TOP 10 DRUG WAR STORIES

1) Don't Bogart My Closeup: The White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy and its fearless leader, drug czar John Walters, got
slapped by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office in
January when the GAO reported that Walters' band of merry narcos had
violated a government ban on "covert propaganda" with its release of
prepackaged video news stories, ready to air on broadcast news
programs, that failed to identify the ONDCP as the source of the "news."

2) Man-Min Madness ... : In a 5-4 decision delivered Jan. 12, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the federal
mandatory-minimum sentencing schemes enacted by Congress in the
mid-Eighties in reaction to an increase in drug crimes, opining that,
as currently applied, man-mins violate the Sixth Amendment right to a
jury trial.

In order to pass constitutional muster, the court said, the
sentencing schemes should be downgraded to just an advisory tool for
judges to consider.

3) ... And More Madness: Apparently U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner,
R-Wis., didn't get the memo concerning the Supremes' ruling.

He went on his merry drug warrior way and, in April, filed the
uber-draconian Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to
Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act (HR 1528). This wolf in
sheep's clothing would create a whole host of stricter man-mins -
including a mandatory 10-year sentence for any adult over 21 who
sells more than five grams of pot to anyone under 18, and a mandatory
three years for parents who are aware of drug-trafficking activities
near their children but fail to report the alleged activity to police
within 24 hours.

4) Don't Mess With Texas Medi-Joint!: A bill that would've offered
Texas medi-pot patients an affirmative defense against pot possession
prosecution languished in committee despite bipartisan support and
the impassioned testimony of numerous patients and advocates at
hearings in April. As the medi-pot movement gains steam, the issue
will remain on the table indefinitely.

5) Raiding Raich: In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on one of the
most closely watched medi-pot cases, brought by seriously ill
California medi-mari patient Angel Raich, ruling 6-3 that the feds
may arrest and prosecute seriously ill medi-mari patients who are
using medicinal marijuana in accordance with state law. The feds'
need to enforce pot prohibition as detailed in the Controlled
Substances Act provides the "compelling interest," the Supremes
opined, even if that means arresting sick people and charging them
with pot possession. Raich has vowed to fight on, and in November
filed another appeal, arguing that the federal intervention in her
state-sanctioned, doctor-recommended medi-pot treatment violates her
right to due process and contravenes the common-law "doctrine of necessity."

6) Greener Acres: In June, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced
the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, which would free the states from
federal restriction and allow for state regulation of hemp farming.

Currently all hemp products sold in the U.S. - including food, body
care products, and numerous consumer textiles - are manufactured from
raw hemp imported from Canada and Europe. Hemp farming is not illegal
per se (indeed, the government actually encouraged it during World
War II), but the law requires DEA approval of all hemp-farming
ventures - and so far the DEA has only issued one permit, since
expired, to growers in Hawaii.

7) Pena Sucks Pot: State Rep. Aaron Pena, D-Edinburg, jumped on the
marijuana hysteria train in 2005, filing legislation that would ban
the sale of any confectionery containing marijuana-derived
ingredients. According to Pena, cannabis-flavored candies are nothing
more than a means to "entice our children into a life of illegal
drugs." We're not sure what Pena was licking, but it wasn't a
lollipot, such as those sold by the California company Chronic Candy,
which are imported - with FBI and U.S. Customs approval - and have
been sold in the U.S. for nearly a decade.

8) SAFER Partying: Drug law reformers in Denver scored a victory in
November when 54% of city voters voted to legalize the possession of
up to 1 oz. of pot by adults over 21. The initiative was conceived by
the grassroots organization Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable
Recreation, which sought passage of the measure as a way to bring pot
penalties in line with penalties handed out for irresponsible use of alcohol.

9) Let's Play Supercop!: After a couple of years of relative peace,
federal narcos - likely emboldened by the Supremes' decision in the
Raich case - in December ramped up their war against the seriously
ill by carrying out raids in San Diego and San Francisco, busting a
total of 14 medi-pot dispensaries, seizing hundreds of pot plants,
cash, and reams of patient records.

None of the medi-pot providers were charged with any crime and,
according to the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, many of
the raided dispensaries reopened the very next day.

10) Treaties? What Are You Smoking?: In December, lawyers for Alex
White Plume and members of his Lakota Nation family living on South
Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation argued before a three-judge panel of
the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that they don't need prior
approval from the DEA before they grow industrial hemp on their land.
The White Plumes contend that the power to grow hemp was granted in
at least two treaties between the American Indians and the feds, back
in 1858 and 1861.