A Maryland bill to create a "Good Samaritan" bar to prosecution for seeking medical assistance for someone who is experiencing a medical emergency after ingesting alcohol or drugs has been watered down on the way to enactment by the General Assembly to simply provide the such a fact "may be used as a mitigating factor in a criminal prosecution."
Characteristic of last minute legislative this looks like an amendment written on the back of a cocktail napkin. Did the legislature mean a mitigating factor for purposes of charging that should be considered by a State's Attorney or a mitigating factor for the purpose of sentencing to be considered by a judge?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Maryland waters down Good Samaritan bill
New resource on Colombia data
The Center on International Policy has posted some excellent data on Colombia.
Despite extensive U.S. spending on Plan Colombia, coca cultivation has been growing for the past 5 years, and remains stable over the past decade.
Surprise: Cocaine prices falling
John Walsh at the Washington Office on Latin America has issued another thoughtful report on cocaine prices. His 10-page paper has some excellent graphs of cocaine prices.
Contrary to the repeated claims in November 2005 and November 2007 by John Walters that cocaine prices were going up in an "unprecedented disruption" in the cocaine market, the opposite was true. ONDCP obtained a report from the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) on July 23, 2008. It was just released in February 2009, but is buried on their website in the middle of 2008 publications.
Contrary to Walters' claims, the average U.S. retail price of cocaine per pure gram was the lowest in history and 22 percent lower than in 1999 at the start of Plan Colombia. The average retail purity of 64 percent was close to the median of 67 percent since 1988.
The price drop is not due to demand. Demand has been relatively stable since 2000.
Walsh's conclusion is that, as the historical pattern reveals, there are disruptions in the supply of cocaine, but they have always been temporary. But these infrequent disruptions are the best we have achieved despite an enormously expensive investment into interdiction, source country control, crop suppression. Walsh notes that "the scope of the failure of supply-side measures must be acknowledged" by policy makers.
But Walsh notes that DEA continues to report price increases that are contradicted by the IDA analysis.
Effective policy making is impossible when the critical data is erroneous, falsified, or concealed. Is the crisis of cartel violence in Mexico, which has been the subject of one dozen congressional hearings since January, another instance of the data problem? Claims of the extent cartel killings since the inauguration of President Calderon now top 10,000. Warnings of spillover violence into Arizona, Texas, California and elsewhere in the U.S. accompany every report. How accurate are these claims?
We need to continue to demand that data be carefully developed, and accurate. If Walters' claims about cocaine were made under oath at a congressional hearing, perhaps Congress should consider whether Walters' claims amounted to perjury, and should be referred to the U.S. Attorney.
Friday, April 10, 2009
American Violet opens next week!
As I noted last month, American Violet opens next week! This is a dramatic rendering of the Hearn, TX drug cases, focusing on the compelling character of Dee Roberts, a single mother of four who fights back and pleads not guilty. The movie is produced by Tim Disney, grandnephew of Walt Disney.
The Hearn cases -- 27 arrests! -- are part of the pattern that became well known after the numerous arrests, prosecutions, and incomprehensibly long sentences imposed in Tulia, TX. American Violet tells this story powerfully. Find it, see it, and share your reaction with friends and colleagues.
Variety said this about the star, Nicole Beharie:
Dee is an engaging, admirable lead character, and the striking, petite Beharie, in only her second screen role, is a real winner, bringing energy and fortitude to a woman who easily could have joined the ranks of society's victims and losers. Bright things lie ahead for this charismatic thesp.Sphere: Related Content
Monday, April 06, 2009
Someone -- The New York Times? -- confuses possession with importation, distribution, or possession with intent to distribute
The New York Times reported on Friday (for Saturday publication)on an interview with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, before his meeting with his counterpart in Mexico.
In the interview, Mr. Holder said he was sending an additional 100 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the southern border to crack down on the so-called straw gun purchases — in which one person submits to the federal background checks to obtain guns for someone else — that fuel much of the southbound smuggling. And with marijuana sales central to the drug trade, Mr. Holder said he was exploring ways to lower the minimum amount required for the federal prosecution of possession cases.
Probably The New York Times reporter substituted possession for importation or distribution, or perhaps possession with intent to distribute, when she wrote the story. If Holder said possession, he almost certainly meant possession with intent to distribute, importation or distribution. Federal prosecutors offices along the border have had informal quantity floors for taking drug cases to trial in federal court. If someone is simply crossing the border at Tijuana or El Paso, and is in possession of personal use amounts of marijuana, they are almost never prosecuted for felony importation or for misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The prosecutors have so many cases of commercial couriers they have to disregard minor cases for federal court prosecution. The Attorney General isn't getting more resources so that he can direct Assistant U.S. Attorneys on lower-level cases. Sphere: Related Content
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