Drug War Chronicle, Issue #516 -- 12/28/07
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
Please donate to sup****t Drug War Chronicle and drug law reform
in 2008!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/drcnets_amazing_progress_in_2007
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Table of Contents:
1. FEATURE: THE TOP TEN DRUG WAR STORIES OF 2007, ACCORDING TO
DRUG WAR CHRONICLE
As 2007 comes to a close, Drug War Chronicle takes a look at the
500+ stories we published this year, and offers you our best
judgment call on what were the year's top ten drug war stories.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/2007_top_ten_major_stories_in_the_drug_war
2. APPEAL: DRCNET HAS MADE AMAZING PROGRESS IN 2007 AND WE NEED
YOUR HELP FOR 2008
An outline of DRCNet's plans and recent accomplishments and an
appeal for your sup****t to make it all happen.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/drcnets_amazing_progress_in_2007
3. LAW ENFORCEMENT: SNITCHES GONE BAD
Critics of the widespread use of informants in the drug war have
long argued the system is subject to abuse. Three cases of
informants gone bad popped up in the past week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/informants_snitches_gone_bad
4. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
The allure of cocaine proves too much for a California highway
patrolman and a pair of Brooklyn narcs, and a pair of New Jersey
cops pay for peddling pills.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/police_drug_corruption
5. PRISONS: FACING BUDGET CRISIS, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR PONDERS
EARLY RELEASE OF 22,000 NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS
With California facing a $14 billion budget deficit, the
governor's budget cutters have come up with a proposal to
release more than 22,000 nonviolent offenders before their
sentences are up.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/california_governor_ponders_early_release_prisoners_22000_budget
6. LEGISLATION: ILLINOIS JOINS SHORT LIST OF STATES BANNING
SALVIA DIVINORUM
Possession of salvia divinorum is a felony in Illinois beginning
next week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/illinois_salvia_divinorum_ban_effective_january
7. MARIJUANA: IDAHO BALKS AT TOWN'S POT INITIATIVES
In November, voters in Hailey, Idaho, approved initiatives
legalizing medical marijuana and industrial hemp and instructing
the town to make marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement
priority. Now, the Idaho attorney general's office has found
those initiatives to be "invalid" and the city is balking at
implementing them.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/hailey_idaho_balks_at_marijuana_initiatives
8. ASIA: CHINA SET TO ADOPT ANTI-DRUG LAW
The Chinese National People's Congress is set to pass that
country's first drug law, after subsuming drugs within the
general criminal code for half a century. Designated addicts may
actually get gentler treatment in the new framework than they
receive now.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/china_to_pass_first_drug_law
9. LATIN AMERICA: ECUADOR PRESIDENT WANTS TO PARDON DRUG "MULES"
Ecuador's President Rafeal Correa, the son of a man once
imprisoned on drug charges in the US, has called for pardons for
low-level drug mules serving long sentences in his country's
prisons.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/ecuador_president_correa_calls_for_pardons_for_drug_mules
10. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/drug_war_history
11. STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an intern****p at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and
you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
12. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE SPEAKEASY
Check in at the Speakeasy every day for cutting commentary on
America's favorite failed policy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
13. 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.
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14. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
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15. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
YOUR READER
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
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http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available
16. 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/516/drug_reform_calendar
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org
to sign up
today!)
================
1. Feature: The Top Ten Drug War Stories of 2007, According to
Drug War Chronicle
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/516/2007_top_ten_major_stories_in_the_drug_war
As 2007 winds down, it is time to look back at the year in drug
policy. Here at Drug War Chronicle, we cranked out more than 500
stories about every aspect of drug policy in the US and around
the world this year. But if we have to narrow it down to a
handful of domestic and international stories or trends, the
following are what we pick. Without further ado... the top ten
drug war stories of 2007, according to Drug War Chronicle:
THE DRUG WAR GRINDS ON
While more than a decade of concerted drug reform activism has
produced some encouraging changes, the drug war nevertheless
continued to grind on throughout 2007. At mid-year, the Bureau
of Justice Statistics announced that the US jail and prison
population was at another all-time high
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/492/jail_prison_population_all_time_high_2006),
with more than 2.2 million people behind bars, including roughly
500,000 drug offenders. At the end of September, the FBI's
annual Uniform Crime Re****t came out, and it found marijuana
arrests and all drug arrests were both at all-time highs
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/503/marijuana_drug_arrests_all_time_high_again),
with more than 800,000 pot arrests last year and more than 1.8
million drug arrests. Nothing yet has succeeded in putting the
brakes on the drug war juggernaut.
THE WALLS BEGIN TUMBLING DOWN: A HINT OF JUSTICE FOR CRACK
PRISONERS
After two decades of draconian treatment of crack cocaine
offenders, 2007 saw significant albeit modest progress in
achieving justice for the thousands of people -- almost all
black and brown -- imprisoned under mandatory minimum federal
crack laws. After years of fruitless pleading to Congress to
change the crack laws, the US Sentencing Commission in May
announced it would amend the federal sentencing guidelines
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/484/sentencing_commission_cuts_crack_sentences)
to slightly reduce crack sentences, and two weeks later, it
urged Congress to act to reduce them even further
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/486/sentencing_commission_congress_reduce_crack_cocaine_sentence_disparities)
by addressing the 100:1 disparity in the quantity of crack
versus powder cocaine it takes to earn mandatory minimum
sentences. (The guidelines and the mandatory minimums are
separate, intertwined sentencing regimes.) Early this month, the
Sentencing Commission announced that its earlier sentencing
adjustments would be retroactive
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/508/sentencing_commission_new_crack_guidelines_retroactivity),
meaning that as many as 22,000 current crack prisoners can seek
hearings to gain sentence cuts. And a few days later, in a pair
of cases having to do with the now advisory federal sentencing
guidelines, the Supreme Court ruled that judges can make
downward departures in crack sentences
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/514/supreme_court_and_sentencing_commission_loosen_crack_cocaine_sentencing).
These changes are for the better, but they are at the margins.
The real problem is the way the law is written, and that will
take action by Congress to change. Pressure is mounting, a
handful of bills have been filed, and 2008 could be the year
that Congress finally acts.
CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA: THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF
TIMES
California continues to be a world apart when it comes to
medical marijuana. Under the state's broadly written law,
gaining a recommendation to become a legal medical marijuana
patient is not a daunting task. Depending on the location,
neither is visiting one of the hundreds of dispensaries selling
the weed to patients. It's a different story when it comes to
the dispensaries, however. Around 40 of them have been raided by
the DEA (we did stories on mass raids in Los Angeles in January
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/469/DEA_raids_11_medical_marijuana_dispensaries_in_Los_Angeles_area)
and again in July
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/495/dea_raids_los_angeles_medical_marijuana_dispensaries)),
usually operating in cahoots with recalcitrant local law
enforcement, and more than 100 people face federal prosecution.
This year, the DEA has also unveiled a new tactic: threatening
dispensary landlords
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/514/dea_threatens_san_francisco_dispensary_landlords_lawsuit_conyers_judiciary_committee_hearing)
in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Francisco. Meanwhile, the
battle over medical marijuana in California is also being fought
county by county, municipality by municipality, as local
entities grapple with whether to allow dispensaries and how to
regulate them. The state is collecting taxes off them
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/481/california_taxes_medical_marijuana_dispensaries),
and one activist, the Drug Library's Cliff Schaffer, has put out
an only partly tongue-in-cheek press release on behalf of the
state's marijuana dealers to chip in a billion dollars
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/marijuana_dealers_offer_schwarzenegger_one_billion_dollars)
of annual tax revenue to help the state overcome its budget
crisis. The situation is fluid and rapidly changing in
California, but it appears doubtful that even the feds can turn
back the clock to the days before Proposition 215.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONTINUES TO EXPAND
New Mexico
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/480/new_mexico_becomes_twelfth_medical_marijuana_state)
became the 12th state to adopt a medical marijuana law this
year, while Rhode Island
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/488/rhode_island_medical_marijuana_bill_passes_veto_proof)
made its law permanent. Connecticut
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/491/governor_vetoes_connecticut_medical_marijuana_bill)
passed a medical marijuana law, only to have it vetoed by
Republican Gov. Jodi Rell. Serious medical marijuana efforts
were also underway in the legislatures in Illinois, Minnesota,
New Hamp****re, New York, and Tennessee, while bills were
introduced in about 15 more states. Wisconsin and Michigan are
both on track to see serious efforts next year, the former in
the legislature and the latter through the initiative process,
while some of the states where efforts have been underway could
get over the top next year. See our beginning of the year
overview
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/medical_marijuana_progress_re****t)
for more details.
HARM REDUCTION MAKES SOME ADVANCES
After years of effort, the New Jersey legislature finally passed
needle exchange legislation nearly a year ago, and last month,
the state's first legal needle exchange program opened in
Atlantic City
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/512/first_new_jersey_needle_exchange_program_legal_opens).
This month, Congress finally lifted its nine-year-ban on the
District of Columbia using its own money to fund a needle
exchange
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/515/federal_2008_budget_ondcp_media_campaign_cut_law_enforcement_spending_increases).
Finally, the harm reduction benefits of needle exchanges appear
to be losing some of their controversy. Meanwhile, back in
April, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed the state's Good
Samaritan law
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/480/new_mexico_governor_signs_overdose_reduction_measure),
protecting people who seek medical assistance for overdose
victims. That's a first. On the West Coast, they are debating
the boundaries of politically palatable harm reduction in the US
with a San Francisco safe injection site discussion
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/507/san_francisco_ponders_safe_injection_site).
That, too, would be a first. The fact that it is finally being
looked at seriously somewhere in the US is significant in
itself.
DERAILING OF HEA REFORM A LESSON IN CONGRESSIONAL FICKLENESS AND
PRE-ELECTION DRUG WAR POLITICS
After winning a partial rollback of the Higher Education Act
drug provision (aka "Aid Elimination Penalty") in 2006, repeal
advocates were counting on the Democratic Congress to kill it
completely this year -- or at least to try. Things looked decent
early on when in June, the Senate HELP Committee approved
removal of the drug question from the federal financial aid
application
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/491/senate_committee_guts_hea_drug_provision),
though without repealing the law itself, as part of the
long-awaited HEA reauthorization bill. But then things went bad
on the Senate floor, as committee Chair Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA),
who was floor managing the bill, allowed Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-SC) to offer an amendment removing that language without
opposition. Still, there was hope that the House would pass
repeal legislation that could survive conference committee, but
that hope, too, was dashed when House Education & Labor
Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller (D-CA) refused to allow a
repeal amendment to be voted on
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/511/hea_repeal_stymied_democrats_choke_again)
because of its potential budgetary impact, instead allowing Rep.
Mark Souder (R-IN), the author of the drug provision, to offer
his own amendment to further limit the scope of his measure.
Now, what's that old saying about politicians and their
promises?
MEXICO'S DRUG WARS INTENSIFY, AND THE US PREPARES A MASSIVE AID
PACKAGE
Incoming Mexican President Felipe Calderon began his first year
in office by sending soldiers to occupy Tijuana
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/467/mexican_soldiers_occupy_tijuana_in_bid_to_stamp_out_drug_trade)
and ended it by declaring the drug war his highest priority and
sending soldiers to occupy Reynosa
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/513/mexico_calderon_drug_war_highest_priority).
In between, Calderon sent thousands of troops into various
states and cities to fight the drug war. They arrested thousands
and seized lots of drugs, but failed to make a perceptible dent
in the flow of drugs north, and were accused of various human
rights abuses
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/503/mexico_top_human_rights_official_calls_no_military_in_drug_war).
Despite Calderon's drug war, prohibition-related violence killed
an estimated 2,500 people this year, a record high. Calderon may
be criticized in Mexico, but he has been lionized in Wa****ngton,
which is preparing a $1.4 billion anti-drug aid package
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/507/bush_unveils_plan_mexico_anti_drug_aid_package).
There are no signs that things are getting better in Mexico
despite Calderon's efforts, and if "Plan Mexico" turns out
anything like Plan Colombia, things could get much worse.
COCA PEACE IN BOLIVIA
We haven't written much about Bolivia this year, and that's a
good sign. Since former coca grower union leader Evo Morales won
the presidency in December 2005, he has ****fted from the
US-imposed "zero coca" policies of his predecessors to one of
"coca, yes; cocaine, no," and, as a result, conflict in the coca
fields has dropped dramatically
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/474/bolivia_coca_yes_cocaine_no_policy_beginning_to_work).
Coca farmers re****ted there was peace, if not prosperity
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/475/bolivia_coca_si_cocaine_no_policy_brings_peace_if_not_prosperity),
and while the US and the International Narcotics Control Board
grumbled
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/475/collision_course_bolivia_incb_united_states_coca_policy)
about Morales allowing a limited expansion of the coca crop,
they haven't offered stiff opposition. Bolivia, the world's
third largest coca producer, now stands in sharp contrast with
number two Peru, where eradication efforts repeatedly sparked
cocalero strikes and conflict, and number one Colombia, where
despite more than $6 billion in US aid, production continues
unabated, as does the festering guerrilla war. It is not
completely lovey-dovey in Bolivia's coca fields, but it is a
vast improvement in the economic, political, and human rights
situation of the coca farmers.
IN CANADA, A BATTLE ROYAL LOOMS OVER THE CONSERVATIVES'
REPRESSIVE DRUG POLICY APPROACH
For most of this decade, American reformers have viewed Canada
as a bastion of reason and tolerance when it comes to drug
policy. While that view was a bit overdone, things have
certainly changed for the worse with the election of the
Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephan Harper. Only
after a concerted national and international campaign did his
government grudgingly grant an exemption to Vancouver's safe
injection site
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/504/vancouver_safe_injection_site_insite_wins_six_month_reprieve),
and then only for six months. Harper and his ministers have
scoffed at the very notion of harm reduction, and this fall,
they announced that their new National Anti-Drug Strategy
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/505/canadian_conservative_harper_drug_strategy_bad_news)
would have no harm reduction funding. A few weeks later, the
Tories introduced their new drug crime bill
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/512/canada_mandatory_minimum_drug_bill_draws_opposition),
with mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses,
including growing marijuana. That has set off a huge fight,
which will be played out next year. Will Canada march resolutely
backward into the 20th Century? Stay tuned.
AFGHANISTAN AND OPIUM
Six years after the US invaded Afghanistan, neither the effort
to defeat the Taliban nor the war on the opium poppy is going
well. US and NATO casualties are up, and the poppy crop
continues to hit new records every year. Afghanistan now
accounts for 92% of the global opium supply, and the US and its
NATO allies face a real dilemma: Go after the crops and drive
the farmers into the waiting arms of the Taliban, or stand by
and watch the Taliban profit handsomely from the traffic.
Meanwhile, proposals to simply buy up the crop and divert it to
legitimate medicinal uses are eroding the prohibitionist
consensus, as everyone from Canadian think tanks
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/476/canadian_think_tank_calls_for_afghan_opium_marketing_board)
to British parliamentarians
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/478/british_mps_want_licit_medical_use_afghan_opium)
to the European Parliament
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/502/european_union_committee_afghan_opium_medicine)
came on board to sup****t such a plan. At year's end, the US
government announced it had given up efforts to spray the
poppies
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/512/no_aerial_eradication_of_afghan_opium_poppies_says_state_department)
in the face of opposition from the Afghan government, NATO
allies, and even the Pentagon and CIA. Now, the US is once again
back to the drawing board, and Afghanistan is certain to remain
a critical issue for the foreseeable future.
================
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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