Criminal Justice News Letter – January 19, 2023

SECTION I: POLITICAL WATCH & WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

Articles of political crimes and shenanigans, or as well call them, ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’

Article 1: Bribery Defined and Brian Benjamin

It is unusual to have a Federal District Court Judge dismiss an Indictment, or even a significant portion of an Indictment, before trial. The legal bar for a federal judge to do so is very high. With that being said, most of these dismissals come from white collar or corporate crimes. But that is what occurred on or about December 6, 2022, when U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of Manhattan dismissed a portion of the Indictment against Lt. Governor Brian Benjamin. Specifically, Judge Oetken dismissed three corruption, or bribery, charges against Mr. Benjamin.

Mr. Benjamin was indicted earlier in 2022 for allegedly soliciting campaign donations, from real estate developer Gerald Migdol, in exchange for directing $50,000 in state funds to the developer’s education nonprofit in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood. Judge Oetken declined to dismiss two charges that Mr. Benjamin falsified records in attempting to conceal the alleged scheme. (Remember Watergate and Monica Lewisky, it is the coverup that gets you in trouble all the time).

In dismissing the bribery counts in the Indictment, Judge Oetken said, “The court concludes that the Indictment fails to allege an explicit quid pro quo, which is an essential element of the bribery and honest services wire fraud charges brought against Benjamin.” Judge Oetken cited two Supreme Court cases that had narrowed the legal doctrine of what constitutes bribery when campaign contributions are involved.

One of those cases involved West Virginia lawmaker, Robert McCormick. McCormick received payments from a lobbyist representing doctors during his reelection campaign. While he was in office, Mr. McCormick then sponsored legislation sought by the doctors. The Supreme Court determined that penalizing lawmakers for supporting legislation that benefits campaign contributors would effectively be criminalizing ordinary political activity, i.e. they must vote on the issue either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ In Mr. Benjamin’s case, the court determined there was no quid pro quo. Mr. Benjamin’s Indictment did not outline an explicit and unambiguous understanding that a donation was in exchange for an act by a public official. In other words, there was no “this” for “that.”

The outcome of the remaining charges against Mr. Benjamin is unknown. The developer, Mr. Gerald Migdol, pled guilty earlier this year to related fraud, bribery, and other charges. – The Wall Street Journal – Contributor.

Article 2: Crypto Currency and the SEC

After the collapse of FTX, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is under fire to step up enforcement of ‘key hubs’ of the crypto industry. Crypto exchanges are the primary hubs for individual investors that offer the following services: digital-coin sales, lending and the safekeeping of assets. The SEC has investigated parts of the industry for over six years, however, they have never sued a major crypto exchange. The SEC has ongoing investigations of Coinbase Global Inc., as well as, the U.S. businesses of Biannce and FTX, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The SEC has also fined or sued dozens of token developers over the past six years.

According to SEC Chairman, Gary Gentler, there are many cryptocurrencies that qualify as securities that should have been sold under rules for stocks and bonds. Mr. Gensler, reported those exchanges are breaking the law by selling the unregistered securities and not following the rules that the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange follow. According to John Stark, a former SEC enforcement attorney, Mr. Gensler “is risking significant criticism if he doesn’t get things moving…It was a gap in their strategy to not go after these entities.”

However, crypto exchanges opine the SEC is wrong about which U.S. laws apply and have all but resisted the agency’s warnings. Lawyers for the industry believe the SEC strategy for dealing with crypto is to use its enforcement arm to prod the industry in coming under the agency’s oversight and jurisdiction. In the end, the big crypto exchanges are no likely to settle with the SEC. They believe any deal with the agency would mean a large scale surrender to SEC rules. This would ultimately lead to a cut off of profitable activity. Whether that activity is legal or not, remains to be seen. – The Wall Street Journal – Contributor.

SECTION II: THE LOCAL DRUG CORNER

Articles concerning illegal drugs, the business behind illegal drugs, and drug addiction.

Article 1: Oklahoma and the Problem with Black Market Marijuana (Feature Story)

America has been transformed once again. From the “Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC)” liquor stores to general liquor stores (that can distribute any grain of alcohol), America takes a drug, refines it, defines it, distributes it, and attempts to regulate it. Such is the case with marijuana. Up until just about 10 years ago, it was illegal to transport, distribute, and sell marijuana. Gradually, a movement began to legalize marijuana. It comes from nature, right? So, it can’t be all that bad, right? It also helps alleviating the pain associated with so many diseases, including depression.

Today, as you drive on the highways of America, you begin to see medical marijuana shops on every corner. Just the other day, a Taco Bell and Burger King was transformed into the Cannabis Cafe and the Green Dragon Medical Marijuana Shop. Yes, you cannot go in rural or suburban America without seeing a marijuana shop.

But where is this marijuana coming from.? Who is growing it? How is the growth being regulated? Take one rural country in America, Logan County, Oklahoma. According to Deputy Sheriff Chris Tillman, “It’s not always clear what we should be looking for,” Deputy Tillman said. There are rows of cannabis green houses surrounded by fields of Oklahoma red dirt farmland.

Because of cheap land, affordable licenses, and light regulatory oversight, marijuana growers naturally flocked to the Sooner State, a state that began allowing commercial marijuana cultivation when it legalized the drug for medical reasons in 2018. Oklahoma issued active licenses for approximately 7,000 growers and about 2,600 dispensaries (businesses that refine and package and send the drug to local shops). There is no limit on how much marijuana the operations can grow, nor how big the farm can be. The problem? About 10% of Oklahoma’s population meet the state’s requirement to legally consume medical marijuana, thus output has dramatically exceeded the need for medical grad marijuana.

According to Donnie Anderson, Director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, there are not enough dispensaries in the state of Oklahoma to dispense as much marijuana as being produced. “That marijuana is going somewhere and it’s going out of state,” said Director Anderson. As a result, you have a serious problem. Transporting marijuana across state lines in illegal under federal law (Any narcotic transported across state lines is illegal. Unless it is a valid scheduled class drug and the possessor has a valid legal script.).

With this excess of marijuana, Oklahoma has naturally seen an increase in violent crimes. According to the Wall Street Journal, just in the past month, four people were murdered execution style in a marijuana warehouse. A crime not usually seen in Oklahoma. In Logan County, just north of Oklahoma City, Sheriff Damon Devereaux reported to the Wall Street Journal that criminal target farms, dispensaries and even the homes of those who work in the industry because operations are cash businesses. Because the federal government has not legalized marijuana, Oklahoma banks will not accept deposits associated with it, afraid they may be prosecuted for conspiracy. Sheriff Devereaux concluded, “I worry that what we’ve seen in Kingfisher County is just a small part of what’s to come.” Sheriff Devereaux was referring to the murders of three men and one woman on a 10 acre marijuana farm in Kingfisher County. The main suspect in the murders is a 45 year old China native, Wu Chen. He was caught by police in Miami Beach, Florida.

Currently, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is estimating there is about 2,000 marijuana farms on suspicion of having obtained their grow license through fraudulent means. Pursuant to the Oklahoma state law, grow operations have to have 75% local ownership; meaning not many foreign and out of state investors cannot participate. However, this has caused the emergence of ‘ghost farms.’ This occurs when an investor simply pays an Oklahoma resident to be the majority owner in name only.

Presently, law enforcement is only called to these farms if a robbery or theft has occurred. Local police have no way of telling of the farm is legal or not. As Deputy Tillman told the Wall Street Journal, “I’d feel more comfortable if we had more training on how to tell if it’s an illegal grow.” Until then, we are rerunning the old police tragedy of Elliott Ness, Al Capone, and the illegal distribution of alcohol. – The Wall Street Journal – Contributor.

Article 2: Drug-Use Sites, Are They Worth the Scorn?

A certified medical assistant was given the task of placing cotton balls into metal cups. These metal cups created “cookers” for the heating of illicit drugs. A patient, Rayce Samuelson, was aware that a fellow colleague was finding it difficult to locate a vein so she could receive an injection of fentanyl. Mr. Samuelson kindly recites the order of injection, “arms, hands, legs, feet, that’s the rotation.”

For the average law abiding citizen, it is difficult to comprehend what has taken place. It is totally legal, and takes place at a supervised drug use site in East Harlem. The site it one of two that have made New York the first city in the country to grant permission for open use of illicit substances. This includes fentanyl. The drug that is responsible for over one million overdose deaths over the decade.

The place is called, OnPoint NYC, and it is a nonprofit organization that was opened with the backing of former Mayor Bill de Blasio in November 2021. OnPoint NYC claims to have avoided 700 overdoses since it opened. It is also a testing ground for health officials, politicians, and treatment groups around the country. It cost OnPoint approximately $1.4 million per year to operate. But the bigger questions remain: Are the sites bringing safety to the community? or, Are the sites becoming a way of life?

Syderia Asberry, founder of Greater Harlem Coalition, spent three years fighting what she termed, ‘the over saturation of treatment centers in Harlem.’ She believes that safe-use sites represent an acceptance of drug use as a ‘way of life.’ She said, “People are dying. We understand that. We don’t want people to die. But is this really helping people?”

The executive director of OnPoint NYC, Sam Rivera, has another take on the supervised drug use site. Mr. Rivera said the sites keep people alive. He also believes that people will get treatment when they are ready. Mr. Rivera said that the sites are practicing, “health intervention.”

Presently, petitions for safe-use sites have stalled in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. Also, Governor Gavin Newsom in California has vetoed a bill that would allow such sites in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. So, it is yet known if these drug use sites are going to be a thing of the future or a thing of the past? – The Wall Street Journal – Contributor.

Article 3: The Push for an Overdose Drug

“Cost and access is what we’re focused on,” said Michael R. Huffed, Harm Reduction Therapeutics (HRT) chief executive office and co-founder. HRT said its 3 milligram nasal spray naloxone formulation, called Revive, had three times higher concentration in the blood of 36 participants than naloxone delivered as a shot. Based on this background, the pharmaceutical nonprofit was granted priority review from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make an inexpensive overdose-reversal drug for use without a prescription. The FDA set a target approval date of April 28, 2023.

HRT reported it would give away one-tenth of its product and sell the rest to pharmacies, public sector employees, and groups that work with drug users at cost, about $18 a dose. In the course of a year, HRT said that it wished to produce 2 million doses.

Its counterpart, Emergent BioSolutions Inc., maker of Narcan brand of naloxone nasal spray, reported earlier that its application for over-the-counter status had received an unexpected approval date of March 29, 2023. The company’s two dose prescription – only nasal spray was selling at pharmacies for $100 without insurance.

Meanwhile, Pocket Naloxone Corporation is applying for a nasal-swab version of the drug. The version would be cheaper than nasal-spray versions. Pocket Naloxone is a startup and brags that its drug works more quickly than prescription versions.

The end around is that FDA is encouraging drug makers to apply for approval of over-the-counter versions of overdose reversal medications. Some of the funding received by HRT has come from the now bankrupt proceeds of Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. – The Wall Street Journal – Contributor.

Section III: The Firearms Table

Articles exploring the illegal business of firearms and crimes that are committed by the use of firearms.

Article 1: What is a Gun Without Ammo?

Following a mass shooting, law enforcement will investigate the suspect. During the investigation, there is a 90% certainty that law enforcement will find enough weaponry at the suspects disposal to have killed everyone inside a school, movie theater, grocery store, or even a full sized mall. It has been demonstrated in America that it is not difficult for the killer(s) to build a significant arsenal of assault rifles, handguns, high-capacity magazines – and of course bullets.

It is very easy for anyone to purchase ammunition. One can go online and have hundreds or thousands of bullets delivered to their door, “as if ordering pizza,” said Ari Freilich, state policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

It is very easy for people to pay attention to the weapons used during a mass shooting: a handgun, a rifle, a shotgun, or a high capacity firearm. Bottom line is that it is easy for anyone to obtain large quantities of ammunition. The how, where, and why so much ammunition is never a question. “Restricting large – capacity magazines is one of the single most effective things we could do to reduce the shooter’s capacity to turn shootings into mass murders,” Fleilich said.

Some states and federal law have requirements for purchasing or possessing ammunition. These requirements include an age requirement or a prohibition for people with certain criminal convictions. Eleven states and Washington D.C. have banned large capacity magazines: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Proponents of the 2nd Amendment feel that adding restrictions on ammunition only restricts their right to own a firearm. After all, what is a firearm without the ammunition? A piece of steel that makes a clicking noise. However, if the government is going to declare gun violence an epidemic, it must also include the bullets that go into the weapons. Yes, we are at an impasse. – USA Today – Contributor.

Article 2: Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGICs)

ATF launched CGIC in July 2016. CGICs is an interagency collaboration that collects, analyzes and distributes intelligence data about crime guns (firearms that were used to commit a crime), mass shootings, and major incidents across multiple jurisdictions. In order support their mission, CGICs use vital tools such as the National Integrated Ballistic Information network (NIBIN) and eTrace.

NIBIN is used to collect and compare digital scans of guns and cartridge casings found at crime scenes across the country. Law enforcement then use the potential matches that NIBIN generates to identify links between shootings and other firearms-related cases in different jurisdictions.

eTrace is a secure, web-based law enforcement network run by ATF’s National Tracing Center (NTC). The system helps the NTC and other law enforcement agencies during their traces of recovered crime guns from manufacturing to the last legal purchase. Investigators then use this data to uncover patterns of firearms trafficking, identify illegal and ‘straw’ firearms purchases, and develop leads to recover firearms used in violent crimes.

The numbers: Presently, there are 25 CGICs that are strategically located across the nation to analyze criminal intelligence and support interagency responses to violent crimes. From the 220 NIBIN’s located, 67,000 investigative leads were generated in fiscal year 2019. Finally, from the NTC some 450,000 crime guns were traced back to their origins in fiscal year 2019. – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – Contributor.

Section IV: Mental Health and Criminal Profiles

Articles exploring why mental health and addiction is becoming synonymous with the criminal justice system.

Article 1: Medical Assisted Treatment (MAT):

You go to the doctors and discover that you have a serious illness, a disease. The illness will follow you throughout your life and has no cure. The doctor prescribes a regiment of treatment for your condition. This regiment includes the latest drug to treat the symptoms of your disease but will not cure it. The drug will make you feel better and let you live a normal lifestyle. You must follow up with medical providers who will monitor your health. Eventually you may be able to stop using the drug, however, you must still continued to be monitored

Such is the treatment modality for any disease that strikes an individual. However, if that disease happens to be addiction, we turn away from using medicine in order to, well, get people off medicine or drugs. That is what medical assisted treatment (MAT) is all about. According to Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “MAT is the use of medications, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, to provide a “whole-patient” approach to the treatment of substance use disorders. Medications used in MAT are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and MAT programs are clinically driven and tailored to meet each patient’s needs.”

Unfortunately, most addicts are found in criminal justice settings; probation offices, jails, and/or prisons. That is not to say that all addicts are criminals or that all criminals are addicts. It is just a fact that jails and prisons are full of addiction and mental health cases that probably should not be in such an institution. So, why not try to provide MAT to those who are locked in these institutions with the hope of treating their disease?

Sheriff Peter Koutouijan of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, has been trying to get MAT into his facility to break the cycle of addiction, specifically opioid addiction. (BTW – Addiction experts agree that medication is the most effective way to curb opioid use.) Out of 230 inmates at Middlesex County Jail, who participated in MAT program between 2015 and 2019, nearly all of them, 226, were alive six months after release. Recidivism (a return to jail because of criminal behavior associated with drugs) among the group is one third that for other inmates. Mr. Koutouijan notes, “we have a window while they’re with us that we can help turn their lives around.”

It is uncharted territory for the corrections side of the criminal justice system. Of the almost 5,000 jails and prisons in the United States, 630 now provide medication treatment for opioid use. The drugs they use to treat opioid addiction include buprenorphine, which tamps cravings for opioids, naloxone, which reverses their affects, and methadone, which eases withdrawal symptoms. It is a vast improvement for a system that would provide only detox as a means for an inmate to become sober.

Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Brown University, Josiah Rich, hits the nail on the head when describing the pull of gravity opioid addiction has on addicts, “This disease is so powerful and the biology is so powerful that without the medications we’re kind of struggling.” When Professor Rich speaks of ‘biology’ regarding drug use, he is speaking of changes in the brain that drug use does over time to an individual. They must continue to use greater quantities of the drug to feel normal. It is so powerful at times that if an individual wanted to get off drugs completely, the body just will not let it. Thus, the ugly return to drugs and the disease of addiction. So, the drugs used to treat addiction eases a person to be drug free. They don’t feel a need to use drugs again just to feel normal.

However, medication cannot be supplemented for therapy or counseling; be it group or individual treatment. The counseling and treatment is the key too discovering what turned the individual to drugs in the first place. Also, counseling will identify triggers which causes and addict to use again. These triggers are replaced with cues to distract the trigger to the drug.

However, many opponents to MAT argue that it is just trading one drug for another, just like methadone for heroin in the 1970’s. Some jails and prisons resist providing treatment drugs because of the fear that they will become contraband. And, there are those who believe that abstinence is the only solution to drug use.

If we are going to think of addiction as a disease, we must think of it in terms of the medical model. Treatment, to include medicine and therapy, is much better way to manage the cycle of addiction than detox and release from an institution.

For additional information concerning the life of a person dealing with addiction, please read the book entitled Pills and Needles. There is a book view done by the CHPP located at centerofhistoryandpublicpolicy.com/on-pills-and-needles-book-review/

Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), and The Wall Street Journal – Contributors