Last week's youth-oriented CNN Democratic candidate forum, "America Rocks the Vote," was forgettable for many reasons -- except for the admissions by three candidates that they had, in the past, inhaled. Democratic hopefuls Howard Dean, John Edwards, and John Kerry each admitted they'd used marijuana in the past, in response to an e-mailed question posed to the candidates. But those confessions don't necessarily reflect any progressive political positions regarding either medical marijuana or decriminalization. Only Kerry has spoken publicly in favor of medical marijuana for seriously ill patients. [continues 331 words]
(snip) Medical marijuana advocates claimed a major victory Oct. 14, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider overturning a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision barring the feds from punishing doctors who recommend medical marijuana to their patients. After California voters approved a medical marijuana law in 1996, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies threatened to revoke the DEA registration of any doctor who recommended medicinal marijuana -- that would prevent the physician from prescribing any controlled substances for their patients, effectively putting them out of business. [continues 70 words]
On Sept. 17, lawyers for the Hemp Industries Association and the Drug Enforcement Administration appeared before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to present oral arguments regarding the DEA's attempt to ban food products containing hemp seeds and oil. Back in 2001, without publicly vetting their proposal -- likely a violation of established federal procedures -- the DEA announced a near-total ban on such products, arguing a prohibition was necessary because hemp seeds contain trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. [continues 448 words]
If you thought the federal government couldn't possibly create legislation more draconian and reprehensible than the PATRIOT Act, RAVE Act, CLEAN-UP Act, or Ecstasy Awareness Act, you thought wrong -- really, really wrong. Late last month ABC News shagged a copy of a proposed bill quietly making the Capitol rounds, and reportedly slated for introduction this fall, that would create the crime of "narcoterrorism" -- making it possible for the feds to redefine any and all drug crimes as acts of terrorism. [continues 360 words]
Just when you thought federal legislators couldn't possibly come up with a more draconian measure than the recently passed Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act -- formerly, and still informally, known as the RAVE Act -- five U.S. House members have upped the ante with the newly filed Ecstasy Awareness Act of 2003 (HR 2962). The bill, sponsored by New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell, would further amend the Controlled Substances Act to include criminal liability for anyone who "profits monetarily" from a rave or "similar electronic dance event" and who would "have reason to know" of drug use during the event. The new statute would be punishable by up to a $500,000 fine, 20 years in prison, or both, and would authorize a $10 million appropriation to the U.S. attorney general for the purpose of awarding state grants to prosecutors and cops, "for the prosecution of Ecstasy offenses." [continues 328 words]
Despite assurances by U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, that his Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act -- better known as the RAVE Act -- would not be applied indiscriminately, it appears the anti-drug measure's first practical application since becoming federal law less than two months ago has been just that. The RAVE Act amends and expands the existing federal "crack house statutes" (also authored by Biden) by enabling the government to prosecute any person that makes available any property for any use if drugs -- even those being held by a third party -- are found on the premises during the event. [continues 657 words]
Last week was filled with more news spawned by the infamous 1999 Tulia drug busts. On June 16, 12 of the remaining Tulia defendants were finally released from jail on bond, the result of a bill authored by Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, sponsored by Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, and signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry. The law allows 13 of the 46 original Tulia defendants to be freed pending a decision by the Court of Criminal Appeals on whether the cases, built solely on the testimony of rogue undercover cop Tom Coleman, should be vacated and dismissed -- as a Swisher Co. judge and a special prosecutor recommended after a March hearing. (The 13th defendant, who would've been eligible for release under Whitmire's bill, remained in jail Monday on a warrant from Potter Co. One other defendant also remains in jail pending the outcome of his direct appeal; the rest have already been paroled or released on probation.) [continues 224 words]
Naked City The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on April 8 heard testimony on HB 715, a bill by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, to lower simple possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and no jail time. Dutton's measure would also forbid the state from suspending the driver license of a person convicted of the offense. Currently, possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and/or 180 days in jail. [continues 215 words]
With a stay still in force from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Drug Enforcement Administration on March 21 did an end-run around the federal court and the nation's hemp industries , announcing a "final" rule banning the sale of foods containing hemp seed or oil. "In some cases ... [a] controlled substance may have a legitimate industrial use," reads the DEA's press release. The Controlled Substances Act "allows for industrial use of Schedule I controlled substances, but only under highly controlled circumstances." As such, the DEA has determined that body-care products containing hemp oils, such as soaps or lotions, are legal under the CSA -- only so long as they are not intended "for human consumption," the rule reads. According to the DEA, hemp food products -- such as ice creams, tortilla chips, and cooking oils -- are forbidden because they contain trace amounts of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. [continues 382 words]
It's baaaack. The proposed, and extremely draconian, Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act has reemerged this Congressional session -- although it no longer bears that catchy little moniker. The bill was filed last session by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and proposed extending the nets of the infamous Biden-sponsored Eighties "crack house laws" by broadening their definition to include any businessperson, club owner, or promoter on whose property or at whose events illicit drugs are used or sold. The legislation was clearly aimed at squashing the rave scene, but drug reformers and civil libertarians quickly cried foul at the law's broad language, which could apply to any use of property, no matter how "temporary," potentially including citizens who use drugs in their own homes. Representatives from the ACLU, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and other reformers took their ire to Capitol Hill last fall when they staged a rave dance-rally in the halls of Congress. Shortly thereafter, the bill began to hemorrhage sponsors and then quietly disappeared. [continues 538 words]
On Dec. 4 the Marijuana Policy Project - the advocates behind a number of November's failed drug-reform ballot initiatives - filed a formal complaint with the federal Office of Special Counsel, calling for the ouster of drug czar John Walters, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In the three-page complaint, the MPP alleges that Walters was in "gross violation" of both federal and Nevada state law when he traveled to the Silver State in October to campaign against Question 9 - a sweeping drug-reform initiative that would have both decriminalized marijuana possession and provided for the drug's legal sale. The MPP charges that Walters inappropriately acted in his official capacity to affect the fate of the defeated ballot initiative - a clear violation, the group says, of the 1939 Hatch Act, which regulates the political activities of government officials and employees. [continues 706 words]
The latest salvos in California's ongoing battle over the legality of medical marijuana have pitted California Attorney General Bill Lockyer against federal Drug Enforcement Administration head Asa Hutchinson. Over the past year the DEA has engaged in numerous raids and seizures of medical marijuana dispensaries operating legally under California law. The situation reached a fever pitch after the DEA last month raided the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana dispensary in Santa Cruz, reportedly a well known and well operated dispensary aiding numerous sickly and terminally ill patients in the area. A day later, Lockyer penned a letter to Hutchinson and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asking for a face-to-face meeting with the two G-men and requesting that the DEA leave California's legal marijuana cooperatives alone. [continues 883 words]
