| June 5, 2009 #603 | ||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||||
(1) POT ACTIVIST BOWS TO EXTRADITION (Top) | ||||||||||
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Marc Emery, the self-described "Prince of Pot," says he is willing to stop fighting his extradition to the United States on charges of selling pot seeds to Americans and plead guilty on a drug charge even though it could mean up to eight years in a U.S. jail. | ||||||||||
Mr. Emery says his Vancouver lawyer persuaded him that he could not
win a fight against extradition that began after his 2005 arrest on
charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and marijuana
and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. | ||||||||||
Mr. Emery, 51, said his lawyer told him he had never seen the
Canadian government refuse a U.S. extradition request.
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"The [federal] Conservative government under this Prime Minister is
not going to start with you," Mr. Emery said in an interview
Thursday, quoting his lawyer, Ian Donaldson. | ||||||||||
"Literally, my lawyer refused to [proceed] because he said there's
no hope to it. He said it would just be a waste of a week or two
weeks of court time for a result he cannot anticipate will be a
positive one."
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He also noted that his wife, Jodie, preferred any option that would
reduce his jail time. | ||||||||||
"She would feel more comfortable knowing I was going to be back in
two or three or four years than perhaps never, or 10 to 15, 20
years."
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[snip]
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(2) MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL GAINS SUPPORT (Top) | ||||||||||
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Assembly Panel Passes Version Listing Diseases
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The effort to allow severely ill New Jerseyans to use marijuana to
ease their pain gained momentum yesterday as an Assembly committee
cleared a revamped bill that would also set strict limits on who can
grow, distribute or get the drug. | ||||||||||
The bill, which would make New Jersey the 14th state to allow
marijuana use for medical purposes, includes restrictions lawmakers
added in response to criticism that a measure passed earlier this
year by the state Senate was too lax, allowing patients to grow
their own. | ||||||||||
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora ( D-Mercer ), one of the sponsors, said, "When all other medical conventional treatments do not work, this will at least give an opportunity for patients and their doctors to explore other methods of treatment, but in a responsible way." | ||||||||||
The bill cleared the Assembly Health Committee despite opponents'
arguments that legalizing marijuana for any use sends the wrong
message to young people. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(3) COLORADANS REPORT DRINKING LESS, SMOKING MORE POT (Top) | ||||||||||
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Coloradans say they are doing less hard drinking than they did in the
past few years but say they are more likely to smoke pot, according to
a two-year federal assessment to be released today. | ||||||||||
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found Colorado was the only state to log a decrease in those who think they are at risk to binge- drink since the last study completed in 2006, from 29.8 percent in the previous study to 25.8 percent in the most recent. | ||||||||||
Meanwhile, Colorado is one of seven states that notched
"significant" increases in teens and adults who say they are more
likely to smoke pot at least once a month than those who
participated in the last government survey. | ||||||||||
"We've been saying for some time that many adults want a safer
alternative to drinking," said Mason Tvert, executive director of
the Denver-based pot-legalization group Safer Alternative for
Enjoyable Recreation, which has passed two pro-pot public votes in
the city since 2006. | ||||||||||
The increase in stoners could logically be tied to the rocky
economy, said Tvert, co-author of a book to be released in August
that measures the economics of getting buzzed, "Marijuana Is Safer:
So Why Do We Drive People to Drink?"
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[snip]
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(4) VT. HAS HIGHEST RATE OF POT SMOKERS (Top) | ||||||||||
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Vermont ranked highest nationwide for marijuana use in a new survey
released Thursday by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration. | ||||||||||
The survey, conducted in 2006 and 2007, compares drug use by age and
by type across all 50 states. | ||||||||||
While Vermont doesn't have the highest level of drug use -- that
distinction goes to Rhode Island where 12.5 percent of the populace
reported illicit drug use in the past month -- the Green Mountain
State was cited in the report for having the highest incidence rate
of marijuana use among people aged 12 and older. | ||||||||||
While the national average for marijuana use was 1.6 percent in 2006
and 2007, use of the drug in Vermont was 2.5 percent during the same
time frame. | ||||||||||
That's nothing new, according to researchers at the SAMHSA, who said
Thursday that Vermont has consistently ranked high for marijuana
use. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy
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The mainstream media again squanders an opportunity to explicitly
show how prohibition causes drug violence. The New York Times
instead chooses to demonize particular substances instead of looking
at policies. There is a refreshing alternative to this kind of
reporting, and this week it was found in Canada's Globe and Mail,
which explored the idea that heroin can actually help with addiction
problems. | ||||||||||
Elsewhere, another member of the Obama administration chooses to blame Americans and not stupid policy for violence at the Mexican border; while a colleague of William F. Buckley's offers a vision for conservatism that goes beyond today's losing formula. | ||||||||||
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(5) IN HEARTLAND DEATH, TRACES OF HEROIN'S SPREAD (Top) | ||||||||||
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War Without Borders
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GROVE CITY, Ohio -- For five hours, Dana Smith huddled stunned and
bewildered in her suburban living room while the body of her son
Arthur Eisel IV, 31, lay slumped in an upstairs bathroom, next to a
hypodermic needle. | ||||||||||
Family and friends streamed in. Detectives scurried about. For Mrs.
Smith, the cold realization set in that her oldest son Artie --
quiet, shy, car enthusiast, football and softball fanatic -- was
dead of a heroin overdose. | ||||||||||
The death was the end of a particular horror for Mrs. Smith, whose
two other children, Mr. Eisel's younger brothers, also fell into
heroin addiction "like dominoes," she said, and still struggle with
it. | ||||||||||
To the federal government, which prosecuted the heroin dealers for
Mr. Eisel's death, it was a stark illustration of how Mexican drug
cartels have pushed heroin sales beyond major cities into America's
suburban and rural byways, some of which had seen little heroin
before. | ||||||||||
In Ohio, for instance, heroin-related deaths spread into 18 new
counties from 2004 to 2007, the latest year for which statistics are
available. Their numbers rose to 546 in that period, from 376 for
2000 to 2003. | ||||||||||
Federal officials now consider the cartels the greatest organized
crime threat to the United States. Officials say the groups are
taking over heroin distribution from Colombians and Dominicans and
making new inroads across the country, pushing a powerful form of
heroin grown and processed in Mexico known as "black tar" for its
dark color and sticky texture. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(6) HEROIN SHOULD BE USED AS TREATMENT, EXPERT SAYS (Top) | ||||||||||
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VICTORIA - Even if groundbreaking research into a substitute
treatment for heroin is successful, heroin itself should be
available as a medical option for addicts, a top addictions
researcher told The Globe and Mail Tuesday. | ||||||||||
"Like in any other medical condition, patients respond well to a
given treatment, but not all of them," Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes said in
a forum on The Globe's website. | ||||||||||
Dr. Oviedo-Joekes is a principal investigator of the SALOME project,
which is recruiting heroin addicts for a medical trial that will
offer both heroin and a legal narcotic substitute to determine their
effectiveness as a harm-reduction treatment. While the long-term
goal is to help the addicts get off hard drugs, in the short term,
the plan is to get them away from the more dangerous aspects of
heroin addiction, such as committing crimes, sharing needles, and
shooting up in back alleys. | ||||||||||
The Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness, set to open clinics in Montreal and Vancouver by the end of this year, is building on a previous medical trial that found addicts were healthier and committed fewer crimes when given heroin in a clinic. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(7) U.S. ACCEPTS BLAME IN NARCO-WAR (Top) | ||||||||||
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While Mexico Sends Drugs North, American Cash And Guns Flow South,
Fuelling Success Of Drug Cartels
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OTAY MESA CROSSING - Newly appointed U.S. border czar Alan Bersin delivered a surprising message during his debut appearance near the border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana: Don't just blame Mexico for the smuggling of illegal drugs into the United States. | ||||||||||
Standing behind enormous red-bound bales of seized marijuana piled
higher than him, Bersin delivered an unprecedented acknowledgement,
both of Mexico's best efforts to stop trafficking and U.S. guilt for
being part of the problem. | ||||||||||
"One major new difference," he told reporters, gathered at this busy
crossing a few kilometres south of San Diego, "is the recognition by
the government of Mexico that drug trafficking is a national
security threat and ( there's a ) need to build honest, reliable law
enforcement and an honest judiciary."
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That evolution, he stressed, "represents a departure from all past
Mexican history."
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Bersin spoke at the Pacific side of a highly militarized border -
with a fence planned for a third of the 3,169-kilometre route - that
stretches to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. Helicopters searching
for smugglers - of drugs and people - buzzed overhead and, a few
hundred metres away at the actual Otay Mesa crossing, border agents
with drug-sniffing dogs stopped and searched vehicles. | ||||||||||
But it wasn't simply the verbal message to Mexico that's changed.
Even the optics of the news conference were different. | ||||||||||
There were, as usual, drugs on display, in this case the bales of
marijuana seized headed north out of Mexico and displayed by U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol agents. | ||||||||||
What was different, however, was the sample of weapons, including an
AK-47, M-10, M-4, sawed-off shotgun and Winchester bolt-action
hunting rifle, as well as a package of about $120,000 in U.S.
dollars - - all seized while headed in the other direction, south
into Mexico. | ||||||||||
The point, said Bersin, is that while drugs go north, cash and guns
mainly flow south from the United States into Mexico. In fact, 90
per cent of the weapons seized in Mexico originate in the United
States. | ||||||||||
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(8) OPED: BILL BUCKLEY AND THE FUTURE OF CONSERVATISM (Top) | ||||||||||
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The most important lesson of his career is that there are limits to
accommodation. | ||||||||||
In times of perplexity evangelical Christians ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" Conservatives trying to regroup in the age of Obama might ask themselves, "What would William F. Buckley Jr. do?" | ||||||||||
Buckley died in 2008 after almost 60 years as a public intellectual
and celebrity. His quirky and hyperarticulate defense of his ideas,
in books and columns and on television, gained him celebrity, and he
used his stardom to propagate his ideas. He fought in great
victories -- he helped create the climate of opinion in which Ronald
Reagan was elected president -- and he saw great debacles, from the
fall of South Vietnam to the travails of George W. Bush. I wrote for
him and worked with him for almost 40 years, and I believe
conservatives might turn to him now, not for salvation, but for a
little mental clarity and temperamental reinforcement. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Another Buckley lesson is always think for yourself. No one was more
deferential to the wisdom of his betters. He loved Edmund Burke's
purple passage about "the great principles of government . . . which
were understood long before we were born" and will continue to be
understood "after the grave has heaped its mould upon our
presumption, and the silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our
pert loquacity." But Buckley was always trying to apply those great
principles to the problems of the day, and he could be very pert
when they took him in new directions. The problem of drug addiction
preoccupied him as early as his mayoral run, and he kept thinking
about it for years. In 1972 he ran an article in National Review by
Richard Cowan, later executive director of The National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, calling for the decriminalization
of marijuana. By 1996 he edited a symposium in the magazine
concluding, bluntly, "The War on Drugs is Lost." This made him! the
pet of liberals and pot-heads. He didn't care: The drug laws, he
decided, were capricious and unenforceable and ought to be changed.
That was the proper conservative position, and he would uphold it
even if he was almost alone in doing so. | ||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons
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Mexico's drug war keeps getting worse and more corrupt. In the most
recent round of actions, several local officials have been arrested.
And one reporter learns the only way to avoid the violence is to
leave the country. In the U.S., oped writers are recognizing the
need for reform, while Rockefeller reform laws in New York may
already be in jeopardy. | ||||||||||
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(9) MEXICO'S DETENTION OF LOCAL OFFICIALS MARKS SHIFT IN DRUG WAR (Top) | ||||||||||
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Mexico Under Siege
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Calderon Had Been Focused on a Military Offensive Targeting Drug Figures and Corrupt Police. Now Officials Are Being Questioned to See How Far the Cartels Have Penetrated 'Local Political Elites.' | ||||||||||
The detention this week of more than two dozen local officials in
Michoacan on suspicion of aiding a narcotics cartel marks a new tack
in Mexico's bloody drug war, a strategic shift that Wednesday sent
nervous politicians running for cover. | ||||||||||
Ten mayors and 17 other officials were swept up Tuesday in raids by
federal authorities, and were interrogated Wednesday in Mexico City.
Ricardo Najera, spokesman for the federal attorney general's office,
said the officials are suspected of having ties to La Familia, one
of Mexico's most violent drug syndicates. | ||||||||||
President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug gangs when he took
office in December 2006, saying that traffickers had "overwhelmed" a
number of local governments. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(10) THE MAN WHO OUTRAN DRUG ASSASSINS (Top) | ||||||||||
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Mexican Reporter Took Cop's Warning Seriously, Left Town Shortly
Before Colleague Gunned Down
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SURREY, B.C. - Bang-bang. You're dead.
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That's not exactly how the cop warned crime reporter Luis Najera in
the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez that he could be
assassinated, but that was the intent. | ||||||||||
The officer was a good contact and, one day last September, he
casually brushed past Najera in the street as if he didn't see him,
flicked out his hand and whispered: "Aguas!"
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He didn't even say it, really; it was more a rush of air. The word
means "waters," but in Mexican slang, it's "Be careful!" Najera, 38,
who wrote about drug trafficking, knew he was getting one last
chance to run for his life. | ||||||||||
He hurried home, packed three suitcases with five changes of clothes
and, with his wife and three children, 17, 8 and 2, fled for their
lives to Vancouver. | ||||||||||
He arrived on Sept. 27 to a city he'd never visited, in a country he
didn't know, to claim refugee status and begin the battle to stay in
Canada. | ||||||||||
On Nov. 13, 2008, his colleague Armando Rodriguez, 40, from El Diario de Juarez, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. They blasted his body with eight bullets in front of his home as he prepared to drive his daughter to school in Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Tex. He died at the scene; she was not physically injured. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(11) OPED: REDEEM THE PRISON GENERATION (Top) | ||||||||||
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Treating Prisoners Like Toxic Social Waste Isn't Working. Here's A
Better Way. | ||||||||||
San Francisco - They're the least popular constituency in America. People we'd rather forget. Last year, a record 1 in every 100 American adults was in prison. One in every 30 men aged 20 to 34. And among black males in that age group? One in 9. Why? | ||||||||||
Because America's crime and punishment policies reflect an
incoherent mix of motives: justice, retribution, vengeance, the
illusion of expedience, the cruel bigotry of nonexistent
expectations. And absent decent job training, counseling, and
re-entry programs, the system only incites violence and invites
recidivism. | ||||||||||
It's past time to reconsider our approach to prisons, for practical
reasons - and because it seriously undermines our effectiveness as a
society and our moral authority with other nations. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(12) OPED: LEAVE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAW REFORMS ALONE (Top) | ||||||||||
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Recently, Gov. Paterson passed legislation that brought meaningful
Rockefeller Drug Law reform to New York State. But it did not come
easy. Opponents of the reforms fought tooth and nail and swore that
bringing forth these changes would open the flood gates of hell.
Thank goodness common sense prevailed. But now District Attorneys
and Republican Senators, who were the main opponents of the reforms,
have struck back. They are now seeking to mount a campaign to repeal
the reforms. For a start they have chosen to hide behind the shield
of public safety and promote their own political agenda of making
those responsible for the reforms look soft on crime. But that
shield gets worn out when their arguments do nothing more then
undermine the recently passed reforms that advance a public health
and safety approach to drug use and addiction. | ||||||||||
Their argument now is centered on a provision in the recent reforms
that allows judges to seal drug offenders' records. They claim that
criminals will be able to hide their criminal past while applying
for jobs and doing so would jeopardize public safety. The truth is
that only people with low-level, nonviolent offenses, who complete
court supervised treatment in lieu of prison, are eligible to have
their records sealed. The records are always available to law
enforcement, and if there's a public safety threat the judge won't
seal the record in the first place. | ||||||||||
Sealing records is nothing new. For decades, the district attorneys
throughout New York have had the power to seal records or dismiss
cases entirely. Under current law people who successfully complete
drug court programming have their guilty pleas withdrawn and cases
dismissed. This practice is widely understood as an important
process for successful community re-integration. | ||||||||||
The new law that now is being questioned by prosecutors is
essentially the same -- except now judges, not prosecutors, make the
decision to determine whether or not a person's record can be
sealed. Prosecutors have opposed the restoration of judicial
discretion on any grounds, including record sealing. This isn't
surprising. They simply do not want to give up their tremendous
power. | ||||||||||
But the 10-fold increase since 1980 of incarceration for small-time
drug use has put half a million people, one-fifth of the total
prison population, behind bars. While crime comes in degrees, the
basic risk assessment we apply to every other human enterprise -
from military interventions to medicine to making children's toys -
doesn't seem to apply here. Instead, the crudest and broadest
possible sentencing mandates treat many offenders as domestic
terrorists, with little regard for the severity of the crime or the
risk to society. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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Cannabis & Hemp
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Marc Emery seems destined to serve time in a U.S. federal prison for
mailing cannabis seeds to consenting Americans, but it is not too
late to register your objections with the powers that be. See "What
You Can Do This Week" below. | ||||||||||
With political will, overwhelming public support, and ignorant
opposition, it seems state level medicinal cannabis law reform merely
awaits funding and organized activists on the ground. | ||||||||||
Lacking the U.S. ability to appeal to voters, Canadian activists are
still chipping away at cannabis prohibition in the courts, trying to
establish that, lacking a functional exception for medicinal use,
laws prohibiting cannabis are null and void. | ||||||||||
Thank goodness young people are becoming more active in cannabis law
reform, now pioneering portable activism, as some of us old folks
mapped out online activism a decade ago. | ||||||||||
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(13) CANADA'S 'PRINCE OF POT' AT WAR WITH US DRUG WAR (Top) | ||||||||||
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Psychedelic rock booms through The
Vapour Lounge. In the store, young and some not-so-young people smoke
pot through a variety of devices. And owner Marc Emery stands in the
middle of it all, proclaiming his goal of defeating the U.S. war on
drugs. Known as the Prince of Pot, Emery has sold millions of
marijuana seeds around the world by mail over the past decade. In
doing so, he has drawn the attention of U.S. drug officials, who want
him extradited to Seattle. | ||||||||||
Emery has agreed to plead guilty in Seattle to one count of marijuana
distribution in exchange for dismissal of all other counts, and the
U.S. District Attorney is pressing for a sentence of five to eight
years in a U.S. prison. The case is the latest twist in Emery's two-
decade-long fight against the prohibition of marijuana in North
America. To his supporters, he is a brave crusader for the use and
sale of a drug with both recreational and medicinal value. To drug
officials, he is a criminal and the biggest purveyor of marijuana from
Canada into the United States. | ||||||||||
Emery sits "right smack in the middle" of the North American debate over marijuana prohibition, said Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C. St. Pierre predicted that Emery's trial would "kick-start it all again." | ||||||||||
But drug officials say they are simply going after one of the world's
top 50 drug traffickers. U.S. authorities claim Emery's seeds have
grown $2.2 billion worth of pot. | ||||||||||
"We've been very clear it had nothing to do with Mr. Emery's political
stand," said Emily Langlie of the U.S. District Attorney's Office in
Seattle. Emery himself, a two-time candidate for mayor of Vancouver
who has never shied away from publicity, seems almost gleeful about
the legal saga. He calls it the greatest platform he could have in his
crusade, and his Facebook page notes that these days he hums the
chorus from Canadian musician Baron Longfellow's "I'm Going to Need a
Miracle Tonight". He predicted he will be in a U.S. jail by August,
and will then ask supporters to push for his transfer to a Canadian
jail. | ||||||||||
"I do have millions of supporters in the U.S. and Canada," he said,
unburdened by false modesty. "It's my job as leader of the cannabis
culture to thwart the United States government."
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[snip]
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(14) MEDICAL MARIJUANA A LONGSHOT FOR OHIO
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Opposition Awaits Possible Legislation
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COLUMBUS - From football to taxes, the rivalry between Ohio and its
neighbor up north is the stuff of legend. But when it comes to
legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, Ohio is showing
little sign of following Michigan's lead. | ||||||||||
A bill is being negotiated behind the scenes for possible introduction
this fall, but even the concept's strongest supporters know it faces
an improbable climb in the General Assembly. | ||||||||||
The spear carrier this time may be Rep. Kenny Yuko (D., Richmond
Heights), who believes he has a special perspective given his
diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. | ||||||||||
"It's given me a spirited interest," he said. "People come to me about
MS and other illnesses. I've never had a marijuana cigarette in my
life. I have no idea what that's like, but people have told me about
the comfort it brings them in dealing with very excruciating
illnesses."
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[snip]
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John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, has heard the rumors in the Statehouse halls about a renewed effort in Ohio. The association remains opposed to the idea. | ||||||||||
"It's viewed as a controlled substance, and there must be a reason for
that," he said. "It's regarded as harmful and habit-forming, all the
usual reasons. It should remain that way."
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While the issue went directly to voters in Michigan, the emphasis in
Ohio remains on the General Assembly, particularly in the House, where
Democrats recently regained the majority. There's been little talk of
pursuing an expensive ballot issue, despite a recent Ohio Poll
released by the University of Cincinnati that showed 73 percent of
Ohioans generally favor the concept. | ||||||||||
"The passage of the issue up there [in Michigan] came through [wealthy
Democratic activist] Peter Lewis' money," said Ed Orlett, a former
state representative from Columbus who has advocated changes in Ohio's
drug policy. | ||||||||||
"We understand that the whole [ballot] effort would cost $2 million,"
he said. "It's a question of priorities. There are efforts in 12 other
states, so someone is putting money into those states rather than
Ohio."
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[snip]
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(15) COURT CHALLENGE AIMS TO LEGALIZE ALL CANNABIS USE
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Advocates Say Previous Rule A 'Mockery'
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Medical marijuana advocates are planning a court challenge aimed at
legalizing all cannabis use, in response to the latest restrictions
announced by Health Canada. | ||||||||||
The federal government announced last week that it would allow
designated producers to grow marijuana for as many as two medical
users, instead of a maximum of one, permitted under the old
regulations. | ||||||||||
The previous rules were ruled unconstitutional by a Federal Court of
Canada judge in January, 2008, because they did not provide for a
sufficient legal supply of cannabis for medical users without having
to use the black market. | ||||||||||
Health Canada appealed unsuccessfully to the Federal Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, which refused in April to hear the case. | ||||||||||
It was the eighth time in the past decade that Health Canada has lost
in court trying to uphold its medical marijuana policies and
regulations, each time over restrictions on supply. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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"It is time for the vicious cycle to end. It means we have to take it
to the next level, to show the government it cannot thumb its nose at
our courts," said Mr. Marzel.
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The lawyer explained that he is organizing a court challenge this summer on behalf of a number of people in Ontario facing marijuana trafficking charges, and has asked that all charges be dismissed. | ||||||||||
If he is successful, it would effectively mean that there is no
prohibition on possessing or producing marijuana, for medical or
recreational use. | ||||||||||
"This is the only way. The courts have repeatedly given the government time to come up with a workable solution. They didn't do it. Health Canada has brought this upon itself," suggested Mr. Marzel. | ||||||||||
[snip]
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(16) SIBLINGS DESIGN PIONEER MARIJUANA APPLICATION (Top) | ||||||||||
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When two siblings, David and Elizabeth Gregory, were laid off from
their jobs in January, they used their free time to create an iPhone
application focusing on the legalization of marijuana. | ||||||||||
CHRONIC-les was released for sale May 21 and has had more than 1,000
downloads, ranking it at number seven under the Lifestyle section in
the iTunes App Store. | ||||||||||
The app features the laws and consequences for possession in each
state, facts and figures supporting why marijuana should be legal and
a pre-written letter to President Obama that can be sent by pushing a
button, described by David as "petition on the go." It can also locate
the nearest NORML chapter. | ||||||||||
Elizabeth, 26, is an applied sociology graduate student. She finished
her undergraduate degree in marketing in 2005. David, 24, took classes
at UCF but has been taking time off to work. Neither of them had any
programming experience, so they borrowed library books and taught
themselves. David does the programming and Elizabeth writes the
content. | ||||||||||
The siblings have plans in the works to create other applications,
which they could not disclose. Elizabeth said some of them will be
free, "to give back to people."
| ||||||||||
Central Florida Future: When did you guys first come up with the idea,
and how?
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
International News
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
In Canada, Stephen Harper's social conservatives appear to have
cowed enough parliamentary members to vote for a mandatory minimum
drug bill which promises to pack prisons with people involved in
petty pot crimes. Harper's extreme right wing party has been pushing
hard for the bill's passage for months, and police have been stoking
media with drug-crime scare stories. Stats contradict police claims
of rising violent and property crime? No problem! Just turn around
and claim crime was "Under-Reported". | ||||||||||
Explained police (who stand to gain handsomely upon passage of
mandatory minimum drug laws) drug users are, "like automatons: 'must
break in, must break in, must break in.'" And of course, explains
Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu, drug users "need to be
institutionalized," because, after all, "you either incarcerate the
person to protect the community, or you just let them commit
crimes". Much institutionalization is expected to be the result of
the Harper mandatory minimum bill, although "13 of the 16 witnesses
who appeared before the House of Commons" committee "lambasted" the
proposed bill as sure to "fill jails with drug addicts rather than
drug kingpins."
| ||||||||||
And finally, here's an event you won't hear much about in the U.S.
mainstream media. The Latin American Commission On Drugs And
Democracy including former president of Brazil, Fernando Enrique
Cardoso, denounced drug prohibition as encouraging violence and as a
threat to democracy. "The war on drugs has failed in spite of
enormous efforts in places like Colombia - the area of coca crops is
not reducing," said Cardoso. "The war on drugs is based on
repression. How can people believe in democracy if the rule of law
doesn't work?" The Commission recommended that marijuana be
decriminalized for personal use. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
(17) PROPERTY CRIME'S 'GROUND ZERO' (Top) | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
That's The Downtown Eastside's Status, Police Say, and It's An
Under-Reported Problem
| ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
Hinton's police radio crackles: there's an unconscious woman on the
street, possibly a heroin overdose, and a man who's been stabbed
with a needle. Sirens wail. Just another night in Vancouver's drug
and crime epicentre. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
"There's a lot of under-reporting of crime down here," Hinton explains. "I know assaults and violent crime are under-reported. There's a lot of fear of intimidation and retaliation, and lack of co-operation from victims and witnesses in dealing with violent crime, because these guys have to come out and see the same dealer. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
(18) SOME 'NEED TO BE INSTITUTIONALIZED' (Top) | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
In a wide-ranging interview with Province reporter Elaine O'Connor,
Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu offered these thoughts on the
Downtown Eastside. | ||||||||||
What can we do to improve the situation in the Downtown Eastside? "I
think we can make positive changes. It will take someone senior to
listen to the input from a lot of people and make decisions, because
you will never get consensus. | ||||||||||
"I think what's really important is the ideology around deinstitutionalization. For some it was good, but they went too far and a lot of people who shouldn't be on the streets are out there. A lot of these people cannot function in the community. They need to be institutionalized. I'll say it. If you don't believe me, walk down there, there are some sick people. That may sound cruel to some people, but really you are killing people with their rights. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
"But when all else fails, you either incarcerate the person to
protect the community, or you just let them commit crimes and put
them in for a day, and let them commit more crimes and put them in
for another day. We don't believe that's the answer."
| ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
(19) MANDATORY DRUG SENTENCES BILL HEADED FOR APPROVAL (Top) | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Critics Say It Will Flood Prisons
| ||||||||||
(CNS) - A federal bill to impose automatic jail terms
| ||||||||||
If the proposed legislation succeeds as anticipated, judges will be
stripped of their discretion on whether to incarcerate drug
traffickers, including offenders who grow and then sell as few as
five marijuana plants. | ||||||||||
The bill was lambasted by 13 of the 16 witnesses who appeared before
the House of Commons justice committee during public hearings this
spring. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
Several witnesses warned the justice committee the proposed
legislation will fill jails with drug addicts rather than drug
kingpins, who will continue to thrive, while small-time dealers are
knocked out of commission. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
(20) MARIJUANA AND COCAINE SHOULD BE LEGALISED, SAYS LATIN AMERICAN (Top)DRUGS COMMISSION | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Marijuana and cocaine for personal use should be decriminalised
because the "war on drugs" has been a disaster, according to some of
Latin America's most powerful politicians and writers. | ||||||||||
The current international policy on drugs encourages corruption and violence that is threatening democracy throughout the continent, according to the former president of Brazil, Fernando Enrique Cardoso, who is a co-president of the Latin American commission on drugs and democracy. As well as politicians, the commission includes the writers Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Paulo Coelho of Brazil. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
The current system of prohibition encouraged corruption among police
officers, politicians and even judges. "It poisons the whole system,
it undermines democracy," Cardoso said. "The war on drugs is based
on repression. How can people believe in democracy if the rule of
law doesn't work?" Users should be offered treatment rather than
jail, he said. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
Cardoso said that the changes would have to be co-ordinated. "We
need an international convention, otherwise you will have different
countries doing different things," he said. "But the climate is
changing for the first time for many years. Even in the US, they
recognise we are in deadlock now." Obama had already made it clear
that the idea of a "war on drugs" was not workable. The need for
change is urgent, said Cardoso, because of what is happening in
Latin America. "There is a very grave situation in Mexico," he said.
"More people are being killed there (through the drugs war) than in
Iraq." He said that it was easier for former presidents who were no
longer in office or running for election to speak out on such a
controversial issue. He added that ending the war on drugs would be
not be a signal that drugs were acceptable but a recognition that
current policies had failed. | ||||||||||
[snip]
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||
DRUG TRUTH NETWORK
| ||||||||||
Century of Lies - 05/31/09 - Sanho Tree
| ||||||||||
Sanho Tree of Institute for Policy Studies & "Poppygate" report on UN
Drug Czar's call to let Afghans glut the opium market + Mark Mauer of
the Sentencing Project re drug use rate of criminals & first edition
of the "Stupid NEWS"
| ||||||||||
Cultural Baggage Radio Show - 06/03/09 - Marc Emery
| ||||||||||
US Prison Sentences await Marc Emery - Canada's Prince of Pot,
Reverend Eddy Lepp and cannabis dispensary owner Charles Lynch,
comments from Ed Rosenthal the guru of ganja. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
AN INTERVIEW WITH RICK DOBLIN OF MAPS
| ||||||||||
MAPS' new podcast series, Psychedelic Spotlight, hosted by Ken Allen, debuted with an interview with MAPS President Rick Doblin Ph.D. | ||||||||||
http://www.maps.org/podcasts/podcast_psychedelic_spotlight_6_09.mp3 | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
By Ibo Nagano, Entheogen Review
| ||||||||||
Humanity has used nutmeg as a medicine, narcotic, aphrodisiac, dream
enhancer and inebriant. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
NICE PEOPLE TAKE DRUGS
| ||||||||||
Our colleagues over at Release - long time reform campaigners and
defenders of those who fall foul of the UK's unjust, outdated and
often plain ridiculous drug laws - have launched a new campaign as
part of their wider project to drag the drug policy debate out of the
stagnant waters of politically driven drug-war posturing and into what
rational pragmatists might call 'the real world'. | ||||||||||
http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2009/06/nice-people-take-drugs.html | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
CAN THC HELP SOME SCHIZOPHRENICS?
| ||||||||||
By Bruce Mirken, Marijuana Policy Project
| ||||||||||
Report cites "grossly psychotic, assaultive," schizophrenic "became
calm, logical, nonviolent, and cooperative within days" after taking
THC. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
THE PRINCE OF POT AND JODIE: BIG CHANGES
| ||||||||||
Jodie and Marc Emery bring us up to date on all of the changes around
Cannabis Culture Magazine, Cannabis Culture Headquarters, and in the
extradition battle Marc has fought for 4 years. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
EFFORT TO BLOCK ROCKEFELLER REFORM IS DEAD IN THE WATER
| ||||||||||
By Phillip S. Smith, DRCNet
| ||||||||||
How the mighty have fallen! Until recently, opponents of drug law
reform in New York were successful using fear-mongering and
demagoguery. | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||
HELP SAVE CANADIAN ACTIVIST AND HERO, MARC EMERY!
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
WRITE A LETTER
| ||||||||||
Heroin In The Heartland. A DrugSense Focus Alert
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||
Medical Marijuana Is About Compassion
| ||||||||||
MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS ABOUT COMPASSION
| ||||||||||
By Gene Tinelli
| ||||||||||
To the Editor:
| ||||||||||
Bravo for the courage of both Joe Gamble, who took the risk to put a
human face on the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and to the
Post Standard for the lead story and long article on his plight May
18. | ||||||||||
For Joe Gamble, the use of the herbal cannabinoid marijuana has
benefits that far outweigh its costs. Unfortunately, it is
prohibited and makes a criminal of a man with a life of outstanding
service. Some criminal.
| ||||||||||
The soft underbelly of our harsh and pernicious "war on drugs,"
which is actually a war on people like Joe Gamble, is the lack of
compassion for human suffering. In medicine, we have only two
ethical canons, to relieve suffering and preserve patient autonomy.
Our prohibition of marijuana violates both. | ||||||||||
In addition to being an effective herbal therapy for multiple
sclerosis, acute glaucoma, neurodegenerative diseases, AIDS, the
effects of chemotherapies and other symptoms/syndromes, use of
marijuana can relieve both acute pain and the memories of chronic
suffering. | ||||||||||
One of the oldest chemical information systems in our bodies is the
endocannabinoid system, which helps us "forget" severe suffering. We
can "remember" our worst pain but cannot experience it in the
present moment. If we did, we'd be unable to function. This is the
same system that marijuana activates. | ||||||||||
People with less than optimal internal endocannabinoid systems may
have illnesses with no legal, effective medical treatments. When
they use marijuana, our society's response is to arrest them and
throw them in jail. | ||||||||||
On Sept. 6, 1988, DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young
ruled that "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man."
| ||||||||||
End of story. Legalize medical marijuana now. It's time. | ||||||||||
Gene Tinelli
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH - MAY (Top) | ||||||||||
DrugSense recognizes Bruce Mirken of San Francisco for his six published letters during May, which brings his total published letters that we know of to a total of 216. Bruce is the Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org | ||||||||||
You may read his published letters at:
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||
Megan Fox: 'I Hope They Legalise Cannabis'
| ||||||||||
Megan Fox has openly admitted to smoking cannabis and called for the
drug to be legalised. | ||||||||||
In an interview with GQ magazine, the actress said the American
government's anti-drugs stance was "all propaganda."
| ||||||||||
"I can't tell you how much bullsh*t I've been through because I will
openly say that I smoke weed," she said. | ||||||||||
"People look at it like it's this crazy, hippy, f*cked-up thing to
do. And it's not. I hope they legalise it."
| ||||||||||
The Transformers star, who recently admitted to being a bisexual,
added that she "would be the first in line to buy a pack of joints"
if the drug was legalised. | ||||||||||
Fox's comments about drugs are the latest in a series of unexpected
revelations from the actress. | ||||||||||
This piece was originally published at:
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||
"Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a
self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they
are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the
old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned
to swim." - Thomas Macaulay
| ||||||||||
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Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
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Richard Lake () and Stephen Young, International
content selection and analysis by Doug Snead (),
Cannabis/Hemp content selection and analysis, Hot Off The Net
selection and Layout by Matt Elrod ().
Analysis comments represent the personal views of editors, not
necessarily the views of DrugSense. | ||||||||||
We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, NewsHawks and letter writing activists. Please help us help reform. Become a NewsHawk See http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for info on contributing clippings. | ||||||||||
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