The defendant is 32, with an IQ of 72. He's a low level drug dealer. Under the federal mandatory minimum sentencing statutes, the Judge had no choice but to impose a sentence of life without parole. The Judge is angry.

Judge David N. Hurd said child rapists and murderers will go free on parole while Justin D. Powell languishes in prison for life, largely because the defendant was convicted of drug crimes twice during his teenage years, more than a decade before the instant offense. Because of those prior convictions, the sole sentencing option was life, Hurd said.

"The increment of harm in this case bears no rational relationship to the increment of punishment that I must impose," Hurd said at a sentencing proceeding last week in Utica, N.Y. "This is what occurs when Congress sets [a] mandatory minimum sentence which distorts the entire judicial process... . As a result, I am obligated to and will now impose this unfair and, more important, unjust sentence."

Update: Check out Jack Shafer in Slate yesterday, This is Your County on Meth.

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The New York Times yesterday furthered law enforcement's meth hysteria . Jan Frel at Alternet does a good job today of deconstructing the meth myth.

Colossal social lies are going on with this meth phenomenon. Stop at ANY truck depot across this great country (nowadays even lots of gas stations) and talk to a truck driver, or go visit a wide swathe of child education specialists or "learning experts." Talk to any A-ball to major league baseball player. Talk to a freelance journalist -- ignore this brat's confessions -- even one who specializes in drug use and American society. Ask them what personal experience has taught them about amphetamines.

Frel continues:

Club kids in England have discovered Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas. Authorites plan a clamp-down.

Although its recreational use is not illegal, those selling it have been warned they face prosecution under the Medicines Act by the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Promising to investigate after the issue was drawn to its attention by The Independent, a spokesman for the Agency said: "Sale of nitrous oxide for medicinal use is strictly regulated and anyone selling the drug for recreational use, whether or not they have a license, faces prosecution.''

I thought the drug went out of favor in the '70's:

The recreational aspect of the gas was highlighted by the late Hunter S Thompson in his tale of drug consumptionFear and Loathing in Las Vegas; and in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, the nitrous oxide-addicted villain, played by Dennis Hopper, carries a tank with him. It was also used as a disabling weapon by the Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, in the first Batman film.

Guess not. While the article talks about the relative safety of the gas, I did attend a client's funeral in the late '70's who died of an overdose. But he and his friends weren't doing balloons, they were sharing a tank.

The Sentencing Project has completed a (pdf) new report on post-Booker federal crack sentences:

The report coincides with the one-year anniversary of the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Booker, in which the Court struck down the mandatory application of the federal sentencing guidelines as unconstitutional, but kept the guidelines intact by requiring that they be consulted in an advisory capacity. Examining published court decisions, the new report assesses how judges have utilized their expanded range of discretion in one of the most contentious areas of federal sentencing, crack cocaine offenses.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, crack cocaine is punished at the rate of 100:1 compared to powder cocaine sentences. Here are the report's key findings:

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the gun-nutty 55 year mandatory sentence of 27 year old Weldon Angelos, who had no prior felony convictions.

Angelos was in possession of a gun, that he neither brandished, used nor displayed, when he conducted three marijuana sales. The total amount of pot involved was 24 ounces.

"Four former U.S. attorneys general and nearly 160 other ex-Justice Department officials and federal judges" filed an amicus brief on his behalf, arguing the sentence was so excessive as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In upholding the sentence,

.... the appeals court judges said they agreed with prosecutors who said the sentence was appropriate for Angelos' convictions and for other behavior involving drugs, guns and gang activity that prosecutors had evidence of, but did not charge him with.

by TChris

TalkLeft discussed here the folly of the government’s prosecution of convenience store clerks — mostly Indian immigrants, many of whom spoke limited English — for selling cold pills (pseudoephedrine) and antifreeze to police informants. The informants supposedly indicated that they intended to use the products to manufacture methamphetamine, but it’s unclear whether the clerks understood what the informants were saying.

As the prosecution has progressed, more people are questioning the wisdom of prosecuting merchants for selling legal products, and of singling out convenience store owners of Indian descent.

Calling federal drug charges against dozens of South Asian convenience store owners racially biased, several hundred people rallied Sunday in Decatur for an end to prosecution in what federal agents have dubbed "Operation Meth Merchant.

Tennessee's new shaming law applicable to drunk drivers goes into effect today.

Starting Sunday, convicted drunken drivers are required to spend 24 hours cleaning roadsides while wearing orange vests emblazoned with the phrase "I am a Drunk Driver." You cause them to go out and pick up trash in front of their friends and neighbors, the embarrassment is going to be such that they're never going to want to go through that again," said state Rep. Charles Curtiss (D). "Hopefully you can turn them around to never become a second-time offender."

...Tennessee offenders will have to spend at least one day in jail, followed by three eight-hour cleanup shifts. The previous minimum sentence for driving under the influence was 48 hours in jail.

No, that's not how it will work. It will cause a group of people to hate authrority and be bitter over the shaming treatment which will reduce their self esteem. And, as one cop says,

"At the end of the weekend, we're going to have a person who has picked up a lot of litter but is still addicted to alcohol," he said.

Treatment, not shame, is the answer.

by TChris

Individuals who claim to be abuse victims often seek a restraining order against the abuser. In many states, a judge will issue a temporary restraining order on the strength of the alleged victim’s affidavit. The TRO remains in effect until a hearing is held to determine whether to enter a lengthier injunction prohibiting contact with the victim.

Too many judges rubber stamp the initial request for a TRO without taking care to decide whether the allegations warrant relief. That seems to be what happened when a Santa Fe woman obtained a TRO against David Letterman. The woman claimed that Letterman “forced her to go bankrupt and caused her ‘mental cruelty’ and ‘sleep deprivation’ since May 1994.” She asked the court to order Letterman to “stay at least 3 yards away and not ‘think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering.’”

Alex White Plume and his family are members of the Lakota Nation who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The DEA sued to stop them from growing industrial hemp. The White Plumes planted and grew the hemp for three seasons, and then the DEA cut it down and took it.

The case reached the 8th Circuit where oral arguments were held this week.

During the oral arguments it became clear that Judge Kermit Bye and Judge Arlen Beam were focused on two issues: (1) the irrationality of allowing the exempt parts of the plant to be imported into the U.S. but not allowing industrial hemp to be grown in the U.S. and (2) the lack of any rational permitting process by the DEA.

While the Government's case was made, Judge Beam commented, "It seems asinine to me that they can bring in the Canadian stuff and use it but can't grow it." Beam also suggested that it did not make sense that Congress would try to make the economy of Native American tribes more enhanced by casino gambling but not allow industrial hemp cultivation.

It's about time. A researcher at the University of Massachussetts goes to court today to challenge the federal government's monopoly on growing marijuana for research purposes.

In a hearing due to start today before an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration, professor Lyle Craker and his supporters will argue for a DEA license to grow the research drugs. It is the climax of a decades-long effort to expand research into marijuana and controlled drugs and of Craker's almost five-year effort to become a competing marijuana grower.

Professor Lyle Cacker is a University researcher of the medicinal properties of plants. Research has long been allowed on controlled substances, just not pot. For 36 years, the feds have not allowed anyone outside the University of Mississippi, with whom it has a contract, to conduct research on marijuana, fearing it would result in increased illegal use.

Cacker says the pot grown by the feds is of such low quality and purity it would make a lousy medecine even if the Government did approve its use in the future. Meanwhile, there are a lot of sick folks who could be helped by the substance.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and the ACLU are seeking plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging the Government's ban on student aid for those with a drug conviction.

Since taking effect in 2000, more than 175,000 students have been deprived of aid under the “drug provision” of the Higher Education Act (HEA), often for minor offenses such as possession of marijuana.

“Congress has failed to listen to the growing chorus of student voices demanding repeal of this discriminatory and counterproductive law,” said Scarlett Swerdlow, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “Far too many students have had their education held hostage by Drug War politics. It’s time to stand up and take our aid back.”

If you or someone you know has lost their financial aid because of the HEA drug provision, please get in touch with them as soon as possible. Here's a full list of the more than 250 organizations that have called for a repeal of the aid ban.

Please raise your voice and be counted.

Here's a novel idea. A think tank in Afghanistan has a proposed solution to the opium problem in Afghanistan.

The West should buy up Afghanistan's opium crop and license its use for pain-relief medicines rather than trying to destroy the crop.

The Senlis Council, an international drug policy think-tank with operations in Afghanistan, says the planned deployment of 3,000 British troops to smash the narcotics trade there is doomed to fail. Senlis will present a feasibility study of its plan today at Chatham House in London. The idea is to establish a licensing system under which the Afghan government would control poppy cultivation for the production of opium-based pain killers, such as morphine and codeine, rather than trying to suppress it.