This Week in History 9/24/04

[ReformMaryJaneLaws]

This Week in History

9/24/04

September 24, 1997: A federal grand jury in San Diego indicts Ramon Arellano-Felix on charges of drug smuggling. The same day, he is added to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.

September 25, 1996: Mere days before Congress adjourned for the year, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) introduced H.R. 4170, the "Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996." Within a few days, the bill had attracted a coalition of 26 Republican cosponsors. The legislation demanded either a life sentence or the death penalty for anyone caught bringing more than two ounces of marijuana into the United States.

October: Every year the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issues its annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR), which among other things provides drug offender arrest totals for the previous year. Nearly seven out of every eight arrests for marijuana continue to be for possession of the drug.

October 1, 1998: Increased funding of prisons and decreased spending for schools prompts massive protests by California high school students.


http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/355/thisweek.shtml