Why Has Microgram Gone Dark?

[seep]

I've been checking the DEA's website for a couple of months now, looking for 2010's monthly MICROGRAM BULLETINS. I'm a big fan of this publication because it offers up a monthly parade of material like this:

TEDDY BEAR STUFFED WITH MUSHROOMS IN FLORIDA: The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) Crime Laboratory received a box containing a white teddy bear stuffed with suspected Psilocybe mushrooms. Upon inspection, it was discovered that a seam on the teddy bear had been altered (See Photo 4). The seam was cut open, and inside the white teddy bear were 11 ziplock plastic bags containing dried brown mushrooms (See Photos 5 - 6) (total gross mass 159.57 grams). Analysis of one of the 11 bags (net mass 28.20 grams) by GC/FID and GC/MS confirmed the presence of psilocin in the mushrooms (not quantitated, but a high concentration based on the TIC). This is the first instance of a controlled substance concealed in a teddy bear submitted to the PBSO Crime Laboratory.

I know that this past Sunday, the most recent Microgram on the website was 12/09's. Now today I checked and got excited because I saw they had posted January and February's issues. Then I clicked on them and got this.

I mean, may God rest Agent Bailey's soul, but where's Microgram?

The answer (if you can call it an answer) is in January's Microgram, which has the following announcement:

- CHANGES TO MICROGRAM BULLETIN POSTING -
Starting with the January 2010 issue, Microgram Bulletin on www.dea.gov will now contain Scheduling Updates, Safety Alerts, Selective References, Meeting Announcements, Employment Opportunities, The Journal/Textbook Collection Exchange, and Training Opportunities. Intelligence Alerts and Briefs will only be found in Microgram Bulletin LE (Law Enforcement) edition. Microgram Bulletin LE will be posted on Law Enforcement Online (LEO), www.leo.gov (criteria for membership and applications for membership can be found at www.leo.gov/membership_criteria.pdf and www.leo.gov/usrApp.html). LEO is a free, interactive, computer-communications service provided by the FBI. It provides an Internet accessible focal point for electronic Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) communication and information sharing for the international, federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. LEO also supports antiterrorism, intelligence, law enforcement, criminal justice, and public safety communities worldwide. Those who do not meet the criteria for membership at LEO can apply for access to Microgram Bulletin LE through the Department of Justice’s information exchange website (IDEA). Access to IDEA will be granted only to government and scientific professionals who have a demonstrated professional need to have access to Microgram Bulletin LE and who cannot qualify for access to www.leo.gov. If you are requesting access to Microgram Bulletin LE through IDEA, you will need to email your request to the Microgram Editor.

Does anyone know why they did this? I guess it's gone the way of the Microgram Journal, their forensic quarterly, whose new issues haven't been publicly-accessible since Obama was inaugurated.

Both publications have been declassified since 2003. What's going on that they've gone dark? I have nothing to hide, so I may end up requesting the IDEA access alluded to above for my workplace; but I'd like to be able to discuss the material therein on public fora such as this one (which, as a harm-reduction site, has nothing to hide either).

 

[Pharcyde]

Feds are making moves

 

[Hammilton]

boy it's hard to wonder why...

but the real question is what they think people get out of it? It's nothing more than a periodic novelty, a laugh, and rarely contains anything of any real value.

 

[seep]

All joking aside, you can't not admire the 1.2 kilos of hash woven into 3 wicker baskets and 4 wicker placemats in the last real issue.

A Best of Microgram Bulletin Intelligence Briefs Alerts would make an excellent coffee table book.

 

[hamhurricane]

RIP. i am nothing short of obsessed with the microgram, i have read every bulletin. i think the real question is why did they declassify it in the first place? how odd it would have been declassified during the bush administration and reclassified under obama...perhaps they were embarrassed that the only mention of the µg is on a slew of drug forums and erowid.

to take a more paranoid tack, maybe it was bait to collect IP addresses from people interested in drugs and see what websites they had been viewing previously, or perhaps with the impending mephedrone/JWH scheduling and cathinone craze they are gearing up for another webtrypt type op although i have no idea how they would execute this one as the vendors are no longer based in the US.

"yes im paranoid - but am i paranoid enough?"

 

[MurphyClox]

LEO is a free, interactive, computer-communications service provided by the FBI. It provides an Internet accessible focal point for electronic Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) communication and information sharing for the international, federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.

SBU is a nice euphemism for censorship.
Depriving the enemy (ie. in the 'War on Drugs') of certain information is definitely thought to handicap the constant adaptation to forensic evidence by changing content drugs, appeareance resp. shape of liquids, powders, herbal mixtures or pills. I remember to have seen in several issues in a row some faked xtc-tablets (actually containing mainly piperazines and caffeine) that looked like Transformers-heads. One could see quite well after looking through a couple of issues that these pills appeared at one point and then faded away, being replaced with new designs and slightly changed content.

- Murphy

 

[seep]

From the transformer-head Intelligence Alert in the 1/09 MB,

Editor’s Note: According to the analyst, the “Decepticons” are the antagonists in the fictional “Transformers” universe.

This is problematic for a number of reasons. Are the Decepticons antagonists or villains? There's a not-so-subtle difference between both categorizations. Also, I don't know if it wouldn't be more correct to say that the Transformers are from a fictional planet. The idea of a fictional Universe carries all kinds of epistemological baggage. Earth in the cartoon series is a simulacrum of the real thing, and by this line of reasoning All the President's Men, La battaglia di Algeri and even Triumph des Willens took place in fictional universes.

Also, what characterizes a Decepticon? To quote WiKipedia:

1) Most Decepticons think very little of humans and consider them no better than pests or "insects". This is strongly emphasized in the 2007 film Transformers, when Megatron is seen flicking a human like a bug and saying "disgusting". Another example is when the Decepticon Frenzy complained about how the "stupid insects" tried to shoot him....

2) In the original animated series continuity, the Decepticons owe their warlike ways to their faction's origin as military hardware robots, created by the five-faced aliens, the Quintessons, while the Autobots were designed as consumer goods. Following the rebellion that forced the Quintessons off the planet, the Decepticons - as they named themselves - lusting for power, began a civil war. The Autobots could not hope to match the superior firepower and battlefield powers of the Decepticons, and instead turned to stealth, developing the art of transformation, modifying their bodies so that they could assume other forms. With this additional power, the Autobots were able to win the conflict, and a period of peace began, known as the Golden Age of Cybertron, when energy was plentiful and the planet shone with a golden hue.

Is this not a microcosm of the war on drugs?

---

I forgot what I intended to ask before I got enmeshed in this nonsense...

Oh yeah, are the 7 years of accessible Microgram Bulletins in the public domain--i.e. can they be reprinted, adapted and altered without the DEA's permission? I don't see copyright declarations anywhere.

 

[orangescrewpen]

Can the Freedom of Information Act be used to open this up to the public again? Can anyone comment on this? I definitely know people who are just itching to sue the government for some reason.

 

[any major dude]

that is weird, i've been an occasional reader of the microgram for sometime now, and definitely have gotten a cheap laugh or two at those bastards expense. There is occasionally some useful info though.

I have been suspecting a crackdown on cathinones for a while now, and was surprised to see them go after JWH's first... go figure, leave it to the feds to restrict access to the lesser harmful substances first... I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the reclassification has something to do with an impending crackdown on cathinones, if not rc vending all together. I sincerely hope they aren't going to come after customers this time, though that does seem like it would be exceedingly difficult & time consuming.

All joking aside, you can't not admire the 1.2 kilos of hash woven into 3 wicker baskets and 4 wicker placemats in the last real issue.

A Best of Microgram Bulletin Intelligence Briefs Alerts would make an excellent coffee table book.

I'm stealing this idea and taking it to a publisher now

Can the Freedom of Information Act be used to open this up to the public again? Can anyone comment on this? I definitely know people who are just itching to sue the government for some reason.

It would be interesting to find out. I'm certainly not going to be the one to try though