The State's Dormant Medical Marijuana Program Is Primed for Revival . or Maybe Not Georgia's long, complicated relationship with medical marijuana took an interesting turn recently as the government board that oversees medical policy for the state quietly began enlisting doctors to help select patients for pot therapy. Wait, you didn't know Georgia had a relationship with ganga? Well, old-timers should recall that, back in 1976, ex-Gov. Jimmy Carter campaigned for president with a pledge to decriminalize marijuana use. "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself," Carter told Congress after being elected. "Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use." [continues 1014 words]
"We believe licensed physicians are competent to employ marijuana, and patients have a right to obtain marijuana legally, under medical supervision, from a regulated source." The above quote, taken from a 1982 letter to the editor published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and written by then-freshman Congressman Newt Gingrich, is the closest Georgia has ever gotten to decriminalizing the doobie. The fact that NORML, the nonprofit lobbying organization working to legalize marijuana, hadn't been active in Georgia for several years (before the state chapter was reopened last year) should tell you something about the futility of the cause. [continues 374 words]
Police Say Legislation Doesn't Reach The Crux Of Problem Atlanta City Council on Monday unanimously voted to repeal the controversial "DC-6" law that gave police broad powers to arrest people for disorderly conduct. According to Atlanta police records, officers cited DC-6 more than 7,500 times last year – more than any other nontraffic offense. Under the law, police were free to arrest anyone who happened to walk through an area labeled as a known drug zone. That was problematic because there were no official drug areas. Police used it as a catch-all charge. [continues 543 words]
Father Of Ill-Fated Pot Festival Refuses To Give Up For a hardcore stoner, Paul Cornwell is one busy guy. The veteran of countless marches and demonstrations and the organizer of the famed but flailing Great Atlanta Pot Festival, he's trying to organize a fall pre-election rally featuring notorious presidential spoiler Ralph Nader. A longtime concert promoter, he still has a hand in producing local shows. But mostly, Cornwell is working overtime these days to kick City Hall's ass. [continues 1001 words]
It Looks As If May 1 Will Blow By Without The Great Atlanta Pot Festival. The sometimes-annual event in Piedmont Park was nixed in late February by city officials, who say organizer Paul Cornwell didn't make the application deadline. Cornwell, however, contends that Atlanta's 2-year-old festival ordinance, which requires applications to be filed at least 90 days before a planned event, is unreasonably restrictive. "Public spaces should be accessible to public gatherings in a timely manner," he explains. "If someone had wanted to put on a concert to protest the war in Iraq, in 90 days the war would've been over." [continues 167 words]
After nearly a decade, the Great Atlanta Pot Festival will be allowed to roll again in Piedmont Park next month. In the early '90s, longtime Atlanta promoter and marijuana activist Paul Cornwell built his festival into a huge annual event anchored by such big-name musical acts as the Black Crowes, Cypress Hill and OutKast. Drawing estimated crowds of more than 30,000 people -- many openly enjoying reefer -- the free festival was targeted by Mayor Bill Campbell, who vowed to shut it down because, he said, festival-goers were encouraged to break the law. [continues 206 words]
For chipping away at democracy First the feds spooked us with the Total Information Awareness project and its creepy, Big-Brother-joins-the-Masons, all-seeing-eye logo. Now they're reminding us that, as far as our government is concerned, the flow of information is a one-way street -- or else. How else can one interpret the extensive effort that the Atlanta division of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency went to recently in putting one of its own people behind bars for the high crime of talking to the press about minor details of an investigation? Not only was U.S. security not at stake, but the information didn't even involve the U.S. [continues 297 words]
Steve Tucker Served a 10-Year Prison Sentence for Selling Light Bulbs. Is America's Drug War Worth It? A year has passed since Steve Tucker made his unheralded return to Atlanta. His one-bedroom flat, tucked into a sprawling Sandy Springs apartment complex, is furnished sparsely: a recliner, TV, computer and a small, picnic-style table that serves as both dining hutch and desk. The stark white static of the walls is interrupted only by three small, web-like dream catchers tacked to the Sheetrock. [continues 3128 words]
Get Busted And You Could Lose Your School Loans Faster Than You Can Say 'Woody Harrelson' Pop quiz time: Say it's a week into the fall semester, you're driving some friends around one night and you've had a few beers -- OK, quite a few -- and, oh yeah, say your dad isn't director of the CIA. Drunk driving is not cool, of course, and you end up getting busted and plead nolo contendre (that means, like, guilty) to DUI, attempting to elude police, several moving violations, reckless endangerment, drunk and disorderly and possession of a few pot seeds the cops found under the driver's seat of your Duster. [continues 2283 words]
