Via Marijuana Policy Project:

In a new Mason-Dixon poll released today, registered voters said by a greater than 3-1 margin that they don't want the federal government to arrest medical marijuana patients, even though the Supreme Court has given it permission to do so. In the poll, conducted June 8-11, 68% of voters said medical marijuana patients should not be arrested, compared to just 16% who said they should.

Responses varied little by party, age, or gender, with 63% of Republicans, 73% of Democrats, and 68% of independents agreeing that medical marijuana patients should not be arrested.

Bump and Update: 6/9/05: ACLU threatens lawsuit against Hawaii's U.S. Attorney.

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Original Post: 7/7/05

Unbelievable. Hawaii's medical pot program is essentially dead in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court opinon in Gonzales v. Raich. The U.S. Attorney there announced he won't prosecute users but will go after doctors who authorize residents to get a permit under the state's medical marijuana law.

U.S. Attorney Ed...Kubo said his office would not prosecute the medical marijuana smokers, but cautioned that the doctors could be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges as accomplices to the distribution of the marijuana, which is still illegal under federal law.

"The U.S. Supreme Court decision this morning is the death knell to the medical marijuana issue," he said, a sentiment shared by some medical marijuana advocates. "I would advise all physicians and anyone who is involved in distributing or helping in the distribution of any illegal narcotic to be very, very leery," he said.

Mark Fiore - the Pain Man- great take on the Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana.

by TChris

Criminal laws that are named after crime victims are almost always bad laws. So it is with New Jersey's Maggie's Law, named after a woman who was killed by a sleep-deprived driver. Maggie's mom was angry that two juries failed to convict the careless driver of murder (the driver later pled guilty to reckless driving), so she campaigned for a new law.

The law increased penalties for fatigued drivers who go more than 24 hours without sleep and cause a fatal accident. The law allowed such drivers to be charged with vehicular homicide, a second-degree offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a maximum $100,000 fine.

New Jersey used Maggie's Law for the first time this year, eight years after it was enacted.

Note that ER physicians routinely practice medicine after staying awake more than 24 hours, but they aren't subject to criminal prosecution if their fatigue-induced negligence leads to the death of a patient. Many factors (including fatigue) contribute to traffic accidents, but they are still accidents, and accidents should not be treated as serious crimes, despite the understandable outrage of a mom regarding her child's death.

by TChris

Milton Friedman, an economist who is generally esteemed by conservatives, doesn't understand the economics underlying the war against pot.

Milton Friedman leads a list of more than 500 economists from around the U.S. who today will publicly endorse a Harvard University economist's report on the costs of marijuana prohibition and the potential revenue gains from the U.S. government instead legalizing it and taxing its sale. Ending prohibition enforcement would save $7.7 billion in combined state and federal spending, the report says, while taxation would yield up to $6.2 billion a year.

While Friedman's expertise is in economics, his arguments against using the criminal justice system to wage war on drug users go beyond the economic cost of the policy. Says Friedman:

"Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia. I haven't even included the harm to young people. It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes."

The report, authored by Dr. Jeffrey Miron, is available here.

Here's one to make you LOL (laugh out loud), from Fourth Amendment.com, which tracks appellate decisons and news pertaining to searches and seizures daily:

Why CI's must be given careful scrutiny: A Worchester, MA man was arrested on information from a snitch that he was in possession of a large quantity of meth in a Wal-Mart bag. After the man arrested bailed out, the crime lab determined it was laundry detergent:

...."A Holland man who was arrested on charges of trafficking methamphetamine says he’s clean, that the drug confiscated from his car by police was simply laundry detergent. After laboratory results tested negative for the drug, charges of trafficking in excess of 200 grams of methamphetamine were dismissed in Central District Court against Leroy Wilcox,... and a co-defendant, Edward J. MacIsaac, 20, of ... Keene, N.H.

by TChris

Police in Charlotte, North Carolina arrested an 86 year old woman for calling 911 to complain that a pizza restaurant refused to deliver pizza to her apartment. Granted, she called 20 times, but that fact suggests that she suffers from the mental infirmities of aging, not that she intended to harass a 911 dispatcher. Arresting her was a ridiculous waste of public resources.

Update: The 86 year old woman (authorities have been careful not to refer to her as a terrorist) made bond.

If you are going to be in Denver Wednesday and support marijuana reform, head over to the Rialto Cafe on the 16th St. Mall (934 Sixteenth Street) at 6:30 pm.

On Wednesday, May 25, Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Rob Kampia is hosting a fundraiser at the Rialto Cafe. The money raised at this event will stay in Colorado and help fund a signature drive to place a marijuana initiative on the Denver citywide ballot this November. This initiative, if passed, would make the private, adult possession of less than one ounce of marijuana legal under city ordinances.

Rob will speak around 7:00 pm. It's in the "Gallery Room." There's a suggested $50 minimum contribution to attend. SAFER needs $5,000 more to ensure they have the resources necessary to qualify for the ballot. Cash bar and appetizers. Please call MPP’s Jaycee Dempsey at 202-462-5747, ext. 107, or e-mail her at jdempsey@mpp.org to RSVP.

by TChris

The San Diego Union-Tribune writes about the forgotten women who languish in Mexican prisons because of the war against drugs. Often single mothers with low incomes, they are enticed to cross the border carrying drugs for couriers. The temptation is easy to understand.

"They started telling me that I would get ahead, that I could fix my house," said Rosa María Morales Rivera, 43, who had been supporting five children on her hotel-maid wages. "I wouldn't have to be killing myself in the hotel, washing and making up rooms and ironing when my back pain was unbearable."

Women who are caught as they attempt to cross the border face decades in Mexican prisons.

Amid the spectacular headlines of the drug war, these women are overlooked. Their capture merits only passing mention in news accounts. No one celebrates their exploits in narcocorridos. They're cut off by the people who sent them, and the women rarely speak out, fearful of repercussions for those back home. They spend years behind bars and are lucky to have families still waiting when they get out.

by TChris

The Bush administration deserves credit for finally getting something right. It wants to end a program that gives federal money and federal law enforcement assistance to High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.

The initial five HIDTAs have expanded to several dozen in 43 states. They are no longer a concentrated effort focused on a few drug hot spots. One might conclude that having that kind of targeted money and resources is a good idea, so doing it in a lot of places around the country is a good idea. The Bush administration, however, sees it as congressional pork.

"The sheer magnitude of this expansion raises questions about whether the drug trafficking in all of these areas meets the intent of the statute as enacted," according to the Bush administration’s critique. "Congressional pressures have been primarily responsible for this expansion."

Indeed, federal agents who are forced to cooperate with drug investigations initiated by local cops often end up arresting minor players for drug crimes that wouldn't otherwise merit federal prosecution. The law is designed to attract federal dollars for local law enforcement, not to allocate federal resources wisely.

Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy has a round-up of weekend law blog posts on sentencing issues. He also has a terrific roundup of mandatory minimum sentencing links including one to today's Journal Standard editorial slamming mandatory minimum sentences. It begins with a statement that the "GOP obsession with low-level offenders is unjust and costly."

Alberto Gonzales has announced the creation of a federal sex offender database. This is as unnecessary as a Victims' Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

48 states have sex offender registries online. They are indiscriminate and include not only predatory child molesters but non-violent offenders convicted of very minor crimes - even peeping toms.

Recent crime statistics undercut support for the rash of Meagan's Laws. Treatment works for many offenders. Studies show that sex offenders have a lower incidence of recidivism than other types of offenders.

As I've said in earlier posts,

Considering that most offenders' victims are known to them, i.e, not strangers, community notification seems unnecessary in a great many cases--and counterproductive. Registration causes great difficulty for ex-offenders both in finding housing and jobs--key ingredients to staying out of trouble and re-integrating with society in a positive manner.

In additon,