Drug War Chronicle, Issue #538 -- 5/30/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538
A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"
Students: Intern at DRCNet to help stop the drug war now!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
Table of Contents:
1. FEATURE: SUMMER'S HERE AND THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR... GETTING
BUSTED GOING TO THE FESTIVAL (IF YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL)
Summer music festival season is here, and with it, the annual
exercises in drug law enforcement aimed at festival-goers and
highway travelers in general. Here are a few tips for avoiding
trouble.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/summer_festival_drug_law_enforcement
2. FEATURE: BC SUPREME COURT RULES VANCOUVER SAFE INJECTION SITE
TO STAY OPEN, FEDERAL DRUG LAW CONTROLLING IT UNCONSTITUTIONAL
In a surprise ruling, the British Columbia Supreme Court has
held that Canada's federal drug law is unconstitutional as
applied to Vancouver's safe injection site. The site will
therefore stay open despite the wishes of the Harper government.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/bc_supreme_court_says_vancouver_insite_stays_open
3. FEATURE: BRAZIL APPEALS COURT RULES DRUG POSSESSION NOT A
CRIME
A Brazilian appeals court in Sao Paulo has ruled that drug
possession is not a crime. The ruling only applies to one case,
but has set an im****tant precedent.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/brazil_appeals_court_drug_possession_no_crime
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/538/drcnet_intern****ps_to_stop_the_drug_war
5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A Connecticut prison guard gets busted, a pair of JFK air****t
Customs inspectors do too, an Arizona Border Patrol agent cops a
plea, and a Connecticut narc heads to prison. Just another week
in the drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/police_drug_corruption
6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT
QUANTITY LIMITS
A California appeals court has declared a 2004 law setting
limits on the amount of marijuana patients may possess
unconstitutional because it seeks to amend a voter initiative,
and only the voters can do that.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/california_appeals_court_medical_marijuana_limits
7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL P***** CALIFORNIA
ASSEMBLY
In January, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers
could fire employees who tested positive for marijuana even if
they were legal patients under California law. Now, a bill that
would undo that ruling has passed the state Assembly.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/california/medical_marijuana_employment_discrimination_bill_p*****
8. MARIJUANA: HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL REJECTS "GREEN HARVEST"
ERADICATION PROGRAM
For 30 years, residents of Hawaii's Big Island have endured the
annual helicopter swoops and marijuana field raids of "Operation
Green Harvest." But last week, the local government said "no
thank you" to the state and federal funding that sup****t the
operation.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/hawaii_county_rejects_green_harvest_marijuana_eradication_funds
9. MARIJUANA: IDAHO RESORT TOWN P***** THREE INITIATIVES --
AGAIN
For the second time in less than a year, voters in Hailey,
Idaho, have passed a trio of marijuana reform municipal
initiatives. The first time around, city officials rejected
them. Now what will they do?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/hailey_idaho_marijuana_initiatives_pass
10. SENTENCING: NEW JERSEY SPENDS $331 MILLION A YEAR JAILING
NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENDERS, STUDY FINDS AS LEGISLATURE PONDERS
REFORMS
A new study from the Drug Policy Alliance finds that New Jersey
is spending more than $330 million a year to imprison drug
offenders. The study comes as the state legislature ponders a
first baby step toward reforming its tough drug sentencing laws.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/new_jersey_drug_offender_sentencing_cost_DPA_study
11. LATIN AMERICA: RISING DEATH TOLL IN MEXICO'S DRUG WAR
SIGNALS IMMINENT VICTORY, ATTORNEY GENERAL CLAIMS
People are being killed in prohibition-related violence in
Mexico at a rate 50% higher than last year. Mexico's attorney
general claims that's a sign of success in the drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/mexico_drug_war_death_toll_rises_medina_mora
12. AUSTRALIA: DOC GROUP LOBBIES FOR TOUGHER WESTERN AUSTRALIA
MARIJUANA LAWS, CITES MENTAL HEALTH THREAT
Citing an alleged link between marijuana use and mental illness,
the Australian Medical Association is calling for tougher
marijuana penalties. That goes against its earlier position that
criminal laws don't work as a deterrent and can in fact be
harmful to drug users.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/doc_group_wants_tougher_marijuana_laws_in_western_australia
13. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE SPEAKEASY
"Barbara Kay Says Mean Things About Marijuana Users and the
Reform Movement," "Another Ryan Frederick Update," "McClellan:
Bush Partied So Much, He Couldn't Remember Whether He Tried
Cocaine," "If the Drug War Reduces Violence, Please Explain
What's Happening in Mexico," "Japanese Customs Hid 5 oz. of
Marijuana in Passenger's Bag, Now They Can't Find It," "Ryan
Frederick Formally Charged With First Degree Murder."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/blogging_at_the_speakeasy
14. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/drug_war_history
15. DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE'S ADVOCACY GRANTS PROGRAM APPLICATION
DEADLINE APPROACHING
With the application deadline fast approaching, Drug Policy
Alliance has approximately $1.2 million to allocate during its
2008 Promoting Policy Change grant cycle.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/drug_policy_alliance_grant_proposal_deadline
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/538/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle
17. 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/538/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/538/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/538/drug_reform_calendar
(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org
to sign up
today!)
================
1. Feature: Summer's Here and the Time is Right for... Getting
Busted Going to the Festival (If You're Not Careful)
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/538/summer_festival_drug_law_enforcement
With Memorial Day now just a memory, the summer music festival
season
(http://www.clubplanet.com/Articles/2118/Summer-Music-Festivals-Guide)
is on -- and with it, special drug law enforcement aimed at
festival goers in what could be called a form of cultural
profiling. If years past are any indicator, music lovers should
be prepared to encounter everything from announced "Drug
Checkpoints" that aren't -- they are instead traps to lure the
freaked out -- to real, unconstitutional, highway drug
checkpoints masquerading as "safety checks" (complete with drug
dogs) to undercover cops working inside the festival grounds
themselves.
Nationally known festivals like Bonaroo in Tennessee and
Wakarusa in Kansas, as well as countless lesser festivals,
especially in rural areas, have drawn special law enforcement
efforts in the past. With this year unlikely to be any
different, festival goers will need to know their rights and how
to exercise them when they encounter the cops.
The police enforcement actions are already getting underway.
Last weekend, the 2008 Summer Camp Festival
(http://www.summercampfestival.com/2008)
in Chillicothe,
Illinois, drew some 13,000 fans to hear a diverse line-up of
bands including the Flaming Lips, George Clinton &
Parliament/Funkadelic, Blind Melon, the Roots, and the New
****ographers. It also drew city and state police, who claimed
20 drug arrests -- for marijuana, ecstasy, and LSD -- between
them in and around the festival.
The police were pleased. "I think a lot of it had to do with all
of the agencies getting together before the event and really
planning out our attack," Chillicothe Police Chief Steven Maurer
told local HOI-19 TV News
(http://www.hoinews.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=139389).
"Our
goal is to prevent it from coming in and that's what we did a
lot of."
Meanwhile, down in northeast Georgia, some other law enforcement
agencies had also gotten together to plan an attack. This one
wasn't aimed directly at concert-goers, but at the
highway-traveling public in general. In what the Northeast
Georgian
(http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2008/05/27/news/top_stories/02topstory.txt)
described as "one of the county's largest highway interdiction
and safety checks in at least five years," personnel from the
Habersham County Sheriff's Office, Northeast Georgia Drug Task
Force, Georgia National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, Georgia
State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia
Department of Public Safety Motor Carrier Compliance Unit, Lee
Arrendale State Prison, Phillips State Prison and Cornelia
Police Department participated in a 24-hour checkpoint on a
local highway.
Police bragged about the success of their checkpoint, which
netted 74 arrests, 31 of them for drug offenses. "It worked
well, I thought," said Habersham County Sheriff De Ray Fincher.
"The operation resulted in a seizure of $36,000 in illegal
drugs. And a total amount of currency, drugs and vehicles seized
is estimated to have a value of $82,000."
Police did write some tickets for traffic offenses, Fincher told
WNEG-TV 32 News
(http://www.wneg32.com/index.php/news/article/safety-checks-in-habersham-county/1003/).
"We got a lot of people with no insurance, no driver's license
or suspended license," he said. And some pot smokers: "The
majority of our cases were marijuana cases; however, we did get
several methamphetamine and we got one case of cocaine," Fincher
explained.
In a 2000 Supreme Court decision, Indianapolis v. Edmonds
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-1030.ZS.html),
the
high court held that indiscriminate highway drug checkpoints
were unconstitutional since motorists were being stopped without
suspicion for a law enforcement -- not a public safety --
purpose.
But Fincher was open about his constitutionally-suspect highway
checkpoint. "We are trying to do everything we can to prevent
drug activity in Habersham County, whether it's just passing
through or stopping here," he said, noting that drug arrests in
the county were on the rise. "That just means we've taken a real
aggressive approach to drug enforcement."
"In the wake of the Indianapolis case, law enforcement has tried
to figure out ways to still conduct drug checkpoints that
com****t with that ruling," said Adam Wolf of the ACLU Drug Law
Reform Project (http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy).
"Intent is the
name of the game. If the intent is to conduct a checkpoint
basically for law enforcement purposes, that's not okay. If it's
for public safety purposes, such as sobriety checkpoints, that
is okay."
A constitutional challenge to any given checkpoint would turn on
intent, said Wolf. "If it turns out the intent was primarily to
be a drug checkpoint, that would be an unreasonable search and
not comply with the Constitution," he said. "That kind of
checkpoint should be shut down, but it would take someone to
challenge it."
Noting Sheriff Fincher's re****t of cash and goods seized, Wolf
suggested the purpose of the checkpoints could really be about
something other than law enforcement or public safety. "So often
these things are being done to fund law enforcement agencies.
Asset forfeiture is really a cash cow," he said.
Whether the checkpoints or other special law enforcement tactics
are to raise money, wage the drug war, or indeed for "public
safety," experts consulted by the Chronicle sang a remarkably
similar song: Be prepared, don't be stupid, and don't give away
your rights.
"The most efficient way to get arrested for marijuana possession
short of blowing pot smoke in an officer's face is to smoke
marijuana while driving or parked in your car, especially on the
way to a festival," said Steven Silverman of the civil liberties
group Flex Your Rights (http://www.flexyourrights.org),
which
has released a video instructing people how to flex theirs. "You
have a minimal expectation of privacy, and it reeks. Officers
can smell it, and if they can smell it, that's probable cause to
search you."
"Keep your private items out of view," recommended the ACLU's
Wolf. A baggie full of weed on the front seat is all the
probable cause an officer needs to search the vehicle and arrest
the owner.
"The only sure thing to do is not to carry," said Keith Stroup,
founder and currently senior counsel for the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(http://www.norml.org).
"But the problem with that is there may
or may not be good marijuana available at the festivals. If
you're going to bring something with you, keep the quantity as
small as possible, and for God's sake, don't smoke in the car!"
If you are stopped at a checkpoint (or pulled over for any
reason) and you haven't provided police probable cause to search
you or your vehicle, now is the time to exercise your rights.
People in such situations should be polite but assertive, the
experts said.
"If you are pulled over by police for any reason, the officers
are very likely to ask you to consent to a search," said
Silverman. "Don't do it. Never, ever consent under any
cir***stances. It might be couched in terms of a command, but it
is a request. If you consent, you are waiving your Fourth
Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
They won't 'go easier' on you; anything they find, they will
confiscate, and arrest you and put you in jail. Don't do their
job for them."
"There is no cir***stance I can imagine where you should ever
consent to a search," agreed NORML's Stroup. "If you give
permission, you waive your Fourth Amendment protections. They
may say it'll go easier if you cooperate, but that's bull****.
Their only reason for being there is to see if you have
contraband and arrest you and put you in jail if you do."
"Just say no to warrantless searches," echoed the ACLU's Wolf.
"Officers won't tell you you have the right not to consent, but
you do, and it is one that people have held dear since the
founding of the Republic."
There are other highway hazards for the unwary festival-goer.
Law enforcement can be creative in its unending war on drug
users and sellers.
"Anybody driving to see his favorite band should also be aware
of fake drug checkpoints," said Silverman. "Drug checkpoints are
unconstitutional, but what some sheriffs will do close to
festival sites is set up a big 'Drug Checkpoint Ahead' sign, and
then watch who turns off the highway at the next ramp or who
throws something out his car window. Then they pull them over
for littering or failure to signal a lane change or something.
If you see such a sign, keep driving -- it's a bluff designed to
see who it scares."
"When you see a sign like that, proceed ahead within the speed
limit, driving safely through the area," advised Wolf.
Wolf has problems with the harassment of festival-goers that run
deeper than particular law enforcement tactics. "Profiling based
on race is not okay, profiling based on gender is not okay, and
profiling based on the type of concert you attend is not okay,"
he said. "It's unreasonable and unjustifiable for police to
target a group of people because they are going to any
particular type of concert."
"Simply having a Grateful Dead sticker or dreadlocks doesn't
constitute reasonable suspicion of anything," agreed Silverman.
But in the real world, it can. Festival-goers and other highway
travelers need to be aware of their rights, as well as the
realities of life in the contem****ary US, as they hit the
highway this summer.
And one last thing once you actually make it to the festival.
"There's a big myth out there that police officers must reveal
if they're an undercover cop," said Silverman. "That's wrong,
and it's stupid to believe that. Police officers can and do
legally lie in doing their jobs. Believing that has probably led
to thousands of people being arrested."
================
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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