Executions for Drug Crimes Are Resumed in Indonesia - NYTimes.com
JAKARTA, Indonesia — This country has resumed executions for serious drug crimes after a four-year hiatus, and Indonesia’s attorney general has warned drug offenders on death row that their executions may now be accelerated.

The resumption follows a decision last year by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court that upheld the death penalty for serious drug offenses.

Two Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were the first to be executed for drug crimes after the long break. The two, Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, were put to death on June 26.

All executions in Indonesia are by firing squad. Prisoners are taken to a field to stand in front of 12 men who each fire one shot aimed at the chest. If that barrage does not kill the prisoner, a commander stands ready to fire a point-blank shot to the head.

…Last October, the Constitutional Court ruled that a constitutional amendment upholding the right to life did not apply to capital punishment. The court added that the right to life had to be balanced against the rights of the victims of drug trafficking.

Indonesia executed the two Nigerians on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, as a message to those trafficking drugs through the country.

Indonesia is fighting an epidemic of drug abuse. Its population of 238 million includes an estimated 18 million addicts, according to the Ministry of Health.

I’d be interested to know who the Ministry of Health counts as “addicts”, because we’re talking about 7.5% of the population (probably more if we factor out children, since it’s mostly the teen and young adult population we’re talking about.)  Here in the US, where we have no death penalty for drug trafficking, government surveys show 20 million Americans used any illicit drug in the past month.  You couldn’t call them all addicts, though, considering only 9½ million used something other than marijuana. I’ll bet what Indonesia are calling addicts are mostly just users.

Even if we go with the Indonesian figure of 7.5% of their population, it’s interesting to note the US figure of past-month drug users is 8.3%, and that’s only 8.3% of the population aged 12 and over.  So even with a death penalty for drug trafficking, Indonesia has about the same rate of drug users as the United States.

Officers, dogs searching for two suspects who fled deadly pot raid in Saratoga hills - San Jose Mercury News
In a wild turn of events in what was expected to be a routine pot farm eradication today, state and local officers encountered three armed men, killing one and chasing two through heavily wooded canyons in the Saratoga hills.

Dozens of officers and three K-9 dog teams were still searching in the evening for the two men in a wooded area near Peach Hill and Villa Montalvo.

Only the sketchiest picture of what happened during the raid was available because the officers involved in the shooting were still being interviewed: Deputies and state drug officers saw the three armed men when they hiked into the pot farm, shots were fired and one man was killed.

“We don’t know who shot who and who shot first,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Lt. Dalia Rodriguez. “We won’t know that until we get the ballistics tests back; it could very well be a cross fire.”

After the shooting, the sheriff’s department activated its emergency response team, which drew in officers from several other police agencies, including San Jose, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View and California Fish & Game.

The alert brought 80 officers to the scene, who secured the area and started searching for the two men.

“I didn’t expect somebody was going to get killed,” Stone said. “But that’s the way it happens with these guys. They hear somebody coming and they bolt off.”

Today’s fatal shooting during a raid on a Santa Cruz Mountains pot farm is the second in recent years.

In 2005, Armando Quintana Aguilar, 33, of East Palo Alto was shot and killed by Santa Clara County sheriff deputies in an exchange of gunfire after authorities raided a marijuana farm above Los Gatos.

A state Fish and Game warden was also shot in the legs during the incident.

In 2005, CAMP (California’s “Campaign Against Marijuana Planting”) uprooted 540,989 plants and killed a man.  In 2006, CAMP uprooted 1,675,681 plants.  In 2008, they’ve killed another man and certainly uprooted another few million plants.  And yet, about 2.3 million Californians still regularly smoke pot!  And people still plant millions of plants illegally on public and private land!

You know what you never find growing illegally on public or private land?  Hops, grapes, and tobacco.  Nobody ever gets shot garding a hops plantation, a tobacco farm, or vineyard.

FOXNews.com - Maryland State Trooper Charged With Growing Marijuana - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
WOODSBORO, Md. — A Maryland state trooper has been charged with manufacturing a controlled substance after police found a cultivated marijuana plant growing outside his home.

State Police spokesman Gregory Shipley says Trooper First Class Steven Spoonire was suspended without pay after his arrest Wednesday night. The 36-year-old trooper is a 16-year veteran road patrol officer, working out of Westminster.

Shipley says the plant, less than 2 feet tall, was found growing just outside the back door of a house in Woodsboro where Spoonire lives with his wife and two stepchildren. He says investigators also found marijuana seeds and drug paraphernalia inside the home.

Spoonire is also charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He was released on his own recognizance.

Now the question is, just how many cannabis consumers did this guy bust in his 16 years of patrolling?  They should all be released on their own recognizance, too.

In Maryland, the potential sentence for manufacture of less than 50lbs. of a controlled substance is 5 years and a $15,000 fine.  And Woodsboro is just a sliver of a town outside of Washington, DC, with one little school (according to Google Earth) and almost all its homes within 1000′ of it (see map after jump).  Trooper Spoonire better hope that his house isn’t in that 1000′ circle or he’s subject to 20 years and a $20,000 fine.

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Medical IDs for Marijuana Wait for Ruling - Health - redOrbit
Jul. 9–Fresno County officials want a state appeals court to rule on identification cards for medical marijuana users before deciding whether the county should start distributing them.

The state started asking counties to issue ID cards to medical marijuana users in 2005, nearly a decade after voters approved such use in a statewide initiative.

Forty of the state’s 58 counties issue ID cards, which certify that a doctor has prescribed the drug.

Several medical marijuana users on Tuesday asked Fresno County supervisors to issue the cards. Some of them said they’ve been needlessly detained by law enforcement officials, while others said they fear arrest.

Dawn Nolan of Fresno said she has been using marijuana following a 2002 crash with a drunken driver. Now disabled, Nolan worries about driving home after purchasing marijuana in Tulare County. “I don’t want to see anyone arrested for something they need,” she said.

But Sheriff Margaret Mims asked supervisors to hold off on a decision until the appeals court rules. She said issuing the cards might encourage medical marijuana users to drive under the influence of the drug.

Now that’s an interesting criticism - If you give someone an identification card it will lead to DUIs.  Here in Oregon, we have a statewide mandatory registration card system and over 20,000 registered patients.  In 1998, when the program started, Oregon had 538 driving fatalities, 233 were alcohol-related.  In 2006, those numbers had dropped to 477 driving fatalities, with 177 alcohol-related.  In 1998 there were a total of 22,578 DUII arrests in Oregon; in 2005 the number had dropped to 19,521.  There are no statistics specifically for DUIMJ that I could find, but if giving 20,000 people medical marijuana ID cards is leading to more DUIIs and deaths, then DUIIs and deaths from alcohol must have dramatically plummeted.

Raw Replay - Revisiting History
WKRN News 2 reports that “the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating after video shot from inside a Mount Joliet patrol car shows an officer choking a suspect.”

In the video, the officer has both hands around the neck of the suspect and is telling him to “stick your tongue out.” The suspect, James Anders, then passes out.

According to WKRN, “The incident began with a traffic stop. Officer Cosby said he smelled burning marijuana, ordered Anders out of the car and told him to spit out something he had in his mouth. … Cosby didn’t find any marijuana in Anders’ mouth but did find a small bag of the drug inside his car.”

Anders was arrested on charges of possessing marijuana, resisting arrest, and tampering with evidence. The charges were later dismissed because of the police officer’s behavior. Cosby was reprimanded and the tape was handed over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

This video is from WKRN News 2, broadcast July 1, 2008.

In the video you can hear the officer say, “It’s for your own good to prevent you from having an overdose.”  Well, thank goodness we have cops choking people to the point of unconsciousness to protect them from the non-existent danger of overdosing on a mouthful of marijuana!  The cop knew that the man had weed on him from the smell of the marijuana and he had no reason to suspect the man was trying to swallow any other drugs.  The cop just wanted an easier arrest and more charges, but ended up finding nothing in his mouth and then loses the whole case for misconduct.

Your tax dollars hard at work.

FRESNO, Calif. — The Fresno County Board of Supervisors will conduct a public hearing on the local implementation of the statewide Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program, 9 a.m., July 8, in the County Board Chambers in the Hall of Records at 2281 Tulare St.

Although 40 California counties have implemented the program – including Merced, Tulare, Inyo and San Benito as well as Los Angeles, Orange and Kern – Fresno has yet to act.

Aaron Smith, California organizer for the Marijuana Policy Project, noted that the program – mandated by a state law that went into effect in 2004 – benefits law enforcement by removing the burden of verifying patient documentation from officers on the street. The ID card provides a means for local peace officers to easily identify bona fide medical marijuana patients during enforcement stops.

“We are merely calling on the Board of Supervisors to follow existing state law so that suffering patients like Diana do not have to live in fear of false arrest at the expense of local taxpayers,” Smith said. “It is the duty of the county’s leaders to protect their most vulnerable citizens and to make the jobs of local law enforcement easier by providing them with all the tools available. This program is a major step in the right direction.”

To help educate the community about this and other medical marijuana issues facing Fresno, MPP will host a free screening of the award-winning medical marijuana documentary “Waiting to Inhale,” followed by a panel discussion, July 7, at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 2672 E. Alluvial Ave., in Clovis.

I’m coming at you from Oregon, where our medical marijuana law requires an ID card for all patients, caregivers (I’m one), and growers.  California has mandated that all counties offer an ID card program, but participation in the program is optional.

I guess I don’t understand why Californians would not want a mandatory, statewide ID card system.  I hear the complaint, “I don’t want to be on some government list!”  Well, do you have a Social Security Number?  Then you’re already on a government list!

I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was the first time my caregiver card meant something to me.  I was transporting two fairly-bushy four-foot plants to one of our cardholder meetings.  They were covered with thin white plastic garbage bags, but with the light streaming through you could make out the silhouette of some fine Oregon cannabis.

I looked into my rearview and there was one of Portland’s finest tailing me.  I got that initial adrenaline rush all us stoners get when there is suddenly a cop driving behind you, especially when you’re carrying ounces of ganja.  Then I remembered, “Hey, I’ve got a caregiver card.  If he pulls be over, I just show him my license, registration, insurance, and caregiver card and I’m driving away scot-free!”  The panic subsided.  The cop never pulled me over.  But that feeling of relief definitely trumps any sort of paranoid thought I ever had about being on some “gub’mint list”.

A Stash reader sent me a tip to this conversation going on at Officer.com.  It’s a message board for law enforcement types.  Let’s see what those who protect and serve have to say about marijuana prohibition…

Decriminalization of marijuana - Police Forums & Law Enforcement Forums @ Officer.com
Theres a bill in my states senate(NH), that will turn possession of smaller amounts of herb into a violation offense for first timers. Violations in this state are punishable by up to $1000 fines, no jail time.

My true feeling in this issue is I think I support it. Marijuana use is prevalent in my state and when someone is arrested for it they usually get a fine and no jail time. Unfortunately, the cost to the state/tax payers for having the evidence scientifically verified, the time the officer takes in paper work, the time the prosecutor takes to prepare the case and then the court time on top of this adds up to more then what the fine usually is. Then the person arrested usually continues using anyways.

Sometimes I wish the state would legalize and tax the heck out of it, wiping out the dealers and the money going out of the country to what ever operations are growing it. So instead of spending billions on marijuana education/prevention and prosecuting, the country would go into the black on this issue. It feels so useless when you take a dealer from the area, and two more pop in there place. The people that want to buy seem to find someone else thats willing to sell it when their dealer goes in for time.

I know the downfalls or worries of marijuana use possibly leading to harder drugs, but I know from my own experience I would rather deal with a stoned person than a drunk. They seem so peaceful, happy, paranoid, and just about always passive

Don’t worry, officer, everybody knows that “marijuana gateway drug” stuff is nonsense.  The only gateway is forcing a law-abiding cannabis consumer to purchase from a drug dealer who has other products to sell, too.  Odd, this police officer seems perfectly reasonable.  Let’s dig deeper, shall we?

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Government releases list of items seized in drug raids | The Eureka Reporter
A week after marijuana, cash and weapons were seized from nearly 30 locations in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, a laundry list of those items has been released by a federal government agency.

Federal Bureau of Investigations Special Agent Joseph Schadler said Tuesday that nearly 16,000 pot plants, nearly $200,000 in cash, 53 guns, two vehicles, five generators, a trailer and five all-terrain vehicles were seized from the grow houses, homes and a nearly 2,000-acre land parcel between both counties that were searched last week.

About 450 federal, state and local law enforcement personnel working what was dubbed “Operation Southern Sweep” targeted an alleged commercial marijuana growing and dealing operation that’s been under investigation since early 2006.

No charges have yet been filed against any suspects and besides a man who was arrested June 24 on suspicion of assaulting a federal agent during the execution of the search warrants, no one has been arrested. The man has since been released and isn’t facing charges, Schadler said.

“We’re in the truth-finding business,” the FBI special agent said. “If we collect evidence and there’s nothing there, nobody will be charged. I don’t suspect that will be the case, but that’s always a possibility.”

450 law enforcement agents from multiple agencies… wow, that’s got to cost a whole bunch, I imagine.  Plus add in all that helicopter time, various support vehicles, and all the ancillary expenses like cataloging and storing evidence.  And after all of that time and effort, no arrests and no charges.

I wonder how else we could have spent that government time and money in Northern California this week?

The U.S. Forest Service did not meet its own deadline to have 252 fully staffed fire engines available statewide by June 22, leaving Inland forests potentially shorthanded going into the summer.

As of Monday, more than a week after that target date, the agency remained 29 engines short of that goal, or almost 12 percent, spokesman John Heil said. He could provide no explanation.

“We’re not prepared to get into that now,” Heil said, noting that the agency was busy battling hundreds of fires in California.

Cities and counties all over the state have sent fire engines and crews to battle the blazes in Northern and Central California.

The fires, sparked by thousands of lightning strikes, covered more than 334,000 acres, primarily in the north half of the state, he said.

To help fight the blazes and fill the void left by unavailable engines, many Southern California-based Forest Service engines have been sent north, leaving area forests with fewer resources.

While parts of the Northern California forest are burning down, 450 government agents were sneaking around other parts of those forests to rip up cannabis plants.

Nation & World | 24-ounce limit proposed for medical marijuana | Seattle Times Newspaper
Patients authorized to possess or grow marijuana for medical reasons under Washington law would be limited to 24 ounces of harvested marijuana, plus six mature plants and 18 immature plants, according to an official draft rule filed by the state Department of Health today.

The filing of the draft rule starts a rule-making process and a public-comment period. A hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 25 in Tumwater, Thurston County.

The draft reduces amounts earlier considered by the health department and revealed in a “talking points” memo used to brief Gov. Christine Gregoire in February. Health-department officials said in the February memo that they planned to recommend 35 ounces of harvested marijuana plus 100 square feet of plant-growing area.

Gregoire’s staff told health-department officials the amount appeared to be on the high side, and that law enforcement and medical providers should be consulted. The health department convened an advisory panel consisting mainly of law-enforcement officials and a single doctor — a public-health HIV/AIDS expert who does not care for patients directly.

Law-enforcement officials have said their main concern is being able to distinguish legitimate patients from those who are hiding behind the law to grow and sell large amounts of marijuana. They said they consider 3 ounces a reasonable amount for the 60-day supply specified in Washington’s law, passed by voters in 1998.

That law allows patients with certain chronic, fatal or debilitating diseases to possess a 60-day supply with a doctor’s authorization.

The 24-ounce limit would put Washington State in line with Oregon’s medical marijuana limit.  I also am glad to see Washington moving toward defining a plant-canopy limit rather than a plant-count limit.  There are so many varieties of marijuana and so many growing methods that the harvest from one person’s six plants could be far greater than another person’s plants.  Or as an attorney at the Aspen NORML Legal Seminar remarked, “It’s like asking how much does ten dogs weigh?”  Someone could harvest at their plant limit, but be way under or way over their dried medicine possession limit.

Anything would be better than the ambiguous 60-day supply, especially with law enforcement putting on their stethoscopes and declaring that a patient only needs three ounces for two months.

Town Finds Drug Agent Is Really an Impostor - NYTimes.com
GERALD, Mo. — Like so many rural communities in the country’s middle, this tiny town had wrestled for years with the woes of methamphetamine. Then, several months ago, a federal agent showed up.

Busts began. Houses were ransacked. People, in handcuffs on their front lawns, named names. To some, like Mayor Otis Schulte, who considers the county around Gerald, population 1,171, “a meth capital of the United States,” the drug scourge seemed to be fading at last.

Those whose homes were searched, though, grumbled about a peculiar change in what they understood, from television mainly, to be the law.

They said the agent, a man some had come to know as “Sergeant Bill,” boasted that he did not need search warrants to enter their homes because he worked for the federal government.

I know after all of this USA PATRIOT Act and FISA wrangling by the administration and congress it can be difficult to remember exactly what tiny shreds of the 4th Amendment we still have in place, but I think “search warrants to physically enter homes” still applies.

But after a reporter for the local weekly newspaper made a few calls about that claim, Gerald’s anti-drug campaign abruptly unraveled after less than five months. Sergeant Bill, it turned out, was no federal agent, but Bill A. Jakob, an unemployed former trucking company owner, a former security guard, a former wedding-performing minister, a former small-town cop from 23 miles down the road.

Mr. Jakob, 36, is now the subject of a criminal investigation by federal authorities, and is likely to face charges related to impersonating a law enforcement officer, his lawyer said.

The strange adventures of Sergeant Bill have led to the firing of three of the town’s five police officers, left the outcome of a string of drug arrests in doubt, prompted multimillion-dollar federal civil rights lawsuits by at least 17 plaintiffs and stirred up a political battle, including a petition seeking the impeachment of Mr. Schulte, over who is to blame for the mess.

And the questions keep coming. How did Mr. Jakob wander into town and apparently leave the mayor, the aldermen and pretty much everyone else he met thinking that he was a federal agent delivered from Washington to help barrel into peoples’ homes and clean up Gerald’s drug problem? And why would anyone — receiving no pay and with no known connection to little Gerald, 70 miles from St. Louis and not even a county seat — want to carry off such a time-consuming ruse in the first place?

Why?  Because people of small character and low self-worth enjoy playing tough guy.  It’s the same guy who would go to great extremes as a kid to bully other kids.  This “Sergeant Bill” pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual abuse of a teen girl when he was 22 (another type of bullying), has failed in his business pursuits, and has played small-town cop before, but never long enough to have been state certified.  He’s a puffed-up loser who gets his kicks thinking he’s some vigilante superhero ridding the world of the drug scourge.  He needs to feel superior and righteous and what better underclass to bully than the reviled meth zombies?  He’s just another pompous, arrogant, self-aggrandizing, cruel, mendacious, predatory, sanctimonious, reprobate drug warrior - who failed to qualify for a badge first.

The Drug Enforcement Administration was created by President Richard Nixon through an Executive Order [on] July [1,] 1973 in order to establish a single unified command to combat “an all-out global war on the drug menace.” At its outset, the DEA had 1,470 Special Agents and a budget of less than $75 million. Furthermore, in 1974, the DEA had 43 foreign offices in 31 countries. Today, the DEA has 5,235 Special Agents, a budget of more than $2.3 billion and 86 foreign offices in 62 countries.

So the DEA turns thirty-five this week. That deserves a special celebration.  Let’s bust out our handy-dandy calculator and the official government stats.  Time to play Rate the DEA!

Today the DEA has twice the offices in twice the countries with four times the manpower than when it started thirty-five years ago.  In 1973, the DEA had $0.075 billion to work with; today you have $2.3 billion.  That’s an increase of 3,067%, or a dramatic thirty-fold increase.  Just what have the American People received for this $31.4 billion dollar, thirty-five year investment?

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This reporting courtesy of Loretta Nall with Alabamians for Compassionate Care.  You can follow this story ate her blog, NallForGovernor.blogspot.com.

On March 3, 2008 John Alexander Rochester, son of 40th Circuit Court Judge John Rochester, was arrested at the Ashland City Park in Ashland, AL for possession of meth, first degree possession of marijuana, trafficking cocaine, possession of paraphernalia, distribution of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance.

Judge Rochester is legendary for harshly sentencing drug offenders who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in his courtroom.  And Judge Rochester always drug tests defendants before the trial. Lines them up like cattle and demands their bodily fluids in hopes of bypassing that pesky thing known as a trial by jury.

Judge Rochester doesn’t believe in drug treatment before prison. In fact, one of his favorite sayings is, “There’s a SAP program in prison” whenever a lawyer asks that their client be allowed to attend treatment. SAP stands for substance abuse program.

John Alexander Rochester spent 20 days in the Ashland jail and was then bonded out by his mother for a total of $20,000 and whisked away to treatment in Mississippi to await the next convening of the grand jury in Clay County.

The judge who set the bonds is Judge George C. Simpson, the district court Judge in Clay County, which means he is subordinate to Judge Rochester and good friends with him to boot. …In at least two cases John Alexander Rochester’s bond was half (or less) what other people charged with the same crime had to pay.

Additionally, John Alexander Rochester should have enhancements added to his sentence because he was selling drugs at the city park… The only catch is that the prosecutor has to ask that these additional penalties be imposed.

And the reason I have to post edited portions of an email sent to me by Loretta, rather than linking and pasting from an Alabama media story on John Alexander Rochester, is because the media in Alabama have all but been silent on the story of a prominent judge’s son being busted near children in a park on multiple felony charges involving trafficking and three different drugs.

1 arrested in beachside grow house sting | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
One man is being held at the Brevard County jail this afternoon after Brevard County Sheriff’s Office agents armed with search warrants uncovered four grow houses on Merritt Island, Satellite Beach and Indialantic.

Sheriff’s spokesman Andrew Walters said David Tobias, age and address unavailable, was charged early today after search warrants were served on three suspected grow houses. Walters said the investigation stemmed from a resident’s complaint about a week ago of suspicious activity at one of the homes involved.

In the course of the investigation, sheriff’s agents found there was another grow house Tobias is accused of operating in Indialantic. The home at 370 Rio Lane is owned by owned by Stephen Blythe, who is a candidate for a congressional seat held by Rep. Dave Weldon, who is not seeking re-election.

Contacted this afternoon by FLORIDA TODAY, Blythe said he was surprised, and had not heard from authorities.

Walters said the investigation is ongoing and other arrests are pending. No charges are pending against Blythe, but others may be charged in the course of the investigation.

Blythe said he was renting the property out to a James McJunkin. It doesn’t appear McJunkin lives in the home, authorities said. Walters said the layout is consistent with the other grow houses with the equipment and materials involved.

“I guess anybody can get caught up in this,” Blythe said. “Anybody who has a rental property.”

Agents seized several vehicles, including a Chevy Chevelle registered to Tobias parked in the garage of the home owned by Blythe.

This story follows the passage of the new Florida grow house law that makes it a second-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants in a home. But also included in the law is a “third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison to own a house where marijuana is being cultivated, packaged and distributed.” Apparently the prosecutors don’t see the need to charge the Florida Democratic Congressional Candidate with a third-degree felony.

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Seized pot worth $25M to $60M - Times-Standard Online
Federal agents who served warrants on properties across Humboldt and into Northern Mendocino County have begun the process of sifting through the massive amount of evidence seized during Tuesday’s marijuana raids, with the plants alone worth an estimated $25 million to $60 million.

Estimates produced by the FBI indicate authorities seized more than 10,000 marijuana plants, one vehicle, computers, more than $160,000 in cash and 30 firearms, including shotguns, handguns and fully automatic weapons.

Wow, that’s weird.  For a minute there, I thought Americans had the right to own vehicles, computers, cash, and firearms.  You’ll always notice how law enforcement emphasizes the firearms netted in these marijuana raids, because they need to scare the public with the unspoken assumption that somehow these marijuana growers are violent criminals.  Those firearms are used in self-defense, since a marijuana grower can’t exactly call the cops if thugs try to steal the marijuana.

Officials stressed from the outset of the operation that 215 patients and medical marijuana dispensaries would not be targeted by the warrants.

In a prepared statement released Wednesday by the FBI, Special Agent in Charge Charlene Thornton, said, “This is not a medical marijuana operation or a group of people growing for personal use. The targets of our investigation are reaping huge profits while contributing to the crime and violence oppressing communities across the state.”

No, the prohibition of marijuana is contributing to crime and violence and allowing growers to reap huge profits.

And as for that promise that they weren’t going after Prop 215 patients?

A Sunny Brea man, whose residence was the target of a warrant Tuesday, said agents raided his house by mistake, and confiscated about 35 marijuana plants he said he was growing under 215 regulations.

The man, who would not give his name, said about 10 agents knocked on his door in the morning and showed him the warrant.

”It was a warrant for someone who wasn’t there, who I presume was connected to this (commercial growing) deal,” he said. “The FBI stressed that they weren’t there for the small 215 garden. They found them, and they said they had to take them, and we didn’t contest it.”

So much for that promise.

Macon radio host says he’s been suspended after marijuana arrest
Macon radio talk show host Shayne McBryde said he’s been suspended indefinitely from his job at WMAC News Talk 940 pending an internal corporate investigation.

McBryde, 37, said he met with Cumulus Broadcasting representatives Wednesday morning after being arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession about noon Tuesday.

McBryde said he was “at the wrong place at the wrong time” when police knocked on the door of a Center Street residence after smelling burning marijuana Tuesday.

An officer responding to a report of a man with a gun on Center Street about 12:15 p.m. Tuesday couldn’t find the man, but the officer smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from 982 Center St., according to a Macon police report.

The officer knocked on the door, and the homeowner agreed to a search of the residence, according to the report.

Seven people inside denied having any marijuana, but when told that a drug-sniffing dog was on the way, McBryde admitted having a small bag of marijuana, according to the report.

Officers say another person there admitted to smoking marijuana.

McBryde was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, while the other six people - including the home owner - were cited for being present where drugs are kept, used or sold, according to the report.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Melanie Hofmann said McBryde had less than an ounce of marijuana.

He was released from the Bibb County jail late Tuesday afternoon on $390 bond, according to jail records.

Sigh.

OK, Stashers, let us all learn from the lesson of Shayne McBride and that stupid homeowner.  Repeat after me:

• “I’m sorry officer, I really can’t let you into my home without a valid search warrant.”
• “Officer, I do not consent to any searches.”

I know it can be intimidating when a cop knocks on your door.  But if you’ve got people inside smoking pot, letting that officer in your home is a guarantee that someone is going to jail.  You have nothing to lose by asserting your 4th Amendment rights - step outside your door, close it behind you, and politely tell them they cannot enter without a warrant.  Your refusal to allow a warrantless search is not sufficient for the probable cause they’d need to enter without it.  The smell of burning marijuana coming from your home might be enough for them to get a warrant, but that’s a big pain in the ass for them, and they may not want to wake up a judge for what may be a small misdemeanor amount of marijuana.

But suppose the homeowner lets the cops in and you’re holding the bag.  Refuse to consent to any searches.  Don’t just admit to possession and make their job easy.  They threaten to bring the drug dogs?  Fine, if they find the weed on you, you’re no more or less busted than you would have been if you voluntarily showed them your weed.  Refusal to consent to a search is not going to make your charges any worse - you’re not resisting arrest, you’re asserting your rights.

As for the radio deejay, look, if Cumulus Broadcasting wants to remove all of its employees who smoke weed, there is going to be a lot of dead air on that station…

[Charles] Monson, 45, was paralyzed in 1979 when he and a friend decided to go for a swim. “I dove under a wave, hit a shallow spot and broke my neck,” Monson recalls. “I was paralyzed instantly and was floating face-down.”

Monson, who is confined to a wheelchair and has lost most of the use of his hands, tried to remain active. Nevertheless, he says he lives in constant pain and discomfort.

“My brain isn’t able to constantly able to monitor the muscles in my legs,” he says. “Any little stimulus like being touched or moving my wheelchair or sitting still for a while and then moving will trigger a muscle spasm, big ones, that will yank my body to the side.”

As a result, Monson was chronically sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep behind the wheel of his specially equipped van. Doctors prescribed muscle relaxants and various other seizure medications, but Monson says he didn’t like the side effects.

“I had tried Valium, Baclofen, Gabapentin. That gave me a sense of not being sharp in my mind and just feeling kind of woozy,” Monson says. “I tried Marinol, which is synthetic marijuana. It’s very hard to dose. It’s either not very effective, or when it gets to the point of being effective, you’re loopy.”

Monson says a friend recommended marijuana in the 1980s and after trying it, he said he found relief: “I smoked it in bed and I slept better than I ever had. The other thing that makes cannabis so much more effective than any other of the spasticity drugs is that it allows me rather than just treating my spasticity to manage it.”

So naturally, on October 30, 2007 at 7am, police were dispatched to the home of this legal California medical marijuana patient, armed with assault rifles and bullet-proof vests, handcuffing this quadriplegic man and his care provider, and ransacking the house to discover 16 plants, 2½ ounces of medicine, and an elaborate grow system. After confiscating it all as evidence, the district attorney declined to prosecute the case.

Now Charles Monson can add post traumatic stress to his list of ailments, as the raid so terrified him that he refuses to grow again until his case is resolved. He fortunately has the assistance of a local dispensary, Nature’s Wellness, which itself was raided by the DEA back in March.

If only the Orange police department would get the message that the district attorney clearly has: the people of California passed Prop 215 partially because they thought SWAT team raids on quadriplegics were cruel and unnecessary.

Judge dismisses woman’s religious drug-use argument- al.com

BAY MINETTE [AL] — Brenda Shoop said Thursday that she grew up in a Southern Baptist church. In recent years, she has struggled to find the spiritual fulfillment she has been looking for while exploring other denominations. Her religious belief and understanding, however, hit a turning point in nursing school when she read about marijuana’s disassociation side effect, she said.

That side effect, she said, helped her get closer to God as it quieted all the voices in her head and helped her “rise above the mundane and see that you are part of a bigger picture.”

The Shoops argued that since their arrest [for growing 28 marijuana plants in their back yard] they have started a ministry in their Robertsdale home and serve as missionaries for Universal Orthodox Church, which is based in Atlanta. The Christian denomination believes marijuana has biblical origins and was a key ingredient in holy anointing oil of Moses and the christening oil of Jesus Christ, according to testimony and court documents.

The Shoops’ attorneys also argued that they were protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Alabama Religious Freedom Amendment because their religion mandates the cultivation and consumption of cannabis.

Baldwin County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Murray, however, successfully argued that while the Shoops may have believed marijuana was a key part of their relationship with God, they didn’t get involved with the church until after they were arrested.

“A belief under law is not a religion,” Murray said.

[Judge] Wilters agreed. He also said that if the court gave the religious protection argument credence it could promote drug abuse.

It would also be difficult to determine whether drugs were being used for religious purposes or illegally, Wilters said

That would require pre-World War II measures, the judge said, such as when Germany required Jews to wear the Star of David.

“I don’t think this county wants to consent to doing something such as that,” Wilters said.

I think this is the first time someone has ever invoked the Nazis to explain why we can’t have a religious right to use cannabis.    I guess the judge imagines that to separate the acceptable decent religious users from the reprehensible evil recreational users we’d have to make the religious wear a big pot leaf signifying their beliefs.  Hey, if it kept me from ever being arrested or pee-tested for weed, I’d be glad to slap a pot leaf on my jacket!

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act recognized the right of certain native tribal religions to use hallucinogens that have long traditions within their church.  There is a complicated series of tests that courts use to determine if the religious practice is “sincere” and to date, nobody has successfully passed those tests for a marijuana-using religion.  (Despite the assertions of certain “THC ministries” that sell you a $250 “get out of jail free” kit supposedly proving your religious use of cannabis, all a religious argument for cannabis use will get you in court is plenty of time in a cell to read your holy book.)

That’s not to say there isn’t truly legitimate religious use of cannabis as a sacrament - I know plenty of sincere religious practitioners (Eddy Lepp comes to mind) using cannabis to further their understanding of their God.  But they are never going to get the consideration that the ayahusca-using tribes got from the courts, because, frankly, there are just too damn many of us smoking weed and the courts know a religious-use decision opens the floodgates to every cannabis smoker suddenly gettin’ religion.  There will always be some technicality (or just outright judicial malfeasance) to prevent the cases from going forward.

There is a strange series of cases in Ontario, Canada, that call into question whether marijuana possession is truly illegal in the Great White North.

Clifford Long’s constitutional saga began in September 2005 when he was a passenger in a car stopped by police for a seatbelt infraction.

The officers conducted a search, allegedly found $40 worth of marijuana and Long joined the ranks of the more than 40,000 people still charged each year across Canada for simple possession of cannabis.

Long was acquitted in July 2007 when provincial court Justice Howard Borenstein accepted an argument by Long’s lawyer that Canada’s marijuana possession laws were unconstitutional because of flaws in the medical marijuana regulations.

Earlier this year, a Federal Court of Canada judge also found the medical marijuana regulations to be unconstitutional, a decision that is under appeal.

That got me to Googling, because I couldn’t figure out how a medical marijuana regulation would affect a non-medical possession case.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

MyFox Gulf Coast | Landmark bill targeting marijuana grow houses becomes law
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Attorney General Bill McCollum announced Tuesday that the Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act has been signed into law, giving Florida’s prosecutors and law enforcement essential tools to combat for-profit growers of marijuana.

The new law, sponsored by Senator Steve Oelrich (R-Gainesville) and Representative Nick Thompson (R-Ft. Myers), passed as House Bill 173 during the 2008 Legislative Session and was signed into law by Governor Charlie Crist Tuesday. The bill was developed because of the increasing number of grow houses operating in the state and violent crime which tend to be associated with these operations.

The new law makes it a second-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants, targeting for-profit growers who exploit Florida’s previous threshold of 300 plants. The law will also make it a third-degree felony to own a house for the purpose of cultivating, packaging and distributing marijuana and a first-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants in a home with children present.

Other important aspects of the law will provide substantial benefits to Florida’s law enforcement community. Previously, law enforcement around the state were required to store cumbersome grow house equipment in order to preserve it as evidence.

To address this growing storage burden, the new law allows a photograph or video recording of equipment used in the cultivation of a marijuana plant to be considered as evidence in the prosecution of the crime. The law will also allow law enforcement to destroy grow house equipment upon the completion of all investigations and provides immunity from any civil liability to law enforcement for the destruction of the grow house equipment.

The Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act goes into effect on July 1, 2008.

Well, then, that should do it.  Now nobody in Florida will ever exploit the profit potential of owning a suburban marijuana grow house.  Now that it is a second-degree felony, the camouflage of an unassuming suburban home won’t be enticing to a commercial grower who can produce enough profit in one crop to buy the house outright.

And the marijuana smokers in Florida, now that this law has passed, will curb their demand for fine suburban grow house marijuana.  That way, when some of the more timid growers get out of the business, the price won’t increase due to supply and demand, and the growers who do remain won’t earn an even healthier profit.

Certainly, we won’t see any unintended consequences of this bill, like perhaps an increase in violence when grow house owners have nothing to lose and decide to shoot their way out of a raid.  It’s not likely that as competition for grow houses grows that an organized criminal gang finds a way to control that market.  And since Florida doesn’t have medical marijuana, there couldn’t be any patients there growing over 24 plants just to keep themselves alive.

Examining the US-Mexico Gun Trade - International Business News - Portfolio.com
When Americans think about the border, they tend to picture undocumented workers or clandestine river crossings. They don’t think about war. But what’s happening in Mexico now is a war—no other word seems suitable—and the most gruesome battles are taking place within miles of the U.S.?So far this year, more than 1,350 people have been murdered in drug-trafficking-related crimes in Mexico. Last year, according to tallies kept by Mexican newspapers, 2,500 people died; since 2001, the number is close to 10,000—twice the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These killings have become such an everyday part of life that there’s a special word for them: narcoejecuciones, or narcoexecutions. The murdered include police, judges, prosecutors, soldiers, reporters, politicians, and innocent bystanders. Shootouts in broad daylight, mass executions, and public assassinations have become routine.

There are, in fact, two drug wars raging in Mexico. One is between drug-trafficking organizations—in particular, the Sinaloa cartel and its main rival, the Gulf cartel—over control of smuggling routes to the U.S.?The belligerence is easily understood, given the stakes. The U.S. government estimates that the cross-border drug trade was worth as much as $25 billion last year. According to Mexico’s attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, $10 billion worth of drug proceeds crosses from the U.S. into Mexico each year in the form of bulk cash.

The other war is between the government and the cartels. Mexican presidents have pledged to end trafficking before, but [President] Calderón, who took office in 2006, seems, in contrast to his predecessors, to be sincere, and his policies are having some effect. He has dispatched tens of thousands of troops, locked up hundreds of traffickers, and undertaken sweeping reforms of the police and judiciary. With each salvo, however, the violence intensifies. The wars aren’t just Mexico’s problem, either. The U.S., with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, consumes more than half of the world’s drugs; most of the marijuana and methamphetamine, much of the heroin, and 90 percent of the cocaine comes from or through Mexico. “U.S. consumers are already financing this war,” Medina Mora tells me, “only it’s on the wrong side.”

In late 2007, the Bush administration, which counts Calderón as one of its few friends in Latin America, announced the Mérida Initiative. If passed by Congress, it will provide Mexico with $1.4 billion in equipment and training over three years. But the initiative, with its unprecedented outlay of funds, is fraught with contradictions, since it would go to fight the flow of weapons coming in illegally from the U.S. More than 90 percent of the A.T.F.’s traces of guns seized in Mexico lead to the States. The Mexican ambassador recently estimated that 2,000 guns cross the border every day. Even if that figure is halved, it’s a trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

So prohibition of cannabis fuels the profit in trafficking marijuana across the border. With those profits, traffickers finance the flow of easily-purchased guns over the border. Our prohibitionary policies are funding the execution of innocent Mexicans and arming the executioners. Were it legal, Americans would buy, sell, and grow domestically and completely undercut the profits of these murderers as well as destroy much of their business. If Mexico followed suit their poor farmers could grow vast fields of industrial hemp or fine connoisseur cannabis, and some of those trafficking in the border drug war could turn into legit import/exporters.

But a prohibitionist will tell you the blood is on the hands of the US recreational marijuana smoker. Why, if only nobody smoked cannabis, nobody in Mexico would have to die! Because the prohibitionist sees the world in black and white and “Just say no” makes sense to him or her. The fact that humans used cannabis for thousands of years and will continue to use it despite all prohibitions doesn’t come up.  It’s evil and it must be eliminated, they think, and any idea of accepting evil in the name of harm reduction is unthinkable.

Besides, from a business point-of-view, unlimited funding for a project whose goal is to eliminate something that cannot be eliminated sounds like a pretty good profit-making venture for law enforcement, private prisons, and gun manufacturers.