Junk science endangers lives. Forensic junk science in the hands of overzealous prosecutors, ignorant police detectives and reckless experts threatens liberty. There is a crisis in America's government-run crime labs - and it's not just the result of a few rogue operators. The problem is long-festering and systemic. In April, Massachusetts state crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan made national headlines after investigations and lawsuits over her misconduct prompted the state's Supreme Judicial Court to order the largest dismissal of criminal convictions in U.S. history. [continues 670 words]
PUEBLO WEST, Colo. - It's 9 a.m. on a weekday, and I'm at the Marisol Therapeutics pot shop. This is serious business. Security is tight. ID checks are frequent. Merchandise is strictly regulated, labeled, wrapped and controlled. The store is clean, bright and safe. The staffers are courteous and professional. Customers of all ages are here. There's a middle-aged woman at the counter nearby who could be your school librarian. On the opposite end of the dispensary, a slender young soldier in a wheelchair with close-cropped hair, dressed in his fatigues, consults with a clerk. There's a gregarious cowboy and an inquisitive pair of baby boomers looking at edibles. A dude in a hoodie walks in with his backpack. [continues 814 words]
Medical Marijuana Effective for Many Patients PUEBLO WEST, Colo. - It's 9 a.m. on a weekday, and I'm at the Marisol Therapeutics pot shop. This is serious business. Security is tight. ID checks are frequent. Merchandise is strictly regulated, labeled, wrapped and controlled. The store is clean, bright and safe. The staffers are courteous and professional. Customers of all ages are here. There's a middle-aged woman at the counter nearby who could be your school librarian. On the opposite end of the dispensary, a slender young soldier in a wheelchair with close-cropped hair, dressed in his fatigues, consults with a clerk. [continues 582 words]
Do you remember those $3.5 million government ads that ran during the Super Bowl -- the ones linking drug use with terrorism? "Timmy," a somber-looking teen-ager, stared at the camera and said: "I killed mothers. I killed fathers. I killed grandmas. I killed grandpas. I killed sons. I killed daughters. I killed firemen. I killed policemen." A stark, guilt-laden message from the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy flashed during a brief pause: "Drug money supports terrorism. If you buy drugs, you might, too." [continues 643 words]
DO you remember those $3.5 million government ads that ran during the Super Bowl -- the ones linking drug use with terrorism? "Timmy," a somber-looking teen-ager, stared at the camera and said: "I killed mothers. I killed fathers. I killed grandmas. I killed grandpas. I killed sons. I killed daughters. I killed firemen. I killed policemen." A stark, guilt-laden message from the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy flashed during a brief pause: Drug money supports terrorism. If you buy drugs, you might, too. [continues 646 words]
Actor Robert Downey Jr. is California's glassy-eyed poster boy for the failed war on drugs. After numerous arrests dating back to 1996 and several fruitless attempts by the courts to rehabilitate him, Downey served a year in state prison. Barely three months after his release, the Hollywood celebrity was arrested again on Thanksgiving weekend for possession and use of cocaine and methamphetamine. Downey's troubles are the butt of water-cooler jokes around the country. But to anyone who has seen a loved one struggle with addiction, there's nothing funny about his plight. Downey is a hopeless junkie whose father reportedly introduced him to marijuana when he was just 6 years old. [continues 561 words]
Actor Robert Downey Jr. is California's glassy-eyed poster boy for the failed war on drugs. After numerous arrests dating back to 1996 and several fruitless attempts by the courts to rehabilitate him, Mr. Downey served a year in state prison. Barely three months after his release, the Hollywood celebrity was arrested again on Thanksgiving weekend for possession and use of cocaine and methamphetamine. Mr. Downey's troubles are the butt of water-cooler jokes around the country. But to anyone who has seen a loved one struggle with addiction, there's nothing funny about his plight. Mr. Downey is a hopeless junkie whose father reportedly introduced him to marijuana when he was just 6 years old. Law enforcement officials may think it's good social policy to make an example of the actor's weaknesses. However, Mr. Downey's case simply underscores that the drug war is a costly and selective form of government paternalism that has done far more harm than good. [continues 526 words]
Washington --- What's a four-letter word for spoiled rotten and above the law? "Diva." One of America's self-proclaimed divas, pop star and actress Whitney Houston, demonstrates how celebrity women exploit fame and gender to escape responsibility for inexcusable conduct. Last week, an attorney for Houston won dismissal of a drug possession case against the singer. She was stopped in Hawaii 10 months ago after airport officials found 15.2 grams of marijuana in her purse. When airport staff tried to detain her until police arrived, Houston ditched her handbag and hustled onto a plane headed for San Francisco to escape arrest. If any average citizen had attemp [continues 521 words]
TAKE a look at these recent local-news headlines from Snohomish County: Drug tests show cocaine on official's clothing - Dantini denies cocaine use, won't face criminal charges If you're thinking what I'm thinking, then you remembered these strikingly similar headlines from King County last year: Drug residue found on prosecutor - Former deputy prosecutor won't face drug charges The common denominator shared by these two sets of news items? Our state Attorney General, whose law enforcers in Olympia let two public officials escape the tough-on-drugs dragnet. [continues 798 words]
ALL across this city, from the University District to West Seattle, there are homeowners pleading with police to clean up local drug hot spots in their neighborhoods. Young families feel like hostages in their own homes. Parents forbid their children from playing in their own yards. Despite glowing rhetoric about the success of community policing, top law-enforcement officials have proved unable or unwilling to combat drug-dealing in an efficient manner. The apparent drug-related shooting at Cowen Park last week underscored an embarrassing failure of city government to respond to our communities' basic public-safety needs. One police officer told The Times, "The kind of crimes that occur in Cowen Park just aren't high on our priority list." Others blamed a lack of resources. [continues 806 words]
CONTRARY to what the Seattle City Attorney's office has led some media and civic observers to believe, the continuing battle over Oscar's II restaurant is not just about a few rabble-rousers who have a personal beef with Mark Sidran. Sidran's ego is big. But what's at stake in Oscar and Barbara McCoy's battle to save their 22-year-old family business from government closure is far bigger. It's the vitality of the U.S. Constitution: Does our founding document remain a sturdy bulwark against abuses of individual liberty - or has it become a flimsy parchment barrier to public confiscation of private property? [continues 817 words]
A terminally ill woman smokes marijuana to ease intense nausea caused by chemotherapy. An elderly man with glaucoma discovers that smoking marijuana lessens the debilitating pain in his eyes. A family doctor determines, after careful consideration of the individual health risks and benefits, that an AIDS patient can safely stimulate his waning appetite by smoking marijuana. Who would stand in the way of these private and professional efforts to heal, relieve and restore hope? Politicians. Hacks on the left and right, Democrat and Republican. Control freaks inside the Beltway and down in Olympia who favor the deadly grip of government over compassion. Moralists who sacrifice the sick and infirm in the name of upholding public safety, defending the regulatory process, or protecting the collective good. [continues 789 words]
TONIGHT, they march. Black. White. Young. Old. From East Madison to Pine. Down Pine to Broadway. Past Oscar's, the family-owned tavern on bankruptcy's brink. Past Deano's, where cops hand out cocaine to drug-addicted informants instead of getting them off the street. Leading the marchers will be a diverse group of small-business owners who have never asked the government for anything. They ask only one thing tonight: to be heard. Like Central District tavern owners Oscar McCoy and Dean Falls, many of the entrepreneurs who will march believe they were subject to selective and arbitrary enforcement of the law. Meriland Dillard, former owner of Neko's, wants to call attention to the city's disturbing double standards in closing his nightclub two years ago. "We had no violence, no liquor violations, no nothing, but they closed us down before they closed the dope house across the street. The drug dealers are still in business there. But we're bankrupt because we catered to the `wrong crowd.' " [continues 761 words]
OSCAR and Barbara McCoy are not alone. Dozens of small-business representatives, civil-rights leaders and grass-roots activists joined the McCoys last week at a public hearing to protest Seattle's stealthy crackdown on nightclub and tavern owners. During the contentious Seattle Human Rights Commission meeting, neighbors and friends implored the commission to look out for the constitutional rights of small-business owners. Free-market advocates and jazz artists criticized city regulations that result in fewer music venues. [continues 848 words]
"UTTER nonsense." In a KOMO-TV interview aired last Friday, Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran dismissed the concerns of beleaguered business owners Oscar and Barbara McCoy. Sidran's words were punctuated by an impatient smirk and the preening indignation of a tough-on-crime commissar. What does Sidran have against the McCoys, anyway? The McCoys are struggling to fend off a civil drug-abatement action that would effectively shut down their 22-year-old family tavern. They want other entrepreneurs to know that government agencies responsible for protecting law-abiding citizens sometimes work against them. [continues 758 words]
A . . . time to weep, and a time to laugh . . . ASIDE from the reading of Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, there was little about Ralph Seeley's memorial service last Saturday that could be characterized as traditional. The 49-year-old Tacoma lawyer who died of rare bone cancer was an untraditional man: Navy officer who worked on a nuclear sub, newspaper columnist, pilot, cellist, fly fisher, civil- rights advocate, proponent of medical marijuana. Among the mourners who spoke at his funeral were a hemp activist, a pair of University of Puget Sound law professors, a cello teacher, a state senator, and a state Supreme Court justice who had never met him. They all spoke passionately about the diverse interests they shared with Seeley. They talked about his humor, his stubbornness, his intellect and his pain. [continues 228 words]
by Michelle Malkin Seattle Times editorial columnist WHAT could gun owners and drug medicalization advocates possibly have in common? It's something precious, yet mocked and usurped regularly in the name of children and safety: individual liberty. The cause of freedom can sometimes make for strange bedfellows. Although they may not yet realize it, those reviled as "gun nuts" and "potheads" in Washington state will need each other's support in November to secure their rights to exercise unpopular choices. Both groups are scorned minorities. Both face uphill initiative battles. By voting no on Initiative 676 (which would mandate new registration and training requirements on all handgun owners) and yes on Initiative 685 (which would allow doctors to recommend marijuana and other illegal drugs to seriously ill patients), an enlightened electorate can help forestall the monstrous encroachment of government upon private life. [continues 674 words]
by Michelle Malkin Seattle Times editorial columnist Go ahead, all you toughoncrime czars running loose across the republic give yourselves a hearty totalitarian slap on the back. Your $17 billionayear War on Drugs has triumphantly claimed another casualty. No, it's not a Colombian drug lord or innercity crack dealer, but a terminally ill Tacoma man seeking the freedom to smoke marijuana for pain relief without fear of policestate retribution. In an 81 decision last week, the Washington state Supreme Court rejected bone cancer patient Ralph Seeley's claim to a constitutionally protected interest in having his doctor Ernest Conrad, an orthopedic physician prescribe marijuana for medical treatment. [continues 731 words]
