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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #996 -- 11/13/17
Phillip S. Smith, Editor,psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/996

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. DRUG-INDUCED HOMICIDE CHARGES DRACONIAN AND INEFFECTIVE, STUDY FINDS [FEATURE]
In this new report, the Drug Policy Alliance exposes the cruelty and futility of the increased resort to such charges.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/08/drug_induced_homicide_charges

2. PRESS RELEASE: GLOBAL STATEMENT CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION ON PHILIPPINE DRUG WAR KILLINGS
This is our latest advocacy effort opposing the brutal drug war killings taking place under the Duterte administration in the Philippines.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/09/concern_over_philippine_killings

3. YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHICH MIDDLE EAST THEOCRAT HAS OKAYED PSYCHEDELICS TREATMENT
It's not exactly the Islamic Republic of Acid, but still... https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/10/rohani_fatwa_okays_psychedelic_therapy

4. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
The FDA cracks down on claims marijuana cures cancer, Michigan's dispensaries catch a break and Detroit's dispensaries win on Election Day, a South Dakota initiative hands in signatures, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/08/medical_marijuana_update

5. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A Hackensack narc bails to avoid problems over illegal searches, a Tennessee cop gets nailed for pain pills, and more prison guards break bad.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/08/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

6. CHRONICLE AM: BELIZE DECRIMINALIZES TEN GRAMS, SF PONDERS SMOKING IN SHOPS, MORE... (11/3/17)
It's all marijuana news today, with San Francisco considering allowing smoking at pot shops, an American Legion poll finding very strong support for medical marijuana among veteans, Belize decriminalizing up to 10 grams, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/03/chronicle_am_belize_decrims_10

7. CHRONICLE AM: ME LAWMAKERS TRY TO SAVE MJ REG BILL FROM VETO, DENVER SIF ADVANCES, MORE... (11/6/17)
Maine legislature will attempt to override the governor's veto of a marijuana regulation bill, a plan for a safe injection site in Denver advances, a Michigan roadside drug testing pilot program gets underway this we, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/06/chronicle_am_me_lawmakers_try

8. CHRONICLE AM: CA MAGIC MUSHROOM INITIATIVE APPROVED FOR SIGNATURE GATHERING, MORE... (11/7/17)
The Maine legislature fails to override the governor's veto of the pot regulation bill, a California initiative to legalize magic mushrooms gets the okay for signature gathering, North Dakotans will wait another year for their medical marijuana, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/07/chronicle_am_ca_magic_mushroom

9. CHRONICLE AM: NJ ELECTS MJ-FRIENDLY GOV, CANADA NDP HEAD CALLS FOR DRUG DECRIM, MORE... (11/8/17)
Election day brought good news for marijuana reformers in New Jersey, Detroit, and an Ohio town; Canada's NDP leader calls for drug decriminalization, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/08/chronicle_am_nj_elects

10. CHRONICLE AM: MEXICAN MILITARY'S DRUG WAR ABUSES, NORWAY REDUCES LSD PENALTIES, MORE... (11/9/17)
The man behind Florida's medical marijuana initiatives is considering a run for governor and now wants to legalize pot, a battle over medical marijuana is looming in Indiana, a new report says the Mexican military is getting away with murder in its US-
backed drug war, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/09/chronicle_am_mexican_militarys

11. CHRONICLE AM: ME MEDMJ CRACKDOWN, DUTERTE FACES HEAT OVER HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES, MORE... (11/10/17)
The DEA will enact an emergency ban on fentanyl analogs, Maine officials try to tighten up the medical marijuana market, NGOs and individuals target Filipino President Duterte ahead of the ASEAN Summit, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/10/chronicle_am_me_medmj_crackdown

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================

1. DRUG-INDUCED HOMICIDE CHARGES DRACONIAN AND INEFFECTIVE, STUDY FINDS [FEATURE]
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2017/nov/08/drug_induced_homicide_charges

A new report from the Drug Policy Alliance shines a harsh spotlight on a strategy that some police, prosecutors, and elected officials are embracing in response to the opioid overdose crisis -- charging sellers with drug-induced homicide -- which the
evidence suggests is intensifying, rather than helping, the problem.

The opioid overdose crisis is real enough -- a record of more than 60,000 people died of drug overdoses last year, most of them from opioids -- but claims that charging drug sellers with murder is an effective deterrent are unproven, according to the
report, An Overdose Death Is Not Murder: Why Drug-Induced Homicide Laws Are Counterproductive and Inhumane (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

(http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

Instead, such laws actually deter people not from selling drugs but from seeking life-saving medical assistance in case of overdose. That's because drug-induced homicide prosecutions typically don't target high-level "kingpins," but zero in on the very
people best positioned to actually save lives in the event of an overdose: family, friends, and low-level drug sellers, often addicts themselves. (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

Like Amy Shemberger. In August 2014, she took a ride to score some heroin for herself and her boyfriend, Peter Kucinski. She snorted one bag on the way home and gave the other to Peter when she got home. Suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal, he
needed the heroin to feel better. He snorted a $10 bag, then stopped breathing. Amy called 911, but it was too late, and her boyfriend of 18 years was gone -- and then so was their 5-year-old son, taken into custody by child protective services. (http://
www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

Two months later, Amy was charged with drug-induced homicide for sharing her score with her life partner. She's now serving seven years in state prison. (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

(http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

Amy Shemberger is not an outlier. Police and prosecutors routinely abuse their discretion by going after the people best positioned to actually save the lives of overdose victims -- their friends, family members, fellow drug users, and small-time drug
sellers. The report offers several examples: In New Jersey, 25 of 32 drug-induced homicide prosecutions in the 2000s targeted friends of the victims who were not involved in significant drug sales. In Wisconsin, 90% of the most recent cases targeted
friends or relatives of the victim. In Illinois, a study of these prosecutions found that prosecutors typically charged the last person known to be with the victim. (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

And, as with everything else in the war on drugs, it's worse if you're not white. Hampered by a felony record, when James Linder, 36, lost his job at a bakery, he resorted to selling small amounts of drugs, making enough money to get a haircut for his
son and to help out his sister. But in January 2015, he sold three packets of heroin to Cody Hillier. Hillier's girlfriend, Danielle Barzyk died of an overdose later that same day. Despite never even metting Barzyk, Linder was charged with drug-induced
homicide in her death. He was sentenced by an all-white jury in rural Illinois. Unlike Shemberger, he didn't get seven years; he got 28 years in prison. (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

(http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

Linder and Schemberger are by no means alone. Drug-induced homicide laws, originally passed in the depths of 1980s drug war excess, lay largely dormant until rising drug overdose numbers led police and prosecutors to revive them. Currently 20 states --
Delaware, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming -- have drug-induced
homicide laws on the books. Other states without such laws also manage to charge these people with the offense of drug delivery resulting in death under various felony-murder, depraved heart, or involuntary or voluntary manslaughter laws. (http://www.
drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)

"This is a wasteful, punitive policy that compounds the tragedy of an overdose by locking up even more people in the name of the failing war on drugs," said Lindsay LaSalle, senior staff attorney at the Drug Policy Alliance and author of the report. "By
placing the blame for an overdose death on the single person who supplied the drugs, all the structural factors that lead to addiction and overdose are ignored, as are the solutions that could actually make a difference. While there's no evidence in
support of the effectiveness of drug-induced homicide laws, the good news is that there are proven (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/DIH)health and harm reduction interventions (https://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/public-health-and-safety-approach-
problematic-opioid-use-and-overdose) that can save lives."

Those include policies and practices such as 911 Good Samaritan laws, which protect people reporting drug overdoses from arrest; expanded access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone (Narcan), expanded access to opioid-assisted treatment, and
expansion of harm reduction programs such as supervised drug injection sites, where users can shoot up under medical supervision and be connected with social service agencies.

There is no national database of drug-induced homicide prosecutions, so the Drug Policy Alliance report relied on media mentions of such cases to chart their spread. It found 363 articles mentioning such cases in 2011, but by 2016, that number had jumped
to 1,178, a 300% increase in just five years. And this without any evidence of their effectiveness in reducing drug use or sales or preventing overdose deaths.

The resort to drug-induced homicide charges varies from state to state. Midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Minnesota have been the most aggressive in prosecuting drug-induced homicides, with northeastern states Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, and New York and southern states Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee rapidly expanding their use of these laws. And the move remains politically popular: This year alone, elected officials in at least 13 states -- Connecticut, Idaho,
Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia -- introduced bills to create new drug-induced homicide offenses or strengthen existing drug-induced homicide laws.

But the increased criminalization of people who use and sell drugs only exacerbates the very problem prosecutors are supposedly trying to address. It increases stigma, drives people away from needed care, and will likely result in the same racial
disparities now synonymous with other drug war tactics.

"This is no time to ratchet up enforcement responses to addiction and overdose -- we can't afford to repeat the mistakes of the past," warned LaSalle. "Overdose deaths are skyrocketing and it could be your loved one who dies from a preventable drug
overdose, simply because someone was too scared to call 911."



================  ...


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                                       Stoners are people too:
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