Three men arrested in recent weeks could get life in prison after being caught with small amounts of edible marijuana products, a fact that has sparked an outcry from some Amarillo residents. Potter County sheriff's deputies arrested Eli McCarthy Manna, 30, and Andrew Bruce George, 27, after stopping them for an unspecified traffic violation March 16. The men were found to be in possession of seven purple brownies weighing a total of 650 grams which, being more than 400 grams, triggered the most severe punishment range for drug possession under Texas law - 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. [continues 974 words]
Prison Terms Were Set Under Guidelines Now Deemed Too Harsh President Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentences of 22 drug offenders, the largest batch of prisoners to be granted early release under his administration as it steps up an overhaul of the nation's criminal justice system. The early release of federal inmates is part of a sweeping effort to reduce the enormous costs of overcrowded prisons and address drug sentences handed down under old guidelines U.S. officials now view as too harsh. Obama had previously commuted the sentences of eight prisoners under the new Justice Department-led initiative; tens of thousands more are seeking to have their cases reviewed. [continues 638 words]
Politicians, pundits and everybody else spend a lot of time trying to solve problems. Two sides argue their points, usually ad nauseam, and generally very little change actually happens. We blame this on gridlock and pat ourselves on our backs knowing that if we could unilaterally institute change, things would be better. Quite often, that is probably the case. Gridlock is frequently the problem of progress. If only we could institute this new idea, we could fix a particular problem. Sometimes however, there is a different culprit. [continues 754 words]
Ivan Speed is not a model citizen. Since growing up in the Alemany housing projects, Speed has spent his adulthood running the streets in San Francisco, racking up the kind of record -- assault, theft, drugs, guns -- that would earn even a fallen choir boy the title of "career criminal." Not that anyone in the Marina has anything to fear from the likes of Speed. His crime spree as of late has been contained to the Tenderloin, where his alleged misdeeds -- stealing $25, swiping a phone, selling $50 worth of crack cocaine -- are seemingly trivial, especially considering these daily occurrences often take place in full view of rollerbag-dragging tourists who wandered a block too far from their Union Square hotel. [continues 834 words]
John S. Santa has been successful in the fuel oil and energy business, but his real passion is trying to reduce the population of nonviolent offenders in the state's correctional system and to help those who are released into a society that turns its back on ex-offenders. Santa and the Rev. Marilyn B. Kendrix, associate pastor of Church of the Redeemer, United Church of Christ, met with the New Haven Register's editorial board Tuesday as members of the Malta Justice Initiative, which is, among other things, supporting Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's "Second Chance Society" proposals to reduce the human and financial costs of the state's criminal justice system. [continues 808 words]
In Federal Court, There's No Such Thing as Medical Marijuana-So a Rural Family of Medical Marijuana Patients Is Being Treated Like Drug Traffickers Before Rhonda Firestack-Harvey was part of a nationally watched court case that could change the course of the federal drug war, she lived quietly with her husband in their modest double-wide mobile home two hours northwest of Spokane. Rhonda suffers from carpal tunnel and osteoarthritis. In 2011, she got a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana for her achy joints. Her husband, Larry, also got medical authorization to use marijuana to treat pain caused by gout. Washington State was one of the very first states to approve medical marijuana, way back in 1998, and under state law, medical marijuana patients are allowed to grow their own medicine. When Rhonda and Larry started a grow on their property, Larry posted a sign with a green cross on it near the plants, hoping it would communicate to anyone flying over that this was a medical grow, not a criminal operation. [continues 2240 words]
In the United States , where doctors write more than 250 million prescriptions for painkillers a year, the frequency of abuse and overdose represents a public health crisis. More than 15,000 Americans died from an overdose of prescription opioids in 2013. In other parts of the world, however, the crisis is that strong painkillers such as morphine aren't available at all. More than 70% of the world's population live in countries with no access to opioids. That has been the case in India, where I am a palliative care physician. [continues 625 words]
Today, a rare consensus has emerged in favor of reforming our federal drug sentencing laws. This presents a historic opportunity to improve the fairness of our criminal justice system. But unless we act quickly, we risk letting the moment pass. The Justice Department has sought to be an early innovator on this front. A year and a half ago, I launched the Smart on Crime initiative- a comprehensive effort to reorient the federal government's approach to criminal justice. It focused on reducing the use of draconian mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses and deepening our investment in rehabilitation and reentry programs that can reduce the likelihood of recidivism. [continues 638 words]
Last week the newly created Coalition for Public Safety, a bipartisan, transideological campaign to reform the criminal justice system, made a big splash by bringing together political adversaries such as Koch Industries and the Center for American Progress. Notably absent from celebrations of this strange-bedfellows alliance: any mention of actual policy changes the coalition plans to pursue. The lack of specifics was understandable but telling. While there seems to be broad agreement within the coalition about what should be done to "make our criminal justice system smarter, fairer and more cost effective," the current Congress may settle for little more than lip service to those goals. [continues 571 words]
Liberal-Conservative Coalition Could Solidify Changes to Drug Sentencing For decades, federal prosecutors pushed for long, mandatory prison sentences for defendants convicted of drug crimes, regardless of whether the offenders were big-time narcotics kingpins or low-level dealers peddling loose joints on the street. The result was an explosion in the nation's prison population that has left authorities scrambling to build new prisons fast enough to keep up. With some 2 million people behind bars, the U.S. incarcerates a greater proportion of its citizens than any other nation on earth. [continues 590 words]
In a notable instance of bipartisanship, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) co-sponsored a bill last session seeking to address concerns about the harmful effects of mandatory minimum sentencing. If it had passed, the Justice Safety Valve Act would have allowed judges to deviate from mandatory minimums in instances where they deemed a lesser sentence to be warranted. Mandatory minimums imposed by legislatures prescribe specific sentences for certain offenses, particularly those involving drugs. This policy was intended to alleviate reasonable concerns that the discretion afforded to judges resulted in varied sentences for defendants who had committed similar crimes. Although uniformity in punishment and equal treatment under law ought to be objectives of a functioning legal system, mandatory minimums routinely result in unnecessarily lengthy prison sentences while also failing to deter crime. [continues 551 words]
The letters sent from prison inmates follow a script. In block letters, handwritten in pencil, as many words as possible are squeezed onto irregular scraps of paper. Sentences are vague and innocuous so as to not raise the hackles of the prison censor. They're also profoundly depressing, even when the prisoner claims to be in good spirits. "On the way here, the guards had the prisoner next to me taken out and killed," read one letter I received from a man who is doing time for running a state-legal dispensary. "There are other things I can only tell you about in person." [continues 819 words]
After His Conviction on Six Felony Counts Related to Marijuana Distribution, a Father Agonizes Over Strategy. Noah Kleinman faced his moment of reckoning: Should he tell a federal judge his marijuana dispensaries were just a front to distribute bulk marijuana and make hundreds of thousands of dollars? Or stick to his claim of innocence? Kleinman, a 39-year-old salesman from Studio City, had been convicted of six felony counts related to marijuana distribution in June. Now at his sentencing at the downtown federal courthouse, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright said he was inclined to go with the prosecutors' recommendation of 17 1/2 years in federal prison- devastating news for a father of two young children. [continues 1056 words]
The Moral and Political Case for Reforming the Criminal Justice System There isn't much room for optimism among progressives these days. President Obama's avenues to legislative achievement in his final two years are narrow and seem mostly to lead to the right toward a corporate tax reform in one instance, and a NAFTA-style trade deal with the Asia-Pacific region in another. But in these dark days, there is, as we are already witnessing, reason for hope in the form of last month's landmark climate change deal with China and Obama's executive action on immigration. And today, increasingly, there are signs that the United States could make greater strides on criminal justice reform than at any time in a generation or more. [continues 815 words]
In his first major public address, the chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court called for the repeal of mandatory minimum drug sentences. The case put forth Thursday by Ralph Gants, a former federal prosecutor for more than eight years, is a compelling one. He noted the "disparate impact" of mandatory minimum drug sentences on racial and ethnic minorities. In fiscal 2013, 450 defendants got such mandatory minimums. And while minorities represented 32 percent of all convicted offenders, they represented 75 percent of those convicted of mandatory drug offenses. [continues 131 words]
Eric Holder tendered his resignation last week, though he will stay in office until a successor is chosen for the attorney general position. Given congressional inertia on presidential nominees, he could still fill out Obama's term, so I'm not holding my breath. I'll leave his ultimate legacy to others, but on the subject of cannabis, Holder has a mixed record. While he has never advocated for legalization or decriminalization, he is the first attorney general to publicly question whether the federal government should reevaluate its cannabis laws. [continues 759 words]
Critics Say It's Part of Future Push for Stricter Gun Law Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday started to sell his idea of loosening Illinois drug laws for possession of illegal substances like marijuana, heroin and cocaine, but some of those he has to convince said they're skeptical because he'll want tougher gun laws in return. The reception to Emanuel's plan to decriminalize marijuana statewide and reduce minor drug possession to a misdemeanor illustrated the difficult slog the mayor faces as he tries to secure a signature victory on violent crime, an issue that's been at the forefront of his tenure. [continues 1603 words]
Does anybody really believe in this day and age that somebody deserves jail or prison time for getting caught with, say, a small amount of pot? Arresting and prosecuting low-level drug offenders is a waste of time. So say cops and assistant state's attorneys, who should know. On Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel rightly joined a growing call to decriminalize marijuana statewide and reduce penalties for small amounts of other controlled substances. As the mayor said in a press release, "It is time to put our sentencing policies in line with our values [and] reduce penalties for nonviolent, low-level drug offenses so we don't put people in prison who need drug treatment." [continues 628 words]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked state lawmakers Tuesday to soften Illinois' war on drugs, but the political response was lukewarm. Emanuel wants the General Assembly to go beyond what he did in Chicago by decriminalizing possession of 15 grams or less of marijuana and reducing from a felony to a misdemeanor the penalty for possession 1 gram or less of any controlled substance. "Thirteen other states already have laws on the books similar to what I'm proposing, and there is no higher rate of drug [use] in these states as a result," Emanuel said. [continues 266 words]
Decatur's finest get their man Dennis Kendall didn't finish high school, but at 32, he was a homeowner in Decatur before his world came crashing down. He began roofing at the age of 13, his family says, and was once employed by the same company for nine years. He didn't have a driver's license owing to a driving under the influence conviction. If he couldn't catch a ride to work, he'd call a cab. "He was early, if anything," recalls his employer, John Muehlebach, owner of Muehlebach Roofing. "He's the type of employee you don't come across very often in my industry." [continues 1036 words]
California should do away with the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. California, like the rest of the nation, is slowly rousing itself after a generation-long binge of harsh and unthinking criminal sentences, especially for nonviolent crimes such as drug possession and sale. Our morning-after realizations include the degree to which we have over-incarcerated, sending too many people to prison with too little notion of how they were supposed to change while locked up, or how they were expected to make their way in the world when they got out. [continues 626 words]
While many criticize her position, she says law punishes users ORANGE -- North Quabbin legislator Denise Andrews has come under fire for being the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against toughening penalties for heroin trafficking. The Republican candidate for the Second Franklin District House seat now held by Andrews has criticized the incumbent for what she calls "epic blindness to local concerns" in being the sole vote to sustain a gubernatorial veto against raising the maximum sentence for heroin trafficking from 20 to 30 years. [continues 656 words]
On May 12, 1996, Miami police raided the home of Richard Brown on a false tip that the 73-year-old retiree with no criminal record was selling drugs. After busting the door open, police claim that Richards began firing a gun, prompting officers to pump 123 rounds into his body. However, a later investigation revealed that the gun police allege Brown had used had no traces of his fingerprints on them. Brown's 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Janeka, reported he was not holding a gun when he instructed her to take shelter in a bathroom moments before he was killed. [continues 514 words]
In 1996, when he was the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Eric Holder urged the D.C. Council to reinstate mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, which it had abolished in 1994. Two decades later, as an attorney general who has repeatedly criticized "draconian" mandatory minimums and sought to limit their use, he faces resistance from the federal prosecutors he oversees. Holder alluded to that resistance in a speech to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on July 31, saying, "Any suggestion that defendant cooperation is somehow dependent on mandatory minimums is plainly inconsistent with the facts and with history." [continues 571 words]
In Politics: Ground Shifting Rapidly on Pot Prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U.S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U.S. prison for marijuana distribution. [continues 252 words]
In Politics: Ground Shifting Rapidly on Pot Prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U. S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U. S. prison for marijuana distribution. [continues 252 words]
In Politics: Ground Shifting Rapidly on Pot Prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U.S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U. S. prison for marijuana distribution. [continues 252 words]
WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U. S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U.S. prison for marijuana distribution. "I dare say that putting him in jail for five years did not reform him in the slightest. It only agitated him to the point where I think getting Mr. Trudeau elected as a reformer is going to be the singular thing he focuses on the most," St. Pierre said. [continues 204 words]
In Politics: Ground Shifting Rapidly on Pot Prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U.S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U.S. prison for marijuana distribution. [continues 251 words]
In Politics: Ground shifting rapidly on pot prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. Allen St. Pierre - executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the oldest pro-legalization group in the U.S. - knows Marc Emery from their time fighting pot laws. He says Emery's likely itching to return to the fray after serving time in U.S. prison for marijuana distribution. [continues 251 words]
In Politics: Ground shifting rapidly on pot prohibition WASHINGTON - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might have an ally in Canada's Prince of Pot - whether he likes it or not. "I dare say that putting him in jail for five years did not reform him in the slightest. It only agitated him to the point where I think getting Mr. Trudeau elected as a reformer is going to be the singular thing he focuses on the most," St. Pierre said. Both Emery and his wife say they're interested in running federally for the Liberals. The party has so far kept its distance. [continues 206 words]
A coalition of groups is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times this weekend, advocating against the maturing movement to legalize marijuana. The ad comes in response to a New York Times editorial series launched last weekend arguing for an end to marijuana prohibition. The newspaper's editorial board advocated for an end to the federal ban on the drug. The ad features a businessman with the pasted-on head of a hippie, a visual metaphor for what the groups warn is the disconnected perception and reality of legalization. [continues 234 words]
America's effort to use our prisons to stem the illegal drug problem has largely failed. Incarceration of drug offenders has seen prison and jail populations skyrocket, even as public opinion has shifted away from harsh sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. That's why the U.S. Sentencing Commission was right to decide this month that some 50,000 federal drug trafficking offenders could be eligible for reduced sentences. The amendment to federal sentencing guidelines, approved in April, is already in effect for offenders facing sentencing in the future, creating an issue of fairness: Why should the length of a sentence be determined by the date of sentencing? [continues 378 words]
As the War on Drugs Ebbs, So, Too, Should the War on Nonviolent Offenders THE NATION'S retreat from a maniacal and misguided mission to arrest and imprison our way out of our illegal drug problem has taken another important step. A federal commission has voted to allow federal inmates serving time on nonviolent drug charges under harsh mandatory-minimum guidelines to petition the courts to reduce their sentences. As many as 46,000 federal felons, some of whom already have spent substantial time in prison, could have their sentences reduced by an average of two years. [continues 501 words]
Commission Right to Offer Reduced Penalty America's effort to use our prisons to stem the illegal drug problem has largely failed. Incarceration of drug offenders has seen prison and jail populations skyrocket, even as public opinion has shifted away from harsh sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. That's why the U.S. Sentencing Commission was right to decide this month that some 50,000 federal drug trafficking offenders could be eligible for reduced sentences. The amendment to federal sentencing guidelines, approved in April, is already in effect for offenders facing sentencing in the future, creating an issue of fairness: Why should the length of a sentence be determined by the date of sentencing? [continues 377 words]
Reform of Overly Harsh Prison Sentences Is Both a Just and Practical Step Forward Few would argue at this point that the nation's decades-old war on drugs has been anything but a wretched failure. It has cost uncounted millions of dollars, sent tens of thousands of people to prison (disproportionately African-American) and helped give this country the world's largest incarceration rate - and all without putting a dent in drug use. Slowly, the country is uncoiling itself from this death grip. New York State has relaxed its Rockefeller drug laws, among the nation's harshest, and now Washington is backing away from mandatory minimum sentences, adopted and clung to since the crack cocaine epidemic hit in the 1980s. [continues 395 words]
Re "Crack (law) is wack" by Raheem F. Hosseini (SN&R News, July 3): Raheem F. Hosseini's article on reforms proposing to end the disparity in sentencing laws for crack cocaine, as opposed to cocaine in powder form, is interesting reading. Yet in some respects, the article's claims seem questionable, based on the information provided within the article itself. With respect to mandatory-minimum sentences for possession with intent to sell, the article cites three to five years for crack, vs. two to four years for powder. These are the only figures given comparing prison terms for crack vs. powder, and they do show a disparity, but hardly the "exponentially longer prison terms" claimed earlier on. Hosseini is a good reporter who has contributed many intelligent, perceptive, well-written articles to SN&R. This one could perhaps have been thought out a bit more clearly. David Urman Sacramento [end]
Sentencing Commission Vote Continues a Shift From Get-Tough Policies The U.S. Sentencing Commission decided Friday that nearly 50,000 federal drug offenders currently in prison are eligible for reduced sentences, a move that could flood the nation's courts and prosecutors with applications for leniency. By a unanimous vote, the commission made retroactive an earlier change that had lightened potential punishments for most future drug offenders who are sentenced starting in November. Friday's move extends that change to 46,000 current inmates, allowing them to have their cases reviewed again by a judge. [continues 827 words]
Dean Holcomb sits in his Yakima motel room June 27, 2014. Holcomb has been living off and on in motel rooms since he had to sell his home following a raid by law enforcement agents and their seizure of medical marijuna plants from his Lower Valley farm. Holcomb, 58, was convicted of a misdemeanor marijuna possession and will spend six months in prison. He must report to authorities July 3, 2014. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic) Rows of marijuana plants grow at Dean Holcomb's farm in the Lower Valley in August, 2013. The plants, which were intended for medical marijuana use, were seized by federal agents Sept. 24, 2013. (Photo by Dean Holcomb)This cellphone photo shows law enforcement agents hauling off a truckload of marijuana plants from Dean Holcomb's Lower Valley farm on Sept. 24, 2014. (Photo by Dean Holcomb)Dean Holcomb sits in his Yakima motel room June 27, 2014. Holcomb has been living off and on in motel rooms since he had to sell his home following a raid by law enforcement agents and their seizure of medical marijuna plants from his Lower Valley farm. Holcomb, 58, was convicted of a misdemeanor marijuna possession and will spend six months in prison. He must report to authorities July 3, 2014. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic)In this Thursday, May 8, 2014 photo, from left, Larry Harvey, Rhonda Firestack-Harvey, and Rolland Gregg stand in the plaza in front of the federal courthouse in Spokane, Wash. The three are charged with growing marijuana at a remote farm near Kettle Falls, Wash. Each face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison after they were caught growing about 70 pot plants on their rural, mountainous property. Medical marijuana advocates have cried foul, arguing the prosecution violates Department of Justice policies announced by Attorney General Eric Holder last year that nonviolent, small-time drug offenders shouldn't face lengthy prison sentences. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios) Phone: 509-577-7674 Follow me on: By Kate Prengaman / Yakima Herald-Republic [continues 2714 words]
There was the grandmother who hid heroin in the rails of her wheelchair. The pair of women who sewed cocaine packets into their hair extensions. And the Trinidadian man who stuffed cocaine in frozen goat meat. For years, a steady parade of drug smugglers have tried all sorts of ways to ferry contraband into the United States through Kennedy International Airport in Queens, posing a challenge not only to Customs and Border Protection officers, but also to federal prosecutors. To avoid clogging up the court, the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn has embraced a strategic approach that allows couriers to plead guilty and offer information in return for lighter sentences. The policy reflected a view among many prosecutors that the mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related offenses - which require prison terms of five years and higher in these smuggling cases - were too harsh on defendants who were typically nonviolent and disadvantaged. [continues 1384 words]
Legislature to Hear Long Overdue Drug Reform Bill Next Month A senate bill going through the state Legislature would treat crack cocaine the same as powdered cocaine. Advertisement State legislators are finally getting around to one of the most racist drug laws on the books. On July 2, the state Assembly Appropriations Committee gaveled through the California Fair Sentencing Act of 2014 on a 12-to-3 margin (with two abstentions). Aided by a bullish review from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, the bill will hit the full floor in August. [continues 744 words]
Legislature Poised to Hear Reform Bill in August On Wednesday, the state Assembly Appropriations Committee gaveled through the California Fair Sentencing Act of 2014 on a 12-to-3 margin (with two abstentions). Aided by a bullish review from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, the bill will hit the full floor in August. The act, Senate Bill 1010, aims to reverse a drug policy that for years incarcerated people of color for exponentially longer prison terms than white individuals for violating essentially the same law: possession of cocaine for sale. [continues 693 words]
Imagine this: Two defendants, same age, smoke joints with some friends one July evening in their apartments. Neither has a criminal record. Both get caught; one faces an extra two years in jail. Why? Because he shared drugs within a certain number of feet from a school that's been out for a month. The so-called "Drug Free School Zone" is one of many laws that create extra penalties for already illegal acts with no reasonable tie to the public's safety or the defendant's particular circumstances. [continues 775 words]
Voters approved medical marijuana in Michigan in 2008, 63 percent to 37 percent - a huge margin for a ballot proposal. But implementing the voter-approved law has been a rocky process, more often ironed out in courts rather than in the Michigan Legislature. Along the way, marijuana has sparked debates over it's role as medicine vs a gateway drug to more illicit substances, and it has become a political football. Legal or not, however, marijuana is also big business. In the Village of Holly, a couple miles from where Pete Trzos opened his Well Greens medical marijuana business in January 2013 and which was promptly shut down by police, a street downtown is named Battle Alley. [continues 1636 words]
