Stories by Phillip Smith

Phillip Smith is an editor at DRCNet. subscribe to Phillip Smith's feed

Posted on: Mar 27, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Officials at Colorado State University in Fort Collins announced recently that CSU has become the first college in the nation to operate a drug court for students accused of campus drug and alcohol violations.

Posted on: Mar 20, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Britain's move away from US-style drug policies took on added momentum this week, with three developments heralding change for the better.

Posted on: Mar 13, 2002, Source: DRCNet

A flurry of newspaper headlines in the Scottish press over the weekend announced a pending drug policy shift in Scotland, but there may be less to the move than meets the eye.

Posted on: Mar 6, 2002, Source: DRCNet

The editor of DRCNet's Week Online interviews Sasha Abramsky, author of a new book on our prison system, focusing on the non-violent and petty criminals that fill America's prisons and the drug war connection.

Posted on: Feb 27, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Finally calling the bluff on a new government study titled "The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States, 1992-1998".

Posted on: Feb 20, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Bolivian coca farmers and the government arrived at an agreement which might end the blockades and violence -- for now.

Posted on: Feb 13, 2002, Source: DRCNet

America's leading radical intellectual speaks on the fallacy of the drug war, terrorism and the evolution of anarchist and libertarian ideology.

Posted on: Feb 11, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Philip Smith of the Drug Reform Coordination Network interviewed San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters about his new book on drug law reform and corruption in the Colorado police force.

Posted on: Feb 7, 2002, Source: DRCNet

not yet done

Posted on: Jan 31, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Reinstating the ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is music to the ears of dealers in Kandahar, one of whom gleefully reacted by telling the press, "We'll be rich!"

Posted on: Jan 23, 2002, Source: DRCNet

Drug law reform laws move forward in Brazil, as the global war on drugs continues its collapse.

Posted on: Jan 16, 2002, Source: DRCNet

The Bush Administration is attempting to repeal a ruling which maintains the right not to consent to a suspicionless drug search on public transportation. Is it anti-terrorist or unconstitutional?

Posted on: Jan 9, 2002, Source: DRCNet

As the Americans and their local allies in Bogota apply pressure on the Colombian cocaine and heroin business, the red flag of Maoist insurrection waves once more in Peru.

Posted on: Dec 19, 2001, Source: DRCNet

American music listeners are familiar enough with the drug-laced lyrics and spaciness of stoner rock and the gritty drug war milieu of gangster rap, but most non-Spanish-speaking gringos remain totally oblivious to the narcocorrido, a musical genre drenched in the Mexico-US drug trade whose leading stars sell millions of albums on both sides of the border.

Posted on: Dec 11, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Deaths and other human rights abuses by Bolivian security forces have mounted in recent weeks as they confront angry coca-growing peasants determined to protect their crops and their economic well-being.

Posted on: Dec 10, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The coca fields of Colombia are a long way from Philadelphia's gritty Kensington neighborhood, but a local anti-poverty group is making the connections with an innovative and interesting new tactic.

Posted on: Dec 6, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The Taliban may be brutal, thuggish, backward-looking, fundamentalist fanatics, but when it comes to marijuana policy, they've got nothing on the US.

Posted on: Nov 28, 2001, Source: DRCNet

A bill which would allow the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency to test children at birth for signs of drug exposure and take custody of those children is full of flaws and would serve to target the poor, ignoring the underlying issues of addiction.

Posted on: Nov 26, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The "D.A.R.E. Generation" works to change drug policies on campuses. The Students for Sensible Drug Policy met this month to talk about ways to bring drug policy awareness to campuses across the country and, according to DRCNet, they are not alone in their effort.

Posted on: Nov 20, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Drug treatment is big business, and the drug treatment industry is turning to Madison Avenue techniques and grand coalitions to ensure that it gets even bigger.

Posted on: Nov 13, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri has moved away from a logical drug policy, creating stricter laws and mandatory-minimum sentencing and implementing the death penalty for drug producers and dealers.

Posted on: Nov 6, 2001, Source: DRCNet

In the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, law enforcement and industry sources reported drug seizures were down dramatically. Now it's back to business as usual for the black market.

Posted on: Nov 1, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Even as Congress grows increasingly queasy about U.S. drug war investments in Central America -- slashing the Andean counter-drug budget by 22 percent last week -- Bush administration officials and congressional drug war diehards are turning up the "terrorist" rhetoric in an effort to strengthen their cause.

Posted on: Oct 17, 2001, Source: DRCNet

As europe embraces harm reduction, acting U.S. drug czar Edward Jurith fumes against it. Why we need harm reduction now more than ever.

Posted on: Oct 11, 2001, Source: DRCNet

In the latest move in a quixotic crusade against cannabis in any form, the DEA has published a ban on the consumption of food products containing hemp.

Posted on: Oct 4, 2001, Source: DRCNet

No longer targeting only producers of illegal drugs, some politicians have moved on to implicitly blaming domestic drug consumers for the 9/11 attacks.

Posted on: Oct 2, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Even before the dust had settled around the site of the World Trade Center, drug war hawks were trying to link the drug war to terrorism to further their own political goals.

Posted on: Sep 3, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The United States government may be shunning the UN conference on racism but the U.S. drug reform movement will be present, condemning racism in the drug war.

Posted on: Aug 28, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Colombian legislators recently introduced bills calling for an end to fumigation, the normalization of small drug crops and the outright legalization of the Colombian drug trade under a state monopoly.

Posted on: Aug 20, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled it is unconstitutional for judges to add more years to drug traffickers' sentences based on post-conviction hearings. This may mean that mandatory minimum sentencing will be repealed.

Posted on: Jul 23, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Marijuana production is a major money-maker for British Columbia. But U.S. drug warriors plan to bring their 100 year's war on drugs to Vancouver.

Posted on: Jul 2, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Despite rising opposition to Plan Colombia, U.S. holds a hard line, pressuring President Pastrana to continue aerial spraying of coca fields -- or else.

Posted on: Jun 12, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The 53-year-old father of the medical marijuana movement died last weekend at his home in Sarasota, Florida.

Posted on: Jun 12, 2001, Source: DRCNet

"Treatment Not Jail" campaign planned for Florida, Michigan, Ohio.

Posted on: Jun 12, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Governor and Attorney General urge Feds to bust patients, but Feds say no thanks.

Posted on: Jun 12, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Governor expected to sign.

Posted on: Jun 4, 2001, Source: AlterNet

Zero tolerance for drugs in schools does little more than create high school dropouts, a new report shows.

Posted on: May 13, 2001, Source: DRCNet

With the nomination of Republican Congressman Asa Hutchinson to head the DEA, the Bush administration has a united front on drug policy.

Posted on: Apr 30, 2001, Source: DRCNet

While talk show hosts make jokes and politicians make excuses, tens of thousands -- perhaps hundreds of thousandss -- of American men, women and teens are raped in prison each year.

Posted on: Apr 30, 2001, Source: DRCNet

A recent Human Right Watch report on male rape in prisons could finally force policy-makers and the public to confront the epidemic.

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