Drug War Roundup
Two weeks ago, 32-year-old French citizen Farid Ghehioueche was on his way to the Long Beach Drug Policy Reform Conference. Ghehioueche, who is of mixed Algerian and French heritage, landed in the San Francisco Airport.
In other news...
After an initiative legalizing marijuana in Denver passed recently, Nevada may become the next battleground in 2006.
Near El Paso, Texas, there was a bizarre incident involving a dump truck filled with marijuana. After the dump truck driver fled U.S. border police on foot, the authorities managed to get about a third of the marijuana out of the dump truck before a large number of armed men, dressed in Mexican military uniforms returned. The armed men took the dump truck back to Mexico.
In Vermont, two U.S. Border Patrol agents face up to 20 years in prison for letting a drug suspect go and making up a false story to cover it up.
A new study done by researchers in New York and California shows that regular marijuana users show fewer signs of depression than non-users.
In Ukiah, California, a medical marijuana dispenser was shot and killed in his home in a robbery.
The D'Alliance posts about support for industrial hemp from GOP lawmakers.
In Rhode Island, some judges are challenging the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that are much stricter for crack than for cocaine.
Last One Speaks has more about the idiocy of the mandatory minimum laws with the case of Weldon Angelos in Utah.
In Michigan, both Traverse City and Ferndale (suburban Detroit) passed initiatives on Election Day to limit the ability of local authorities to arrest people for using medical marijuana.
Major League Baseball agreed to toughen its drug policy after pressure from Congress.
Queens College editorial: A Pointless But Ending War
A prison guard in Westchester County, New York was charged with trying to smuggle marijuana into a prison.
West Virginia has banned grain alcohol.
Talk Left posts about agressive stop-and-frisk policing in Baltimore.
Drug WarRant posts an update on what's happening in Afghanistan. The multinational forces not just going after poppies with their eradication plan, they're also targeting marijuana. Are we trying to get Karzai killed?
In Toronto, an RCMP officer named Sheldon Cook has been charged with drug trafficking. What's interesting about this case is that former Toronto Argonauts linebacker Orlando Bowen is facing trial for cocaine possession after being arrested by Officer Cook in 2004. Bowen claims that Cook planted the bag of cocaine on him.
Three top Guatamalean anti-drugs officials were arrested in the United States for conspiring to import and distribute cocaine.
Australia is toughening its rules about driving under the influence of drugs.
The UK is set to allow doctors to prescribe Sativex, a marijuana-based medicine, for MS patients.
South Korean actress Kim Bu-Sun was sentenced to 8 months in prison for smoking marijuana.
In Israel, a Knesset member proposed that use of a small amount of cannabis should not be a criminal offense (via US Marijuana Party)
In New Zealand, Rastafarian Green Party Parliament member Nandor Tanczos has had to soften his fight for cannabis law reform.
Coming directly from the Wembley Hemp Fair in London to San Francisco, Ghehioeuche was carrying materials related to the hemp fair, DPA conference materials, an old poster for a marijuana march, and CDs containing United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime documents, among other things. Still, in the land of the free, merely carrying such items should not be a problem, right?I'm sure you know where this is going. Ghehioueche was searched, charged with being in possession of 0.0001 grams of marijuana (a dollar bill weighs 1 gram), and hauled off to jail.
Next, Ghehioueche got a taste of an American jail. Another strip search, photograph, fingerprints, and then behind bars with a motley crew of other rejectees. There, he was introduced to "24 Hours," the paranoid American anti-terror drama, on the jail TV. Ghehioueche's fellow inmates were bemused by the dangerous criminal with whom they were jailed.Welcome to America, Farid. As an American, I apologize for your treatment here, and I hope that one day you'll have the same rights as the rest of us.
"I told them I was being denied entry into the US on the pretext of possessing 0.0001 gram of cannabis, and they laughed a lot about my poor case. And you know what else? Ironically, while in the cell, I found a little vial containing a gram of cocaine. If only the Americans legalized pot, they could cut down on the hard drug epidemic. But we were in jail, so one of the prisoners made a straw out of his booking papers and snorted a line off the floor, then put the rest in his shoes."
In other news...
After an initiative legalizing marijuana in Denver passed recently, Nevada may become the next battleground in 2006.
Near El Paso, Texas, there was a bizarre incident involving a dump truck filled with marijuana. After the dump truck driver fled U.S. border police on foot, the authorities managed to get about a third of the marijuana out of the dump truck before a large number of armed men, dressed in Mexican military uniforms returned. The armed men took the dump truck back to Mexico.
In Vermont, two U.S. Border Patrol agents face up to 20 years in prison for letting a drug suspect go and making up a false story to cover it up.
A new study done by researchers in New York and California shows that regular marijuana users show fewer signs of depression than non-users.
In Ukiah, California, a medical marijuana dispenser was shot and killed in his home in a robbery.
The D'Alliance posts about support for industrial hemp from GOP lawmakers.
In Rhode Island, some judges are challenging the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that are much stricter for crack than for cocaine.
Last One Speaks has more about the idiocy of the mandatory minimum laws with the case of Weldon Angelos in Utah.
In Michigan, both Traverse City and Ferndale (suburban Detroit) passed initiatives on Election Day to limit the ability of local authorities to arrest people for using medical marijuana.
Major League Baseball agreed to toughen its drug policy after pressure from Congress.
Queens College editorial: A Pointless But Ending War
A prison guard in Westchester County, New York was charged with trying to smuggle marijuana into a prison.
West Virginia has banned grain alcohol.
Talk Left posts about agressive stop-and-frisk policing in Baltimore.
Drug WarRant posts an update on what's happening in Afghanistan. The multinational forces not just going after poppies with their eradication plan, they're also targeting marijuana. Are we trying to get Karzai killed?
In Toronto, an RCMP officer named Sheldon Cook has been charged with drug trafficking. What's interesting about this case is that former Toronto Argonauts linebacker Orlando Bowen is facing trial for cocaine possession after being arrested by Officer Cook in 2004. Bowen claims that Cook planted the bag of cocaine on him.
Three top Guatamalean anti-drugs officials were arrested in the United States for conspiring to import and distribute cocaine.
Australia is toughening its rules about driving under the influence of drugs.
The UK is set to allow doctors to prescribe Sativex, a marijuana-based medicine, for MS patients.
South Korean actress Kim Bu-Sun was sentenced to 8 months in prison for smoking marijuana.
In Israel, a Knesset member proposed that use of a small amount of cannabis should not be a criminal offense (via US Marijuana Party)
In New Zealand, Rastafarian Green Party Parliament member Nandor Tanczos has had to soften his fight for cannabis law reform.
posted by thehim at 9:49 AM
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