Drug War Chronicle, Issue #501 -(urls + editorial)- 9/14/07

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Massive increases to our web site traffic have increased our
costs -- will you help us continue it?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/massive_increases_in_web_site_traffic_have_increased_our_costs

Students: Intern at DRCNet to help stop the drug war!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

David Borden on Alternet via Huffington Post:
http://www.alternet.org/story/62054/

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: DOES ANYTHING GO IN THE DRUG WAR?
Drug taxes, loss of aid, mandatory minimums, pain prosecutions,
no-knock drug raids, fumigation, forfeiture, death penalties --
If anything goes in the drug war, then then where does it end?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/does_anything_go_in_the_drug_war

2. FEATURE: BATTLELINES FORMING OVER 2008 OREGON MEDICAL
MARIJUANA BALLOT ISSUES
Oregon's medical marijuana program is 10 years old and rolling
along, but it looks like it will be contested terrain next year,
with one initiative already filed to repeal it and others to
expand it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/oregon_medical_marijuana_ballot_battle

3. DRUG WAR CHRONICLE BOOK REVIEW: "DRUGS IN AFGHANISTAN: OPIUM,
OUTLAWS, AND SCORPION TALES" BY DAVID MACDONALD (2007, PLUTO
PRESS, 295 PP., $35PB
United Nations Afghan drug demand reduction specialist David
Macdonald's "Drugs in Afghanistan: Opium, Outlaws, and Scorpion
Tales" is probably the most profound and nuanced look at the
role of drugs in Afghanistan ever published.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/book_review_david_macdonald_drugs_afghanistan_scorpion_tales

4. APPEAL: MASSIVE INCREASES TO OUR WEB SITE TRAFFIC HAVE
INCREASED OUR COSTS...
Massive increases to our web site traffic, particularly during
the last three months, have forced us to upgrade our web server
-- not once, but twice -- and have increased our costs. We need
your help to pay for it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/massive_increases_in_web_site_traffic_have_increased_our_costs

5. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Wrong Door Drug Raid Disrupts Family Dinner," "Rising Cocaine
Prices Don't Mean We're Winning the Drug War," "Bad Cop Caught
on Camera," "More Fun With Numbers at ONDCP," DEA Agent Admits
The Drug War Funds Terrorism," "DEA Agent Admits Medical
Marijuana Laws Work," Bryan Epis, "Take this drug tax and...",
more...
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

6. STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and
you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

7. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Another week's worth of law enforcement officers done in by the
temptations created by drug prohibition, including a sheriff
headed for prison for turning a blind eye, a prosecutor whose
coke habit got him in trouble, a greedy Boston cop, and a pair
of pill-peddling policemen.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/police_drug_corruption

8. LAW ENFORCEMENT: ASSET FORFEITURE FUNDS SPENT ON BANQUETS,
BALLS, AND BALLOONS IN ATLANTA
Georgia's Fulton County (Atlanta) district attorney has some odd
ideas about how asset forfeiture funds should be spent, an audit
of his books has found.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/fulton_county_georgia_district_attorney_asset_forfeiture

9. DRUG PENALTIES: TENNESSEE APPEALS COURT FINDS DRUG TAX
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has thrown out the state's
illicit drug tax. The state will appeal, and plans to continue
assessing the tax in the meanwhile.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/tennessee_appeals_court_overturns_drug_tax

10. PROHIBITION: TERROR GROUPS PROFIT FROM DRUGS, DEA SAYS --
MISSING FOREST FOR TREES
A high-level DEA official has again linked the illegal drug
trade to the funding of terrorist organizations, but failed to
note the role of drug prohibition.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/DEA_drug_trade_funds_terrorists

11. GHOSTS OF PROHIBITION: WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION
HOLDS INDIANAPOLIS CONVENTION
The Women's Christian Temperance Union lives -- barely -- and is
meeting this week in Indianapolis to continue the battle against
demon run and its contemporary counterparts.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/womens_christian_temperance_union_convention_indianapolis

12. LATIN AMERICA: COLOMBIAN VICE-PRESIDENT SAYS AERIAL
ERADICATION IS FAILING
The Colombian government has offered its strongest criticism yet
of US-backed aerial spraying of coca crops, saying it has been a
failure.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/colombia_vice_president_criticizes_aerial_eradication_of_coca

13. DEATH PENALTY: TWO MORE DRUG OFFENDERS EXECUTED IN IRAN, SIX
SENTENCED TO DIE IN VIETNAM
The resort to the death penalty for drug offenders continues in
Southeast Asia and the Middle East, with two executed in Iran
last week and six sentenced to death in Vietnam.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/death_penalty_drugs_vietnam_iran

14. WEB SCAN
Maher asks Chris Dodd about marijuana legalization, Retirement
Living on medical marijuana, Balko on federalism, Cannabinoid
Chronicles, Canadian Medical Association Journal on medical
marijuana dosages, Australian National Council on Drugs,
DrugTruth Network.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drug_policy_links

15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drug_war_history

16. 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/501/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

17. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_available

18. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
YOUR READER
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

19. RESOURCE: REFORMER'S CALENDAR ACCESSIBLE THROUGH DRCNET WEB
SITE
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/drug_reform_calendar

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

================

1. Editorial: Does Anything Go in the Drug War?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/does_anything_go_in_the_drug_war

David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden

Sometimes it seems like anything goes in the drug war. Is
someone accused of selling drugs? Levy a drug tax!
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2007/sep/13/take_this_drug_tax_and)
Is anyone using drugs during college? Take away their financial
aid! (http://www.raiseyourvoice.com) Sell drugs near a school?
Add on two or five or ten more years!

Hear there are drugs somewhere, in someone's house? Break down
the door! Even if there's doubt as to the address -- this week
we heard about a case where they didn't even have an address
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2007/sep/13/wrong_door_drug_raid_disrupts_fa).
If a kid who lives in public housing sells drugs, kick out the
whole family! Kick out the grandmother! Doesn't matter if she
knew about it -- doesn't matter if the kid wasn't even selling
on premises -- we're talking about drugs! We have to fight
drugs, any way we can think of! And once we've thought of it --
we have to do it! Why shouldn't we do it, if there are drugs?

Oh, let's take the house too, auction it off, spend the money on
cop cars, or banquets and costumes
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/fulton_county_georgia_district_attorney_asset_forfeiture
). No matter if there's ever a conviction, or even a trial. And
if we're in certain countries, just kill 'em!
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/501/death_penalty_drugs_vietnam_iran)

If you follow this issue regularly, you know that I'm not making
any of it up, and you know that the outrages keep on piling up.
Today -- just today -- two people I know are facing sentencing.
One of them is an innocent doctor who treated patients who
needed opiates for pain
(http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/index.php/archive/mangino-justice-will-not-be-served),
and got railroaded by prosecutors as happens to pain doctors so
often. The other helped supply patients with medical marijuana,
and a prosecutor overstated the size of his operation to get him
ten years in his first trial
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2007/sep/11/sacramento_please_attend_medical).
There's reason to believe the prosecutor may have deliberately
destroyed evidence that could have exonerated him of the most
serious charges. But even if they were guilty of everything, ten
years?

Only if anything really goes, and these are only some things
being done directly to individuals. There are a host of very
reckless tactics that are putting large numbers of people in
danger, like aerial fumigation
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/500/afghanistan_opium_production_record_eradication_military)
-- or are distorting the perception of the issue, like biased
research
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/500/mcginty_methamphetamine_study_critiqued_by_john_calvin_jones).

But if anything goes, where then will it end?

My vote is to end it all through legalization. In the meantime,
let's try to help some of these people being unfairly victimized
too. Thanks for reading.

P.S. Please check out my blog post this morning --
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2007/sep/13/take_this_drug_tax_and
-- featuring a drug tax bill sent in by one of our readers.

================

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:14:53 -0700 author: sellers