Drug War Chronicle, Issue #589 -(urls + editorial)- 6/12/09 - Canadian regression!

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #589 -- 6/12/09
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. FEATURE: IN BOLD STEP BACKWARD, CANADIAN HOUSE OF COMMONS
PASSES MANDATORY MINIMUM DRUG SENTENCING BILL
The Canadian House of Commons voted Monday to adopt US-style
mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, including
small-time marijuana grows. The only chance to defeat the
measure now lies with the Canadian Senate, an unelected body not
generally known for second-guessing the House.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/canada_house_commons_passes_mandatory_minimum_drug
_bill

2. FEATURE: THE SOUTHWEST BORDER COUNTERNARCOTICS STRATEGY --
MORE, BETTER DRUG WAR?
The Obama administration used an Albuquerque press conference to
unveil and tout its latest proposals for dealing with Mexico's
drug trafficking organizations and the prohibition-related
violence around them, but is it anything other than more of the
same old same old?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/southwest_border_counternarcotics_strategy

3. DRUG WAR CHRONICLE BOOK REVIEW: "GOD'S MIDDLE FINGER: INTO
THE LAWLESS HEART OF THE SIERRA MADRE," BY RICHARD GRANT (2008,
FREE PRESS, 288 PP., $15.00 PB)
These days, the treasure of the Sierra Madre isn't gold, but pot
and opium. And nobody down there seems to feel like they need
any stinking badges, not even the cops. In "God's Middle
Finger," journalist Richard Grant takes a wild trip through the
cordillera. Tired of dry old books about drug policy? Try this
one for a change of pace.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/gods_middle_finger_richard_grant_book_review

4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
It never ends. Another week of greedy jail guards and thieving
policemen. This whole cops robbing drug dealers thing is getting
kind of old, too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/police_drug_corruption

5. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ASKS FOR
CLARIFICATION OF FEDERAL STANCE ON RAIDS
At the request of Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), the House
Appropriations Committee has added language to the Justice
Department appropriations bill asking the Obama administration
to clarify its stance on DEA raids on medical marijuana
providers in states where it is legal.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/house_committee_seeks_clarification_of_DOJ_medical
_marijuana_stance

6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA DISPENSARY OPERATOR CHARLES
LYNCH SENTENCED TO A YEAR AND A DAY, REMAINS FREE PENDING APPEAL
In a hangover from the Clinton and Bush administrations' war
against medical marijuana, California dispensary operator
Charles Lynch was sentenced to a year and a day in prison
Thursday. That was well below the mandatory minimum five-year
sentence required by federal law, and Lynch remains free on
appeal, but advocates say he should not have been punished at
all.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/medical_marijuana_dispensary_operator_charles_lync
h_sentenced

7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: RHODE ISLAND DISPENSARY BILL PASSES WITH
VETO-PROOF MARGINS
Rhode Island is about to become the third medical marijuana
state to authorize its distribution through dispensaries after a
bill passed both houses with veto-proof majorities.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/rhode_island_medical_marijuana_dispensary_bill_pas
ses

8. HARM REDUCTION: OVERDOSE PREVENTION BILL INTRODUCED, STUDY
RELEASED
Drug overdoses -- both licit and illicit -- are the second
leading cause of accidental death for adults in the US. Now, a
member of Congress wants to do something about it, and the Drug
Policy Alliance has some ideas.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/overdose_prevention_bill_introduced

9. TOUGH TIMES: CALIFORNIA PROTESTS OVER HIV/AIDS BUDGET CUTS --
NEEDLE EXCHANGE FUNDING AT RISK, PROP. 36 FUNDING TO VANISH
In a bid to deal with the state's gargantuan budget deficit,
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut funding for
HIV/AIDS programs and Proposition 36 treatment programs.
Protests over the former broke out this past week in cities
across the state.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/california_budget_HIV_AIDS_proposition_36

10. SENTENCING: POLL FINDS PUBLIC OPEN TO PROBATION, DIVERSION
INSTEAD OF HARD TIME FOR DRUG POSSESSION, OTHER NONVIOLENT
OFFENSES
More than a quarter of American adults polled in a recent survey
don't think simple drug possessors need to go to jail. That's a
start.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/poll_finds_public_supporters_incarceration_alterna
tives_for_drug_possession

11. PROHIBITION: REPUBLICAN SENATOR CALLS FOR OUTLAWING TOBACCO
As the Senate debated the FDA tobacco regulation bill it
approved yesterday, one Republican senator called his colleagues
hypocrites and urged them to support an outright ban. Was it
just posturing?

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/senator_coburn_says_ban_tobacco

12. PLEASE: DON'T SHOOT!
The killing of Tarika Wilson, an unarmed mother holding her
child, and the maiming of that child, is an inevitable
consequences of the overuse of SWAT teams and the growing
paramilitarization of the drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/please_dont_shoot

13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/drug_war_history

14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Charlie Lynch Sentenced to Jail for Medical Marijuana," "Rhode
Island Senate Votes to Open Medical Marijuana Dispensaries,"
"Wrong Door Drug Raids Are No Laughing Matter," "Congress Calls
on DOJ to Better Explain Medical Marijuana Policy," "No More
$$$ = No More Prisons," "Khat Is a Harmless Plant. So Why is
DC Trying to Prohibit It?," "Holder Renews Pledge to Respect
Medical Marijuana Laws," "Drug War Robots Are Not the Answer,"
"Bad Cops Caught on Camera," "Canadian House Passes Anti-Crime
Bill with Mandatory Minimums for Pot, Other Drug Offenses."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

15. STUDENTS: INTERN AT STOPTHEDRUGWAR.ORG (DRCNET) AND HELP
STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester
fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

===============

1. Feature: In Bold Step Backward, Canadian House of Commons
Passes Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentencing Bill
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/589/canada_house_commons_passes_mandatory_minimum_drug
_bill

Bowing to the wishes of Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper,
Liberal Party Members of Parliament (MPs) joined Monday with
Harper's Conservatives to pass the controversial C-15 mandatory
minimum sentencing drug offense bill
(http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId970400&Language=e&
Mode=1).
The bill was opposed by MPs of the New Democratic Party (NDP)
and the Bloc Quebecois.

Monday's vote came only after NDP and Bloc MPs filibustered the
bill last week. But when one NDP member could not make it to
parliament, the filibuster collapsed, and the Liberal Party
leadership joined with the Conservatives in forcing a successful
vote.
It also came after committee hearings on C-15 in which 13 of 16
witnesses, including criminal justice, health, and harm
reduction experts, testified against the bill. Among them was US
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (http://www.cjpf.org) head
Eric Sterling, who drafted mandatory minimum legislation for
Congress as House Judiciary Committee counsel in the 1980s and
saw the flawed politics firsthand.

The bill next goes to the Canadian Senate. Unlike the US,
Canadian senators are appointed, not elected, and the Canadian
Senate typically -- but not always -- defers to the House.
Observers hold out some hope that in this case, the Senate,
which called for the legalization of marijuana in a 2002 report
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/286/claudenolin.shtml),
will seek to block or amend the bill. The Senate could also
effectively kill the bill by refusing to act on it before new
elections are called.

Under the measure, mandatory minimum sentences would be enacted
for a number of drug offenses, including an automatic six-month
jail term for growing as few as five marijuana plants. Growing
more than five plants would earn a mandatory minimum two-year
sentence, and mandatory minimum sentences would also be in
effect for other drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.

The tough sentences are aimed at "serious drug traffickers, the
people who are basically out to destroy our society," said
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in the run-up to passage of the
bill. But critics charged the bill would end up targeting
low-level first offenders and filling Canada's prisons with
them.

"I think it is really bad news," MP Libby Davies (NDP-Vancouver
East) told Vancouver's Cannabis Culture
(http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/features) magazine. "The
evidence shows very, very strongly -- overwhelmingly -- that
mandatory minimum sentencing is not an effective policy when it
comes to drug crime. My fear is that we are going to see more
people in jail, and more people fighting charges because they
know they will be facing a mandatory minimum sentence. That
means more court time and more backlogs."

"Mid and upper-level traffickers will get no particular increase
in punishment, because a major dealer would already get six
months or a year for any kind of trafficking," said Vancouver
marijuana activist and Cannabis Culture publisher Marc Emery.
"What we're going to see is people who wouldn't normally go to
jail, they're going to be the people affected. It's going to be
largely young people in schoolyards -- because if you are
dealing around a school, it's an enhanced penalty. The enhanced
penalties of six months, a year, two years, are going to affect,
almost exclusively, people under the age of 25."

"The criminal justice approach has not only failed to achieve
its initial goal of lowering drug use and availability, it has
exacerbated the problem," said Jacob Hunter, policy director of
the newly formed Beyond Prohibition Foundation
(http://www.whyprohibition.ca). "The committee was presented
with more than 50 scientific studies that stated this
unequivocally, but the Conservative Party ignored that evidence,
talking instead about the victims of crime. It is obvious from
the evidence that C-15 will increase the violence and crime on
our streets, almost exclusively target low-level and addicted
dealers, and do so at great cost to families and taxpayers.
Instead of repeating the costly mistakes of the past, we ought
to go in a new direction."

Liberal Party opposition could have blocked the bill, but the
party instead supported it for political reasons, said Hunter.
"The Liberals are afraid of losing votes in suburban and rural
ridings and don't know how to counter accusations of being 'soft
on crime,'" he said. "Most Liberals are aware of the evidence on
C-15, and indeed there was apparently lively disagreement in
caucus over support for the bill, but ultimately, the Liberal
leadership opted to support the bill."

Hunter was hopeful, but not optimistic, that the Senate would
act to block passage of C-15. "It's tough to know what will
happen, with many Senators vowing to fight this bill as long as
it takes, the Senate has rarely blocked a bill passed by the
House of Commons," he said.

But at this point, decisive action -- or inaction -- in the
Senate is all that stands between Canada and the embrace of
mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenses. Too bad Canada's
Conservatives, who are playing from an outdated US playbook,
refuse to learn the lessons of the failures of such policies
south of the border. And too bad the Liberals are so craven and
cowed that they know better, but vote for such measures for the
sake of political expediency.

===============

...

___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

later
bliss -- Cacoa Powered... (at sfo dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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