Drug War Chronicle, Issue #552 -(urls + editorial)- 9/19/08 MJ arrests up!

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #552 -- 9/19/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
"News and Activism Supporting Sensible Reform"

Offer: Unique and Important New Book on Medical Marijuana:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

Table of Contents:

1. FEATURE: SERIOUS CRIME DOWN, DRUG ARRESTS HOLD STEADY, BUT
MARIJUANA ARRESTS INCREASE TO 872,000
The FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report is out. Serious crime is
down across the board, but drug arrests held roughly steady.
Marijuana arrests actually increased by 5% to more than 872,000
-- nearly 90% of them for simple possession.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/fbi_uniform_crime_report_marijuana_drug_arrests_20
07

2. FEATURE: US LISTS "MAJOR" DRUG PRODUCING AND TRAFFICKING
COUNTRIES, NAMES ONLY BOLIVIA, BURMA, AND VENEZUELA AS NOT
COMPLYING
In its annual act of diplomatic hubris, the US government this
week released its list of "major" drug producing and trafficking
countries. Only three of them -- all political foes of
Washington -- were found wanting.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/US_releases_majors_list_bolivia_burma_venezuela_dr
ug_certification

3. OFFER: UNIQUE AND IMPORTANT NEW BOOK ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
"Dying to Get High," by sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard
Webb, is a groundbreaking work that provides an in-depth
portrait of one of the country's most well-known medical
marijuana collectives.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A Texas constable and probation/parole officers in Massachusetts
and North Carolina are in the spotlight this week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/police_drug_corruption

5. MARIJUANA: MASSACHUSETTS DECRIM INITIATIVE ORGANIZERS TAKE
OFF THE GLOVES, FILE CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS AGAINST PROSECUTORS
With less than two months before Massachusetts voters go to the
polls to vote on a marijuana decriminalization initiative,
initiative supporters have filed criminal complaints against the
organized opposition.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/massachusetts_marijuana_decriminalization_initiati
ve_files_criminal_complaint

6. SALVIA DIVINORUM: NEBRASKA SHOPKEEPER TO GO ON TRIAL FOR
SELLING "INTOXICANTS" IN MAGIC MINT CASE
A Nebraska shop-keeper must stand trial for selling salvia
divinorum, even though it's not illegal in Nebraska.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/nebraska_shop_owner_firoz_trial_salvia_divinorum_i
ntoxicant

7. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: FEDS MUST GET WARRANT BEFORE SCOURING
CELL PHONE LOCATION RECORDS, FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGE RULES
The government must obtain a search warrant based on probable
cause before forcing wireless service providers to divulge
historical cell phone tower location information, a federal
district court hearing a drug trafficking case has ruled.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/federal_court_ruling_on_cell_phone_search_warrants

8. LATIN AMERICA: BRAZILIAN COPS KILL WITH IMPUNITY, MOONLIGHT
AS DRUG GANG EXECUTIONERS, UN REPORT SAYS
Brazilian police are killers, both on and off the job, according
to a new report from the UN's Special Rapporteur on
extra-judicial, summary, and arbitrary executions.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/many_brazilian_police_are_killers_says_UN

9. EUROPE: BRITAIN'S DRUG ADVISORY PANEL PONDERS DOWN-SCHEDULING
ECSTASY
Britain's advisory panel on drug policy is about to undertake a
review of the scheduling of ecstasy as a Class A drug, the most
serious classification. The move comes after several reports
saying the popular stimulant should be downgraded.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/british_drug_panel_studying_ecstasy_reclassificati
on

10. EUROPE: DUTCH SUPREME COURT SAYS PATIENT CAN GROW MARIJUANA
FOR THERAPEUTIC USE
Holland may be famous for its marijuana coffee houses, but pot
cultivation remains illegal -- unless you are a patient who can
demonstrate a medical necessity, the Dutch Supreme Court has
ruled.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/dutch_supreme_court_protects_medical_marijuana_gro
w

11. SOUTH ASIA: SRI LANKA IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA QUANDARY
Marijuana has been used in ayurvedic medicine in South Asia for
thousands of years. Now, authorities in Sri Lanka are seeking to
authorize gardens to supply ayurvedic demand.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/sri_lanka_medical_marijuana_ayurvedic_medicine

12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/drug_war_history

13. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Study: Decriminalizing Marijuana Doesn't Increase Use," "Happy
Constitution Day!," "Drug Czar Embarrassed By Marijuana Arrest
Rates," "A New Record for US Marijuana Arrests," "Mark Kleiman
vs. 'Drug Policy Reform'."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

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/552/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

15. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
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e

16. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
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http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

17. RESOURCE: REFORMER'S CALENDAR ACCESSIBLE THROUGH DRCNET WEB
SITE
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/drug_reform_calendar

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

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

1. Feature: Serious Crime Down, Drug Arrests Hold Steady, But
Marijuana Arrests Increase to 872,000
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/552/fbi_uniform_crime_report_marijuana_drug_arrests_20
07

Nearly 1.9 million people were arrested on drug charges in the
United States last year, some 872,000 for marijuana offenses,
according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report
(http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/arrests/index.html), released
Monday. While overall drug arrest figures declined marginally
(down 84,000), marijuana arrests increased by more than 5% and
are once again at an all-time high. Drug arrests exceed those
for any other type of offense, including property crime (1.61
million arrests), driving under the influence (1.43 million),
misdemeanor assaults (1.31 million), larceny (1.17 million), and
violent crime (597,000).

People arrested for drug offenses face not only the distinct
possibility of serving time in jail or prison -- drug offenders
account for roughly 20% of all prisoners, and well more than
half of all federal prisoners -- but also face collateral
consequences that can haunt them for the rest of their lives. In
addition to carrying the burden of a criminal record, drug
offenders can lose access to various state and federal benefits,
including students loans, food stamps, and public assistance, as
well as being barred from obtaining professional licenses, and
in some states, other consequences such as having their drivers'
licenses suspended.

The high level of drug arrests comes as overall drug use rates
remain roughly at the level they were 30 years ago. In the
meantime, state, local, and federal authorities have spent
hundreds of billions of dollars and arrested tens of millions of
people in the name of drug prohibition.

The increase in drug arrests comes as the overall crime rate
decreased. Violent crime was down 0.7% over 2006 and property
crime was down 1.4%, marking the fifth consecutive year of
declining numbers. All seven categories in the FBI's list of
serious criminal offenses -- murder, rape, robbery, aggravated
assault, burglary, larceny, and car theft -- saw declines last
year. But not drug arrests.

The rate of drug arrests was highest in the West (677.5 per
100,000), followed by the South (664.5), the Midwest (549.6),
and the Northeast (508.0). Nationally, the drug arrest rate was
614.8 per 100,000.

Of those arrested on pot charges, 775,000, or 89%, were charged
only with possession, a figure similar to that for drug arrests
overall. Another 97,000 pot offenders were charged with
"sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation or
sales offenses, even those involving small-scale violations.
Marijuana arrests last year accounted for 47.5% of all drug
arrests. Almost three-quarters of marijuana arrests involved
people under the age of 30.

The continuing high levels of drug arrests and the increase in
marijuana arrests prompted sharp responses from drug reformers.
"For more than 30 years, the US has treated drug use and misuse
as a criminal justice matter instead of a public health issue,"
said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy
Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org). "Yet, despite hundreds of
billions of dollars spent and millions of Americans
incarcerated, illegal drugs remain cheap, potent and widely
available in every community; and the harms associated with them
-- addiction, overdose, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis
-- continue to mount. Meanwhile, the war on drugs has created
new problems of its own, including rampant racial disparities in
the criminal justice system, broken families, increased poverty,
unchecked federal power, and eroded civil liberties. Continuing
the failed war on drugs year after year is throwing good money
and lives after bad."

Marijuana reform organizations naturally zeroed in on the pot
arrest figures. "Most Americans have no idea of the massive
effort going into a war on marijuana users that has completely
failed to curb marijuana use," said Rob Kampia, executive
director of the Marijuana Policy Project (http://www.mpp.org) in
Washington, DC. "Just this summer a new World Health
Organization study of 17 countries
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/542/US_leads_cannabis_cocaine_use_rates_who_study)
found that we have the highest rate of marijuana use, despite
some of the strictest marijuana laws and hyper-aggressive
enforcement. With government at all levels awash in debt, this
is an insane waste of resources. How long will we keep throwing
tax dollars at failed policies?"

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and
arrest minor cannabis offenders," said NORML
(http://www.norml.org) executive director Allen St. Pierre, who
noted that at current rates, a cannabis consumer is arrested
every 37 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste
of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement
personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime,
including the war on terrorism."

"It's time for a new bottom line for US drug policy -- one that
focuses on reducing the cumulative death, disease, crime and
suffering associated with both drug misuse and drug
prohibition," said Piper. "A good start would be enacting short-
and long-term national goals for reducing the problems
associated with both drugs and the war on drugs. Such goals
should include reducing social problems like drug addiction,
overdose deaths, the spread of HIV/AIDS from injection drug use,
racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and the
enormous number of nonviolent offenders behind bars. Federal
drug agencies should be judged -- and funded -- according to
their ability to meet these goals."

Piper agreed with the marijuana reform advocates that the
marijuana laws are a good place to start. "Policymakers should
especially stop wasting money arresting and incarcerating people
for nothing more than possession of marijuana for personal use,"
he said. "There's no need to be afraid of what voters might
think; the American people are already there. Substantial
majorities favor legalizing marijuana for medical use (70% to
80%) and fining recreational marijuana users instead of
arresting and jailing them (61% to 72%). Twelve states have
legalized marijuana for medical use and 12 states have
decriminalized recreational marijuana use (six states have done
both)."

As Piper noted, marijuana law reform is happening, but it's not
happening at fast enough a pace to slow the number of pot
arrests. Alaska remains the only state to allow for the legal
possession of marijuana (in one's home). A federal
decriminalization bill was introduced this year for the first
time since the Jimmy Carter presidency, but no one thinks it
will get anywhere anytime soon. And even decriminalization means
that marijuana users are still punished for their choice of
substance, as well as having their property stolen by law
enforcement.

The situation is even more bleak when it comes to non-pot drug
offenders. There is virtually no impetus to rein back the war on
them, and even the reform efforts that could reduce their
numbers in prison, such as the Nonviolent Drug Offender
Rehabilitation Act on the California ballot this fall, would not
do anything to reduce the number of arrests. It would merely
funnel those arrested into coerced treatment instead of prison.

Barring serious radical reform efforts to end the war on drugs
-- and not merely ameliorate its most outrageous manifestations
-- there is little reason to expect we will have anything
different to report when it comes to drug arrests next year or
the year after that.

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

The fruit of drug prohibition in the USA and Mexico is bitter and
sets the teeth on edge as the practitioners of Anslinger's law move down
the path of totalitarianism.

And removing cannabis from the status of illegal drug
is something that would save immense amounts of money for the
American taxpayer which is good thing in this period of severe
inflationary pressures.

<http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/fed-data/costs/costs05.htm>
___________________
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 -- C O C O A Powered... (at california 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 cocoa 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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