Stories by Phillip Smith

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

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 This may mean that mandatory minimum sentencing will be repealed.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.

Posted on: Apr 30, 2001, Source: DRCNet

Philip Smith speaks with Tom Cahil, founder of Stop Prisoner Rape, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the rape of prisoners and providing assistance to the survivors of jailhouse rape.

Posted on: Apr 16, 2001, Source: DRCNet

New pain treatment guidelines are at odds with a government campaign against prescription drug abuse, leaving patients -- and doctors -- in the crossfire.

Posted on: Apr 9, 2001, Source: DRCNet

A hugely disproportionate number of black men have been stopped and searched for drugs along route I-40 in Arizona. And when a racial profiling case was filed against the cops, crucial evidence started disappearing.

Posted on: Mar 12, 2001, Source: DRCNet

The effort to strike the Higher Education Act's drug war provision -- which denies financial aid to students convicted of a drug offense -- is gaining ground in Congress.

Posted on: Mar 5, 2001, Source: DRCNet

NBA veteran Charles Oakley re-ignited the basketball league's smoldering controversy over drug use among players last week when he told the New York Post that the league's drug testing policy was "a joke" and that more than half of league players are regular marijuana smokers.

Posted on: Feb 22, 2001, Source: DRCNet

A growing number of head shops are being shut down or harassed under strict federal drug paraphernalia laws.

Posted on: Dec 18, 2000, Source: DRCNet

Say "student activism" and most people think of the anti-globalization movement. But a new law that bars some students with drug convictions from obtaining federal financial aid, has revived a long dormant student reform movement aimed at changing US drug policy.

Posted on: Nov 9, 2000, Source: AlterNet

Ballot initiatives around the country have enacted profound changes in some states' drug policies, and -- by historical accident -- drug war opponents became key swing voters in the presidential race.

Posted on: Sep 17, 2000, Source: DRCNet

President Clinton formally waived the human rights conditions attached to the $1.3 billion military aid package destined to help the Colombian military wage war against drug traffickers and peasant-based leftist guerrillas. The move was an implicit admission that the Colombian military's hands are too dirty too pass muster.

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