A Trojan horse: Anti-communism and the war on drugs

This work argues the U.S. War on Drugs is a misnomer. We suggest, instead, that it is secondary to traditional anti-Communist foreign policy concerns. Thus, the war on drugs serves to mask the U.S. counter-intelligence and paramilitary presence abroad.This paper in slightly different form was originally presented at the meeting of the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C., October 1988.     

Just say no to the war on drugs

B.A., State University of New York, Old Westbury, 1981; J.D., Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, 1989.     

Applying Black's theory of law to crack and cocaine dispositions

Since crack cocaine first appeared on the streets of the United States, the criminal justice system has been overwhelmed with poor, minority drug offenders. This situation can be attributed in part to the existence of mandatory minimum sentences that treat violations associated with crack cocaine more harshly than those associated with powder cocaine. Using data from New York City, the present study uses Black's theory of law to help understand discrepancies in crack and cocaine dispositions. Results show mixed support for Black's propositions. Racial minorities are more likely to be charged with a felony and receive longer prison sentences compared to Whites. Implications of the study and directions for future research are discussed.     

Latinos in the war on drugs: The role of offender citizenship status and family ties on downward departures

The present study analyzes Latino drug offenders sentenced in U.S. federal courts from 2006–2014 in order to assess whether any family ties effects were contingent on offenders’ citizenship status. The findings indicate that citizenship status conditions the influence of family ties on the decision to grant downward departures, but not the decision on the magnitude of the discount granted. The findings indicate the importance of conducting intra-ethnic examinations of sentencing outcomes for Latinos rather than assuming parity in treatment and solely comparing them to other groups.     

Noam Chomsky,neoliberalism, and the new war on Iraq

This article was originally presented as an address on May 31, 2003, when Ms. Roy received the 2003 Noam Chomsky Award at the annual conference of the Justice Studies Association in Albany, New York.     

Governance, risk and dataveillance in the war on terror

This paper critically analyses the importance of risk management techniques in the war on terror. From the protection of borders to international financial flows, from airport security to daily financial transactions, risk assessment is emerging as the most important way in which terrorist danger is made measurable and manageable. However, we argue that the risk-based approach results in the displacement of risk onto marginal groups, while its effectiveness in the war on terror remains questionable.     

An ice cream war: Bundling,tying, and foreclosure

Ice cream markets in Europe are characterized by vertical restraints of varying degrees of restrictiveness. Mars, an entrant to the market, sought to establish in a court action and in a complaint to the European Union Commission that the dominant incumbent, Unilever, had acted with the object and effect of foreclosing the market in Ireland by bundling the price of ice cream and freezer services and restricting retailers to stocking Unilever product alone in freezers supplied by them. This article applies a model of bundling, tying, and foreclosure developed by M.D. Whinston to demonstrate that it would not have been rational for Unilever to attempt to foreclose the market by means of these restrictions and therefore that the Commission was not justified in obliging Unilever to accept the changes imposed on it.With apologies to William Boyd.     

Mexico: Cartels,corruption and cocaine: A profile of the Gulf cartel

This text constructs a profile of one of Mexico's most powerful organised crime groups, the Gulf cartel. The text analyses the power of the cartel in the international system, the effects globalisation has had on its operations, the threats it poses to the state, and the obstacles the state faces in countering transnational organised crime groups.     

Hair testing for drugs of abuse: evaluation of external cocaine contamination and risk of false positives.

In some laboratories hair testing may be the main method for the evaluation of individual's drug history, however, compelling evidence supports the possibility that the presence of a small amount of drug in hair can derive from external contamination. The aim of the present study is to verify if a single external contamination with a small amount of cocaine will last sufficiently long to make a contaminated subject indistinguishable from active users, and if normal washing practices together with the decontamination procedures are sufficient to completely remove the external contamination. The results obtained using the decontamination methods suggested in literature demonstrate that significant concentrations of cocaine (>1 ng/mg) and moderate quantities of benzoylecgonine (generally <0.5 ng/mg) are still detectable up to 10 weeks after contamination. These results question the reliability of hair testing. In fact, even using the most sophisticated decontamination procedures it is not possible to distinguish a drug-contaminated subject from an active user. Thus, while a negative result excludes both chronic use and "contact" with drugs, a positive result cannot and must not be interpreted as a sure sign of drug addiction, but should be further confirmed by urine analysis.     

Tropane ethyl esters in illicit cocaine: isolation, detection, and determination of new manufacturing by-products from the clandestine purification of crude cocaine base with ethanol

Seven ethyl homologues of known tropane esters have recently been detected as impurities in the gas chromatographic signature profiles of authentic Peruvian illicit cocaine base and hydrochloride exhibits. Peruvian cocaine base processors are now known to use ethanol for the purification of crude cocaine base. This process is referred to as the "base lavada" or "washed base" process and is a recent substitute method for the potassium permanganate oxidation purification methodology. Seven ethyl ester homologues were formed in illicit cocaine from the transesterification of known tropane methyl esters or possibly ethyl esterification of their respective tropane C-2 carboxylic acids in the presence of ethanol. Exhibits containing these compounds were subjected to gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses to determine their identity and were subsequently synthesized to verify their structures. Quantitative determinations were obtained from ion-pair chromatography isolation followed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. Specifically, hexanoylecgonine ethyl ester, cocaethylene, cis-cinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester, trans-cinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester, 3',4',5'-trimethoxybenzoylecgonine ethyl ester, cis-3',4',5'-trimethoxycinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester, and trans-3',4',5'-trimethoxycinnamoylecgonine ethyl ester were detected and characterized. When present, these compounds were detected at levels ranging from 8.6 x 10(-4) to 9.3 x 10(-1)% relative to cocaine.     

RIAA诉Napster侵犯音乐版权案分析

最近几个月,美国唱片工业协会(RIAA)对为音乐爱好者在Internet上提供数字版歌曲交换服务的Napster等公司提起了诉讼,指控这些公司侵犯了音乐版权。由于此案是新兴In-ternet技术与版权所有者权利的首次正面法律交锋,因此在IT界、法律界和娱乐界内外都引起了广泛的注意,其影响和意义也是相当深远的。