Press release:
TEMECULA, CA – Jesse Snodgrass, the teenage special needs student arrested in an undercover police operation will receive his high school diploma at the Chaparral High School graduation ceremony on Thursday, June 5, at 6:30 p.m.
The February 2014 Rolling Stone article, “The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass†details how Jesse, who suffers from a range of disabilities, was falsely befriended by a police officer who repeatedly asked the boy to provide him drugs. After more than three weeks, 60 text messages and repeated hounding by the officer, Jesse was able to buy half a joint from a homeless man he then gave to his new – and only – “friend,†who had given him twenty dollars weeks before. He did it once again before refusing to accommodate the officer, at which point the officer broke off all ties with the child. Shortly thereafter, Jesse was arrested at Chaparral High School in front of his classmates as part of a sting that nabbed 22 students in all, many of them children with special needs.
Even though a criminal judge dismissed the charges against Jesse, the Temecula Valley Unified School District still attempted to expel him. Jesse’s family went to court to fight the expulsion attempt, and in March 2013, an administrative law judge halted the expulsion attempt, issuing a scathing ruling against the school district and ordering Jesse’s immediate return to Chaparral High School. In October 2013, Jesse filed a lawsuit against the Temecula Valley Unified School District, Director of Child Welfare and Attendance Michael Hubbard and Director of Special Education Kimberly Velez for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and other charges.
“We are so proud of Jesse and have only recognized his endless possibilities, never his limitations”, commented Catherine and Doug Snodgrass, Jesse’s parents, who hope that Jesse’s suit will send a message to schools around the country that these raids will not be tolerated.
“What we have witnessed here is the polar opposite of good policing and an example of how the drug war skews the priorities of law enforcement officers. There was no crime here until the police coerced a special needs student into committing one. They didn’t lessen the amount of drugs available and they didn’t provide help to any students who may have had a legitimate problem. Instead, they diminished the life prospects of everyone they came into contact with. As a parent, as a retired police officer, as a human being, this outrages me,†remarked LAPD Deputy Chief Stephen Downing (Ret.), who now speaks on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of law enforcement officials opposed to the drug war.
Well said.
What kind of undercover goes after one kid and not the gangs in the school? It’s pretty obvious that this undercover cop was looking for sex with these kids and jailed him when the boy wouldn’t sleep with him, or he would have gone after the gangs. When will this police officer register as the sex offender he is. I’m not trying to be mean to this officer, I just cannot imagine why he went after this boy if it wasn’t for sex.
Because the War on Drugs has gruesome consequences, including more rape, I’ve decided the undercover should be held accountable, hence I labeled him a pervert. A full grown man hanging out with kids and not because he’s a coach, preacher, parent, teacher, counselor etc, sends up red flags of a potential sex offender. Would any of you guys be cool if a man wanted to hang out with your child at school and after school? This cop should be punished for the crimes/injustices committed to the innocent because of the war on drugs and one of those crimes is increased rape, which is why I labeled him as a sex offender. If the Prohibitionists can label us with falsities, then surely we can label them with all the abuses that come from not only the badge, but the cause and effect of drug enforcement and its creation of the black market and her horrors. Why is he not a sex offender then? Who believes rape is higher in Mexico since Dec, 2006 or the same or lower? Yet this cop is a direct link to the War in Mexico because of his job.
it was police trying to SELL drugs that killed Patrick Dorismond (visit the Drug War Victims link, at the flame, over there <—)
“Jesse’s family went to court to fight the expulsion attempt, and in March 2013, an administrative law judge halted the expulsion attempt, issuing a scathing ruling against the school district and ordering Jesse’s immediate return to Chaparral High School.”
Sometimes justice does prevail. In this case, the right kind.
Hit them in their wallets,,it is the only way to cure reefer madness.
No Drug Tests For Food Stamp Recipients http://cannabisnews.com/news/28/thread28094.shtml
Medicinal Marijuana Legal in Florida With Proof of Need
New Ads Target Members Of Congress Who Opposed Medical Marijuana Measure http://huff.to/1jXBBBP via @HuffPostPol
Marijuana coffee promises different morning jolt http://usat.ly/1hgyhqr via @usatoday
Colorado attorney general backs firing of medical-marijuana patient
Urine testing for profits. Unreliable invasive and expensive. Measuring metabolites will never relate to impairment. Do it anyway. Measuring impairments might remove the wrong color or lifestyle. Can’t risk that. Private max cap prison contracts. Forced rehabilitation, which is an oxymoron. Do it anyway. After all, Over a trillion spent in tax money criminalizing cannabis users. Went to prohibitionists, plus tax.
And that’s the party Nate Silver writes is supposed to win the senate!
🙂
Have a great graduation day, Jessie! I hope they pay you enough money to get a good start in life. Seeing, after all, how hard they worked to deprive you of one.
amen…
there are cases (hiding a promising treatment for cancer for instance) that cause we anti-Prohibs to come close to head explosions and spontaneous combustions. Seriously… Jesse’s story is a headshaker.
Pardon my french (my daughter always reminds me it’s english) but that this kind of bullshit doesn’t make the peasants grab their pitchforks and torches amazes me. but not really. I’ve learned not to expect much of us as a whole. Sometimes as individuals we kick ass and show how much more there is to us but the mass is a mess.
I do suspect – as is oft mentioned hereabouts – history will hold these snippets up and historians will hold their noses. Nothing beats Prohibition II in leading the charge to build a police state.
*Note to Windy… I still love the Dann sisters, that rancher in nevada flew his true colors. I just had that feeling. I spent a year living out there with all them buckaroos and most are reasonable folk. I can say as a stranger )a freaking long-haired hippie at that!) in a very small community they all were great neighbors. Having a sweet and charming 1 year old and a beautiful young wife helped a bit too… hard to believe it was over 20 years ago. And my baby girl was as sweet as they come too… and then she grewed up, hormones clicked in and one day I had a teenage girl in my house, ugh.
so the war on druggies has mutated into a war on the weak and innocent. it should have been obvious to this seasoned narcotics detective jessie was not a drug user of any kind. in fact, they encouraged him to deal with strangers, which can be dangerous. i bet the bad nark still gets all his bonuses. that’s cause south california is like ‘chinatown’ as in ” forget it Jake. it’s chinatown.”
Temecula Valley Unified School District attempted to expel Jesse after he was acquitted? As if the school district didn’t want Jesse walking the halls reminding his fellow students that its administrators were total jerks for allowing a drug entrapment scheme to operate within their school? It’s always the cover-up.
Once the district loses the lawsuit, it will need a new Director of Child Welfare/Attendance, and a new Director of Special Education. The incoming administrators should be trained by someone other than the Temecula Schutstaffel. The local SS also needs to go. It’s their time.
All this chaos is due to less than a gram of simple weed. Incredible.
Yup. Less than one gram. More like a joint. And that student would have never had anything to do with cannabis if he hadn’t been GROOMED by a L.E. drug enforcement pervert. Worse than child molesters, after all, they have the blessings of the establishment.
We put locks on doors to deter theft and burglaries. Hiding matches from children is a sane and safe thing to do.
How do we deter crime by creating it lock, stock and barrel and daring someone to cross that line? I think handing that pack of matches to that child so you could ground him for life if he lit one would be an equivalent.
Entrapment creates crime and is a dishonest thing to do. Why is it legal? If a parent acted in this fashion they would have their kids taken away.
hey, pete, i was thinking it would be great to get a picture (and maybe a cup of coffee) if you see this, what show are you guys seeing today or where are you doing your walking tour today in manhattan? …of course if youd rather not, i understand no offence taken. 🙂
I think it would be great, too, CJ. Today won’t work – we’re going to Coney Island. But tomorrow (Friday), we’re starting over in Chelsea to do the High Line, and then coming to Union Square and finishing up around the Strand Bookstore before I set people loose to go on their own (probably around 1 pm)
Hey pete I realize the lateness of this message but in the event that you do see it, I am trying to make it there im about a half hour away so im hoping u end up browsing and thus I catch you on time
Sorry I missed you, CJ. Waited at the Strand until a little after 2 and then had to move on.
id love to be there at the graduation ceremony and i m sure jesse will get a huge cheer. the school administration on the other hand should rightly feel highly embarrassed at their failure to protect their most vulnerable students from this gang of outside adult child- abusers. a grovelling public apology from the platform would be a start but that wont happen.
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Here’s something I certainly would have never predicted: The State of New York has decided to run clinical trials of CBD as a treatment for Dravet syndrome in the specific form of Epidiolex with GW Pharm contracted to do the studies. I know, I know, everyone else hates GW Pharm but put that aside for a moment and think about how the State of New York is giving the FDA the finger with this action. 1 minute 40 seconds video:
GW Pharmaceuticals Gets New York Clinical Trial for Kids
“…not bad for a compound that’s listed as having no medical benefits” Hey sunshine, these clinical trials are for cannabidiol, not delta-9 THC. Regardless, I very much appreciate how perkily you deliver that “fuck the FDA jerkoffs” message.
How is New York giving FDA the finger by taking part in FDA-approved “Investigational New Drug” trials?
The FDA granted exclusive rights to G.W.Pharmaceuticals for Epidiolex in November of last year. New York is simply taking advantage of this FDA-approved partnership.
It’s a sweetheart deal for any Big Pharma player to get the Orphan Drug, Investigational New Drug status granted by the FDA because it gives them 7-years of marketing where they are the sole provider of the medication.
fucketh them,,they can sue me for making my own
I will produce a THC-A tincture that will whip a CBD tinctures butt on tumor treatements and possibly seizure treatments,,,definitly muscle cramp treatments and arthritis.
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I understand. It’s all a conspiracy. New York isn’t painting the FDA into a corner with this action.
I keep forgetting the absurdities that my friends on the couch believe. I’ll write myself a note, and hopefully will remember not to bother DWR with this reality again.
If the New York studies were taking place WITHOUT FDA approval then what your saying would make sense.
Since they are acting within FDA rules where is the rouge action? New York isn’t painting the FDA into a corner they are WORKING with them.
See the difference?
O.T. Prohibitch Alert. The ignoble NIDA (AKA Nora Volkow) just released its review of the scientific literature on marijuana, which naturally includes all the preliminary research findings and various debunked nonsense the NIDA has propagated throughout the years. The NIDA even tries to revive the gateway theory. They published their review in the New England Journal of Medicine, thereby befouling that mighty journal’s reputation.
The review is a ridiculous attempt to make it appear as if a scientific consensus exists that overwhelmingly supports social condemnation of cannabinoids. There is no such consensus. The NIDA impostures betray its claim to fame as a science driven agency, it’s merely a propaganda mill. In 2015 the agency is budgeted to receive $1,023,300,000 of wasted taxpayer cash. Spare the money for those who need it. Shut down the NIDA.
The article actually makes one valid point: kids should not be using mj. Unfortunately, that leads them to the conclusion that kids are less likely to use mj if it is illegal and totally unregulated. I guess when they were doing their literature review, they missed all those studies showing teen use goes down in states where it’s regulated.
And trying to bring new life to the gateway “theory” is just ridiculous. NEJM should be ashamed for publishing such garbage. Surely this was not a peer-reviewed paper. So how did it get published in such a respected journal? Did the NIDA just give them the paper and tell them to publish it? Regardless, it’s an embarrassment for the NEJM.
Here’s a link to the article: Adverse Health Effects of Marijuana Use
There’s a Contact Us link at the bottom of the page if you’d like to let the NEJM know what you think about the article.
There’s a paywall on the link. Two words give the tone of the article away for free though: “Adverse” and “Volkow.”
You make some real important points, Tony.
Sanjay Gupta apologized for his part in in the governments deception about the dangers of marijuana and its therapeutic value. Why won’t his counterparts in NIDA and NIH? What will happen to the tremendous volumes of government paid for reefer madness studies purposely jaded to provide the government with it’s needed ammunition to conduct a policy of drug war?
This is not changing when it should. I have the feeling it may be connected to the presidents commitment to the brain mapping initiative. We are talking about figures in the billions lined up with the current figures, all amounting to such large amounts of budgeted money that none of us could possibly count that high in our lifetime.
Marijuana will continue to be a most dangerous substance if these people continue to get these kinds of monetary figures. To them drug addiction is a brain disease and marijuana is in the perfect position to keep the money rolling.
This field of knowledge is so corrupt with government funds designed to keep prohibition active that a dissenting voice would be crushed before it rang out. This will not stop without public pressure and demand that makes its way to the congressional level. What a waste of funds, all spent to fight a losing “war”.
Like in Afganistan, I believe we need a plan for withdrawal of the troops.
The popular notion is that smoking tobacco, whilst completely legal, is very dangerous. Yet the popular notion seems to be that marijuana, though illegal, is a harmless pleasure.
Either marijuana is not as dangerous as NIDA say or marijuana is as dangerous as they say but decades of marijuana prohibition hasn’t altered popular notion. At what point will they conclude that cannabis prohibition has not met its objectives and has failed?
The reason that they targeted special ed kids are twofold. First, those are the kids on meds (the first line of attack was to pester Jesse for his meds). Second, by expelling a special ed kid they get rid of an expensive IEP.
quote of the month, Matt Welch at Reason:
http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/05/this-is-your-country-on-drugs-drug-war-r
yeah, it’s time for some ‘tude. As we used to say in the land where acronyms matter, FTS.
OT, but this seems like deja vu:
DEA targeting doctors linked to medical marijuana groups in Massachusetts
My guess is that no one in the administration will lift a finger to stop it.
Couchmate input needed at the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/05/did-colorado-go-too-far-with-pot/steve-fox-filing-at-7-pm
COUCHMATES ARE GO!