Washblog

As a result, State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles from Seattle introduced bill SB-6032 this session to amend the state law to provide better protection for both patients and their providers.  The ACLU in Seattle also worked on the bill and met with many of those patients and providers and have been lobbying in Olympia to get the bill through.

Two of those patients are Steve Sarich and John Worthington, who were each busted earlier this year, but not charged with anything.  Sarich runs an organization called CannaCare, which aims to be a cooperative for medical marijuana patients, and was discovered to have over 1,500 plants growing in his Everett, WA home.  Worthington is a former associate of Sarich's, and was only growing six plants in his home south of Seattle.  Both men believe that they were targeted because they've been calling attention to local drug task forces that have been going after people who should be protected by state law.  

As the bill's supporters have tried to get it passed through the state legislature, it has faced strong opposition from both prosecutors and law enforcement officials.  As a result, the bill went through some changes.  

• A provision that allowed for cooperatives was taken out.


• Changes were made to allow the state Department of Health to determine what a sixty-day supply really is.


• A provision prohibiting law enforcement from seizing a sample of marijuana and documenting the amount found when it's clear someone is following the law was removed.


• A provision explicitly preventing the arrest of a caregiver for someone under the age of 18 was removed.


• A provision exempting marijuana and items used for medical marijuana from asset forfeiture was removed.


• A section explicitly prohibiting any judicial or administrative orders that would disallow the use of medical marijuana by a person possessing valid documentation was removed.

These changes did not go over well among patients, but Kohl-Welles and the ACLU continued to support the bill.  One of the ACLU members, Dominic Holden (who also started Hempfest and got Seattle to pass the very first "make marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority bill") had medical marijuana patients protesting outside his office.  

I've spoken with both Steve Sarich and Dominic Holden, and it's clear that this bill is nowhere near what either one wants, and will likely not even prevent valid patients from continuing to be arrested by local task forces.  Holden still supports the bill as the best they could get, however, and has continued to try to make his case to the state's medical marijuana patients.  Sarich feels that this entire effort has been undermined from the very beginning and says that a much more aggressive bill should have been introduced containing a number of extra protections to keep patients from being arrested.  Sarich maintains that the majority of patients are on his side in his fight to scrap the bill and he'll be issuing a press release in a few days.  

Even with a strongly Democratic controlled Congress in a state where support for medical marijuana runs at around 70%, this is proving to be a very difficult process to implement an improved system for those in need based upon a law that the voters already asked for.  Part of the difficulty is certainly coming from the way medical marijuana regulation is being circumvented so easily in California, where it's been shown to be extremely easy for non-medical users to get their supplies from the dispensaries.  But it also rests upon the shoulders of the current Governor (and former state Attorney General), Democrat Christine Gregoire, and the current state Attorney General, Republican Rob McKenna, neither of whom have been particularly supportive of drug policy reform.  The state's law enforcement officials and prosecutors have an interest in making it easier for them to prey on sick people to fill their own coffers.  This bill clearly allows them to continue to do that, even though the will of Washington voters and basic human rights are not on their side.  If government can't be a counterbalance to economic special interests, then it isn't of much use to us.

Over the past two weeks...

Major News

• The Senlis Council released a report (warning-big PDF) with survey data showing a large amount of discontent and a lack of faith in the international coalition in some of Afghanistan's southern provinces, where opium eradication is taking place.  Antonio Maria Costa of the UN's anti-drug ONODC said that the poppy cultivation in southern Afghanistan was "out of control," while there are major questions about the ONDCP's effectiveness.  Large numbers of British MPs are trying to put pressure on Tony Blair to change course and consider licensing the opium production.  NATO is now considering a proposal to do just that, countering the U.S. State Department's claims that there is no worldwide shortage of opiates.  Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has named Thomas Schweich to be a counternarcotics official for the country.


• Due to a leaked CIA document, some of Colombia's top military officials are suspected of working alongside several paramilitary groups considered terrorist groups by the United States and involved in drug trafficking.  The Colombian government held a photo-op to defend the accused officials.


• Alfredo Corchado writes about how the Mexican drug traffickers continue to sow violence across Mexico and how Felipe Calderon is powerless to stop them.


• The British newspaper the Independent put up an odd apology for its 10-year effort to decriminalize cannabis.  I wondered if someone was going to bat for the Home Office, whose anti-drug efforts were criticized the week before.  Steve at Transform completely undresses the Independent over their sloppiness.  So do Scott Morgan, Phillip Smith, the Guardian's Ben Goldacre, Stats.org, and Kos Diarist xxdr zombiexx.  A study by The Lancet also disagrees with the claims made about the harmfulness of cannabis and says that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm they actually do.  This is an approach that the British government is strongly opposed to without reason.


• Eric Morrison from the Juneau Empire has a summary of the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case leading up to the hearing at the Supreme Court.  A number of more right-wing Christian groups are siding with the student and free expression.  Pete Guither had a roundup of links from the first Monday and discusses how Joseph Frederick really got his nonsensical message out to the world.  Jamie Spencer has more.  Jacob Sullum nails the point exactly and Baylen Linnekin has more.  Students and others protested outside in support of free speech.


• The U.S. Attorney scandal has some strong relations to high profile drug cases.  Paul McNulty, a prosecutor who was promoted during the time of the firings, was the US Attorney who went after pain physician Dr. William Hurwitz (for the latest on the Hurwitz case, look here, here and here).  Johnnie Sutton, the U.S. Attorney who is suspected of trying to cover up a murder spree by a government informant in the House of Death case, was in the loop on the firings.  John McKay, the fired prosecutor in Seattle, had some discontentment in his office about how the Marc Emery case was being politicized.  Presidential candidate, and possible investigation target himself, Duncan Hunter claims that Carol Lam was fired because she refused to prosecute drug cases.  And the only prosecutor believed to have been fired for actual incompetence rather than disloyalty, Kevin Ryan from Northern California, was the man who went after medical marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal.  The Federal Government refuses to give up in their quest to prosecute Rosenthal.


• Former drug warrior and Republican Congressman Bob Barr has done a 180 and will now campaign to legalize marijuana.


• Karen Tandy made a statement to a House Subcommittee defending the Bush Administration's spending on the DEA.


• Lou Dobbs did another series on the war on drugs this week.  I wondered where Lou gets some of his statistics.

Opinions and Blogposts

• The Drug War Chronicle discusses the subject of prison rape and how the war on drugs has created many of its most innocent victims.  Kos Diarist Daisy Cutter has more.


• Jag Davies from MAPS discusses the potential for using psychedelic drugs for medicinal purposes.


• Scott Morgan wonders why paramilitary drug raids are done with so much secrecy and finds some cases where the humanity of individual officers conflicts with the inhumanity of the drug war.  He also talks about bananas and blow and some recent 4th Amendment news.


• Tony Ryan from LEAP talks about corruption and law enforcement's addiction to the drug war.


• Rachel Rosenbloom writes about how common it is for low-level drug offenders to get deported.


• Arianna Huffington wonders when the major Democratic candidates are going to speak up about what the drug war does to minority communities.  Pete notes the lack of any response.


• Robert Collier writes in the San Francisco Chronicle about the war on medical marijuana in the state of California.


• Pete Guither critiques an editorial in the Sacramento Bee, another in the Wall Street Journal, and one in the Arizona Range News.


• Tony Newman writes about the case of the Massachusetts teenager who was sentenced to prison for a minor marijuana sale to an undercover cop.


• Paul Armentano writes about the 35 year long war on potsmokers.  Jamie Spencer looks at some of the clueless comments left by Huffington Post readers.


• Jeremy Kahn writes in the Atlantic Monthly about the use of informants in cities like Baltimore with powerful drug gangs.


• Alan Bean also writes about snitching and the divide over the drug war among African-Americans.  Cicero from To The People has more on the latter subject.


• Jacob Sullum writes about the government's failed strategy in bringing new charges against Ed Rosenthal.


• Radley Balko discusses the shortcomings of the recent bill in Georgia intended to prevent future tragedies like the Kathryn Johnston case.  He also finds a case in Delaware where an Iraq War veteran was killed by police, discusses an article in the Law Enforcement Technology trade magazine, talks about the lack of loud voices on this issue, and gives a roundup of Baltimore police problems.


• Howard Woolridge has a roundup of news from Capitol Hill.


• J. Michael Scott makes the case from the law enforcement standpoint for ending the war on drugs.


• Amanda King writes about the return home of Tyrone Brown.


• Adam Isacson notes the recent growth of cocaine use in the United States.


• Grant Smith looks at both the good and the bad from the HBO's series called "Addiction".


• Dan Savage writes about candy-flavored meth.  Scott Morgan has more.


• Libby Spencer writes about the two main Democratic candidates and their claims about drug use when they were younger.


• Sarah Margaret Taylor writes about the danger posed by the federal government when it comes to Hawaii's medical marijuana laws.


• Loretta Nall wrote about her day in court.


• Jamie Spencer notes that the University of Texas Health Center is telling the truth about marijuana.


• Tanya at Blame the Drug War discusses the Canadian anti-drug strategy and looks at the patterns of how marijuana is distributed..


• Rob at To The People talks about St. Patrick's Day, pot, and bestiality.


• Greg Francisco writes about a recent change to Michigan's laws when it comes to drug paraphernalia.


• Harry Bruce of the Hamilton Spectator says it's time to put drug dealers out of business and legalize marijuana.


• Scott Taylor writes about what's really going on in Afghanistan.


• Kos diarist Red no More breaks down the ONDCP's bullshit when it comes to what the results of workplace drug testing show.


• Kos diarist TampaScott discusses Mel Sembler, Angel Raich, and the cruelty of America's war on drugs.


• Kos diarist Olivebranch wonders why marijuana is illegal.


• Marta Cook writes in the University of Virginia Cavalier Daily about how drug war doctrine is eroding our free speech.


• Polly Cleveland writes about how we underprescribe opiates to those who really need it.


• Ellen Cantarow responds to a Univision report on the cooperation between President Bush and Mexico's new President, Felipe Calderon.


• Micah Daigle posts the story of a young man who ended up with a felony on his record.


• I responded to an editorial by a San Diego State senior and continued the conversation.  I also had some words about Anna Nicole Smith and drug use.


• Cliff Kincaid from Accuracy in Media wrote the most inaccurate article ever on medical marijuana.

Regional News - U.S. and Canada

• The House Judiciary Committee passed the Second Chance Act of 2007 out of committee to be voted in mid-April.


• The DEA is now accepting tips online.


• Washington State passed legislation that attempts to improve prisoner re-entry into society.


• A Court of Appeals judge ruled that Washington state judges can't send people accused of DUI's into forced alcohol-use evaluations.


• Two Seattle police officers are under suspicion of corruption involving drug cases.  As a result, some federal prosecutions are being dismissed or postponed.


• The November Coalition is having their 10th anniversary auction this evening.  Congrats to them on their milestone!


• Protestors marched against meth in Nampa, Idaho.


• Meth and heroin were the two major causes of drug overdose deaths in Oregon in 2006.


• California's 2nd District Court vacated a conviction for a man who was not explained the consequences regarding his immigration status due to his plea.


• A former Sacramento-area prison guard plead guilty to smuggling meth into the prison.


• The ONDCP gave out awards to officers who have been finding marijuana grows in the Mendocini National Forest.


• A California lawmaker is taking a stand against the state's out-of-control prison population.


• The founder of Temple 420, a church in Los Angeles that views marijuana as a religious herb is suing the police for $30 million, accusing them of violating his civil rights.


• Two separate houses in Southern California were discovered to each have over $10 million worth of marijuana growing in them.


• A U.S. Border Patrol agent was busted after being caught on camera stealing marijuana from the trunk of a suspect's car at the Arizona-Mexico border.


• Missoula, Montana county officials modified a voter-approved initiative that made marijuana the lowest priority for law enforcement.


• A 17-year-old El Paso girl was arrested trying to smuggle nearly 500 pounds of marijuana into the United States.


• Scott Henson writes about the problems with urinalysis drug testing in Bexar County, Texas, and reviews the bills in the Texas Legislature.


• A sheriff's deputy in Louisiana was arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle crack-cocaine and vodka to a prison inmate.


• A medical marijuana bill was approved out of committee in the Minnesota State House.


• A St. Louis area trucker who was documenting his battle with meth addiction died last week.


• A long-time St. Paul, Minnesota police officer was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in distributing meth.


• An Illinois medical marijuana patient is hoping for the passage of the medical marijuana bill in the legislature so that she can legally take the most effective pain medicine she's used.


• A man from Chicago faces a possible life sentence after being convicted of selling heroin to a man who later overdosed in Iowa.


• In Illinois, police raided the house of a woman suspected solely of drug use, shot her dog, and threw her in jail for the night with the blood of her dead dog still on her clothes.


• Police in suburban Chicago made two multi-million dollar drug busts.


• A panel was held at Illinois State University to discuss drug policy.


• A meth lab was discovered in the office of an Evansville, IN attorney who had just been sentence to a drug rehab facility.


• An Indianapolis reserve police officer was caught stealing drugs and money from undercover officers.


• A police officer in Toledo, Ohio was arrested for drug possession.


• Ashtabula County, OH justice officials would have little to do if it weren't for the drug war.


• A Clark County, KY deputy sheriff was sentenced to prison for drug and gun charges.


• The Alabama legislature is looking at a bill to add glass tubes to their comically long list of banned items considered "drug paraphernalia".


• An Alabama man was given a life sentence for marijuana distribution.


• An 81-year-old Alabama woman was one of 27 people arrested for drug dealing in a town with a population of 2,348.


• A Sheriff's deputy in Broward County, Florida was busted after a phony sting was set up to determine if he was a cocaine user.


• An 18-month-old in Jacksonville tested positive for cocaine after workers at her pre-school noticed she was acting strangely.


• The Georgia State House has passed a bill banning marijuana-flavored candies.


• The Atlanta police department announced some policy changes following the Kathryn Johnston tragedy.


• Police in Georgia made a number of busts of indoor marijuana operations after seizing records from a hydroponics seller.


• An Atlanta-area fire captain was charged with selling cocaine.


• Two men were shot by police during a North Carolina drug raid.


• Maryland lawmakers rejected a bill that would have allowed for second-time drug offenders to be eligible for parole.


• A Delaware man is being held for being in possession of the East African drug khat.


• A Pittsburgh attorney was charged with bringing marijuana to a prison inmate.


• New York police busted a drug trafficking operation that hid heroin in kidney beans coming from Colombia.


• A New York City cop was busted after police found a large amount of cocaine at her Long Island home.


• A man on trial in The Bronx claims that he was just doing his job as an undercover informant for the DEA when he took part in a home robbery in 2004.


• A Westchester County, NY corrections officer pled guilty for being part of a drug distribution ring.


• The Connecticut House Judiciary Committee approved a medical marijuana bill.  Medical marijuana user Montel Williams testified in support of the bill in front of the legislature in Hartford.  Dirk Perrefort writes in the Danbury New-Times about a lesser-known medical marijuana patient.  Governor Jodi Rell is undecided on whether to sign it.


• Rhode Island lawmakers have to act before the end of June in order to make the state's medical marijuana law permanent and close up some loopholes.


• Boston is seeing a number of people switching from OxyContin to heroin because the latter is cheaper.


• Vermont's Supreme Court ruled that police need a search warrant to search someone's car barring special circumstances.


• The New Hampshire House of Representatives had a choice between live free or die and they chose die.  A Concord radio station had earlier refused to play a pro-medical marijuana ad.


• A youth group in Dover, NH is trying to pass an ordinance to crack down on stores that sell things with pro-drug messages.


• Officials in Ontario are trying to outsource meth production to Mexico.


• A medical marijuana operation in London, Ontario that was involved in more than just marijuana was raided last week.


• Regina, Saskatchewan has a medical marijuana clinic where registered patients have been able to use their medicine.


• A judge ordered that a medical marijuana user sentenced to prison in Alberta should be given medical marijuana in prison.


• The marijuana industry is catching up with forestry and construction as the biggest industries in British Columbia.


• An inquest has been ordered to discover the cause of death of a British Columbia woman who went into convulsions and eventually died after a drug arrest.


• A University of Victoria researcher says it's time to legalize drugs.

Regional News - International

• The U.S. Coast Guard seized a Panamanian vessel with over 20 tons of cocaine.  The Sinaloa cartel is suspected.


• Evo Morales continues to allow but regulate the coca growing in Bolivia.


• A discharged British serviceman regrets his drug use and says that drug use is common among members of the British armed forces.


• Police in Sheffield, England raided the wrong house during a drug raid.


• A British medical marijuana user is trying to keep from being evicted from her housing complex.  At least one British MP has her back.


• The Scottish government will allow the use of buprenorphine to treat heroin addicts.


• A Dutch man convicted of drug smuggling will be able to deduct the cost of buying and transporting the drugs from his taxes.


• In Israel, there's a debate about whether marijuana is ok to have during Passover.


• Convicted ecstasy trafficker Zeev Rosenstein, who was sentenced to life in prison in Florida, will be able to serve his sentence in his native Israel.


• A major drug corruption hearing in Ghana was postponed due to a power outage.


• The UN has identified Nairobi as a major transfer hub for cocaine and heroin.


• New Delhi has banned smoking in cars for the same reason they banned cell phone use in cars.


• Vietnam aims to be a drug-free country by 2015.


• A Taiwanese TV celebrity was busted for being in possession of marijuana.


• An American drug warrior travelled to Adelaide, Australia to bring simple-minded ineffective drug control strategies to South Australia.


• A man in Sydney was busted at the airport for trying to smuggle cocaine in woven dresses.


• Several people on a gay-themed cruise ship leaving Sydney were cited for drug offenses after a raid on the ship.

Fun Stuff and Pop Culture

• The Totally Baked Movie is coming.  It's debut is set for 4/20.


• The first judge in the recent Anna Nicole Smith hearing (not the guy who cried) was busted for smoking marijuana in a park.


• A member of the Black Eyed Peas was busted for possession of pot.


• There's concern that the biological mother of Angelina Jolie's newly adopted boy will try to sue the actress to get money for her heroin habit.


• My anti-drug is alcohol.


• Marc Emery invites you to Hockey Night in Vansterdam.