Drugs & Prohibitions

Leahy Blocks Release of Some Mexican Drug War Aid

"Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, last week blocked the release of $95 million in funds destined to help Mexico prosecute its war on drugs, saying neither the US nor the Mexican governments had shown they had a clear strategy for moving forward. The money was appropriated as part of the Merida Initiative, a Bush-era plan to support the Mexican government's crackdown on the country's violent and powerful drug cartels. The Merida Initiative was a $1.4 billion, multi-year foreign assistance program, but it has had no appreciable impact on either the violence or the drug trade there." Continue reading →

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Is There a Perfect Storm for Federal Sentencing Reform?

"The Justice Safety Valve Act (Senate Bill 619), introduced in the spring, and the Smart Sentencing Act (Senate Bill 1410), introduced just last week, have better prospects of moving forward now than anything since the Fair Sentencing Act passed three years ago. That's because it's not just Democrats or liberals who are supporting them. The Justice Safety Valve Act, sponsored by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), has not only the usual suspects behind it, but also The New York Times, conservative taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, and a group of 50 former prosecutors." Continue reading →

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One in 10 Americans have taken drugs prescribed for others

"One in 10 Americans admit taking a prescription drug they have not been prescribed, and a quarter of those people have used them just to get high, according to an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos poll. While about six in ten Americans who used another person’s prescriptions did so for pain relief, a fifth took them to sleep or to manage stress and anxiety, the poll showed. Pharmacies in the United States dispensed more than 4 billion prescriptions in 2012, according to IMS Health, a healthcare research firm. The poll indicated it is not difficult to get hold of such drugs even without a prescription." Continue reading →

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The Eric Holder Memorandum on Mandatory Minimum Sentences, Explained

"In short, the Holder Memorandum directs prosecutors to prevent application of mandatory minimum sentences for a select group of less-culpable defendants. Isn't this A good thing? Yes, with a but. It's a good thing that the Jane Does of the world can be sentenced according to the judge's discretion and not according to mandatory minimum sentences. A lot of low-level, unsophisticated, and hapless mules and mopes and dupes will get far lower sentences, which is both just and less expensive for you, the taxpayer. But I'm not happy that the methodology for the change is a fairly dramatic expansion of prosecutorial discretion." Continue reading →

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Why does America have such a big prison population?

"America has around 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of its prisoners. Roughly one in every 107 American adults is behind bars, a rate nearly five times that of Britain, seven times that of France and 24 times that of India. Its prison population has more than tripled since 1980. The growth rate has been even faster in the federal prison system: from around 24,000—its level, more or less, from the 1940s until the early 1980s—to more than 219,000 today. Probably the biggest driver of this growth has been ever-harsher drug penalties." Continue reading →

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Here’s What It’s Like To Buy Drugs On Three Anonymous Online Black Markets

"The hardest part of scoring drugs in the age of the digital black market? Choosing among all the consumer-friendly websites ready to sell them. Our results were mixed, and far from scientific, since we made only one buy per site, and each site hosts dozens or hundreds of vendors. (The sites’ third-party seller model is more akin to eBay and Etsy than Amazon or Zappos.) We also couldn’t test the quality of the products–Our lawyer insisted we destroy them. (See video below.) But this much is clear: the age of narcotics e-commerce has arrived." Continue reading →

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Former narcotics officer: We terrorized families over a bag of pot

"'Searching the house, I noticed the kids had straight ‘A’ report cards, the parent’s checkbook was balanced, and I realized that something was amiss, something was really bad.' 'I put it together years later, after I started smoking pot,' he confessed. 'You know, a lot of people report that the use of that medication helps a person self-reflect. And, wow, the veil came off and then I started doing the real research for myself instead of believing the propaganda. And I cried for a year after I found out the truth and what I had been involved in.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer narcotics officer: We terrorized families over a bag of pot

As haze clears, are American opinions on marijuana reaching tipping point?

"When Washington and Colorado legalized pot -- with strict controls by established state agencies and a coherent tax structure -- opponents weren't able to raise the money to fight the initiatives. John Kane, a federal judge in Colorado, said in December he sees marijuana following the same path as alcohol in the 1930s. Toward the end of Prohibition, Kane explained, judges routinely dismissed violations or levied fines so trivial that prosecutors quit filing cases. 'The law is simply going to die before it's repealed. It will just go into disuse,' Kane said. 'It's a cultural force, and you simply cannot legislate against a cultural force.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAs haze clears, are American opinions on marijuana reaching tipping point?

Meet The Man Behind Booming Black Market Drug Website Silk Road

"Anyone can download and run Tor, exchange some dollars or euros for the digital currency Bitcoin and go shopping on Silk Road for drugs that are vacuum-sealed and discreetly mailed via the U.S. Postal Service. By one measure, Roberts’ eBay-like service was grossing $1.2 million a month in the first half of 2012. Since then the site has doubled its product listings, and revenue now hits an annual run-rate of $30 million to $45 million by FORBES’ estimate. One analysis found that Silk Road received around 60,000 visits a day, mostly users seeking to buy or sell drugs, along with other illicit items including unregulated cigarettes and forged documents." Continue reading →

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Angry Oklahoman confronts Republican congressman over NSA surveillance

"Republican Congressman James Lankford of Oklahoma received a verbal lashing at a town hall meeting on Tuesday from a man upset with the National Security Agency’s surveillance program. 'The DEA and the IRS are getting information from the NSA and using it to frame American citizens and then lying about where they got the information,' Dax Ewbank of Oklahoma City said at the event. 'This is what is happening. Now, what happens if the government becomes politically against my belief system or my lifestyle?' 'I do not accept this idea that we need to wait for two years while you guys figure out what to do,' Ewbanks said. 'It needs to end now.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAngry Oklahoman confronts Republican congressman over NSA surveillance