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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1164 -- 7/8/22
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1164

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

Table of Contents:

1. SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH INMATE IN CRACK COCAINE RESENTENCING CASE
[FEATURE]
It is a case that could positively impact the resentencing prospects of thousands of federal crack cocaine prisoners. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jun/30/supreme_court_sides_inmate_crack

2. NEW POLL COULD BOLSTER VERMONT DRUG DECRIM PUSH [FEATURE]
A new poll could help stiffen the resolve of Vermont lawmakers to
actually pass a drug decriminalization bill next year. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/07/new_poll_could_bolster_vermont

3. EVENT: BUILDING BACK WITH JUSTICE? MARCOS, DUTERTE, THE ICC AND THE PHILIPPINE DRUG WAR
We hold our next online side event in conjunction with the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/07/event_building_back_justice

4. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
A Nebraska medical marijuana initiative campaign is going down to the
wire on signature-gathering, a Pennsylvania bill to protect patients
from DUI charges advances, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/06/medical_marijuana_update

5. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COP STORIES
A Pennsylvania state trooper gets wasted on the job, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/06/weeks_corrupt_cop_stories

6. NO DRUG DECRIM INIT IN WA THIS YEAR, COLOMBIA TRUTH COMMISSION CALLS
FOR LEGAL, REGULATED DRUGS... (6/29/22)
A House committee has advanced an amendment to protect state-legal
marijuana businesses, the DC city council votes to let adults
"self-certify" for a medical marijuana card, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jun/29/no_drug_decrim_init_wa_year

7. CA SAFE INJECTION SITE BILL NEARS FINAL PASSAGE, PA MEDMJ DUI BILL
ADVANCES, MORE... (6/30/22)
North Carolina permanently legalizes hemp at the last minute, a
Missoula, Montana, entheogen decriminalization resolution is withdrawn
for lack of support, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jun/30/ca_safe_injection_site_bill

8. ANOTHER PUSH FOR THE SAFE BANKING ACT, NJ MAGIC MUSHROOM LEGALIZATION
BILL FILED, MORE... (7/1/22)
The Ohio Supreme Court rejects a police backpack search for marijuana,
the Massachusetts Senate has approved an asset forfeiture reform bill,
and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/01/another_push_safe_banking_act_nj

9. FED JUDGE RULES FOR OPIOID DISTRIBUTORS IN WV LAWSUIT, CA KILLS
MARIJUANA CULTIVATOR TAX, MORE... (7/5/22)
A Washington state county commissioner demonstrates her cluelessness
about harm reduction, Senate drug warriors file the END FENTANYL Act,
and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/05/fed_judge_rules_opioid

10. SENATORS PRESS BIDEN TO DESCHEDULE MARIJUANA, OK LEGALIZATION INIT
HANDS IN SIGNATURES, MORE... (7/6/22)
The Nebraska medical marijuana initiative campaign is in a final frantic
push to come up with additional signatures, the Oklahoma marijuana
legalization initiative campaign hands in beaucoup signatures, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/06/senators_press_biden_deschedule

11. AR LEGALIZATION CAMPAIGN HANDS IN SIGNATURES, AMNESTY ON SINGAPORE
DRUG WAR HANGINGS, MORE... (7/7/22)
A federal circuit court puts the hurt on a Nebraska medical marijuana initiative, DC residents can now self-certify as medical marijuana
patients, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jul/07/ar_legalization_campaign_hands

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

1. SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH INMATE IN CRACK COCAINE RESENTENCING CASE
[FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/jun/30/supreme_court_sides_inmate_crack

In a Monday decision little-noticed amidst the rising clamor over recent Supreme Court decisions on guns, abortion, and religion, the highest
court in the land ruled in favor of a federal crack cocaine prisoner
seeking a sentence reduction under the terms of the 2018 First Step Act.
The ruling could affect thousands of other mostly Black inmates
sentenced under the nation's harsh crack cocaine laws.

During the crack panic of the 1980s, Congress passed legislation
creating a 100:1 disparity in the weight of the drug required to trigger
a mandatory minimum federal prison sentence. Confronted with the
increasingly unassailable evidence that the sentencing disparity was
neither scientifically justified nor racially neutral -- nearly 80
percent (https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/08/03/data-show-racial-disparity-in-crack-sentencing)
of federal crack prosecutions targeted Black people by 2009 -- Congress
in 2010 passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced but did not
eliminate the weight disparity, setting it at 18:1.

The Fair Sentencing Act provided relief to people sentenced after its
passage, but it was not retroactive, meaning people sentenced under the
old standard still had to do those harsh sentences. In order to address
that oversight and reduce racial inequities, Congress in 2018 passed the
First Step Act, making those sentencing changes retroactive and opening
the door for people sentenced under the old law to seek resentencing.

The case in question, Concepcion v. United States (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1650_3dq3.pdf), began
when Carlos Concepcion pleaded guilty to selling crack in 2009 and was sentenced to 19 years in prison based on the 100:1 sentencing disparity
in effect at the time. After passage of the First Step Act and having
already served a decade of his sentence, Concepcion filed for a reduced sentence. Part of his argument was that he was no longer considered a
"career offender" subject to harsher sentencing because of changes in
the federal sentencing guidelines unrelated to the First Step Act.

Without that "career offender" designation, Concepcion would have been a
free man after serving just less than six years [Ed: six years is itself
a very long time], but a Massachusetts federal district court judge
declined to consider factors unrelated to the First Step Act and denied
his resentencing request. That denial was upheld by the 1st US Circuit
Court in Boston, and Concepcion and his attorneys then appealed to the
Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor in a 5-4 decision.

The majority on the court was an odd one, consisting of the three
liberal justices -- Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor --
joined by hard conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Sotomayor wrote the opinion.

In it, she argued that judges enjoy broad discretion at sentencing and
that discretion continues in any later proceedings that may change the sentence.

"Federal courts historically have exercised broad discretion to consider
all relevant information at an initial sentencing hearing, consistent
with their responsibility to sentence the whole person before them," she
wrote. "That discretion also carries forward to later proceedings that
may modify an original sentence. District courts' discretion is bounded
only when Congress or the Constitution expressly limits the type of
information a district court may consider in modifying a sentence."

There is nothing in the First Step Act that limits that discretion, she
added.

"Nothing in the text and structure of the First Step Act expressly, or
even implicitly, overcomes the established tradition of district courts' sentencing discretion," she wrote. "The text of the First Step Act does
not so much as hint that district courts are prohibited from considering evidence of rehabilitation, disciplinary infractions, or unrelated
Guidelines changes. The only two limitations on district courts'
discretion appear in Section 404(c): A district court may not consider a
First Step Act motion if the movant's sentence was already reduced under
the Fair Sentencing Act or if the court considered and rejected a motion
under the First Step Act. Neither limitation applies here."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that the First
Step Act only authorized judges to cut sentences related to changes in
the crack sentencing ranges, but not unrelated factors.

"Congress enacted the First Step Act to provide a targeted retroactive reduction in crack-cocaine sentencing ranges, not to unleash a
sentencing free-for-all in the lower courts," Kavanaugh wrote.

But that was the minority opinion. And if reducing unduly harsh crack
cocaine sentences that were based on panic and prejudice is "a
sentencing free-for-all," that would be a small price to pay for some restorative justice.

================ ...
___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>
Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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