by Kent Scheidegger · Jun 23, 2023 3:39 pm
Until recently, I would not have expected to ever see “drug crackdown” and “San Francisco” in the same headline again in my lifetime. Josh Koehn has this article with the above headline in the San Francisco Standard. Continue reading . . .
by Michael Rushford · Jan 31, 2023 1:55 pm
A New York City drug dealer who distributed fentanyl-laced cocaine out of his mother’s Manhattan apartment has been convicted of the 2021 poisoning deaths of three people. Aaron Katersky of CBS News reports that Billy Ortega faces 25 years-to -life in federal prison for selling the laced cocaine to stockbroker Ross Mitangi, lawyer Amanda Scher and social worker Julia Ghahramari on the same day in March of 2021. All three died of fentanyl poisoning. Federal prosecutors proved that Ortega knew that the drugs he was selling were causing overdoses. He even gave some of the cocaine to another dealer and suggested he test it’s potency telling him, “give it some girls and you let me know…” In 2021 18,000 American fatally overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine. Fortunately federal law provides a stiff mandatory minimum sentence for this type of crime.
by Elizabeth Berger · Jul 26, 2022 12:31 pm
After declining for over two decades, homicides in the United States increased sharply in 2015 and 2016. This slowed a little bit in the years that followed, until another dramatic increase in homicides occurred in 2020. In fact, the 30% increase from 2019-2020 is the largest ever recorded. By 2021, homicides rose another 5%. This uptick was not as striking as the one seen in 2020, though the numbers were still higher than pre-2019. And while cities tend to have higher violent crime rates overall, newer research suggests that cities are now safer than they have been in decades, while small communities are becoming more dangerous. Specifically, the massive increase in homicides in rural areas is astonishing. From 2019-2020, homicides in rural areas rose by an average of 25 percent. Per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the states with the highest homicide rates in 2020 were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas.
by Elizabeth Berger · May 23, 2022 12:17 pm
On May 17, 2022, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) published new findings on eight-year recidivism rates of 25,142 federal offenders after their participation in Bureau of Prisons (BOP) treatment programs. The report is part of a larger multi-year recidivism study of more than 32,000 federal offenders released in 2010. The programs reduced overall recidivism for people who completed programs relative to eligible non-participants. Despite this, drug-related recidivism was still higher among program completers. The latter finding is perplexing considering that one major goal of the treatment programs was to reduce substance use.
by Bill Otis · Apr 22, 2022 6:17 am
Many readers will have noticed that, practically everywhere you go, you see “Help Wanted” signs. I’m in my seventies, and at no point have I seen as many as I see now. What’s behind this?
One big answer is tanking labor force participation: More and more people of working age are simply opting not to get a job. This is a curious phenomenon. Although my family was well off, when I reached working age, not getting a job was never even considered an option. The economic analysts at Axios, which has a generally liberal bent, provide one answer about what’s different now. I quote part of its newsletter below.
by Steven Erickson · Apr 21, 2022 3:54 pm
As more jurisdictions legalize cannabis for medicinal and recreational use, it is worth considering how the ineludible uptick in its use might affect society. For most users, this effect has no bearing on criminal justice issues. But cannabis might have a plausible role in the commission of sex offenses, given its unique effects on sexual drive and practices. My colleague Michelle Vorwerk and I examine the topic (subscription required) in a forthcoming article in Behavioral Sciences and the Law.
by Steven Erickson · Dec 8, 2021 5:34 am
Mental states are imperative for ascribing blame for most crimes. We care whether someone does something purposefully, knowingly or recklessly. Selling heroin is risky and unlawful behavior. It is, of course, risky because you may get caught and go to prison. But it is fraught with risk to those who buy the drugs. People sometime die from the poison being sold to them.
But what if you are told by others that the heroin you are selling is unusually strong? Suppose further, those drugs eventually cause the death of another person? Is that sufficient evidence of recklessness for a manslaughter conviction?
Apparently not in New York, according to the Court of Appeals in People v. Gaworecki. New York uses the familiar Model Penal Code definition of recklessness, which requires evidence that a person consciously disregards a substantial and unjustified risk. Even though the defendant in Gaworecki was told by another that the heroin he sold was exceptionally potent, the Court finds the fact that “[t]he People presented no evidence that defendant had been told that other people had overdosed or died after using the heroin he had sold them” (slip op. p. 8) as persuasive that that the evidence was insufficient for conviction.
by Steven Erickson · Nov 22, 2021 11:27 am
I meant to blog about this a few months ago, but time got away from me. There is an established link between mental disorders and crime. Of course, most people who have mental disorders do not commit crime, but the link is well established. For many years, there has been mounting evidence that cannabis use, particularly during adolescence, increases the risk of developing schizophrenia. There is an ongoing debate about whether this is a causal or correlational relationship.
Back in July, JAMA Psychiatry published a population-based study from Denmark. One of the great benefits of the Nordic countries is the ability to conduct population studies due to their public health system structure. The study, Development Over Time of the Population-Attributable Risk Fraction for Cannabis Use Disorder in Schizophrenia in Denmark, shows that as the prevalence of Cannabis Use Disorder increased, so too did schizophrenia. As the authors conclude, the results from these longitudinal analyses show the proportion of cases of schizophrenia associated with cannabis use disorder has increased 3- to 4-fold during the past 2 decades.
Another recent study revealed a rise in congenital anomalies among newborns has been observed in Colorado and Washington since 2013, the first states to legalize adult recreational use. We are in uncharted territory when it comes to cannabis, regardless of one’s opinion about its legal status.
by Kent Scheidegger · Aug 12, 2021 3:49 pm
Did California’s marijuana legalization initiative (Prop. 64 of 2016) legalize possession in state prison? No, said the California Supreme Court today in People v. Raybon, S256978, although the path to that conclusion was more bumpy than one might have thought. Continue reading . . .
by Bill Otis · Jun 22, 2021 11:45 am
Assuming that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse can break away from his all-white country club, the Senate Judiciary Committee should have full attendance today for its hearing about crack cocaine sentencing. As the Washington Post informs us, today’s hearing will center on the Biden Administration’s proposal to lower the cost of doing business for crack dealers by reducing their sentences and, as an extra bonus, making the reductions retroactive. This will assure earlier release for this particular cohort of drug traffickers, a large percentage of whom will recidivate within five years, according to Sentencing Commission figures. (The number is actually higher than Commission reports, first because yet more dealers recidivate after the five year window, and second because drug trafficking is a notoriously under-reported crime in any event).
Crack sentencing has been a hot topic for years, going back at least to the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, co-sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin and a man I’m proud to call a friend, then-Senator and later Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Back then, that self-same Washington Post had some sound observations on crack sentencing, observations Congress would do well to heed today.
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