Drug War Chronicle #619 - February 5, 2010

President Obama has vowed to slash discretionary federal spending, but it isn't going be done on the back of the drug war. Federal drug control spending is up 3.5% in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget. Mostly it's the same old, same old drug war, but there are some interesting surprises.

Nearly nine years after the fact, the CIA has completed its internal investigation of the shooting down of a civilian aircraft over Peru that left an American missionary and her infant daughter dead. The agency found little wrong with its behavior, but not everyone agrees.

Rogue narcs in Camden, cops dealing weed out of police cars, a crooked DARE officer, cops helping dealers, and, of course, another prison guard goes down, more jail and prison guards go down.

Nearly a thousand people were killed in Mexico's unrelenting plague of prohibition-related violence last month alone. At this rate, another 10,000 will die by year's end.

It's a marijuana news trifecta in Rhode Island this week: A decrim bill is introduced, the Senate Commission on Marijuana Prohibition holds its final hearing, and the Health Department holds what is likely its final hearing on regulating for the state's embryonic "compassion center" program for pot patients.

Stunned by the proliferation of medical marijuana patients and dispensaries, the Colorado Senate voted Monday to impose restrictions on "pot docs."

Millions of innocent Americans suffering from colds may soon be paying for the sins of meth cooks, for whom that medicine that relieves your symptoms is the key ingredient in the recipe.

A Missouri Senate committee with more moralistic wrath toward the poor than common sense has passed a bill that would require welfare applicants and recipients to be drug tested under "reasonable suspicion" and thrown off the rolls for three years if they test positive -- even though the legislature's own analysts say the bill would cost far more than it would save.

Kenneth How rolled up to a Massachusetts sobriety checkpoint sitting in the passenger seat and smoking a joint. Shortly later, he was dead. The medical examiner has called his death a homicide. Now, his family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging police beat him to death.

Although Scottish authorities have yet to find any dirty dope, they have found another heroin user dead of anthrax.

MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org, part of the ProCon.org family, is an in-depth web site presenting information and views from a variety of perspectives on the medical marijuana issue. The Chronicle is running a series of info items from ProCon.org over the next several weeks, and we encourage you to check it out.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

"Obama's Drug War Budget Destroys the Myth of Change," "Obama, YouTube, and Marijuana Legalization," "Legalize Willie Nelson's Tour Bus," "Obama Avoids Questions About Legalizing Marijuana (Again)."

Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester fighting the good fight!

The Foundation for Research on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Inc. (FROST'D) seeks a full-time Harm Reduction Counselor/Outreach Worker/Driver to work with their Integrated Harm Reduction Program.

The Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD), an issues-based membership network with a focus on representing and reflecting the voices and needs of people who use drugs in Asia, seeks a Regional Coordinator for their office in Bangkok, Thailand.