Voters Passed a Measure Legalizing Marijuana for Recreational Use.

The election is over. The advertisements, the phone calls, the canvassers, the pundits, the mailers and the social media posts have stopped. For all the efforts nationally, it appears that the status quo remains intact: Democrats in the White House and the Senate will oppose a Republican Congress. Will anything change from the last two years? Only time will tell. However, at the state level, ballot measures had a field day. Obviously, Minnesota voted "no" on an amendment to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. Washington, Maryland and Maine outright legalized gay marriage via ballot measures. Montana and Massachusetts passed medical marijuana reform initiatives. And Colorado and Washington legalized personal use of marijuana outright for those 21 and over.

[continues 453 words]

Just more than a year ago synthetic marijuana was sold over the counter in Rochester at adult bookstores and some gas stations. Outright sales of the drug, however, largely fell off a year ago when selling it became a misdemeanor, said Jim Martinson, chief deputy county attorney for Olmsted County.

So, on Wednesday, when a new state law goes into effect making it a felony to sell the designer drugs meant to mimic marijuana and other controlled substances, there shouldn't be a spike in court cases here, he said.

[continues 260 words]

MANKATO - A Mankato head shop has pulled incense products that also contained intoxicating chemicals after federal and state agents raided a similar store in Duluth Wednesday.

An employee at Smokes 4 Less said owner Omar Wazwaz decided to take that type of incense off store shelves Thursday after hearing reports of the raids in Duluth and elsewhere. The incense was going to be available at the store through the end of the month, but Wazwaz changed his mind after the raids, she said.

[continues 626 words]

ST. PAUL - More synthetic drugs will be illegal under a law taking effect Wednesday, and a state agency will be able to act faster to make newly developed versions illegal.

Still, as makers of the so-called "designer drugs" continue to change chemical formulas to skirt the law, there will be lags between when a new drug is released and it is declared illegal.

State officials and law enforcement officers said Thursday that so much about the drugs known by names such as spice and 2C-E is not known, other than they threaten Minnesota's youth.

[continues 414 words]

Suspicions Over A Late-night Landing At The Anoka County Airport Set Off An Investigation That Led To Arrests And The Breakup Of A California-to-minnesota Drug Ring.

Federal agents swung open the doors of the Mooney M20 minutes after it taxied to a stop at 3:30 a.m. on the darkened runway at the Anoka County Airport.

Two nervous pilots were in the cockpit, several large hockey bags filled the cabin. But the pungent aroma wasn't sweaty pads and skates.

[continues 659 words]

Support for legalization of marijuana is quickly getting higher.

A local survey of whether people think marijuana should be legalized conducted on The Journal's Facebook page showed the majority of respondents support marijuana legalization, as did 50 percent of Americans according to a national Gallup survey conducted last month.

While half of Americans believe marijuana should become legal, 46 percent do not and 4 percent are undecided, according to Gallup.

A recent Facebook survey brought in 19 comments from current and past residents of the International Falls area showing support for legalization of marijuana in general or for medicinal purposes only. One respondent spoke against legalization.

[continues 696 words]

There was a quake last week, but you likely didn't feel it. See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and the implications are hopeful and profound.

On Tuesday, you see, the NAACP passed a resolution calling for an end to the War on Drugs.

Said NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous in a written statement, "These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African-American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America."

[continues 468 words]

In his July 24 column ("Drug war is a failure, so let's experiment"), Jason Lewis quotes me as saying that "in the grand scheme, it [the 'war on drugs'] has not been successful."

I have long believed that we cannot simply arrest our way out of our drug problem. The "war on drugs" rhetoric represents an overly simplistic approach to a complex public health and public safety problem.

However, it is just as simplistic -- and just as misguided -- to think that decriminalization is the solution to America's drug problem. Lewis refers to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, an advocacy group that recently called for the decriminalization of all illegal drugs.

[continues 148 words]

I'm writing about the thoughtful letter of July 18, headlined, "Legalized pot would provide jobs -- and a better high."

If legalizing marijuana creates more marijuana use, why do the Dutch use marijuana at less than half the rate as Americans?

Marijuana has been quasi-legal in the Netherlands for several decades, according to drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm. Since there are lots of reasons for American marijuana users to deny using it to someone conducting a so-called anonymous survey and no reasons for a Dutch citizen to do so, Americans probably use marijuana at much higher rates than surveys indicate.

The Dutch have succeeded in making pot boring and have removed the "lure of the forbidden fruit" that makes pot so attractive to our youth.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

Without being rash, can we at least appraise the impact of prohibition?

Imagine a nightmare in which terrorists brutally murder 40,000 people in just five years. Now imagine that their base of operations is not across the globe, but directly adjacent to the United States. No doubt, hearing of such a thing, many of my conservative colleagues would be demanding a massive mobilization against the latest evils of Islamofacism.

But the real-life killers I have in mind, who revel in decapitating their victims (Al Capone's got nothing on these guys), aren't Muslim fanatics. They're narco-terrorists exploiting Mexico's failed war on drugs.

[continues 672 words]

I am not a pot smoker, but I do think marijuana should be legalized. An ethics book I read for a class stated: "The U.S. would save about $7.7 billion per year in enforcement costs and would generate between $2.4 (billion) and $6.2 billion in tax revenue if marijuana were legalized. In the U.S., there are (more than) 850,000 marijuana arrests made each year, and more than 44,000 people are currently in prison for marijuana offenses."

[continues 224 words]

Dear President Obama:

Right after your election, somebody asked if I thought having a black president meant black people's concerns would now receive attention at the executive level. I told them I expected the opposite.

There used to be a saying -- only Nixon could go to China. Meaning, of course, that only he, as a staunch anti-communist, had the credibility to make overtures to that nation without accusations of being soft on communism. By the inverse of that political calculus, I never expected that you, as a black man, would do much to address black issues.

[continues 481 words]

Inadequate pain treatment is a public health crisis, too.

The latest battle in the war on drugs must not create a new and innocent group of victims -- patients imprisoned by their own pain because doctors are unwilling or unable to prescribe the powerful pain medications that they need.

That is the risk of a well-intentioned but potentially detrimental push by the Obama administration this week to rein in abuse of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, morphine and methadone.

Federal drug enforcement officials rightly called attention to the scourge of crime and addiction that street use of opioid drugs cause. This is a public health crisis.

[continues 449 words]

Regarding Sanho Tree's March 28 op-ed, drugs did not spawn Mexico's organized crime networks. Just like alcohol, prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, drug prohibition created the violent drug-trafficking organizations behind all the killings in Mexico.

With alcohol prohibition repealed in the United States, liquor bootleggers no longer gunned each other down in drive-by shootings. It's worth noting that Mexico's upsurge in violence only began after an anti-drug crackdown created a power vacuum among competing cartels.

[continues 96 words]

When Washington ramped up its anti-drug efforts through Plan Colombia, more than 90 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States came through Colombia. A decade later, we get about 97 percent of our cocaine via Colombia.

Amazingly, officials are hailing the program's "success" and want Mexico to learn from Colombia's experience. While Plan Colombia may have helped make that country safer from guerrilla attacks, it has failed as a drug-control strategy. Adapting that program in Mexico won't staunch that country's bloodbath and isn't likely to produce better results.

[continues 608 words]

Head Shops Must Toss Some Items Out

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has outlawed the sale of five chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana.

The DEA filed a final notice Monday that chemicals used in some so-called incense will be banned for sale for at least a year. The ruling becomes official today.

Marc Kurzman, a Minneapolis attorney who represents four shops that sell the products, said he filed petitions for court injunctions Monday to stop the action.

He has argued that the DEA has no authority to ban the chemicals and that its claims about their effects are false.

[continues 245 words]

MINNEAPOLIS - A federal judge has rejected an attempt by Minnesota businesses to stop the government from cracking down on synthetic marijuana.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz on Friday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prevent a nationwide ban on so-called "fake pot."

Schiltz says he lacks authority to act on the Drug Enforcement Administration's move to outlaw chemicals used in synthetic marijuana, which is sold as incense.

Three Twin Cities businesses and one in Duluth joined in a lawsuit against the DEA and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In November, the DEA issued an emergency order to outlaw the chemicals after receiving reports of seizures, hallucinations and dependency.

Attorney Marc Kurzman, who represents the business owners, tells KSTP-TV he plans to go to the federal appeals court as soon as Monday.

[end]

- - Six decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled that police could not enter a residence without a warrant just because they smelled burning drugs - in that case, opium.

Today, the high court is revisiting the issue and its decision could have profound implications for personal privacy and police power.

In Kentucky, in 2005, police went to an apartment looking for a suspect, knocked loudly on the door, shouting "This is the police." They had no warrant.

The officers said they smelled marijuana and heard noises inside that led them to believe someone may be preparing to destroy evidence. They kicked in the door. Police didn't find their suspect - he was in another apartment - but did arrest a man for possessing marijuana.

[continues 247 words]

My three-step solution to solving our budget woes:

1)Tax the church. Religion is a business; let's tax it like one.

2) Legalize marijuana and save money by no longer arresting people for its use. How have we not learned our lesson from Prohibition? Such bans flat-out don't work and are a waste of taxpayer dollars.

3) Insist on term limits for everyone to stop the waste of dollars caused by partisan politics.

I firmly believe that if we take these three steps, we might get this country back on the right track.

Brett Harris, Bloomington

[end]

It can be made to look like tobacco, herbal incense or a typical baking spice.

But it packs twice as much of the active ingredient in marijuana, and the side effects can be life-threatening. Synthetic marijuana is legal for all ages and typically sold as an incense. Officials are seeing more of it in St. Cloud-area schools.

Several Minnesota cities have banned the substance, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plans to temporarily control five chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana.

[continues 1306 words]