2001: A Year In The Life of Marijuana Prohibition

"House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002." - Reuters, May 1998

Welcome to 2002, Land of the Virtually Drug-Free. We are a people unanimous in our conviction to eradicate marijuana from the face of the earth. Or are we?

Despite 13 million marijuana arrests since 1970, several hundred billion dollars spent, and the development of the largest prison system in the history of the world, a record 34 percent of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized.

The 64th year of modern Marijuana Prohibition, 2001, was characterized by a widening of the gap between the hard-line drug policies of the United States and the increasingly tolerant approach of many governments abroad. In May, the United States was voted off the United Nations Drug Control Board and Human Rights Board on the same day. Meanwhile Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium decriminalized personal possession of marijuana, and polls showed a majority favoring outright legalization in Britain and Jamaica. Forty-seven percent of Canadians polled favor marijuana legalization.

Despite a campaign promise that he would allew states to decide on the issue of medical marijuana individually, the newly-elected President George Bush reaffirmed his commitment to hardline prohibitionism through the appointments of John Ashcroft as Attorney General, and John P. Walters as Drug Czar. In their own words:

"I want to escalate the war on drugs. I want to renew it. I want to refresh it, relaunch it, if you will." - Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, February 7, 2001

"What really drives the battle against law enforcement and punishment, however, is not a commitment to treatment, but the widely held view that ( 1 ) we are imprisoning too many people for merely possessing illegal drugs, ( 2 ) drug and other criminal sentences are too long and harsh, and ( 3 ) the criminal justice system is unjustly punishing young black men. These are among the great urban myths of our time." - John P. Walters, America's Drug Czar designate, Weekly Standard, March 6, 2001

The following tidbits, culled from the press over the past 12 months, illustrate the patterns of abuse, fraudulence and violence pandemic to American drug policy.

January 12 - The nephew of Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft received probation after a felony conviction in state court for growing 60 marijuana plants with intent to distribute the drug in 1992- a lenient sentence, given that the charges against him often trigger much tougher federal penalties and jail time. Ashcroft was the tough-on-drugs Missouri governor at the time.

January 19 - ( AP ) The Belgian government agreed Friday to decriminalize the use of marijuana, following its neighbor the Netherlands in granting legal tolerance to use of the drug.

The Belgian legislation, which is expected to be approved by parliament early this year, will legalize possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal consumption. It will not allow sale of the drug, unlike in the Netherlands, where "coffee shops" selling marijuana cigarettes are a common sight in many cities.

February 11 - President Jorge Batlle of Uruguay, becomes the first head of state in Latin America to call for the decriminalization of drugs and an end to the drug war. "During the past 30 years this has grown, grown, grown and grown, every day more problems, every day more violence, every day more militarization," the 73-year-old president told a radio audience recently. "This has not gotten people off drugs. And what's more, if you remove the economic incentive of the [drug trade] it loses strength, it loses size, it loses people who participate."

February 16 - ( AP ) More than half of the Swiss support loosening the laws banning marijuana, according to a survey by a drug and alcohol agency. The figures, released Thursday by the private Swiss Institute for Alcohol and Drug Problems following a study in November, say that 54 percent favor a softening of penalties for smoking, possessing and selling the drug. "Cannabis consumption is becoming normal," institute director Richard Mueller said.

March 9 - William J. Allegro, 32, of Bradley Beach, New Jersey is sentenced to 50 years in prison for growing marijuana in his home. "The court imposed this sentence because the court felt obligated to do so under the law," said Judge Paul F. Chaiet, a former prosecutor. "Mandatory sentencing provisions can create difficult results. In the court's view, this is one of those times where the ultimate results are difficult to accept."

Allegro's previous criminal record was made up of several non-violent offenses including a sale of marijuana.

April 18 - ( AP ) Kenneth Hayes and Michael Foley are acquitted by a Sonoma County jury on charges of cultivating and possessing marijuana. The two were men arrested for growing 899 marijuana plants for the1,200 members of a San Francisco medical marijuana club called CHAMP- Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems. Hayes ran the club.

Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins said "Our contention was that you can't be a caregiver under the definition of the statute to that many people. The jury felt otherwise."

April 20 - Christian missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter Charity are killed when their small plane is shot out of the sky by a Peruvian military jet, as part of a CIA-backed program that patrols the Amazon basin for drug couriers.

April 24 - In Oklahoma, Will Foster, 42, a medical marijuana patient who in 1995 was sentenced to 93 years in prison for growing 39 marijuana plants in his basement, is released on parole. Foster used the marijuana to relieve chronic pain caused by acute rheumatoid arthritis.

"My medical use of marijuana never interfered with my work, I ran a successful business," said Foster. "I was minding my own business taking care of my health and my family. What was I doing to anybody that got me 93 years?"

April 24 - The Boston Globe reports: A narrowly divided Supreme Court gave police sweeping authority Tuesday to arrest and jail those who break even minor criminal laws, such as failing to fasten a car's seat belt.

May 2 - The Louisiana Senate, voting 29-5, passes sweeping legislation to bring relief to an overflowing state prison system, ending mandatory prison time for possession of small quantities of drugs.

"We have lost control of the prison population," said Sen. Charles Jones, D-Monroe, lead author of SB239. "We are spending nearly $600 million a year on prisons." Jones said there are 35,000 inmates in Louisiana state prisons and 15,000 of them are there on drug-related charges.

May 5 - The United States is voted off the United Nations Narcotics Control Board. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States would continue its "strong support" for U.N. anti-drug programs despite its ouster from the 13-member board that monitors compliance with U.N. drug conventions on substance abuse and illegal trafficking.

Indeed, after the son of U.S. Rep. "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., was found flying an airplane loaded with 400 pounds of marijuana, he was freed on bail but then tested positive for cocaine three times. He wound up getting a mere 2 1/2 years in prison.

Former Education Secretary Richard Riley's son got just six months' house arrest for conspiring to sell cocaine and marijuana, though he had been indicted earlier on charges that can lead to life in prison.

August 26 - ( AP ) The number of adults behind bars, on parole or on probation reached a record 6.47 million in 2000 -- or one in 32 American adults, the government reported Sunday.

August 29 - ABC News 20/20 Downtown features a comparison of U.S. and Dutch drug policy, with an accompanying online interactive poll, asking "SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED?" 78 percent respond YES.

September 8 - Thirteen current and former Miami police officers were accused by U.S. authorities Friday of shooting unarmed people and then conspiring to cover it up by planting evidence. The indictment is just the latest scandal for this city's trouble-plagued police force. All of those charged were veterans assigned to SWAT teams, narcotics units or special crime-suppression teams in the late 1990s.

October 27 - The ( UK ) Guardian reports: A majority of Britons believe cannabis should be legalised and sold under licence in a similar way to alcohol, according to a new poll. Some 65 percent of those questioned, agreed it should be legalised and 91 percent said it should be available on prescription for sufferers of diseases like multiple sclerosis.

The poll, carried out by Mori for the News of the World, follows the Government's announcement that the law on the drug has been eased. While possession of cannabis will still be illegal, police will no longer be able to arrest those carrying it.

November 3 - The DEA raid the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, a medical marijuana distribution facility, arresting President Scott Imler. "They were as gracious as they can be when they are raping you," Imler says of the DEA agents.

The bust was a result of months of surveillance and years of investigation of the LACRC by the DEA.

City officials condemned the raid at a press conference last Friday that was attended by more than 100 center members.

November 9 - The San Jose Mercury News reports: Despite objections from former first lady Betty Ford and drug-treatment authorities, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of John Walters as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

November 19 - Former West Vancouver school superintendent Ed Carlin is furious with North Vancouver RCMP after a blunder during which the emergency response team raided a basement rental suite occupied by his son and three others in search of drugs and guns.

Red-faced cops took down the four young men at gunpoint and found Nintendo controllers in the home, but no guns or drugs.

December 7 - The Long Beach Press-Telegram reports: A Poly High School senior who played bass in the school orchestra took his life after being booked on marijuana possession charges, police said Thursday.

A police officer at Poly was notified at about 2 p.m. Wednesday that a bag of what appeared to be marijuana was visible in Andreas Wickstrom's car, parked in a campus parking lot.

"His mother was contacted and came down to pick him up. They were able to pick up the vehicle and return home about 5 p.m.," Blair said.

Minutes later, the boy's mother heard a noise, then "found her son in the bathroom, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A shotgun kept in the home was found beside him," Blair said.

Paramedics called to the home, in the 3900 block of Elm Avenue, pronounced him dead at 5:11 p.m., Blair said.

Andreas' aunt, Diana Haye, said he was humiliated by his arrest. "All he repeated to his mother on the way home was 'they treated me like a common criminal,' " she said.

December 24 - In North Carolina, the Lexington Dispatch reports about the dismissal of 65 criminal cases investigated by three county narcotics officers now charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to distribute drugs.

According to a federal affidavit issued in the case, law enforcement officers abused their authority in one or more ways, including writing fake search warrants, planting evidence and fabricating charges, keeping drugs and money seized during arrests, attempting to extort more money from the people arrested, and intimidating suspects and potential witnesses.

2001 in Drug Statistics - Estimated U.S. deaths in year 2001 attributed to tobacco: 400,000; alcohol: 110,000; prescription drugs: 100,000; suicide: 30,000; murder: 15,000; aspirin and related painkillers: 7600; marijuana: 0? ( unknown )

"The difference between a policy and a crusade is that a policy is judged by its results, while a crusade is judged by how good it makes its crusaders feel." - Thomas Sowell

Hey, some pigs are more equal than others:

Congressional Family Drug Offenders:
Escape Mandatory Sentences, Get Favorable
Treatment

In Boston, Todd Cunningham, 29, the son of U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), was sentenced on November 17 to 2-1/2 years in federal prison for marijuana smuggling. Rep. Cunningham, who has supported the death penalty for drug traffickers, made a tearful plea to U.S. Judge Reginald C. Lindsay for leniency for his son. Prosecutors supported the sentence, which is half the mandatory five year term for such an offense, because Cunningham provided information about other offenders involved in the smuggling operation. It was Cunningham's first conviction. (Bill Murphy, "Son of lawmaker sentenced to prison," San Diego Union Tribune, November 18, 1998.)

Prosecutors had agreed to recommend a 14-to-18-month term in boot camp and a half-way house for Cunningham, but the Representative's son tested positive three times for cocaine while released on bail. On the day of the third failed drug test, Cunningham tried to escape authorities by jumping out a window onto a restaurant roof, breaking his leg. He is scheduled to participate in drug treatment while in prison, which, if successful, may reduce his sentence by as much as a year.

Todd Cunningham was arrested on January 17, 1997 by DEA agents for flying more than 400 pounds of marijuana into Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, Massachusetts (see "U.S. Rep. Cunningham's Son Charged With Drug Trafficking," NewsBriefs, February 1997, p. 30). On August 14, 1997, Cunningham pleaded guilty to possession and conspiracy to sell marijuana. He also admitted to helping smuggle two other shipments of marijuana out of California (Bill Murphy, "Lawmaker's son pleads guilty," San Diego Union Tribune, August 15, 1998).

CLAUDE SHELBY - SON OF U.S. SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL)

On July 24, authorities at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport arrested Claude Shelby, the youngest son of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), for possession of 13.8 grams of hashish. Claude Shelby, 32, is married and has one child. Sen. Shelby is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ("Drug Charge," USA Today, July 29, 1998, p. 6A).

U.S. Customs Service inspectors found the hashish in Shelby's possession using a drug-sniffing dog. Shelby, who had arrived on a flight from London, was issued a $500 fine, which he paid on the spot. He was then turned over to the Clayton County Sheriff's Department for state prosecution.

Responding to the incident, Sen. Richard Shelby responded that he and his family were "shocked and saddened" by the charge but that he would "stand by him through this difficult ordeal." The senior Shelby added, "My position on fighting drugs is well known. It continues to be a priority for me regardless of personal circumstances."

"The senator may find it hard to be stoic if his drug-fighting colleagues in the House have their way," said Monica Pratt, communications director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, in an op-ed in the Atlanta Constitution. Pratt was referring to the "Drug Importer Death Penalty Act" (HR 41), introduced by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), which would mandate a life sentence without parole for offenders who import "100 usual dosage amounts" of a controlled substance, and a death sentence for such offenders with a prior conviction for a similar drug offense . The measure does not define what amounts constitute "100 usual dosages." Pratt said, "Under this broad definition, Claude Shelby's 13.8 grams of hashish could be enough to qualify him for life imprisonment (Monica Pratt, "Congress comes into the courtroom," Atlanta Constitution, August 12, 1998). The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines provide that 1 gram of hashish is the equivalent of 5 grams of marijuana and that 1 gram of marijuana is two doses.

"Luckily for the senior Shelby, he will not know the pain of visiting his son in prison for the rest of his life. . .Perhaps his son's brush with the law will convince the senator that life-and-death sentencing policies are not trifling matters to be bandied about during election-year politicking," said Pratt.

DARLENE WATTS - SISTER OF U.S. REP. J.C. WATTS (R-OK)

Darlene Watts, 34, the sister of U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK), the new House Republican Caucus Chairman, the number four position in the House leadership, was given a seven-year suspended sentence after successfully completing a boot camp program for nonviolent offenders. Darlene Watts was charged with possession and distribution of marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, and maintaining a property where drugs were kept. She pleaded guilty to six drug-related counts in March 1998 (Associated Press, "Watts' Kin Gets Term Suspended," July 20, 1998).

CINDY McCAIN - Wife of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

In 1995, Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), admitted to stealing Percocet® and Vicodin® from the American Voluntary Medical Team, which provides humanitarian aid to Third World countries. The two narcotic painkillers are Schedule II drugs, in the same category as cocaine and opium. Sen. McCain is the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Cindy McCain became addicted to the drugs after undergoing back surgery. However, instead of prosecution, the senator's wife was allowed to enter a pretrial diversion program. An editorial writer in the Arizona Republic noted: "Conservatives seemed to achieve some sort of drug-rehab epiphany when Ms. McCain made her announcement. . .Newspapers that often used words such as drug addict and thug as describing the same person suddenly had a new sensitivity to the problem" (Doug MacEachern, "Painkillers Took Over Her Life," San Jose Mercury News, August 23, 1995, p. 8A; James Bovard, "Prison Sentences of the Politically Connected," Playboy, April 1997, p. 46).

DAN BURTON II - Son of U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN)

In January 1994, Dan Burton Jr., the son of U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), was arrested in Louisiana for transporting nearly eight pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his car. Rep.Burton is the chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Six months later, Burton was arrested again, this time at his Indianapolis apartment, where police found thirty marijuana plants and a shotgun with ammunition. Federal prosecutors declined to prosecute the case; Indiana prosecutors recommended dismissal of the charges against Burton; and a Louisiana judge sentenced him to community service (Associated Press, "Congressman's Son Arrested With 7 Pounds of Marijuana," Gary Post-Tribune, January 14, 1994, p. B5; Eric Schlosser, "More Reefer Madness," Atlantic Monthly, April 1997, pp. 90-102).

OTHER CASES:

According to author Jim Bovard, other cases that have ended relatively favorable for family members of politicians include: marijuana and cocaine possession and distribution charges against Richard Riley, Jr., son of Education Secretary Richard Riley; cocaine possession charges against Gayle Rosten, daughter of then-U.S. House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL); cocaine distribution charges against John Murtha, son of U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA); cocaine distribution charges against Susan Gallo, daughter of U.S. Rep. Dean Gallo (R-NJ); marijuana possession charges against Warren Bachus, son of U.S. Rep Spencer Bachus (R-AL); and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute charges against Josef Hinchey, son of Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) (James Bovard, "Prison Sentences of the Politically Connected," Playboy, April 1997, p. 46).•

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