I left my professional law enforcement ethics... in San Francisco...

Not only do we have to be aware of the legitimate police who are enforcing the existing marijuana laws, we also have to subject to these corrupt cops who are out there all over the country, setting up innocent people to serve their own agenda whatever that may be.   I say we take the marijuana offenders out of prison and put these jerks in!

SF Chronicle A San Francisco judge dismissed marijuana trafficking allegations Wednesday after finding a videotape contradicted officers’ account of a drug search at a suspect’s Richmond District apartment.

In the latest case in which video appeared to undermine police testimony, Superior Court Judge Gerardo Sandoval issued his dismissal order after a three-day preliminary hearing on drug dealing charges lodged against McLaren Wenzell, 23, stemming from the March 1 police search and seizure of 4 pounds of marijuana.

Sandoval cited inconsistencies in the police accounts with the videotape.

The case has strong similarities to the scandal unfolding against eight Southern Station officers, who have been reassigned from a plainclothes detail after videotapes appeared to contradict their accounts of several drug raids in a Tenderloin single room occupancy hotel.

So far, that scandal has triggered dismissal of 76 cases as well as an ongoing FBI probe.

[Russ adds: I am shocked - shocked! - to learn that the drug war has corrupted cops in America.]

In the latest incident, three Richmond Station plainclothes officers asserted in police reports that Wenzell agreed to let them search his Richmond District apartment. Wenzell said Wednesday that he never gave the officers permission, but simply went into his unit without saying one way or other.

The officers recounted that they were answering a report of a possible marijuana grow operation inside the building on 33rd Avenue and Geary Boulevard when they encountered Wenzell as he came out of the unit.

They said that they had their stars visible outside their clothing when they talked to Wenzell, who admitted having a small amount of marijuana, showed them his prescription note and then let them in 30 seconds after he went back inside his unit.

[Russ adds: So three officers all got up on the stand and told the same testilie?  It's ironic that so many civil libertarians decry the proliferation of surveillance cameras everywhere in the public sphere, but it's the video evidence from these cameras that is protecting the civil rights of citizens from usurpation by law enforcement.  It's tragic that in many states, the citizen must rely on the chance they will have an encounter with law enforcement where there is a public surveillance cam, because privately videotaping officers on duty can get you arrested and prosecuted for interfering with law enforcement.]

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• Pennsylvania Priorities: what’s worse, trafficking marijuana or child rape and murder?

This just in from the Department of Mis-Spent Tax Dollars:

(Pittsburgh Post Gazette) Noah A. Landfried, 26, and Ross E. Landfried III, 28, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm in Henry County, Ill., on Friday.

Noah Landfried was sentenced to life in prison, while Ross Landfried received a term of 20 years.

They were accused of running a conspiracy to bring marijuana from Mexico to Pittsburgh, along the Interstate 80 corridor.

The brothers, who pleaded guilty on March 30, were responsible for moving approximately 5,200 pounds of marijuana and made about $1 million in proceeds since 2002.

So over seven years two brothers made $1 million.  That works out to $71,428 each per year.  Not a bad living, but hardly what I’d think of as a Tony Montana-level kingpin.  More like the salary of a CEO of a regional shipping company, which, in essence, they were.

So we have a 26-year-old sentenced to life. Average life expectancy in America is 78 years. His brother is sentenced for 20 years. So how much will their incarceration end up costing US taxpayers?

(Pennsylvania Prison Society) There are 2.2 million inmates in American prisons today, more than any other nation including Russia and China. Of these, 75,000 are confined in Pennsylvania, 9,000 in Philadelphia. Recidivism is 67%, the cost is $31,000 per year per inmate, the majority of inmates have been involved with illicit drugs, a growing number are infected with HIV and Hepatitis C , mental illness runs around 20%. The cost of incarceration is growing faster than the cost of either education or healthcare for the community.

So let’s see, 52 years for one brother, 20 years for the other, times $31,000… that’s $2,232,000 we’re going to spend to imprison two men who imported a non-toxic (schwaggy) herb from willing sellers and then repackaged and distributed it for sale to willing buyers.  Thank goodness these convictions will finally end the trafficking of Mexican brick weed into Middle America!

Not!  Everybody knows – even the judge, prosecutors, and cops that put these brothers behind bars – that the next Landfried brothers, whoever they are, have already picked up the slack and are moving tons of brick weed into Middle America.  The only thing these convictions have contributed to is upward mobility in the marijuana trafficking job pool.

Let’s see what else I can pull from today’s headlines in Pennsylvania…

(Press TV) In 2008, Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak attacked and killed Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania “by striking and kicking him while members of the group yelled racial slurs at him,” the Justice Department said Monday.

Earlier in 2009, an all-white jury acquitted the two men of felony counts including aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation and convicted them of a misdemeanor simple assault. The two were sentenced to ‘up to 23 months’ in the local county jail.

Following the verdict, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell sent a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder recommending the Justice Department pursue civil rights charges.

“The evidence suggests that Mr. Ramirez was targeted, beaten and killed because he was Mexican,” Rendell’s letter read.

Jury selection began this Monday. If convicted in federal court, the duo will face a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Here’s to hoping the federal jury finds beating a Mexican to death in Pennsylvania is as serious a crime as bringing Mexican brick weed into Pennsylvania.  Or at least worth more than a 23 month jail term.

(The Pittsburgh Channel) Sentencing for Kelly Hardy, a man described by federal authorities as one of the worst child porn offenders they’ve ever prosecuted in Western Pennsylvania, began on Monday at Pittsburgh’s federal courthouse.

Channel 4 Action News’ Bob Mayo was at the courthouse and reported that Judge Nora Barry Fischer said Hardy will be sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison, but the hearing wasn’t yet complete.

…[T]he prosecution pointed to Hardy’s 20-year pattern of offenses. Authorities documented that Hardy once told someone he’d like to rape an 8-year-old child and that he wanted to torture and kill a child while the child’s parents watched, Mayo reported.

The prosecution also said Hardy met with a 15-year-old in Clearfield County and attended a party with a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old.

30 years? Well, at least child porn offenders get more time than a partner in a marijuana trafficking scheme, but not the life sentence one gets for being the leader of the scheme.

(Altoona Mirror) Blair County Judge Tim Sullivan rejected a Tyrone-area man’s attempt Tuesday to withdraw guilty pleas to child sexual abuse charges and sentenced him to 14 to 28 years behind bars.

Timothy E. Yeager Jr., 32, of Tyrone RD 1 will be on probation for 12 years after the completion of his prison sentence, Sullivan ordered.

After a contentious hearing, Yeager also was found to be a violent sexual predator under Megan’s Law for his repeated abuse of a young girl from 2004-08.

Police charged that Yeager committed sexual offenses against the child when she was between 6 and 10 years old.

Apparently, four years of raping a pre-pubescent child isn’t quite as bad as running a marijuana trafficking organization, and maybe not even as bad as being the partner in a marijuana trafficking organization.

Under Kerlikowske's reasoning, we never should have repealed Alcohol Prohibition, since alcohol made up less than 50% of Al Capone's overall profits.

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake has posted video of the Just Say Now! campaign delivering a legalization petition to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske.  Since the drug czar is required by law to oppose all legalization efforts, it is a bit like petitioning the Pope to bless an orgy, but it does make for some entertaining video:

(FireDogLake) This morning I joined with members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and delivered 52,000 petition signatures to drug czar Gil Kerlikowske on behalf of the Just Say Now campaign.

Daniel Pacheco, a Georgetown University student from Colombia and a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, handed the petition to  Kerlikowske at a press conference held by his office at the National Press Club.  The petition asks President Obama to end the war on drugs and legalize marijuana.

Daniel asked Kerlikowske why he opposed legalizing marijuana, since President Calderon of Mexico has said it could be helpful in fighting the Mexican drug cartels. Kerlikowske said that since marijuana comprised such a small percentage of drug cartel profits, legalizing marijuana would not have any impact on their activity.

“I don’t think that if they lose a small part of their revenue from legalizing marijuana that they’re going to go to work for Coca Cola or Microsoft,” he chuckled.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ha ha ha!  Oh, that jokester!  So, the idea here is that since legalizing marijuana won’t put them out of business, we should continue to subsidize part of their business?  Because our prohibition of marijuana leads to the high price Americans pay for weed they could grow themselves, subsidizing the high profits the Mexicans make on marijuana, and then our tax dollars subsidize the Merida Initiative that buys more helicopters, drones, surveillance, ammunition, and police to fight the traffickers!  We also help arm both sides of the drug war, with official grants of weapons to the “good guys” and plenty of gun shops just over the border whose guns end up in the hands of the “bad guys”.

So, since the Mexican criminals are unlikely to go to work for Coca Cola or Microsoft if we take away their puny marijuana profits, we should continue to make criminals out of Americans who smoke a joint, Mr. Kerlikowske?

Ryan Grim at Huffington Post digs deeper into Kerlikowske’s new song and dance about the “small part” of Mexican drug trafficking organizations’ profits from marijuana:

(Huffington Post) Instead of defending the principle of prohibition, Kerlikowske quibbled with Pacheco’s statistic on how much of the cartel’s revenue comes from marijuana. “The number that has been often cited in the press — 58 to 60 percent of cartel revenues comes — was introduced by ONDCP in 2006. Unfortunately, the history is that it was based on 1997 information,” Kerlikowske said. “Everyone that recognizes these cartels clearly understands that their revenues have changed a lot since 1997. There are different drugs, they are involved with different criminal enterprises, so people that continue — and we really reject trying to continue to use a number that is now 13 to 14 years old, about how much money comes from marijuana. So, we strongly believe we see significantly less than the numbers cited from 14 years ago.”

Testimony to the Senate from both the FBI and DEA, however, confirmed the 60-percent figure in 2010.

How low a percentage of overall profits must marijuana reap before it’s no longer worth taking that business from the criminals?  30%?  15%?  5%?  Suppose we were talking about crippling Al Qaeda.  Do you suppose if we discovered an easy way to reduce the funding of terrorists by even five percent that our government officials would be dismissing the idea, simply because those terrorists wouldn’t then be forced to work at Starbucks?

Nobody thinks legalizing marijuana in America is suddenly going to turn murderous torturing drug trafficking criminals into Boy Scouts.  Surely most criminals are going to be criminals and will find new criminal enterprises if we legalize marijuana… but some won’t.  Some may become the new Joe Kennedys who turn their prohibited business into a lucrative legal business.  The question is whether we want to continue to give criminals a lucrative illegal business when there is no compelling reason to do so.

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WASHINGTON – Federal agents have rounded up 755 suspects in a wide-ranging crackdown on a Mexican drug cartel operating inside the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday.

The Justice Department said that as part of the 21-month-long investigation, DEA and other federal agents had seized $59 million in U.S. currency; 12,535 kilograms of cocaine; more than 16,000 pounds of marijuana; more than 12 pounds of methamphetamine; approximately 8 kilograms of heroin; approximately 1.3 million pills or 500 pounds of Ecstasy; approximately 120 kilograms of MDMA powder; and more than $6.5 million in other assets, including 149 vehicles, 3 aircraft, 3 maritime vessels and 169 weapons.

via MSNBC – U.S. arrests 755 in Mexican drug cartel raids

My presumption is that the DEA expects this will make us feel that they are being successful in their War on US Citizens. Maybe this lends credence to former Drug Czar John Water’s claim that:

“If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence,” a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence “because these guys are flailing. We’re taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now.”

via The Agitator – God Help Us If We Start “Winning” the Drug War, Too

Or maybe the drug warriors have learned nothing from Greek mythology about what happens when you cut the head off the Hydra:

• OPERATION META 1997
  1,765 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATIONS RECIPROCITY & LIMELIGHT 1997
  13,700 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATIONS IMPUNITY & MILLENNIUM 1999
  4,800 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATIONS CONQUISTADOR & COLUMBUS 2000
  1459.5 Metric Tons of Marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
  73.4 Kilograms of Hash oil seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION GREEN AIR 2000
  34,000 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION IMPUNITY II 2000 l
  9,526 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION MARQUIS 2001
  23,096 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• OPERATION GREEN CLOVER 2001
  320 pounds and 4100 plants of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operations Pipe Dreams And Headhunter 2003
  indictment of 50 individuals and national distributors on charges of trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia
• Operation Trifecta 2003
  24,409 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Candy Box 2004
  1,370 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Money Clip 2004
  39,265 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Three Hour Tour 2005
  216 lbs. of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Mallorca 2005
  21,650 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Choque, Operation Denali, and Operation Falling Star 2005
  37,055 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Sweet Tooth 2005
  1,777 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Northern Impact 2005
  2,258 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Cali Exchange 2005
  518 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Imperial Emperor 2007
  27,229 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Jacket Racket 2007
  150 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Puma 2007
  33 metric tons of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Imperial Emperor Phase II 2007
  434 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Project Reckoning 2008
  51,258 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Sudden Fall 2008
  50 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
  48 hydroponic marijuana plants seized, destroyed, or eradicated
  30 vials of hash oil seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Project Reckoning, Phase II 2008
  57,243 pounds of marijuana seized, destroyed, or eradicated
• Operation Albatross 2008
  262 tons of hashish seized, destroyed, or eradicated

So DEA, did you get it all yet? Including today’s cartel raids, that’s a lot of seized marijuana and a ton of arrests to go with it. Surely some dent must have been made in the flow of marijuana into our country …

I know, let’s ask the class. “Excuse me, you bright faced group of 100 high school students chosen at random. Could anyone help me get a bag of marijuana?”

86 hands go up.

Well, I’m glad our current policy of marijuana prohibition thinks of the children, aren’t you? You cannot legislate human behavior and morality. You cannot arrest your way to a victory in the War against US Citizens.

(CBS) So far, there hasn’t been much negative reaction to the photo showing Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking what appeared to be marijuana. 

A few years ago, it might have ruined his career, but so far it hasn’t — perhaps a sign of changing attitudes.

The seeming lack of outrage… may reflect America’s changing attitudes towards marijuana – an estimated $30 billion dollar industry in the United States alone.

While a majority of Americans still oppose the legalization of marijuana use, a new CBS News poll shows a big swing in opinion in recent years.

Twenty-seven percent supported legalization in 1979; 41 percent support it today.

Understand that when you get “41% support legalization”, that’s over 2 out of 5 people when asked, “Should marijuana be legalized” who will say “yes.”  That’s without any explanation of how, where, when, or for whom it will be legalized, so that includes the spectrum from “fine-only possession, jail for sales, cultivation, and trafficking” to “pre-rolled joints at the convenience store”.

When you change the question to actually define what you mean by “legalization”, the numbers rise.  In a 2001 Zogby poll, ten weeks after 9/11, we found:

In light of the tragic events of Sept. 11th and the increased attention to the threat of terrorism, do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose arresting and jailing nonviolent marijuana smokers?

Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose the use of federal law enforcement agencies to close patient cooperatives in California and other states where medical marijuana is legal under state law?

Then in 2002, CNN/TIME Magazine commissioned a poll to look at marijuana issues:

Do you favor or oppose the legalization of marijuana?

Do you favor or oppose the legalization of marijuana? What about in small amounts, for example three ounces or less? Do you favor or oppose the legalization of marijuana in small amounts?

Assuming marijuana is not legalized, do you think people arrested for possession of small amounts of mairjuana should be put in jail, or just have to pay a fine but without serving any jail time?

Do you think adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it or do you think that marijuana shouldremain illegal even for medical purposes?

When you start throwing in the idea of controlling cannabis sales through taxation and regulation like liquor stores, the legalization idea gets better support.  Zogby asked in 2003 and in 2006:

Do you support amending federal law to let states legally regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling?

In 2003, nationwide support for tax & regulate was only 41%, by 2006 it had risen five points to 46%. On the coasts, majorities favor taxing and regulating marijuana similar to hard liquor (53% East Coast, 55% West Coast).

Finally, when we look at medical use of marijuana, state by state, we find no state below 60% in their support for medical marijuana:

So, is Michael Phelps “getting off easy” because he is a superstar athlete or because most Americans don’t consider marijuana use to be taboo and detrimental anymore?

State Rep. Joseph Driscoll has filed legislation aimed at toughening laws against growing and selling marijuana.

Voters approved a referendum in November that decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and imposed a $100 civil fine. Minors would also be required to take a drug-abuse counseling course. The new law took effect Jan. 1.

Driscoll, who opposed the referendum question, said nothing prevents a drug dealer from selling marijuana to a minor.

Under current law, it is a misdemeanor to sell marijuana to a minor and a felony to sell other drugs to juveniles.

Driscoll said one of his bills would lower the amount of marijuana necessary to charge a drug dealer with trafficking from 50 pounds to one pound.

Here are some of the penalties state Rep. Joseph Driscoll, D-Braintree, is proposing for marijuana growers and sellers:

• Up to five years in state prison or up to 2½ years in jail and a fine of $1,000 to $10,000.
• A prison sentence of five to 15 years for a subsequent conviction and a fine of between $1,500 and $25,000.
• A prison sentence of three to 15 years or a jail sentence of two to 2½ years and a fine of $2,500 to $25,000 for 1 to 5 pounds.
• A prison sentence of five to 20 years and a fine of $5,000 to $25,000 for 5 to 10 pounds.
• A prison sentence of to 20 years and a fine of $10,000 to $100,000 for 10 to 20 pounds.
• A prison sentence of 15 to 20 years and a fine of $50,000 to $500,000 for 30 pounds or more.
• A state prison sentence of five to 15 years and a fine of $1,000 to $25,000 for selling to a person under the age of 18.

via State rep wants stiffer penalties for pot dealers and growers – Quincy, MA – The Patriot Ledger.

The current penalty for sales or cultivation of less than 50 pounds in Massachusetts is a misdemeanor, that’s true.  But the penalty for that can be two years and $5,000.

The penalties Driscoll is proposing would make Massachusetts’ penalties even worse than Florida’s.  Florida’s got more than two-and-a-half times the population and, according to Miron, about twice the rate of cannabis consumption (2.3% in Mass. vs. 5.7% in Fla. that use cannabis).   It seems like the state that has the penalties most similar to your proposal has twice the “problem” with cannabis.

Also, Florida has much more of an issue with the so-called “grow house” phenomenon.  Have you thought about the notion that under your new proposed penalties, you incentivize one large grow-op to become ten or twenty smaller grow-ops?

All you will do with these penalties is raise the price of marijuana and increase the profits of the growers and traffickers you do not catch.  No fewer people will smoke it, no less marijuana will flow through and be grown in Massachusetts, and even more people will sell it with the attractive price supports your enhanced prohibition will create.  

When will you politicians learn that prohibition is the drug dealer’s favorite public policy?