Methamphetamine

New York Times, 10 Jun 2013 - AJO, Ariz. - On a recent morning, Lt. Bill Clements, commander of a remote sheriff's department substation here, sent his deputies into the sun-blasted Sonoran Desert to recover a body - the fifth in five days. Hours later, back at the station, a deputy unzipped a white body bag, revealing the corpse of a man who had died making the brutal crossing from Mexico, his lips shrunken, either with dehydration or from being partly eaten by wild animals, the deputies said. Out here, life expires suddenly and without dignity. The Ajo district station recovered 18 bodies last year. As of late May, the station had recovered eight, and the summer sun was still a few weeks away.

Moree Champion, 10 Jun 2013 - A permanent ban on synthetic drugs is now on the national agenda, with NSW and Victoria both urging the federal government to outlaw the products across the country. More than 100 fair trading officers will be deployed across NSW this week to enforce the state government's interim ban on the sale of the synthetic drugs. NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts said retailers including sex shops, tobacconists and service stations which were found to be in breach faced fines of up to $1.1 million.

New Zealand Herald, 10 Jun 2013 - Clever Chinese manufacturer with links to NZ just one of the chemical masterminds outwitting authorities. When a worldwide shortage of MDMA disrupted the manufacture of Ecstasy, party goers didn't have to wait long for their fix.

A Sioux City-based US district court judge has criticized harsh tough methamphetamine sentencing guidelines, writing in a recent opinion that he considers them "fundamentally flawed," not based on empirical evidence, and too harsh for low-level offenders.

Judge Mark Bennett (iand.uscourts.gov) US District Judge Mark Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa cut the sentence of a convicted Sioux City methamphetamine dealer from nearly 16 years to just more than six years, saying in his 44-page ruling that he has a "fundamental policy disagreement" with the meth portion of the federal sentencing guidelines.

"The methamphetamine guidelines are fundamentally flawed because they fail to consider additional factors beyond quantity," Bennett wrote in his Friday ruling in US v. Willie Hayes. "The system is too severe in the indiscriminate way it treats offenders… Since the methamphetamine guidelines are fundamentally flawed, I find that they fail to promote the purposes of sentencing" outlined in federal law.

Bennett has been a long-time critic of federal mandatory minimum sentencing, and in his ruling, he argued that meth sentencing guidelines seemed more based on politics than science and lacked the depth of other portions of the guidelines. Meth dealers are getting much harsher sentences than people convicted of selling heroin or cocaine, he noted.

Iowa defense attorneys consulted by the Des Moines Register said Bennett's ruling was "a very big deal."

"It is a very big deal, and it's also something that's been coming for awhile," said Des Moines defense attorney Angela Campbell. "And he's right. The guidelines are so high, you can have a runner or a very low-level pseudoephedrine (purchaser) who gets life very easily… If you're buying pseudoephedrine for a large-scale drug operation, you don't get hit just on what you buy, you’re responsible for the same thing as the entire conspiracy."

"He's not a lone voice in the wilderness," said Iowa defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown, who added that defense lawyers need to cite Bennett's opinion in meth cases. "It's an argument that defense lawyers in both the Northern and Southern districts of Iowa need to make," Brown said. "It's malpractice not to."

At least two other federal judges, Joseph Bataillon in Nebraska and John Gleeson in New York have issued similar criticisms of meth guidelines. Bennett's ruling drew on their reasoning.

Bennett, for his part, said reducing meth guideline sentences by a third was "a good starting point and a reasonable way to express my policy disagreement." But, he added, he "will reserve the ability to adjust the figure upwards and downwards as I weigh" other "important factors the guidelines do not contemplate."

Prosecutors could appeal Bennett's ruling in the Yates case. If they do, that could open the door to a decision by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which in turn could open the door to a US Supreme Court review of sentencing procedure in the world of now-advisory guidelines, or even of the fairness of meth sentences.

Los Angeles Times, 09 Jun 2013 - Simple possession of small amounts of methamphetamine - enough for personal use but presumably not for dealing - is a "wobbler" in California, meaning that offenses can be charged as either felonies or misdemeanors. It's different with possession of cocaine, opiates such as heroin and many other addictive drugs; they currently can be charged only as felonies. The state Senate has now passed a bill to bring criminal handling of those drugs into line with methamphetamine, and the measure is before the Assembly. SB 649, by Democrat Mark Leno of San Francisco, is good policy and should be adopted.

Deccan Herald, 08 Jun 2013 - Not only is the City's underbelly mired in couriering and peddling drugs, the well-to-do are also at the crossroads of the malaise Wearing different hats and being a hotbed of transformation, Bangalore is tired. Tired of bearing people's thoughts, embracing diverse cultures and dealing with its homeless. But it has not been able to free itself from the addiction of gaining repute for things.

The Telegram, 08 Jun 2013 - RCMP speculates the difficulty in detecting them in workplace tests could be behind their popularity The rise in popularity of synthetic drugs in the province is the top concern for an RCMP officer tasked with drug and organized crime awareness. The rise in popularity of synthetic drugs in the province is the top concern for an RCMP officer tasked with drug and organized crime awareness.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, 08 Jun 2013 - The slaying in Southlake Town Square of a Mexican attorney with reputed ties to drug cartels was a brazen and well-coordinated assassination that illustrates the increasingly long and lethal reach of the brutal criminal organizations, security experts say. The flamboyant public hit was unusual because Mexican cartels try to stay off the radar on this side of the border.

Guelph Mercury, 04 Jun 2013 - More Officers in Drug Unit Shine Light on Problem: 'There Is More Drug Work Than We Can Ever Get To' GUELPH - Guelph has a drug problem. And stepped-up drug enforcement appears to be bringing it more into the light of day.

Frankston Weekly, 04 Jun 2013 - DRUG offences in Frankston have jumped more than 50 per cent and last month police arrested several key players allegedly involved in the region's ice (methamphetamine) trade. Police figures released last week revealed a 56.8 per cent increase from April 1 last year to March 31, compared with the previous 12 months. This compares to a state average of 12.7 per cent.

Cleveland Daily Banner, 03 Jun 2013 - (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series taken from a conversation with 10th Judicial District Public Defender Richard Hughes. Sunday's installment dealt with alternative funding. This part deals with alternative sentencing.) There are people who commit crimes who deserve incarceration and require constant supervision separate from the community, but others would benefit from some form of alternative sentencing.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 24 May 2013 - Marijuana is the drug most often linked to crime in the United States, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday, dismissing calls for legalization as a "bumper-sticker approach" that should be avoided. Gil Kerlikowske, White House director of national drug-control policy, said a study by his office showed a strong link between drug use and crime. Eighty percent of the adult males arrested for crimes in Sacramento, Calif., last year tested positive for at least one illegal drug. Marijuana was the most commonly detected drug, found in 54 percent of those arrested.

Sacramento News & Review, 23 May 2013 - Eastern District Head Benjamin Wagner Explains That Colorado, Washington Faces Less Fed Intervention Because Laws Are Better Weed 'Free-For-All' Sacramento-based U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner drives a minivan.

At a meeting in Myanmar Thursday, China and five Southeast Asian nations vowed to redouble their efforts and boost cooperation in an effort to get a grip on illegal drug use and trafficking, which they called "a significant threat" to the region.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]China was joined by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), along with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for the Ministerial Meeting of the Signatory Countries to the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Drug Control in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.

"Consumption and production of narcotic drugs continues to grow rapidly within the region and worldwide, constituting a significant threat to the East Asian region," according to a joint statement adopted at the meeting.

The countries and the UNODC pledged to heighten cross-border cooperation, examine alternative development programs, and share experiences in drug treatment, prevention, and public awareness.

"This agreement marks the continued commitment of the six MOU countries in supporting drug control in the region, and the celebration of 20 years of partnership and collaboration," said Myanmar representative Home Affairs Minister Lt. Gen. Ko Ko at the signing ceremony. "The MOU Member States re-affirm our commitment and assure the international community of our efforts to eliminate the drug problem in our region."

Southeast Asia has been a hotbed of methamphetamine production in recent years, and Myanmar is now the world's second largest producer of opium -- although its production is only about one-tenth that of world leader Afghanistan.

"Major challenges persist," said John Sandage, UNODC director of treaty affairs. "The resurgence of opium poppy cultivation, the dramatic spread of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), the influx of drugs new to the region and increased levels of addiction. UNODC looks forward to working with the MOU states to implement plans that help us better understand the threat and challenges, build technical capacity and lead to greater cooperation across borders and among agencies."

Seattle Times, 09 May 2013 - IN their meeting last week, President Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had a chance to consider marijuana legalization. Millions of Americans are ready for this, at least as an option for the states. Mexicans have suffered 60,000 drug-related murders in the past seven years and should be open to such a policy. But Obama and Pena Nieto made no move to consider it.

The Sonoma Index-Tribune, 07 May 2013 - Statistics rarely reveal the entire truth about anything, and numbers can be compiled and interpreted to confirm different conclusions from the same set of facts. But that caveat notwithstanding, virtually any statistical analysis of the war on drugs leads to an inescapable conclusion: It has been a hopeless failure.

New Zealand Herald, 26 Apr 2013 - Despite promises, no money from crims' assets has gone to alcohol and drug treatment. Not one cent of the millions of dollars worth of assets seized from criminals has been funnelled into drug treatment or resources to fight organised crime as promised when the enabling law came into force.