Legal Drugs 101: July 2016

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

America Wants Legalization, Trump and Pence Don’t

from marijuananews.com

Jul 21, 2016

It’s official, Donald Trump’s plus-one on the Republican ticket is Indiana Governor Mike Pence and no matter what side of the war on drugs you think Trump will land on – one thing is clear, Mike Pence is terrible for cannabis legalization.

Pence’s anti-cannabis view is not in step with his constituents, and it won’t be with the American people either.

Going back to at least 2012, a majority of Indianans support legalization. An October 2012 Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll revealed 54% favored decriminalization and 38% opposed. When the April 2013 Howey Politics Poll asked the same question, 56% favored and 37% opposed. However, Gov. Pence remains a steadfast adversary to Indiana’s marijuana movement.

This year, more than half, 58 percent, of Americans are polling in favor of legalization. But that doesn’t guarantee the GOP nominees will back up the will of the American people when it comes to legalization.

Trump enjoys flip-flopping on issues from nuclear proliferation to abortion, so there’s really no telling where he will stand on medical marijuana and legalization.

Many cannabis supporters hold onto the hope that he will be the Republican to finally support cannabis because of his love of money and business. For instance, marijuana is expected to become a $44 BILLION dollar a year business by the year 2020, according to a forecast from The Marijuana Business Factbook on CBS.

Here’s The Donald’s stance(s) on legalization:

“In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state. … Marijuana is such a big thing. I think medical should happen — right? Don’t we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states.” Washington Post, October 29, 2015
“I’d say [regulating marijuana] is bad. Medical marijuana is another thing, but I think it’s bad and I feel strongly about that. [Moderator: “What about the states’ right aspect of it?”] If they vote for it, they vote for it… But I think, medical marijuana, 100%.” C-SPAN, June 23, 2015
“We’re losing badly the War on Drugs. You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.” Miami Herald, April 14, 1990

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) agrees, Trump isn’t a complete failure when it comes to cannabis. They give him a ‘C+’, because he sometimes says that he is for states’ rights, and a businessman. Not to be pinned to his words, Trump and his campaign have shown they can and will defend Trump’s most recent position on any given issue. The most recent example is the Trump camp’s denial of Melania Trump’s speech plagiarizing parts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech. The Trump campaign then did a 180-degree turnaround, acknowledging that it indeed did happen – and then praised the mistake for making Melania’s speech the talk of the town.

Anti-Marijuana Pence in Indiana

Despite a majority of the state supporting the plant, Indiana continues to enforce some of the most severe punishments for marijuana in the nation — penalties for marijuana-related offenses range from about 1-6 years and $1,000 – $10,000 dollars. Albeit harsh, it’s still better than it was prior to 2013’s Indiana Criminal Code Revision. The revision to Indiana’s criminal code, House Bill 1006, was a reflection of the growing support for marijuana law reform.

Pence signed it into law when he first entered office but quickly vocalized his disdain for the reform at a press conference. “I think we need to focus on reducing crime, not reducing penalties,” said Pence.

In the lead-up to the 2012 Indiana gubernatorial elections, he clearly spoke out against cannabis at the Fort Wayne gubernatorial debate. On medical marijuana, Mike Pence called it a gateway drug, “I would not support the decriminalization of marijuana. I’ve seen too many people become involved with marijuana and get sidetracked. We need to get more serious about confronting the scourge of drugs.”

Trump is the king of adaptation, he and his VP pick will conform to the Republican National Committee’s stance.

Republicans Officially Shun Marijuana

The Republican National Committee’s 2016 official platform doesn’t reflect America’s shifting attitude. The term ‘marijuana’ is mentioned only once, under the subheading ‘Combatting Drug Abuse’:

“The progress made over the last three decades against drug abuse is eroding, whether for cultural reasons or for lack of national leadership. In many jurisdictions, marijuana is virtually legalized despite its illegality under federal law. At the other end of the drug spectrum, heroin use nearly doubled from 2003 to 2013, while deaths from heroin have quadrupled. All this highlights the continuing conflicts and contradictions in public attitudes and public policy toward illegal substances. Congress and a new administration should consider the long range implications of these trends for public health and safety and prepare to deal with the problematic consequences.”

Lumping together medical marijuana and opioids under one heading, the Republican National Committee is leaps and bounds behind the more progressive Democratic platform. As stated in a draft of their party platform:

“We believe that the states should be laboratories of democracy on the issue of marijuana, and those states that want to decriminalize marijuana should be able to do so. We support policies that will allow more research on marijuana, as well as reforming our laws to allow legal marijuana businesses to exist without uncertainty. And we recognize our current marijuana laws have had an unacceptable disparate impact, with arrest rates for marijuana possession among African Americans far outstripping arrest rates among whites, despite similar usage rates.”

By far, the most 420-friendly nominees belong to the Green and Libertarian parties. Gary Johnson is the only third-party candidate on the leadership board, currently polling at 13 percent, according to the latest CNN/ORC poll. Hillary Clinton has 42 percent, Donald Trump 37 percent.

What’s exciting about these polling numbers is if Gary Johnson holds steady at 15 percent, he could be invited on the debate stage with Clinton and Trump.

The VP pick, the RNC platform, and rumors that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie could be tapped for Attorney General all point to the rolling back of any progress the marijuana movement has seen in the past decade. As Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie has single-handedly strangled his state’s medical marijuana program. It’s hard to prescribe, obtain, and dispense cannabis in The Garden State because of the anti-marijuana politician.

The combination of Pence and Christie atop of the Republican National Committee’s anti-marijuana platform will have Trump running far away from any support he once had for legalization and the cannabis industry.

Monday, July 25, 2016

In Fort Myers, A Non-Terror Mass Murder America Decided To Ignore

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Prosecutor: Venezuela First Lady's Nephews Confess Drug Deal

from nytimes

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJULY 24, 2016, 1:51 A.M. E.D.T.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Two nephews of Venezuela's powerful first lady allegedly confessed to trying to smuggle 800 kilograms (1,763 pounds) of cocaine into the U.S. following their arrest last year in Haiti, according to prosecutors in the politically-charged case.

The court filings Friday by prosecutors shed new light on the case that has sounded alarm bells about high-level corruption and drug trafficking by Venezuela's political elite at a time of increasing economic and political turmoil in the South American nation.

Efrain Campo and Francisco Flores were arrested last November in Haiti in a sting operation coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration. They were then flown to New York, where they are in jail awaiting trial for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The documents filed Friday seek to refute a motion by the defendants' attorneys to suppress their post-arrest statements to DEA agents on their way to New York because they allegedly hadn't been informed of their rights and were coerced after being taken into custody by armed men in ski masks in what they at first thought was a kidnapping.

Prosecutors allege Campo and Flores hatched the drug deal in about two months. They said it was first brought to the attention of the DEA by a wheelchair-bound cooperating witness nicknamed "El Sentado," who met Campo and Flores in Honduras and ended up killed three weeks after their arrest.

As part of the DEA investigation, confidential sources were sent to Caracas to meet with the two young men. The court documents include photographs allegedly taken from a secret video of those meetings that prosecutors say show Campo examining a brick of cocaine with plastic gloves as Flores looks on. Campo allegedly said the narcotics came from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

During the meetings, Campo allegedly brags about owning several Ferraris and being at "war" with the U.S. and Venezuela's opposition. He also describes high-level connections with the government that will make it easy to move drugs through Caracas' international airport and prevent any cocaine-laden plane from being follow by law enforcement because, he said, "it departs as if .... someone from our family was on the plane," according to a statement by U.S. attorneys for the southern district of New York.

In the court filings, Campo first suggested to agents that the cocaine deal was to fund Cilia Flores' congressional campaign.

"I know I said that but in reality it was for me," a court document quotes Campo as telling a DEA agent.

"Campo stated that friends in the drug business had told him to be careful not to get robbed so he made the statement regarding his Mom's campaign for protection," the DEA agent wrote in his post-arrest report.

In reality, Campo said he was struggling financially, earning just $800 a week from a fleet of taxis he owned in Panama, according to the documents. He also described being rebuffed by his cousin, Erick Malpica-Flores, then finance director of state-run oil giant PDVSA, in a plan to charge commissions to businesses trying to collect on debts owed them by the company.

Campo, 29, said he and his wanted to make $20 million from multiple drug shipments, enough to go live in the U.S. with his wife and child. He said his family would "kill him" if they knew what he was up to, according to the documents.

Campo's lawyer didn't immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

The U.S has been steadily stepping up pressure on high-ranking members of Venezuela's military, police and government officials for their role in making the country an important transit zone for narcotics. Several Venezuelan officials, including a former defense minister and head of military intelligence, have been indicted or sanctioned in the U.S., and many more are under investigation.

Cilia Flores, who President Nicolas Maduro calls the "First Combatant," is one of the most influential members of Venezuela's socialist government and a constant presence alongside her husband.

The single time she commented on her nephews' case in January she said they had been kidnapped by the DEA, which was kicked out of Venezuela a decade ago, in an attempt to destabilize her husband's rule.

___

Joshua Goodman is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjoshgoodman His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/joshua-goodman

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Libertarian Gary Johnson: Drug war 'root cause' of police shootings

from politico

Poor relations between police and African-Americans stems from the criminalization of drug use, Gary Johnson said. | Getty

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/gary-johnson-dallas-shooting-225294#ixzz4E26k2NML
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

Gary Johnson believes the tensions between police and minorities that led to two high-profile police shootings and the deaths of five Dallas police officers has a root cause: The long-running war on drugs.

The libertarian nominee for president did not directly tie the drug war to the shooting deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana by police or the sniper killings of five officers in Texas this week. But poor relations between police and African-Americans stems from the criminalization of drug use, he said.

“That’s the common thread. Shootings are occurring with black people, black people are dying,” he added. “This is an escalation.”“The root is the war on drugs, I believe. Police knocking down doors, shooting first,” Johnson said in an interview Friday in Washington. “If you are (black and) arrested in a drug-related crime, there is four times more likelihood of going to prison than if you are white. And shooting is part of the same phenomenon.”

The former Republican governor of New Mexico is pitching a complete rewrite of the nation’s drug policy as part of his underdog run for the presidency alongside his running mate, former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Bill Weld. Johnson wants to legalize marijuana and find other ways to deal with harder drugs than long periods of incarceration.

He said that will soon happen, predicting that California will vote this fall to legalize marijuana and President Barack Obama will remove cannabis from its listing as a Class 1 drug. "I think Obama’s going to do that going out the door," Johnson said.

“The focus on drugs needs to be as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue. It can be illegal but does it need to be criminal? Do you need to go to jail for drugs?” Johnson said. “I do believe that the root of the militarization, knocking on doors, is a drug war phenomenon.”

The laid-back libertarian, dressed in jeans and an open-collared button-down in a hotel dining room, declined to join Republicans in criticizing Obama for pointing to “powerful weapons” this week as a cause of violence between police officers and minorities. But Johnson said the focus on assault rifles is misguided.

“That is a category of rifle that contains 30 million rifles. If you ban those rifles tomorrow and said hand ‘em in," only half of the weapons would actually be turned over, Johnson said. "And we’re going to have a whole new criminal class of people.”

Johnson said that as president he’d be open to proposals designed to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and the mentally ill. But he said he’d seen no such workable proposals in Congress, despite unsuccessful attempts by both Democrats and Republicans.