Today’s Audio Stash features an interview with Tom Daubert, Founder and Director of Montana Patients and Families United. Tom tells us about the interesting wording of Montana’s medical marijuana law and how it protects the rights of patients on probation or parole.
For our Cannabis Science we speak with Dr. Mitch Earleywine from SUNY Albany. The good doctor exposes the frauds behind the latest report from the Centers on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) that claim the “Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed!” is driving the teenagers insane!!!
And me, I’m heading to the Central Oregon Coast! I love living close to the ocean. I’m visiting with all my extended relatives at our biennial family reunion. I just can’t wait to answer the question, “So what do you do?”
“Well, Great Aunt Millie, I read, write, and talk about marijuana…”
According to the Court of Appeals, Kyle Salters’ case involved 9.3 grams of marijuana that his girlfriend tried to bring him at Bare Hill Correctional Facility in 2003. Robert Finley had “three joints” in 2004 at Orleans Correctional Facility. Both were convicted of felonies, with Salters sentenced to two to four years and Finley to three to five years.
The court majority says the test for “dangerous contraband” is its likelihood to be used in a way that causes death, injury, escape or “other major threats” to prison safety or security.
That’s good news for any Drug War POWs whose sentences may be reduced.  But every time I report on a story of drugs in prison, it always underscores how futilely stupid the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs is at its root.
We can’t keep drugs out of our federal prisons, a place with walls and fences and dogs and guards with guns and cameras inspecting every square inch. How do you expect to keep drugs out of our country?
We can’t stop prisoners from doing drugs, people whose every movement is managed, every bedtime scheduled, every activity monitored twenty-four hours a day. How do you expect to stop a free citizen from doing drugs? (By putting him in prison, right?)
NORML’s Paul Armentano wrote a nice opinion piece in the Vallejo (CA) Times-Herald. They had written about the new record 1 in 99.1 Americans in prison figure. The first reply he got back in the comments section claims to be from a narcotics officer. It provides a great illustration of someone in the deepest throes of drug war addiction:
Let me give you a an Narcotics supervisors ideas. First, No money, aid, nothing from the U.S. to countries who allow drug manufacturing. No U.S. travel for it’s citizens to these countries (no tourists). Any country who wants our money and help MUST allow our military (narcotics officers) into it’s country to stop the manufacting of drugs if they cannot do it. This also means stopping the manufacture of drugs in Afganastand unstead of allowing it because it’s the countrys main product.
Next, in the U.S. stop wasting money on telling the kidds No to Drugs as you can see IT JUST DOES NOT WORK. Next, for any tho manufactures or sells drugs first offense 10years. Second offense Life……….3rd offense Life w/o parole. Now this is for a larger quanity. Lastly, for juveniles selling we set up a School/prison where they go for high school and have no one to sell drugs to.
Next, No drugs in prison and any Guard, Attorney, ets who is caught bringing it in gets 25 years…….No time off.
Think about this! Drugs are brought into this country with no problem yet we think small weapons of mass destruction cannot come in easily. How about spending the time, money and energy to sniff out drugs that we have on stopping the terrorists.
I could go on put there are a lot of businesses in America that do not want drugs to go away because it is American big business like oil.
Bob (Logan, IL)
First of all, no aid or tourism to any country that manufactures drugs? Since marijuana grows wild everywhere, does that mean we don’t get to travel anywhere? And then you want to use our military to invade countries that can’t wipe out a weed? Do we even have that much military?
Then you want from ten years to life with no parole for drug offenses. If you think 1 in 99.1 Americans in prison was something, if this gets enacted, it would be about one in ten. Harsher penalties do not equal less drug use. It’s not like someone about to smoke a joint thinks, well, it’s OK, I’ll only go to prison for a year. What, they raised it to ten years? Well, then, no more weed for me. One year would be OK, but ten years is ridiculous!
Finally, no drugs in prison? Excuse me while I get up off the floor from laughing. That’s already the rule and lawyers, guards, etc. who get caught bringing them in already face hard time. And the idea about the prison/school for druggie juveniles - hey, what a splendid idea! Prisons have worked so well to keep adults off of drugs that we should extend that model to our children in school.
I am excited to announce that the Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPA’s lobbying arm) is sponsoring a ballot measure in California that represents the biggest sentencing and prison reform in United States history.
The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA) is unprecedented in scope and magnitude. It will transform California’s dysfunctional, $10-billion-a-year prison system, reversing its rampant and costly expansion. NORA will, within just a few years, reduce by tens of thousands the number of people unjustly and unnecessarily incarcerated, while maintaining public safety. At the same time, it will provide a comprehensive model for a public health approach to substance use.
Success in California will transform the drug policy reform landscape nationwide!
At a time when one in 100 adult Americans is in prison, California faces a prison overcrowding crisis that may be the worst in the nation. The system is at 175% of capacity. This is due in large part to excessive incarceration of nonviolent offenders, many of whom are drug law violators. Overcrowding has been exacerbated by the state’s failure to provide meaningful recidivism-reduction programs, including addiction treatment and other rehabilitation services.
The United States leads the world in the number of people it incarcerates and government figures show the country’s prison population grew by three percent to a record 2.3 million inmates in 2006.
Harsher sentencing policies have put more criminals behind bars and prison management firms such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group are racing to build new jails or expand existing facilities to house more convicted felons.
CCA’s profits swelled to $35 million in the fourth quarter of last year, rising from 32 million in the same period of 2006, as revenues jumped to $382 million.
[GEO Group’s] profits rose 10 percent to $11.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2007.
The War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs is just the biggest federal jobs program in history. Rather than provide real employment for poor people in the cities, we only allow a violent criminal underground black market economy to support the least among us. That provides easy arrests for cops and easy cases for prosecutors, who can then cite statistics that make it seem like they’re fighting crime, even as the drug prohibition fosters more crime. It also provides business to the construction companies that build prisons, the suppliers that maintain prisons, and the companies that secure prisons, all funded by the taxpayers. Then we lock up the poor from the cities in those prisons and hire the poor from the rural areas to guard them. Politicians get to look tough on crime and corporations get the benefit of way-below-minimum-wage prison slave labor.
riday is Cannabis Community day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re speaking with Steve Bloom, our regular Friday guest who brings us the latest on celebrity and cannabis from CelebStoner.com. Â Steve tells us about some controversy over the new album from the Black Crowes, a look ahead to Willie Nelson’s 75th birthday, and the unveiling of CelebStoner.com’s “Stoners for Obama” campaign.
Cannabis Karri brings us got some music from P.A.I.N. (the Propaganda and Information Network) and their song called “Grow More Weed”.
Then we wrap thing up with a replay of our conversation with Dan Viets, a Missouri attorney specializing in civil rights and the Drug War, as we examine the new record prison population in the Land of the Free.
So sit back and relax with your favorite strain and enjoy your Daily Audio Stash…
NEW YORK — For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America’s rank as the world’s No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 _ one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it’s more than any other nation.
The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.
Four states _ Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut _ now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.
The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect an increase in the nation’s overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as “three-strikes” laws, that result in longer prison stays.
“For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling,” the report said. “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.”
The racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women aged 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group.
The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which round out the Top 10.
The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.
Land of the free, huh? You can thank the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugsâ„¢ for a lot of this increase. Mandatory minimums, enacted in 1986, put more non-violent drug offenders behind bars for longer periods, because, you know, prison is such a great rehab. A poor inner-city black person caught with 5g of crack gets the same prison time as a rich suburban white person caught with half a kilo of powder. Marijuana growers legally operating in the twelve medical marijuana states face prison because the feds’ can’t let sick people use pot or it ruins the whole “pot is a danger to society” house of cards they’ve constructed to defend prohibition. Forfeiture laws turn police work into a profit venture and conspiracy charges net dealers’ girlfriends and wives whose crime was not having anyone higher up to snitch on. It’s the ultimate federal jobs program: lock up lots of people then build more prisons and hire more guards.
Join NORML In Berkeley For Our 2008 National Conference Register Today To Take Advantage Of Discounted Rates; Congress Fails To Adopt Appropriations Bill - No Opportunity to Vote on Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment; California: Medical Pot Statute Does Not Conflict With Federal Anti-Drug Laws; San Diego Supervisors To Appeal Ruling; interview with SSDP's Kris Krane
Members Of Congress Demand An End To Federal Pot Possession Arrests; National MS Society Makes Recommendations Regarding Therapeutic Use Of Cannabis; The Tragic Death Of Rachel Hoffman -- And The Tragedy That Is Pot Prohibition; Interview with Rep. Barney Frank.
Pot Compound Enhances Efficacy Of Anti-Cancer Agents, Study Says; California: Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act Qualifies For November Ballot; New Orleans: District Attorney Charging Minor Pot Offenders With Felonies; Kelly Maddy on Joplin MO Decrim Effort.
John Wesley Hall, president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, describes the case precendent in roadside traffic stops and search and seizure.
Seattle, Washington attorney Doug Hiatt explains the latest medical use issues in Washington State, including denial of transplant organs for medmj patients.
