Mail Carrier Jailed for Taking Bribes, Delivering Pot

    For at least eight months in 2013 and 2014, letter carrier Devona Charley of Washington, D.C. delivered more than just letters and junk mail. The twenty-seven year old now-former US Postal Service employee was sentenced to a year and a day in prison plus 6 months of home detention, part of three years of a supervised release plan imposed by a plea agreement on drug and bribery conspiracy charges.
    From September 2013 to April 2014, Charley and Dominique Jones of Oxon Hill, Maryland, schemed to have marijuana delivered to Jones in packages addressed to other people. All told, Charley is believed to have delivered between 40 and 60 kilograms of marijuana, valued from $70,000 to $120,000. The justice department describes the conspiracy this way:

Specifically, Charley provided Jones with addresses for the shipment of packages along her postal route. Charley agreed to deliver the packages to Jones even though they were addressed to another person. Her co-conspirators agreed to pay Charley $350 per package. Based on the information provided by Charley, packages containing marijuana were shipped to the addresses provided by Charley. When the packages arrived at the post office, Charley picked up the packages and texted Jones. Jones and an associate then met Charley along her mail route and Charley delivered the packages.

    Jones was already sentenced to 54 months after a guilty plea in the case. There is no mention of charges regarding the "associate."
    According to U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, the Charley case is not the only one the justice department has uncovered. Rosenstein explains the department, along with other law enforcement agencies, is "investigating several cases involving letter carriers who took bribes to divert shipments of illegal drugs." He also expressed concern that the "corruption of postal employees is a significant vulnerability in the system." Earlier this year, several Maryland USPS employees were sentenced in a contracts-related bribery scheme involving over half a million dollars.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Homeland Security is Seeking "Electronic Nose" Technology for Biological Threat Detection

    Dogs have been used by law enforcement for tracking and detection for generations.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently sought to compile all available information on the electronic equivalent of a dog's nose.  The inquiry was part of a larger effort to assess the pros and cons of actual canine use in biological detection as well as the state of the art in "electronic nose" technology.  The program is spelled out in a Sources Sought document from DHS's Office of the Chief Procurement Officer:

The Department of Homeland Security, Office of Health Affairs (OHA), has reached out to DHS S&T for assistance with technology foraging related to the use of canines for detection of biological threats. Despite countless past research efforts, there currently still does not exist an "electronic nose" that can rival a well-trained canine for detection of vapor signatures. The electronic sensoring community understands that the development of an "electronic nose", modeled after a canine olfactory system, would provide a leap-ahead sensing technology.

    DHS is only looking for information at this point and does not intend to make any purchases or award any contracts.  Respondents were encouraged to submit "white papers" or Powerpoint presentations on "past and current research and development (R&D) efforts or commercial off the shelf products in the area of 'electronic noses'; past and current efforts focused on using canines as potential detection solutions; canine training services; and canine maintenance requirements."
    This source gathering effort was, in their words, part of the DHS's "quest to make America safer."  To that end, DHS made it clear that all applicable information was welcome:

If a source does not have specific information applicable to detection of biological materials but has information regarding use of canines for detection of other materials (chemical, explosive, narcotics) and feels that the information is transferable to the detection of biomaterials, that information would also be of interest.

    In the past, other government agencies have sought to make use of not only an "electronic nose," but an "electronic tongue," as well.  These were for use in food and beverage testing and evaluation, however, not in connection with law enforcement or threat detection.

White House Deletes Blog Post Warning Against Marijuana Legalization; Since Restored [see update]

    Monday morning, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) blog at Whitehouse.gov posted an entry entitled: "Support for National Association of School Nurses' [NASN] Position on the Legalization of Marijuana."  However, the original link for the post is now meet with a "Sorry, the page you're looking for can't be found" message, and the most recent post on the ONDCP blog is dated January 20.

    The main thrust of the deleted entry is that the NASN agrees with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that "the overwhelming evidence" is that "any change in the legal status of marijuana, even if limited to adults, could affect the prevalence of use among adolescents."
    The president raised eyebrows recently by downplaying the dangers of marijuana, even by young people:

As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.

    The president went on to say in the same New Yorker interview that it is "important for [legalization of marijuana] to go forward":

[President Obama] said of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington that “it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished."

    The deleted blog post is still available via a Google cache, which shows how it appeared on Whitehouse.gov for part of the day on Monday:

    The full post reads as follows:

Support for National Association of School Nurses' Position on the Legalization of Marijuana 

Posted by David Mineta, Carolyn Duff and Mary Louise Embrey on January 27, 2014 at 09:00 AM EST 

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) joins school nurses across the country to express our support for efforts that promote wellness and good health outcomes for our Nation’s children, including the prevention of substance use disorders. ONDCP shares the concerns of school nurses regarding the harmful effects of marijuana use among young people. Given research indications that marijuana is harmful to the developing brain,[1] we are especially concerned about the repercussions of use on the health, safety, and education of adolescents. On January 27, 2014, based on overwhelming scientific evidence, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) Board of Directors adopted an official position statement[2] outlining the negative impact of marijuana legalization on the health of students. ONDCP supports NASN in bringing attention to this issue.
School nurses are present in 75 percent of the Nation’s schools, so many are in touch with substance use trends within the school and greater community and are able to make educated assessments when students visit their offices.  The school nursing profession has more than 100 years of experience, and school nurses know first-hand that healthy, drug-free children learn better! As more and more states consider the legalization of marijuana, school nurses are compelled to continue providing their students with the facts on the multiple physical and behavioral health consequences of marijuana use. Access to marijuana by young people and the impact of its use on the developing brain continue to be matters of concern for both ONDCP and NASN. 

Together, we recognize that adult influencers, including parents, school nurses, teachers, counselors, and other support personnel in the academic setting, are key to helping adolescents understand the connection between good health practices and educational achievement.  There is grave concern that marijuana use, given its impact on cognitive development, motor skills, and attention, will be detrimental to the learning environment for our young people. We encourage professionals in all health fields, parents, educators, and communities to get involved with this issue. We all must work together to reduce marijuana use and prevent substance use disorders among our young people. 

David Mineta is Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at ONDCP. Carolyn Duff is President of the National Association for School Nurses, and Mary Louise Embrey is the NASN Consultant on Substance Abuse Prevention.

[1] Meier MH, Caspi A, Ambler A, Harrington H, Houts R, Keefe RS, McDonald K, Ward A, Poulton R, Moffitt TE.  Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012, Aug 27. 

It is the opinion of the NASN that marijuana is properly categorized by the DEA under Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act.  NASN recognizes the overwhelming evidence that “any change in the legal status of marijuana, even if limited to adults, could affect the prevalence of use among adolescents.”

    The ONDCP's fact sheet on marijuana on the White House website says:

The Administration steadfastly opposes legalization of marijuana and other drugs because legalization would increase the availability and use of illicit drugs, and pose significant health and safety risks to all Americans, particularly young people.

    Emails to the White House press office and to the National Association of School Nurses inquiring about the deletion of the blog post have so far gone unanswered.


UPDATE: A public affairs official at ONDCP emails to say that the post is now back up: "Saw your post on the standard re: our blog on school nurses.   Was an administrative issue - It was posted prematurely by our web team ahead of the resolution, but it’s back up now that the resolution formally passed.  Here’s the link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/01/24/support-national-association-school-nurses-position-legalization-marijuana"


Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.