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Don't Go to Indiana
From the Tribune-Star in Terre Haute, Indiana:
The Vigo County prosecutor’s office, the Terre Haute Police Department and Vigo County Sheriff’s Department will be conducting intermittent driver’s license checks at an undisclosed location in Vigo County.
When I hear that Indiana police are conducting “driver’s license checks”, my constitutional spidey-sense goes off. Afterall, these are the folks who brought us the drug checkpoint. And when that got overruled by the Supreme Court, they came out with the similar, but more sinister “fake drug checkpoint.”
And just when I’m getting ready to connect the dots, the Tribune-Star does it for me:
The checkpoint is also known as a highway interdiction operation, something that has been challenged in courts on the grounds that it may violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal search and seizure.
So at least we can agree that this is about drug interdiction rather than driver’s licenses. But the Tribune-Star is a bit off on the caselaw. The above quote should read:
The checkpoint is also known as a highway interdiction operation, something that has been overruled by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it does violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal search and seizure.
Though technically a win for the 4th Amendment, City of Indianapolis v. Edmond has a loophole in that it only prohibits checkpoints implemented for the “primary purpose” of drug interdiction. That’s why police can set up checkpoints on the pretext of checking driver’s licenses, and then proceed to march drug-sniffing dogs around your car in circles as you fumble for your documents.
Thanks to the Court’s recent decision in Illinois v. Caballes, dog-sniffs are impossible to challenge on 4th Amendment grounds if administered during the course of an otherwise legitimate law-enforcement activity, so these thinly-veiled drug checkpoints will be hard to challenge.
For that matter, I’m not sure we should even push this issue given our current Court’s attitude towards the 4th Amendment.
Instead, let’s just stay the hell out of Indiana.
Location:
United States
See map: Google Maps
Dozens Arrested in US Crackdown on Khat Smuggling
Location:
United States
See map: Google Maps
Publication/Source:
McClatchy Newspapers
URL:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/15129489.htm
Manatee County SWAT Officer Shot in Narcotics Raid (Florida)
Location:
United States
See map: Google Maps
Publication/Source:
Associated Press
URL:
http://www.news4jax.com/news/9578344/detail.html
Belgian Cannabis Activists to Plant Seeds to Protest Seed Ban
Here is the text of a press release from ENCOD and "Draw Up Your Plant," a Belgian pot users' organization:
Belgian cannabis consumers united in "Draw Up Your Plant" will put the seed
for the first mother plant, in spite of controversy on the possession of seeds
Thursday 27 July, 12 hs. in the Botanic Garden of Antwerp (in front of the
glasshouses)
On Thursday 27 July, a seed of cannabis will be put in a flowerpot. The
scene of this event will be the Botanic Garden at the Leopoldstraat in
Antwerpen, Belgium, at 12.00 hs. From this seed the first motherplant of
our association 'Draw Up Your Plant' will grow, that later this year will
be used to provide our collective cannabis plantation with clones.
Possession of cannabis seeds in Belgium is prohibited by law. Possession of
3 grams of cannabis by adults is tolerated by a ministerial decree of 2005.
Sometimes you find seeds in a bag of cannabis. So this is another example
of the contradictions within the law. The Belgian drug policy also in this
case does not guarantee legal security to the citizens of our country.
If I get stopped by the police who finds 3 grammes of cannabis with one
seed in my possession, am I committing a criminal offence? Do I loose the
right on the possession of these 3 grams of cannabis? Or does the police
confiscate the seed and am I allowed to keep my cannabis?
How can I escape persecution in this case? Should I sort the seed off my
cannabis first? And what do I do with the seeds? Is there a place where I
can bring them?
In short, enough questions to answer.
Maybe we will get to know the solution for this dilemma on Thursday 27 July
in the Botanic Garden of Antwerp. There a cannabis seed will be used that
has been taken from the dosage of personal use (of less than 3 grammes) of
one of the members of "Draw Up Your Plant". .
What will be the reaction of the authorities?
Best wishes,
Stijn Goossens
Philippe De Craene
Joep Oomen
TREKT UW PLANT (vzw i.o)
STAD/ENCOD/VOLVOX
Lange Lozanastraat 14
2018 Antwerpen
Tel. 03 237 7436
GSM: 0479 982271 / 0486 499 453
E-mail:encod@glo.be / TrektUwPlant@yahoo.com
Website: www.encod.org / www.hardcoreharmreducer.be / www.cannaclopedia.be
Location:
Antwerp
Belgium
Bill Seeks to Cut Disparities in Cocaine Sentences
Location:
United States
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Publication/Source:
Washington Times
URL:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060725-111608-8951r.htm
Lawyers Say "Pill Mill" Alleviated Suffering
Location:
United States
See map: Google Maps
Publication/Source:
New Orleans Times-Picayune
URL:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/115380834338320.xml&coll=1
Will It Make a Difference in the Drug Supply in the End?
Hopefully Phil will pardon me for cross-posting into his Chronicle blog. :) This is another example of a news story that is too run of the mill to make our newsletter most of the time, but provides a good example of the limitation of short-term memory that so often plagues mainstream reporting on this issue. An operation that Pennsylvania's Attorney General characterizes as the major methamphetamine supplier in the Philadelphia region has been taken down, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
A crystal-methamphetamine distribution ring allegedly run by the Breed motorcycle gang has been broken and 15 members from Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery Counties and New Jersey were in custody or were being sought, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said yesterday. From May 2005 through June 2006, he said, the gang's Pennsylvania chapter distributed more than 120 pounds of crystal meth, with a street value of more than $11.25 million.Will the Inquirer revisit this story in a year, or six months (or for that matter two weeks) to see if meth has been made any less available to its users -- or if instead the slack has been taken up instead of other dealers eager to make the added profit? This is also a "consequences of prohibition" story, hence I've also posted it to our "Prohibition in the Media" blog:
Corbett said a statewide investigation and a grand jury found that from its clubhouse at 3707 Spruce St. in Bristol, the gang "had terrorized Lower Bucks County for several decades by committing crimes involving illegal drug dealing, thefts, extortion, witness intimidation and assaults."It's clearly the case that those involved in illegal drug activity are going to resort to violence to advance their business purposes and moderate their business disputes -- that's prohibition, it was like that with Al Capone during alcohol prohibition and it's like that with drug gangs now. While drug prohibition laws don't directly account for the thefts and perhaps other crimes that the AG alleges were committed by this particular gang, all the money they were making from meth certainly turned them into a larger and powerful group, perhaps is what got them started in the first place. When prohibition was repealed, the homicide rate decreased steadily for ten years, to about half of where it had peaked by the end of prohibition -- perhaps the steadiness of the decrease as opposed to it all going away immediately reflects the idea that gangs whose financial backbone is based on drug selling will struggle to hold on for awhile before dwindling. But the violence dropped, and that's the main thing. The Inquirer posts letter and op-ed information here. Sadly Philadelphia has been plagued lately with another consequences of prohibition, overdose deaths due to a tainted drug supply. Read what one of Nixon's drug fighters had to say about the long-term effectiveness of massive drug busts.
Location:
Philadelphia, PA
United States
See map: Google Maps
Douglas County Gets Thousand From Festival-Goers Caught With Drugs (Kansas)
Location:
United States
See map: Google Maps
URL:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15074239.htm
