cannabisnews.com: Crime Bill Gets Tough on Drug Traffickers





Crime Bill Gets Tough on Drug Traffickers
Posted by CN Staff on February 24, 2008 at 09:31:30 PT
By Daniel Barlow, Vermont Press Bureau
Source: Times Argus 
Montpelier, VT -- Two weeks after lowering criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday approved a bill that boosts the fines and jail times for possessing heroin and cocaine.The new proposal, which passed the committee in a 5-0 vote, lowers the levels of possession for the two illegal drugs at which trafficking charges would kick in – thereby boosting the penalties a person could face when arrested.
Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the chairman of the committee, said the bill is directly targeted at stopping the inflow of hard drugs into Vermont from larger, out-of-state cities in Massachusetts, New York and Canada.The violence surrounding drug sales is increasingly worrying, Sears said. He added that there are also emerging reports of dealers and gangs hooking young women on these drugs and then forcing them into prostitution to pay for their habits."The violence we've seen, from the problems in Rutland to the recent slashing in Bennington, reinforces the need for the justice system to have more tools," Sears said. "We are sending a message that we don't have this happening in our communities."Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, the sponsor of the trafficking bill, said the amount of drugs outlined in the proposal for trafficking charges would indicate someone probably deals drugs for a living."With the amounts that are outlined here, we are still talking about a big business," he explained.Friday's vote comes just weeks after the committee voted 4-1 to strip away jail time as a penalty for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, putting a fine or court diversion on the table for the system to deal with small-time possession cases. That bill was approved last week by the full Vermont Senate and has now been sent to the House.The trafficking bill takes a different stance. For cocaine, it lowers the level of possession from 300 grams to 150 grams for trafficking charges to kick in, which carry penalties of up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Conspiracy charges would also kick in at possession of 400 grams instead of 800 under the current law.It contains similar changes for heroin possession too. If made into law, trafficking charges would be allowed for possession of 3.5 grams; current law now has the level twice as much. Conspiracy charges would apply for 10 grams, instead of the 20 grams now on the books.Barbara Cimaglio, the deputy commissioner for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs at the Vermont Department of Health, said the amount of drugs contained in the proposed law ensures that those arrested for drug trafficking would truly be drug dealers, as opposed to those addicted to the drugs."The amounts we are talking about are far more than what a user might be carrying," Cimaglio said, adding that the Legislature is also considering reforms for treatment programs for drug users.Vermont's law enforcement community appears to strongly back this change. State Police Capt. Thomas Nelson said the amount of drugs outlined in the proposed new regulations would amount to thousands of dollars in street value.Possession cases involving large amounts of drugs usually get sent to federal court, where the penalties are stiffer, Nelson explained. But this change would also allow county prosecutors to apply similar pressure to drug dealers in the local courts."Cocaine is the number one drug problem that we are facing right now," said Nelson, who noted that police have seen a downward trend of heroin use and arrests over the last several years. "This is something we can all get behind."Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee also expressed serious concerns Friday that the Vermont Prescription Monitoring Program, a statewide database of legal, behind-the-counter purchases, is not up and running yet, despite the fact that the bill creating it was approved almost two years ago.Vermont police have cited prescription drug abuse as one of their main concerns as fatal overdoses from pills and other medications outpaced other drug-related deaths in 2007."It is very disappointing to see this take so long to get up and running," Mullin said.Cimaglio agreed Friday that the time it has taken to organize the database has been frustrating. But there have been logistical hurdles in creating a database that the state has never attempted before, she said.These problems included a lack of good candidates to hire to oversee the program. Cimaglio said there were no solid candidates out of the first round of the search, essentially putting the program "six months behind right off the bat."But there has been progress this year, she said. Contract requests to create the database were due last week and are being reviewed now, she explained, and draft rules – the policies based on laws passed by the Legislature – should be ready for review early in March."We've had some real good progress recently," said Cimaglio, who added that the database should be up and running in the fall.Source: Times Argus (Barre, VT)Author: Daniel Barlow, Vermont Press Bureau Published: February 23, 2008 Copyright: 2008 Times ArgusContact: letters timesargus.comWebsite: http://www.timesargus.com/ CannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml
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Comment #21 posted by user123 on March 01, 2008 at 11:35:38 PT:
WoW
Vermont has finally solved their drug problem! Now, on to the War on Poverty! The War on Common Sense - brought to you by politicians - EVERYWHERE!
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Comment #20 posted by JohnO on February 27, 2008 at 01:16:54 PT:
Pathetic reporting such this is good for our side.
In the same vein as the ridiculous movie *Reefer Madness* has shown the drug enforcers to be rabid liars, so shall this injectable skunk derivative story expose their abject desperation. Everyone knows cannabis does not make you kill people, and everyone will know today the effort to stop Marijuana is bankrupt of any truth, and therefore outdated and void. This can only help. Let them make extravagant unprovable claims, the more ridiculous the claim, the more they become irrelevant. They are starting to look like the Three Stooges. *Hey Mo! Nyuck nyuck!* JohnO
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Comment #19 posted by dongenero on February 26, 2008 at 09:40:28 PT
comment #17 NPR story
There is a nice video at the site of the article as well. It shows the process of Afghans making hashish by hand and how they keep the seeds for next years cannabis crop in U.N. food bags.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19336834
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on February 26, 2008 at 08:06:18 PT
Comment 12
"BBC Film To Show Effects of Injecting Cannabis"It's just more wild eyed prohibitionist/preventionist insanity and stupidity.How the heck is that supposed to prove anything that will stop people from smoking whole cannabis? Everybody already knows that plain, synthetic thc can be very unpleasant, even in pill form.The insanity and irrational thinking of prohibitionists/preventionists apparently has no limits.Why don't they just hide around the corner of a building... get someone to smoke cannabis... then get them to walk by the corner of said building, and then they jump on the cannabis consumer and beat the thunder out of them? Then they can say, "See what happens when you smoke cannabis? Someone will jump out from behind a building and beat the smithereens out of you. See what happens?"And yet, ultimately, even with all the gerrymandering trying to prove "Poison" and "Be afraid! Be very afraid!"... the result was, quoted from the article, "The effect was dramatic. It was unpleasant." and ""Nicky fully researched the subject and undertook the trials under supervision, with medical advice. She has not suffered any ill effects since filming finished."Some people! Good grief!God help us.
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Comment #17 posted by John Tyler on February 25, 2008 at 20:20:32 PT
NPR news
Hey check this article out on NPR. The news caster even called it cannabis.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19336834 Afghans farmers are turning back to cannabis cultivation. 
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Comment #16 posted by John Tyler on February 25, 2008 at 20:12:51 PT
McCain Stain re #4
Drug problems are really very simple. If you are rich and have drug problem, then it is a health issue, and you get medical help. If you are poor and have drug problem then you are a worthless drug addict and can get thrown into prison.
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Comment #15 posted by BGreen on February 25, 2008 at 19:57:52 PT
Oh, my goodness. What the frick?
What did you think I meant? LOLThe Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #14 posted by BGreen on February 25, 2008 at 19:33:45 PT
OMG, WTF?
OK, THC is the "main ingredient of the stronger "skunk" variety," but it's also the "main ingredient" of all cannabis, and NOBODY is injecting cannabis.This is what happens when they start isolating and synthesizing certain cannabinoids. They're going to create a monster injectable drug that will kill thousands and then place the blame squarely on the cannabis plant.I can't believe how low prohibitionists can actually go. I thought I knew but they just keep surprising me.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #13 posted by Sam Adams on February 25, 2008 at 18:50:35 PT
BBC
what a shame about BBC, this story has to be one of the biggest cannabis propaganda lies of all time, including the 1920's and 30's. I thought they were on the right side, they did a "Panorama" show on medical MJ several years ago that was excellent.It's almost as if some secret powers in the UK decided to launch a smear campaign about 18 months ago. We've seen several stories more outlandish that anything over here, which is really saying something!  Injecting cannabis???? And what was the last one, I think "50% of teenagers driven insane by skunk in the last year" or some BS....wtf???Of course reality is that a wave of home growing has swept the UK, and Amsterdam is a short boat ride or flight for the weekend.  Every time I've been to Amsterdam it's been full of English people. Why do the English corporate/government elite want to declare war on their own people? Obviously the smear campaign is a forerunner of an inevitable increase in penalties, again. The people they want to arrest are the people that go to work every day in the British economy, making the money for the rich few and big corporations. 
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on February 25, 2008 at 18:43:46 PT
BBC Film To Show Effects of Injecting Cannabis
By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs CorrespondentFebruary 25, 2008The BBC is to break one of the last broadcasting taboos by screening footage of a woman injecting drugs.Nicky Taylor, a journalist, is filmed smoking cannabis in cafes in Amsterdam before injecting the main ingredient of the stronger "skunk" variety of the drug in a laboratory.The programme, provisionally called How High Can I Get?, was commissioned from an independent producer.
 Complete Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/25/ndrugs125.xml
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Comment #11 posted by afterburner on February 25, 2008 at 12:54:55 PT
 à propos to something
There's always time for freedom!
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on February 25, 2008 at 12:21:08 PT
CBS: School Of Pot Offers Higher Education
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/25/health/main3874664.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on February 25, 2008 at 07:00:24 PT
News Article from KTVU
Contra Costa Expected To Permanently Ban Marijuana DispensariesFebruary 25, 2008http://www.ktvu.com/news/15400375/detail.html
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Comment #8 posted by OverwhelmSam on February 25, 2008 at 04:34:53 PT
Hey, If Everyone Is In Jail,...
there's no crime on the streets.
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Comment #7 posted by Paint with light on February 24, 2008 at 22:02:23 PT
Catch 22 X 22
The only reason cannabis is illegal is because there is a law against it.
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on February 24, 2008 at 17:40:35 PT
Cops home made pie.
Want to lower crime: end prohibition.(Murder rates declined for 10 years after ending the original prohibition and there’s reason to believe ending the sequel will have the same results.) But that must not be what cops, their unions, the prison industry etc. wants. They want those jobs, power and funds...It’s no wonder America has a problem with drugs, drug cartels and police who want a slice of their home made pie.
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Comment #5 posted by Had Enough on February 24, 2008 at 12:22:39 PT
Sex & Drugs &…
“Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, the chairman of the committee, said the bill is directly targeted at stopping the inflow of hard drugs into Vermont from larger, out-of-state cities in Massachusetts, New York and Canada.”How much money has been spent? How many long years have we been hearing this stuff about stopping the flow of drugs??? Top that off with Ollie North and the Iran-Contra deals.“The violence surrounding drug sales is increasingly worrying, Sears said. He added that there are also emerging reports of dealers and gangs hooking young women on these drugs and then forcing them into prostitution to pay for their habits.”Well now… Drugs create prostitution??? I thought it was people who want to pay for sex that creates the profession of prostitution. After all prostitution is the second oldest profession in the world. The sales profession is the oldest, nothing happens until the sale is made, and only after the sale.
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Comment #4 posted by Max Flowers on February 24, 2008 at 12:14:31 PT
Stain on the McCains
from http://jimbovard.com/blog/2008/02/23/mccains-forgotten-drug-fix/Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), admitted stealing Percocet and Vicodin from the American Voluntary Medical Team, an organization that aids Third World countries. Percocet and Vicodin are schedule 2 drugs, in the same legal category as opium. Each pill theft carries a penalty of one year in prison and a monetary fine. McCain stole the
pills over several years. She became addicted to the drugs after undergoing back surgery.But rather than face prosecution, McCain was allowed to enter a pretrial diversion program and escaped with no blemish on her record. McCain did suffer from the incident, though: Shortly after the scandal broke, a Variety Club of Arizona ceremony at which she was to receive a humanitarian of the year award for her work with the medical team was canceled because of poor ticket sales.As one editorial writer in The Arizona Republic noted: "Conservative Republicans seemed to
achieve some sort of drug-rehab epiphany when Ms. McCain made her announcement. Politicians who
had never uttered a single positive sentence about drug-prevention, -rehabilitation or -diversion
programs suddenly thought they were just fine. Newspapers that often used words such as drug
addict and thug as describing the same person suddenly had a new sensitivity to the problem. It
seems that when Bill Clinton proposes significant drug rehabilitation and diversion, it is called
a failed social program of the Sixties. When Cindy McCain needs one of those programs, they
suddenly became an essential ingredient in fighting drug use."
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Comment #3 posted by JohnO on February 24, 2008 at 11:33:15 PT:
The violence surrounding the drug trade...
...is positively absent when transactions are done in a normalized commercial establishment such as a pharmacy for prescriptions, and grocery stores or corner convenience stores for tobacco and alcohol. The violence we have seen surrounding the illegal drug trade stems directly from the branch of prohibition. Reminiscent of the Chicago alcohol gangsters with tommy guns ripping each other apart over their territories, today it is the Crips, Bloods, Mexican mafia etc. with TEC 9 pistols and AK 47s.  All the while the law enforcement community publicly cry and whine over their total lack of control on the illegal drug trade, their actual practice is to watch and wait until someone makes a tidy profit, then they swoop in like vultures and steal the property from the drug lords.  The cream of the industry is going into the back door of law enforcement communities, that's hypocrisy at it's absolute worst! Take the profit motive away from Law enforcement and they will quickly agree that legalization and taxation along with other legal commodities is the proper place for all drug commerce. Law enforcement has an addiction to drugs, it's time to do an intervention. JohnO.
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on February 24, 2008 at 11:32:37 PT
Way to cut to core of it, Sam...
and reveal the real and gnarly truth of it.
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on February 24, 2008 at 10:45:52 PT
yeah baby, fill those jails!!!
"The violence surrounding drug sales is increasingly worrying, Sears said. He added that there are also emerging reports of dealers and gangs hooking young women on these drugs and then forcing them into prostitution to pay for their habits."Great! So let's crank up the penalties even further, so that only totally ruthless men will go into selling drugs. Then we'll build some more prisons, where we can harden up even more men before we release them back out into our towns & cities.And of course we'll have to take some money away from education and health care to pay for all this, which is perfect. Now young people won't be able to go to college and get a job, so they'll go into drug dealing and prison, where they'll learn to be violent and mean. Brilliant! 
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