You may remember back a couple of months ago, when Sen. Orin Hatch intervened on behalf of an American record producer facing a draconian sentence for possessing a small bag of cocaine while in the United Arab Emirates. Hatch’s efforts got the man sent back to the United States. Hatch’s office explained that the drug warrior senator’s involvement had nothing to do with the fact that the producer’s lawyer also represented Hatch, and somehow (God help this country if it was legit) helped Hatch rake in close to $40,000 last year for his own dreadful music. Nor, the office said, did Hatch’s involvement have anything to do with the senator’s cozy relationships with the producer’s powerful friends in the entertainment industry, which has taken a liking to Hatch since his conversion on intellectual property issues.

No, Hatch’s office explained the senator’s involvement this way:

A spokesman for Mr. Hatch said that the senator was a proponent of rehabilitation for drug offenders, and that he had worked to revise federal sentencing guidelines regarding cocaine, and, through legislation in 2005, had advocated treatment for nonviolent offenders and the easing of restrictions on medication to treat heroin addiction.

That’s terrific news. Because unfortunately, another American is in trouble in Dubai. This guy got caught with a measly 0.14 grams of marijuana — barely a toke. He’s looking at four years.

Yet Hatch doesn’t seem nearly as interested this time around, even after the good folks at StoptheDrugWar.org brought the case to Hatch’s attention. Hatch’s office says that the bigshot Hollywood producer’s parents pled for Hatch’s help, and that was why the senator got involved. Sounds dubious to me. Even so, the StoptheDrugWar.org people are now at work trying to track down the parents of Dubai’s latest drug war prisoner.

I’m sure they’ll keep us posted as to how Hatch’s office responds.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 7:52 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.