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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1066 -- 5/16/19
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1066

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

Table of Contents:

1. PHILADELPHIA'S MAVERICK PROSECUTOR TAKES AIM AT THE WAR ON DRUGS
[FEATURE]
Larry Krasner is shaking things up in the City of Brotherly Love. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/15/philadelphias_maverick

2. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
A Democratic presidential contender rolls out a package of veterans'
medical marijuana bills, the Alabama Senate has approved a restrictive
medical marijuana bill, edibles are coming to Maryland, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/15/medical_marijuana_update

3. CHRONICLE AM: MI REFORMS ASSET FORFEITURE, ND DECRIMINALIZES MJ
POSSESSION, MORE... (5/10/19)
The Senate majority leader refiles a bill to end federal marijuana
prohibition, North Dakota decriminalizes, New Jersey's legalization
effort appears stalled, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/10/chronicle_am_mi_reforms_asset

4. CHRONICLE AM: A CALL FOR DEA TO SUSPEND ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS, ITALY'S
WAR ON WEED, MORE... (5/13/19)
Civil rights and civil liberties groups join drug and sentencing
reformers in calling for a moratorium on DEA enforcement actions,
residents of Cowtown takes to the streets in support of legal weed,
Italy's hard right interior minister picks a fight with low-THC weed
sales, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/13/chronicle_am_call_dea_suspend

5. CHRONICLE AM: NJ AND NY LEGALIZATION BILLS APPEAR STALLED, US FUNDS
COLOMBIA PEACE PROCESS, MORE.... (5/14/19)
New Jersey and New York efforts to legalize pot this year are faltering,
New Jersey expands its medical marijuana system, US AID sends $160
million to Colombia, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/14/chronicle_am_nj_and_ny

6. CHRONICLE AM: NH AND VT LEGALIZATION BILLS DELAYED, DEATH PENALTY FOR HASHISH, MORE... (5/15/19)
It's a tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly for marijuana
legalization at the statehouse this week, Bahrain is set to execute two
hash smugglers, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/15/chronicle_am_nh_and_vt

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

1. PHILADELPHIA'S MAVERICK PROSECUTOR TAKES AIM AT THE WAR ON DRUGS
[FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/may/15/philadelphias_maverick

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner made waves last week by
reportedly saying he is "very close (https://www.philly.com/news/philadelphia-district-attorney-larry-krasner-drug-possession-20190508.htm)"
to implementing a policy that would decriminalize the possession of all
drugs, but that was just the latest salvo in the former criminal defense
and civil rights lawyer's war on the war on drugs.

Since taking office in January 2018, Krasner has made a number of policy
moves that are helping to cement his reputation as one of the country's
most radical prosecutors, and he's doing it in one of America's largest
cities. His progressive approach didn't come out of nowhere, though.

Krasner's decades of experience in the defense bar -- as opposed to
rising through the ranks of prosecutors -- have provided him with a
unique perspective on the social and racial impacts of the drug war, one
deeply at odds with the law-and-order views of most DAs. For 30 years (https://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/city/Longtime-civil-rights-attorney-Larry-Krasner-wants-to-reform-DAs-office.html),
Krasner represented the poor, the oppressed, and the brutalized, filing
civil rights and police brutality lawsuits.

He often represented protestors and activists, including 400 people
arrested at the 2000 Republican National Convention, AIDS activists, and members of the Black Lives Matter movement. He helped hundreds of
imprisoned on false charges by a notoriously corrupt drug squad. And he
sued the Philadelphia police dozens of times (https://www.newsweek.com/philadelphia-da-larry-krasner-radical-path-remake-criminal-justice-system-1194093)
in civil rights and police brutality cases. This is not the career path
of your average DA.

In an early sign that a new era is at hand, one of Krasner's first acts
was to demand the resignations of 31l ine prosecutors and supervisors he
saw as obstructionist and to see them escorted from the building to
ensure they didn't take anything with them other than personal effects.
Krasner said he made the quick move on the advice of Houston's reformist
DA, Kim Ogg, who told him that when she gave inherited personnel two
weeks' notice she would be asking for resignations, recalcitrant
employees deleted massive amounts of emails, wiped hard drives, and took
other steps to sabotage her efforts.

Critics called his move a purge, but for Krasner, it was lessons learned (https://www.newsweek.com/philadelphia-da-larry-krasner-radical-path-remake-criminal-justice-system-1194093):
"We had some awareness from working as attorneys in this city -- and interacting with people [in the office] -- of who was really never going
to get with this program," he says. "I felt we couldn't take the risk
that there might be some effort at sabotage here."

Krasner got national attention the following month when he issued a revolutionary memo (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4415817-Philadelphia-DA-Larry-Krasner-s-Revolutionary-Memo.html)
on prosecuting policies designed to "end mass incarceration and restore
balance to sentencing." The memo said prosecutors must decline certain
charges, namely marijuana possession and prostitution. The ban on pot prosecutions held regardless of weight, and included not charging for paraphernalia or for getting caught buying weed. The ban on prostitution prosecutions applied to anyone who had fewer than three previous
prostitution convictions; those with three or more convictions could be
charged and sent to a special problem-solving court set up to get
prostitutes out of the life.

Philadelphia had already decriminalized small time marijuana possession
in 2014, but police continued to arrest people for larger amounts and
under a rarely used state law making it a crime to purchase the drug.
Krasner's memo brought a further decline to already dramatically
shrinking marijuana arrests numbers (https://billypenn.com/2017/10/24/marijuana-arrests-down-75-percent-since-philly-decriminalized/),
mainly by ending the prosecutions for buying it.

Arrests for that offense haven't completely vanished, as police continue
to make them despite knowing they won't be prosecuted, but 2018 saw a 30 percent decline (https://billypenn.com/2019/01/08/black-people-in-philly-are-still-arrested-disproportionately-for-buying-marijuana/)
in such busts. Still, racial disparities persist: Blacks made up 85
percent of all arrested pot buyers.

The memo more broadly called for plea bargains to have the lightest
sentences possible under state guidelines and, most dramatically,
mandated that prosecutors assess how much the defendant's incarceration
would cost and why it was worth spending public money on it.

He has worked assiduously to ensure that city residents who unlawfully
had cash or property seized under a city asset forfeiture program deemed unconstitutional by the court are made whole. His office is
administering a $3 million fund for victims of the city's lawless
practices, which saw thousands of people lose their homes, cars, cash,
and other property to profit-driven policing and prosecutions.

"What happened was that there was a 'keep what you kill' approach,"
Krasner said (https://whyy.org/articles/da-krasner-philadelphians-whose-property-was-wrongly-seized-should-be-reimbursed/).
"And all that it did was incentivize prosecutors to always try to take grandma's house, always try to take a working person's car, and often to
do it simply because someone's nephew did something illegal out of the basement. And the owner, who may have been at church, didn't know."

Most recently, a May 1 interview that Krasner did for Axios on HBO that
will air next month was teased by with the headline "Scoop: Philly
prosecutor may stop charging drug users as criminals (https://www.axios.com/exclusive-philadelphia-larry-krasner-drug-possession-0e4b0a63-e057-4541-81d3-e0d4ded743f6.html)"
and this lede: "Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, one of the
most progressive district attorneys in the country, told 'Axios on HBO'
that he is 'very close' to implementing a policy that would relax the
penalties for drug possession laws."

"One of the things we're looking at is essentially diverting all
possession of drugs cases," he said in the interview. "Possession is
different than dealing. It's different than carrying a bunch of drugs
that you intend to sell or deliver later… We are talking about people
who are using drugs, the vast majority of them suffering from addiction.
I do not see value in convicting people like that, thereby making it
harder for them to get a job."

The Axios interview garnered lots of attention, but Axios -- and many of
the outlets that ran with the story -- oversold it (https://www.philly.com/news/philadelphia-district-attorney-larry-krasner-drug-possession-20190508.html)
as Krasner endorsing drug decriminalization. Even Krasner isn't quite
ready to go that far, although it's an approach that has worked in
Portugal (http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/drug-decriminalization-portugal-learning-health-and-human-centered-approach)
for nearly 20 years.

Instead, Krasner spokesman Ben Waxman said late last week that Axios got
the story wrong (https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/05/10/larry-krasner-axios-drug-policy-wrong/).
Krasner was talking diversion, not decriminalization, Waxman said.
Diversion means people charged with drug possession could enter a
treatment program and, if they successfully completed it, end up with no
prison time and no criminal record. Decriminalization means they
wouldn't be arrested and charged in the first place. "The Axios piece
really conflated a bunch of different stuff," Waxman said. "I don't
think they understood the difference between diversion and
decriminalization."

Axios is sticking to its guns, though (https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/05/10/larry-krasner-axios-drug-policy-wrong/).
"Axios went to extraordinary lengths to clarify the specifics of this
story with Krasner's team, as well as other experts, to ensure the
article's accuracy given the complexity and nuances of the topic," a spokesperson wrote in a statement. "This interview was recorded on
video. We stand by our reporting."

Meanwhile, drug diversion is already going on in Philadelphia -- last
year almost half of the 5,458 arrests for drug possession ending up in
already existing diversions programs -- so Krasner was actually talking
about expanding existing programs. That's a good thing, but not nearly
as sexy or sensational as drug decriminalization.Still, Larry Krasner
has been a model of what a progressive prosecutor (https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/04/progressive-prosecutors-ferguson-wesley-bell-kamala-harris-kim-gardener/)
can do, and he's got time to do more. But maybe he should take a couple
weeks off and visit Portugal.

This article was produced by Drug Reporter (https://independentmediainstitute.org/drug-reporter/), a project of the Independent Media Institute.
================ ...
___________________

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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--
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"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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