Drug War Chronicle, Issue #595 -(urls + editorial)- 7/24/09

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #595 -- 7/24/09
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595

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: WINDS OF CHANGE ARE BLOWING IN WASHINGTON -- DRUG
REFORMS FINALLY MOVE IN CONGRESS
As Congress approaches its August recess, it's time to take a
look at the fate of drug reform legislation under the Democrats.
No bills have reached the president's desk just yet, but the
prospects are impressive on a number of key fronts.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/winds_change_washington_drug_reform_congress

2. FEATURE: COLORADO MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS DEFEAT EFFORT
TO RESTRICT CAREGIVERS, DISPENSARIES
Medical marijuana supporters in Colorado won a major victory
Monday night as the state Board of Health voted down a
Department of Public Health and Environment proposal that would
have strictly defined caregivers and limited them to providing
for no more than five patients.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/colorado_medical_marijuana_proposal_rejected

3. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Drug war-related corruption extends beyond cops and deputies,
and this week is a good example. We've got a federal probation
agent in trouble, a US Navy police officer in trouble, a
prosecutor heading for prison, as well as a crooked narc and an
Ecstasy-dealing deputy. Unusually, what we don't have this week
is a dope-smuggling prison guard.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/police_drug_corruption

4. SENTENCING: HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVES REDUCING FEDERAL
CRACK COCAINE PENALTIES
What a difference control of Congress makes! For years, pressure
has been building to redress the sentencing disparity between
crack and powder cocaine. Now, finally, a bill that would do
that is moving in the House, and while it's a Democratic bill
it's getting strong bipartisan support. Things are looking good
in the Senate too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/house_subcommittee_passes_cocaine_crack_sentencing
_bill

5. FINANCIAL AID: HOUSE COMMITTEE LIGHTENS UP ON STUDENTS WITH
DRUG POSSESSION CONVICTIONS
The Higher Education Act's infamous "Aid Elimination Penalty,"
or anti-drug provision, the brainchild of Indiana Republican
Rep. Mark Souder, just got slimmed down as a House committee
Tuesday voted to restrict its application only to students
convicted of selling drugs, not those convicted simply of drug
possession.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/higher_education_act_HEA_drug_provision_vote

6. ONDCP: DRUG CZAR AGAIN REVEALS SHOCKING GAP IN VOCABULARY,
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Spoken like a true drug czar -- Gil Kerlikowske does his best
John Walters impression and succeeds pretty well.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/kerlikowske_marijuana_legalization_vocabulary

7. AFGHANISTAN: US WAR PLANES BOMB THE HELL OUT OF A BUNCH OF
POPPY SEEDS
The US war on opium poppy production in Afghanistan turned
literal Tuesday when US war planes attacked and destroyed a
giant pile of poppy seeds in Helmand province. That'll show
those seeds!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/US_war_planes_bomb_opium_poppy_seeds

8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: OAKLAND VOTERS APPROVE MEDICAL MARIJUANA
DISPENSARY TAX
Oakland's medical marijuana dispensaries asked the voters to tax
them, and the voters said "Okay." A measure creating a
first-of-its-kind special business tax on medical marijuana
sellers passed by a lopsided margin in pot-friendly Oakland.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/oakland_voters_approve_medical_marijuana_dispensar
y_tax

9. LAW ENFORCEMENT: NEW YORK MAN WINS SETTLEMENT IN FORCED BODY
CAVITY SEARCH SUIT
Albany, New York, sheriff's deputies suspected Tunde Clement was
carrying drugs when he got off a bus from New York City in March
2006. They searched his backpack. Nothing. They strip-searched
him. Nothing. Then the took him to a hospital, forcibly sedated
him, and shoved a camera up his butt. Now, the county and the
hospital are paying for their misdeeds.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/tunde_clement_lawsuit_forced_sedation_and_cavity_s
earch

10. MARIJUANA: COOK COUNTY BOARD PASSES DECRIMINALIZATION
ORDINANCE, BUT VETO POSSIBILITY LOOMS
Could decriminalization be coming to Chicagoland? The Cook
County Board has approved it, but the Board president is making
noises like he may veto it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/cook_county_chicago_marijuana_decriminalization

11. EUROPE: BRITISH PRISONS INSTALL METHADONE VENDING MACHINES
You've heard of medical marijuana vending machines in Los
Angeles, right? Well, the UK one-ups LA with methadone vending
machines in its prisons.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/britain_methadone_vending_machines_in_prisons

12. REMEMBRANCE: WALTER CRONKITE ON THE DRUG WAR
The trusted and beloved news anchor spoke out about more than
one war in his lifetime.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/walter_cronkite_on_the_drug_war

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/595/drug_war_history

14. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

15. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Obama's Drug Czar Says Marijuana Is Dangerous and Isn't
Medicine," "How Bush's Drug Czar Fooled the Media and the
American People," "Apple's New Marijuana Feature for iPhone is a
Smart Business Move," "Undercover Cop Arrested for Selling Drugs
to an Undercover Cop," "New York Times Struggles With Marijuana
Addiction," "Congressional Drug Warriors Huddle in the Corner,
Plot Comeback," "Tax Us: Oakland Voters Approve Medical
Marijuana Dispensary Tax -- Dispensaries Supported It,"
"Patients Defeat Effort to Restrict Medical Marijuana in
Colorado," "Colorado Hearing on Proposed Medical Marijuana
Caregiver Restrictions Going on Now -- You Can Listen In,"
"Breaking: House Subcommittee Votes to Reduce Crack Cocaine
Penalties to Powder Cocaine Level," "Breaking: House Committee
Votes to Eliminate Financial Aid Loss Penalty for Drug
Possessors," "Walter Cronkite on the Drug War."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

16. 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/595/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

17. JOB OPPORTUNITY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERFAITH DRUG POLICY
INITIATIVE, WASHINGTON
The Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative is hiring a new executive
director. IDPI mobilizes religious denominations and
organizations, clergy, and other people of faith to promote drug
policy reform proposals under serious current consideration in
Congress and the states, while building public support for
replacing drug prohibition with reasonable regulation.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/interfaith_drug_policy_initiative_executive_direct
or_listing

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

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

1. Feature: Winds of Change Are Blowing in Washington -- Drug
Reforms Finally Move in Congress
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/winds_change_washington_drug_reform_congress

What a difference a change of administration makes. After eight
years of almost no progress during the Bush administration, drug
reform is on the agenda at the Capitol, and various reform bills
are moving forward. With Democrats firmly in control of both the
Senate and the House, as well as the White House, 2009 could be
the year the federal drug policy logjam begins to break apart.

While most of the country's and the Congress's attention is
focused on health care reform and the economic crisis,
congressional committees are slowly working their way through a
number of drug reform issues. Here's some of what's going on:

* A bill
(http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.03245:) that
would eliminate the notorious sentencing disparity between crack
and powder cocaine by removing all references to crack from the
federal law and sentencing all offenders under the current
powder cocaine sentencing scheme passed its first subcommittee
test on Wednesday. This one was bipartisan -- the vote was
unanimous. (See related story here
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/house_subcommittee_passes_cocaine_crack_sentencin
g_bill))

* The ban on federal funding for needle exchanges has been
repealed by the House Appropriations Committee, although current
legislation includes language barring exchanges within 1,000
feet of schools. Advocates hope that will be removed in
conference committee.

* The Barr amendment, which blocked the District of Columbia
from implementing a voter-approved medical marijuana law, has
been repealed by the House.

* Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank's marijuana decriminalization
bill
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/591/barney_frank_introduces_marijuana_decriminalizati
on_bill)
has already picked up more cosponsors in a few weeks this year
than it did in all of last year.

* Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's bill to create a national commission
on criminal justice policy
(http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.00714:) is
winning broad support.

* The Higher Education Act (HEA) drug provision (more recently
known as the "Aid Elimination Penalty"), which creates obstacles
in obtaining student loans for students with drug convictions,
is being watered down. The House Education and Labor Committee
Wednesday approved legislation that would limit the provision to
students convicted of drug sales and eliminate it for students
whose only offense was drug possession. (See related story here
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/higher_education_act_HEA_drug_provision_vote).)

* The "Safe and Drug Free Schools Act" funding has been
dramatically slashed in the Obama administration 2010 budget.

* Funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy's
youth media anti-drug campaign has been dramatically slashed by
the House, which also instructed ONDCP to use the remaining
funds only for ads aimed at getting parents to talk to kids.

"All the stars are now aligned on all these issues," said Bill
Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance
(http://www.drugpolicy.org). "I've never felt so optimistic
about drug policy reform in DC."

Looking into his crystal ball, Piper is making predictions of
significant progress this year. "I have a strong sense that the
Barr amendment and the syringe funding ban will be eliminated
this year. The Webb bill will probably be law by December.
There's a good chance that HEA reform and the crack sentencing
reform will be, too. If not, we'll get them done next year," he
said.

"Things are heating up like I've never seen before," Piper
exclaimed. "It's like a snowball rolling downhill. The more
reforms get enacted, the more comfortable lawmakers will be
about even more. Cumulatively, these bills represent a
significant rollback in the drug war as we know it."

Former House Judiciary committee counsel Eric Sterling, now head
of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (http://www.cjpf.org),
was a bit more restrained. Congress is just beginning to come
around, and there are dangers ahead, he said.

"We're seeing windows being opened where we can feel the first
breezes of spring, but it's not summer yet," Sterling said.
"There are people asking questions about drug policy more
broadly, there is more openness on Capitol Hill to thinking
differently. Liberals are not as afraid they will be attacked by
the administration. The climate is changing, but my sense is
we're still at the stage where members of Congress are only
beginning to take their shoes off to put their toes in the
water."

What progress is being made could be derailed by declining
popularity of Democrats, the drug reform movement's failure to
create sufficient cultural change and a stronger social base to
support political change, and the return of old-style "tough on
drugs" politics, Sterling warned.

"People need to be aware that as unemployment continues to rise,
Democrats will be feeling afraid of repercussions at the polls,"
he said. "If the economic stimulus does not seem to be
generating jobs, if there is a widespread sense of trouble in
the country, the drug issue can easily be recast as a bogeyman
to distract people. Members of Congress could start talking
again about 'fighting to help protect your families.' Those old
ways of thinking and talking about these issues are by no means
gone," Sterling argued.

That is why he is concerned about building a social base to
support and maintain drug reform. "The drug reform movement
needs to create cultural change to support political change, and
I fear we haven't done enough of that," he worried.

Sterling also warned of a possible reprise of the late 1970s and
early 1980s, when the emergence of a parents' anti-drug movement
helped knock drug reform off the agenda for nearly a
quarter-century. The administration's effort to defund the Safe
and Drug Free Schools Act in particular could spark renewed
concern and even a reinvigorated anti-drug mobilization, he
said.

"The administration says the Safe and Drug Free Schools program
hasn't demonstrated its effectiveness and grant funds are spread
too thin to support quality interventions, which may well be
true," he said. "But little dribs and drabs of that get spread
around the states, and that means a lot of people could be
mobilized to fight back. The parents' community and prevention
professionals will mobilize around these issues with renewed
vigor," he predicted.

The Wild West show that is California's marijuana reality could
also energize the anti-reform faction, Sterling said. "For those
of us outside California, it's hard to fathom what's going on
there. I don't think anyone back East can imagine a dispensary
operating every quarter-mile along Connecticut Avenue," he
explained. "I ask myself if this is growing in a way that could
create a potential powerful reaction like we saw in the 1970s.
There has already been a smattering of stories about marijuana
use in school by patients. Will there be exposes next fall about
medical marijuana getting into the schools, kids getting stoned?
People in the movement have to be aware that very real and
powerful emotions can be unleashed by these changes," he warned.

Still, "momentum is on our side," Piper said. "Webb's bill has
bipartisan support, the sentencing stuff is taking off in a
bipartisan way, and the crack bill has the support of the
president, the vice-president, the Justice Department, and some
important Senate Republicans. That's probably the steepest hill
to climb, but I think we're going to do it."

These are all domestic drug policy issues, but drug policy
affects foreign policy as well, and there, too, there has been
some significant change -- as well as significant continuity in
prohibitionist policies. And that situation is exposing some
significant contradictions. Here, it is the Obama administration
taking the lead, not Congress. The Obama administration has
rejected crop eradication as a failure in Afghanistan, yet
remains wedded to it in Colombia, and it has embraced the Bush
administration's anti-drug Plan Merida assistance package to
Mexico.

"The really exciting thing is Afghanistan and special envoy
Richard Holbrooke's ending of eradication there," said Sanho
Tree, drug policy analyst for the Institute for Policy Studies
(http://www.ips-dc.org). "That's huge, and it has repercussions
for the Western Hemisphere as well. The US can't have two
completely divergent policies on source country eradication. On
Latin America, I suspect there is a power struggle going on
between the drug warriors and the Holbrooke faction. We need a
Holbrooke for Latin America," he said.

The media spotlight on Mexico's plague of prohibition-related
violence may be playing a role, too, said Sterling. "The mayhem
in Mexico certainly created a lot of thinking about how to do
things differently earlier this year," he noted. "The media
climate has changed, and perhaps that's more important at this
stage than the climate inside the Beltway."

But the Mexico issue could cut against reform, too, he
suggested. "Where is all that marijuana in California coming
from?" he asked. "If someone can make the case that Mexican drug
cartels are supplying the medical marijuana market there, that
could get very ugly."

As the August recess draws nigh, no piece of drug reform
legislation has made it to the president's desk. But this year,
for the first time in a long time, it looks like some may. There
are potential minefields ahead, and it's too early to declare
victory just yet. But keep that champagne nicely chilled; we may
be popping some corks before the year is over.

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

2. Feature: Colorado Medical Marijuana Supporters Defeat Effort
to Restrict Caregivers, Dispensaries
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/colorado_medical_marijuana_proposal_rejected

Monday night, Colorado's rapidly increasing number of medical
marijuana patients and burgeoning medical marijuana industry won
a major victory against state regulators trying to cramp their
style -- and fiddle with a medical marijuana law written into
the state constitution by voter initiative nine years ago. After
a marathon public hearing packed with nearly 400 medical
marijuana supporters, the Colorado Board of Health rejected a
controversial proposal
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/594/colorado_medical_marijuana_caregiver_proposal_pub
lic_hearing)
from the state Department of Public Health and Environment that
would have tightened up the definition of a caregiver and would
have limited caregivers to providing for no more than five
patients.

The vote comes on the heels of Rhode Island legislation
establishing a dispensary system
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2009/jun/16/medical_marijuana_dispensaries_a),
the third state in the nation to legislatively approve
dispensaries, and the first on the east coast. Rhode Island's
legislature last month overrode a veto by Gov. Donald Carcieri
(R) to pass the law, which they did 35-3 in the Senate and 67-0
in the House.

"It's a great win for Colorado," said a tired but elated Brian
Vicente Tuesday morning. "We took on the machine and won."

Vicente is head of Sensible Colorado
(http://www.sensiblecolorado.org), which worked with Colorado
NORML, SAFER (http://www.saferchoice.org), the Marijuana Policy
Project (http://www.mpp.org), and Americans for Safe Access
(http://www.safeaccessnow.org) to spearhead the campaign to keep
the Colorado program intact.

The Board of Health was originally scheduled to vote on the
proposal in February, but was forced to postpone the vote until
it could find a venue large enough to accommodate the hundreds
of people who wanted to have their voices heard during a public
hearing. A 2004 effort by the Board of Health to impose similar
restrictions was thrown out by the courts because it held no
public hearing then.

"The health department seems to be a glutton for punishment,"
said Vicente. "This is the second time we've beaten them on this
issue. I'm fairly confident this will keep them quiet for
awhile."

"The rejection of this silly proposal is symbolic of a new, more
sensible approach to marijuana being taken in this state and
nationwide," said SAFER's Mason Tvert. "For too long, public
policies have been designed by law enforcement officials who
seem more concerned with preserving power than the health and
safety of those they serve. The Colorado Board of Health didn't
fall for it this time. We can only hope other health and
government officials around the nation will follow their example
and also turn a critical eye to our nation's failed marijuana
policies."

Between February and now, the state's medical marijuana program
has gone into overdrive. The number of patients is increasingly
dramatically, with some 2,000 patients added in June, bringing
the state's total to more than 9,000. And with the change of
administrations in Washington, dispensaries have begun
proliferating. There are now nearly 40, most of them in the
Denver metro area. Nearly 600 different physicians have issued
recommendations for medical marijuana.

Two provisions of the health department proposal earned the most
denunciations from patients and providers: One would tighten the
definition of who qualifies as a licensed caregiver; the other
would limit the number of patients a caregiver can provide for
to five. There is currently no limit on the number of patients a
caregiver can grow or otherwise provide for.

Supporters of the proposal -- basically limited to police,
prosecutors, and the state's chief medical officer -- told the
Board of Health Monday that the current situation was
susceptible to fraud and caused confusion over who could legally
grow.

Dr. Ned Calonge, the chief medical officer, warned that the
medical marijuana program will "continue to grow out of control"
unless the restrictive rules were adopted. The 2000 initiative
defines caregivers as people who have a "significant
responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient," he
said, adding that he did not think that allowed for the creation
of dispensaries.

Capping the number of patients a caregiver could provide for at
five was reasonable, Calonge said. "We define a primary
caregiver as significantly participating in a patient's everyday
care," he said. "If those caregivers are making home visits to
each patient, considering travel time, they could visit five
patients a day. We believe we have ample precedent and
supportive evidence for this number," he said.

Denver Assistant District Attorney Helen Morgan told the board
some counties aren't prosecuting marijuana grows because of
confusion over who is allowed to grow medical marijuana. She
also said that authorities in Denver have found large marijuana
grows whose operators claim to be providing medical marijuana.

That claim was echoed by Holly Dodge, deputy district attorney
for El Paso County, who spoke on behalf of the Colorado District
Attorney's Council. "There is no way of appropriately protecting
a patient when they have a caregiver with 300 other patients,"
she said. "That's not caregiving, that's marijuana growing."

But Calonge, Dodge, and Morgan were definitely in the minority,
with the sometimes raucous crowd hissing and booing their
comments. For most of the day, the board heard from patient
after patient, as well as caregivers, dispensary operators, and
doctors, that the system was working just fine as it is. The
board was also clearly warned that it would be slapped with an
already prepared lawsuit today if it voted to adopt the
restrictive proposal.

One physician opposing the restrictive proposal was Dr. Paul
Bregman, who warned it would drive patients to the streets in
search of their medicine. "More regulation drives people to the
black market, and that means patient care suffers," said
Bregman.

Damien LaGoy told the board he smokes marijuana to counter the
side effects, including nausea, of his daily doses of HIV
medication. He gets his medicine from a caregiver who serves
nine people, he said, adding that if couldn't use that caregiver
he would be forced to trawl Colfax Avenue in search of street
dealers. "I might as well not have a license and just go buy it
on the street like everyone else," he said.

Dispensary operator Jim Bent told the board the proposal
threatened patient health and treated marijuana dispensaries
unfairly. "If this law passes, patients will lose their access
to safe medicine and some will die," he said. "Please be
compassionate." Bent also rejected any limits on the number of
patients a dispensary can handle. "I'd like to be under the same
standards as Walgreens or a Wal-Mart pharmacy," he said.

Former Denver senior deputy district attorney Lauren Davis told
the board the proposal would not address law enforcement
concerns raised earlier in the day and could even be
counterproductive. "Limiting caregivers will increase the number
of small-grower operations," she said.

At the end of the day, the Board of Health agreed with opponents
of the rule change. It voted 6-3 to reject the proposal.

"They received more emails and written comments on this than
they had on any issue in history," said Vicente. "They had
hundreds of people show up to testify against this. They heard
from an impressive array of experts, doctors, lawyers, writers
of the law, sick patients, and caregivers. The board listened."

================...

___________________

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.

[ Auf dieses Posting antworten ]