Cannabis Freedom

The Cato Institute is having a forum on so-called "No-Knock" raids. Details below. Sorry, the stream is only available in RealMedia format, gross.

Cato Institute: Should No-Knock Police Raids be Rare-or Routine? (Policy Forum): "Should No-Knock Police Raids be Rare-or Routine?

POLICY FORUM
Thursday, September 11, 2008
4:00 PM (Reception To Follow)

Featuring Cheye Calvo, Mayor, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Radley Balko, Senior Writer, Reason and author of Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America, Peter Christ, Co-founder, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Moderated by Tim Lynch, Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute.

The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Watch the Event Live in RealVideo
Listen to the Event in RealAudio (Audio Only)

The Prince George’s County police department is under fire for a recent drug raid on the home of Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo. Unbeknownst to Calvo, a box containing marijuana was delivered to his home. Shortly thereafter, police officers kicked in the front door and shot both of Calvo’s pet Labrador retrievers. The police have subsequently cleared Calvo of any wrongdoing but are unapologetic about their raid tactics. Are no-knock, paramilitary raids an appropriate tactic for drug investigations? Or do sudden, unannounced entries bring unnecessary violence to police investigations? Join us for a discussion of the Prince George’s incident and, more broadly, the militarization of police work in America."

*Update: I fixed the links to the media streams.

The University of Memphis is off to a rough start this season. Keep your head up Tigers. I was watching a National Geographic special entitled "Tigers of the Swamp" about tigers that live in the Bay of Bengal. Due to the flooding rivers descending from the Himalayas bodies of flood victims get washed into the swamp. As a result, some of these tigers have a taste for human blood. That's f-ing hardcore! Ok, I'm motivated again. Go Tigers! Watch the full documentary below.



*The image above is in the public domain, Panthera Tigris, Tigris.

This story from Chicago saddens me, but is not surprising. When the passive aggressive use the force of government to exact their revenge the results can be deadly. In this fortunate instance the tables were turned.

Chicago officer charged in frame job: "Bogdan Mazur, who is in the midst of a divorce, tried to set up his estranged wife by planting cocaine, marijuana and a gun in her vehicle in April 2007 and having Grand-Central District Officer Slawomir Plewa arrest her, according to Assistant State's Atty. Lynn McCarthy.

Plewa, 30, was arrested Monday and charged with official misconduct, perjury, obstruction of justice, unlawful restraint and false reporting."

People often use drug laws to exact retribution, vengeance, and hate against others. Sometimes drug users are snitched on, not to "make the streets safer" but because someone has simply felt personally slighted. Snitching is a great way for the passive aggressive to earn some quick cash while narcing out a personal enemy and subjecting them to the terror of the courts and prisons. The article continues:

After the acquittal, the woman's attorney, Steven Messner, said he told Assistant State's Atty. Bob Milan he suspected the case was phony. Plewa had admitted he never made note of the meeting with the informant nor tried to verify the information with anyone else, Messner said.

And a fingerprint taken from the packaging around the gun and drugs did not match the estranged wife's, Messner said.

Plewa is a seven-year veteran of the department, assigned to the gang-narcotics team for much of that time, and has never before been disciplined by the department, said Dan Herbert, Plewa's attorney.

In other instances innocent people are framed by their enemies. Vindictive individuals know that police are more interested in racking up arrest numbers in order to seize assets and qualify for federal grants. Law enforcement has no incentive to filter through these bogus accusations. Instead they frequently take the snitch's word without any corroborating investigation. In extreme circumstances police knowingly use false information because the incentives to disregard it are simply to great.

Law enforcement should be about justice, righting wrongs. They should be available to protect our life, our liberty, our property. The drug war conflicts with this mission. When cops are used to enforce societal norms we all suffer.

In a true WTF moment, Kid Rock is now making propaganda films for the government. Mrs. Blue, who's had a decade-long crush on the Early Morning Stoned Pimp [Video], will be highly disappointed.

View the music video for "Warrior", by Kid Rock featuring Dale Earnhart, Jr who drives the National Guard number 88 car.


Hat tip: JJ of FreeKeene.com

One of the most popular web searches related to marijuana is, "How to fool a drug test." While the answer remains elusive there are few tricks that can help you when your future or current employer hands you the little white cup.

Chemical & Engineering News: Business - To Catch A Cheat: "The hundreds of products marketed to help drug users circumvent urine drug tests fall into three main categories: products that are consumed prior to the test, products that are added to the test sample, and devices for smuggling synthetic or borrowed 'clean' urine into the testing facility. Toxicologists focus on the first two because, as Sample pointed out, 'if it's someone else's urine, there is not a lab test in the world that would tell you that.'"

So the answer from this unlikely source is simply, "swap urine." Of course using a warmer like "Hot Hands" available in the outdoors section of Walmart, is necessary to keep urine within a normal range of body temperature. Detox systems simply dilute urine to undetectable levels. This trick is easily recognized by competent laboratories.

There are several problems I have with employer drug screening. Marijuana users are unfairly discriminated against because THC is stored in body fat and is detectable long after hard, dangerous drugs have left the system. Prescription drugs are oft abused, even when acquired under legitimate pretense. However many "scripts" aren't tested and if the individual can produce documentation positive results are excused. Finally, drug tests can't actually determine if an employee is or will be impaired at work. THC remains in the body long after, sometimes weeks after the high has subsided.

Here's a table from the article above you might find useful.

Apparently dogs weren't able to be trained at Mark H. Luttrell Correctional Center because of a lack of air conditioning. Apparently in Tennessee we'll cage women in boxes not suitable for animals. I wish people would wake up and understand that the war on drugs is an affront to human rights.

Tennessee Women’s Prison to again Train Dogs: "A West Tennessee women's prison that was deemed this summer to be too hot for a dog training program is scheduled to get air conditioning."

Prosecutors and judges often have to deceive jurors in order to win medical marijuana prosecutions. By omitting relevant facts and disallowing testimony of witnesses, jurors are often tricked into believing individuals running legitimate businesses are running criminal enterprises. Now two jurors in California are fighting back.

The Modesto Bee - Second thoughts and a new pot trial?: "Buyer's remorse from two of 12 jurors is not enough to toss out guilty verdicts that could send two men who ran a Modesto-based medical marijuana dispensary to prison for decades or even life.

So attorneys who want to win a new trial for Ricardo Ruiz Montes and Luke Scarmazzo are taking a different approach, arguing that jurors were unduly influenced by a San Francisco Chronicle story about pot clubs that was published during their deliberations."