Drug War Chronicle #486 - May 18, 2007

The US Sentencing Commission has again called on Congress to act to reduce sentencing inequities around the federal crack cocaine laws. Will Congress finally listen this time?

Arnold Trebach wrote "The Heroin Solution" in 1982. That it is still relevant and relevatory is a sad commentary on how far we've come since then. We review it on the occasion of its republication.

Educate and motivate your friends to respectfully assert their rights during police encounters, with these fourth amendment t-shirts from our friends at Flex Your Rights!

Two re-released classics and one new volume by drug reform pioneer Arnold Trebach make up DRCNet's latest premium offer for our members.

In addition to the weekly reporting you see here in the Chronicle, DRCNet also features daily content in the way of blogging, news links, redistributed press releases and announcements from our allies and more.

Tarnished badges abound this week. We've got a cop who got too high on his own brownies, missing drug evidence, a head narc busted for ripping-off drug dealers, a cop busted for taking bribes from drug dealers, a couple more cops pleading guilty to protecting drug shipments, and the requisite jail guard dealing drugs.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed second-time drug sales offenders parole eligibility. Instead, they will remain locked up doing 10-year mandatory minimum sentences.

An amicus brief by advocates strongly made the case that prosecutions drive pregnant women away from the health care system and thereby hurt, not help.

A bill that would eventually allow California farmers to grow hemp has passed the state Assembly and is expected to pass the Senate. Last year, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill.

With Nevada prisons bursting at the seams, state Supreme Court justices went to the legislature Monday to ask for more discretion in sentencing and more funding for drug and mental health courts.

In the highest-profile killing yet in the current round of Mexico's drug wars, unknown assailants gunned down a leading anti-drug official in Mexico City Monday.

Hungary's Global Marijuana Marches came a week later than elsewhere, and they ran into some problems with rightist thugs and recalcitrant local officials. Now, the organizers are suing.

Over-hyped Australian media accounts of "super dope" marijuana about to invade the country are dovetailing with efforts to crack down on bongs.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

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