Cop Corruption Exposed

It's very common knowledge that the policies of prohibition have failed on many more levels than it succeeded. It brings high corruption to every aspect of society. But the most directly damaging one is corrupt police. There's nothing new about cops planting drugs on innocent people. An article by Allison Kilkenny called "Former Narcotics Detective Admits Drug Planting Common" sums up quite nicely what the drug war is doing to the department that's supposed to SERVE and PROTECT.

"I think that it happens more than people would like to think," says Williamson. He adds that in Camden and in New York, there is a certain degree of pressure to make arrests, and even if a department doesn't have a specific written quota policy, there is always an expectation that a productive police officer makes arrests and hauls in contraband off the streets. "There's a natural temptation for police officers to [plant drugs]."

Stephen Anderson, a former New York Police Department (NYPD) narcotics detective, recently testified that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent people as a way for officers to meet arrest quotas.

This practice has reportedly cost the city $1.2 million to settle cases of false arrests. 

Isn't it nice to have UNOFFICIAL official (not a typo) quota to greatly influence the arrest statistics and pretty much hand over loads of taxpayers cash to courts,  prisons, and/or treatment centres. And remember all of this is being paid by YOU.

Well, at least not all the cases are lost but justice still does not prevail. So what if they get money for a wrongful arrest? What about their mental distress of being arrested, permanent record, maybe lost earning/jobs.

"It's almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it," Anderson coolly admitted to a reportedly stunned Brooklyn courtroom. "They're going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway - nothing is going to happen to them."

Forgotten in that detached assessment, obviously, is the horrific experience of being in jail; the financial burden of having to pay up to a $500,000 fine; and, oh, having a criminal record possibly wreck one's chances of future employment - not to mention dealing with the social stigma of being in jail; the travel restraints; the loss of voting rights; difficulty in finding affordable housing; and dealing with barriers to education (the Higher Education act was amended in 1998 to delay or deny federal financial aid to students on the basis of any drug offense,) among other hurdles too numerous to list.

If that's how police think, with complete detachment from reality of the situation, then how do they even get a chance to take an oath...


And the corruption keeps climbing higher:

It's difficult for the ACLU to take on the issue of arrest quotes precisely because they are oftentimes unofficial understandings between supervisors and officers.

It gets better...:

However, officially, these quotas don't exist, and since official quotas "don't exist," then the instances of drug planting are always presented as isolated cases of bad apple officers gone rogue instead of natural byproducts of a high-pressure system of quotas.

Tracking how far rot extends up the ladder of a department is also extremely difficult to determine. Unless someone like Anderson steps forward to spill the beans about corrupt brass, supervisors and investigators almost always deny they knew this kind of behavior was ever going on.

And the lists of suspects goes on and on, in my opinion, all the way to the top of the drug policy makers and big corporations that profit from all this.

"This has been going on for forty years," Downing states simply. "These corruptions are emerging all over the country. It's not systemic to a police department, per se, but it is systemic to the War on Drugs in the context that the federal government is basically corrupting local government with their funds and the helter-skelter way of putting these task forces together and diverting local police from their basic public safety duties to the priorities of the federal government in terms of the War on Drugs."

Sounds like I'm repeating myself but yet again: SERVE and PROTECT???

Even though police departments across the country continue to deny the existence of these quotas, what's become clear through the deluge of corruption cases is that these are not exceptional situations, but rather the expected consequence of a system of skewed priorities beginning 40 years ago that has only served to enrich underground drug pushers and destroy local communities.

Only if more people joined the right side of the debate, we could stop this nonsense of a War on Own People.

Are You Looking for a Great Job?

There's an excellent opportunity at ONDCP: Executive Office of the President

NORML Sues the Federal Government

The US government has finally pissed off enough people and NORML will not stand for any of it. They have officially filed a law suite against them. Read article here.

Silber, have filed suit (read here) in the four federal districts in California to challenge the Obama Administration’s recent crackdown on medical marijuana operations in the Golden State. Aided by expert testimony from NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano and research from California NORML Director Dale Gieringer, the suits seek an injunction against the recent federal intrusion into state medical marijuana laws at least and at most a declaration of the unconstitutionality of the Controlled Substances Act with respect to state regulation of medical marijuana

Somebody needed to question the Controlled Substances Act long, long time ago.

The legal argument is called ‘judicial estoppel’, which basically means that courts can’t hold true to a fact in one case and then disregard it in another...

States have the “primary plenary power to protect the health of its citizens” and since the government has recognized and not attempted to stop Colorado’s state-run medical marijuana dispensary program, it cannot suggest Colorado has a state’s right that California does not.

California has the biggest network of medical marijuana in this country and they're being punished for that. Why not punish big corporations for overextending their reach?

Terrible Reporting...

CBC has published an article called "Schizophrenia and meth linked, research suggests" and at no surprise its full of propaganda. The first thing I've noticed is that it didn't have a link to this study so the conclusions could be verified. The whole article was full of "may be the cause", "results need to be verified" etc etc. Read the article and answer me this: Why publish something so rubbish besides trying to cause fear?

Sativex is Medicine, Cannabis is NOT

This is just a reiteration of an old article (2005) called  Andrea Barthwell, Snake Oil Salesman. I feel that this article, especially a few quotes, will be taken and spun to justify the legality of Sativex and further stigmatization of a whole, unprocessed plant and further criminalisation of recreational users. Even the people that cannot afford this miracle drug, and use raw cannabis, would still be viewed as criminals in the eyes of the law.
 
“If there were compelling scientific and medical data supporting marijuana’s medical benefits that would be one thing,” Barthwell said. “But the data is not there. The claim of one individual who has used marijuana does not medical data make. Marijuana has not gone through the test of science because it is a botanical and it doesn’t have the same effect on every individual.”  

Those who follow the legal development regarding cannabis know this is not true. Cannabis and its extracts have been used for a few millennia with no short or long term adverse effects. The data was, and is, there, Andrea just decided to keep it under wraps, and promote the all so loved propaganda and prohibition. Reasonably for her, the majority of the public (at the time) might not have known any of this, so it's much easier for the ONDCP to keep the policy going.

On the other note, poppies are botanical and opium and its derivatives are made from it, yet there is plenty of research on that...

“A crude plant is definitely not a medicine,” Barthwell said. “A surgeon doesn’t come to a patient recovering from surgery and give them a pipe of opium – you give them a derivative.” 

Once again, they could give them opium to help deal with the pain, but the doctors don't want the patients feeling good.


“There’s no basis in medical [knowledge] for taking a crude plant material and providing it as medicine,”

How about the traditional medicines that have helped millions before the synthetic medicines have been invented? Camomile, pure honey, lavender, etc etc... I've used those since I was a child, I know they're not the best things but they definitely helped me feel better and recover from what ever I had.

So to sum things up, the prohibition is losing steam, and I bet you anything that the governments around the world will use these same excuses to keep us "blinded" from the truth... Eventually their repressive empire will collapse under its own stupidity.

Surprise, Surprise: Sativex is safe!

GW Pharma has developed a cannabis based drug called Sativex (those who are unfamiliar with it click here for more information). The company has finally finished its phase III trials.

They have published the summary of the results here.

"... clinical experience to date has demonstrated that the tolerability profile of this medicine is favourable, with limited relevant adverse effects and - particularly reassuring - the drug does not appear to lead to withdrawal effects if patients suddenly stop using it.”

 So the leading doctors have publicly declared that the super strong cannabis tincture is safe, does not lead to schizophrenia or unforeseen addiction and crime...

It's all pretty much summed up.