Drug War News: Don't Miss Archive (2003)

(Go to: Present Archive - 2007 Archive - 2006 Archive - 2005 Archive - 2004 Archive - 2003 Archive)

Posted December, 2003:

• American 'Values' Cast a Global Shadow; from The Boston Globe (MA)
• Women Find a New Arena for Equality: Prison; from The New York Times
• Worried Pain Doctors Decry Prosecutions; from The Washington Post
• Cable Giant Censors Medical Marijuana Issue Ads in New Hampshire; from Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana
• Flaws in the Penal System; from The San Francisco Chronicle
• Tommy Chong's New Joint; from San Diego City Beat
• Federal Appeals Court Approves Medical Marijuana In Some Cases; from Associated Press
• Breaking the Chains; from The Dallas Morning News
• Supreme Court: If Drugs Found in Car, All Riders May be Held; from The Spokesman-Review (WA)
• Sentencing Authority and the Separation of Powers: "Who Decides Sentences at the Front End?" - Testimony of Paul Rosenzweig before the ABA Justice Kennedy Commission (PDF format)
• Raid at High School Leads to Racial Divide, Not Drugs; from The New York Times
• New York's Federal Judges Protest Sentencing Procedures; from The New York Times
• 'It's not how my unit would have done it' (Stratford High drug raid); from The Post and Courier (SC)
• 17 Students File Suit Over School Drug Raid; from The State (SC)
• Court Upholds Police Right to Quick Entrance; from The Boston Globe (MA)
• Report Alleges Racial Disparities in Seattle Drug Arrests; from The Seattle Times(WA)
• Family Files Lawsuit in Rainbow Death; from the South Bend Tribune (IN)
• Who's Smoking Now? from The New York Times
• In Fond Memory of Mark Harrison: 1952 - 2003
• Dean-a-Palooza: A Front-Runner Takes to the Skies; from The Nation Magazine
• One More Step Toward Universal Suffrage; from the Oregon Daily Emerald
• Prosecutors Flying the Coop; from the San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)
• Police Could be Charged in School Raid; from The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

Posted November, 2003:

• Report Claims New Jail Imperative; front page, Statesman-Examiner (Colville, WA)
• Agencies Keep Kids in Touch with Relatives in Prison; from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
• Social Justice: Rehab for the Rich, Prison for the Poor; from The Bloomington Alternative (IN)
• School of the Americas Taught Sordid Lessons in Abuse; from The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
• Will Rush Take His Own Medicine? from Pulse of the Twin Cities (Web, MN)
• Arizona Sheriff Introduces Female Chain Gangs; from The World Socialist Web Site
• Support for New Jail Lukewarm; from The Spokesman-Review (WA)
• Lock-'Em-Up Logic Fails On All Fronts; from columnist Cal Thomas, Tribune Media Services
• Editorial: Just Say No' To Gun-Wielding Cops In School; from The Orlando Sentinel (FL)
• States Starting to Reverse Get-tough Prison Policies, Reformers Say; from Associated Press
• Afghan Poppies Sprout Again; from The Washington Post
• The Last Disenfranchised Class; from The Nation Magazine
• With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms; from The New York Times
• Police Fail to Find Drugs in Stratford High Raid; from the Charleston Post and Courier (SC)
• HR 1829 passes the House - Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) Competition in Contracting Act of 2003
• Justices Examine Police Liability for Defective Search Warrant; from The Chicago Tribune

Posted October, 2003:

• Federal Judges Aren't as Lenient As Lawmakers Say, Studies Show; from The Wall Street Journal
• Marijuana Arrests For 2002 Near Record High Despite Feds' War On Terror, FBI Report Reveals; from NORML
• Reformers Challenge Preachers: 'Protect People, Stop Drug War'; from The Michigan Citizen
• Study Finds Hundreds of Thousands of Inmates Mentally Ill; from The New York Times
• The ABA Justice Kennedy Commission Hearings; from the American Bar Association
• Opinion Pieces on Rush Limbaugh Story; from Various Sources
• Triumph for Drug Policy Alliance and All Drug Policy Reform Advocates: Supreme Court Declines to Hear Government on Medical Marijuana
• Talk Radio Star had Drug Habit, Maid Sez; from the New York Daily News
• Young and Radical; from The Bloomington Alternative (IN)
• Under the Yellow Brick Road; from The Bloomington Alternative (IN)
• Veterans in Prison or Jail; A Special Report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics - (PDF format)
• California Governor Gray Davis and the Politics of Law and Order; from WSWS.org
• Hard Time in the Heartland; from Middle East Report Online

Posted September, 2003:

• Post Incarceration Syndrome and Relapse (PICS); By Terence T. Gorski
• The Case for Fresh Ideas on Waging the Drug War; from The Seattle Times
• Tulia Figure Calls Slur 'Greeting'; from the Dallas Morning News
  For a regularly updated archive of articles on this subject, visit the MAP Drug News pages at www.mapinc.org/drugnews/ - Select Tulia, TX under Quick Links: Hot Topics
• In Search of the 'Anti-drug'; from The Christian Science Moniter
• Fairness and Felons: A Push to Enfranchise Prisoners; from The Christian Science Moniter
• Finnish Prisons: No Gates Or Armed Guards; from the New York Times
• Expert Urges Tough Fight Against Drugs; from the Billings Gazette (MT)
• Judicial Conference Seeks Restoration of Judges' Sentencing Authority; from the US Courts
• Ashcroft Outlines Stricter Rules for Criminal Cases; from Knight Ridder Newspapers
• Anti-Terrorism Laws Now Being Used Against Common Criminals; from Associated Press
• (Book Review): Bad Neighbour Policy; from The Economist (UK)
• Judges In A Stew On Federal Sentences - Guidelines Seen As Too Rigid, Unfair
• Critical Resistance South: Challenging The Prison Industrial Complex; from USA Today Magazine
• What's in the Brown Paper Bag? by Luis Ramirez - TDCJ #999309
• The Dutch Go To Pot; from Newsweek Magazine
• Is the Drug War on Crack? from The Chronicle (Duke University, NC)
• Bigger Brother? from Mother Jones Magazine
• Failure Of Criminal Justice System Is Of NASA Proportions; from The Washington Post
• From the Justice Policy Institute: Response to Right-Wing Critique of Crime Drop

Posted August, 2003:

• Siege at Rainbow Farm; from Playboy Magazine
• The 2002 report on California Proposition 36 (The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act [SACPA]) - from UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (PDF format, 1.2 Mb)
• 35 Are Pardoned in Texas Drug Case; from the Los Angeles Times
  For a regularly updated archive of articles on this subject, visit the MAP Drug News pages at www.mapinc.org/drugnews/ - Select Tulia, TX under Quick Links: Hot Topics
• Press Release: One In Every 32 Adults Now On Probation, Parole Or Incarcerated; from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, USDOJ
• United States: Sentenced To Sickness; from Le Monde Diplomatique (France)
• Target: 'Narco-Terror'; from ABCnews.com
• Pro-Pot Initiative Gets Political Push At High-Flying Hempfest; from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• Cops Against the Drug War; from The Seattle Weekly
• One in 37 U.S. Adults Either in or Paroled From Prison in 2001; from Associated Press
• Press Release: HR 1829 calls for study of Good-Time Release Program for federal prisoners; from FedCURE
• Mr. Narc's Neighborhood; from the Seattle Weekly
• The Drug War Goes Up in Smoke, by Sasha Abramsky; from The Nation Magazine
• Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: End Minimum Sentences; from MSNBC & Associated Press
  (The full text of Justice Kennedy's speech is available here).
• U.S. Drug Flights to Resume in Colombia; from The Miami Herald
• Ashcroft Intensifies Campaign Against Judges' Soft Sentences; from the Wall Street Journal
• Study Finds 2.6% Increase in U.S. Prison Population; from the New York Times
• Growing Prison Population is Growing Problem for Cash-Strapped States; from Associated Press
• Colombia Drug War Funds Will Not Be Used to Fight Global AIDS and Amendment to End DEA Medical Marijuana Raids Defeated

Posted July, 2003:

• The 2002 report on California Proposition 36 (The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act [SACPA]) - from UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (PDF format, 1.2 Mb)
• Wacky Drug Laws Help No One; by Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist
• History of the Federal Parole System from the US Department of Justice
• Press Release: U.S. Senate Passes Legislation to Curb Prisoner Rape; from Stop Prison Rape.
• DA uses Anti-Terrorism Laws to Bust Meth Labs; from the Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
• Victims of the War on Drugs (Benton Harbor, MI); from the Washington Post
• Bush Escalates Marijuana War; from the San Francisco Chronicle
• More information on the Feeney Amendment (further eroding judicial discretion in the federal system) from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL):
  President's Column: The Feeney Amendment - By Lawrence Goldman
  NACDL's fight to save judicial discretion - By Ralph Grunewald

Posted Previously:

• Federal Prisons Packed with Almost 165,000; from USA Today
• From MPP, the Marijuana Policy Project: Medical marijuana activists across the country celebrated after U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer sentenced medical marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal to just one day in prison, allowing him to walk free because of credit for time already served. Read More.
• New Federal Prisons Scheduled for 2003 - Special thanks to Karen Bond and FedCURE for this timely information
• Federal Sentencing Update: House and Senate pass new legislation containing provisions that further erode judicial discretion (The Feeney Amendment). From FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums).
• President To Nominate 1st Woman As Head of DEA - From Media Awareness Project.
• US Supreme Court Rules 5-4 that 3-Strikes is Not Cruel and Unusual Punishment - From Families Against California's Three Strikes (FACTS)
• Harley Lappin to Replace Kathleen Hawk Sawyer as head of Federal Bureau of Prisons (PDF file)

For the latest drug war news, visit our friends and allies below

We are careful not to duplicate the efforts of other organizations, and as a grassroots coalition of prisoners and social reformers, our resources (time and money) are limited. The vast expertise and scope of the various drug reform organizations will enable you to stay informed on the ever-changing, many-faceted aspects of the movement. Our colleagues in reform also give the latest drug war news. Please check their websites often.

The Drug Policy Alliance

Drug Reform Coordination Network

Drug Sense and The Media Awareness Project