NORML has released Crimes of Indiscretion, a report on marijauna arrests in the U.S. between 1995 and 2002. The full report can be downloaded here. (pdf)

This report comprehensively demonstrates much of what is not commonly known regarding who uses marijuana in the U.S., who gets arrested for it, at what age citizens are arrested on marijuana charges and how much are the general fiscal costs of maintaining marijuana prohibition.

Despite total US marijuana arrests increasing 165% during the 1990s, from 287,850 in 1991 to 755,000 in 2003, this enhanced enforcement has not produced intended results, and in some cases, it has produced opposite, unintended consequences. Upon review of the available data, it is clear that increased arrest rates are not associated with reduced marijuana use, reduced marijuana availability, a reduction in the number of new users, reduced treatment admissions, reduced emergency room mentions, any reduction in marijuana potency, or any increases in the price of marijuana.

by TChris

Pot smokers in the Vancouver area are growing so much weed that Canadian police can't keep up. Last year alone, the police received "more than 4,500 reports ... of illegal indoor pot-growing operations."

Police are less likely to investigate marijuana growers, prosecutors are less likely to lay charges against them, and judges are less likely to send them to jail than they were in the late 1990s, according to a groundbreaking study to be released today.

Moreover, using the criminal law to address marijuana smoking has had the counterproductive effect of wasting scarce resources while creating more serious crime.

[S]uccessive governments have spent billions of dollars enforcing the law, and organized crime has reaped billions of dollars in profits from trade in marijuana and other illicit drugs. Marijuana laws have made criminals out of pot smokers, and have allowed organized crime, and its attendant violence, to flourish.

The answer, according to a series of editorials over the last four days in the Vancouver Sun, is to stop fighting an unwinnable battle. Today's editorial, while warning that the U.S. is likely to remain intransigent, explains why Canada should become a world leader in creating more effective drug strategies -- strategies that seek "to minimize the harms caused not only by drugs, but by drug laws."

by TChris

The Georgia parole board made life easier for itself in 1997, when it adopted a policy limiting parole eligibility for inmates convicted of any of 20 crimes. The policy denied those inmates consideration for parole until they completed 90 percent of their sentences. In the wake of a lawsuit and upon advice of the state's attorney general, the parole board is finally dropping the policy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jackson Bedford recently ruled that the 90-percent policy wasn't legally implemented in 1997.

"They should've done it a long time ago," [Atlanta lawyer McNeill] Stokes said Wednesday. "I still think this is one of the most massive civil rights violations of our times, by continuing to confine prisoners beyond the terms that they should be."

The doors to freedom are unlikely to swing wide for Georgia inmates -- the board might follow an unstated policy that replicates the abandoned policy -- but prisoners will at least have a chance to show that they are worthy of early release.

[T]he board will reconsider the plaintiffs in the Fulton County case immediately and eventually reconsider more than 7,800 in prison convicted of 90-percent crimes.

In the latest example of taser abuse at the hands of cops, an Orlando man was handcuffed to a hospital bed for refusing to take a urine test that would confirm he had ingested cocaine, as he earlier had told the police. A nurse tried to insert a catheter in him to get the urine. The man protested, and while still chained to the bed, the cop jumped him an then tasered him - twice:

...police officer Peter Linnenkamp noted that he jumped on the bed with his knees on Wheeler's chest to restrain him. Then, when Wheeler still refused to let the catheter be inserted, Linnenkamp said he twice used his Taser gun, which sends 50,000 volts into a target.

This is as ridiculous as the incident last week where Aurora, Colorado cops last week tasered a guy who failed to pay for his salad at a Chucky Cheese kids restaurant that was filled at the time with kids and parents.

Law enforcement is sinking to new lows. And the "few bad apples" theory doesn't hold because those responsible for training these trigger-happy cops are also at fault. [link via Mark at Norwegianity.]

Anti-drug hysteria at work....but at least in Canada, they admit it when they are wrong.

The Chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Monday admitted he made a mistake when he blamed last week's killing of four RCMP officers on marijuana grows. The killings were committed by a deranged lone criminal - not an organized group of growers:

Last Friday, RCMP Commissoner Guiliano Zaccardelli Zaccardelli blamed pot growers for the murders:

RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli went further, suggesting it's time not just to crack down on grow ops, but also to re-examine the idea of decriminalizing simple possession of small amounts of pot.

Monday, Chief Zaccardelli acknowledged his mistake, saying he did not have all the information about the case:

"I gave what I believed was the best information I had knowing full well that at that time I didn't have all the information," a contrite Zaccardelli said. "Clearly, there's a lot of things in there that, in hindsight, we will have to look at in a different perspective."

If these killings had happened in the U.S., Congress would have already passed a law creating increased mandatory minimum sentences for cultivation offenses. Background on the killings is here.

In a first for Denver, police have returned marijuana to a smoker - with an apology. The man had a permit for medical use of marijuana. Moral of the story: If you have a permit, keep it with you all the time.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom may be a good liberal on civil liberties issues, but he needs a few lessons when it comes to fighting crime. Yesterday he proposed that the city's firefighters act as crime fighters. If he had his way, there would be a fire engine on every corner, waiting to bust an offender in the act.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom suggested Monday that the city park fire trucks and their crews on streets in violence-prone neighborhoods to deter crime....His idea is to pull the firefighters out of their firehouses, where they're stationed when not responding to fires and medical emergencies, and plant them in their rigs nearby -- visible to the public. There are 43 fire stations in San Francisco.

His suggestion was prompted by the high number of homicides in the city. His thought process is, "A thug...would be less likely to shoot someone in front of a firefighter."

by TChris

As the number of high speed police chases ending in death continues to grow, a bipartisan group of California legislators is proposing legislation that would eliminate immunity from damages for police officers who engage in a reckless pursuit. California law enforcement groups prefer to increase the penalties that can be imposed upon fleeing drivers, a proposal that, by itself, isn't likely to solve the problem.

"I want something that is actually going to save lives," said state Sen. Sam Aanestad, who sponsored a failed bill last year that would have limited police immunity in accidents from high-speed chases. "Probably the worst way to catch someone is by chasing them."

Since 1987, police have had what a state appeals court in 2002 termed a "get-out-of-liability-free" law even if police violate their own department's pursuit policy.

Aanestad is naming his bill after 15-year-old Kristie Priano of Chico, who was killed in 2002 when her family's minivan was struck by an unlicensed 15-year-old who was fleeing police after taking her mother's car without permission. The victim's mother, Candy Priano argues that there was no need for a pursuit because police knew where the driver lived.

California police chased more than 7,000 drivers in 2003. The chases resulted in 58 deaths, including 18 innocent individuals who weren't involved in the pursuit.

Bradford Plumer, who writes his own weblog as well as one for Mother Jones, has an interesting post today on whether drugs cause crime, and in turn, whether drug enforcement strategies reduce crime. He notes that almost everyone, including the White House, has backed off the latter notion.

it seems during the later years of the Clinton Administration, the ONDCP started recognizing that and urged policymakers to interpret the drug/crime relationship "cautiously." The Bush administration, meanwhile, saw a closer connection early on—its 2002 ONDCP report touted drug treatment as an effective way of reducing crime, but has since backed off. The White House's reports, notably, no longer claim to know whether crime can be reduced by reducing drug use—a relationship that was once held sacrosanct by past administrations.

An AP article says more people are seeking treatment for marijuana use. The Government blames the trend on increased use and potency of the drug. What's the real story?

Advocates of legalizing marijuana disagreed, saying the trend was largely due to an increase in marijuana arrests and had almost nothing to do with more people seeking treatment because they thought their own health was at risk.

"They have the option of going into treatment for marijuana or going to jail," said Paul Armentano, senior policy analyst for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The agency compiling the data says it does not know why the numbers are higher:

The latest rage in the drug war is occurring over B.C. bud and the Canadian Border. Thursday, four RMCP were killed during a raid on a grow operation. U.S. agents say it's a $7 billion a year business. They put part of the blame on Canada and its less strict drug laws. They warn that the violence associated with the potent form of pot is headed south.

Now law enforcement officials here fear the violence will migrate south. Mr. Winchell likened Seattle, with its currently low crime rate, to "Miami before the drug wars" because of what he said was an impending threat of drug-related violence. Vast amounts of drugs and money are now flowing through Seattle and other West Coast cities, he said, along the heavily traveled Interstate 5 corridor from California to the Canadian border. In many cases, law enforcement officials from both countries say, traffickers are smuggling cocaine north from California to Canada in exchange for B.C. bud.

Via David Sirota at Think Progress:

CLAIM:
“Taking on gang life will be one part of a broader outreach to at-risk youth, which involves parents and pastors, coaches and community leaders, in programs ranging from literacy to sports.”
- President Bush’s State of the Union promise to focus on ending gang activity, 2/2/05

FACT:
“Law enforcers say Bush budget cuts would hamper anti-gang efforts…[b]ecause it proposed to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to state and local programs that help troubled kids and anti-gang efforts.”
- Knight Ridder, 3/2/05