With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?

[FUCK THE POLICE]

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/1/26/193010/987

New Federal Drug Laws, New Sentencing Guidelines
By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Mon Jan 26, 2009 at 06:30:10 PM EST
Tags: sentencing guidelines (all tags)
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For those who hoped for a stop to the escalation of the war on drugs, this isn't your year. During 2008, Congress snuck a few new laws in, and today the Sentencing Commission released its proposed guideline amendments for 2009 (pdf), adding the new offenses and increased penalties. They will appear in tomorrow's federal register and there are 60 days to provide comments.

What's new?

* Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008. (starts at page 25)
* Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008 (starts at page 30)

The first prohibits controlled substance sales and advertising over the internet. The second prohibits drug sales on submarines (ok submersible vessels, and the difference is explained here.)

The Act amends the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. § 801 et seq.) to create two new offenses involving controlled substances. The first is 21 U.S.C. § 841(h) (Offenses Involving Dispensing of Controlled Substances by Means of the Internet), which prohibits the delivery, distribution, or dispensing of controlled substances over the Internet without a valid prescription.

The applicable statutory maximum term of imprisonment is determined based upon the controlled substance being distributed. The second new offense is 21 U.S.C. § 843©(2)(A) (Prohibiting the Use of the Internet to Advertise for Sale a Controlled Substance), which prohibits the use of the Internet to advertise for sale a controlled substance. This offense has a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of four years.

In addition to the new offenses, the Act increased the statutory maximum terms of imprisonment for all Schedule III controlled substance offenses (from 5 years to 10 years), for all Schedule IV controlled substance offenses (from 3 years to 5 years), and for Schedule V controlled substance offenses if the offense is committed after a prior drug conviction (from 2 years to 5 years).

The Act added a sentencing enhancement for Schedule III controlled substance offenses where
“death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance.”

Among the questions the Commission seeks input on: What about hydrocodone?

The Commission requests comment regarding whether offenses involving hydrocodone substances are adequately addressed by the guidelines. Currently, the guidelines do not distinguish between hydrocodone substances and other Schedule III substances (except Ketamine).

The Act increased the statutory maximum term of imprisonment for all Schedule III offenses, including hydrocodone offenses, from 5 years to 10 years. Should hydrocodone be treated differently than other Schedule III substances and, if so, how? If the Commission should revise the guidelines as they relate to hydrocodone, what justifies doing so?

On to the Yellow Submarines:

Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110–407 (the “Act”). The Act creates a new offense at 18 U.S.C. § 2285 (Operation of Submersible Vessel or Semi-Submersible Vessel Without Nationality), which provides:

“Whoever knowingly operates, or attempts or conspires to operate, by any means, or embarks in any submersible vessel or semi-submersible vessel that is without nationality and that is navigating or has navigated into, through, or from waters beyond the outer limit of the territorial sea of a single country or a lateral limit of that country's territorial sea with an adjacent country, with the intent to evade detection, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.”

Section 103 of the Act also directs the Commission to promulgate or amend the guidelines to provide for increased penalties for persons convicted of offenses under 18 U.S.C. § 2285.

Among the offenses: Drugs. For example, the guideline for drug offenses will become:

If the defendant unlawfully imported or exported a controlled substance under circumstances in which (A) an aircraft other than a regularly scheduled commercial air carrier was used to import or export the controlled substance, or (B) a submersible vessel or semi-submersible vessel as described in 18 U.S.C. § 2285 was used, or (C) the defendant acted as a pilot, copilot,captain, navigator, flight officer, or any other operation officer aboard any craft or vessel carrying a controlled substance, increase by 2 levels. If the resulting offense level is less than level 26, increase to level 26.

There's probably more, I've only skimmed the proposed new guidelines so far. Bottom line: You really have to watch these Congress critters. What they enact often flies under the radar. "We all live in a yellow submarine."

 

[SmarterthanYou]

it's all about making as many 'citizens' in to criminals as possible. Ever read ayn rand?

 

[Epicurus]

Jesus Christ allmighty get me out of here.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

it's all about making as many 'citizens' in to criminals as possible. Ever read ayn rand?

Actually yes. I read the fountainhead, not shrugged.

 

[blackascoal]

If anyone thinks Obama is going to bring an sanity to this insanity, think again. Eric "Mr. Felony" Holder is out to get dangerous marijuana smokers .. and lock 'em up .. and make them slave/prisoners .. making uniforms for the military and parts and things for Microsoft, Dell, GE, Victorias Secret, and many other companies and major US corporations. Theymight be laying off workers outside of their prison operations, but not inside them where they pay the workers 25 cents and hour.

America: The Greatest Prison Nation in Human History.

The Land of the Free.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

If anyone thinks Obama is going to bring an sanity to this insanity, think again. Eric "Mr. Felony" Holder is out to get dangerous marijuana smokers .. and lock 'em up .. and make them slave/prisoners .. making uniforms for the military and parts and things for Microsoft, Dell, GE, Victorias Secret, and many other companies and major US corporations. Theymight be laying off workers outside of their prison operations, but not inside them where they pay the workers 25 cents and hour.

America: The Greatest Prison Nation in Human History.

The Land of the Free.

we ceased being anything more than production commodities long ago. if you aren't producing for their economy, you will be a prison slave.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

If anyone thinks Obama is going to bring an sanity to this insanity, think again. Eric "Mr. Felony" Holder is out to get dangerous marijuana smokers .. and lock 'em up .. and make them slave/prisoners .. making uniforms for the military and parts and things for Microsoft, Dell, GE, Victorias Secret, and many other companies and major US corporations. Theymight be laying off workers outside of their prison operations, but not inside them where they pay the workers 25 cents and hour.

America: The Greatest Prison Nation in Human History.

The Land of the Free.

i would think the ussr has a beat on the prison thing, but america does have a messed up prison system

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

Jesus Christ allmighty get me out of here.

lol well at least you voted for historic change epic.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

I never thought Obama would bring change. Mine and epic's Obama votes were completely cynical. We thought while the Democrats wouldn't end the drug war, at least they wouldn't make it worse, and we are being proven entirely wrong.

 

[blackascoal]

i would think the ussr has a beat on the prison thing, but america does have a messed up prison system

We DWARF all other nations in prisoners by population and percentage, including Russia, North Korea, China, and all other totalitarian nations we look down our noses at.

Inmate Count in the US Dwarfs Other Nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

-- more at link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html

America's prison/industrial complex is a business, on Wall Street, lobbies Congress .. a win/win boon for profiteers.

How much does it cost to be the Greatest Prison Nation in Human History?

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

I never thought Obama would bring change. Mine and epic's Obama votes were completely cynical. We thought while the Democrats wouldn't end the drug war, at least they wouldn't make it worse, and we are being proven entirely wrong.

nope I'm pretty sure I remember epic talking about how the drug war was his number one issue and how obama was going to fix that shit up.

 

[KingCondanomation]

I've said all along that when it comes to the drug war, the only thing the left looks like it really wants to do is expand that to tobacco.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

We DWARF all other nations in prisoners by population and percentage, including Russia, North Korea, China, and all other totalitarian nations we look down our noses at.

Inmate Count in the US Dwarfs Other Nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

-- more at link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html

America's prison/industrial complex is a business, on Wall Street, lobbies Congress .. a win/win boon for profiteers.

How much does it cost to be the Greatest Prison Nation in Human History?

numbers really do not equate with being the greatest prison nation...i would think cruetly and conditions would also apply. further, our laws are more lax than china and russia. the punishment for crime over there is more harsh and that, i believe, keeps more people on the "right" side of the law.

 

[Damocles]

We DWARF all other nations in prisoners by population and percentage, including Russia, North Korea, China, and all other totalitarian nations we look down our noses at.

Inmate Count in the US Dwarfs Other Nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

-- more at link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html

America's prison/industrial complex is a business, on Wall Street, lobbies Congress .. a win/win boon for profiteers.

How much does it cost to be the Greatest Prison Nation in Human History?

It's the plan for the "new economy". We'll fully be invested in a "service economy" when we have half the population in prison making "green technology" while the other half watch them and are the only half that gets paid.

It's a return to the "Southern Strategy"...

(Yeah, I know I'm cynical.)

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

We DWARF all other nations in prisoners by population and percentage, including Russia, North Korea, China, and all other totalitarian nations we look down our noses at.

Inmate Count in the US Dwarfs Other Nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

-- more at link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html

America's prison/industrial complex is a business, on Wall Street, lobbies Congress .. a win/win boon for profiteers.

How much does it cost to be the Greatest Prison Nation in Human History?

I'm pretty sure the USSR had a lot of prisoners, but I don't think anyone in history has every exceeded our current count.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

numbers really do not equate with being the greatest prison nation...i would think cruetly and conditions would also apply. further, our laws are more lax than china and russia. the punishment for crime over there is more harsh and that, i believe, keeps more people on the "right" side of the law.

That's untrue. Russia has a far higher crime rate than America. Their punishments are less severe. America has by far the longest sentences for crimes in the world.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

That's untrue. Russia has a far higher crime rate than America. Their punishments are less severe. America has by far the longest sentences for crimes in the world.

russia does have an overall higher crime rate than america. DC has a higher murder rate than any russian city.

what i have read is that punishments are severe there. do you have link that states otherwise?

longest doesn't necesarily mean more severe...

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

i meant, russia has a higher murder rate than the us

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

russia does have an overall higher crime rate than america. DC has a higher murder rate than any russian city.

what i have read is that punishments are severe there. do you have link that states otherwise?

longest doesn't necesarily mean more severe...

Mississippi has a higher murder rate than any city in Europe.

Yes, I'm sure that some backwater third world nation has more severe corporal punishments than the US, but they generally have high crime rates anyway because they never put any money into catching criminals. Of developed countries, the US has sentences several times more harsh than the next country on the list.

 

[Epicurus]

nope I'm pretty sure I remember epic talking about how the drug war was his number one issue and how obama was going to fix that shit up.

What I said was that it was my number one issue and that I thought Obama would do a better job on it than McCain. I may or may not be right on that, but we'll never know.

I admit that I had hoped that Obama possessed what blackascoal calls "black conscious" regarding the Drug War. His wife is from the Southside of Chicago and she has seen first hand the devastation that the War has wreaked on that community. Black people in general are the primary victims of the Drug War. There are many more white users than black, but blacks are disproportionately targeted.

I guess I just hoped that Obama might, conceivably, care about the gradual imprisonment of his entire race but apparently not.