Small-scale pot busts snared in Border Patrol (inland) stops

[Newsjock]

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The top federal prosecutor in Seattle has overruled the Border Patrol, whose officers filed petty marijuana charges against five people stopped at roadblocks in Washington.

The roadblocks -- set up dozens of miles from the border -- are meant to detect terrorists, undocumented immigrants and drug traffickers. But they also have snared people such as Stephen Dixon, 55, a disabled veteran who uses medical marijuana with a doctor's approval to fight unrelenting pain. Border Patrol officers cited him for misdemeanor marijuana possession earlier this year.

Even though U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan dismissed the federal charges against Dixon on Wednesday, along with four others cited for minor marijuana possession, Dixon isn't a happy man.

... "Today, I informed the Border Patrol that all future small possession cases may be referred to state or local law enforcement, but will not be pursued by the U.S. Attorney's Office due to a lack of federal interest in the prosecution," Sullivan said Thursday in a statement released to the Seattle P-I and a Port Angeles newspaper.

... John Bates, Border Patrol chief in charge of the Northwest, ... did not back away from what he sees as the Border Patrol's duty to enforce the law. "These are immigration checkpoints. However, if we encounter other violations of law, we are not going to turn our back on them."

So the Border Patrol will take the cases to local police to see if they want to file charges, he said.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/387945_pot15.html

[spag68]

1. Border Patrol

The cops are just pissed that people are getting their pot from some other supplier other then what they have stolen from the precinct for their own sales.

[kas125]

2. they have new rules that allow them to set up search points up to a hundred

miles from any border. Three fifths of the population lives within a hundred miles of a border, which is the space the ACLU is calling the "Constitution Free Zone." http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/areyoulivinginaconst...

There is a map where you can check to see if you live within the zone (I do) and a rather interesting video.

[Porschenut1066]

3. Bush Admin says that it is considering extending 100 mile zone around Intl airports

[kas125]

14. More about what the ACLU says-

deleted - sent by mistake

[pattmarty]

9. You're another one that obviously noticed how some............

........"officers" drive very expensive cars and live in very expensive houses on a 50K yr salary. Funny how that works. I lived in Chicago area for over 50 yrs and every now and then (recently a couple of years ago) a Chicago cop was caught I believe in a income tax scheme where he had all these expensive cars, property etc and was only making 80 or 100K. I have always joked about the "big drug busts" in the papers or TV that have a lot of money and drugs confiscated and ALWAYS wonder exactly how much was there when they first entered the premises. Who's gonna believe a drug dealer when he tells the judge he was "robbed"?

[uppityperson]

4. Local police draw line with Border Patrol (2 articles, 1 editorial)

Location: Port Townsend, WA.

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=222...

...Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval relayed concerns she's heard from city residents who say they have been stopped by Border Patrol agents and even followed to their places of work.

"We do do that," Bates said, noting that it is legal for agents to ask people questions. If someone doesn't have an ID, Bates said, the "penalty" is that "we spend more time talking."

"Once we determine the situation does not require further investigation, we release them," said Bates. "It's been tested all the way to the Supreme Court." Benson, the defense attorney, agreed that Washington drivers - but not passengers - must show ID if asked. But she stressed that the U.S. Constitution protects citizens and non-citizens alike....

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=222...

Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily and Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Brasfield both made it clear that they do not have the authority or the resources to participate in any Border Patrol efforts. However, both said they would assist in situations where any law enforcement officer or member of the public was in danger.

EDITORIAL
http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=223...

Neither department will participate in any of the Border Patrol's checkpoint activities, detentions or arrests - unless an officer or a civilian faces a threat of harm, they said. If the net cast by those checkpoints produces someone suspected of violating a state crime, neither police agency will take the bait. Nor will they participate in pursuits initiated by the Border Patrol.

The great majority of the audience, cheered by the fact that our local law enforcement leaders recognize the civil rights issues raised by these federal police tactics, applauded long and loudly.

A fundamental issue raised by the growth of uniformed federal police on the North Olympic Peninsula is this: They embrace the idea that their ill-defined powers should be pushed to or beyond the limit, in keeping with the Constitution-skirting leadership offered by the Bush White House. No better evidence exists than their assertion that "the border" extends 100 miles into the interior of the United States, enabling sudden checkpoints that duplicate the queries of an actual border crossing.

In fortunate contrast, our local police leaders - Sheriff Brasfield and Chief Daily - embrace community standards and pre-Bush constitutional safeguards for our residents and visitors. We can only hope that their examples prevail in the coming months and years. Imagine how different this would be - how much more troublesome - if local law enforcement leaders were obediently towing the federal line on this issue

Donate to DU and give valentine hearts to your friends! Click here.

[DUlover2909]

5. Pot, when sauteed into baked goods is 100% non-toxic.

Take your weed, crumble it up into as fine a manner as you can. Remove all the seeds and stems. Place it in a frying pan and pour some melted butter or margarine over it. Cook the mixture and stir frequently until the butter becomes saturated with THC. The oily mixture will turn a dark green color. Over cooking doesn't seem to make a difference. The longer you cook it over medium heat the better. When you are satisfied that the oil is not becoming any greener, strain the pulp out in a strainer. Discard the pulp (or smoke it, who cares?). Put the green butter into any sort of recipe. Eat the dish and enjoy hours of cough and toxin free marijuana induced euphoria. Eat as much as you want. You'll never overdose and there are absolutely no side effects ever, except a positive drug screen.

[Fumesucker]

6. Eat as much as you want....

Yeah, and if the herb's any good you'll wake up two days later.

And you'll be _hungry_.

[ThePowerofWill]

7. I was gonna reply with something similar.

I don't recommend eating herb unless you need to sleep.....a lot. There is a huge difference in the high from eating, than from smoking. Oral ingestion makes for an extreme narcotic high. Some people need this effect though for various disorders.

[pattmarty]

11. Yeah, like working your ass off at a job you hate.

[JohnyCanuck]

8. "It was funny how surprised we all were that it really worked."

Side Effects of Medical Marijuana
By Paul Krassner

Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine (New York University Press, 2008) is an important and accessible book -- not heavy on academic jargon, but rather lively and engaging, like a true detective novel -- with a broad appeal to those interested in the medical potential of cannabis, an end to the drug war, and grass roots activism. I asked the co-authors how working on the book changed them.

WENDY CHAPKIS: “I certainly was one of those people who thought that 'medical marijuana' was probably mostly a way for Americans to get around ridiculously punitive drug laws. It seemed like a reasonable strategy to me. But the very first time I walked into a WAMM membership meeting, looked around the room and saw people who were ghostly white and frail, people in wheelchairs, people huddled in small groups talking about a WAMM member who needed round the clock care, I realized that medical marijuana was no 'ruse.' These were very ill people. And, as I started doing interviews, the stories of the medicinal properties of pot blew me away.

“I wasn’t the only one surprised to discover that marijuana did in fact have therapeutic effects. Many patients were equally astonished. Like me, they had been recreational users who appreciated the pleasurable effects of marijuana and were suspicious of the claim that the herb was medicine. Then they started chemotherapy, for example, found themselves fighting off non-stop nausea, took a hit and the nausea disappeared. Or they had intolerable nerve pain from multiple sclerosis, AIDS, or post-polio syndrome, used some cannabis tincture and the pain quieted down. It was funny how surprised we all were that it really worked.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/side_effects_medical_mar...

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. I was recently diagnosed with neuropathy

My doctor has prescribed 3 different meds, and none work. The only thing that gives me any relief is pot.

[pattmarty]

10. It's non-toxic in its natural form, just inhaling it into your......

.....lungs isn't exactly very healthy. I have never read of ANYONE overdosing on Marijuana. But you already knew that.

[High Plains]

13. The creeping police state...