• Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1136 -- 7/07/21 - Table Of Content with lead

    From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jul 7 19:52:12 2021
    XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs.pot, alt.hemp.politics

    Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1136 -- 7/07/21
    Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1136

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

    Table of Contents:

    1. FEDERAL APPEALS COURT TAPS THE BRAKES ON DRUG INDUCED HOMICIDE
    PROSECUTIONS OF DRUG USERS [FEATURE]
    Prosecuting drug users for murder when they score together and one of
    them overdoses just isn't right, a federal appeals court has ruled. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/24/federal_appeals_court_taps

    2. HISTORIC FEDERAL DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION BILL INTRODUCED [FEATURE]
    For the first time, a federal drug decriminalization bill will be filed
    in Congress. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/15/historic_federal_drug

    3. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
    South Dakota steps into the age of medical marijuana, governors in New
    Jersey and Pennsylvania sign bills easing the burden on patients, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jul/06/medical_marijuana_update

    4. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
    A South Carolina prison guard gets caught smuggling dope in a Rice
    Krispies treat, a Birmingham cop is facing some problems, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jul/07/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

    5. HOUSE DEMOCRATS ADVANCE MARIJUANA BANKING, DC POT SALES BILL, NC
    MEDMJ BILL ADVANCES, MORE... (6/24/21)
    The Veterans Administration comes out against a medical marijuana
    research bill for veterans, House Democrats move a bill that would
    provide protection to banks doing business with marijuana firms and
    allow pot sales in DC, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/24/house_democrats_advance

    6. RI MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION PUSH HITS BUMP, UN WARNS PANDEMIC COULD
    PROPEL DRUG USE, CULTIVATION, MORE... (6/25/21)
    There's progress on medical marijuana this week in the South, a key
    Rhode Island lawmaker slams the brakes on a marijuana legalization push,
    and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/25/ri_marijuana_legalization_push

    7. CLARENCE THOMAS QUESTIONS FEDERAL MARIJUANA PROHIBITION, ONDCP
    REPORTS ON COLOMBIA COCA, MORE... (6/28/21)
    A major pharmaceutical company settles with the state of New York over
    opioid distribution, Minnesota lawmakers are on the verge of passing
    policing reforms, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/28/clarence_thomas_questions

    8. CA PSYCHEDELIC DECRIM BILL ADVANCES, MARIJUANA GETS LEGALIZED IN
    THREE STATES THIS WEEK, MORE... (6/30/21)
    The Rhode island legislature is on the verge of passing a bill allowing
    drug checking and safe consumption sites, Mexico's Supreme Court again
    declares marijuana prohibition unconstitutional, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/30/ca_psychedelic_decrim_bill

    9. ME SENATE DEFEATS DRUG DECRIM BILL, HOUSE APPROVES MARIJUANA RESEARCH LANGUAGE, MORE... (7/1/21)
    Medical marijuana is now legal in South Dakota, Austin activists roll
    out a municipal marijuana decriminalization initiative, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jul/01/me_senate_defeats_drug_decrim

    10. RI LEGISLATURE PASSES SAFE INJECTION SITE BILL, CA COERCED TREATMENT
    BILL ADVANCES MORE... (7/2/21)
    The Mississippi Supreme Court continues to smack down the will of the
    people on medical marijuana, a coerced drug treatment bill advances in California to the dismay of reformers, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jul/02/ri_legislature_passes_safe

    11. NJ GOVERNOR SIGNS MEDMJ TELEHEALTH BILL, SD ACTIVISTS PREPARE 2022 LEGALIZATION INITIATIVES, MORE... (7/6/21)
    A Rhode Island marijuana legalization bill gets a hearing but appears
    doomed this year, a South Dakota Native American reservation opens the
    state's first medical marijuana dispensary, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jul/06/nj_governor_signs_medmj

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

    1. FEDERAL APPEALS COURT TAPS THE BRAKES ON DRUG INDUCED HOMICIDE
    PROSECUTIONS OF DRUG USERS [FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2021/jun/24/federal_appeals_court_taps

    A woman who bought heroin with a pair of friends, one of whom shortly
    afterward suffered a fatal overdose on the drug, is not a murderer, at
    least according to the US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. That was the
    June 1 ruling in US v. Semler (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca3/19-2319/19-2319-2021-06-01.html),
    a case that may not set binding precedent, but does send a signal to the prosecutors and the judiciary that the federal courts do not want to see
    a federal law aimed at so-called drug kingpins applied to mere drug users.

    As described in the decision, the case began when two heroin-addicted Philadelphia women, Emma Semler and her old drug rehab buddy Jennifer
    Werstler, went to score heroin together at Wertsler's request. They were
    joined by Semler's sister Sarah, who drove them to the West Philadelphia
    locale where they bought their heroin. It is unclear who actually
    purchased and then shared the heroin. The trio then shot up in the
    restroom of a nearby KFC restaurant. Werstler began to show signs of overdosing, and the Semler sisters "attempted to revive Werstler by
    splashing cold water on her, then left the bathroom and called their
    mother for a ride home. They did not call 911 or alert anyone to
    Werstler's condition."

    Werstler was later discovered by a KFC employee, who called 911, but
    EMTs arrived too late to save her and she was pronounced dead. Her
    official cause of death was "adverse reaction to heroin."

    Semler was then indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District
    of Pennsylvania with "distribution of heroin resulting in death,"
    punishable by a 20-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. As an added
    bonus, she was also charged with doing so within 1,000 feet of a school,
    as well as aiding and abetting on both counts. She was found guilty at
    trial and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

    Semler appealed, arguing that friends sharing jointly procured drugs did
    not qualify as drug distribution and that the district court had erred
    in refusing to allow a jury instruction to that effect, as well as
    erring in failing to instruct the jury that there had to be a "proximate
    cause" for it to convict.

    Scott Burris, JD, is a professor of both law and public health at Temple University and directs Temple's Center for Public Health Law Research.
    He is also Semler's appellate counsel and coauthor of an amicus curiae
    brief (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3717117)
    supporting Semler, which nicely laid out the issues at play.

    "This case presents the Court with an opportunity to determine the
    proper scope of the Drug Distribution Resulting in Death (DDRD)
    sentencing enhancement provision," the abstract explains. "The
    provision, its parent statute, and the totality of modern federal law
    and policy to stem the overdose crisis are intended to target major drug traffickers. Research suggests that DDRD prosecutions routinely pervert
    this intent, indiscriminately deploying DDRD and similar provisions to
    target end consumers of illicit drugs affected by addiction. Rather than deterring drug trafficking, such prosecutions deter help-seeking during overdose events and interfere with overdose prevention measures. This
    cuts at cross purposes to overdose crisis response, leading to more, not
    fewer deaths."

    The 3rd District Court of Appeals agreed, vacating Semler's conviction
    and sending her case back for retrial using proper legal instructions
    for jurors. "We hold that the definition of 'distribute' under the
    Controlled Substances Act does not cover individuals who jointly and simultaneously acquire the possession of a small amount of a controlled substance solely for their personal use," wrote Judge Jane Richard Roth.

    It was a victory, if not a complete exoneration, for Emma Semler and any
    other drug user federal prosecutors in the 3rd Circuit might have been
    thinking about charging under that statute. Hopefully it also serves as
    a distant early warning signal for states that have passed drug induced homicide laws, as well as for state-level prosecutors, who are zealously embracing them to convict low-level drug users as murderers.

    The Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern University School of
    Law reported (https://www.healthinjustice.org/drug-induced-homicide)
    that the number of states with such laws jumped from 15 to 25 in from
    2009 to 2019, while the number of drug induced homicide prosecutions
    hovered at near zero from the 1970s until the early 2000s. Then, as
    overdose deaths jumped, so did prosecutions, rising to 100 per year by
    2011 before skyrocketing to nearly 700 per year by 2018.

    In a 2019 Utah Law Review article (https://dc.law.utah.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=ulr), Northeastern law professor and faculty director of the Health in Justice
    Action lab faculty adviser Leo Beletsky found while the laws are
    ostensibly aimed at drug dealers, "half of those charged with drug
    induced homicide were not, in fact, 'dealers' in the traditional sense,
    but friends and relatives of the deceased." He also found that in cases
    that involved a traditional "drug dealer," half of those prosecuted were
    black or brown people who sold drugs to whites -- a fact he noted does
    not fit the demographics of the United States or of drug dealers.

    "In view of that context," he wrote, "these findings suggest that
    drug-induced homicide charges are being selectively and
    disproportionately deployed to target people of color. This disparate application can further reinforce already dire racial disparities,
    particularly in the enforcement of drug laws and the length of
    sentencing for drug-related crimes."

    And, as the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) pointed out in its 2017 report,
    An Overdose Death is Not a Murder: Why Drug Induced Homicide Laws Are Ineffective and Inhumane (https://drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/dpa_drug_induced_homicide_report_0.pdf),
    those laws don't work to reduce overdoses: "Prosecutors and legislators
    who champion renewed drug induced homicide enforcement couch the use of
    this punitive measure, either naively or disingenuously, as necessary to
    curb increasing rates of drug overdose deaths. But there is not a shred
    of evidence that these laws are effective at reducing overdose
    fatalities. In fact, death tolls continue to climb across the country,
    even in the states and counties most aggressively prosecuting
    drug-induced homicide cases."

    "The Semler case is one more example of how the Drug War has warped our
    legal system and led to mass incarceration," DPA senior staff attorney
    Grey Gardner told the Chronicle in an email exchange. "Prosecutors
    twisted the law to criminalize this young woman and subject her to a
    more than 20-year sentence after several friends bought drugs to use
    together and one suffered a tragic fatal overdose. Urging the jury to
    convict one of them of drug distribution when each of these users were suffering from substance use disorder and using together was not only overreaching, it highlights the arbitrary nature of our drug laws."

    It is also counterproductive, he added: "This prosecution and those like
    it do nothing to make people safer, but instead put people in greater
    danger. By elevating the threat of prosecution, they make it less likely
    that people close to an overdose victim will call for help," he pointed out.

    "Thankfully in this case the Court of Appeals rejected the prosecution's overbroad definition of distribution, but what's clear is that we need
    an entirely new approach," said DPA's Gardner. "Instead of the failed
    War on Drugs, we need to stop turning to the criminal legal system and
    spending billions on these ineffective policing strategies. Instead we
    need better approaches -- such as investments in drug checking, overdose prevention centers, and expanded access to naloxone -- to protect those
    who are experiencing addiction and are at the greatest risk."

    "The court seemed sympathetic to the view that criminal law is not the
    best way to get at substance use disorder and the behavior of people
    coping with it," Burris told the Chronicle in an email exchange.

    The appeals court labeled its decision as non-precedential, meaning it
    is not binding on federal district courts in its region, but it still
    may have a broader impact in the federal courts, Burris explained.

    "I think her lawyers are going to ask the court to reconsider that," he
    said. "It is at least what we call 'persuasive authority' in that its
    reasoning may be adopted voluntarily by other courts."

    As for impact on state and local prosecutions, not so much, he added.

    "It has no impact other than as persuasive authority," Burris said. "The
    state attorney general and local district attorneys pursuing these cases
    seem to think they are sensible and just, and they are hard to shake,"
    he confessed.

    "The overdose crisis is just one symptom of the fundamental disease of inequality and inequity in our country," was Burris's bottom line.
    "Getting at that root cause requires a sea change in policy such that government at all levels -- and the people who elect the government --
    commit to ensuring the basics of decent life to everyone: good work,
    good housing, good education, good transportation, and a place of
    respect in the community. In this the 'deaths of despair' idea seems to
    be to get the problem just right. Of course, short of that, there are
    many things to do: stop criminalizing drug use; create safe injection
    sites everywhere they are needed; eliminate regulations that make
    methadone and buprenorphine harder to get than the drugs whose use they
    are meant to reduce."

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

    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>
    ___________________

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