
A police log for Wednesday showed 12 report numbers indicating
police assistance to outside law enforcement agencies between 4 a.m.
and just past 3 p.m. Five incidents occurred in Puna, four in South
Hilo, and one each in North Hilo, Hamakua and Ka'u. | ||||||||||
A police spokeswoman confirmed that all are related to the federal
operation, and referred any further inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's
office in Honolulu. | ||||||||||
"There have been no arrests and no charges," Deputy U.S. Attorney
Tom Muehleck said Thursday afternoon. | ||||||||||
Two callers told the Tribune-Herald that their homes were raided.
One didn't offer additional information or leave a phone number on a
voice message. Another said 25 marijuana seedlings were confiscated
from his home and complained about his 93-year-old father being
awakened at 6 a.m. | ||||||||||
Christie said authorities spent about seven hours searching his home
and ministry, starting around 6 a.m. He said the Drug Enforcement
Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Inspector and
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service were involved in the
search, as were local police. | ||||||||||
"They treated me with the utmost respect and courtesy," Christie
said Wednesday afternoon at THC Ministry headquarters, which showed
no outward signs Thursday afternoon of having been searched.
Christie said investigators even bought him breakfast. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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"To me, the interesting thing in the search warrant was ... the need to leave anything behind anything that could be construed as legitimate ministry materials. ... Usually, it's just rip and roll," Christie added. "You know, that's a country I want to live in. If they're gonna have to do this, do it with some respect." | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Law Enforcement & Prisons
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COMMENT: (9-12) (Top) | ||||||||||
What happens to all that alleged drug money that police confiscate from suspects? Another pair of cases show it's often difficult to tell - even when professional accountants are involved. Elsewhere, Rachel Hoffman's police handler may get his job back; and the Attorney General of Costa Rica has an interesting but likely misguided plan to curb illegal drug use with legal drug use. | ||||||||||
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(9) P-MEG, DIRECTOR MUST BECOME ACCOUNTABLE (Top) | ||||||||||
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Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons is not the only one to raise questions about central Illinois' undercover drug enforcement. | ||||||||||
He's just the only one willing to do so in public. Lyons is
convinced he made no progress with law-enforcement officials in
private. | ||||||||||
"Everyone in the room will have guns and a bullet-proof vest except
for me," he says via e-mail. "How wrong is that???"
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Drugs. Guns. Cash. Peoria's Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group
is the place where that unholy trio collides, with support from your
federal, state and local tax dollars. But P-MEG's own audits raise
questions about how those resources are handled. | ||||||||||
"Our consideration of internal control over financial reporting . .
. would not necessarily identify all deficiencies in internal
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[snip]
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(10) FORMER CARTERET SHERIFF ACCUSED OF SKIMMING DRUG MONEY (Top) | ||||||||||
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RALEIGH -- A former Carteret County sheriff and a former deputy who
served under him face federal charges alleging they stole federal
funds intended for covert drug investigations. | ||||||||||
Ralph Thomas Jr., Christopher Cozart and unnamed co-conspirators are
accused of illegally taking more than $5,000 and putting the drug
funds to personal use, according to criminal information filed
Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North
Carolina. | ||||||||||
The alleged thefts occurred on multiple occasions between about 1997
and October 2006 according to the charges. Thomas retired in 2006
after a 20-year career as sheriff. | ||||||||||
According to the court documents, sheriff's deputies under Thomas'
supervision, including Cozart, used checks drawn on official
accounts maintained by the Carteret County Sheriff's Office to
withdraw funds designated only for use in covert drug
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The information on Cozart's charges say he also received funds and
kept a portion for personal use. | ||||||||||
Cozart served as a deputy sheriff in Carteret County from 2002 to
2007, and in that position he served as a detective in the office's
drug unit. The court information indicates there were unnamed
co-conspirators in the alleged incidents. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(11) OFFICER WHO LED FATAL, BOTCHED DRUG STING MIGHT GET JOB BACK (Top) | ||||||||||
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Training, Better Procedures Might Have Spared Rachel Hoffman, Report
Says
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TAMPA - Ryan Pender, the only Tallahassee police officer fired after a failed drug sting that led to the death of an undercover informant from Pinellas County, may get his job back - with back pay. | ||||||||||
Pender shouldn't be blamed because the department lacked specific
policies that might have guided him and prevented the death of
Rachel Hoffman, 23, according to Christopher Shulman of Tampa, who
mediated the January arbitration hearing to determine Pender's fate.
Shulman's findings were released Saturday. | ||||||||||
"I am not exonerating Grievant for the lapses in judgment the record
suggests he made related to his selection and employment of Ms.
Hoffman as a CI," he wrote. | ||||||||||
"It is this arbitrator's view (apparently shared by the Legislature,
which enacted 'Rachel's Law') that greater training, combined with
better procedures, might have avoided Ms. Hoffman's death, if only
because she might not have been a CI and/or might not have been
employed in this Buy/Bust."
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Hoffman, who used and sold marijuana, was shot by two men in May
2008 as she attempted to avoid jail time by working the sting, which
involved buying cocaine, Ecstasy and a handgun with marked bills.
Deneilo Bradshaw and Andrea Green each received life in prison
without the possibility of parole for her murder. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(12) ATTORNEY GENERAL URGES GIVING FREE DRUGS TO ADDICTS (Top) | ||||||||||
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The Attorney General, Francisco Dall'Anese is spearheading an initiative to provide, free of charge, substitutes to drug addicts. A plan that aims to "break" the finances of drug traffickers. | ||||||||||
"It would reduce demand. The idea is to compete (with the drug)
through the distribution of an alternative drug (created in the
laboratory)." said Dall'Anese. | ||||||||||
The prosecutor has lobbied diligently, seeking support, but the
project raises some concerns. | ||||||||||
Minister of Public Safety, Janina del Vecchio said a similar plan
failed in Austria for there, resulting in increased consumption of
the target drug. | ||||||||||
The director of the Costa Rican Drug Institute (DCI), Mauritius
Boraschi believes that this is not something that could be currently
functional in Costa Rica, as it is in European countries, because
the reality is different: there the major problem is with heroin and
there is a medication for treating heroin addiction, but here the
main problem is a cocaine, especially crack use. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Cannabis & Hemp
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COMMENT: (13-16) (Top) | ||||||||||
How can cannabis consumers be anything but ambivalent about proposals
to merely fine them instead of criminalizing them? No doubt witches
would have had mixed feelings about being fined instead of being
burned at the stake. | ||||||||||
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper followed Obama's lead and
did a little Q&A via Youtube. Once again, questions concerning
cannabis legalization garnered the most votes, and once again, the
questions were dismissed in the media as fringe, or merely amusing,
and responded to with meaningless platitudes. | ||||||||||
Yet another cop opined with half-truths, lies and distortions on
how cannabis regulation would destroy society. | ||||||||||
Mark Twain once said, "Few things are harder to put up with than
the annoyance of a good example." Steve Kubby must really get on
the nerves of medicinal cannabis sceptics. | ||||||||||
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(13) FINE HIKE WAS LIKE SEEDS IN A BAG OF GOOD WEED (Top) | ||||||||||
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Legislation designed to help pot smokers instead had many of them going all like, "Dude, what the fuck?!?!" But the author is now telling everyone to chill out, no problem, he's got it under control. | ||||||||||
California Sen. Mark Leno (D-SF) introduced a bill last month that
would make possession of up to one ounce of marijuana an infraction
instead of a misdemeanor. As introduced, the bill Senate Bill 1449
would also raise fines to $250 from $100, which pot advocates and
their allies thought was a serious bummer. But Leno called this a
"drafting error" that he intends to correct with an amendment this
week. | ||||||||||
Marijuana possession is currently the only misdemeanor on the books
that does not result in a jail sentence. Leno told us that SB 1449
would correct this irregularity. Leno also said that the bill would
save the state time and money. Unlike infractions, misdemeanor charges
give defendants the right to costly jury trials and access to public
defenders. | ||||||||||
"Because of the allowance for a jury trial, a lot of time, money, and
effort is wasted when it's an infraction, misnamed," Leno told us.
"Either we call it what it is - a $100 fine is an infraction - or if
it is a misdemeanor, then increase the penalty to include jail time.
But no one wants to do that."
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[snip]
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Drug policy reform advocates supported the move to make possession an
infraction instead of a misdemeanor but raised concerns about the
possible increase in fines. "We have always supported making marijuana
possession an infraction instead of a misdemeanor," said Dale
Gieringer, vice chair of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(14) DOWN WITH POT, UP WITH SEALS: HARPER TO YOUTUBE (Top) | ||||||||||
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Stephen Harper waltzed through his first interview gig on YouTube on
Tuesday and along the way he gave a thumbs-up to the seal hunt and the
crackdown on "guns, gangs and drugs" and a firm thumbs-down to
legalizing pot. | ||||||||||
"The reason drugs are illegal is because they are bad," the prime
minister said. | ||||||||||
"And even if these things were legalized, I can predict with a lot of
confidence that these would never be respectable businesses run by
respectable people."
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Canadian Patrick Pichette, Google's bilingual chief financial officer,
conducted the interview, and made a point of saying the question about
marijuana, which he asked last, won the most votes from those who
participated in the YouTube challenge. | ||||||||||
"Well, it's a good question," Harper responded. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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On mandatory sentencing, he said that although he didn't think crime was out of control in the country, there are "worrying growth areas, particularly if you look at the areas of guns, gangs and drugs, and this is a growth area, not just in Canada, but around the world." | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(15) MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION (Top) | ||||||||||
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A Windfall Or Smokescreen For Easing State's Fiscal Woes? | ||||||||||
Marijuana legalization advocates have, apparently, collected enough signatures to qualify their initiative (No. 1377) for the November ballot. The measure proposes to "legalize (nonmedicinal) marijuana and tax it," as if that will solve California's fiscal problems. | ||||||||||
This claim was somewhat legitimized when the California Board of
Equalization estimated that the annual revenue gained from a marijuana
sales tax would be $1.4 billion. The state director of finance places
the savings in the tens of millions of dollars, but concerned citizens
need to ask how those figures were derived and if they reflect the
true cost. | ||||||||||
In 2006, Jon Gettman, the former National Director for NORMAL [sic]
(National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), and longtime
contributor to High Times magazine, published an article entitled
"Marijuana Production in the United States."
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If one looks at the facts available to Gettman, you will see that his numbers were inflated, which, obviously, skewed his overall findings. Unfortunately, the Board of Equalization relied on Gettman's analysis. | ||||||||||
Dr. Rosalie Pacula from the RAND Corp. conducted a cost-benefit analysis on the same topic and discredited the Board of Equalization's findings. Yet, Dr. Pacula's information is often ignored. | ||||||||||
An area sometimes overlooked in the legalization debate pertains to
the social and economic costs to society. A 2009 study by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, found
that for every $1 gained in tax revenue on alcohol and tobacco,
society pays $8.95 in social costs. | ||||||||||
The legalization of recreational marijuana will remove sanctions and the stigma of criminal activity, which will only encourage much greater use of a dangerous, addictive, and highly potent drug, will cost taxpayers far more than any tax could possibly recover. | ||||||||||
Proponents of legalization claim that smoking marijuana is not as bad
for you as consuming alcohol. The truth is marijuana is addictive and
marijuana smoke does cause cancer. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(16) CANCER SURVIVOR AIMS TO SKI 1 MILLION VERTICAL FEET (Top) | ||||||||||
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Watching Steve Kubby maneuver around on the mountain makes it hard to believe he's been living with terminal cancer for 35 years. | ||||||||||
Kubby is determined to ski a million vertical feet before the end of
the season. | ||||||||||
It's a challenge he set for himself to raise awareness of his disease
and the treatment to which he feels he owes his life. He attributes
his survival to regular use of medicinal marijuana. "I'm so inspired
because I'm alive," he said. "I should have died or had a heart
attack, but instead I'm skiing and what a wonderful gift, and without
this herb, that gift wouldn't be a reality."
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His Cancer
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Kubby was diagnosed with pheochromocytoma at 24 years old and it
turned malignant when he was 28. | ||||||||||
Pheochromocytoma is a rare form of adrenal cancer that causes spikes
in adrenaline and other hormones that increase a person's blood
pressure, leaving them with feelings of panic, fear, nausea, and
abdominal pain. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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International News
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COMMENT: (17-21) (Top) | ||||||||||
In Mexico, so-called "drug slayings" ("believed to be linked to drug
traffickers") claimed many more last week, this time taking the lives
of two U.S. consulate employees. Prohibitionists claim such violence
is a sign of success. "The argument is absurd that the killings are a
sign of his success," said former Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda,
who earlier this year authored a report which championed legalization
of drugs. The Wall Street Journal obediently conveyed the wisdom of
government prohibitionists: the problem of course is that there's not
enough government, and the journal cited government experts to prove
it. The Mexican government "doesn't have the training for
intelligence work or counterinsurgency operations that could help
turn the tide." Problem: not enough government. Solution to 'turn the
tide' against drugs in Mexico? More government. Makes sense: doesn't
more government always 'turn the tide' on drugs?
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Fifty years after the fact, a little-known incident where "an entire French village" went temporarily insane is now being blamed on a secret U.S. government experiment - with LSD. In 1951, the population of the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit suffered hallucinations, which were blamed on bad baguettes, at the time. Journalist H P Albarelli Jr came across CIA documents recently which referred to a certain "Cursed Bread" incident which was not caused by mouldy bread, but by surreptitious dosing with LSD. Five were killed, many more sent to psychiatric institutions. "I almost kicked the bucket, I'd like to know why," asked a 71-year-old Pont-Saint-Esprit resident. | ||||||||||
And finally this week, cannabis activists from the hemp-friendly town
of Nimbin, Australia are taking their campaign to the national
capitol of Canberra after an invitation extended to U.S. President
Barack Obama fell on deaf ears. "We will be travelling to Canberra
with our Big Joint and Polite Force, hoping to get medical cannabis
on the political agenda," explained Hemp Embassy president Michael
Balderstone. "We know Kevin Rudd is looking for evidence based
policies and surely it's time to introduce cannabis regulations,
quality controls and a tax system for Australia's more than 2 million
cannabis users."
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(17) TWO DRUG SLAYINGS IN MEXICO ROCK U.S. CONSULATE (Top) | ||||||||||
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LA UNION, Mexico - Gunmen believed to be linked to drug traffickers shot a pregnant American consulate worker and her husband to death in the violence-racked border town of Ciudad Juarez over the weekend, leaving their baby wailing in the back seat of their car, the authorities said Sunday. The gunmen also killed the husband of another consular employee and wounded his two young children. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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As killings have multiplied in Mexico, the government has long
argued that the overwhelming majority of the casualties of the drug
war are involved in the narcotics business. "The argument is absurd
that the killings are a sign of his success," Mr. Castaneda said,
repeating an oft-heard refrain of both the Mexican and American
governments. | ||||||||||
Concerned about the rising violence, the State Department had
decided that employees at a string of consular offices along the
Mexican border - Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo,
Monterrey and Matamoros - could temporarily evacuate their families
to the United States. That decision was not formally announced until
Sunday. | ||||||||||
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(18) KILLINGS CAST PALL ON MEXICO DRUG PLAN (Top) | ||||||||||
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Calderon's Strategy of Using Army Patrols Draws Fire as Juarez, a
Centerpiece of the Push, Turns Into a Murder Capital
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico--The gangland-style murders of three people
with ties to the U.S. consulate in this border city have confirmed
for many people what residents here already knew: President Felipe
Calderon's strategy of sending in the troops to corral drug gangs
has failed. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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"It's a complete failure," Oscar Cantu, publisher of local newspaper
El Norte, says of Mr. Calderon's enforcement strategy.
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[snip]
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The president told residents he regretted the "cowardly" murders and
that the fight for Juarez was crucial to Mexico's future. Mr.
Calderon resisted calls by some protesters to pull out the army,
saying "I don't think that's going to help Juarez's security
problem."
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The president's top aides tacitly acknowledge that the army strategy
hasn't worked. Officials say they will try two new approaches: a
greater focus on intelligence work, and an effort to create jobs,
build schools, open parks and counsel drug addicts. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Part of the problem is that the military doesn't have the training
for intelligence work or counterinsurgency operations that could
help turn the tide in Juarez, experts say. Until now, the troops'
main function has been to patrol Juarez and other cities. Most
troops rotate out after two-month assignments. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Other experts say Mexico's army of conscripts could develop
intelligence capacity if it got more direct training from the U.S.
military. The U.S. has pledged about $400 million a year in antidrug
aid to Mexico, though much of the money is for hardware such as
helicopters and hasn't yet been disbursed. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(19) END UNBALANCED DRUG PENALTIES AND ENFORCEMENT (Top) | ||||||||||
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The American Senate Judiciary Committee weakened the mandatory
minimum sentencing laws for cocaine last week. Mandatory minimum
sentence laws are legislative enactments that force judges to give a
minimum penalty for certain crimes. | ||||||||||
Under the new sentencing guidelines, crack cocaine - most often used
by black Americans - will be penalized 20 times more harshly than
powder cocaine, used most frequently by white Americans. Previously,
penalties for crack were 100 times harsher. | ||||||||||
When talking about racist drug and enforcement policies like this,
it's likely that the United States, not Canada, will be the topic of
conversation. After all, American mandatory minimum sentencing
disproportionately affects black males. | ||||||||||
In New York, in spite of the fact that white people are smoking the
most marijuana, people of colour are seven times likelier to be
arrested for possession. In fact, marijuana became criminalized
because of people's fears of Mexican and black people. | ||||||||||
But Canada should not be left out of the conversation. Take the
example of indigenous youth, many of whom are part of a cycle of
substance abuse that was first institutionalized by European
colonists, who made a practice of using alcohol to extract better
terms of trade from native populations. | ||||||||||
The way Canada's current drug-related legislation is enforced is
highly racialized. There have long been cries of racial profiling in
connection to drug-related law enforcement. A report released last
week by the UN's independent expert on minority issues, Gay
McDougall, condemned Canada - and Montreal in particular - for
systemic racial profiling. | ||||||||||
And the outcry that followed Fredy Villanueva's death at the hands of the Montreal police has revealed the widespread sentiment among minorities in the area that the police profile people of colour. | ||||||||||
The institutional injustice doesn't end there.
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The Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Justice System has
reported that black people found guilty of drug-related offences
would more likely be given a prison term than white offenders - 55
per cent of people of colour went to prison, versus 36 per cent of
white people. | ||||||||||
This is despite the fact that there were "no significant
differences" in the circumstances of the cases. | ||||||||||
And studies have repeatedly shown that harsher prison sentences,
which we already know to be racially skewed, have no substantial
effect on rates of recidivism. | ||||||||||
But this tough-on-crime approach fails to take into account the
larger context of the issue; it utilizes short-term methods to try
and stem a problem that has deeper roots. | ||||||||||
Often, the underground economy becomes the best career prospect for
people in economically marginalized communities or who are
systemically blocked from entering other job markets. | ||||||||||
The current enforcement policies are not even effective at achieving
their goal: while 28 per cent of Canadians said they had used
illegal drugs in 1994, that number had risen to 45 per cent in 2004,
all while the government continues to spend the majority of its drug
policy budget - 73 per cent - on enforcement, versus 14 per cent
spent on treatment and just 2.6 per cent on prevention. The
country's first drug-related mandatory minimum sentencing bill, Bill
C-15 - which would have legislated minimum sentences for marijuana
growing - was introduced in Parliament last year and only died due
to the prorogation. Though the bill has been scuttled, it's a part
of a broader move toward enforcement-based policies pushed by the
Conservatives. This is worrying, given the U.S.'s history with
mandatory sentencing. | ||||||||||
Canadian drug policy must move in the direction of solving larger,
systemic inequalities, rather than blindly cracking down on their
effects. | ||||||||||
And since the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de
la jeunesse, Quebec's human rights commission, issued a promise last
week to hold hearings on racial profiling later this spring, we urge
the province to pay close attention to the discourse that comes out
of these hearings, and to act decisively to stem the tide of racial
profiling in drug-related crimes in this province. | ||||||||||
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(20) FRENCH INSANITY BLAMED ON LSD (Top) | ||||||||||
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A MYSTERY illness that caused an entire French village to go
temporarily mad 50-years ago has been blamed on secret CIA mind
control experiments with LSD. | ||||||||||
Hundreds of residents in picturesque Pont-Saint-Esprit were suddenly
struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations on August 16,
1951. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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For decades the bizarre "Cursed Bread" incident was blamed on a
local baker whose baguettes had been poisoned with either a
psychedelic mould or mercury. | ||||||||||
But new evidence points the finger at the American
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[snip]
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Journalist H P Albarelli Jr came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of a biochemist who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the "Cursed Bread" incident. | ||||||||||
One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz
official who mentions the "secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit" and explains
that it was not "at all" caused by mould but by diethylamide -- the
D in LSD. | ||||||||||
After the Korean War the Americans launched huge research programs
into the mind control of prisoners and enemy troops. | ||||||||||
According to U.S. news reports, French intelligence chiefs have
demanded the CIA explain itself. French intelligence officially
denies this. | ||||||||||
Angry locals in Pont-Saint-Esprit continue to be haunted by the
apocalyptic scenes and still want answers. | ||||||||||
Charles Granjoh, 71, said: "I almost kicked the bucket, I'd like to
know why."
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(21) MEDICINAL CANNABIS LOBBY TO FIGHT
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[snip]
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IF PRESIDENT Obama can't come to Nimbin, then Nimbin will fire up
the Kombis and head to him. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Organisers are packing their banners, rolling up their 'big joint'
and heading to Canberra by car, caravan or Kombi to push for
cannabis law reform like that in the US. | ||||||||||
Hemp Embassy representative Max Stone said, unlike many of their
campaigns, this protest wasn't about the right of people to smoke
pot, but the right of sick people to access the documented
pain-relief available from medicinal cannabis. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Meanwhile, Hemp Embassy president Michael Balderstone has written to
both the Prime Minister and the U.S. President ahead of his visit
later this month. | ||||||||||
He has asked Mr Rudd to raise the issue of medical cannabis with President Obama, and Mr Obama to 'enlighten our PM on the issue'. | ||||||||||
"We will be travelling to Canberra with our Big Joint and Polite
Force, hoping to get medical cannabis on the political agenda, and
we are asking cannabis consumers and friends to write to the Prime
Minister and urge him to talk to the President about what is
happening in America," he said. | ||||||||||
"We know Kevin Rudd is looking for evidence based policies and
surely it's time to introduce cannabis regulations, quality controls
and a tax system for Australia's more than 2 million cannabis
users."
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[snip]
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||
HOW MANY MEXICAN DRUG WAR DEATHS CAN WE ATTRIBUTE TO U.S. POT LAWS?
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By Paul Armentano
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It was less than one year ago when acting U.S. DEA administrator
Michelle Leonhart publicly declared that the escalating violence on
the U.S./Mexico border should be viewed as a sign of the "success" of
America's drug war strategies. | ||||||||||
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WHY THOUSANDS ARE TURNING TO A PSYCHEDELIC PLANT FROM AFRICA
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By Charles Shaw
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The first time I heard former Yippie activist Dana Beal mention ibogaine I couldn't have cared less what he was talking about. | ||||||||||
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DEATH IN JUAREZ
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The bloody consequences of America's pharmacological intolerance | ||||||||||
By Jacob Sullum
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DRUG TRUTH NETWORK
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Century of Lies - 03/14/10 - Shawn Heller
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Reports from Students for Sensible Drug Policy conference in San
Francisco
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Cultural Baggage Radio Show - 03/14/10 - Dale Skye Clare | ||||||||||
Reports from Oaksterdam University, professors, students, staff
and interns
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PODCASTS FROM PSYCHEDELIC SCIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
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Check back each week! We'll have new podcasts from Psychedelic
Science presenters. | ||||||||||
This week Alex Grey. | ||||||||||
Last week Diana Slattery. | ||||||||||
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CANADIANS SPLIT ON POT, DEATH PENALTY: POLL
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Half of Canadians surveyed believe possession of small amounts of
marijuana for personal use should not be a crime. | ||||||||||
Thirty per cent of those polled disagree with the statement, while
20 per cent were neutral. Agreement with the statement has
increased by five percentage points since June of 2000 when it
was 45 per cent. | ||||||||||
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WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||
PRE-ORDER 10 RULES FOR DEALING WITH POLICE
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From the creators of the classic, BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters (2003), Flex Your Rights will release its new achievement, 10 Rules for Dealing with Police on March 22, 2010. | ||||||||||
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MPP CALLS FOR NATIONAL BOYCOTT OF WAL-MART
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by Mike Meno
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The Marijuana Policy Project is calling upon shoppers across the
U.S. to join in a boycott of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to
protest the unjust and potentially unlawful firing of Joe Casias,
a 29-year-old medical marijuana patient and sinus cancer survivor
who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. | ||||||||||
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LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||
IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA USED FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES
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By Ralph D. Davis
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I'm very much in favor of making cannabis legal for medicinal
purposes. It's obvious from all the information out today that it's
time to do what's honest and right. The great lie has been exposed.
I'm a disabled vet; I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. I
support House Bill 1380. | ||||||||||
Ralph D. Davis
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LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH - FEBRUARY (Top) | ||||||||||
DrugSense recognizes Dan Linn of Sycamore, Illinois for his five
published letters during February, which brings his total published
letters that we know of to 57. | ||||||||||
During the month Dan focused his letter writing efforts on medicinal
marijuana as the Executive Director of the Illinois Cannabis
Patients Association. | ||||||||||
A volunteer MAP newshawk and editor, Dan manages the selection
process for the Letter Of The Week
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||
K2 BAN WON'T DETER USE, BUT WILL INCREASE COSTS
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By John Payne
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Early last month, Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice William Ray
Price Jr. called for reforms of our criminal justice system,
including incarcerating fewer nonviolent offenders. Price argued
that such changes would both decrease recidivism and save the state
money by decreasing prison budgets, and he was widely applauded by
editorialists across the state for his stance. | ||||||||||
However, when a bill to ban K2, a chemical used as a synthetic
substitute for marijuana, received its first public hearing little
more than a week later, newspapers were equally eager to support the
restriction. It should not be necessary to point out that increasing
the number of nonviolent offenses is not obviously compatible with
decreasing the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars.
Furthermore, although enforcing a ban on K2 would require spending
additional tax dollars, it is unlikely to lower the rate of drug use
significantly. | ||||||||||
According to Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, federal, state, and
local governments spend more than $44 billion per year in their
attempts to stop people from using certain drugs. It is difficult to
determine exactly how much money is spent on specific drugs, but
given that there were 847,863 arrests for marijuana during 2008 -
half of all drug arrests - it is safe to say that spending on
marijuana enforcement is higher than for any other drug, and far out
of proportion to the dangers of a drug that is relatively innocuous
in comparison to most others. | ||||||||||
Still, despite the billions of dollars spent and millions of people
arrested over the years, legal restrictions on marijuana appear to
have had little to no impact on decreasing its use. | ||||||||||
Although exact statistics for the period during marijuana's
initial prohibition are impossible to come by, when it was first
outlawed in 1937, its use was confined almost exclusively to Mexican
immigrants in the West and only a tiny proportion of the population
had ever smoked it. Marijuana use skyrocketed during the 1960s, when
simple possession still typically triggered jail time across the
country. As use of the drug continued to increase throughout the
1970s, some states began decriminalizing marijuana possession,
indicating that marijuana use tends to influence the law - not the
other way around. | ||||||||||
The 2008 Monitoring the Future Survey, published annually by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, concedes that "A study of the
effects of decriminalization by several states during the late 1970s
found no evidence of any impact on the use of marijuana among young
people, nor on attitudes and beliefs concerning its use." The
report does go on to note that some more recent studies find that
teens living in states where marijuana possession is decriminalized
are more likely to smoke marijuana, but this correlation does not
indicate causation. As noted earlier, the idea that higher use rates
drive decriminalization is a better fit for the timeframe, and it
could also be that a third variable - such as wider adoption of
more socially liberal views - help to cause both decriminalization
and higher rates of marijuana use. | ||||||||||
As of 2009, 102 million Americans - a third of the population - have used marijuana, according to estimates from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Almost all of them did so after marijuana was made illegal 73 years ago. Clearly, the law does not stop people from obtaining and using marijuana. Usage rates have changed dramatically over the years, but those changes are driven far more by wider social changes and shifting attitudes than by any law. Only politicians could be so vain as to believe their dictates are the guiding force in the lives of millions of people. | ||||||||||
A ban of K2, or of any similar drug, will not stop people from
becoming intoxicated in some politically incorrect way. In fact,
given that K2 is being sold primarily as a legal substitute for
marijuana, banning it may simply send K2 users back to marijuana
use, an outcome that I do not believe the bill's supporters
intend. | ||||||||||
However, if people truly enjoy K2, no law passed by a legislature
will ever repeal the law of supply and demand. Market forces will
provide consumers with the goods they want - even illicit ones.
Banning K2 would increase the already stratospheric costs of
enforcing our drug laws, without making an appreciable dent in drug
use. Reasonable people would laugh such proposals out of the
legislature, but when it comes to the war on drugs, we abandoned
reason a long time ago. | ||||||||||
John Payne is a research assistant at the Show-Me Institute, a Missouri-based think tank. This piece originally appeared at the Globe-Democrat website - http://mapinc.org/url/nkzrMTLH | ||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||
"The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of
freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Government."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
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Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
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Richard Lake () and Stephen Young, International
content selection and analysis by Doug Snead (),
Cannabis/Hemp content selection and analysis, Hot Off The Net
selection and Layout by Matt Elrod ().
Analysis comments represent the personal views of editors, not
necessarily the views of DrugSense. | ||||||||||
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