Pubdate: Fri, 31 Mar 2006
Source: Austin Chronicle (TX)
Section: Naked City
Copyright: 2006 Austin Chronicle Corp.
Contact: 
http://www.austinchronicle.com/info/email-directory.php?mailto=mail&name=General
Website: http://www.auschron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/33
Author: Jordan Smith
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

WEED WATCH

Drug Enforcement Administration narcos picked up where they left off 
just before Christmas, descending upon the small medi-pot growers 
collective run by Palm Desert, Calif., medi-mari patient Gary Silva 
in a March 14, early morning raid, seizing 80 pot plants and a cache 
of patient records, and sending Silva to the hospital with a 
dislocated shoulder. The feds reportedly burst through the door 
before Silva could get it open, knocking the medi-pot patient, who 
suffers from a degenerative disc disorder, tumbling to the ground.

According to the Drug Reform Coordination Network, Silva's wife and 
daughter were held at gunpoint as the narcos raided the facility; no 
one was arrested, but narcos reportedly told Silva he would face 
arrest if he dared to grow any more pot. This was just the latest in 
a chain of federal raids, mainly in California, that the DEA has 
undertaken with new zeal since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last 
summer (in a case originally brought by medi-pot patient Angel Raich) 
that state-sanctioned medi-pot laws do not exempt patients (and their 
caregivers and/or growers) from federal enforcement of pot prohibition.

Nonetheless, 11 states (including California, where voters passed a 
"compassionate use" law in 1996) have passed laws allowing registered 
patients to grow, possess, and use marijuana for medicinal purposes. 
And Silva said that his operation was conducted within the boundaries 
of state law. "I grew for myself and a few other patients, and 
donated the excess to a nearby dispensing collective," he said. 
"There was no need for our California sheriffs to call in federal 
agents to injure me and harass my family."

The Silva raid sparked a new round of protests outside federal 
buildings across the country by medi-pot advocates -- including a 
downtown Austin protest organized by Texans for Medical Marijuana, 
and one in Oakland where medi-pot patient and activist Angel Raich 
was arrested, reportedly for talking back to a security guard who 
told her she was using a megaphone too close to the building.

In other pot news, NORML reports that a new poll conducted by Zogby 
International reveals that nearly 50% of likely voters support 
amending federal law to allow states to "legally regulate and tax 
marijuana" in the same way that liquor and gambling are regulated.

The measure polled favorably among young voters -- nearly 66% of 
voters 18-29 -- and middle-aged voters -- 50% of those ages 50-64. 
Interestingly, 58% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 52% of seniors said 
they'd oppose the change. "Public support for replacing the illicit 
marijuana market with a legally regulated, controlled market 
continues to grow," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre in 
a press release. "NORML's challenge is to convert this growing public 
support into a tangible public policy that no longer criminalizes 
those adults who use marijuana responsibly."

Of course, if federal drug czar John Walters has his 
prohibition-loving way, no drugs -- aside from tobacco, alcohol, and 
the cornucopia of pharmaceuticals, of course -- would be 
decriminalized, let alone legalized. Indeed, responding to an 
editorial critical of the ongoing drug war that appeared on the 
notoriously conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal 
last month, Walters penned an op/ed piece for the March 16 WSJ, 
insisting that there is "no realistic alternative to the fight" against drugs.

Illegal drugs are "inherently dangerous," he wrote, and thinking 
there would be some way to regulate drug use is nothing but a "cruel 
delusion." There's nothing new in Walters' thinking so it's no 
surprise that the czar skates around the irony of his position by 
trying to argue a negative -- specifically, that the war on drugs has 
"staved off a worse circumstance, with many more drug users, and more 
damage to the social fabric." (To read Walter's latest missive, check 
out the archives of the Media Awareness Project at www.mapinc.org.)
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman