Last week, I got a heartbreaking call from a woman in Long Island whose sister had died on January 10. She'd been a longtime cocaine user and was hospitalized just before Thanksgiving with an immune-system freakout that the doctors said had been caused by exposure to levamisole.

"It looked like something out of a science-fiction movie," Christine told me. "She'd broken out all over—under her breast, on her stomach, and all over her legs." (A scary-looking photo Christine sent me of her sister in the hospital is below the jump.)

The doctors warned her to stop using cocaine—but she used again, broke out again, and wound up in the hospital again. Then, in early January, she died. Christine talked to her sister the night before she died. "She was having a hard time breathing, she was hoarse."

Christine googled "levamisole" and "cocaine," found my articles about it, and called because she wanted me to get the word out that this shit is still around and still deadly.

Condolences to all.

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Remember the story mentioned in Last Days last month about the woman caught mixing meth in a Tulsa Walmart because she couldn't afford to buy the chemicals?

Turns out that the recipe she was using—aka the "shake and bake" or "one pot" method—is causing more havoc in America's hospitals than the older ways of making meth.

Associated Press:

ST. LOUIS — A crude new method of making methamphetamine poses a risk even to Americans who never get anywhere near the drug: It is filling hospitals with thousands of uninsured burn patients requiring millions of dollars in advanced treatment — a burden so costly that it’s contributing to the closure of some burn units.

So-called shake-and-bake meth is produced by combining raw, unstable ingredients in a 2-liter soda bottle. But if the person mixing the noxious brew makes the slightest error, such as removing the cap too soon or accidentally perforating the plastic, the concoction can explode, searing flesh and causing permanent disfigurement, blindness or even death.

She wasn't just making meth in that Walmart—she was making a potential firebomb.

Look at this monster of a motor vehicle. Impressive.

Here's the story behind the "rhino trucks," the first of which was found after a skirmish between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel (who first employed the Zetas as a paramilitary wing before the Zetas realized they could out-gun and out-mayhem their bosses):

Built on three-axle truck beds, they had room for 20 armed men, one official said. They were covered with inch-thick steel, which could withstand 50-caliber fire, and each had been equipped with insulation.

Sanho Tree, a drug policy expert at the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based research group, said the vehicles reminded him of the Monitor and the Merrimack, two American warships that fought the first naval battle between ironclad ships during the Civil War.

“This is first-generation technology, like the Monitor and Merrimack,” he said. And because the drug business is so Darwinian, he added, with submarines replacing smuggling boats, and light, quiet aircraft replacing heavy, loud ones, the trucks will quite likely mutate to include “shielding for tires, their Achilles’ heel, blast pads in the flooring, up-armoring, et cetera.”

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

L.A. Times:

According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control, 37,792 people died from overdoses and other drug-related causes in 2010. By comparison, 35,080 deaths were attributed to car accidents, 31,513 to guns and 25,440 to alcohol.

The drugs are killing people, yes, but their prohibition—and the concomitant black market and ignorance—is more dangerous than the drugs themselves. And even though the early data suggests that (technically legal) prescription drugs are the major culprit, it doesn't absolve the way the black market tilts towards death. For the most part, those prescription-drug overdoses aren't folks taking their doctor-recommended pills while recovering from root canals. They're people who are eating/snorting/shooting pills and don't know what they're doing.

The data will never be able to show it conclusively, but I'd put strong money on many of those prescription-pill overdoses coming from junkies trying to wean themselves off stronger opiates like smack and fentanyl. (And, of course, suicides and ignorant kids fooling around.)

In sum, prohibition-only policy is like abstinence-only education. By taking rational discussion and education off the table, it invites doom.

Well, duh. People smoke pot to get high. Once a pot smoker is high, he's done smoking pot and it's time to download something on Netflix and open a bag chips. People smoke cigarettes to pass the time, to obtain a fleeting buzz, and—most importantly—to slake their desperate and pathetic addiction to nicotine. They're never done.

And what comes to Trent's mind? "Lard-slathering," "gimp-ball activities," and "leather onesie."

Just listen to the most paranoid Christmas carol over and over: "The Carol of the Bells." Aaaaaaaaaah!

While staring at blue presents.

...would we have called the cops?

[P]olice were called to Capitol Hill's Insomniax Coffee Tuesday afternoon after an employee reported finding a briefcase full of marijuana left behind at the 15th Ave E cafe... No word yet on how the reported drugs ended up in the coffee shop on the Group Health Capitol Hill campus.

This photograph shows Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and his only son on a family trip. It's a typical tourist snapshot, taken before Escobar begins his reign of terror over Colombia. This is when he's still just a big-time drug dealer, the controller of most of the world's cocaine—but not yet the man behind the assassinations of leaders and the cowing of an entire country. He looks pretty much just like any other parent with his kid in tow at the gates of the White House.

I knew very little about Pablo Escobar before watching Sins of My Father this weekend. Though the 2009 movie is the story of Escobar's only son—who lives in exile under another name, and who's attempting to make peace with some of the sons of the men his father slaughtered—it's still, really, a re-telling of the bone-chilling story of Pablo Escobar. I have no memory of how it got onto my Netflix, but I'm here to tell you that you want to get it onto yours.

On the jump, footage (with The Godfather theme!) of La Catedral, the "prison" Escobar built for himself in 1991, and the ruin that's at that spot today.

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There's an interesting story over at the Atlantic about a young woman whose brain never felt quite right until she tried cocaine. Doctors tried to help her out with therapy, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, and other drugs, but cocaine was the thing that helped (she's now taking Adderall):

When I am 19, I have my first taste of cocaine, and soon things look not so bad. Because cocaine is so self-gratifying — it's all you want and need and feel is important in the world — and gratification is just about all I'd been looking for, I believe I have discovered my antidote. Daily, hourly, for many months, I carefully maintain this not high but level-feeling state of being. Each line sharpening my sight, I am made more consciously and comfortably present. And I have no intention of stopping this new, novel form of self-treatment. It seems almost too easy. And too easy not to let go.

The essay reminds me of a conversation I once had with Sanho Tree—a military and diplomatic historian, lately working as a drug-policy expert—while working on a series about cocaine, levamisole, and the drug war.

At one point, he suggested that some chronic users of coca, opiates, and other illegal drugs had actually stumbled on the right medication for their neuro-chemical makeup. Of course, that's a hard research sell after a century of drug prohibition and stigma. Plus, pharmaceutical companies have a stronger financial incentive to study and market expensive lab drugs than to find out whether people's depressions and other imbalances could be more effectively treated with basic extracts from plants that grow like weeds.

But his basic thought was that we might be on a cultural trajectory from a) viewing addiction as a moral failing to b) viewing addiction as a disease/condition to c) seeing at least some addictions as a form of treatment for people's conditions.

Since I started working on this story about crack sentencing guidelines, I've been receiving bunches of email, via Corrlinks, as well as hand-written letters, from people serving various sentences related to crack-cocaine charges. I thought I'd share a few:

My name is M. I'm a federal inmate that was sentenced to 151 months of conspiracy* to distribute 50 grams or more of crack-cocaine base. I feel that 151 months is entirely too much time for a man that was on crack cocaine.

The government gave me a sentence as if I was a drug dealer. They took my past criminal history and enhanced me, and given me all this time.

Now that the new crack law has been passed, why can't I receive any relief? I'll tell you why... because I have a lengthy criminal history. That came behind my addiction to crack-cocaine.

I accept responsibility for my actions. Being at a crack house daily. I helped count some money one time and I retrieved a box that was outside. Which I had any knowledge of it [sic] possessing any sort of contraband. Is it fair to take a man's life for more than a decade for petty violations as those?

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The campaign to legalize marijuana with Initiative 502 is trying to avoid the pitfall that felled a California legalization measure last year—pissing off African American clergy. Brendan Kiley reports in this week's paper:

• Zorn Taylor
• Alice Huffman: The head of California's NAACP came to Seattle to support legalizing marijuana.

One night last week, at a forum in Columbia City to discuss the war on drugs and its impacts on communities of color, something unprecedented happened—an African American pastor spoke about the perniciousness of prohibition and his support for Initiative 502, which would regulate and tax marijuana in Washington State.

"I'm not promoting marijuana use—no, no," said Pastor Carl Livingston of the Kingdom Christian Center. "Scripture says the body is a temple... but we need to do more to relax the drug laws that get our people caught up in the net." The crowd, almost exclusively African American, applauded enthusiastically.

Here's more.

Since I started working on this story about crack sentencing guidelines, I've been receiving bunches of email, via Corrlinks, from people serving various sentences related to crack-cocaine charges. I thought I'd share a few:

Hello:

I would love to have my story told. I was given a reduction at sentencing in 2006 for my drug addiction, dad started me on drugs at 4 years old. I was denied on the first crack amendment (2008) and am being told i cant get on board for this.

I'm currently at williamsburg FCI. I grew up in key west florida. They say i can't get relief because i am a career offender, even though the majority of my crimes were either for drug possession or drug-induced petty crimes. You should note that some career offenders have gotten reductions even though they say i can't. I fully cooperated with the government every time yet they never helped me receive a reduction. I have been a drug addict all my life documented by letters from my mother, sisters and brother to the court hence the lower sentence i got originally (140 months for 26 grams of crack cocaine).

At a very young age my father introduced me to grass and alcohol and by the age of 9 i was smoking crack, snorting cocaine and from that point i never had a chance/choice it was too late. I'm now told even though my crime started as a drug offense for crack cocaine i cant get a reduction because of crimes i committed over 15 years ago, sounds discriminatory to me. I'm just a drug addict who got caught with a small amont of crack and am being punished like if i was a big time drug dealer, something is wrong with this system. Even worse the positive stuff i've done while in here (and its alot) counts for nothing while others can an are using it for further reductions. I sincerely hope you can use me to rectify/acknowledge this wrong. And yes i can provide documentation. Let me know what you need.

Respectfully, D.

D. is scheduled for release in May of 2020.

Since I started working on this story about crack sentencing guidelines, I've been receiving bunches of email, via Corrlinks, from people serving various sentences related to crack-cocaine charges. I thought I'd share a few:

U have people like my self that was put here under Weed and Seed in particular to get a lot more time then what the state could give me for the small amount of drugs I sold. 16 grams... in the state I would have got county time. Over here I got 19 and a half years bcuz I have 2 priors of drug offenses for 20 dallar sales as a teenager. I been in since I was 22. I will be 34 in Jan... There is no justice in such a thing at all. I mean all around the board people like me is facing this same issue and its in pure violation of human rights period. I have a friend that killed 2 people got 15 years in the state and is now home and the sad part about it is I came in b4 he did...

The whole set up is a joke that is made to put away people of color that grew up in low-income neighborhoods that do not have the money nor the power or the backing and also no knowledge of how to prevent such things as this from devastating poor families. It's sad but it's true. U got guys like myself from a corner selling small crack pieces in prisons with presidents like Noriega for nothing. I actually use to feed a guy Noriega his meals everyday. The same guy that was in my history books... 19 years a small drug dealer like myself from this small town and the president of Panama waiting on me daily to eat... 16 grams... 11 years later still here. Crack law change for small drug offenders and I don't get no relief bcuz its not for guys like me who have two priors for selling 20 dallars worth of drugs before. That's bias and pure violation of any human with rights... 19 years 7 months. 16 grams. No relief. R.

I asked R. to tell me a bit more about himself—and what Noriega was like.

Incidentally, Noriega served 30 years in U.S. prisons for eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering. R is serving 19.5 years for his few grams. Noriega's codefendant, Ricardo Bilonick, smuggled 40,000 pounds of Colombian cocaine into the U.S. but only got a three-year sentence because he was willing to testify against Noriega.

Kind of sounds like Tuesday's letter from prison.

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Seven months after she gutted protections for medical marijuana patients due to concerns with federal law enforcement, Governor Chris Gregoire filed a petition today with the with the US Drug Enforcement Administration that seeks to reclassify marijuana to allow the drug's medical use. If approved, the DEA could allow doctors to prescribe and pharmacists to dispense marijuana like any other drug.

You should read Gregoire's excellent petition in its entirety, sent in conjunction with Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, here. They describe the current conflict between states that allow medical marijuana and federal prohibition is "untenable."

"The solution lies with the federal government," the governors write. "We urge the DEA to initiate rulemaking proceedings... so qualifying patients who follow state law may obtain the medication they need through the traditional and safe method of physician prescribing and pharmacy dispensing."

This isn't the first time the DEA has been petitioned to reclassify the Schedule 1 drug (which means it has no medical value) to a Schedule 2 drug (which includes powerful substances like opiates). The DEA rejected a similar request in February, nine years after the request was filed in 2002. But in that case, the petitioners were marijuana-legalization lobbies. So this appears is the first time in modern history the request has come from such prominent government officials, including Gregoire, a former attorney general.

But advocates are skeptical. "This is a major step forward, but it's only a step,” said Philip Dawdy, political director of the Washington Alternative Medicine Alliance, in a statement. “While I appreciate the governors sticking their necks out on this issue and giving political legitimacy to what medical cannabis patients and voters in this state have known for decades, the DEA has a long track record of opposing any attempt to reschedule cannabis and continues to claim that cannabis has no accepted medical uses."

We'll see how the DEA responds or, based on its track record, how long it takes to respond.

Gregoire's full statement is after the jump.

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Since I started working on this story about crack sentencing guidelines, I've been receiving bunches of email, via Corrlinks, from people serving various sentences related to crack-cocaine charges. I thought I'd share a few:

In the name of the Most High...

Peace!

Mr. Kiley,

I am writing to initiate correspondence regarding the new Crack Amendment (750). Mr. S referred your email address to me and suggested that I share some of my views with you. I am a first-time, non-violent offender that has been incarcerated for 18.5 years since my junior year of college. I was initially sentenced to Life in 1993, then 27 years in 1997 and now 22 years on Nov. 1st. I have a new release date of April 2012. The two-level reduction removed 62 months from my sentence and I have 5 months left to serve. I may receive a half-way house designation before April. I expected more people to be released by now but most inmates are not initiating and sending in motions for reduction. People need to be guided through the process and not just wait on the courts to act. There are many more guys precluded because they are "career offenders" and that is a travesty. The amount of crack cocaine triggers the different level of for career offenders, so they should benefit from the change, but some say the hold up is that the new Statutory Minimum and Maximums have not been made retroactive. Lastly, Mr. Kiley, the 18 to 1 ratio* is not enough or even Justifiable. We must press for parity because this War on Drugs feels more like a War on Us! Thank you for your precious time and God bless!

Sincerely,
J

* The new crack-sentencing guidelines have changed the federal sentencing gap from 100-to-1 for crack vs. powder to 18-to-1. Before Nov 1, you could get 20 years for 5 grams of crack, or life for 50. For powder cocaine, a federal life sentence wasn't even an option unless you were holding 5,000 grams—or had exacerbating factors like a serious criminal history or a gun charge. (If there's one thing you drug people out there should know, it's that packing a pistol at a drugs transaction dramatically increases your problems when sentencing time comes.)

J is doing his time at the Federal Corrections Institute in Dade County, Florida.