Drug War Chronicle, Issue #546 -- 8/8/08
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/psmith
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,
http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden
"News and Activism Supporting Sensible Reform"

Students: Intern at StoptheDrugWar.org to stop the drug war now!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

Table of Contents:

1. FEATURE: FEDS SCORE ANOTHER CONVICTION AGAINST A CALIFORNIA
MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY OPERATOR
Federal prosecutors won another conviction against a California
medical marijuana dispensary operator this week. It's easy
pickings when the defense can't mention medical marijuana, and
it raises issues about how to deal with local law enforcement
officials who work with the feds to get around state law.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/charley_lynch_guilty_medical_marijuana

2. LAW ENFORCEMENT: KILLER COP WALKS IN OHIO SWAT RAID SHOOTING,
RELATIVES FILE WRONGFUL DEATH SUIT
A Lima, Ohio, police sergeant who shot and killed an unarmed
woman and wounded her infant son during a SWAT raid was
acquitted on all counts this week. He only faced eight months,
anyway. But this story isn't over -- relatives have now filed a
federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and the shooter.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/lima_SWAT_raid_police_acquitted_for_tari...

3. OFFER: UNIQUE AND IMPORTANT NEW BOOK ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
"Dying to Get High," by sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard
Webb, is a groundbreaking work that provides an in-depth
portrait of one of the country's most well-known medical
marijuana collectives.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/dying_to_get_high_membership_offer

4. STUDENTS: INTERN AT DRCNET AND HELP STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet for this fall (or spring), and
you could spend the semester fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A Boston cop goes to prison for being muscle for drug dealers,
and a Miami-area cop and two prison guards get caught up in a
massive Oxycontin and health fraud scandal.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/police_drug_corruption

6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS STATE
LAW, REJECTS SAN DIEGO COUNTY CLAIM
In a victory for California's medical marijuana law, a state
appeals court has rejected a challenge to the law from San Diego
County. But it isn't over yet. The county said Tuesday it would
appeal to the state Supreme Court.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/california_appeals_court_medical_marijua...

7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NATIONAL MS SOCIETY TAKES HALF-STEP TOWARD
RECOGNIZING THERAPEUTIC USES
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is calling for more
research on medical marijuana. While that's only a half-step on
the society's part, it's a half-step forward.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/national_ms_society_medical_marijuana

8. MARIJUANA: ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS REJECTS RELIGIOUS DEFENSE
The Arizona Court of Appeals has rejected a religious defense
for marijuana use and possession.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/arizona_appeals_court_hardesty_marijuana...

9. LATIN AMERICA: ARGENTINE PRESIDENT CALLS FOR
DECRIMINALIZATION OF DRUG POSSESSION, INCLUSION OF HARM
REDUCTION IN NATIONAL DRUG STRATEGY
Argentina's president last week called for the decriminalization
of drug possession, lending her support to a bill introduced
last year by her justice minister and giving an implicit nod to
a series of recent Argentine court decisions that have rejected
punishing drug users.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/argentine_president_says_decriminalize_d...

10. LATIN AMERICA: PERU CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OVERTURNS STATE LAW
OKAYING COCA CROPS
In a bid to regularize the situation of coca growers, one
Peruvian department earlier this year moved to legalize the
crop. This week, the country's highest constitutional court
overturned that move, saying only the national government can
set drug policy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/peru_court_overturns_puno_coca_law

11. SOUTHEAST ASIA: DRUG USER GROUP DEMONSTRATES FOR LEGAL DRUG
USE IN JAKARTA
Drug user activists handed out brochures called for the
legalization of drug use in some of Jakarta's most notorious
dope-dealing hot-spots this week. It was the second user
demonstration this summer in Indonesia.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/jakarta_drug_user_group_says_legalize

12. SOUTHEAST ASIA: DEA BRINGING DRUG WAR TACTICS TO VIETNAM
DEA trainers are in Vietnam this month to show Vietnamese how to
have a drug war American-style, but the UN's man on the scene
doesn't find that particularly helpful.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/DEA_trains_vietnamese_for_drug_war_ameri...

13. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/drug_war_history

14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"An Excellent Column on Marijuana Prohibition From Reuters,"
"Florida Prosecutor Stands Up For Rachel Hoffman, Refuses to
Work With DEA," "After Killing His Dogs, Police Admit Mayor
Calvo Was Probably Innocent," "DEA Secures Another Medical
Marijuana Conviction by Lying in Court," "Police Are
Confiscating Cars for Minor Drug Crimes," "Cop Acquitted After
Killing Unarmed Mother and Shooting Her Baby," "Marijuana Offers
Hope For Battling Colon Cancer," "Hey Politicians, Reforming
Marijuana Laws is Smart Politics," "More Video of Drug Reformers
and Their Encounters with the 'Other Side' at the UN in Vienna
Last Month"
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

15. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

16. WEBMASTERS: HELP THE MOVEMENT BY RUNNING DRCNET SYNDICATION
FEEDS ON YOUR WEB SITE!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_no...

17. RESOURCE: DRCNET WEB SITE OFFERS WIDE ARRAY OF RSS FEEDS FOR
YOUR READER
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

18. RESOURCE: REFORMER'S CALENDAR ACCESSIBLE THROUGH DRCNET WEB
SITE
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/drug_reform_calendar

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

================

1. Feature: Feds Score Another Conviction Against a California
Medical Marijuana Dispensary Operator
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/charley_lynch_guilty_medical_marijuana

In a trial that garnered national attention because of the
conflict between state and federal marijuana laws, a federal
jury in Los Angeles Tuesday convicted the owner of a Morro Bay
medical marijuana dispensary on five counts of violating federal
drug laws. As was the case in previous federal prosecutions, the
defense was not allowed to mount a medical marijuana defense or
even mention the words "medical marijuana" during the course of
the trial.

Charles Lynch (http://www.friendsofccl.com), 46, operator of
Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers in San Luis Obispo
County, faces a minimum of five years in prison and as many as
85 years after being found guilty of distributing more than 100
kilograms of marijuana, some of to people considered minors
under federal law.

Federal prosecutors portrayed Lynch as a mercenary drug dealer,
toting around backpacks full of cash and selling dope to minors.
One minor, Owen Beck, actually took the stand in Lynch's
defense. Beck suffers from bone cancer, and accompanied by his
parents, he would visit the dispensary to purchase medical
marijuana recommended to him by his Stanford University
oncologist. But as soon as Beck mentioned that he was ill,
Federal District Court Judge George Wu blocked his testimony.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times
(http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5926933.html) after
reaching a verdict, jury forewoman Kitty Meese said jurors
understood Lynch was no run-of-the-mill drug dealer, but that
federal law made no provision for dispensary operators. "We all
felt Mr. Lynch intended well," Meese said. "But under the
parameters we were given for the federal law, we didn't have a
choice." She added, "it was a tough decision for all of us
because the state law and the federal law are at odds."

Lynch had run the dispensary in compliance with state law and
with the blessing of local officials in Morro Bay, but after a
fruitless, year-long investigation by San Luis Obispo County
Sheriff Pat Hedges failed to find any violations of state law,
the sheriff invited the DEA to come and raid the dispensary. The
DEA did just that last year, and a few months later a federal
grand jury indicted him.

Lynch is only the latest of at least six dispensary operators
convicted under the federal drug laws, and his dispensary is but
one of the dozens raided by the DEA in the last couple of years.
With federal juries blocked from hearing about or considering
the state's medical marijuana laws by federal judges in those
cases, convictions are all but a foregone conclusion.

"This just goes to show the difficulty of getting a fair trial
on this in federal court," said Dale Gieringer, head of
California NORML (http://www.canorml.org). "The feds are batting
a thousand when it comes to getting convictions in these cases.
You cannot get a fair hearing."

"Charley got steamrolled by the federal government," said San
Luis Obispo attorney Lou Koory, who represented Lynch in his
dealings with local officials. "It's just not a fair fight when
you can't tell the whole story," he said.

"The jury selection process revealed that potential jurors in
Los Angeles had major questions about why the feds would be
prosecuting someone like Charley when there are several
dispensaries operating within walking distance of the courthouse
there," Koory pointed out. "Those jurors were dismissed for
cause, so we were left with citizens who were apparently not
concerned about the federal government's actions in this case
and who felt compelled to follow the judge's instructions."

"When you have things like Owen Beck being prevented from
testifying, that only escalates the tragedy of this case," said
Kris Hermes, spokesman for the medical marijuana defense group
Americans for Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org). "The
jury was not allowed to hear the whole truth in the larger
context of the state law," he said.

Hermes was quick to point out that Lynch was not the only victim
of the DEA and its local law enforcement collaborators. "When
Charles was raided, his was one of the only facilities in the
whole region," said Hermes. "Now patients have to go much longer
distances, sometimes hundreds of miles, to get their medicine.
Not only has this destroyed Charlie's life, it has worsened the
lives of hundreds of patients."

With the deck stacked against dispensary operators in these
federal prosecutions, activists and advocates are looking for
ways to change the status quo. Some involve fighting back
against recalcitrant law enforcement officials like Sheriff
Hedges, others looks to greater help from state officials, while
still others are turning a jaundiced eye on the federal
marijuana laws.

At least one of Lynch's patients has filed suit against Hedges,
alleging that he violated patients' privacy protections by
seizing patient records and violated both her state and federal
constitutional rights by doing an end run around state law.

"The sheriff couldn't get a state search warrant, so he calls in
the DEA and participates in the raid," said Koory. "In return
for serving up Charley on a silver platter, the sheriff got
access to all the evidence, including patient records," he
explained. "The dispensary was a rock in the sheriff's shoe, so
after a year's worth of failed investigation, Sheriff Hedges
invited the DEA to come up to Morro Bay and raid the dispensary.
That's the real story here."

While the idea of suing sheriffs sounds appealing, it's a
long-shot, said Hermes. "They are certainly subject to
litigation if someone wants to file a lawsuit against a local
official for cooperating with the federal government, but it's a
difficult legal challenge," he said. "There is no law that
prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with the feds.
What officials like the sheriff are doing is wrongheaded,
harmful, and unnecessary, but it will be difficult to win, I
think."

In the meantime, said Hermes, there are other avenues to pursue
in reining in renegade local officials. "One thing would be to
get a pronouncement from Attorney General Jerry Brown directing
law enforcement on appropriate conduct around these issues.
We're expecting that to happen soon," he said. "Absence of
direction from the attorney general has made it easier not only
for federal law enforcement to come in and undermine the
implementation of state law, but also to make it easier for
local law enforcement to help in that effort."

Hermes said that recent state court decisions, including last
week's slap-down of San Diego County's challenge to the law (see
related story this issue
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/546/california_appeals_court_medical_marijua...))
are also helping define the playing field. "We've had multiple
appellate court rulings declaring the state's medical marijuana
law is not preempted by federal law, that the two can coexist,
and that local law enforcement should be upholding state law and
not federal law," he said. "Between these rulings and the
pending guidelines from the attorney general, there will be less
and less wiggle room for local law enforcement to skirt the
law."

There is also the ballot box. Sheriffs are elected officials,
and they could be challenged at the voting booth over their
medical marijuana misbehavior, but ASA's Hermes couldn't recall
a case where someone was either defeated or elected over the
issue. "It is certainly an issue to bring up in sheriffs'
races," he said. "If there are renegade law enforcement
officials trying to skirt state law, we can try to make them
feel the political heat."

Still, Hermes predicted that given the state court rulings, the
pending guidelines from the attorney general, and new set of
faces in Washington next year, the renegade law enforcement
problem will probably recede. "If it continues to happen," he
said, "there will be a political battle I think public officials
will be sorry they got into. I think we will see less and less
cooperation between local law enforcement and the feds on this."

A new administration in Washington could make a huge difference,
Hermes said. "If we elect Obama, and he follows through on his
promise to end federal raids on dispensaries, then we will
hopefully see less federal activity here in California."

But the ultimate solution is changing the federal law around
marijuana. Legalization, decriminalization, rescheduling
marijuana out of Schedule 1, or even passage of the
Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would cut off funds for
federal raids in medical marijuana states, are some of the steps
that could be taken.

"We need to see either marijuana rescheduled as something other
than Schedule 1, or the US Supreme Court's Raich decision needs
to be revisited and overruled. The logic behind that decision --
that medical marijuana grown, distributed, and consumed within
California affects interstate commerce -- is a stretch at best,"
said Koory.

"What we need is a comprehensive federal policy in the US," said
Hermes. "Rescheduling or passing Hinchey would be easier than
passing either decriminalization or legalization, but we would
welcome any of those. We'll be working for a sweeping federal
policy that includes rescheduling, further research, and allows
for safe access to medical marijuana for patients all across the
country."

Until the federal marijuana laws are reformed or eliminated,
medical marijuana patients are not safe. Instead, they will be
subject to the whims and political proclivities of whoever has
hold of the levers of power in Washington.

Visit http://www.reason.tv/video/show/413.html to watch Drew
Carey's video about Charlie Lynch, on Reason TV.

================

The fruit of drug prohibition in the USA and Mexico is bitter and sets the teeth on edge as the practitioners of Anslinger's law
move down the path of totalitarianism.

And removing cannabis from the status of illegal drug
is something that would save immense amounts of money for the
American taxpayer which is good thing in this period of severe
inflationary pressures.

<http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/fed-data/costs/costs05.htm>
___________________
It's time to correct the mistake:
truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.