Thursday, July 31, 2023

US GA: Explosive Dynamic Entry
Headlines Courtesy of DrugNews Digest, Media Awarenes Project, Inc.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1148.a08.html
Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jul 2023
Source: Flagpole (GA)
Copyright: 2003 Flagpole Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.flagpole.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2407
Author: Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. teaches law in the University of Georgia
School of Law.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

EXPLOSIVE DYNAMIC ENTRY

The Increasing Militarization Of The Police Makes Citizens Into Enemies

At 6 a.m., on Friday, May 16, 2003, 57-year old Alberta Spruill was in her residence, Apartment 6F at 310 W. 143rd Street in the Harlem section of New York City, preparing to leave for work. Spruill, a quiet, church-going woman, was a municipal worker, employed at the Division of Citywide Administrative Services. She had been a city employee for 29 years, and each weekday would take the bus to her job. To her, that Friday morning must have seemed like the beginning of just another ordinary day. She mercifully did not know that she would never again head for work, that she had in fact but two hours to live because she was soon to be killed by the police even though she was an innocent citizen.

Ten minutes later a dozen heavily armed police - six officers from the Emergency Service Unit and six regular patrol officers - burst unannounced into her residence.

They had a search warrant issued solely on the basis of erroneous information supplied by an unreliable anonymous informer who falsely claimed that illegal guns and drugs were stored at Spruill's residence, that he had seen armed individuals there on three occasions, and that there were dogs inside.

First the officers suddenly broke down the front door with a battering ram. Then they heaved a stun grenade into the apartment where it exploded with a blinding white flash, a deafening bang, and a thunderous concussion. Then they stormed in and handcuffed Spruill, placing her face down on the floor.

She was coughing and screaming.

Spruill, who suffered from high blood pressure, then began having difficulty breathing.

An ambulance for Spruill was dispatched at 6:32 a.m. When Spruill arrived at Harlem Hospital at 8 a.m. she was pronounced dead. She had suffered a fatal heart attack.

The medical examiner performed an autopsy and announced that Spruill suffered "sudden death following a police raid" as a result of shock and fear caused by the stun grenade explosion and the stress of being handcuffed. The medical examiner also officially classified Spruill's death a homicide - a death caused by another person's actions. "She really was scared to death," a New York newspaper wrote the day after the medical examiner's announcement.

cont'd @ http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1148.a08.html

Related Resources

US TX: Concerns On SWAT Aired Year Before Raid

US OH: Column: War on Drugs Claim a Deadly Victory

Drug War Facts: Drug Raids
posted @ 11:27 PM CST [link] [Comment on this post]

Tuesday, July 15, 2023

A New Hard-Liner at the DEA
url: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030721&s;=vest
pubdate: Mon, 14 Jul 2023
source: The Nation
copyright: Copyright � 2003 The Nation
contact: http://www.thenation.com/contact/letw
website: http://www.thenation.com

A New Hard-Liner at the DEA

Though the Republican Party prides itself on being a champion of state sovereignty, one need only mention phrases like "medical marijuana" or "drug law reform" to see how quickly the Administration of George W. Bush becomes hostile to the notion of the autonomy of states. The latest--and perhaps most egregious--example of this enmity is about to become manifest via a new appointment: that of veteran Justice Department official Karen Tandy, soon to be new chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Already approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee after an all but unnoticed, if not farcical, confirmation hearing late last month, the Administration evidently hopes Tandy's nomination will next clear the full Senate with as little attention or debate as possible. Lost in the shuffle has been any meaningful examination of dubious policy initiatives and prosecutions Tandy has been involved in over the past twenty years.

cont'd @ http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030721&s;=vest

Related Resources

Drug War Facts: Corruption - http://www.drugwarfacts.org/corrupt.htm
posted @ 01:12 PM CST [link] [Comment on this post]

Friday, July 11, 2023

US HI: Letter From Prison
Headlines Courtesy of DrugNews Digest, MAP, INC.

URL: " target="_blank">http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1039.a03.html
Pubdate: Wed, 2 Jul 2023
Source: Honolulu Weekly (HI)
Copyright: 2003 Honolulu Weekly Inc
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.honoluluweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/197
Author: J. Incandenza
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Note: J. Incandenza is the pen name of an inmate currently serving 14 years
in U.S. federal prison for drug-trafficking.

Letter From Prison

An Inmate Dispels Misconceptions About America's Brutal Incarceration System

There are more than two million people behind bars in the United States. One of every four black men between the ages of 20 and 30 is incarcerated. Millions are on probation or parole. In fact, one of every 32 Americans is currently caught up in the criminal justice system. In the District of Columbia, one in every three adult men is under some kind of penal supervision.

[Editor's note: As of June 16, 2003, the state of Hawai'i has 3,063 inmates here and on the Mainland. Of Hawai'i's prisoners, 21 percent are locked up for serious drug offenses and 29 percent are in jail for misdemeanor or felony drug-related crimes.]

Despite our vast numbers, we are, except for an occasional cartoon in The New Yorker, largely ignored and completely voiceless. We exist for the popular culture mostly as the punch line of a joke.

I am one of the incarcerated millions, a prisoner in what has become this country's endless War on Drugs.

Despite having spent many years in prison, I am not really representative of the average convict: I am white, middle-aged, educated and a federal prisoner. Many or most convicts are black or brown, have never finished high school and are states' inmates. But, I have at one time or another, been held in nine federal facilities ranging from Pennsylvania's Lewisburg Penitentiary to the camp where I am now and every sort of place in between.

I also have personal knowledge of a handful of county jails thanks entirely to the Feds' miserly attitude toward bail. ( County jails are the worst; no other lockup even compares to their capacities to inflict misery. Guys celebrate the day they get transferred to a pen. ) And from what I've seen in all of these stops, prison is prison and convicts are convicts.

cont'd @ http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1039.a03.html

Related Resources

Drug War Facts:

Prison - http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm

Race and Prison - http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm

Mandatory Minimums - http://www.drugwarfacts.org/mandator.htm

Civil Rights - http://www.drugwarfacts.org/civilrts.htm
posted @ 01:17 PM CST [link] [Comment on this post]

Wednesday, July 9, 2023

UK: Cannabis Should Be Sold Like Tobacco, Says Retired Judge
Headlines Courtesy of DrugNews Digest Map Inc.


URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1020.a02.html
Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jul 2023
Source: Herald, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 The Herald
Contact: letters@theherald.co.uk
Website: http://www.theherald.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/189
Author: Billy Briggs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)


CANNABIS SHOULD BE SOLD LIKE TOBACCO, SAYS RETIRED JUDGE


A former High Court judge has called for the legalisation of cannabis and condemned the current law as unworkable.


Lord Prosser, the first Scottish judge to call for cannabis to be legalised, said the sale of the drug should be controlled in the same way as tobacco and alcohol.


His comments came in the wake of the Crown Office's decision to drop its case against Biz Ivol, a 55-year-old multiple sclerosis sufferer who uses cannabis to ease the symptoms of her condition.


Ms Ivol, of Herston, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, admitted distributing the drug in the form of specially-prepared chocolates to be used for pain relief, but pleaded not guilty to supplying the drug on the grounds that she believed she was doing nothing wrong.


The Crown dropped the charges against Ms Ivol, who had threatened to take her own life once the case was concluded, due to her failing health.


Last Wednesday morning, Ms Ivol took paracetamol tablets and was found unconscious by a neighbour at her home. She is now recovering.


Ms Ivol, however, has vowed to attempt suicide again.


cont'd @ http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n1020.a02.html


Related Resources

06/16/2003: "Cannabis campaigner to take own life"


posted @ 12:15 PM CST [link] [Comment on this post]

Tuesday, July 1, 2023

Letters: Wrong

You people are wrong. IF you ARE Christian then you will know that taking a foreign substance like cannibas into your body is in violation of 1 Corinthians. Since our body is God's temple, we are NOT to harm it in any way and smoking cannibas puts harmful chemicals in your body. WE are not to ESCAPE reality through euphoria but rather LIVE with it and ask for God's help. The three in the furnace were still put IN the furnace, and Daniel had to GO into the lion's den. THINK about it.
David

David-

Thank you for taking the time to write and share your thoughts. In reference to the verse in I Corinthians concerning defiling the body, I am afraid that you have used a verse that contradicts your own line of thinking.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

According to this teaching, the only sin that defiles the body is sexual sin. Cannabis use is not a sexual sin and therefore does not defile the body. This is further confirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 7:14:23

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "
16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'?
19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.'
21 for from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "

All teachings cohere. What goes into the body does not defile the body. To use "defiling the body" as justification to criminalize other wise law abiding citizens and make their existence on this earth marginal at best is as ridiculous and unjust as using the curse of Ham to justify slavery.

There are numerous reasons why people use cannabis. In the case of those that may be 'escaping', understanding their circumstances and background and having the compassion to help is what is needed, not judgement.

Don't just think about it, confirm your thoughts in God's word.

love and peace,
-jini

Recommended Reading:

Romans 14 @ Bible Gateway - The Weak and The Strong
Drug War Fact Book - http://www.drugwarfacts.org
Cannabis FAQ - http://www.faqs.org/faqs/drugs/hemp-marijuana/
Cannabis Use FAQ - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/mjfaq1.htm
Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/studies.htm
posted @ 02:12 PM CST [link] [29 Comments]