Drug War Chronicle, Issue #596 -(urls + 2 editorials)- 7/31/09
B Sellers
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psm...@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596
A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, bor...@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
Book Offer: "This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History
of Getting High in America":
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/book_offer_this_is_your_country_on_drugs
Table of Contents:
1. FEATURE: CRACK/POWDER COCAINE SENTENCING DISPARITY BILL
PASSES KEY HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE, HEADS FOR FLOOR VOTE
A bill that would eliminate the crack/powder cocaine sentencing
disparity by punishing federal crack offenses the same way it
punishes powder offenses has passed a key committee vote and is
headed for the House floor. Companion legislation is brewing in
the Senate.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/crack_powder_cocaine_sentencing_disparity_bill_passes_house_committee
2. FEATURE: TWO MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION INITIATIVES HAVE BEEN
FILED IN CALIFORNIA FOR NEXT YEAR'S BALLOT
It appears increasingly likely that Californians will have a
chance to vote on marijuana legalization next year. Two
initiatives have been filed, one that would create legalization,
one that would create semi-legalization. Is now the right time?
Opinion in the movement is divided.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/two_marijuana_legalization_initiatives_california
3. BOOK OFFER: THIS IS YOUR COUNTRY ON DRUGS
To kick off our summer fundraising drive, DRCNet is pleased to
offer Ryan Grim's exciting new book, "This Is Your Country on
Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America," as our
latest membership premium. Things are happening, and the
importance of your support at this time could not be greater.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/book_offer_this_is_your_country_on_drugs
4. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICAN DRUG WAR WEEK IN REVIEW
Hardly a day goes by without another body being found in
Mexico's prohibition-related violence, and the Mexican
government is under increasing fire as the death toll rises.
Now, thanks to upcoming journalist Bernd Debusmann Jr., the
Chronicle will be watching and summarizing events on a weekly
basis.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/mexico_drug_war_week_review
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A potentially very ugly scandal is brewing in the DC suburbs, a
Pennsylvania cop gets busted just after buying some smack, a
California prison guard was peddling PCP, and a former
Miami-Dade cop cops a plea in an Ecstasy sting.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/police_drug_corruption
6. RACIAL PROFILING: ILLINOIS ANNUAL TRAFFIC STOP REPORT
REPRISES SAME OLD STORY
As a state senator concerned with racial profiling, President
Obama championed a bill requiring Illinois law enforcement
agencies to report on traffic stops. The latest annual report is
out and it's pretty much the same old story: Blacks and
Hispanics are much more likely to be asked to consent to
searches, but cops are much more likely to actually find
contraband if the driver is white.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/2008_illinois_racial_profiling_traffic_stop_report
7. DRUG TREATMENT: CALIFORNIA'S PROP. 36 FUNDING TAKES MASSIVE
HIT
California's Proposition 36 "treatment not jail" law is likely
to lead to neither treatment nor jail as its funding gets
slashed by 83% because of the state's budget crisis.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/california_prop_36_treatment_not_jail_funding_cut
8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: MAINE ACTIVIST HEADED FOR PRISON
Maine marijuana activist Don Christen is getting ready to do
eight months behind bars after the state Supreme Court rejected
his appeal in a marijuana cultivation case where he argued he
was growing for patients.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/maine_supreme_court_don_christen_eight_months
9. MARIJUANA: DECRIM A DONE DEAL IN COOK COUNTY
With Cook County (greater Chicago) Board President Todd Stroger
saying he will not veto last Tuesday's passage of a marijuana
decriminalization ordinance, it looks like decrim is a done deal
-- at least in unincorporated areas of the county. The move also
gives towns and cities in the county the option to adopt decrim
as well.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/cook_county_marijuana_decriminalization_done_deal
10. MARIJUANA: COLORADO SKI TOWN TO VOTE ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA
POSSESSION
In 2005, voters in Denver approved the legalization of
possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, though local
authorities have since ignored that vote. Now, voters in the
Colorado ski town of Breckenridge will get the same opportunity.
A local initiative is headed for this November's ballot --
unless the town council just goes ahead and approves it first.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/marijuana_legalization_initiative_breckenridge_colorado
11. LATIN AMERICA: FIVE KILLED, SIX WOUNDED, SIX MISSING IN
ATTACK ON COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS, COCA ERADICATORS
Somebody opened fire on Colombian soldiers and coca eradicators
Monday, leaving of a toll of dead, wounded, and missing. There
are plenty of suspects.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/colombia_coca_eradicators_killed
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/596/drug_war_history
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.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Want to Prevent Marijuana Growing on Public Land? Legalize It,"
"More Evidence That Marijuana Prevents Cancer," "Trick Question
on the DEA Job Application?," "Cop Accidentally Reveals the
Wisdom of Marijuana Legalization," "Drug Czar Gets Caught Lying
and Contradicting Himself," "Mexico's Drug War is Eventually
Going to Collapse," "Drug Warriors for Sensible Drug Policy,"
"Should Employers Provide Reimbursement for Medical Marijuana
Costs?," "Crack Sentencing Reform Bill Passes Full Judiciary
Committee," "More Big News: Needle Exchange Legislation Passes
US House of Representatives," "Glorious Kyrgyzstan -- the Best
Harm Reduction Program in Central Asia."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
15. 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/596/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)
================
1. Feature: Crack/Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity Bill
Passes Key House Subcommittee, Heads for Floor Vote
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/crack_powder_cocaine_sentencing_disparity_bill_passes_house_committee
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and
Homeland Security Wednesday approved a bill designed to end the
disparity in sentencing for federal crack and powder cocaine
offenses. The bill, the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of
2009 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3245:),
passed by a vote of 16-9 and now heads for a House floor vote.
Under laws passed in the midst of the crack cocaine panic of the
1980s, it takes 100 times as much powder cocaine as crack to
trigger mandatory minimum sentences. For example, five grams of
crack earns a five-year mandatory minimum, but it takes 500
grams of powder to garner the same sentence.
A majority of crack users are white, but more than 80% of
federal crack prosecutions have been aimed at blacks. When
Hispanics are added in, nearly 96% of all federal crack
prosecutions have been aimed at non-whites.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) addresses the
disparity by removing all references to crack cocaine in federal
sentencing laws and treating the two forms of the drug equally.
Under the bill, it would take 500 grams of either crack or
powder cocaine to trigger the mandatory minimum sentence. The
bill would also eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for
possession of any amount of crack.
"We have taken a big step today toward ending the disparity that
exists between crack and powder cocaine sentencing," said
Judiciary committee chair Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who
cosponsored the bill. "African Americans serve almost as much
time in federal prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as
whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months), largely due to
sentencing laws such as the 100-to-1 crack-powder cocaine
disparity. Since 1980, the number of offenders in federal
prisons for drug offenses has skyrocketed from less than 5,000
to almost 100,000 in 2009. Currently, drug offenders represent
52% of all federal prison inmates."
The crack/powder sentencing disparity has been the most glaring
example of racially imbalanced drug enforcement in recent years
and has been under attack not only by sentencing reform
advocates, civil libertarians, and civil rights groups, but also
by the US Sentencing Commission, which has for more than a
decade called for its elimination. But any moves to address it
languished during the Bush administration.
The atmosphere has changed with Democratic control of the White
House and the Congress. Both President Obama and Attorney
General Holder support ending the disparity, so do congressional
Democrats, and even some congressional Republicans.
Remaining Republican hard-line drug warriors in the subcommittee
attempted to subvert the spirit of the bill, resorting to
time-honored anti-drug political tactics, but failed. Rep. Lamar
Smith (R-TX), the ranking Republican on the committee, was
concerned about sending messages. "The bill sends the wrong
message to drug dealers and those who traffic in ravaging human
lives. It sends the message that Congress does not take drug
crimes seriously," he complained.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced an amendment to address the
disparity by making the current draconian penalties for crack
apply to powder cocaine as well. He said he supported reducing
the sentencing disparity, but "let's do it on the side of making
sure our streets are safer, not less safe."
But committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) ruled the
amendment out of order. It was then tabled on a 14-13 vote.
Rep. Melvin Watt (D-NC) captured the majority sentiment for
ending the crack/powder sentencing disparity. "It did not work,"
he said. "We were wrong."
The vote was welcomed by sentencing reform advocates. "Today's
vote is an historic first step in ending a 20-year injustice,"
said Michael Macleod-Ball, interim director of the ACLU
(http://www.aclu.org)'s Washington Legislative Office.
"Lawmakers must act now to eliminate the disparity between crack
and powder cocaine sentencing by treating both forms of the same
drug equally under federal law. Congress alone has the authority
to put a stop to the crack-powder disparity and long mandatory
minimum sentences."
"Justice won today," said Julie Stewart, president of Families
Against Mandatory Minimums (http://www.famm.org). "Today's vote
represents another step to restoring basic fairness to our
sentencing laws and to fulfilling the Constitution's promise of
equal justice under the law. We urge the full House to act
quickly on this measure."
"It makes no more sense to punish crack cocaine offenders more
harshly than powder cocaine offenders than it does to punish
wine drinkers more harshly than beer drinkers. Crack and powder
cocaine are two forms of the same drug," said Jasmine Tyler,
deputy director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance
(http://www.drugpolicy.org). "When all is said and done people
will look back at this as a watershed moment -- the day that
Congress began rolling back some of the drug war's worst
excesses."
The bill still has to pass the House. On the Senate side,
Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) is preparing to introduce
his own measure to eliminate the sentencing disparity. It is
expected to win bipartisan support from his fellow Judiciary
Committee members.
================
2. Feature: Two Marijuana Legalization Initiatives Have Been
Filed in California for Next Year's Ballot
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/596/two_marijuana_legalization_initiatives_california
Last month, Drug War Chronicle reported that cannabusinessman
and dispensary operator Richard Lee, creator of Oaksterdam and
founder of Oaksterdam University
(http://www.oaksterdamuniversity.com), had assembled a team of
activists, attorneys, political consultants and
signature-gathering pros for an initiative to tax and regulate
marijuana in California
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/590/california_marijuana_legalization_initiative)
they hoped to place on the November 2010 election ballot. Drug
reform organizations were apprehensive, however, worrying the
proposed initiative was too soon, the polling numbers weren't
high enough, and that a loss could take the steam out of the
legalization push for years to come.
Lee has pushed forward, such concerns notwithstanding; on Monday
he and Oakland medical marijuana pioneer Jeff Jones filed the
Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010
(http://www.taxcannabis2010.org/?p=115).
And then there were two. On July 15 -- two weeks prior, but with
less heraldry -- a trio of NORML-affiliated Northern California
attorneys filed the Tax, Regulate, and Control Cannabis Act of
2010
(http://www.californiacannabisinitiative.org/documents/initiativetext_000.pdf).
To avoid confusion, we'll refer to the second as the Omar
Figueroa initiative (coauthored by Joe Rogoway and James Clark)
and the first as the Richard Lee initiative.
"Cannabis prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, is an expensive
and ineffective waste of taxpayer money," said Figueroa.
"California's laws criminalizing cannabis have failed and need
to be reformed," said Lee. "Cannabis is safer than alcohol.
Cannabis doesn't cause overdose deaths or make people violent
like alcohol. It makes sense to regulate cannabis like alcohol,
instead of prohibiting it completely."
The Figueroa initiative is broader and would bring complete
legalization under state law, while the Lee initiative would
create semi-legalization, allowing adults to possess up to one
ounce and grow their own in a 5' x 5' garden space. The Figueroa
initiative would allow the state of California to tax marijuana
sales, while the Lee initiative would allow cities and counties
to tax marijuana sales. The Figueroa initiative would end
marijuana prohibition statewide, while the Lee initiative would
give cities and counties the local option to tax and regulate or
not, but would also provide that people could still possess and
grow the specified amounts even in locales that opt out of
regulating.
"Our initiative repeals cannabis prohibition; Richard's just
narrows the scope," said Figueroa, a San Francisco attorney
specializing in medical marijuana and marijuana cultivation
cases. "People would not be free to possess more than one ounce
and there would be limitations on growing your own. And our
initiative is going to have that big economic impact statement
for the state budget that Richard's will not," he said.
"We worked for many weeks with Richard on his initiative, and we
support both, but we think ours would result in more
far-reaching change and would generate money for the state
through tax revenues," Figueroa added. "We want to stimulate
debate and provide an alternative to Richard's initiative, which
we don't think would create enough change."
The initiative effort is moving forward and preparing to begin
signature-gathering, said Figueroa, but its prospects are iffy.
"We don't have the deep pockets Richard has," he said.
Lee has signed a $1.05 million contract with a
signature-gathering organization and says he has already raised
half of that sum. "We are confident we will be on the ballot,"
he said. "Then we need to raise another $10 to $20 million to
win, depending on the opposition."
The initiatives come as the noise level around marijuana
legalization in California grows ever louder. An April Field
poll
(http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2306.pdf)
put support for legalization at 56%. Gov. Schwarzenegger said
this year that the issue should be discussed
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2009/may/05/arnold_schwarzenegger_calls_for_),
and the state Board of Equalization's estimate that legalization
could generate $1.4 billion in revenue
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/594/california_marijuana_tax_revenues_billion_dollars)
for the state has generated considerable interest. That estimate
was a response to a bill before the legislature, Rep. Tom
Ammiano's AB 390
(http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0351-0400/ab_390_bill_20090223_introduced.pdf),
which would legalize marijuana and allow the state to tax it.
Meanwhile, voters in Oakland last week overwhelmingly supported
a special dispensary tax, another Richard Lee effort. And now
the Los Angeles city council is considering doing the same
thing.
The Figueroa initiative would appear to have more appeal to
hard-core marijuana legalizers, but the Lee initiative has more
money behind it and is more likely to actually make it to the
ballot. That is making the Lee initiative the subject of more
discussion as to its likelihood of passage. That discussion in
turn has opened a window on just how complex the issues around
legalization are, how difficult it is to create a "perfect"
legalization initiative, and how difficult it is to decide if
this is the time to act or whether it would be premature.
The major national marijuana and drug reform groups are
generally skeptical that a legalization initiative can win in
California in 2010. They also worry about the impact of a defeat
on the movement.
"We're concerned about the timing and we're not sure it's the
best worded initiative," said Dan Bernath, assistant
communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project
(http://www.mpp.org). "It is getting the conversation about
marijuana policy reform going, but we're concerned it could set
the movement back if it loses. We're more interested in
Ammiano's bill," he said.
"We would like [the Lee initiative] to win," said Steven
Gutwillig, California State Director for the Drug Policy
Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org), whose funding of
Proposition 215 helped make medical marijuana legal in the
state, "and we're not that concerned that losing would be an
enormous setback to the movement unless it really loses big. We
are looking to end marijuana prohibition as quickly and
effectively as possible, and if this is the way to do it, we're
all for it."
But unlike the Prop. 215 effort, DPA will be cheering from the
sidelines. "We're not an official proponent of this and we're
not in a position to fund a campaign of this scale anytime
soon," said Gutwillig. "We're still relatively fresh from the
$7.5 million campaign to pass Proposition 5 sentencing reforms,
which didn't go the right way."
Lee is optimistic, and he thinks that now, rather than 2012 as
others have suggested, is the time. "We have poll numbers that
show a majority, and we have the terrible economy working for
us," he said. Lee pointed to the budgetary crisis afflicting
California cities and counties, which lost big in the latest
state budget. "The governor and legislature stole a bunch of
money from the cities and counties, and this could help them
recoup some of the money they're losing," Lee argued.
Dale Gieringer, head of California NORML
(http://www.canorml.org), worries the lack of a provision for
taxation directly by the state will hurt the initiative at the
polls, even if the potential revenues for counties and cities
are equivalent. "The state always writes a financial analysis on
initiatives, and I suspect this one will say uncertain or none."
Gieringer pointed to the Board of Equalization's $1.4 billion
estimate. "The tax benefits make this a sexy issue, and
sacrificing that sacrifices most of the appeal of legalization
to non-users."
Still, if it's happening, CANORML will support it. "We support
anything that improves the marijuana laws," said Gieringer.
"There is a lot of enthusiasm right now, and people want to do
something for legalization."
"Omar Figueroa and Richard Lee are both pushing the envelope,"
said national NORML (http://www.norml.org) head Allen St.
Pierre, who was more sanguine about the effort than MPP or DPA,
though only slightly. "These initiatives are a good thing; I
just don't know if they will be successful. Even if they aren't,
they will move the ball forward on the public discussion of the
issue. When we have public discussions about reform, the longer
and deeper the discussion, the more it breaks toward reform."
The Lee initiative in particular is a harbinger of things to
come and demonstrates changing dynamics within the California
marijuana reform movement, said St. Pierre. "What is really
changing drastically is that this will be driven by
cannabusinesses' ability to raise and spend money, not by one or
two elite wealthy people whose stake in this is magnitudes less
than say, Richard Lee, who has created Oaksterdam."
There is another reason for the local option, said Lee. "It gets
us around federal law. We don't have any other way until federal
law changes because the state would be in conflict with federal
law. But we had cities taxing medical marijuana outlets; that's
why we wrote it that way."
Will the competing initiatives both make it to the ballot? If
they do, can they win? Will it fly in Fresno? Will the threat of
an initiative spur the legislature to act on the Ammiano
legalization bill? Stay tuned. It looks like very interesting
times are ahead.
================
...
___________________
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Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________
later
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the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
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