Law Enforcement: This Weeks Corrupt Cop 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. Let's get to it:

In Jackson, Alabama, a Madison County deputy resigned last month after an internal investigation found that he either gave narcotics to an inmate or allowed the inmate to take them himself. Deputy Dustin Newman, 24, resigned on August 18 after investigators determined that "the only fact disputed is whether Newman took the drugs from a property box himself or just provided information which led to the drugs being taken by the trusty."

In Knoxville, Tennessee, a University of Tennessee Police Department officer was arrested September 17 for selling drugs in student housing. Officer Matthew Chambers, 35, faces one count of sale and distribution of Schedule II narcotics for selling one oxycodone tablet to a snitch. In a perhaps not so surprising twist, Chambers' attorney claims the snitch is his client's former girlfriend, who ratted him off in an effort to get charges she is facing reduced.

In Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, a Mt. Juliet police officer faces aggravated assault charges after being caught on video using a chokehold on a man suspected of hiding marijuana in his mouth. Mt. Juliet Police Corporal William Crosby pleaded not guilty September 18. Police car video showed Cosby choking James Lawrence Anders Jr. until he passed out during an April traffic stop. Anders was charged with marijuana possession, but those charges have now been dropped, and Anders has filed a civil lawsuit over the incident.

In St. Helens, Oregon, the Columbia County drug court coordinator was arrested over the weekend for allegedly selling drug investigation information to drug dealers and users. Emily Davis Cayton, 30, was initially charged with drug possession, but prosecutors said her case could go before a grand jury and result in further charges any day now. Investigators said they got a tip through their "informant system," but are unsure what information was leaked or how much Cayton was paid. She was arrested after a weeks-long investigation, they said. Cayton is now on paid administrative leave from her drug court gig.

In Walla Walla, Washington, a state prison guard was arrested Monday after being caught bringing "a substantial amount" of drugs into the prison. Prison guard Camren James Jones, 20, was jailed on suspicion of delivering cocaine, heroin, methadone and marijuana. Authorities described the amount of heroin as about the size of two golf balls.

In McAllen, Texas, a former Border Patrol agent was sentenced September 16 to five years in federal prison for lying about cocaine seizures. Juan Espinoza, 31, pleaded guilty to making false statements or entries in August 2006. Investigators found that Espinoza had seized cocaine from drug traffickers and conspired with others to distribute it. He had been free on bond, but now he's behind bars.

In Mineola, New York, a former NYPD officer was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for stealing handguns from a police evidence room and trading them for painkillers. Former Officer Hubertus Vannes had pleaded guilty in May to criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a firearm. He admitted trading three guns to a man in return for painkillers and was caught with 76 pills when arrested. The guy he traded the guns to has also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced October 14.

Oregon Group Wants Legal Marijuana Dispensaries

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) - A medical marijuana activist group is working on an initiative to create marijuana dispensaries in Oregon similar to those in California.

The group called Voter Power hopes to put a measure on the 2010 ballot that would set up a limited number of nonprofit dispensaries.

Under current Oregon law, medical marijuana cardholders must grow their own marijuana or find someone else to grow it for them.

If the dispensary system is approved, patients will still be able to grow their own marijuana or select a grower.

Marijuana is still illegal under federal law - even for medical use. But the federal government typically just monitors the state program for reports of abuse.

Rachel Hoffman Fallout: One Officer Fired, Others Reprimanded

Rachel Hoffman's Tragic Story on ABC's 20/20

At long last, we’re seeing some accountability for the officers who got Rachel Hoffman killed after coercing her into working as an informant in the mindbending botched drug sting disaster of the century:

Police Chief Dennis Jones requested that investigator Ryan Pender's employment be terminated.

Jones also wanted this disciplinary action taken: Deputy Chief  John Proctor, reprimand; Capt. Chris Connell, two-week suspension without pay; Lt. Taltha White, two week  suspension without pay; Sgt. David Odom, two week suspension without pay; Sgt. Rod Looney, two week suspension without pay.

Jones is reassigning White, Odom and Connell within the department.

"We have taken the necessary time to conduct a thorough and honest review and asked others to examine our operations," Jones says in the statement from the city. He said he has contacted Hoffman's family and provided a report.

"While we cannot change the events of May 7, we can make the type of changes within the department to help ensure our future actions are consistent with policy," Jones said.

[City Manager] Thompson also issued a reprimand to Jones to require a stronger level of supervision from top to bottom in the department. [Tampa Bay Online]

Anything resembling police accountability in the war on drugs is so rare that we should really take a moment to just reflect on this. Miraculously, we’ve reached a point where all you have to do to get the cops in trouble is be a pretty white girl with a loving family and hundreds of friends, get sucked into a steaming cauldron of first-rate drug enforcement incompetence, and perish dramatically on 20/20’s tear-jerker TV special of the season.

That’s what it takes, because despite the all-encompassing aversion of police officials towards acknowledging even mild misconduct, it’s still easier than conceding that the entire drug informant system is fundamentally corrupt and perverted to its core. This isn’t about Officer Pender, it isn’t about Tallahassee, and it isn’t going to get any better just because a couple incompetent cops got called out. The Burn Em’ & Bail Drug Informant Circus of Horror is a national tour sponsored by the war on drugs and it won’t go away until every last one of us makes it abundantly clear that we want no part of this. Not with our money, not in our community, and not in our name.

Many thanks to Scott Morgan Stopthedrugwar.org

Vested Interests.............

With the record number of cannabis arrests publicized last week, came the usual round of supporter and media inquiries about ‘who actually supports keeping America’s cannabis prohibition in place?’

Without sounding overly jaded, it will not surprise many that a principle root of the problem here is ‘money’. In fact, our tax money.

Washington DC’s Roll Call newspaper had an article last week (10/15/08, pg 9, under the very aptly entitled ‘Vested Interests‘ section) that highlights one of the major sources for cannabis arrests in the United States, and how it’s possible demise in future might have positive effects for cannabis consumers in the coming years. One can argue that a major source of the steady increase in cannabis arrests circa 1992 corresponds closely with the massive federal funding received by local, county and state law enforcement departments in a block grant funding program administered by the United States Department of Justice called the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program, known to policy wonks as ‘Byrne/JAG’. The over $500 million in annual funds funneled to state and local law enforcement agencies have largely help establish multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency ‘anti-drug’ task forces that 1) feast on civil forfeiture laws (which often allow law enforcement, not elected politicians, to divide up seized assets labeled ‘drug money’) and 2) run around claiming that America is ‘winning the war on drugs’ or that ‘legalizing cannabis sends the wrong message to children’.

However, over the years a curiously quite and bipartisan effort has been forged to strip down Byrne/JAG from an $520 million annual appropriation to $170 million. That is a real cut in funding, even by the Beltway’s standard voodoo math! President Bush’s budget office, with support from powerful Republicans in the House and Senate, along with the current Democratic leadership, appear poised to engage in one of the most fundamental changes in criminal justice policy in the last 20 years: A de-escalation–an actual reduction–in federal government spending that helps fuels the war on some drugs. And this from Bush 2.0 and the Democratic leadership (who usually don’t agree on much these days), and despite broad support in Congress for law enforcement getting what they want (218 House members, and 56 Senator have signed a letter insisting that Byrne/JAG receive full funding in the proposed federal budget) seem to be, behind the scenes in government, checking some of the excesses of modern federal drug warring.

We’ll see.

Cop Chokes Marijuana Suspect. Revisiting History (with update)

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. - A Midstate man told how a police officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop.

Above, Mt Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby

The incident was caught on the patrol car video.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby interacted with James Anders, Jr.

Cosby stopped the 26-year-old Wilson County man in April 2008.

Cosby suspected Anders hid marijuana in his mouth. The officer used a vascular restraint technique to keep Anders from swallowing.

Above, Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby clutching James Anders' neck.

On the video recorded inside Cosby's patrol car, Cosby said he smelled marijuana and handcuffed Anders and his passenger.

The video also showed the officer putting his hands around Anders' neck. He applied pressure and told Anders to stick out his tongue. This happened for nearly two minutes before Anders lost consciousness.

Photographs released by Anders' attorney showed injuries he sustained when he fell to the pavement.

Cosby didn't find any marijuana in Ander's mouth. Anders passed a drug test the next day.

A small bag of pot was found in his car and Anders was arrested for simple possession and resisting arrest.

After the district attorney saw the video, the charges were dropped.

Anders is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court later this month.

Cosby is still on the job. **See Update Below Video**

After viewing the tape, General Sessions Judge Barry Tatum dismissed all Cosby's cases. He called what Cosby did inexcusable and said Cosby is no longer welcome in his court.  In essence, any tickets he writes now are meaningless. The judge will dismiss them.

Above, Gen Sessions Judge Barry Tatum

Anders' attorney said "theres no excuse for strangling a man helpless and handcuffed".

"Clearly his constitutional rights were violated. He was choked," said Garry Vandever, Anders' attorney.

Vandever said Anders is fine but he still upset over what happened.

Anders is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court later this month.

Andy Garrett was sworn in as the new police chief Monday night.

"I have viewed the tape. I wasn't on board when this happened," he said. "It is an incident that's been addressed internally through training and discipline with the police officer. Any further investigation that's going to be done by an outside agency will be referred to the city attorney," said Garrett, a 25-year Metro Police Department veteran who recently commanded the force's Central Precinct.

He succeeds former Mount Juliet Police Chief Ted Floyd who retired several months ago.

In a letter sent to the new police chief and obtained by NewsChannel 5, Tatum said he's "dismissing all cases Corporal Cosby has pending" in his court.

Tatum also indicated that he's "dismissing any (future) cases he attempts to bring."

Tatum said Cosby has "cast a permanent cloud over law enforcement and the judicial system."

"We trust that an officer has to have the type of demeanor that when someone is treating them badly, spitting on them, trying to hit them, that that officer will have restraint in his actions toward that person," said Wilson County General Sessions Court Judge Bob Hamilton.

**UPDATE :- 9.23.2008  Choke Cop Fired - Justice At Last**

MT. JULIET, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee police officer has pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault charges after he was caught on video using a chokehold on a man suspected of hiding marijuana in his mouth.

An attorney for Cpl. William Cosby says he pleaded not guilty Thursday.

A lawyer for the city of Mt. Juliet, about 20 miles east of Nashville, says Cosby has been fired.

Cosby's attorney, Chuck Ward, says the decision to fire Cosby shows the city believes him to be "guilty until proven innocent."

Yes, we can plainly see how innocent the cop is in his own patrol car video

County Prosecutors Refused To File Charges So Petty Cop Comes Back With D.E.A

A medical marijuana user has filed a $1-million lawsuit against Seal Beach police for taking up to 50 of his pot plants and allegedly forcing him to become an informant.
The Orange County Superior Court lawsuit filed last month by Bruce Benedict, 43, of Seal Beach, said he's a marijuana patient and caregiver who is allowed by California law to grow and distribute marijuana.

Benedict alleged he called police because of illegal construction in his apartment building and officers smelled marijuana. County prosecutors refused to file charges so officers returned to Benedict's apartment later with federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents in tow, according to the suit.
The pot was confiscated and Benedict was arrested. California law allows medical marijuana but federal law prohibits it.
Benedict's suit said police officers asked him to move out of the city and become an informant in various drug matters. Benedict complied, alleging police told him he would face federal charges if he didn't work for them.

The city has declined comment.

775,000 Arrested For Simple Possession Of Marijuana

"Yet, despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent and millions of Americans incarcerated, illegal drugs remain cheap, potent and widely available in every community"

Nearly 1.9 million people were arrested on drug charges in the United States last year, some 872,000 for marijuana offenses, according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report, released Monday. While overall drug arrest figures declined marginally (down 84,000), marijuana arrests increased by more than 5% and are once again at an all-time high. Drug arrests exceed those for any other type of offense, including property crime (1.61 million arrests), driving under the influence (1.43 million), misdemeanor assaults (1.31 million), larceny (1.17 million), and violent crime (597,000).

Of those arrested on pot charges, 775,000, or 89%, were charged only with possession, a figure similar to that for drug arrests overall. Another 97,000 pot offenders were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation or sales offenses, even those involving small-scale violations. Marijuana arrests last year accounted for 47.5% of all drug arrests. Almost three-quarters of marijuana arrests involved people under the age of 30.

The continuing high levels of drug arrests and the increase in marijuana arrests prompted sharp responses from drug reformers. "For more than 30 years, the US has treated drug use and misuse as a criminal justice matter instead of a public health issue," said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Yet, despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent and millions of Americans incarcerated, illegal drugs remain cheap, potent and widely available in every community; and the harms associated with them -- addiction, overdose, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis -- continue to mount. Meanwhile, the war on drugs has created new problems of its own, including rampant racial disparities in the criminal justice system, broken families, increased poverty, unchecked federal power, and eroded civil liberties. Continuing the failed war on drugs year after year is throwing good money and lives after bad."

Marijuana reform organizations naturally zeroed in on the pot arrest figures. "Most Americans have no idea of the massive effort going into a war on marijuana users that has completely failed to curb marijuana use," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, DC. "Just this summer a new World Health Organization study of 17 countries found that we have the highest rate of marijuana use, despite some of the strictest marijuana laws and hyper-aggressive enforcement. With government at all levels awash in debt, this is an insane waste of resources. How long will we keep throwing tax dollars at failed policies?"

For the rest of this from Stopthedrugwar.org  please go here

Presidential Candidates On Drugs.....

Lest folks think that NORML is unfairly biased toward one political party over another, let me reiterate that NORML and the NORML Foundation are required by law to be non-partisan.

(I state this position, again, in response to recent posts proclaiming, inaccurately, that NORML is either pro-Democrat or pro-Republican. In truth, neither of these positions are true, and in fact, NORML’s endorsement of any party, including Greens or Libertarians, would be illegal.)

By contrast, the NORML PAC can raise funds to contribute to “pot-friendly” political officials at the local, state, or federal level. Since 2001, the NORML PAC has contributed over $37,000 to select politicians. These public officials are not selected because of their political party affiliation; they are selected because they have each made exceptional efforts to liberalize America’s antiquated and punitive marijuana laws.

Unfortunately, none of the four major Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates are prior recipients of NORML PAC funding — nor is it likely any of them will be in the future.

On the Democrat ticket, Presidential candidate Barack Obama has flip-flopped twice on the issue of decriminalizing marijuana (replacing arrests and jail terms with small fines) for adults. Although he has made statements supporting an end to federal interference in state medical marijuana laws, he has also expressed skepticism that cannabis has demonstrable therapeutic value, and has said that he would only favor its use under “strict” controls. As a Congressman, Obama has made little-to-no effort to advance marijuana law reform, and has championed various federal anti-drug provisions to increase drug law enforcement efforts both domestically and overseas.

By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Delaware senior Senator Joe Biden — as noted here, here, here, and here — has a 35-year record regarding the drug war, almost all of it disgraceful. Biden’s most recent verbal support in favor of medical cannabis notwithstanding, the bottom line is that the Senator is a primary architect of the federal policies that have brought us: mandatory minimum sentencing in drug crimes, random workplace drug testing for public employees, the 100-to-1 crack versus powder cocaine sentencing ratio, the creation of the Drug Czar’s office, the RAVE Act, and America’s modern federal anti-paraphernalia laws (the statute that comedian Tommy Chong ultimately spent nine months in prison for violating). Most recently, Biden endorsed a nationwide ban on smoking, and he espoused the use of mycoherbicides such as Fusarium oxysporum — a genetically engineered fungal plant killer — in illicit crop eradication efforts.

Predictably, the Republican candidates are no better. During his 26 years in Congress, Arizona senior Senator John McCain has consistently voted in favor of stricter drug enforcement in America and abroad, endorsed Nancy Reagan’s vapid “Just Say No” mantra, backed mandatory minimum sentences and even the death penalty for certain drug offenders, and has repeated scoffed at the notion of medical marijuana, even going so far as to turn his back on bonafide patients.

McCain’s VP pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has by far the most limited record on drug policy. Like Obama, Palin is an admitted former pot smoker. However, unlike her running mate, Palin may have some sympathy for medical cannabis patients, having served as the Governor of one of the twelve states that has a legal therapeutic cannabis program and chosen not to speak out against it.

In short, both party’s veteran candidates (McCain and Biden) are positively awful on drug policy, while the younger generation (Obama and Palin) may offer reformers at least some minor glimmer of hope.

Bottom line: regardless of who wins the Presidency, marijuana law reform will still be waged primarily on the state and local level — where our support and our victories — continue to grow.

Lunatic Drug Warriors Still Ignore Powerful Pot Science

This from Rob Kampia

Twenty years ago, on Sept. 6, 1988, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's chief administrative law judge issued a landmark ruling, but don't expect any celebrations or commemorations in Washington, D.C. Our government has ignored this historic decision since the day it was issued, inflicting needless misery on millions.

Indeed, most Americans don't know it ever happened.

In response to a petition asking that marijuana be moved from Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bars medical use, to a lower schedule that would permit physician prescriptions, Judge Francis Young held extensive hearings that began in the summer of 1986. He heard from an impressive array of expert witnesses, resulting in thousands of pages of documentation.

Young laid out his findings in a detailed, 69-page ruling, walking readers through the scientific evidence. He concluded that the law didn't just permit moving marijuana to Schedule II, but required it.

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man," he wrote. "By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care. ... The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record."

Remember, this was no pot-addled "legalizer" writing. It was the chief administrative law judge within the top federal agency responsible for enforcing our drug laws. Unfortunately, the ruling had no legal force. In legal terms, it was a recommendation, not an order that had to be followed.

And the DEA chose not to follow it. Six years after top DEA officials rejected Young's recommendation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit ruled that the agency did have the right to ignore its own administrative law judge.

Because the federal government chose to disregard the results of its own investigation, the medical marijuana controversy continues to rage today. Losing patience with the feds, 12 states have acted to permit medical use of marijuana under their state laws. If Michigan passes the medical marijuana initiative on its November ballot, that number will increase to 13, comprising roughly 1 in 4 Americans.

But while those state laws provide considerable protection for medical marijuana patients, states cannot provide an exemption from federal law. Even in the 12 states that have medical marijuana laws, patients and caregivers have been arrested, terrorized and even had their children taken away.

Meanwhile, the medical evidence continues to mount. Another federally commissioned study, this time by the Institute of Medicine, confirmed in 1999 that marijuana has legitimate medical uses.

More recently, newly published clinical trials have found that marijuana effectively relieves certain types of hard-to-treat pain, including the nerve pain that often accompanies multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Other research suggests that by relieving the nausea and vomiting often caused by the harsh drugs used to treat hepatitis C and HIV, medical marijuana can help patients stick to these challenging drug regimens -- and live.

Because our government has ignored science, needless suffering has been inflicted on millions of Americans who have benefited or could benefit from medical marijuana. In 2009, we will have a new president and a new Congress, and they should move quickly to end this sorry record of federal stonewalling.

Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Victory for California Patients

Fresno County’s Board of Supervisors yesterday voted to become the 41st county to implement the medical marijuana I.D. card system required by a 2003 state law, making it easier for police to verify valid medical marijuana patients.

The board was waiting for the results of San Diego and San Bernardino counties’ second legal challenge to the program, which the 4th District Court of Appeals tossed in a unanimous decision last month. In contrast to the Fresno boards’ sensible acknowledgement of the law and their duty to obey it, San Diego’s and San Bernardino’s boards are stubbornlymaking one last futile appeal to the state Supreme Court.

So, with Fresno acknowledging reality and San Diego and San Bernardino clinging to fantasy, that leaves 15 more counties that – five years later – have yet to act. Seems like a simple call: implement a program required by law and supported by the state attorney general and the California Police Chiefs Association or break the law, make law enforcement’s job more difficult, and expose legal medical marijuana patients to false arrest at taxpayer expense.

Every decision should be this easy

Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) Alert........

There are a lot of rumors about what Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain, and the other candidates may or may not have said about marijuana — and MPP specializes in that.

In fact, during the presidential primary campaign, MPP helped persuade all of the Democratic candidates and three of the Republican candidates to pledge to end the arrest of patients in states with medical marijuana laws.

If you're interested in knowing what the candidates have said and done, please watch the new video:

 

Feds Raid Wheelchair-bound Paraplegic For Medical Marijuana............

The federal government is so desperate to undermine New Mexico's new medical marijuana law, they've started harassing handicapped people:

MALAGA, N.M. — Agents with a regional drug task force raided Leonard French’s home in southeastern New Mexico on Tuesday and seized several marijuana plants [ For the record, it was actually just 6 seedlings]

But the wheelchair-bound man said he’s certified by the state Health Department to possess and smoke marijuana for medical reasons. The 44-year-old lost the use of his legs about 20 years ago as the result of a motorcycle crash and now suffers from chronic pain and muscle spasms. [Santa Fe New Mexican]

Normally, the DEA would avoid this kind of bad publicity. But since New Mexico's medical marijuana program just started, they're trying to intimidate patients and confuse legislators in other prospective medical marijuana states:

A press release jointly issued by the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force illustrates the political nature of the raid, reading in part, "Citizens of New Mexico need to be aware that they can still be prosecuted on the federal level even though New Mexico has a law permitting marijuana for medicinal use." [DPA]

Drug warriors keep arguing that medical marijuana laws create conflict between state and federal laws, but all they have to do is stop threatening patients and there'd be no problem. They're creating confusion and then citing that confusion as an argument against state laws that protect patients. Meanwhile, sick people like Leonard French are caught in the crossfire, and countless other patients are afraid to try medicine that could help them.

Revealingly, Mr. French has not yet been charged with a crime. You see, DEA is tough enough to arrest wheelchair-bound medical marijuana patients, and even boast about its authority to continue doing so. All of that serves their interest in scaring people and creating doubt as more and more states pass laws to protect their citizens from precisely this sort of foul treatment. But they won't actually try to put him in jail because that would be just hideous.

So the real message here, for those reading between the lines, is that the feds aren't always going to enforce federal law. And that tells you everything you need to know about the debate over medical marijuana. This is all a big stupid publicity stunt, and while there are casualties to be sure (getting arrested and losing your medicine does suck), the whole "conflict with federal law" argument is largely a hoax.

Regardless, we cannot tolerate any federal efforts to scare people out of treating their illnesses with doctor recommended medicine that is legal in their state. That is obscene, and it's no surprise presidential candidates are lining up in opposition to it.

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories. 8.29.2008 and 9.05.2008

Thanks as always to Stopthedrugwar.org

A key Coast Guard anti-drug fighter gets caught doing cocaine, plus the usual array of miscreants in blue. We don't usually mention cases that only involve drug use, but when it's a top Coast Guard commander in charge of fighting drugs, we think we should make an exception to the general rule. Let's get to it:

9.05.2008

In San Francisco, a senior Coast Guard officer who supervised anti-drug trafficking efforts in the Western Pacific was arrested August 20 on cocaine charges. Capt. Michael Sullivan, a 26-year veteran, was charged under military law with wrongful use of cocaine and obstruction of justice, a step that sets up an evidentiary hearing and could prompt a court-martial. Officials gave no further details, but said he had been removed from supervisory duties. Sullivan, who was the Pacific area's chief of response since May 2007, supervised the operation of 20 major Coast Guard cutters and directed law enforcement units that protect ports and fisheries and fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration, according to his official biography.

Coast Guard in action....

In Benton, Louisiana, an already convicted ex-cop pleaded guilty Monday to seven additional charges. Former Shreveport police officer Roderick Moore, 53, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to trading drugs for sex with a stripper in Caddo Parish in June. Now he has pleaded guilty to an additional seven counts of possessing drugs with the intent to distribute. The pleas in the drug cases come two days after he pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated. Although Moore theoretically faces up to 145 years in prison, his sentencing judge said the sentences would run concurrently. The maximum he faces for any one count is 30 years.

In Jackson, Mississippi, a Jackson code enforcement officer was arrested Sunday after being found with six packages of marijuana and $19,000 cash during a traffic stop. Code officer Britanny Arnold was a passenger in a vehicle driven by another man, who was carrying $670,000 in cash. Both Arnold and the driver are now charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Both have bailed out of jail.

In Rutland, Vermont, a former Vermont state prison guard was sentenced August 20 to seven months in jail on drug charges. Former guard Sheri Ann Fitzgerald, 44, had pleaded guilty in March to felony possession and sale charges involving cocaine as well as a misdemeanor charge of possessing a narcotic. Fitzgerald had been a prison guard since 1989, but was fired after being arrested. She has until September 4 to get her affairs in order and report to jail.

In Saginaw, Michigan, a jail guard at the Saginaw Correctional Facility was formally charged August 20 with supplying drugs to prisoners. John Singer, 45, now faces one count of delivery and manufacture of marijuana and one count of operating a drug house. He went down after a two-month investigation by the Bay Area Narcotics Team, one of whose members posed as a drug dealer willing to supply him for sales on the inside. He was arrested as he met with the officer in what he thought would be a drug transaction.

In Houston, a deputy constable was arrested August 18 for accosting drug dealers and stealing their money. Precinct 4 Deputy Constable Terrence Richardson is charged with engaging in organized crime and robbery. Word of Richardson's exploits percolated up from underground to the ears of the Houston Police Department, which set up a sting operation that snared him as he tried yet another rip-off. At last word, he was still in jail on a $200,000 bond. He is also now a former deputy constable, having been fired the night he was arrested.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8.29.2008

In Elwood, Indiana, an Elwood police officer was arrested August 29 for stealing prescription pain pills from the department's evidence room. Officer Shaun "Andy" Murray, 28, is charged with official misconduct, theft and possession of a controlled substance after he admitted stealing 10 hydrocodone tablets from the evidence room. Police said he admitted taking pain pills on numerous occasions over the past year and that he had admitted he had a drug problem. Murray went on leave and entered a treatment program August 23.

In Alamance County, North Carolina, an Alamance County jail guard was arrested August 28 on charges she gave drugs to a county jail inmate. Detention officer Jo Ann Hensley, 58, is accused of providing marijuana to an 18-year-old inmate sometime between August 11 and 13. She is charged with drug distribution and possession of a controlled substance on a jail premise. She was fired the same day.

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories. 8.29.2008 and 9.05.2008

Thanks as always to Stopthedrugwar.org

A key Coast Guard anti-drug fighter gets caught doing cocaine, plus the usual array of miscreants in blue. We don't usually mention cases that only involve drug use, but when it's a top Coast Guard commander in charge of fighting drugs, we think we should make an exception to the general rule. Let's get to it:

9.05.2008

In San Francisco, a senior Coast Guard officer who supervised anti-drug trafficking efforts in the Western Pacific was arrested August 20 on cocaine charges. Capt. Michael Sullivan, a 26-year veteran, was charged under military law with wrongful use of cocaine and obstruction of justice, a step that sets up an evidentiary hearing and could prompt a court-martial. Officials gave no further details, but said he had been removed from supervisory duties. Sullivan, who was the Pacific area's chief of response since May 2007, supervised the operation of 20 major Coast Guard cutters and directed law enforcement units that protect ports and fisheries and fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration, according to his official biography.

In Benton, Louisiana, an already convicted ex-cop pleaded guilty Monday to seven additional charges. Former Shreveport police officer Roderick Moore, 53, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to trading drugs for sex with a stripper in Caddo Parish in June. Now he has pleaded guilty to an additional seven counts of possessing drugs with the intent to distribute. The pleas in the drug cases come two days after he pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated. Although Moore theoretically faces up to 145 years in prison, his sentencing judge said the sentences would run concurrently. The maximum he faces for any one count is 30 years.

In Jackson, Mississippi, a Jackson code enforcement officer was arrested Sunday after being found with six packages of marijuana and $19,000 cash during a traffic stop. Code officer Britanny Arnold was a passenger in a vehicle driven by another man, who was carrying $670,000 in cash. Both Arnold and the driver are now charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Both have bailed out of jail.

In Rutland, Vermont, a former Vermont state prison guard was sentenced August 20 to seven months in jail on drug charges. Former guard Sheri Ann Fitzgerald, 44, had pleaded guilty in March to felony possession and sale charges involving cocaine as well as a misdemeanor charge of possessing a narcotic. Fitzgerald had been a prison guard since 1989, but was fired after being arrested. She has until September 4 to get her affairs in order and report to jail.

In Saginaw, Michigan, a jail guard at the Saginaw Correctional Facility was formally charged August 20 with supplying drugs to prisoners. John Singer, 45, now faces one count of delivery and manufacture of marijuana and one count of operating a drug house. He went down after a two-month investigation by the Bay Area Narcotics Team, one of whose members posed as a drug dealer willing to supply him for sales on the inside. He was arrested as he met with the officer in what he thought would be a drug transaction.

In Houston, a deputy constable was arrested August 18 for accosting drug dealers and stealing their money. Precinct 4 Deputy Constable Terrence Richardson is charged with engaging in organized crime and robbery. Word of Richardson's exploits percolated up from underground to the ears of the Houston Police Department, which set up a sting operation that snared him as he tried yet another rip-off. At last word, he was still in jail on a $200,000 bond. He is also now a former deputy constable, having been fired the night he was arrested.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8.29.2008

In Elwood, Indiana, an Elwood police officer was arrested August 29 for stealing prescription pain pills from the department's evidence room. Officer Shaun "Andy" Murray, 28, is charged with official misconduct, theft and possession of a controlled substance after he admitted stealing 10 hydrocodone tablets from the evidence room. Police said he admitted taking pain pills on numerous occasions over the past year and that he had admitted he had a drug problem. Murray went on leave and entered a treatment program August 23.

In Alamance County, North Carolina, an Alamance County jail guard was arrested August 28 on charges she gave drugs to a county jail inmate. Detention officer Jo Ann Hensley, 58, is accused of providing marijuana to an 18-year-old inmate sometime between August 11 and 13. She is charged with drug distribution and possession of a controlled substance on a jail premise. She was fired the same day.

20 Years Of Federal Stonewalling - A Marijuana Policy Project Alert.....

Twenty years ago this week, the Drug Enforcement Administration's chief administrative law judge issued a landmark ruling on marijuana — but our government has ignored this historic decision since the day it was issued.

"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care ... The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record."
— DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, September 6, 1988

Judge Young had just finished holding extensive hearings, in response to a petition asking for marijuana to be moved from Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bars medical use, to a lower schedule that would permit physician prescriptions. He heard from an array of expert witnesses, generating thousands of pages of documentation.

Young — the chief administrative law judge in the top federal agency responsible for enforcing our drug laws — laid out his findings in a detailed, 69-page ruling, walking readers through the scientific evidence in detail. He concluded that the law didn't just permit moving marijuana to Schedule II, but required it.

The response? Six years after top DEA officials rejected Judge Young's recommendation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the agency did had the right to ignore its own administrative law judge.

And as a result, seriously ill medical marijuana patients continue to be arrested, terrorized, and even have their children taken away — cancer patients living in fear of arrest for using marijuana to quell their nausea and help them keep food down ... AIDS patients using medical marijuana to ease the pain and nausea that too often are side effects of the drugs that keep them alive, terrified of losing their homes if caught ... tens of thousands of people turned into criminals simply for following their own doctors' advice.

Will you help? MPP is systematically working to end this war — state by state, vote by vote. We are making progress every day, but we need your help.

Among other work, your donation will help us pass a medical marijuana initiative in Michigan this November 4, making Michigan the 13th medical marijuana state and the first in the Midwest … adding one more state to the growing number demanding a marijuana policy that works for Americans, not against them.

Won't you invest in change

Thank you,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

Raised in '08
$1,567,354 ( up to end August)
Goal in '08
$3,000,000

Eight Arrested After Discovery Of Elaborate Cross-Border Tunnel.

The reinforced cross-border tunnel, with power.

Eight suspects were in custody Tuesday in the Baja California capital of Mexicali, after state agents caught them digging a clandestine cross-border tunnel with its own elevator, lighting and ventilation systems.

The entrance to the 434-foot passageway was discovered Monday afternoon about a half-mile east of the Calexico border crossing in the upper-middle-class neighborhood of Colonia Nueva. The tunnel leads from a white, wood-frame house about a block from the U.S. border fence, and comes to within about 130 feet of U.S. territory, according to Agustin Perez, a spokesman for the Baja California Secretariat of Public Safety.

Members of the Baja California State Preventive Police raided the residence after an armed man was spotted outside, Perez said. “There was certainly a connection to organized crime,” he said. “The purpose was to smuggle either drugs, people, weapons or all three”

Agents stand around the elevator shaft in cross-border tunnel.

Authorities said they did not know Tuesday which criminal organization was behind the tunnel's construction. At least 75 clandestine tunnels have been discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border since the 1990s, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The passageway is nearly 15 feet beneath the surface, Perez said, and measures 5 feet by 5 feet. The elevator was operated by hydraulic pulley, and large enough for three people, Perez said. Workers were installing rails along the tunnel floor, he said.

The eight suspects range in age from 27 to 52 and have been turned over to the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office, Perez said. “They said the person who paid them was hooded, and they never knew who their employer was,” Perez said. The suspects told agents the tunnel was designed to reach a residence in Calexico.

Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that U.S. authorities are cooperating with their Mexican counterparts. “We found no criminal records on those individuals in the United States,” she said. “They were not under investigation.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Massachusetts: Three Out Of Four Voters Favor Marijuana Decrim Measure

Boston, MA: Nearly three out of four Massachusetts voters support a statewide ballot initiative that seeks to decriminalize the possession and use of small amounts of cannabis by persons age 18 or older, according to a Channel 7 News/Suffolk University poll of 400 registered voters.

Seventy-one percent of respondents said that they would vote "yes" on the November ballot measure, which would replace criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana with a civil fine of no more than $100. Only 22 percent of respondents opposed the proposal.

Among respondents over 65 years of age, 70 percent said they backed decriminalization.

The strong poll numbers indicate that the measure "is all but certain" to pass in November, the poll's authors declared in a press release.

If voters approve the measure this fall, Massachusetts would be the first state to enact the decriminalization of marijuana since Nevada's legislature did so in 2001 and the first to do so by voter initiative.

Currently, twelve states have enacted versions of marijuana decriminalization -replacing criminal sanctions with fine-only penalties for minor pot violators.

Michigan voters will also decide on a separate statewide initiative this November that seeks to legalize the medical use of cannabis for qualified patients. If enacted, Michigan will become the thirteenth state since 1996 to authorize the legal use of medical cannabis, and the ninth state to do so by voter initiative.

For more information, please contact NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre at (202) 483-5500, or visit the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy.

Huge Marijuana Bust, Largest In B.C History

Police have made the largest pot bust in the history of British Columbia, finding enough illegal crops to provide everyone in the province with at least one marijuana cigarette.
The bust was made on August 20 on a rural property near the Interior town of 100 Mile House, roughly six hours northeast of Vancouver.
Nearly 15,000 marijuana plants were found in the 23 greenhouses on a property in Bridge Lake, B.C.
Police obtained a search warrant after receiving a tip from the public. The greenhouses were hidden in the hills of the property, many obscured by trees.
RCMP spokesman Const. Craig Douglass says a single crop from the operation uncovered in Bridge Lake last week could produce as many as five million joints.
Six men were arrested on the property and each face possession and trafficking charges. No names are being released at this time.
Police have not said if the men have any previous convictions or were known to them.

Police Cannot Identify Good Marijuana.....

Typical police exaggeration,    CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - North Charleston police have scored a major pot bust, seizing 500 pounds of marijuana with a street value of more than $2 million.

The cops told reporters there was so much weed they could not let reporters near as the smell would overpower them, when has weed ever been effective simply by standing near it!

Photos reveal the pot to be ugly, brown and stemmy. It was shipped from Arizona, indicating that it is exactly the sort of ubiquitous Mexican commercial garbage that its appearance suggests. I doubt it’s worth even half of the $2 million pricetag proposed by police.

Again and again, we find law-enforcement recklessly exaggerating marijuana prices to the point of absurdity. In fairness, prices shift dramatically depending on quality, but it is precisely because police often lack the subtle ability to judge marijuana quality that they so often issue such laughable claims. This is a really dumb move and just encourages people to grow and sell marijuana

This Weeks Corrupt Law Enforcement Offices

Thanks as always to Stopthedrugwar.org

Cops "misplacing" money, cops providing help to a pot crew, a court security officer peddling pain pills, and a jail guard getting caught bringing in the goodies. Just another week in the drug war. Let's get to it:

In Bartow, Florida, a Lake Wales police officer was arrested August 13 for providing police information to a friend of his who headed up a marijuana distribution ring. Officer Keenan Olson, 50, faces one count of conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering action, five counts of unlawful use of two-way communications device, and four counts of unlawful use of computer access after he was tied to an investigation that ultimately netted 18 arrests. Olson was overheard on wiretapped phone conversations revealing that a certain car belonged to an undercover officer, confirming that an arrest warrant had not been issued for a ring member, and counseling his friend on how to move forward with his marijuana ring by avoiding police-controlled phone calls and drug buys. Olson resigned the day he was arrested.

In Newport News, Virginia, a Curry County Adult Detention Center officer was arrested August 14 after being caught on videotape supplying drugs and other contraband to prisoners. Officer Charlie Aguirre, 23, is charged with bringing contraband into the jail, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and attempt to commit a felony. He met an $11,000 bond and was released the same day. Aguirre is the fourth Curry County jail guard to be arrested for smuggling dope to inmates this year.

In Dedham, Massachusetts, a former Stoughton District Court security officer was sentenced August 15 to two years in jail for selling prescription pain pills on the courthouse grounds. Keely Johnson, 32, was convicted of two counts of possession with intent to distribute a Class C drug and drug violation near a school or park. After the state attorney general's office received a tip Johnson was peddling pills at the courthouse, undercover officers went in and twice bought Percocet tablets off her. Johnson only got three months for the possession with intent charge, but two years on the drug-free zone charge.

In Hamburg, Pennsylvania, a former Lykens police chief was sentenced Monday to nine months in jail and three months house arrest for "misplacing" $3,200 in money seized in drug arrests. Former Chief Chris Wade must also serve two years on probation and pay $6,000 in fines and restitution.

Weed-Whacking Drug Czar Looks Stupid – Sounds Idiotic

 

Ever want to see a perfect example of rank government propaganda? Watch this public relations stunt filmed by CNN of moralist-masquerading-as-drug czar John Walters making a flaccid attempt at being funny, and relevant. The video immediately goes into a 2:30 story about outdoor cannabis in California that largely parrots the government’s party line.

Some thoughts after watching the videos:

-John Walters, the self-described anti-1960s warrior (well, in the video he apparently has moved onto hating the ‘values’ of the 1970s), lumbers up a hillside for a highly staged public relations stunt and the best message he can stammer out is to try to shame ‘Hollywood’ (a favorite target of rightwing moralists) into ‘helping us spread the word against cannabis’ (this is the very same rhetoric Reagan and to a degree Bush 1.0 employed to incite emotional contagion in the media against ‘drugs’ in the halcyon ‘just say no’ days).

Help the ONDCP? Is Walters whining that Hollywood is no longer an ONDCP stooge?

Is Walters forgetting the hundreds of absurd and insulting ads from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, produced largely gratis by, well, ‘Hollywood’? Or, when the ONDCP used to sneak anti-cannabis ads into popular TV shows produced in, well, Hollywood, before NORML successfully sued them via the FCC?

-What is it with the obsession these drug czars have with trying to pigeon hole every derogative thing they can think to say about cannabis into what they believe is a witty dig on ‘Cheech and Chong’? Clinton’s Drug Czar, former General Barry McCaffrey, frequently would deride medical cannabis as “Cheech and Chong medicine”.

How’d that work General? Apparently, Walters has not learned from such blundered, detached-from-science rhetoric.

Also, my guess is that Walters is likely a big Bill O’Reilly fan. Shocking, I know. Why do I surmise as such? Did you catch all the weird references from Walters in the video to people who use cannabis being in their “basement”? The only person I’ve ever heard, on numerous occasions, make references to cannabis consumers as ‘boobs in the basement’ is O’Reilly.

Ironically, on the times that O’Reilly disparages cannabis consumers as ‘boobs in the basement’ he is usually quick to add that he favors decriminalizing cannabis for adults.

BTW, while NORML’s blogs are not usually the environ for a commercial plug, but since Walters chose to waste the taxpayers’ money in southern California to propagandize, I think it only karmic that I let readers know that Cheech and Chong have just re-united and are going out on tour in September. Get your tickets here…think of it as good time protest against the government’s war on cannabis consumers. Also, there is a rumor that Cheech and Chong will be speaking at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. If true, how those apples Walters?

Tommy Chong is a NORML Advisory Board member and served 9 months in a federal prison for selling bongs.

-Walters and company claim to care about the safety of law enforcement personnel trying to enforce our country’s feckless cannabis prohibition laws, namely the effort to eradicate domestically grown cannabis? If true, 1) prohibition, rather than tax-n-control policies create any attendant violence associated with the uncontrolled sales of cannabis and 2) I think it entirely avoidable for the deaths of three to eight police officers and pilots that perish annually flying over the countryside in the US looking for ‘needles in a haystack’, not because of prohibition-created criminals, but from junky, faulty and old Viet Nam era helicopters often used on loan from state national guard units.

Hey, Czar Walters, any law enforcement personnel die last year flying around looking for tobacco, grapes, apples, barley, corn, potatoes, etc…?

Yep…I thought not.

-Walters and the ONDCP care about illegal aliens who grow cannabis on public and private lands? Really? Any illegal aliens growing tobacco, grapes, hops, potatoes, apples, etc…?

If Walters cares about illegal immigrants supposedly being forced by who he claims are Mexican drug cartels to tend illegal cannabis gardens, then he can’t morally and intellectually continue to support the failed policies of cannabis prohibition that creates a distribution system for cannabis where some of the players will camp in the woods and live off of the grid.

Finally, Walters says in the video ‘Hollywood and the American people need to know the consequence of these plants”.

Wrong! More importantly: Hollywood and the American people need to know about the misguided efforts and abject failure of cannabis prohibition, and Walter’s zealous efforts to perpetuate it.

Cannabis Versus The ‘Superbug’

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, colloquially known as MRSA or ‘the superbug,’ is now responsible for more annual US deaths than AIDS. Yet despite this sobering statistic, it’s unlikely that either JAMA or anyone in the mainstream US media will report on the findings of a forthcoming Italian study — you didn’t actually think I was going to say that this took place in America did you? — demonstrating that compounds in cannabis possess “exceptional antibacterial activity” against multi-drug resistant pathogens, including MRSA.

“Although the use of cannabinoids as systemic antibacterial agents awaits rigorous clinical trials, … their topical application to reduce skin colonization by MRSA seems promising,” the study’s authors write. “Cannabis sativa … represents an interesting source of antibacterial agents to address the problem of multidrug resistance in MRSA and other pathogenic bacteria.”

(You can read the full text ahead of publication here.)

Ironically, the study notes that preparations from cannabis were “investigated extensively in the 1950s as highly active topical antiseptic agents.” Predictably — in yet another ‘victory’ for prohibition — authors declare that little, if any, research into this potential clinical application has taken place since.

Several years ago, when I first began writing the booklet Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, I mused about what sort of advancements in the treatment of disease may have been achieved over the past 70+ years had U.S. government chosen to advance — rather than stifle — clinical research into the therapeutic effects of cannabis.

Now, more than ever, this is a question that our elected officials — both Republican and Democrat — must answer.

Joe Biden's Awful Record on Drug Policy.

Among the likely choices for Obama's running mate, Joe Biden was not the person reformers were hoping to see on the democratic ticket. Radley Balko sums up Biden's drug war credentials:

…from a policy perspective, it’s a disaster. Biden has sponsored more damaging drug war legislation than any Democrat in Congress. Hate the way federal prosecutors use RICO laws to take aim at drug offenders? Thank Biden. How about the abomination that is federal asset forfeiture laws? Thank Biden. Think federal prosecutors have too much power in drug cases? Thank Biden. Think the title of a “Drug Czar” is sanctimonious and silly? Thank Biden, who helped create the position (and still considers it an accomplishment worth boasting about). Tired of the ridiculous steroids hearings in Congress? thank Biden, who led the effort to make steroids a Schedule 3 drug, and has been among the blowhardiest of the blowhards when it comes to sports and performance enhancing drugs. Biden voted in favor of using international development aid for drug control (think plan Columbia, plan Afghanistan, and other meddling anti-drug efforts that have only fostered loathing of America, backlash, and unintended consequences). Oh, and he was also the chief sponsor of 2004’s horrendous RAVE Act.

On the other hand, Biden has recently spoken out against the crack/powder sentencing disparity and introduced legislation to address that issue. Pete Guither also notes that Biden's votes on civil liberties issues have consistently improved over the years, which may be a sign that he's evolving in his thinking. But I see no evidence that Biden has ever stepped back in any meaningful sense from his rabid drug warring ways. If he's made any philosophical realignments on drug policy in general, he hasn't said so out loud.

Thus the silver-lining may be that as Vice President, Biden would no longer be serving on the judiciary committee, where he's exerted his influence in the form of the various atrocities outlined above. As VP he'd technically be losing his authority over drug policy issues, except to whatever extent Obama may seek his advice when selecting the drug czar and so forth. It's certainly possible that Obama's more enlightened views would prevail within his administration, or even that Biden's "tough on crime" credentials could provide cover for reform, but Biden would be a strange ingredient in the behind-the-scenes reform agenda that's so often attributed to Obama by liberal reformers. It was bad enough when Obama softened his reform positions to avoid attacks from the right. Will he now begin watching his step around his own running mate?

Medical marijuana supporters prepare to battle Washington

SEATTLE - Muraco Kyashna-Tocha has back problems few of us can imagine. Diagnosed with degenerative disk disease, Muraco has had multiple back and neck surgeries and still suffers debilitating pain.

"Fairly constant. It can move from a shooting pain to a dull throb all the time," she said.

To cope, a doctor authorized Muraco to use medical marijuana. And from the second floor of her Capitol Hill apartment, she grows herself a steady supply. It's all legal under a 1998 citizen initiative.

But Muraco could soon be breaking the law. You see, the 1998 initiative never spelled out how much marijuana a patient could have.

So the Department of Health is proposing new limits of 6 mature plants, 18 immature plants and 24 ounces of marijuana.

"It's arbitrary and capricious and it shouldn't stand. It's not based on science," said attorney Doug Hiatt.

Medical marijuana supporters say the state is trying to play doctor by prescribing one dosage for all patients.

"It's going to make it virtually impossible for the sickest of the sick, the patients who need it most," said Dr. Frances Podrebarac, medical marijuana user and advocate.  

Department of Health officials say the agency came up with the new rules after consulting with patients, doctors and law enforcement.

Still, people like Muraco fear the rules are ill-advised and will cause more pain.

"Hugely concerned…very difficult for me to be in compliance with the new rule," she said.

Patients and their advocates say they believe the hearing at the Department of Health is just a formality and they're just waiting for the rules to go into effect and they will then sue the state.

Death By Marijuana

Massachusetts Looks to Turn Over New Leaf on Pot Laws

An overwhelming number of Bay Staters replying to a Suffolk University/WHDH Ch. 7 poll say the state’s marijuana laws should go up in smoke.

The poll regarding questions set to appear on the Nov. 4 ballot shows that 72 percent of Greater Boston residents favor snuffing out criminal penalties for suspects carrying less than an ounce of pot, and replacing them with civil fines. Under the measure, a person stopped with marijuana would be given a $100 ticket and forced to forfeit the drug

"The public may be signaling that pursuing small-time marijuana users is a waste of taxpayer resources," said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Bureau at Suffolk University. "This issue suggests there is a libertarian streak in the thinking of the Massachusetts voter."

The poll also found lingering resentment toward former Gov. Mitt Romney. State residents would reject likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain more heartily if he chose his former rival Romney as his running mate. The poll shows that 41 percent would be less likely to vote for a McCain/Romney ticket, while 24 percent were unswayed.

Bay Staters were also icy toward a ballot measure aimed at abolishing the income tax, with 50 percent opposed to eliminating income tax, and 15 percent undecided.

The pollsters gathered the data from 400 state residents who were contacted between July 31 and Aug. 3.

If the Drug War Works So Well, Why Did Teen Access to Marijuana Increase This Year?

Today, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) released a new study that perfectly demolishes one of the central myths underlying the war on drugs. The National Survey on American Attitudes on Substance Abuse shows that youth access to marijuana has increased significantly in the past year:

According to the report, half of the 16- and 17-year-olds surveyed said their peers use marijuana more than tobacco. More teens say it’s easier to acquire marijuana than beer. And there’s a 35% increase from last year in the number of teens who say they can buy marijuana within an hour and a 14% increase in the number of teens who say they can find it in a day. [MPP]

It almost speaks for itself. Nothing could more directly obliterate the false notion that the war on marijuana is reducing youth access. Just days ago, the drug czar stood on a California mountaintop proudly pronouncing the importance of marijuana eradication. He's bent over backwards to explain that reductions in youth marijuana use provide proof that the war on marijuana is working.

What then can be said about marijuana's ever-increasing availability to young people? Rather obviously, recent declines in youth marijuana use owe nothing to the brutal and controversial tactics the drug czar is duty-bound to defend. After another year of dead dogs,dead informants and dead cops, marijuana is more available to our children than ever before. If fewer of them are using, then that is because they don't feel like it, not because they don't know where to get any.

Of course, the drug war supporters at CASA must have realized how badly their data reflects on marijuana prohibition, so they cooked up one the most embarrassingly backwards statistics possible:

Teens who can obtain marijuana readily are more likely to use it. Forty-five percent of teens who say they can get marijuana in an hour or less have used the drug, compared to 10 percent of those teens who say it would take them a day to get it and less than one percent of teens who say they would be unable to get it.

Oh, mercy. Is it really necessary to explain that teens who smoke marijuana are more likely to know where to buy it? This is just a crime against the scientific method, a pathetic face-saving ruse to defend marijuana prohibition within a report that unintentionally – yet transparently -- humiliates the drug war status quo.

Today, the drug war's failure to keep drugs out of the hands of our young people has been revealed in stark, unambiguous terms. No, the debate won't end here, but it is moments like this that cause one drug warrior after another, after another to jump ship and admit that the whole thing is just a monumental travesty

NORML To Drug Czar "Now that we have your attention"

More than 100 readers have posted comments in support of NORML’s recent guest editorial, “Criminalization of Marijuana Must End,” which appeared inThe Hill’s influential ‘Congressional Blog.’ Editors at The Hill inform NORML that it’s the highest volume of readers’ response they’ve ever received on any commentary on any topic!

So it’s hardly surprising that the Drug Czar’s office has grudgingly and belatedly offered their two-cents worth in a factually bereft editorial entitled “Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Ignores the Facts.” It’s an unintentionally amusing essay — though judging by the comments it appears that few people, if anyone, have actually bothered to read it — topped off by this half-baked claim, “[L]egalizing marijuana [is] a topic more often heard in college dorms at 2 o’clock in the morning than in the hallowed halls of our Congress.”

Excuse me, but if debating the merits of America’s failed cannabis policy is, in the Drug Czar’s opinion, a topic only appropriate for midnight musings, then why is the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy straining their already diminished intellectual capacities responding to this discussion in The Hill (which, last time I checked, was not a publication frequently read by college students in their dorm rooms at 2 am)??!!

Of course, I suppose The Hill should thank their lucky stars that the Drug Czar responded at all, given that no representatives from the ONDCP, CADCA, or other ‘pro-prohibition’ groups will ever agree to engage with NORML in a face-to-face debate in a public forum. I mean, it wasn’t all that long ago that federal officials were distributing a guidebook, “How to Hold Your Own in a Drug Legalization Debate,” that recommended that prohibition advocatesdecline invitations to publicly debate drug policy issues.

My how times have changed!

MPP-TV Profiles in Marijuana Reform: Milton Friedman, Ph.d. ( pt 1)

This weeks Corrupt Law Enforcers

Thanks always to Stopthedrugwar.org

A tough week for jail and prison guards, and a pair of Virginia deputies could find themselves in trouble. Let's get to it:

In Wytheville, Virginia, the Smyth County sheriff has launched an internal probe after sworn affidavits for search warrants in a federal drug case linked two deputies to the subject of those warrants. Sheriff David Bradley would not confirm reports that one deputy had been fired and another suspended, nor were the deputies named. According to the affidavits, based in part on what the suspect unwittingly told confidential informants, one deputy, "Deputy A," "uses methamphetamine, cocaine, and prescription pills but his drug of choice is methamphetamine." The affidavit alleged that Deputy A scored from Anthony Richardson, former chief of the Damascus Police Department, who is currently facing multiple meth conspiracy and distribution charges in state court. "Deputy B," identified as a Smyth County Sheriff's narcotics investigator, "used to steal drugs and give them to [the suspect] to sell," according to the DEA's affidavit. No word on when or if a grand jury indictment is coming down.

In Clovis, New Mexico, a Curry County jail guard was arrested and fired August 7 for trying to smuggle drugs into the county jail. Former jail guard Julian Patrick Garcia, 36, is charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, bringing contraband into a jail, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, attempt to commit a felony by furnishing drugs to a prisoner and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. Garcia went down as a result of an internal investigation at the jail after officials heard allegations an inmate was arranging for drugs to be smuggled in. At last word, Garcia was trying to make a $56,000 bond.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, a state prison guard was arrested August 8 for allegedly smuggling drugs and tobacco into the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Andrew Myers, 23, faces a charge of providing contraband to an inmate. Myers had been under suspicion for two months. Prison officials said they believed he had taped the contraband to his body and delivered it to an inmate in return for $100.

In McAlester, Oklahoma, a former lieutenant at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary was sentenced August 8 to a series of suspended sentences after pleading guilty to felony drug charges. Marion Bess, 44, had faced up to life in prison. He had pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine; conspiracy to deliver/manufacture/possess a controlled dangerous substance -- which carries a sentence of from seven years to life -- and unlawful use of a communication facility, meaning a telephone. He also pleaded guilty to one more count of meth possession. He has to do five years on probation and go to drug treatment.

University of California Trials Suggest Inhaled Cannabis Halts HIV Pain

Inhaled Cannabis Halts HIV Pain, Study Says Clinical Trial Results Undermine Feds' 'Flat Earth' Position That Pot Lacks Medical Efficacy

San Diego, CA:  Inhaled cannabis significantly reduces HIV-associated neuropathy compared to placebo, according to clinical trial data published online on the website of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Investigators at the University of California at San Diego, in conjunction with the University of California Center for Medical Cannabis Research, assessed the efficacy of inhaled cannabis in 28 HIV patients with neuropathic (nerve-related) pain not adequately controlled by other pain-relievers.  Researchers reported that the proportion of subjects achieving a pain reduction of 30 percent or more was greater for those smoking cannabis than among those smoking the placebo.

“Smoked cannabis … (1-8% THC) significantly reduced neuropathic pain intensity in HIV-associated DPSN (distal sensory polyneuropathy) compared to placebo, when added to stable concomitant analgesics,” authors concluded.  “Mood disturbance, physical disability, and quality of life all improved significantly during study treatment.  … Our findings suggest that cannabinoid therapy may be an effective option for pain relief in patients with medically intractable pain due to HIV-associated DSPN.”

The study is the third clinical trial conducted by CMCR investigators to determine that inhaled cannabis significantly reduces chronic neuropathy, a condition that is typically unresponsive to both opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen.

Commenting on the study, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “It is becoming increasingly apparent why the US government has tried to stonewall clinical research on the therapeutic effects of inhaled cannabis. Each new trial the Feds approve provides additional evidence undermining the government's 'flat Earth' position that cannabis is without medical value.”

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. Full text of the study, “Smoked medicinal cannabis for neuropathic pain in HIV: a randomized, crossover clinical trial,” will appear in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology