Drug War Chronicle, Issue #612 -(urls + editorial)- 12/11/09
B Sellers
Drug War Chronicle, Issue #612 -- 12/11/09
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psm...@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612
A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, bor...@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
*******DID YOU KNOW WE ARE WINNING?*******
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/did_you_know_we_are_winning
Table of Contents:
1. FEATURE: WITH PASSAGE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL PENDING, NEW
JERSEY PATIENT FACES 20 YEARS FOR GROWING HIS MEDICINE
If advocates for medical marijuana in New Jersey needed a poster
boy, they've found him in John Ray Wilson. The broke,
unemployed, MS patient goes on trial next week for growing his
own medicine. He's looking at 20 years in prison for something
that might not even be a crime next month.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/new_jersey_medical_marijuana_john_ray_wilson_trial
2. AT THE STATEHOUSE: SENTENCING, DRUG TESTING, GOOD SAMARITAN,
HEMP, AND SWAT BILLS
In the final installment in our series on drug reform
legislative activity, we look at sentencing, Good Samaritan
laws, drug testing, and a couple of odds and ends.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/state_legislature_bills_sentencing_drug_test_good_samaritan
3. CONGRESS: BUDGET DEAL INCLUDES SERIES OF DRUG REFORM
VICTORIES
Congressional budget negotiators have approved a conference
committee bill that ends the ban on federal funding of needle
exchange programs, ends the ban on the District of Columbia
funding of needle exchange programs, and ends the ban on the
District enacting a medical marijuana law approved by voters a
decade ago. Oh, and it also slashes funding for the drug czar's
ineffective youth anti-drug media campaign.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/congress_budget_bill_end_needle_exchange_funding_ban_DC_medical_marijuana
4. APPEAL: DID YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE WINNING?
Unprecedented developments have us more optimistic than ever
before at the prospects for significant change in drug policy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/did_you_know_we_are_winning
5. ALERT: TELL CONGRESS TO REPEAL UNJUST CRACK COCAINE SENTENCES
A rare window of opportunity has opened for addressing one of
the drug war's most glaring injustices.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/repeal_unjust_crack_cocaine_sentences
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL APPROVES MEASURE
TO CAP DISPENSARIES AT 70
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to slash the number
of medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the city by
nearly 90%. Under the measure approved, the number of
dispensaries would be limited to 70.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/los_angeles_city_council_medical_marijuana_dispensary_cap
7. PUBLIC OPINION: MAJORITY SUPPORT FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
NATIONWIDE, POLL FINDS
Woo-hoo! The end times are upon us. For the second time this
year, a national public opinion poll reports majority support
for legalizing marijuana.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/angus_reid_poll_marijuana_legalization_majority_support
8. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICO DRUG WAR UPDATE
Amnesty International accuses the Mexican military of human
rights violations in the drug war -- a problem for US funding.
Meanwhile, this year's south of the border prohibition-related
death toll passed 7,000 this week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/mexico_drug_war_update
9. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
More problems in the NYPD, "Starsky and Hutch" are being
investigated in Camden, and a Florida cop heads to prison for
tipping off drug traffickers.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/police_drug_corruption
10. PROSECUTION: NO MORE CRACK PIPE FELONIES FOR HOUSTON
Finally, some sanity in Houston! The Harris County District
Attorney has announced that beginning January 1, people caught
with trace amounts of drugs or drug paraphernalia with drug
traces will no longer be charged with felonies.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/houston_no_more_crack_pipe_felonies
11. LATIN AMERICA: TOP HONDURAN ANTI-DRUG OFFICIAL ASSASSINATED
Honduras' top anti-drug official Monday held a press conference
urging the public to join the fight against drug traffickers. A
day later, he was dead--gunned down in an ambush by assailants
who escaped.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/honduras_anti_drug_official_assassinated
12. EUROPE: CZECH GOVERNMENT DECRIMINALIZES UP TO FIVE MARIJUANA
PLANTS, 15 GRAMS
Last year, the Czech parliament voted to decriminalize the
possession of "small amounts" of drugs. Now, as the clock ticks
toward January 1, when the new penal code takes effect, the
cabinet is finally determining just what "small amounts" are.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/czech_republic_decriminalizes_five_marijuana_plants_15_grams
13. EUROPE: MAYOR OF AMSTERDAM SAYS CITIES NEED DIFFERENT COFFEE
SHOP POLICY FROM BORDER TOWNS
The Dutch government is pondering a further tightening of the
screws on Holland's famous cannabis coffee shops, but Amsterdam
Mayor Job Cohen doesn't want a one-size-fits-all policy based on
problems with border town "drug tourism."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/amsterdam_mayor_cohen_cannabis_coffee_shop
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/drug_war_history
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/612/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
16. 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/612/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war
17. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Good Stuff to Read," "Washington Post Writer Gets Tricked by
the Drug Czar, Refuses to Accept Responsibility," "10 Rules for
Dealing With Police (Film Preview)," "Deputy Drug Czar: I hate
This job'," "No Marijuana Smoking at the Dog-Sled Races," "A
Magical Day in Mexico," "No Drug Bust is Worth the Life of a
Good Cop."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)
================
1. Feature: With Passage of Medical Marijuana Bill Pending, New
Jersey Patient Faces 20 Years for Growing His Medicine
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/612/new_jersey_medical_marijuana_john_ray_wilson_trial
Just weeks before the New Jersey Assembly votes on pending
medical marijuana legislation, a trial is set to take place that
demonstrates precisely why such a law is needed. A sick Somerset
County resident, John Ray Wilson, is looking at up to 20 years
in prison for growing his own medicine.
In the summer of 2008, Wilson, a Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
sufferer, was broke, had no health insurance, and was desperate
for relief from the debilitating symptoms of his disease. Unable
to afford pharmaceutical medications and having already resorted
to alternative healing practices, when Wilson saw fellow MS
victim Montel Williams talk on TV about how medical marijuana
had helped him, he decided to try it for himself.
Wilson had even resorted to bee-sting therapy in a bid to
relieve his symptoms, but it was marijuana that worked best, he
said. "I was diagnosed with MS in 2002," he said. "I suffer from
blurred vision, pain in my joints, and muscle spasms. I didn't
have any medical benefits, so I tried to get some financial
assistance to actually get some MS medicine, but that didn't
succeed. I even tried getting stung by bees. Then I saw Montel
Williams on TV saying he had MS and smoked marijuana and it
helped. So I tried it, too, and it definitely helped, especially
in relieving the pain and the muscle spasms."
Lacking access to medical marijuana, Wilson decided to try his
hand at growing his own in the backyard of his Franklin Township
home, and that's when his life took a real turn for the worse. A
National Guard helicopter on a training flight spotted Wilson's
garden and reported him to state authorities, who promptly
seized his 17 plants, arrested him, and charged him with a
number of drug possession and drug manufacturing offenses that
could get him 20 years in prison. If convicted on the most
serious charge -- maintaining a drug production facility --
Wilson would be ineligible for pre-trial diversion and would
have to go to prison.
Wilson and his attorney explored plea bargain negotiations with
prosecutors, to no avail. "We were prepared to settle for a
reasonable deal, but the best they offered was five years in
prison," he said.
Now, Wilson is going on trial. Jury selection is set to begin
Monday.
It will be tough for Wilson to prevail. In October, Superior
Court Judge Robert Reed ruled that his medical condition, and
the fact that he had been taking marijuana to treat his
condition, could not be revealed to the jury during the course
of the trial.
"By striking my medical history from the trial, they've pretty
much tied my hands behind my back," said Wilson. "Hopefully, we
can get a jury that can see through what they're doing to me,
but it's more than a little scary. The consequences of what
they're doing would be horrendous for me. My health would
definitely deteriorate in prison. Stress makes all the symptoms
worse, and going to prison would definitely be stressful."
"Wilson tried marijuana and found it does in fact help," said
Ken Wolski, head of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New
Jersey (http://www.cmmnj.org), which has lobbied hard to pass a
medical marijuana bill in the Garden State to protect patients.
"Interestingly enough, a National MS Society expert opinion
paper
(http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/treatments/complementary--alternative-medicine/marijuana/index.aspx)
recently acknowledged that conventional therapies don't
adequately control MS symptoms and marijuana does. But he will
not be able to tell the jury he has MS, and that's the only
reason he was using marijuana in the first place," said Wolski.
"He's got no job, no health insurance, no access to medicine
that might bring him some relief. He tries to eke out a living
on eBay."
"This is exactly why New Jersey needs a medical marijuana law,"
said Roseanne Scotti, head of the Drug Policy Alliance
(http://www.drugpolicy.org) New Jersey office, who has been
walking the statehouse corridors in Trenton for years trying to
get medical marijuana passed. "John Ray Wilson's case is every
medical marijuana patient's worst nightmare," she added.
"He was using for medical purposes, but is precluded by the
courts from introducing evidence as to why, and the court is
correct -- this is the law in New Jersey," Scotti continued.
"But that's exactly why we need to change the law -- so people
like Mr. Wilson can get safe and legal access to medical
marijuana, and we don't go around arresting and prosecuting
someone patients seeking some relief."
"John Ray Wilson is a poster child for the legalization of
medical marijuana," said Wolski. "So many people are outraged
that he is facing 20 years for trying to treat himself and will
not even be able to tell the truth during the course of his
trial."
In a cruel twist of fate, Wilson is being prosecuted just weeks
before New Jersey is likely to adopt a medical marijuana law.
The state Senate has already passed it, and the Assembly will
vote on it early next month. Outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine (D) has
indicated he will sign it. Two of the bill's sponsors, Sens.
Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) and Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), have
highlighted Wilson's plight as indicative of why New Jersey
needs a medical marijuana law.
"It seems cruel and unusual to treat New Jersey's sick and dying
as if they were drug cartel kingpins. Moreover, it is a complete
waste of taxpayer money having to house and treat an MS patient
in a jail at the public's expense," said Scutari. "Specifically,
in the case of John Ray Wilson, the state is taking a fiscally
irresponsible hard-line approach against a man who's simply
seeking what little relief could be found from the debilitating
effects of multiple sclerosis. Governor Corzine should step in
immediately and end this perversion of criminal drug statutes in
the Garden State."
But Corzine hasn't stepped in or stepped up. Instead, his office
said it would wait until Wilson was convicted to consider a
pardon.
"The attorney general and the governor didn't want to take any
action, but they could make this case go away by exercising
prosecutorial discretion," said Wolski. "They chose to let it
move forward, and now its getting a lot of regional and national
attention, and rightfully so, because it shocks the conscience
of the community."
"The only way we're going see fewer of these cases come before
the court is if the 'New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical
Marijuana Act' becomes the law of the land," said Lesniak. "This
has been an issue that has taken years to resolve in New Jersey,
and legislative approval and enactment into law are long past
overdue. It's time that the Assembly posts this bill for a vote,
so we can focus our attention on putting real criminals behind
bars, and not piling on the suffering for terminal patients
simply seeking a little relief from the symptoms of their
diseases."
But while an Assembly vote is now set for next month, John Ray
Wilson's trial will be over by then. Barring a miracle of jury
nullification, Wilson will be drug felon. And in the meantime,
he's going without his medicine. "I'm not going to buy marijuana
on the street," he said. "That would get me thrown back in
jail."
================...
___________________
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 -- Cacoa Powered... (at sfo 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 cacoa 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.