Followup set to talk.politics.drugs so if you would like to complain
about this posting that is where you should.
Drug War Chronicle, Issue #509 -- 11/9/07
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
Students: Intern at DRCNet to help stop the drug war!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
Table of Contents:
1. EDITORIAL: TWO DRUG WAR TRAGEDIES, AND NO EXCUSE
When the drug fighters intervene forcefully in people's lives,
the results can be unpredictable and tragic. But there are
better ways to deal with drugs than the drug war. And so there
are no excuses either.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/two_drug_war_tragedies_and_no_excuse
2. FEATURE: PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS AND DRUG POLICY I --
DEMOCRATS
A year out from the presidential election, Drug War Chronicle
takes a look at the Democratic field. Next week, it's the
Republicans' turn.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/democrats_drugs_presidential_contenders_policy_positions
3. FEATURE: DENVER VOTES TO MAKE MARIJUANA OFFENSES LOWEST LAW
ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY
For the third time in as many years, Denver voters have approved
a marijuana reform measure. A lowest law enforcement priority
initiative passed with 57% of the vote. Will city officials
finally listen to the voters?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/denver_approves_lowest_law_enforcement_priority_marijuana_initiative
4. STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an intern****p at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and
you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A New York cop goes down for peddling pot, a Connecticut cop
goes down for slinging smack, and a Nashville cop goes to the
pen for ripping off a drug dealer.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/police_drug_corruption
6. HARM REDUCTION: ANTI-SAFE INJECTION SITE AMENDMENT KILLED IN
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Two weeks ago, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) managed to get an
amendment passed barring federal funds from any city that opens
a safe injection site. This week, thanks to the efforts of drug
reformers, the measure was killed in conference committee.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/safe_injection_site_amendment_demint_killed
7. MARIJUANA: THREE OF FOUR REFORM INITIATIVES PASS IN HAILEY,
IDAHO
Three out of four marijuana reform initiatives -- medical
marijuana, hemp, and lowest law enforcement priority -- won in
small-town Hailey, Idaho, but a taxation and regulation
inititiative was narrowly defeated.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/marijuana_initiatives_pass_hailey_idaho
8. EUROPE: DUTCH TO EXTEND MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM FOR ANOTHER
FIVE YEARS
Holland's experimental medical marijuana program will be
extended for another five years, mainly to allow for the
development of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals, the Dutch Health
Ministry announced Wednesday.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/dutch_medical_marijuana_program_extended
9. DEATH PENALTY: TWO MORE DRUG OFFENDERS EXECUTED IN IRAN
Iran continues to execute drug offenders. Two more were hung
October 30.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/iran_executes_two_drug_offenders_death_penalty
10. NEW ZEALAND: NATIONAL CONVERSATION ON MARIJUANA POLICY URGED
A leading New Zealand drug policy think tank is trying to
jump-start a national conversation on marijuana policy, and it
looks like it's working.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/new_zealand_national_marijuana_conversation_urged
11. AFRICA: NGOS CRITICIZE EMPHASIS ON CUTTING DRUG SUPPLY, URGE
ATTENTION TO DEMAND REDUCTION
With the West focusing new attention on West and Central Africa
as drug trans****pment points, NGOs meeting last weekend in
Senegal said the effort was unbalanced, with little attention
paid to demand reduction.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/africa_ngos_criticize_drug_strategy_ask_for_demand_reduction
12. CARIBBEAN: TRINIDAD & TOBAGO POLITICAL LEADER CALLS FOR NEW
APPROACH IN DEALING WITH MARIJUANA
The leading of the the main opposition party in Trinidad &
Tobago called last week for a re*****sment of marijuana
prohibition. Too bad that after losing Monday's election, the
party will have five years before it has another shot at power.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/trinidad_tobago_opposition_leader_panday_marijuana
13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/drug_war_history
14. 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/509/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
15. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Sup****t the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_available
16. 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/509/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available
17. 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/509/drug_reform_calendar
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org
to sign up
today!)
================
1. Editorial: Two Drug War Tragedies, and No Excuse
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/509/two_drug_war_tragedies_and_no_excuse
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
Later this month, November 21st, will mark one year since the
shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston at the hands of
Atlanta police officers. Johnston was not involved with illegal
drugs. But a combination of an informant's error and lying by
some members of the narcotics unit got them a no-knock warrant.
When the squad of plainclothes officers pushed her door open and
burst in, Johnston believed she was under attack, and without
time to think about it pulled out a gun her niece had given her
for protection, and started to shoot. The narcs shot back. Three
of the officers were wounded, but the officers had better aim
and so Johnston was killed.
A different kind tragedy is that of 50-year-old Robin Prosser, a
registered medical marijuana patient in Montana, where she led
the effort to pass the state's law three years as one of the
initiative campaign's lead patient spokespersons. Despite all of
this, the DEA intercepted and seized a package of her medicine
last spring. This in turn scared other suppliers and made it
difficult for her to get what she needed to manage her
condition, systemic lupus. She talks about it in a video
recorded last spring, and her last blog postings chronicle how
all these problems drove her more deeply into depression, until
she finally took her own life last month
(http://www.safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?pid=586).
The common thread in these needless losses is the drug war. The
police in Atlanta, despite their misconduct leading up to the
shooting, did not expect to end up killing a 92-year-old woman
when they first burst down her door. The DEA agents who took
Prosser's medicine away probably did not expect the result of
their action to be her suicide. But when you forcefully
interfere in a person's life -- by seizing medicine or storming
their homes -- the results can be unpredictable.
But unpredictable in only one sense -- predictable in other
senses. Though any one intervention is unlikely to end up this
way, it is inevitable that such tragedies will continue to
happen for so long as the drug war continues to rage. The
Johnston killing was unique only in Mrs. Johnston's age.
Hundreds of SWAT team killings of innocents, or of low-level
offenders, have been do***ented, and there have been many more
near-misses. In fact, just two months earlier in Atlanta, police
almost killed 80-year-old Frances Thompson
(http://www.theagitator.com/archives/027781.php)
in a very
similar situation. If they didn't know they were risking the
lives of people in Johnston's home, they should have.
If there were no better way, it would be one thing. But the drug
war doesn't work, and prohibition causes enormous harm to
individuals and society. So it isn't very hard to think of
better ways. There's no excuse for further drug war tragedies.
================
later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)
--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco
"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.
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