| Author | Title | Citation | Summary | Year |
| André Douglas Pond Cummings , Steven A. Ramirez |
ROADMAP FOR ANTI-RACISM: FIRST UNWIND THE WAR ON DRUGS NOW |
96 Tulane Law Review 469 (February, 2022) |
I. Introduction. 469 II. A Short History of the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration. 475 III. The Devastation Suffered in Communities of Color. 486 A. Direct Economic Costs of the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration. 487 B. Government Expenditures. 488 C. Economic and Psychological Costs on Families of Color. 490 D. Indirect Costs of the War on... |
2022 |
| Evelyn L.A. Jackson |
SAFE INJECTION FACILITIES: RECONSIDERING AMERICAN DRUG POLICY |
63 Boston College Law Review 1467 (April, 2022) |
Abstract: On January 12, 2021, in United States v. Safehouse, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that supervised injection facilities-- sites where medical professionals monitor injection drug use--violate the Crack House Statute. The legality of supervised injection facilities was a matter of first impression at the circuit... |
2022 |
| Sarah Brady Siff |
TARGETED MARIJUANA LAW ENFORCEMENT IN LOS ANGELES, 1914-1959 |
49 Fordham Urban Law Journal 643 (March, 2022) |
Introduction. 643 I. Anti-Mexican Aims of the First Marijuana Ban. 644 II. Marijuana Was a Whole Different Thing Back Then. 648 III. From Bad to Worse: Racialized Enforcement and New Policing Strategies. 654 IV. Cultural Conquest: Targeting the Hip and Famous. 658 V. Escalation of Unconstitutional Enforcement. 667 Conclusion: Confronting the Legacy... |
2022 |
| André Douglas Pond Cummings , Steven A. Ramirez |
THE ILLINOIS CANNABIS SOCIAL-EQUITY PROGRAM: TOWARD A SOCIALLY JUST PEACE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS? |
53 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 793 (Summer, 2022) |
Laudably, when Illinois legalized the recreational use of cannabis, it also sought to repair the damage wrought by the War on Drugs (WOD) through its social-equity initiatives. That harm included excessive and disproportionate incarceration in communities of color, over-policing within those communities, and all of the social and economic harms... |
2022 |
| Lauren Williams , Samuel D. Hodge, Jr. |
THE IMPLICATIONS OF LEGALIZED MARIJUANA ON ESTABLISHING PROBABLE CAUSE FOR A WARRANTLESS SEARCH |
66 Saint Louis University Law Journal 267 (Winter, 2022) |
The amount of money and legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social... |
2022 |
| Taleed El-Sabawi, Jennifer Oliva |
THE INFLUENCE OF WHITE EXCEPTIONALISM ON DRUG WAR DISCOURSE |
94 Temple Law Review 649 (Summer, 2022) |
For much of its history, the United States has adopted a punitive approach to escalating overdose rates and addiction through the prohibition or stringent regulation of drugs deemed dangerous or habit forming. The policy tools used to support this approach rely on criminal punishment for the possession and sale of such substances and are based on... |
2022 |
| André Douglas Pond Cummings, Steven A. Ramirez |
THE RACIST ROOTS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS & THE MYTH OF EQUAL PROTECTION FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR |
44 University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review 453 (Spring, 2022) |
By 2021, the costs and pain arising from the propagation of the American racial hierarchy reached such heights that calls for anti-racism and criminal justice reform dramatically expanded. The brutal murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police vividly proved that the social construction of race in America directly conflicted with supposed... |
2022 |
| Alessandro Clark-Ansani |
THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL RACIAL ANIMUS BEHIND FEDERAL MARIJUANA CRIMINALIZATION |
7/29/2022 University of Chicago Law Review Online 1 (29-Jul-22) |
In August 2021, the Honorable Miranda M. Du, Chief Judge for the district court of the District of Nevada, struck down 8 U.S.C § 1326, the federal criminal statute that addresses illegal reentry into the United States. That groundbreaking decision, United States v. Carrillo-Lopez (D. Nev. 2021), relied on the test established in Village of... |
2022 |
| Thomas Salazar |
TRIP OR TREAT: PSYCHEDELIC DRUG REFORM IN CALIFORNIA |
53 University of the Pacific Law Review 321 (January, 2022) |
Heath and Safety Code §§ 11350.1, 11377.1 (new), §§ 11054, 11150.2, 11350, 11364, 11364.7, 11365, 11377, 11379, 11382, 11550 (amended), § 131065 (new), § 11999 (repealed), Article 7 (commencing with § 11390) of Chapter 6 of Division 10 (repealed). SB 519 (Wiener); In Committee Process. C1-2Table of Contents I. Introduction. 321 II. Legal... |
2022 |
| Alexis S. Hughes |
UNEQUAL JUSTICE: WHY FEDERAL COURTS SHOULD ADOPT THE INDIVIDUALIZED APPROACH TO SENTENCING DEFENDANTS CONVICTED OF DRUG CONSPIRACY |
72 American University Law Review Forum 19 (October, 2022) |
For several decades, the Federal Circuit Courts have been split about how to sentence defendants convicted of drug conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841. While some circuits hold defendants strictly liable for all the drugs dealt by all members of the conspiracy, other circuits take a fundamentally different approach: they hold individuals... |
2022 |
| Mark Osler |
WHAT WE GOT WRONG IN THE WAR ON DRUGS |
17 University of Saint Thomas Law Journal 968 (Spring, 2022) |
On Friday morning of each week for two years, my phone would ring and each time I would hesitate to answer. The caller was a man named Ronald Blount, an inmate at the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. I was his lawyer, working on his petition for clemency. I hesitated to answer, because week after week I had no good news to share. Mr. Blount was... |
2022 |
| Ryan C. Griffith, Esq. |
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR: A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT LEGALIZING MARIJUANA THROUGH AN ARTICLE V CONVENTION OF THE STATES |
16 University of Massachusetts Law Review 275 (Spring, 2021) |
Criminal enforcement of anti-marijuana laws by the United States federal government has been non-sensical for more than twenty years. Culminating, ultimately, in an anomaly within American jurisprudence when California legalized marijuana in 1996 in direct violation of federal law, yet the federal government did little to stop it. Since then, a... |
2021 |
| Sarah Brady Siff, Visiting Assistant Professor, Drug Enforcement & Policy Center, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University |
A HISTORY OF EARLY DRUG SENTENCES IN CALIFORNIA: RACISM, RIGHTISM, REPEAT |
Federal Sentencing Reporter (October 1, 2021) |
For the past hundred years, harsh drug sentences have had extraordinary support from the public. Historically, enthusiasm for drug prohibition often coincides with affinities for summary justice and authoritarian social control. Escalations of drug sentences in California from 1881 to 1961 followed a pattern of collective myth making and value... |
2021 |
| Madison Standon |
APPLYING THE "WAR ON TERROR" TO THE "WAR ON DRUGS:" THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS OF RECATEGORIZING LATIN AMERICAN DRUG CARTELS AS FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS |
22 San Diego International Law Journal 365 (Spring, 2021) |
C1-2Table of Contents I. Introduction. 366 A. A Brief History About the War on Drugs. 368 B. The Current International War on Drugs is Ineffective. 370 C. A Brief History About the War on Terror. 372 II. Applicable Law. 375 A. Domestic Laws. 375 1. Terrorism Laws. 375 a. Statutory Law. 375 b. Case Law. 377 2. Drug Laws. 379 B. International Laws.... |
2021 |
| Maximilian Plail |
BANK ACCESS FOR MARIJUANA COMPANIES (BANNED AT FEDERAL LEVEL EVEN THOUGH MARIJUANA IS INCREASINGLY LEGAL AT U.S. STATE LEVEL) |
4 Wayne State University Journal of Business Law 132 (2021) |
Currently, no field of law is giving rise to as many issues as marijuana legislation, with its conflict between the increasing legalization of marijuana by U.S. states, on the one hand, and the strict prohibition of marijuana-related activities under federal law, on the other. Despite the need for change, there is no comparable study that explores... |
2021 |
| Julie Andersen Hill |
CANNABIS BANKING: WHAT MARIJUANA CAN LEARN FROM HEMP |
101 Boston University Law Review 1043 (May, 2021) |
Marijuana-related businesses have banking problems. Many banks explain that, because marijuana is illegal under federal law, they will not serve the industry. Even when marijuana-related businesses can open bank accounts, they still have trouble accepting credit cards and getting loans. Some hope to fix marijuana's banking problems with changes to... |
2021 |
| Katie Jaggers |
CORRECTING INJUSTICES: EXPUNGING PRIOR MARIJUANA CONVICTIONS IS KENTUCKY'S NEXT BEST STEP TOWARDS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE |
48 Northern Kentucky Law Review 385 (2021) |
Imagine a society that allows one person to openly and legally possess a substance while another person serves a prison sentence after being convicted of the crime of having that same substance. This society exists today in Kentucky, and the unfairness this causes could become even starker going forward. As public opinion towards marijuana use... |
2021 |
| Miki Saito |
DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS NOW: A DIRE SITUATION BECOMES MUCH MORE URGENT |
20 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 357 (Fall, 2021) |
The COVID-19 pandemic has unquestionably impacted many communities. It has revealed inadequacies in social protection systems that purport to support vulnerable individuals, such as those experiencing homelessness and poverty, those living with disabilities, and those experiencing drug addiction. Although drug overdose deaths decreased from 2017 to... |
2021 |
| Leslie E. Scott |
DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION, ADDICTION, AND MASS INCARCERATION: A THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT FRAMEWORK FOR ENDING THE "WAR ON DRUGS" |
48 Northern Kentucky Law Review 267 (2021) |
The United States is home to less than five percent of the world's population, but nearly a quarter of its incarcerated population, with more than 2.1 million people incarcerated in state and federal prisons and local jails in 2019, a number that dropped to 1.8 million by mid-2020 due largely to the Covid-19 pandemic and pressure from advocates to... |
2021 |
| Alexander Clementi |
HIGH TIME FOR A CHANGE: HOW THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIGNATORY COUNTRIES AND THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTIONS GOVERNING NARCOTIC DRUGS MUST ADAPT TO FOSTER A GLOBAL SHIFT IN CANNABIS LAW |
46 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 603 (2021) |
Twenty-six-year-old DeMarcus Sanders of Waterloo, Iowa was pulled over by a police officer for playing his radio too loudly. What should have been a routine traffic stop turned into a life-altering arrest when the police officer searched Sanders' car and found marijuana. After pleading guilty, Sanders was sentenced to thirty days in jail, during... |
2021 |
| Alexandra J. Messmore |
INCARCERATION RATES AND THE EVOLUTION OF ANTI-DRUG POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES: IS INCARCERATION THE ANSWER? |
44 American Journal of Trial Advocacy 457 (Spring, 2021) |
The United States leads the world in many things, including incarceration rates. Combining the number of persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons, 419 out of every 100,000 United States residents were incarcerated at the end of 2019. How did the United States, a country that prides itself on freedom, become the world's incarceration... |
2021 |
| Alessandra Dumenigo |
LET'S MAKE SOME "SCENTS" OF OUR FOURTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS: THE DISCRIMINATORY TRUTHS BEHIND USING THE MERE SMELL OF BURNT MARIJUANA AS PROBABLE CAUSE TO SEARCH A VEHICLE |
33 Saint Thomas Law Review 283 (Spring, 2021) |
On March 13, 2018, Jason Serrano, who was recovering from abdominal surgery at the time, was riding in the passenger seat of his friend's car when they were pulled over by New York Police Department Officer Kyle Erickson for a broken taillight. Officer Erickson approached the car and claimed that he smelled marijuana emanating from the vehicle.... |
2021 |
| Benjamin M. Leff |
MARIJUANA TAXATION: THEORY AND PRACTICE |
101 Boston University Law Review 915 (May, 2021) |
Marijuana legalization creates a host of complex legal problems, not the least of which is how to best tax the emerging legal market. This Essay attempts to bridge the gap between tax theory and marijuana policy to make some modest claims. First, it roots the discussion of state-level marijuana taxation in the theoretical distinction between... |
2021 |
| Elizabeth Cecilia DeVivo |
NOT SO DOPE: MARIJUANA LAWS SHOULD INCLUDE "CONDUCT SPECIFIC" LANGUAGE TO PREVENT UNJUSTIFIED CHILD NEGLECT PETITIONS AGAINST POT-SMOKING PARENTS |
59 Family Court Review 371 (April, 2021) |
The substance of marijuana is becoming legal in an increasing number of states. With the rise in legallity of marijuana comes a question of how will child protective agencies treat marijuana use by a parent or guardian. Family courts have continued to use the actual harm standard to determine child abuse and neglect. In addition to that standard,... |
2021 |
| Anni Bangiev |
OPIUM'S LONG SHADOW: FROM ASIAN REVOLT TO GLOBAL DRUG CONTROL. BY STEFFEN RIMMER. CAMBRIDGE, MA: HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2018. PP X, 373. $39.95 (HARDCOVER) |
53 New York University Journal of International Law & Politics 708 (Winter, 2021) |
Steffen Rimmer's Opium's Long Shadow: From Asian Revolt to Global Drug Control recounts nearly a century's worth of political, legal, and moral battles waged over opium trafficking that culminated in the global drug control mechanism of the League of Nations in 1920. Opium's Long Shadow shows how public opinion can cross borders and oceans to... |
2021 |
| Benjamin L. Chanenson, Intern, Drug Enforcement Policy Center, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law |
OVERVIEW OF STATE SENTENCING COMMISSIONS' DRUG DATA REPORTING PRACTICES |
Federal Sentencing Reporter (April 1, 2021) |
Data are essential for good sentencing policy. It is impossible to act intelligently without knowing what is happening on the ground. This is especially true with drug offenses, which drive a significant portion of prosecutions and sentences every year. Accessible, high-quality drug-conviction and sentencing data enable sentencing commissions and... |
2021 |
| Colleen M. Berryessa, Assistant Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University |
PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR USING "SECOND CHANCE" MECHANISMS TO RECONSIDER LONG-TERM PRISON SENTENCES FOR DRUG CRIMES |
Federal Sentencing Reporter (October 1, 2021) |
For over fifty years, the growth in the U.S. prison population has been fueled by increasing sentence lengths for drug crimes, leading to an era of hyperincarceration of offenders sentenced under get-tough drug-control strategies. Yet, in recent years, policy and public sentiment have changed toward drug-related crimes, and growing critiques of... |
2021 |
| Emily V. Shaw , Mona Lynch , Sofia Laguna , Steven J. Frenda |
RACE, WITNESS CREDIBILITY, AND JURY DELIBERATION IN A SIMULATED DRUG TRAFFICKING TRIAL |
45 Law and Human Behavior 215 (June, 2021) |
Objective: The present study integrates several distinct lines of jury decision-making research by examining how the racial identities of the defendant and an informant witness interact in a federal drug conspiracy trial scenario and by assessing whether jurors' individual racial identity and jury group racial composition influence their judgments.... |
2021 |
| Jelani Jefferson Exum |
RECONSTRUCTION SENTENCING: REIMAGINING DRUG SENTENCING IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE WAR ON DRUGS |
58 American Criminal Law Review 1685 (Fall, 2021) |
L1-2Introduction . L31685 I. The Need for Reconstruction: Then and Now. 1687 II. Understanding the War on Drugs: The Weapons, The Tactics, and the Casualties. 1691 III. Why Interpretation Matters: A Lesson from the Thirteenth Amendment. 1698 A. The Thirteenth Amendment: Original Interpretation. 1698 B. Reinterpreting the Thirteenth Amendment: An... |
2021 |
| Olivia Mirich |
STRIKING MARIJUANA RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS IS SWEETER WITH TENNESSEE WINE |
49 Capital University Law Review 619 (Fall, 2021) |
Once President Richard Nixon took office as the 37th President of the United States of America, he declared a War on Drugs in the country. This War is just one of the many campaigns used by the federal government in the past century that has encompassed the prohibition of nonmedical use of certain mind-altering substances for the past century.... |
2021 |
| Samuel D. Hodge, Jr. , Lauren Williams |
THE DOPE ON MARIJUANA CONSUMPTION AND IMPAIRED DRIVING |
70 Cleveland State Law Review 47 (2021) |
Marijuana is the most frequently used psychotropic drug in the United States, following alcohol consumption. Its use is becoming socially acceptable as more and more states legalize recreational consumption. Nevertheless, marijuana is still a drug, and individuals must understand that it has adverse health effects and potential therapeutic... |
2021 |
| Michael Vitiello |
THE END OF THE WAR ON DRUGS, THE PEACE DIVIDEND AND THE RENEWED FOURTH AMENDMENT? |
73 Oklahoma Law Review 285 (Winter, 2021) |
The War on Drugs profoundly eroded the Fourth Amendment. D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry T. Edwards summed it up in the midst of the War when he expressed his growing concern about the degree to which individual rights and liberties appear to be falling victim to the Government's War on Drugs. Scholars have identified many areas where... |
2021 |
| Michelle A. Kain |
THE IMPACT OF MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION ON LEGAL PERMANENT RESIDENTS: WHY LEGALIZING MARIJUANA AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL SHOULD BE A HIGH PRIORITY |
62 Boston College Law Review 2057 (June, 2021) |
Although the federal government has remained firmly committed to prohibiting marijuana, many states have legalized the drug for either medical or recreational use. Others have merely decriminalized it, lowering the penalties associated with its use such that defendants charged with marijuana-related offenses are less likely to face... |
2021 |
| Michael Vitiello |
THE WAR ON DRUGS: MORAL PANIC AND EXCESSIVE SENTENCES |
69 Cleveland State Law Review 441 (2021) |
The United States' War on Drugs has not been pretty. Moral panic has repeatedly driven policy when states and the federal government have regulated drugs. Responding to that panic, legislators have authorized severe sentences for drug offenses. By design, Article III gives federal judges independence, in part, to protect fundamental rights against... |
2021 |
| Dawn Fritz |
TIMBS v. INDIANA: CIVIL FORFEITURE, RACISM, AND THE WAR ON DRUGS |
98 Denver Law Review Forum 1 (May 14, 2021) |
Law enforcement seized more than $2.5 billion in cash through a federal civil forfeiture program between September 2001 and September 2014. In some states, the government can seize your car over a single marijuana joint. In 2009, a man killed himself trying to avoid the civil forfeiture of his 40 acre farm. He grew and used marijuana for chronic... |
2021 |
| Micah L. Berman |
TOBACCO LITIGATION, E-CIGARETTES, AND THE CIGARETTE ENDGAME |
13 Northeastern University Law Review 219 (Winter, 2021) |
C1-2Table of Contents Introduction 221 I. Tobacco Litigation, E-Cigarettes, and the Tobacco Industry's Rhetorical Shift 226 A. Tobacco Litigation 226 B. E-Cigarettes 229 C. The Tobacco Industry's New Rhetoric 234 II. Tobacco Industry E-Cigarette Research 239 A. BAT's Project Ariel 240 B. Philip Morris's Capillary Aerosol Generator 241 C. R.J.... |
2021 |
| Dr. Daniel G. Aaron |
TOBACCO REBORN: THE RISE OF E-CIGARETTES AND REGULATORY APPROACHES |
25 Lewis & Clark Law Review 827 (2021) |
This Article examines e-cigarettes, FDA-regulated products which heat nicotine-containing fluid into an aerosol to be breathed into the lungs. Recent data show that e-cigarettes are used by about one-fifth of U.S. high school students. Given that we have, in the Surgeon General's words, reached an epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, it is worth... |
2021 |
| Teneille R. Brown |
TREATING ADDICTION IN THE CLINIC, NOT THE COURTROOM: USING NEUROSCIENCE AND GENETICS TO ABANDON THE FAILED WAR ON DRUGS |
54 Indiana Law Review 29 (2021) |
The opioid addiction epidemic has been one of the most overwhelming public health crises our country has faced. It has also created a legal crisis, as its aftermath spills over into the criminal, civil, and family courts. One estimate puts its cost to the U.S. economy at over $500 billion in 2015. More than a hundred people die every day from an... |
2021 |
| Adeel Bashir , Donna Lee Elm , Federal Public Defender Office, Tampa, Florida, 813-228-2715, Email Adeel_Bashir@fd.org, Cottonwood, Arizona, 602-299-7022, Email donnaelm1014@gmail.com |
TWO STEPS BACKWARD, FIRST STEP FORWARD: EVOLUTION OF FEDERAL DRUG SENTENCING TO COMPASSIONATE RELEASE |
45-FEB Champion 30 (January/February, 2021) |
To paraphrase a famous saying, the arc of the criminal code is long, but it bends toward justice. For some, the road to justice is straight, taking advantage of Congress's major reforms to undo harsh and outdated laws. For others, justice requires traveling on a twisting road and wading through incremental changes to the criminal code as society... |
2021 |
| Kevin J. Fandl |
UP IN SMOKE: INTERNATIONAL TREATY OBLIGATIONS AND MARIJUANA REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES |
58 American Business Law Journal 163 (Spring, 2021) |
As the number of U.S. states that seek to loosen restrictions on marijuana rapidly increases, a heated debate over state and federal regulation has ignited. But an important component of that debate has been largely absent--are these state efforts placing the United States in violation of its international treaty obligations? This article attempts... |
2021 |
| J. Matthew Gorga |
"RETRIBUTION, NOT A SOLUTION": DRUG-INDUCED HOMICIDE IN NORTH CAROLINA |
42 Campbell Law Review 161 (Winter, 2020) |
Two men--we'll call them John and Will--share an apartment. Unfortunately, both men are addicted to heroin. The men are struggling to get by. Neither one of them would consider themselves drug dealers, but both have made minor sales here and there to help support their drug habit, and both have had their share of run-ins with the law. One... |
2020 |
| Lucius T. Outlaw III |
AN HONEST DRUG OFFENDER SENTENCING LETTER |
17 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 481 (Spring, 2020) |
To the Honorable United States District Court Judge of District Anywhere USA: Both of us are very familiar with this point in a case. My client has pled guilty to a drug trafficking crime. You have accepted the plea. The presentence report is done and in your hands. The mathematics of the sentencing guidelines is complete. The prosecutor has... |
2020 |
| Walter I. Gonçalves, Jr. |
BANISHED AND OVERCRIMINALIZED: CRITICAL RACE PERSPECTIVES OF ILLEGAL ENTRY AND DRUG COURIER PROSECUTIONS |
10 Columbia Journal of Race and Law 1 (2020) |
Scholarship on illegal entry and drug courier prosecutions fails to apply Critical Race Theory (CRT). Disregard of how these prosecutions contribute to racial stratification in and outside American prisons or how drug couriers experience intersectionality ignores sociological and cultural processes. Criminal justice professionals have racialized... |
2020 |
| William Garriott |
CHANGE IS IN THE AIR: THE SMELL OF MARIJUANA, AFTER LEGALIZATION |
45 Law and Social Inquiry 995 (November, 2020) |
Marijuana continues to be legalized throughout the world. In the United States, a unique approach to legalization is taking hold that focuses on the creation of commercial marijuana markets. This article examines the everyday realities of this approach to legalization through a focus on one of marijuana's most legally significant attributes: its... |
2020 |
| Ryan Golden |
DAZED & CONFUSED: THE STATE OF ENFORCEMENT OF MARIJUANA OFFENSES AFTER THE TEXAS HEMP FARMING ACT |
72 Baylor Law Review 737 (Fall, 2020) |
In June 2019, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas Hemp Farming Act into law, effective immediately. The Act amends the definition of hemp to include any parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L. that contain no more than a 0.3% concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that produces a high.... |
2020 |
| Jeremy Ritter-Wiseman |
DEPARTING FROM THE ORIGINAL GOALS OF THE U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES: DRUG SENTENCING DISPARITIES IN THE U.S. DISTRICT OF MARYLAND |
20 University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class 136 (Spring, 2020) |
In Fiscal Year 2018, the single most prosecuted type of federal crime in the United States District of Maryland was drug trafficking. Drug trafficking, accounting for 32.3% of all federally prosecuted crimes in the District of Maryland, was more than double the amount of the second most prosecuted type of crime, Firearms, which accounted for only... |
2020 |
| Emilie Kurth |
DRUG CONSPIRACY SENTENCING AND SOCIAL INJUSTICE |
91 University of Colorado Law Review 1215 (Fall, 2020) |
The D.C. Circuit in United States v. Stoddard confronted a landmine of criminal and socioeconomic justice issues when it held that mandatory minimum sentences for drug conspiracy offenses should be imposed based on the amount of drugs attributable to the individual defendant (the individualized approach) as opposed to the amount of drugs... |
2020 |
| Douglas B. Marlowe, Timothy Ho, Shannon M. Carey, Carly D. Chadick, National Association of Drug Court Professionals, Alexandria, Virginia, NPC Research, Portland, Oregon, Federal Correctional Institution, Jesup, Georgia |
EMPLOYING STANDARDIZED RISK ASSESSMENT IN PRETRIAL RELEASE DECISIONS: ASSOCIATION WITH CRIMINAL JUSTICE OUTCOMES AND RACIAL EQUITY |
44 Law and Human Behavior 361 (October, 2020) |
Objective: We examined efforts by a Mississippi court to base pretrial release decisions on risk assessment rather than primarily on bond. Hypotheses: (a) Pretrial detention will be shorter than that associated with prevailing bond practices in the same counties. (b) Rearrest rates will be lower than a similar pretrial population in a nearby... |
2020 |
| Douglas A. Berman , Alex Kreit |
ENSURING MARIJUANA REFORM IS EFFECTIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM |
52 Arizona State Law Journal 741 (Fall, 2020) |
In less than a decade, marijuana legalization has gone from unthinkable to seemingly unstoppable. The idea was viewed as so far outside the mainstream in 2009 that President Barack Obama's first drug czar Gil Kerlikowske dismissively told a reporter that [l]egalization [was] not in the President's vocabulary. When California voters rejected the... |
2020 |
| Leslie E. Scott |
FEDERAL PROSECUTORIAL OVERREACH IN THE AGE OF OPIOIDS: THE STATUTORY AND CONSTITUTIONAL CASE AGAINST DUPLICITOUS DRUG INDICTMENTS |
51 University of Toledo Law Review 491 (Spring, 2020) |
THE first time I met Donald Hennings was in December of 2016 in the Marshal's Lockup on the fourth floor of the federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York. I was an Assistant Federal Public Defender (AFPD) and had served in that role since 2012. Prior to 2016, I had not had any cases involving fentanyl; in early 2016, however, fentanyl distribution,... |
2020 |