Tag: War on Drugs (page 6)

The Congressional Research has also released its report on DOJ funding for 2008-2009 (pdf). Among the goodies handed out:

As part of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-252), Congress provided DEA with an additional $29.9 million to thwart narco-terrorism, as compared with the $8.5 million requested by the Administration.

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The Washington Post reports criminal defense lawyers in Juarez, Mexico are shying away from taking drug cases, out of fear of being threatened and killed -- by their clients, the cartels or the Mexican military police.

Here's Johny Cash and Cocaine Blues, probably my favorite of his songs since it's one of just a few songs I can play on the guitar. The lyrics are great:

Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down
I went right home and I went to bed I stuck that lovin' 44 beneath my head

Got up next morning and I grabbed that gun
took a shot of cocaine and away I run
Made a good run but I run too slow
they overtook me down in Juarez Mexico

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Radley Balko outlines the collateral damage from the War on Drugs in a new article at Culture 11.

Prohibition militarizes police, enriches our enemies, undermines our laws, and condemns our sick to suffering.

There's also the enormous economic cost of prosecution and imprisonment and, as Radley points out: [More...]

Radley Balko at Reason has a story you won't want to miss.

KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.

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Robert Chambers, convicted of the infamous New York "Preppy Murder" of Jennifer Levin, was released from prison in 2003 after serving his full 15 year sentence.

In 1986, Robert Chambers, a young and handsome guy who had dropped out of college, met Jennifer Levin, a student at an elite private high school in Manhattan, at a trendy bar on the Upper East Side. They then went to Central Park, had sex, and she ended up strangled to death. Chambers said it was an accident, they had been having consensual rough sex.

In 2005, Chambers made the news again when he was busted for cocaine residue on a straw and an empty tin foil packet found during a traffic stop.

Now, they are sending Chambers to jail for 19 years for a small time drug deal. As Anthony Papas argues, this is not a sentence for drugs, it's a second sentence for the Jennifer Levin murder. [More...]

Mississippi mayor Frank Melton has been indicted on federal civil rights violations over a crack house raid.

In August 2006, Mr. Melton and his two police bodyguards, Michael Recio and Marcus Wright, ordered the occupants out of the house at gunpoint and directed a group of youths to attack the house with sledgehammers, the indictment said. The mayor, who ran for office on an anti-crime platform, himself broke out the windows with a large stick, the indictment said.

No drugs were found in the raid. [More...]

Libertarian candidate for President Bob Barr has written his first post at Huffington Post. He says he was wrong about the war on drugs. He now realizes it has been a failure.

I'll admit it, just five years ago I was "Public Enemy Number 1" in the eyes of the Libertarian Party. In my 2002 congressional race for Georgia's Seventh District, the Libertarian Party ran scathing attack ads against my stand on Medical Marijuana.

....For years, I served as a federal prosecutor and member of the House of Representatives defending the federal pursuit of the drug prohibition.

Today, I can reflect on my efforts and see no progress in stopping the widespread use of drugs. I'll even argue that America's drug problem is larger today than it was when Richard Nixon first coined the phrase, "War on Drugs," in 1972.

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I noticed a lot of drug warriors on tv yesterday talking about a bust in San Diego. I'm not sure why that's such big news. What should be news is this drug war outrage in Arkansas.

Excellent news...Congress cut funding for Byrne Grants and local cops say the war on drugs will suffer.

Congress in January cut funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant by two-thirds, from $520 million to $170 million for fiscal 2008. Local agencies say that's a threat to the officers who do much of the law enforcement spadework.

One of the results of Byrne Grants: Tulia, Texas.

Best-known is a case in Tulia, Texas, where a 1999 Byrne-funded investigation led to the cocaine arrests of 46 people, most of them black, on evidence so flimsy that 38 were pardoned by Gov. Rick Perry in 2003. The undercover agent responsible for the arrests was convicted of perjury and the defendants got a $5 million settlement from the state.

The Texas ACLU has identified more than a dozen other Byrne-funded operations it says were abusive and several other states have investigated similar complaints. Texas has imposed strict limits on Byrne-funded drug task forces.

The meth busters are upset. They probably don't need to worry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will help them out. They support Byrne Grants. Here's record on anti-meth bills. Of course, the problem with these meth bills is they end up increasing the supply from Mexico. [More...]

New in Rolling Stone, Ben Wallace-Wells has a six page article on How America Lost the Drug War.

Last week, Columnist Froma Harrop exposed the failure of the war on drugs.

If two people do it, is it a movement?

Providence, Rhode Island columnist Froma Harrop today exposes some of the statistics from the War on Drugs, calling it a failure:

Since it started in 1970, American law enforcement has arrested 38 million people for nonviolent drug offenses, nearly 2 million last year alone. The number of people jailed for violent crimes has risen 300 percent, but the prison population of nonviolent drug offenders has soared 2,558 percent.

The culprit, as Harrop says, is mandatory minimum sentences. [More...]

First the cheers. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has declared the war on drugs a failure.

"If you want to get serious, if you want to reduce crime by 70% in this country overnight, end this war on drugs," he told reporters at City Hall on Thursday. "You want to get serious, seriously serious about crime and violence end this war on drugs."

The mayor maintained local jails are overcrowded with people incarcerated for drug offenses, taking up room that could be used to hold more violent criminal offenders. He said violent criminals with lengthy felony records are being turned loose, too often.

San Francisco Sheriff San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey agrees with him.

Now the jeers. San Francisco is initiating a program of busting the homeless on "quality of life" crimes.

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