• Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - International - Law Enforcement & Prisons - Question of the Week

    What was the Rainbow Farm?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 9-11-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network in loving memory of all victims of the tragic events that converged on 9-11-01. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3534

    Question of the Week: What was the Rainbow Farm?

    Paraphrasing a January 2002 Washington Post article entitled “Was Rainbow Farm another Waco?”, the Rainbow Farm was a …

    “34-acre farm and an adjoining 20-acre wood near Vandalia, [Michigan]. [Tom] Crosslin bought the farm … as a place where he and [Rollie] Rohm could escape their urban life. … He turned Rainbow Farm into a campground and began holding pro-pot festivals every Labor Day and Memorial Day weekend.”

    On Friday, August 31, 2001,

    “the building where bands waited to go onstage — was burning. … A helicopter from WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana shooting fire footage for the evening news [was told to] leave because the cops said somebody was shooting at them. … On Sunday, the FBI arrived, more than 50 strong, summoned to the scene because the helicopter shooting was a federal crime … John Bell, head of the FBI’s Detroit office … sent three FBI SWAT teams, each composed of three sharpshooters …

    in the woods … at a campsite … two agents fired, one of them shooting Crosslin through the forehead, killing him instantly.”

    Early the next day,

    “two state police snipers fired from 150 yards away.  One missed.  The other shot through the stock of Rohm’s rifle and into his chest, killing him.”

    The Rainbow Farm might have simply been counted among estimated 40,000 paramilitary SWAT raids that occurred in 2001, but in the context of history, it was no ordinary raid.

    It was the harbinger of what was to come.

    Eight days later on September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners, flying two of them into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into a Pennsylvania cornfield, killing a total of 2,977 people.

    The 9/11 Commission Report released in 2004 found that FBI priorities were

    “driven at the local level by the field offices, whose concerns centered on traditional crimes such as white-collar offenses and those pertaining to drugs and gangs. … In 2000, there were still twice as many agents devoted to drug enforcement as to counterterrorism.”

    The report concluded,

    “In sum, the domestic agencies never mobilized in response to the threat. … The terrorists exploited deep institutional failings.”

    Perhaps one failing was the drug war.

    These facts and others like them can be found on the Interdiction Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net - Law Enforcement & Prisons

    Too Many Cops?

    The crime rate is down but police forces are growing. We’re poorer as a result, but not necessarily any safer.

    by Ken MacQueen, and Patricia Treble

    This spring, Tamara Cartwright dropped off an envelope at her local post office outside Lethbridge, Alta. A friend had sent her a jar of hemp-based ointment, so she replied with a thank you card, wrote her name and return address on the envelope and, in a decision certain to haunt her for years to come, enclosed four grams of her homegrown marijuana, enough for perhaps four cigarettes. On an April morning some days later she returned to the post office to pick up another package. Moments later, police pulled her over, handcuffed her, put her in a cruiser and hauled her off to the police station.

    It made quite a spectacle, says the 41-year-old mother of four, who suffers from colitis and is one of more than 10,000 medical marijuana patients registered with Health Canada. “It was embarrassing,” she says. “I was still in my pyjamas.” She emerged four hours later with a trafficking charge for giving away those four grams.

    Her charge is part of a recent marked increase in arrests for cannabis offences. Cannabis arrests jumped 13 per cent in 2010 to 75,126. Of those, almost 57,000 were for simple possession, a 14 per cent jump from the year before. (The statistics reflect cases where the arrest was the most serious charge a person faced, not the thousands more where a pot charge was tacked onto a string of more serious crimes.) The cannabis arrest rate is an anomaly at a time when the overall crime rate in 2010 fell to its lowest level since the mid-1970s.

    Ironically, Cartwright’s legal predicament may be linked to that falling crime rate, which comes at a time when policing costs are climbing relentlessly and the number of sworn officers in Canada is at its highest level in almost 30 years. It may simply be that with less overall crime, police have the time, staffing and inclination to focus on minor drug arrests. The vast majority of those arrested are younger than 24, and mostly male, if past findings hold true. And the majority of those arrests are for pot possession, “the low-lying fruit,” as Dalhousie University criminologist Christopher Murphy puts it.

  • Hot Off The 'Net - Law Enforcement & Prisons

    Border Patrol Agent Fired For Views On Drug Legalization Files Lawsuit

    By Lucia Graves

    In September of 2009, border patrol agent Bryan Gonzalez was fired for expressing his views on drug legalization to a fellow agent. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has joined Gonzalez in filing a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

    Gonzalez, 26, alleges that he was dismissed from his job in El Paso, Texas after saying in casual conversation that legalizing and regulating drugs would help stop cartel violence along the southern border with Mexico. His letter of termination stated his comments were “contrary to the core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication, and esprit de corps.”

    Gonzalez told his colleague Shawn Montoya in April of 2009 that “legalization of drugs would end the drug war and related violence in Mexico,” adding that “the drug problems in America were due to American demand for drugs supplied by Mexico,” according to the complaint he and the ACLU-NM filed in federal court.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net - Law Enforcement & Prisons

    Pat Robertson Favors Marijuana Legalization

    By Stephen C. Webster
    Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

    Count this among the 10 things nobody ever expected to see in their lifetimes: 700 Club founder Pat Robertson, one of the cornerstone figures of America’s Christian right movement, has come out in favor of legalizing marijuana.

    Calling it getting “smart” on crime, Robertson aired a clip on a recent episode of his 700 Club television show that advocated the viewpoint of drug law reformers who run prison outreach ministries.

    A narrator even claimed that religious prison outreach has “saved” millions in public funds by helping to reduce the number of prisoners who return shortly after being released.

    “It got to be a big deal in campaigns: ‘He’s tough on crime,’ and ‘lock ’em up!'” the Christian Coalition founder said. “That’s the way these guys ran and, uh, they got elected. But, that wasn’t the answer.”

    His co-host added that the success of religious-run dormitories for drug and alcohol cessation therapy present an “opportunity” for faith-based communities to lead the way on drug law reforms.

    “We’re locking up people that have taken a couple puffs of marijuana and next thing you know they’ve got 10 years with mandatory sentences,” Robertson continued. “These judges just say, they throw up their hands and say nothing we can do with these mandatory sentences. We’ve got to take a look at what we’re considering crimes and that’s one of ’em.

    “I’m … I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it’s just, it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing.”

  • Drug Policy - Law Enforcement & Prisons - Question of the Week

    How large is the U.S. prison population?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 11-9-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 11-9-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3138

    Question of the Week: How large is the U.S. prison population?

    According to an April 2010 study from the Pew Center on the States,

    “Survey data … indicate that as of January 1, 2010, there were 1,404,053 persons under the jurisdiction of state prison authorities, 4,777 (0.3 percent) fewer than there were on December 31, 2008. This marks the first year-to-year drop in the state prison population since 1972.”

    However, the report goes on to say,

    “In this period, however, the nation’s total prison population increased by 2,061 people because of a jump in the number of inmates under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The federal count rose by 6,838 prisoners, or 3.4 percent in 2009, to an all-time high of 208,118.”

    Added together, total state and federal prisoners now equal 1.6 million.

    The Pew Center then added local jail inmates to state and federal prisoners to conclude,

    “the overall incarcerated population [has] reached an all-time high, with 1 in 100 adults in the United States living behind bars.”

    A 2007 report from the International Center for Prison Studies compared prison ratios by country. It found that, excluding the U.S., countries with the highest incarceration rates included Russia (629 per 100,000), Rwanda (604 per 100,000), and Cuba (531 per 100,000).

    That report goes on to read,

    “The world population in 2008 is estimated at 6,750 million; set against a world prison population of 9.8 million this produces a world prison population rate of 145 per 100,000.”

    Recall that the comparative U.S. imprisonment rate is now 1,000 per 100,000.

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Prisons, Jails & Probation chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected]

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Law Enforcement & Prisons

    FBI Uniform Crime Report on Drug War Facts

    With the recent release of the FBI’s 2009 Uniform Crime Report numbers, the Crime and Marijuana Chapters of Drug War Facts have been updated with these additions:

    Fact 2. (2009, 2008, 2007, 1973 – drug arrests) “In 2009, arrests for drug law violations declined slightly (-2.3%) to 1,663,582. A small decrease also occurred in alcohol violations to 1,440,409 for Driving under the influence, 570,333 for liquor law violations, and 594,300 for drunkenness. Violent crime arrests in 2009 equaled 581,765, with 1,728,285 arrests for property crimes. Arrests for all offenses totaled 13,687,241, down -2.3% over 2008.”

    Fact 3. (1980-2009 – total, marijuana and drug arrests by year) “Although the intent of a “War on Drugs” may have been to target drug smugglers and ‘King Pins,’ over half (51.6%) of the 1,663,582 total 2009 arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana — a calculated total of 858,408. Of those, an estimated 758,593 people (45.6%) were arrested for marijuana possession alone. By contrast in 2000, a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses, of which 646,042 were for possession alone.”

    This aforementioned table lists Total Arrests, Total Drug Arrests, Total Marijuana Arrests, Marijuana Trafficking/Sale Arrests, Marijuana Possession Arrests, Total Violent Crime Arrests, and Total Property Crime Arrests by year since 1995 and including numbers for 1990 and 1980. All of these values have been validated against their source reports, with each of their URLs referenced in the citation … that’s with the exception of 1990 and 1980, which are only available by hard copy.

    Fact 4. (1995-2009 – marijuana arrests percent share of total drug arrests by year)  “The following table references the drug and marijuana arrests columns in the “US Arrests” table. It pairs “Total Marijuana Arrests,” “Marijuana Trafficking/Sale Arrests,” and “Marijuana Possession Arrests” against “Total Drug Arrests” to arrive at the percentage each has of the total for the respective years. This table shows the growing dominance of marijuana arrests among total drug arrests in the U.S., rising from a percentage of 39.9% of total drug arrests in 1995 to 52.6% of such arrests in 2009. Further, while arrests for sales and trafficking have wavered a few percentage points around 5-6% of total drug arrests, the numbers driving marijuana’s increased dominance of drug arrests are those for simple possession, jumping from 34.1% in 1995 to 45.6% in 2009. Arrests for marijuana possession have risen from about a third to about a half of all drug abuse violation arrests over the fifteen year 1995-2009 period.”

    The referenced table lists percentages calculated form the aforementioned “U.S. Arrests” table.

    Fact 5. (1996-2009 – drug and marijuana arrests percent change over prior year) “The following table references the total, drug, and marijuana arrest columns in the “US Arrests” table. It shows the percentage change over the prior year for “Total Arrests,” “Total Drug Arrests,” “Total Marijuana Arrests,” “Marijuana Trafficking & Sale Arrests,” and “Marijuana Possession Arrests.” Total Arrests in the United States have steadily hovered between 13.6 million and 15.3 million over the fourteen year period (1996-2009), with the annual percent change for that time span averaging -0.7%. Drug arrests have ranged between a low of 1.5 million in 1996 and a high of 1.9 million in 2006, with an average percent change over the fourteen year period of +0.9%. The percentage change values for marijuana arrests confirm their upward trend. Total marijuana arrests in 2009 (858,408) are +45.7% higher than those in 1995 (588,964). The year that the percentage growth in marijuana arrests peaked – 2003 – began a five-year upward trend largely driven by arrests for marijuana possession. For simple possession, the average annual percent change covering 1996-2009 equaled +3.1%; in contrast, that value for trafficking and sales was +1.3%.”

    This table, too, references the “U.S. Arrests” table.

    These FBI tables and reports document that marijuana has been THE target of the drug war. It is tragic to note that marijuana trafficking and sales arrests stood at their highest value ever of 99,815 for 2009, a +6% increase over 2008. The arrests for marijuana possession of 758,593 in 2009 represented the second highest value in their category.

    Source: “Crime in the United States 2009,” FBI Uniform Crime Report (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, September 2010), Table 29, and Arrest Table: Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations, .

  • Drug Policy - Law Enforcement & Prisons - Question of the Week

    The effectiveness of paramilitary drug law enforcement

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 5-25-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 5-25-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2912

    Question of the Week: Is the use of paramilitary SWAT raids in drug enforcement effective?

    First, let’s count the numbers. The Office of National Drug Control Policy noted in its fiscal year 2010 Budget Summary that,

    “For FY 2007,  … there were almost 620 HIDTA [High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas] initiatives.”

    The ONDCP said that these

    “HIDTA initiatives … seized $673 million in cash, and $203 million in noncash assets from drug traffickers.” And “These initiatives identified more than 7,300 DTOs [drug trafficking organizations] operating in their areas.”

    SWAT units are often integrated into HIDTA initiatives.

    Rodney Balko found in his 2006 Cato Institute analysis that

    “these increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers.”

    Further, Balko countered that the seizure of cash and assets, called forfeiture, cause

    “police officials [to] feel increasing pressure to send SWAT teams out on drug assignments, where the assets seized come back to the department and can help offset the costs of having a SWAT team in the first place.”

    So, despite disrupting drug traffickers and seizing of hundreds of millions of assets, often needed to fund the SWAT teams themselves, HIDTA still identified over seven thousand drug trafficking organizations. Sound effective?

    Further, a new report by the International Center for Science in Drug Policy reviewed the scientific evidence concerning this approach to drug law enforcement and confirmed that it,

    “contributes to gun violence and high homicide rates and that increasingly sophisticated methods of disrupting organizations involved in drug distribution could unintentionally increase violence.”

    Possibly, violence begets violence?

    These facts and others like them come from the Drug Interdiction Chapter of Drug War Facts.