Drug War Chronicle, Issue #535 -- 5/9/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535
A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
New Offer: Clergy Against the War on Drugs Video
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/clergy_against_the_war_on_drugs_video
Students: Intern at DRCNet to help stop the drug war now!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
Enough is Enough: Stop the Deadly SWAT Raids:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/raidpetition
Table of Contents:
1. FEATURE: "COLOR BLIND" DRUG WAR DISPRO****TIONATELY TARGETS
BLACK AMERICANS
It's not exactly "stop the presses" material, but two new
re****ts from Human Rights Watch and the Sentencing Project
provide even more confirmation that America's drug war is
racially biased and waged mainly against black Americans.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/human_rights_watch_sentencing_project_race_drug_war_re****t
2. FEATURE: GLOBAL MARIJUANA DAY DEMONSTRATIONS MEET REPRESSION
IN HANDFUL OF CITIES
In more than 200 cities worldwide, activists celebrated the
Global Marijuana March on Saturday. But in a handful of places,
there was trouble, with local authorities trying to repress the
marches. Here's a re****t.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/global_marijuana_day_repression_belgium_brazil_russia_australia
3. NEWS RELEASE: WILL SDSU DRUG BUST COVERAGE RAISE THE CRITICAL
QUESTIONS?
Will SDSU's Drug Bust Reduce Drug Availability on Campus in the
Future? Advocates Urge Media to Look Beyond the Surface, Ask
Critical Questions About Raid's Long-Term Implications for Drug
Trade (or Lack Thereof).
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/critical_questions_about_sdsu_drug_bust
4. OFFER: NEW CLERGY ANTI-DRUG-WAR VIDEO
Clergy are speaking out against the war on drugs! Donate $16 or
more (or whatever you can afford) and we'll send you a copy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/clergy_against_the_war_on_drugs_video
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Belated justice comes for two crooked cops, one in Dallas and
one in Long Beach.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/police_drug_corruption
6. SALVIA WATCH: MAGIC MINT NOW ILLEGAL IN KANSAS, BUT ALABAMA
BILL DIES
Alabama lawmakers declined to ban salvia divinorum, letting two
bills die this week, but a prohibition on the psychedelic plant
went into effect in Kansas.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/salvia_divinorum_alabama_kansas
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIR CALLS OUT DEA ON
CALIFORNIA RAIDS
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has
sent the DEA a letter demanding that it explain its raids on
medical marijuana patients and providers in California. He's
threatening to hold hearings, too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/conyers_letter_DEA_medical_marijuana
8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: OREGON MEDICAL MARIJUANA FOE DROPS
INITIATIVE EFFORT
A conservative Oregon political operative who specializes in
"tough on crime" ballot initiatives has given up plans for an
initiative that would undo the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act --
at least for this year.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/medical_marijuana_mannix_oregon_initiative_dead
9. HARM REDUCTION: SAN ANTONIO NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM NOT TO
BE, TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS WOULD VIOLATE STATE LAW
The Texas attorney general has issued an opinion that a law
passed last year to allow a needle exchange program in San
Antonio does not protect exchange workers from arrest under
state paraphernalia laws, so the Lone Star State's first
officially-sanctioned needle exchange is dead -- for now.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/san_antonio_needle_exchange_attorney_general_opinion
10. EUROPE: IN STEP BACKWARDS, BRITAIN RESCHEDULES MARIJUANA AS
MORE DANGEROUS DRUG
As expected, the British government announced Wednesday it would
reclassify marijuana as a more dangerous drug, thus
theoretically increasing maximum jail sentences for pot smokers.
In so doing, the government rejected the recommendation of its
own advisory panel that marijuana stay a Class B drug.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/britain_reschedules_marijuana_class_b
11. EUROPE: DUTCH MARIJUANA TAX REVENUES AT $600 MILLION A
YEAR, CROP IS COUNTRY'S THIRD LARGEST EX****T
Marijuana is big business in the Netherlands -- a conservative
estimate says that the government collects $600 million a year
in tax revenues from the coffee shops.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/dutch_marijuana_tax
12. SOUTHWEST ASIA: IRAN ACCUSES WEST OF IGNORING AFGHAN OPIUM,
US MARINES CONVENIENTLY AID TEHRAN'S CASE
Iran complains that the West is ignoring opium production in
Afghanistan, and some US Marines inadvertently help Tehran make
its case.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/iran_afghanistan_opium_marines
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/535/drug_war_history
14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE SPEAKEASY
"Drug Cops Raid Innocent Man, Shoot Him 5 Times, Then File Bogus
Charges," "Mississippi Drug War Blues: The Case of Cory Maye,"
"British Prime Minister Ignores His Own Experts and increases
Penalties for Marijuana," "Judge Says Stun Guns Can't Be
Mentioned in Autopsies," "John Conyers Demands Answers From DEA
Over the Medical Marijuana Raids," "Don't Use Text Messages to
Advertise Your Cocaine Prices," "Man Dies After Being Denied a
Liver Transplant For Using Medical Marijuana," "Bloody
Culiacan," "Dia Mundial de la Marijuana (Global Marijuana Day),
Mexico City," "Will SDSU Drug Bust Coverage Ask the Critical
Questions?," "Marijuana: UK's Police and Drug Policy Experts
Object to PM's Reefer Madness," "Nobody is Safe from Drug
Prohibition's SWAT Teams."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
15. 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/535/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
16. 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/535/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
17. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Sup****t the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_available
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/535/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/535/drug_reform_calendar
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org
to sign up
today!)
================
1. Feature: "Color Blind" Drug War Dispro****tionately Targets
Black Americans
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/535/human_rights_watch_sentencing_project_race_drug_war_re****t
America's drug laws do not reference race, but the way they are
enforced has a gravely dispro****tionate impact on African
Americans, according to two re****ts released this week. While
the two studies' conclusions are no surprise to anyone who has
observed the evolution of American drug law enforcement, they
provide yet more confirmation that drug prohibition in the
United States reeks of racial injustice.
Released together, the two re****ts, one from Human Rights Watch
and one from the Sentencing Project, paint a picture of a
society where the color of one's skin seems to be the biggest
determinant of whether one will be arrested or imprisoned on
drug charges. While whites commit more drug offenses, blacks are
much more likely to be busted and jailed for them, the re****ts
found.
In its re****t, "Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race
in the United States (http://www.hrw.org/re****ts/2008/us0508/),"
Human Rights Watch examined racial disparities among drug
offenders in 34 states. In those states, black men were 11.8
times more likely to be arrested on drug charges than whites,
and black women were 4.8 times more likely to be arrested on
drug charges.
In 16 of those states, blacks are sent to prison on drug charges
at rates more than 10 times greater than whites, Human Rights
Watch found. The states with the most egregious racial
disparities in sentencing are, in rank order, Wisconsin,
Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia, Colorado, New
York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
While blacks make up 13% of the population, they accounted for
33% of all drug arrests and more than 53% of all drug offenders
entering prison in 2003, the last year studied in the re****t.
"Most drug offenders are white, but most of the drug offenders
sent to prison are black," said Jamie Fellner, senior counsel in
the US program at Human Rights Watch and author of the re****t.
"The solution is not to imprison more whites but to radically
rethink how to deal with drug abuse and low-level drug
offenders."
While the Human Rights Watch re****t examined disparities at the
state level, the Sentencing Project's 45-page study, "Disparity
by Geography: The War on Drugs in America's Cities,
(http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin/Do***ents/publications/dp_drugarrestre****t.pdf)"
looked at racial disparities at the municipal level. The
findings were equally grim. In examining data from 43 of the
nation's largest cities, the re****t found that since 1980, the
rate of drug arrests for blacks in those cities had increased
225%. While whites have also been caught up in the
ever-expanding drug war, their arrest rate increased by a much
lower 70%.
In 11 of the cities examined, black arrest rates on drug charges
are more than five times what they were in 1980. In half of
those cities, blacks were more than twice as likely as whites to
be arrested, even though use rates are roughly constant along
racial lines.
"The alarming increase in drug arrests since 1980, concentrated
among African Americans, raises fundamental questions about
fairness and justice," said Ryan King, policy analyst for The
Sentencing Project and author of the re****t. "But even more
troubling is the fact that these trends come not as the result
of higher rates of drug use among African Americans, but,
instead, the decisions by local officials about where to pursue
drug enforcement."
The impact of local decisions about how to prosecute the drug
war can be seen in cities across the country. In Tucson and
Buffalo drug arrests have increased more than eight-fold between
1980 and 2003; in Kansas City and Toledo, more than seven-fold;
in Newark and Sacramento, about six-fold. In some other cities,
such as San Francisco and Seattle, policing decisions have
resulted in much lower increases in drug arrests.
As Human Rights Watch's Fellner noted above, the answer is not
to arrest and imprison more white people for drug offenses.
Instead, Human Rights Watch and The Sentencing Project urged
public officials to address racial inequities and restore
credibility to the criminal justice system with a number of
reforms, including:
* Eliminating mandatory minimum sentences and restoring
judicial discretion to sentencing of drug offenders;
* Increasing public funding of substance abuse treatment and
prevention outreach to make these readily available in
communities of color in particular;
* Enhancing public health-based strategies to reduce harms
associated with drug abuse and reallocating public resources
accordingly.
================
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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