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Weekly: This Week in History
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
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Marijuana: Arizona Court of Appeals Rejects Religious Defense
The Arizona Court of Appeals has rejected a religious defense for marijuana use and possession.
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Medical Marijuana: California Appeals Court Upholds State Law, Rejects San Diego County Claim
In a victory for California's medical marijuana law, a state appeals court has rejected a challenge to the law from San Diego County. But it isn't over yet. The county said Tuesday it would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
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Southeast Asia: DEA Bringing Drug War Tactics to Vietnam
DEA trainers are in Vietnam this month to show Vietnamese how to have a drug war American-style, but the UN's man on the scene doesn't find that particularly helpful.
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Medical Marijuana: National MS Society Takes Half-Step Toward Recognizing Therapeutic Uses
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is calling for more research on medical marijuana. While that's only a half-step on the society's part, it's a half-step forward.
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Southeast Asia: Drug User Group Demonstrates for Legal Drug Use in Jakarta
Drug user activists handed out brochures called for the legalization of drug use in some of Jakarta's most notorious dope-dealing hot-spots this week. It was the second user demonstration this summer in Indonesia.
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Feature: Feds Score Another Conviction Against a California Medical Marijuana Dispensary Operator
Federal prosecutors won another conviction against a California medical marijuana dispensary operator this week. It's easy pickings when the defense can't mention medical marijuana, and it raises issues about how to deal with local law enforcement officials who work with the feds to get around state law.
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Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
A Boston cop goes to prison for being muscle for drug dealers, and a Miami-area cop and two prison guards get caught up in a massive Oxycontin and health fraud scandal.
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Law Enforcement: Killer Cop Walks in Ohio SWAT Raid Shooting, Relatives File Wrongful Death Suit
A Lima, Ohio, police sergeant who shot and killed an unarmed woman and wounded her infant son during a SWAT raid was acquitted on all counts this week. He only faced eight months, anyway. But this story isn't over -- relatives have now filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and the shooter.
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Latin America: Peru Constitutional Court Overturns State Law Okaying Coca Crops
In a bid to regularize the situation of coca growers, one Peruvian department earlier this year moved to legalize the crop. This week, the country's highest constitutional court overturned that move, saying only the national government can set drug policy.
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Resource: Reformer's Calendar Accessible Through DRCNet Web Site
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to the events coming up the soonest, and more.
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Resource: DRCNet Web Site Offers Wide Array of RSS Feeds for Your Reader
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War Chronicle and more -- is now available.
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Webmasters: Help the Movement by Running DRCNet Syndication Feeds on Your Web Site!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
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Feedback: Do You Read Drug War Chronicle?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to funders. We need donations too.
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Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy
"An Excellent Column on Marijuana Prohibition From Reuters," "Florida Prosecutor Stands Up For Rachel Hoffman, Refuses to Work With DEA," "After Killing His Dogs, Police Admit Mayor Calvo Was Probably Innocent," "DEA Secures Another Medical Marijuana Conviction by Lying in Court," "Police Are Confiscating Cars for Minor Drug Crimes," "Cop Acquitted After Killing Unarmed Mother and Shooting Her Baby," "Marijuana Offers Hope For Battling Colon Cancer," "Hey Politicians, Reforming Marijuana Laws is Smart Politics," "More Video of Drug Reformers and Their Encounters with the 'Other Side' at the UN in Vienna Last Month"
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Students: Intern at DRCNet and Help Stop the Drug War!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
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Offer: Unique and Important New Book on Medical Marijuana
"Dying to Get High," by sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard Webb, is a groundbreaking work that provides an in-depth portrait of one of the country's most well-known medical marijuana collectives.
Blog
Dead at 22
When a 22 year old Surrey youth left a drug house with a supply of drugs he had no idea that his life was about to be taken from him for the crime of possession of said drugs.The RCMP,who had the hous
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An Excellent Column on Marijuana Prohibition From Reuters
Fairness requires that I call attention to Reuters columnist Bernd Debusmann's excellent piece, America's never-ending prohibition. I've been critical of marijuana coverage at Reuters in the past, so I was pleased to see this:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's alcohol prohibition lasted 13 years, filled the country's prisons, inspired contempt for the law among millions, bred corruption and produced Al Capone. What it did not do was keep Americans from drinking.
America's marijuana prohibition drew into its 72nd year this month. It has created a huge underground industry catering to users, helped the U.S. prison population balloon into the world's largest, and diverted the resources of American law enforcement. What it has not done is keep Americans from using marijuana.
On the contrary. Since 1937, the year marijuana was outlawed, its use in the United States has gone up by 4,000 percent, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based lobby group which advocates regulating the drug similar to alcohol. A recent World Health Organization study of marijuana use in 17 countries placed Americans at the top of the list.
Indeed. Rather than measuring the drug war's success by comparing today's rates of drug use to their highest point in history, the drug czar should be comparing today's usage rates to what they were before we started this mindless crusade.