SINCE the official beginning of the drug war in 1971, the law-enforcement community in the United States has spent just over $1 trillion. Tens of thousands of citizens have died, sacrificed on the altar of this modern prohibition. Millions have suffered from a drug arrest, which haunts them forever - and the difference on the streets? Federal research shows drugs are cheaper, stronger and more "readily available" to America's youth. As a street cop and detective in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, I had a ringside seat to this unfolding social disaster. [continues 639 words]
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday proposed reclassifying marijuana to make it a less dangerous substance and to encourage more research into its medicinal benefits. At a town hall in Orangeburg, S.C., Clinton said marijuana, classified in the most dangerous category ("Schedule I") of the Controlled Substances Act, should be "Schedule II" so it can be experimented with and implemented for medical use. "I do support the use of medical marijuana," she said at the town hall, hosted by journalist Roland Martin and held at Claflin University. [continues 101 words]
As reported by The Washington Post and reprinted in The New Mexican ("Justice Department about to free 6,000 prisoners," Oct. 6), the Justice Department is prepared to release 6,000 prisoners. That started on Oct. 30 and is the largest one-time release by the feds ever. The U.S. Sentencing Commission retroactively reduced the sentence for drug offenses, which precipitated this response. Everyone from Obama, the American Civil Liberties Union to Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina are in support of further reducing the mandatory-minimum sentences that were set for drug offenses during the sweeping "war on drugs" campaign of the 1980s and 1990s. [continues 177 words]
Action in Response to Eastside Man's 1-Year Sentence A Vancouver man's fate hangs in the balance as two British Columbia groups urge the new Liberal government to repeal mandatory minimum sentences. Joseph Lloyd, a Downtown Eastside resident, convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking after being arrested with less than 10 grams of drugs on him, was supposed to face a mandatory one-year jail term because of legislation enacted by the Conservative government in 2012. However, a provincial court judge declined to impose the mandatory minimum sentence on Lloyd because it could amount to cruel and unusual punishment. [continues 188 words]
Movement May Do More Harm Than Good PORTLAND, Ore. - When the judge entered the wood-paneled courtroom to begin the sentencing hearing this fall, 19-year-old Morgan Brittain was the only one who didn't stand. She remained seated in her wheelchair in the front row. Brittain looked in many ways like the girl she once was: Nike sneakers with hot pink laces, nails painted maroon and silver. She still had the slender frame of the dancer and runner she was before she overdosed two years ago on a half a gram of heroin she split with a friend. [continues 941 words]
Prosecutors Fear Results of Weakening Mandatory Minimums for Drug Convictions Portland, Ore. - When the judge entered the wood-paneled courtroom to begin the sentencing hearing this fall, 19-year-old Morgan Brittain was the only one who didn't stand. She remained seated in her wheelchair in the front row. Brittain looked in many ways like the girl she once was: Nike sneakers with hot pink laces, nails painted maroon and silver. She still had the slender frame of the dancer and runner she was before she overdosed two years ago on a half a gram of heroin she split with a friend. [continues 2383 words]
A local advocate for reforming cannabis laws was happy with the federal election outcome. Tamara Cartwright-Poulits, the regional coordinator for NORML Women's Alliance of Canada, said she was elated by the election results and Trudeau getting elected. She said it is now a waiting game, though some want the changes to cannabis laws to happen immediately. "We know it isn't going to happen that fast," Cartwright-Poulits said. "Until the fourth of November, when cabinet is actually set up and we know who the justice minister is and who the health minister is and who is going to handle the portfolio." [continues 516 words]
A local advocate for reforming cannabis laws was happy with the federal election outcome. Tamara Cartwright-Poulits, the regional coordinator for NORML Women's Alliance of Canada, said she was elated by the election results and Trudeau getting elected. She said it is now a waiting game, though some want the changes to cannabis laws to happen immediately. "We know it isn't going to happen that fast," Cartwright-Poulits said. "Until the fourth of November, when cabinet is actually set up and we know who the justice minister is and who the health minister is and who is going to handle the portfolio." [continues 517 words]
Section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states: "Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment." It's hard to argue against this principle. Nobody should be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Capital punishment, torture and floggings obviously fall under the category of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Any grossly disproportionate or outrageous sentence, or any sentence that would shock the conscious of the community, should also be considered cruel and unusual. [continues 595 words]
A WINNIPEG man caught with a large marijuana grow operation in his home went to court Tuesday wondering if Justin Trudeau might be able to save him. But defence lawyer Jay Prober had some bad news for his client - the prime minister-designate's promise to legalize pot in Canada wouldn't save him. "My client asked about Mr. Trudeau just this morning and what was going to happen. I explained to him that it's still not going to be legal to grow 514 plants in your house," Prober told court with a chuckle. [continues 266 words]
In many of my previous columns I have been highly critical of the Harper government's tough on crime legislation. Perhaps the country agreed with me by voting in a majority Liberal government for the next four years. This change hopefully will allow the Liberals to reverse much of the damage done to our justice system by the Conservative tough on crime policies. Here are five areas that I hope the Liberals will change or at least go back to our previous system. [continues 737 words]
Starting next week, federal prison inmates from Alaska facing an average conviction of a decade behind bars for drug offenses will be released early. The sentence reductions resulted from revisions by an independent judicial body; its new policy could mean shorter imprisonment for tens of thousands of inmates nationwide. The U.S. Sentencing Commission lowered the penalties for all future federal drug defendants in April 2014. Several months later, the commission granted those reductions to drug offenders already in prison, but its decision to retroactively apply the changes stipulated that no drug offender could be released until a year after the changes came into effect on Nov. 1, 2014. [continues 808 words]
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen added his voice Friday to the growing number of officials calling for reforms to end the nation's high rates of incarceration for nonviolent and lower-level drug offenders. In a speech to the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association's fall institute in Washington, Cohen, D-Memphis, also called for the collection of national statistics on the use of deadly force by law enforcement agencies. He said a bill he has introduced called the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act would give lawmakers and the public "the numbers we need to measure the problem so we can figure out how best to address it." [continues 181 words]
The Senate Judiciary Committee took a major step last Thursday toward reforming overly harsh federal sentencing guidelines with a 15-5 bipartisan vote. It took a long time for federal lawmakers to realize that the "get tough on crime" movement of the 1980s and '90s, while helping push down high crime rates, had regrettable side effects. However, they've finally gotten the message. Imposing tough mandatory minimum sentences is no doubt appropriate for a number of serious offenses, but not for relatively minor, nonviolent drug offenses. [continues 307 words]
Groups Work to End Harsh Sentences for Addicted, Mentally Ill and Non-Violent Offenders WASHINGTON - You would have been hard-pressed to find a police chief in his office in the past few days. Dozens of them were in Washington, lobbying to get more people out of prison. They want to end the mandatory jail terms judges are forced to bestow for what are seen less as criminal acts than cries of desperation. America's prisons are overflowing. The United States has more people in jail than any other country, including some of the harshest, most backward nations. [continues 607 words]
Releasing Nonviolent Drug Offenders Is Only a Start. THE FEDERAL Bureau of Prisons will release 6,000 inmates locked up for non violent drug crime sat the end of the month. If a bi-partisan group of senators gets its way, that will be just the beginning. On Thursday, the group pushed a criminal justice reform bill through the Judiciary Committee that backers say would reduce the federal prison population by tens of thousands. All of this is progress. But even if the bill passes, the number of people in prison in the United States would still be astoundingly high. [continues 408 words]
The president leads the charge to cut the prison population, but mass incarceration isn't the problem. Rising crime is. President Obama paid a media-saturated visit in July to a federal penitentiary in Oklahoma. The cell blocks that he toured had been evacuated in anticipation of his arrival, but after talking to six prescreened inmates he drew some conclusions about the path to prison. "oeThese are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different than the mistakes I made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made," the president told the waiting journalists. The implication was that anyone who had smoked marijuana and tried cocaine (as Mr. Obama had) could land in a place like the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution. [continues 1851 words]
New Group of Prominent Law Enforcement Leaders Say Too Many Nonviolent Offenders Are in Prison Bipartisan Bill on Sentencing Reform Passes Senate Committee President Obama is on a tour to promote reform and should bring it to California President Barack Obama listens during a community discussion Wednesday in Charleston, W.Va., on the prescription drug and heroin abuse epidemics. Steve Helber The Associated Press By the Editorial Board A critical mass appears to be forming to limit America's prison population growth. [continues 317 words]
You would have been hardpressed to find a police chief in his office in the last few days. Dozens of them were in Washington, D.C., lobbying to get more people out of prison. They want to end the mandatory jail terms judges are forced to bestow for what are seen less as criminal acts than cries of desperation. America's prisons are overflowing. The United States has more people in jail than any other country, including some of the harshest, most backward nations. Democratic and Republican presidential candidates may not agree on much, but they accept one statistic: With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the United States holds about 25 percent of the world's prisoners. For every 100,000 Americans, 716 are jailed - a far, far higher rate than anyplace else. [continues 566 words]
Liberal government could clear path for Conservative-blocked initiatives such as supervised injection sites and prescription heroin Health and legal experts are cautiously optimistic that a newly elected Liberal government will clear roadblocks to harm-reduction programs, such as supervised injection sites and prescription heroin, which clashed with Conservative ideals and were stymied by Stephen Harper's government. Despite international research that has shown these measures reduce crime and other associated harms, the outgoing Conservative government denounced such programs, maintaining that "harm elimination" should be the goal. In 2013, it banned doctors from prescribing heroin and last year introduced legislation that made it much more difficult for a community service provider to open a harm-reduction site. [continues 516 words]
