cannabisnews.com: Drug War Briefs: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back





Drug War Briefs: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Posted by FoM on June 28, 2001 at 11:13:46 PT
By Kevin Nelson, AlterNet
Source: AlterNet
June 18, La Crosse, WI -- Five circuit court judges request the decriminalization of marijuana, reducing the consequences to a ticketable offense. La Crosse County DA Scott Horne, who opposes the change, argues to maintain existing misdemeanor marijuana laws. While Police in Onalaska, WI, have written tickets for first-time offenders for more than 10 years, people in other parts of La Crosse County caught with marijuana for the first time are arrested and booked in jail. The misdemeanor charge carries a penalty of up to six months in jail. 
Judge John Perlich, who is spearheading the proposal, said "The punishment ought to fit the crime, and I don't think it does." June 21, Calgary, Canada -- Medical marijuana crusader Grant Krieger was justified in breaking the law and selling pot to chronically ill people, a jury ruled Wednesday night. The one-man, 11-woman panel accepted the defense's argument that Krieger was saving lives when he supplied marijuana to the sick. "This is the first time I've ever said to a jury 'my client did it,'" Krieger's lawyer Adriano Iovinelli told jurors. Krieger readily admitted growing 29 marijuana plants in his home in August 1999. He said the crop was designed to help the chronically ill -- who came to his Universal Compassion Club -- ease their pain and suffering. June 21 -- The Dallas Morning News reports: Federal law-enforcement authorities said Wednesday they have crushed a major drug trafficking operation responsible for smuggling Colombian cocaine and marijuana through Mexico into Texas and other U.S. destinations. The 18-month "Operation Marquis," which involved participation from Mexican and Colombian law enforcement, netted 268 arrests, 76 of them occurring in an early-morning sweep Wednesday in 16 U.S. cities. While DEA officials said the operation has dealt a major blow to the drug ring, they noted that it's only a temporary disruption in the flow of drugs into the United States. June 21 -- The Washington Post reports: More than half of all black men report that they have been the victims of racial profiling by police, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. Overall, nearly 4 in 10 blacks -- 37 percent -- said they had been unfairly stopped by police because they were black, including 52 percent of all black men and 25 percent of all black women. June 21 (AP) -- U.S. law enforcement agencies are placing agents and other officials in Canada to fight drug smuggling and other crimes that cross the border, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday. "The increasing volume of law enforcement contact between our two countries has led to calls in recent years for U.S. officers to be posted in western Canada," Ashcroft said. A legal attache from the Justice Department is now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, he said, and the DEA plans to station an agent there. The U.S. Marshals Service also intends to open a Canadian office, he said. June 22, UK -- The Guardian reports: Two police officers who helped plan a drugs raid in which an unarmed and naked man was shot dead have been promoted, even though they may be disciplined for their involvement in the botched operation. Inspectors Kevin French, 47, and Christopher Siggs, 42, will return to duty in Sussex as chief inspectors and their pay increase will be backdated to January 1998, when they were suspended. They are currently on leave. The pair and Superintendent Christopher Burton were accused of deliberately failing to make a true assessment of the intelligence that led to the armed raid on James Ashley's flat on January 15, 1998. The extent of the incompetence that led to the raid was exposed by Kent police. Kent concluded the raid had been authorised on intelligence that was "not merely exaggerated, it was determinably false ... there was a plan to deceive and the intelligence concocted." The raid had been "a complete corporate failure in duty to society," it said. Note: "It's a shame what happened, but this is a war and, unfortunately, there are casualties." -- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-FL, about the accidental shooting down of American missionaries in Peru. Kevin Nelson can be reached at: kcnelson premier1.netSource: AlterNet (CA)Author: Kevin Nelson, AlterNetPublished: June 25, 2001Copyright: 2001 Independent Media InstituteContact: info alternet.orgWebsite: http://www.alternet.org/Contact: http://www.alternet.org/contact.htmlRelated Articles:Drug War Briefs: What Supreme Court Ruling?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10050.shtmlDrug War Briefs: Oh, Canada http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9996.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - AlterNethttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=AlterNet
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Comment #2 posted by Ras James rsifwh on June 28, 2001 at 14:00:12 PT
misdemeanor?
How can the Sacred Tree of Life be a misdemeanor? Cannabis Sativa is God's Gift to Mankind...No Miss-Damn-and-Meaner.
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on June 28, 2001 at 13:18:28 PT:
Thank you, 'Mr. CIA' Goss
Okay, what's sauce for the goose is hollandaise for the gander:What would happen if the narcos received some intelligence? Information that Mr. Goss's chartered plane, paid for by the US taxpayer, hired to fly over the devastation presently being wrought aginst the Amazon Basin, placed it in reach of the surface to air missiles that they have probably bought? What if they shoot it down, killing Mr. Goss? Would it be fair for the narcos to say that his death was attributable to the fortunes of war? In Mr. Goss's book, murdering US missionaries is an example of 'all's fair in love and war'.Seeing that it was CIA-hired mercenaries who directed the Peruvians to their hapless and innocent target, and that Goss himself was a CIA spook, then it becomes doubly hypocritical on his part to mouth such nonsense.Have a care where you fly, Mr. Goss; somewhere, there's a SAM with your name on it.
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