The Number of Black Drug Offenders in Prison on The Decline

Interesting and somewhat surprising numbers from the Sentencing Project today, as reported by the Washington Post. The number of blacks incarcerated for drug offenses has decline rather sharply by over 30,000 between 1999 and 2005. The number of whites incarcerated for drug offenses has actually increased by over 20,000. However, the white increase is twice as significant, in terms of percentage, as the black decrease. The reason the numbers are from a few years ago is that 2005 was the last time the Federal Bureau of Prisons produced prison populations numbers broken down by race.

The Sentencing Project hypothesizes two reasons for the changes. One, an increase in use of alternative sentences such as drug courts. Two, an increased focus on Meth, a drug disproportionately used by whites. Nonetheless, the numbers seem to indicate that drug courts are working and hopefully this will result in an even greater increase in their use and further shift away from locking addicts away for a few years only to release them untreated back into the population to continue their cycle.

The Smugness Continues

The Press Secretary tries to pretend to be serious. It's too bad they don't see this as a serious issue.

via huffpo

Obama Gets Smug

Obama's response to a question about legalizing marijuana in an attempt to help out the economy was kind of sad. He could have gave the same answer with out being so smug and dismissive. I understand he has to respond this way politically but his flip response providing no real rationalization is unfortunate.

The Economist On Legalizing Weed

The Economist magazine speaks out in favor of legalization, more and more of that these days.

Supreme Court Hears Drug Case

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case in which a criminal defendant was arrested for buying cocaine using a cell phone. The purchase itself would only have been a misdemeanor. However, since he used a cell phone to make a purchase the government is attempting to use a law that,

prohibits the use of a communication facility in causing or facilitating the commission of any act constituting a felony under the Controlled Substances Act...

to convict the defendant of a felony. Although the purchase would be a misdemeanor, the sale and distribution is a felony. Therefore, (according to the government) the defendant's phone is the "communication facility" from the law quoted above and now he is a felon.

I'm sure what this person needs is to be convicted of a felony and have his prospects for a decent life completely ruined. It would be awful if he got off with a misdemeanor and maybe some drug treatment if he needed it. Nah, lets throw him in jail and turn him into a convicted felon. I just hope the Supreme Court makes the moral decision here.

Legalizing Weed to Help the Economy

I keep seeing stories about legalizing marijuana as a way to help the economy, you know, by taxing the weed. It seems like a good idea to me, I mean, I don't think it will work but at least it forces the idea of legalization into the semi-mainstream media. A number of politicians have proposed legalizing pot as a way to raise money for their states. Of course, marijuana is illegal under Federal law so any legalization in individual states would likely result in some dicey law enforcement scenarios.

According to the state of California's tax collector a $50 tax on retailers on an ounce could result in $1 billion in tax revenue for the state and that doesn't take into account a sales tax on buyers which could result in hundreds of millions more in revenue. Plus, think of the money saved on investing, busting, and putting small time dealers and users in jail.

Drug Reform Blog

Check out this great, well thought out and well written blog about Drug Policy Reform, its worth your time: ReconsiDer

and the cartoon...click to make it big.

Even More Drug War

Let's just get to the facts...

80 year old man in Jacksonville, FL has problems with drug dealers on his property. One night, last year, he sees a couple of dealers hanging out on his lawn. He goes out with his gun to try and scare them off (clearly not the best tactic). Turns out the dealers are actually undercover cops using his property to lure in potential buyers. The cops see the man with the gun coming towards them and shoot him to death.

That's what the War on Drugs apologists call "collateral damage".

Drug Addicted Prisoners Not Getting the Treatment They Need

How do you stop a drug addicted convict from coming back to prison after his or her release?

1. Treat their drug addiction.

2. Do not treat their drug addiction.

The answer should be, treat them. Unfortunately, less than 20 percent of the time inmates are not getting the treatment they need. The number comes from the most recent report of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Add this to the fact that about half of all inmates are dependent on drugs and you have a big chunk of prisoners, most of whom will someday be released, who have not been treated for their dependency which, in many cases, lead to the incarceration in the first place.

The results? More drug abuse, more crime, more prisoners, more prisons and on an on.

The War on Drugs Clock

I found this interesting "clock" keeping track of a number of the sad stats of the war on drugs. I found it via Stumbleupon which is an interesting social bookmarking site (i guess that's what it is).

Check out this website for a lot more info.

More Marijuana Questions

The Obama transition team's "Open for Questions" portion of its website has again been inundated with questions about the failed state of the war on drugs. In the first round of answers the transition team responded to questions about marijuana decriminalization with a simple "no" to the idea.

D'Alliance says the answer hasn't stopped the questions and hypothesizes that if similar questions keep coming there could be some national exposure to the issue.

Legalize?

The Obama administration released a list of answers to what it claims are some of the top questions submitted on its website. Here is one particular Q and A:

Q: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" S. Man, Denton

A: President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana

Boo...
(via Ben Smith)

Bail Out the War on Drugs?

The U.S. Government has just sent $197 million to Mexico to help fight the drug war. There goes a wasted $197 mill when unemployment continues to rise, the stock market is extremely volatile, my 401k could fit into my pocket, banks keep failing, and industries are begging the government for money. Way to spend wisely there government. We're all so proud.

More From the Drug War

The often hyper-aggressive war on drugs has created a number of incidents ranging from unfortunate to outright insane as authorities of all kinds (local, state, federal) try, foolishly, to end the use of drugs. before delving into another tragic incident and the resulting attempted cover-up I would just like to offer the suggestion that the abuse of drugs is a more achievable thing to combat. Trying to stamp out the use of drugs in it's entirety will always ensnare innocent people into the sticky (icky) web.

According to JURIST (which is a great law-school run blog that covers legal issues all over the world) the CIA withheld information from the Department of Justice regarding the shooting down of a missionary plane over Peru by the Peruvian military. The CIA had thought the plane was a trafficking drugs but it really turned out to be carrying a family of missionaries. The father and son survived being shot down while the mother and her daughters died. The CIA had previously claimed that the accident was a one-time mistake in an well run program.

In a report that was recently declassified the CIA admitted there were,

"significant violations of required intercept procedures dating back to the first shoot down..."

The plane was shot down as part of a program called the Narcotics Airbridge Denial Program. The program, in simple terms, results in the shooting down of planes that appear to be trafficking drugs. In this specific case the CIA realized before the plane was actually shot down, but after they passed along the info to the Peruvian military in order to shoot it down, that it may not be trafficking.

So, how many other times has this happen?

The War on...

Drugs! That's right drugs.

Now that the election has passed I'll be trying to get back to the stuff I initially intended to write about. So, watch this video featuring a former Seattle Police Chief explaining why he favors legalization.



(via examiner)

Mailer and Marijuana

Perhaps the best arguments I've heard against legalizing marijuana are the following offered by Normal Mailer in the late 1960's,

...I prefer it to be illegal for it gives a touch of spice to the smoking and saves us from the corporation being able to put vitamins in the hydroponically grown and hybrid hyped marijuana with filters. Not to mention all the psychedelic commercials we’ll be spared.

This quote and much more from the latest New Yorker.

More Drug War Idiocy

This story is more than a week old now but its pretty unbelievable and telling about the war on drugs. The mayor of a small town in Maryland had a package addressed to him containing a large amount of marijuana. The package was intercepted by authorities and was delivered to the mayor's house by an undercover agent. The package was left on the doorstep while the agents waited. The package was eventually brought into the house by the mayor. The house was then stormed by police, weapons drawned. The mayor's two yellow labs were shot and killed, one was apparently running away from the officers after seeing the other one shot.

Well, guess what? The dust has no settled and the Mayor did nothing wrong! It turns out it is a fairly common technique used by drug dealers to send a package full of drugs to an innocent person and then intercept the package somewhere along the delivery route.

So, there's your drug war. Terrorizing people and killing their dogs. All for a little (ok a lot) weed.

Also, yellow labs are no threat to anyone. Unless you have a little snack in your pocket and you have trouble standing or walking, then they might knock your ass over.

Marijuana Deaths?

The state of Florida produced a report that looked at all of the autopsies in the state in 2007 and it produced a couple of interesting tidbits. First of all, prescription drugs killed far more people than illegal drugs. Also, not one death was attributed to marijuana.

Well, what d'ya know?

NY Times article

Medical Marijuana and Senator Obama...and Morons

About ten days ago Senator Obama stated his views on medical marijuana. Responding to a question about federal raids on state run medical marijuana facilities Obama stated that he would end the raids because,

I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism. The way I want to approach the issue of medical marijuana is to base it on science, and if there is sound science that supports the use of medical marijuana and if it is controlled and prescribed in a way that other medicine is prescribed, then it's something that I think we should consider. (link)

I think that is a pretty measured response but it at least demonstrates a willingness to look at the issue rationally.

On the other hand, a group not necessarily know for the rational thought, the Republican National Committee, put out this statement,

Barack Obama’s pledge to stop Executive agencies from implementing laws passed by Congress raises serious doubts about his understanding of what the job of the President of the United States actually is. His refusal to enforce the law reveals that Barack Obama doesn’t have the experience necessary to do the job of President, or that he fundamentally lacks the judgment to carry out the most basic functions of the Executive Branch. What other laws would Barack Obama direct federal agents not to enforce? (link)

Rep. Barney Frank to Introduce Bill to Decriminalize Marijuana

U.S Congressman Barney Frank said on Real Time with Bill Maher this weekend that he would soon be introducing a bill in the House of Representatives to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. It is unlikely the bill will ever come up for a vote and I can only think of a handful of Representatives that would even consider voting for such a bill. Still, the attempt is pretty valiant and occasional attempts will only make the path easier for future legislatures who actually think it is wise to listen to the will of the people.