Drug War Chronicle, Issue #553 -(urls+editorial)- 9/26/08

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #553 -- 9/26/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553

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/553/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: DRUG DOGS DON'T HAVE ESP, OR WHAT'S WRONG WITH
JUDGES TODAY?
Lawyers understand medicine better than doctors, and drug dogs
have extra-sensory perception, some judges today seem to think.
Judges should know better, and with people's health and freedom
on the line have no excuse for not doing better.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/drug_dogs_dont_have_esp

2. FEATURE: NUMBER OF SCHOOLS EMBRACING RANDOM DRUG TESTING ON
THE RISE -- SO IS OPPOSITION
Unleashed by a pair of US Supreme Court rulings, the Bush
administration has been pushing random suspicionless drug
testing of students. They've been having some success, but have
also engendered a vigorous opposition movement.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/school_drug_testing_increases

3. FEATURE: POLL FINDS BROAD SUPPORT FOR DOING AWAY WITH
MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCING FOR NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS
Families Against Mandatory Minimum this week released polling
data showing surprising levels of support for reform of our
draconian mandatory minimum sentencing structure.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/poll_FAMM_mandatory_minimum_sentencing

4. 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/553/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
>From sea to shining sea, cops, jail guards, and court officers
go bad. This week, in addition to the usual rogues' gallery of
corrupt cops, we get an abusive one, too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/police_drug_corruption

6. SENTENCING: PENNSYLVANIA SENATE APPROVES TREATMENT-NOT-JAIL
MEASURE
Suffering a budgetary hangover after years of "tough on crime"
and mandatory minimum sentencing policies, the Pennsylvania
Senate voted last week to divert nonviolent drug offenders to
treatment, among other reforms. The House is expected to pass
the bill soon.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/533/pennsvlvania_senate_passes_treatment_jail_diversio
n_sentencing_bill

7. SEARCH AND SEIZURE: FLORIDA DEFENSE ATTORNEYS CHALLENGE DRUG
DOG "HITS"
The use of drug dogs to search vehicles during traffic stops is
becoming increasingly popular with police. But now, some Florida
attorneys are challenging the reliability of the dogs because
some have been shown to "hit" consistently on cars -- even when
no drugs are on board.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/florida_attorneys_drug_dog_hit

8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: WASHINGTON STATE JUDGE PLAYS DOCTOR,
CONVICTS AUTHORIZED PATIENT OF CULTIVATING HIS OWN MEDICINE
In convicting a properly certified medical marijuana patient of
cultivation, a Washington state judge has decided she's a
doctor, not just a lawyer.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/533/medical_marijuana_washington_judge_doctor

9. SALVIA DIVINORUM: US MILITARY BASES IN ENGLAND, OKINAWA SAY
NO TO SALLY D
The Marines in Okinawa and a US Air Force fighter wing in
England have banned salvia divinorum. They're not the first
military bases to act against the legal hallucinogen.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/salvia_divinorum_ban_marines_air_force

10. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICANS BUMMED OUT BY PROHIBITION-RELATED
VIOLENCE -- 44% SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS
Mexico's high levels of prohibition-related violence are taking
their toll on public confidence south of the border. But they
are also making Mexicans more amenable to thinking about
legalization, according to a new poll.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/mexico_poll_drug_war_legalization

11. EUROPE: DUTCHMAN BUSTED FOR SMOKING TOBACCO IN CANNABIS
COFFEE HOUSE
Holland banned tobacco smoking in public places, including
coffee shops, effective July 1. Now one Amsterdammer who
couldn't break his habit of mixing tobacco into his joints has
been cited.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/dutch_man_busted_tobacco_marijuana_smoking

12. EUROPE: KOSOVO HAS LOWEST ILLICIT DRUG PRICES IN REGION
Kosovo won its independence from Serbia after a US-NATO
intervention in 1999. Now it boasts the cheapest dope in the
Balkans.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/533/kosovo_lowest_drug_prices

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/553/drug_war_history

14. JOB OPPORTUNITY: PROGRAM MANAGER, CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY
FOUNDATION, SILVER SPRING, MD
The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation (CJPF) is seeking a
part-time Program Manager to work directly with its president in
downtown Silver Spring, MD.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/cjpf_program_manager_job_opportunity

15. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Poll Shows Strong Support in Mexico for Drug Legalization,"
"Rachel Hoffman Fallout: One Officer Fired, Others Reprimanded,"
"Police Kill Really Small Dog, Claim it Threatened Them," "New
Developments in the Ryan Frederick Case," "Idiot Proposes
Lengthy Prison Sentence for George Michael," "Cop Fired For
Choking Marijuana Suspect," "Salvia is Potent, But is it
Dangerous?," "Obama's Contradictory Position on the Drug War,"
"Another Sign That Medical Marijuana Laws Are Working."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

16. 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/553/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

17. 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!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_availabl
e

18. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
YOUR READER
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

19. 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/553/drug_reform_calendar

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

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

1. Editorial: Drug Dogs Don't Have ESP, or What's Wrong with
Judges Today?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/drug_dogs_dont_have_esp

David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden

This week I write an editorial that could be written almost any
week. What's wrong with judges today?

In Washington, a state where medical marijuana is legal, a judge
decided that it isn't
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/533/medical_marijuana_washington_judge_doctor).
That's technically not what happened, but for all intents and
purposes it really is. Judge Anna Laurie convicted patient
Robert Dalton for marijuana growing, because she didn't agree
with Dalton's doctor's decision to recommend marijuana to him.
Where did Judge Laurie go to medical school? How incredibly
arrogant of her to play doctor. And how atrocious too -- Dalton,
not a well man, could get up to six months in jail. As his
attorney told the press, no patient in Washington is safe, if
judges will behave that way.

In Sarasota County, Florida, a judge threw away the exclusionary
rule for no good reason
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/553/florida_attorneys_drug_dog_hit).
A drug dog with the sheriff's office, Zuul, comes up with false
positives in vehicles he sniffs half of the time. Judge Charles
Roberts ruled that was good enough to justify police searching a
vehicle -- but for a very special reason. Judge Roberts was
swayed by the state's argument that every time they didn't find
drugs, someone in the car admitted to using or possessing drugs
in the recent past.

What?!?!?!?!? Along with the clear fishiness of the claim, what
does past drug use, even recent, have to do with a drug dog's
ability to tell whether drugs are in a car in the present? It
would make more sense to argue that police were succeeding in
profiling likely drug possessors, and that catching them with
drugs actually in the car half of the time is a good enough
percentage to justify a search. I would disagree with both those
arguments -- partly because it would imply a 100% profiling
success rate, which is not very likely, partly because I don't
think 50% is good enough -- but it would make more sense than
the argument actually used.

In effect the police and prosecutors attributed a "sixth sense"
to their drug dog, beyond the sense of smell, enabling the dog
to sense which cars don't have drugs in them, but whose owners
have used drugs. But dogs don't have extra-sensory perception --
at least the law does not consider them to -- and a sitting
judge should be able to recognize when an argument so obviously
doesn't make sense.

So what is it that can cause an adult judge to play doctor, or
to tacitly endorse a theory of canine "ESP"? Maybe it's that the
war on drugs is spectacularly illogical in and of itself, but as
judges they get immersed in it each day. To maintain a logical
state of mind during drug cases would require judges to
consciously acknowledge the corruption of the system they serve
in, and the extent to which the law has turned them into
perpetrators or at least enablers of injustice, a reality anyone
might repress. And one thing gone wrong in the mind leads to
another.

I'm not sure if that is really what's wrong with judges today,
but something is wrong for all of this to be happening. Enough
of overreaching, enough of twisted logic or no logic, enough of
corrupted standards and intellectual integrity tossed to the
wind. Judges need to stand up for truth and reason, and do so
now, or they abdicate their status as arbiters of morality and
justice. Wearing a robe to work and carrying a gavel isn't
enough.

===============
___________________
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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