Drugs

Midland, Texas, prosecutor's office investigator told jury a reliable source told him that someone named Cali was selling drugs from a hotel and other law enforcement agents told him Cali was the defendant. Defendant: hearsay! Prosecutor: testimony is admissible to give jury context. Fifth Circuit: Not admissible. Introducing testimonial hearsay of non-testifying witnesses violates the Confrontation Clause. And since we've had to say this a lot as of late, "we are concerned that the government has repeatedly failed to take the lesson."

A Maryland federal judge has approved federal prosecutors' request to bar any discussion of cannabis legalization from the upcoming trial of a man indicted for criminal conspiracy to traffic marijuana from California to Maryland (view full article).

In a case that could have easily sprung from the wild imagination of law school hypotheticals, the Fifth Circuit holds that hitching a ride across the border in a car with 283 pounds of marijuana, is not, strictly speaking, possessing marijuana. The two men could really have been hitchhikers. Mere presence in the area where the drugs are found is not a crime. Convictions vacated. Dissent: Shut the front door. Two hundred. Eighty-three. Pounds.

A California police union executive director allegedly ran a drug ring from her home and used her office computer and UPS account to order and distribute opioids and other drugs, federal officials charge (view full article).

President Biden on Thursday pardoned all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be a Schedule 1 drug like heroin and LSD, saying that “makes no sense” (article available here).

The pardons will clear about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021 and thousands more who were convicted of possession in the District of Columbia.

This year is turning out to be another remarkable year for new record relief enactments. In just the first six months of 2021, 25 states enacted no fewer than 51 laws authorizing sealing or expungement of criminal records, with another 5 states enrolling 11 bills that await a governor’s signature (view full article).

Oklahoma police stop car for traffic violations, search it, and discover 29 pounds of meth stashed in secret compartments (which carried a wholesale value of about $75k). The driver-husband knew, but there's no evidence that the passenger-wife did. Nevertheless, a jury convicts her of conspiracy to distribute meth and interstate travel in aid of drug trafficking. Tenth Circuit: The prosecution needed to prove that the wife at least knew about the meth, and speculation doesn't substitute for evidence.

Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández has been found guilty on charges relating to drug trafficking and weapons possession in a federal jury trial in New York (view full article).

The verdict was announced during the second day of deliberations, after a two-week trial.

Hernández served as a Honduran congressman, congress leader and finally two-term president. He was arrested in February 2022, only weeks after he finished his second presidential term.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued sweeping pardons forgiving possession of marijuana convictions, following the directive of President Joe Biden, who urged state executives to follow his lead in pardoning low-level marijuana offenses (view announcement).

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country (view full article).