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In The Trenches

The New Orleans International Drug Policy Reform Conference is the Biggest Harm Reduction Event of 2007

HRC at DPA 2007 Astor Crowne Plaza New Orleans, LA December 5-8, 2007 www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=121856 The New Orleans International Drug Policy Reform Conference is the biggest Harm Reduction event of 2007. Town Hall Meeting - Evening Session What's up and what's on with our community right now and where are we going? Allan Clear, Bernie Lieving, Wyndi Anderson, Rona Taylor, Hilary McQuie, Luciano Colonna, Daniel Raymond, Donald Davis, Corey Davis, Sharon Stancliff, Phillip Fiuty, Andy Ko, Caitlin Padgett, Terri Hurst, Dimitri Mobengo Mugianis, Patrick Kroupa, Roseanne Scotti, Paula Santiago, and Tyler Fisher will be sifting publicly through the wreckage of our lives. Fed Ban Teach-In The Fed Ban has got to go! This year the DC ban was lifted. What can we do around the Dems, Labor HHS, Obey, full committee, Hill visits, and in-district meetings? Confused? Come to the teach-in to get informed and mobilized. Hilary McQuie & Daniel Raymond Workshops Buprenorphine: Thinking Outside the Box - Bup has been abysmally marketed in the US. It's a great medication but are your exchangers getting access to it? Sharon Stancliff Hepatitis C Integration - Eliminate blood borne HCV and HIV will also be eliminated. Yet we spend our time educating injectors about HIV whilst paying lip service to HCV. Learn how to fully integrate the message. Donald Davis & Narelle Ellendon Opiate Overdose - Too many preventable deaths happen among our opiate users. Many needle exchange programs are helping to save lives by distributing narcan and teaching rescue breathing. Learn how to save lives too. Caroline Rath & Lauren Enteen Law Enforcement - Police harassment of drug injectors isn't going away. We have to work with law enforcement for the sake of our programs and our participants. Get the skinny. Corey Davis & Basha Closic Other harm reduction panel topics and invited speakers at the conference: Hidden Histories of Harm Reduction - Caroline Acker, Sheigla Murphy, Allan Clear Integration of Harm Reduction into Government - Roseanne Scotti, Daliah Heller, Bernie Lieving, Kasia Malinowska Juvenille Justice and Harm Reduction Ibogaine - Howard Lotsof, Dimitri Mobengo Mugianis, Dana Beal, Patrick Kroupa Drinking Age of Youth and Harm Reduction Drug Cultures in Post-Katrina New Orleans - Implications for Harm Reduction Youth Engagement training - Caitlin Padgett Beyond Zero Tolerance - Chuck Ries For more information contact Rona Taylor @ [email protected]
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Obama is So Bad on Drug Policy, He Got Endorsed By Prison Guards

I guess the title says it all. Barack Obama is far and away the worst democratic contender when it comes to drug policy and criminal justice reform. It is unsurprising, therefore, that people who make a living off our grotesquely bloated criminal justice system are supporting his candidacy. Via Talkleft:
…one of the largest municipal jail unions in the country said Monday it would endorse Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for president. The endorsement would be Obama's first from a union.
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Obama said, "It's an honor to have the endorsement of these men and women who put themselves at risk every day to serve on the front lines of our nation's criminal justice system." [CBS News]
Ah, the ever-expanding front lines of our criminal justice system. Obama just keeps saying things like this. It remains perplexing to watch the so-called "change" candidate gaze with reverence upon our massive drug war and criminal justice system. Obama's support from incarceration specialists is richly deserved to be sure.

Update: At the risk of further emboldening the hysterical Obama fans in the comment section, it's only fair to add that Barack Obama has spoken in favor of needle exchange. Hillary Clinton, who's otherwise sounded good on drug policy (for a front-runner, anyway) wants to see more proof that it works, which, at this point, is like demanding proof that the sun will rise tomorrow. So Obama understands that issue, at least.

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A Marijuana User Gets Arrested Every 38 Seconds in America

Marijuana arrests have once again reached an all-time high, NORML reports:
Washington, DC: Police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. This is the largest total number of annual arrests for pot ever recorded by the FBI. Marijuana arrests now comprise nearly 44 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds in America.
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Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent some 738,915 Americans were charged with possession only.
Possession of marijuana has got to be one of the stupidest, most trivial things you could ever get arrested for, and yet it happens with remarkable and increasing frequency. I reject, but at least understand the notion that marijuana should not be openly sold in convenience stores. But it amazes me that anyone still thinks we should be handcuffing people, hauling them to the station, ruining careers, collecting fines, administering drugs tests, and otherwise tormenting and humiliating people for having marijuana.

I honestly feel badly for people whose view of the world is so twisted that they can’t think of something better to do with our police and our tax dollars than this. At the same time, I'm convinced that most Americans don’t support a marijuana war of this magnitude.

I believe the right politician, at the right time, could make tremendous headway by simply coming out and saying it: "In America, we have better things to do than arrest each other for trivial reasons. We're sending the wrong message to our kids when we threaten to arrest them. Let's help people who need it and leave everyone else alone." If anyone wants to use this, please, be my guest. Hillary? Fred? Hello?
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Intellectual freedom

I posted; This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories on XXL. mag forum over the weekend. And now I can't log in! ... I now the forum is "up" and everything looks OK, but I can't log in like I been doing for months.
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Class action suit against the DEA, DOJ, etc...

I'm ready to launch one. The claim originates from this Federal Code; TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 21 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 1983 Civil action for deprivation of rights The creation of the drug laws was illegal - unconstitutional.
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Drug Taxes Out of Control Violating Due Process

Last week I posted some discussion of the Drug Tax phenomenon, along with a scan of a notice one of our readers received following his being charged with an alleged marijuana offense. Last night I got an email from Matt Potter, president of North Carolina State University's Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter and a member of the Student Senate, with some very revealing information recounted from his freshman year in a Law and Justice course. Matt wrote:
My freshman year of college I had a professor for Law and Justice who was the interim director of the NC Illegal Substances Tax division, and he loved going off on tangents talking about his job... [H]e told me several things [about drug taxes], such as that the burden of proof in a drug tax hearing is actually on the defendant. In addition to hearsay being enough to find people responsible for the tax, the person can actually be acquitted of the crime (or not charged at all) and still be found responsible for paying the tax. It is also a retrospective tax. He explained this by saying: If your grandmother smoked an ounce in the 60s and we found out about it, we could collect the tax from her on that ounce.
Well there it is, as Matt put it, right "from the horse's (ass') mouth." I think the evidence is more than clear -- drug taxes are an outrage. As I commented last week, "take this drug tax and..."
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SSDP HEA Week of Action

Within the next few months, the US House of Representatives will decide whether or not to continue denying financial aid to students with drug convictions. This is our chance to take this awful law off the books once and for all. We're being counted on by nearly 200,000 students who have been affected by the law, and by countless more who will be affected if we don't repeal it.