When the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia decided to commission a study on whether to decriminalize drugs, many thought that would be the end of it, and the whole thing would be quickly forgotten. Well, maybe not. For starters, it was the first time that such a large group of heads of state ventured into that once taboo area. And there are several other non-related factors that may contribute to put decriminalization in the front burner later this year, or in early 2013. [continues 620 words]
When the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia decided to commission a study on whether to decriminalize drugs, many thought that would be the end of it, and the whole thing would be quickly forgotten. Well, maybe not. For starters, it was the first time that such a large group of heads of state ventured into that once taboo area. And there are several other nonrelated factors that may contribute to putting decriminalization on the front burner later this year, or in early 2013. [continues 624 words]
Kyle Vogt, a former military police and Special Responce Team member, said Wednesday evening at the Miramar Democratic Club that the 40-year war on drugs has not slowed down and has no end in sight. Vogt - a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, known as LEAP - said he supports the legalization of marijuana, adding that LEAP has two goals: to remove drugs from Schedule 1, a list used by the U.S. government for controlled substances, and to "restore respect for law enforcement." [continues 682 words]
If President Obama had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. So the president famously said. And the president's son would thereby find himself at significantly greater risk of running afoul of the so-called "War on Drugs" than, say, a son of George W. Bush. Depending on what state he lived in, a Trayvon Obama might be 57 times more likely than a Trayvon Bush to be imprisoned on drug charges. This is not because he would be 57 times more likely to commit a drug crime. To the contrary, white American men commit the vast majority of the nation's drug crimes, but African-American men do the vast majority of the nation's drug time. It is a nakedly racial disparity that should leave the U.S. Department of "Justice" embarrassed to call itself by that name. [continues 500 words]
WASHINGTON -- Amelioration of today's drug problem requires Americans to understand the significance of the 80/20 ratio. Twenty percent of American drinkers consume 80 percent of the alcohol sold here. The same 80-20 split obtains among users of illicit drugs. About 3 million people -- less than 1 percent of America's population - -- consume 80 percent of illegal hard drugs. Drug trafficking organizations can be most efficiently injured by changing the behavior of the 20 percent of heavy users, and we are learning how to do so. Reducing consumption by the 80 percent of casual users will not substantially reduce the northward flow of drugs or the southward flow of money. [continues 663 words]
Gov. Scott Wrong on Drug-Treatment Bill In a stunning example of dogma trumping common sense, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a bill that addressed one common cause of crime, a bill supported by 152 of 156 legislators in both houses. One wonders if he read the bill or thought beyond the use of a veto as a one-line campaign slogan. The bill championed by Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Republican, and Ari Porth, a Democrat, both of Broward, would have permitted inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes who have drug abuse problems to enter drug-treatment programs after completing half of their sentences. [continues 346 words]
A week before Christmas, Dante Level stands near the vibrant avocado tree that towers above his grandmother's cream-colored house on NW 52nd Street. The lanky 30-year-old sports thick dreadlocks past his shoulders and a thin goatee. He swigs a Corona. Two friends and a neighbor do the same and pass around a cigar. Nearby, Dante's 1-year-old daughter and another baby play on the floor. Dante's younger brother Khalid, a slim guy with short-cropped hair, leans against the family's maroon minivan. Inside the house, their older sister Alexis tends to her 13-year-old paraplegic daughter. Amid the preholiday revelry, no one notices the silver Chrysler 300 with tinted windows cruising the tree-lined block. [continues 4933 words]
The human nervous system interacts in pleasing and addictive ways with certain molecules derived from some plants, which is why humans may have developed beer before they developed bread. Psychoactive - consciousness-altering - and addictive drugs are natural, a fact that should immunize policymakers against extravagant hopes as they cope with the United States' drug problem, which is convulsing some nations to our south. The costs - human, financial and social - of combating (most) drugs are prompting calls for decriminalization or legalization. The United States should, however, learn from the psychoactive drug used by a majority of U.S. adults - alcohol. [continues 662 words]
LARGO =AD Amid allegations that narcotics deputies trespassed and lied to gather evidence, the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office announced Tuesday that it is dismissing charges against an accused St. Petersburg marijuana grower and will reconsider dozens of similar cases. The dropped case was against David Cole, 60, who said he was growing pot in his shed to treat his multiple sclerosis symptoms. His attorneys were scheduled Tuesday to grill a key deputy under oath about possible misconduct within the narcotics unit. But that opportunity evaporated along with the case. [continues 998 words]
A crowd of avid readers packed Books & Books in Coral Gables Thursday night for a lively discussion with Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. and book author Michelle Alexander on a thorny subject: similarities between today's "profiling" of blacks who end up behind bars and the Jim Crow era. "In the era of mass incarceration what it means to be a criminal in our collective consciousness has become conflated with what it means to be black," Pitts read to the audience. "So the term white criminal is confounding while the term black criminal is merely redundant." [continues 208 words]
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has sent 15 cases to internal affairs in recent weeks from the narcotics unit. That suggests Gualtieri will hold responsible parties accountable when they are accused of breaking department rules and violating constitutional rights. But the breadth of apparent misconduct suggests there is more to find, and it is troubling that Gualtieri didn't uncover the wrongdoing. Defense lawyers and the media revealed it. The sheriff should launch a thorough review to determine if the culture of cutting legal corners that pervaded the narcotics unit is more widespread. [continues 378 words]
Crisis Coming As Caribbean Drug-Running Heats Up The fight against drug trafficking is heating up on South Florida's doorstep. Drugs are coming in our direction again, and Puerto Rico, U.S. territories and the island nations of the Caribbean are once more caught in the middle. "There's increasing concern that as the pressure increases in the Central American corridors, the balloon will expand back into the Caribbean zone," Sen. Marco Rubio of Miami said during a Senate hearing in December. [continues 496 words]
On Jan. 17, Circuit Judge Joe Will dropped drug charges against David Beauprez of Daytona Beach. The ruling came after officers testified that they had told Beauprez's mother that someone had called 911 from her home. In fact, the police were acting on an anonymous tip that there were drugs in the house. Once inside, officers testified, the mother consented to a search -- but the woman said that the police did not ask permission before they opened a drawer in which drugs and paraphernalia were found. Will found that because officers used deception to gain entry, they were not credible. [continues 1900 words]
Can there be any better example of the irrelevance of North American policy in our own hemisphere than Paul Stockton's March 2 Other Views article, The U. S. defense role in Latin America, Caribbean? While he blathers on about significant and positive implications, multilateral institutions and collaborative frameworks and the rise of security exporting partners, we watch the few remaining judicial and prosecutorial institutions capable of transcending volatile political personalities corrode. Democratic institutions in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras are under siege from our children's thirst for illicit drugs. [continues 60 words]
Almost four years ago, Margie Weiss of Safety Harbor was on the road to Tallahassee, fielding panicked calls from friends of her daughter, Rachel. The college kids were frantic, reporting that the 23-year-old had disappeared while working as an informant for the Tallahassee police. Wednesday, Weiss again was headed to Tallahassee when she learned the Florida Senate had joined the House in passing a claims bill that would grant a $2.4 million settlement to her and her ex-husband in the death of their only child. [continues 685 words]
The story of a Pinellas County sheriff's detective posing as a Progress Energy worker reminded me of a similar situation we had in Northern California when I worked for a utility company in the 1980s. The growing of marijuana in densely wooded rural areas was common. Federal agents would dress as utility line workers posing to work on the high-tension lines but were actually conducting surveillance operations. This became known to the growers and they began shooting at utility line workers. The practice of posing as agents was stopped, and an extensive outreach campaign was mounted in the rural communities, assuring people that agents would no longer pose as utility workers and pleading with them not to shoot at unarmed utility employees. Mike Wightman, Safety Harbor [end]
PANAMA CITY - Argos works fast. If he were off the leash, the way he usually works, he would find the dope in a matter of seconds, far too fast for the purposes of this demonstration. Argos, a 12-year-old Belgian Malinois, was showing off his drug-sniffing skills after coming under scrutiny recently. Defense attorney Walter Smith filed a motion to suppress a pound of marijuana that was allegedly seized from one of his clients after a traffic stop last year. [continues 1231 words]
Vet again faces prospect of prison for what he says is medicinal marijuana. Delbert Mullins lifted his arm just above his shoulder to show how tall the marijuana plants were before they were confiscated last August. "Careful, don't hurt your shoulder," his wife Karen said. Delbert was arrested by the Columbia County Sheriff's office on Aug. 10 after law officials conducting an aerial survey spotted two marijuana plants in his backyard in Fort White. According to the arrest report, Delbert voluntarily showed the officers the location of the plants, where they also found three small seedlings, stalks from 15 marijuana plants and eight plastic gallon-sized bags full of harvested leaves. [continues 454 words]
Legalizing Illicit Drugs Remains A Bad Idea Vice President Joe Biden delivered a needed message this week to Central American leaders thinking about drug legalization: Forget about it. Mr. Biden diplomatically left the door open to a "legitimate" discussion of the issue, but he made it clear the United States believes legalization remains a terrible idea. It creates more problems than solutions, more questions than answers. Who would be allowed to have drugs? Under what terms? At what age? Who decides? [continues 146 words]
When a Pinellas County sheriff's detective dressed up as a Progress Energy worker as a "ruse" to get a homeowner he suspected of growing marijuana to open his door, the detective should have known it was wrong. And when Pinellas deputies tried to find home-based marijuana operations by putting a camera outside a hydroponics store and investigating customers, red flags should have gone up. Both incidents occurred because some in the sheriff's office don't seem to understand when a novel investigative technique crosses into a violation of the public trust. [continues 469 words]
Inside Florida
