America faces a plethora of social problems in its inner cities: Crime and gang violence. A growing disrespect for the law. A prison system bursting at the seams. Children growing up without their fathers. An entire class of unemployable able-bodied men. Perceived racial profiling by the police. And although each of these issues seems distinctly different on the surface, they all share an underlying cause. They are all exacerbated by the continuing war on drugs. The term "war on drugs" was coined by Richard Nixon in 1971, though the efforts began a decade earlier when the United Nations implemented the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, an international treaty limiting drug production and trafficking. After 50 years of fighting this war, it's time to look back and evaluate its effectiveness. [continues 619 words]
"Measures to legalize marijuana win approval," (Nov. 7), tells us, "In Colorado, voters backed a heavy tax on recreational marijuana that was made legal here last year," giving a whole new meaning to the term "Rocky Mountain High." Similar to same-sex marriage, these are issues that have been held back too long, whose time has come, with marijuana legalization a plausible way for state governments to close budget gaps, capturing some of the revenue that would otherwise flow underground to the shadow economy. The 21st Amendment abandoned total prohibition of alcohol in 1933 when the government finally chose to tax questionable habits rather than forbid them. Recreational or medicinal, bringing marijuana out from the shadows is past due, recognizing that legislating undesirable habits is an inferior way to confront a potential positive in terms of control and revenue generation. Jay Lustgarten Stonington [end]
The Grove's Request for a Meeting in Denver Is Greeted With Little Fanfare. To little fanfare, Denver on Tuesday held its first public hearing for a marijuana business seeking to open a recreational pot shop. The 9 a.m. hearing - for a store called The Grove, at West First Avenue and Federal Boulevard-lasted less than an hour, said Larry Stevenson of Denver's Department of Excise and Licenses. The store's owner and a handful of employees spoke in favor of the store's application. No one spoke in opposition, said Mike Elliott, the executive director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, who attended the hearing. [continues 300 words]
Melinda Haag, the US Attorney for Northern California, is flouting new federal guidelines in her continued attempts to shut down legal medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area. Despite new federal guidelines that purportedly were designed to ease enforcement of marijuana laws in states in which pot is legal for adult or medicinal uses, US Attorney Melinda Haag is plowing ahead with attempts to close two of the most prominent medical cannabis dispensaries in California - Oakland's Harborside Health Center and Berkeley Patients Group. [continues 923 words]
But You Can on December 6 at a Special Event in Seattle Center When state-licensed pot stores open in six months, Seattle will face a conundrum: how to deal with tourists who buy pot but have nowhere to legally smoke it. State law prohibits using marijuana in public. Folks also can't smoke inside the retail pot stores, meaning cannabis will have no tavern equivalent (like Amsterdam-style coffee shops). Seattle also lacks pot-friendly hotel accommodations. Earlier this year, I tried to persuade NORML to hold its annual pot conference here, but the plan fell through because Seattle hotels aren't cool with pot smoking-even in designated smoking rooms. [continues 301 words]
LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan Senate has voted to give sick residents another avenue to buy marijuana for medical purposes. Legislation approved 22-16 Wednesday would allow for the production and sale of "pharmaceutical-grade" cannabis if the federal government reclassifies marijuana as a Schedule 2 drug. Pharmacies could distribute the drug. The bill is intended to establish a second medical marijuana system in Michigan, one that proponents say wouldn't interfere with a 2008 voter-approved law where patients grow their own or obtain it from caregivers. The legislation would allow doctors to recommend that patients be issued "enhanced" cannabis cards differing from those now carried by 129,000 residents. Critics of the bill are suspicious of efforts to "corporatize" marijuana growing and say lawmakers should improve the existing system instead. [end]
WASHINGTON - Joshua Banka's prodigious appetite for drugs killed him. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court considered whether to hold a drug dealer who had sold heroin to Banka responsible for his death. In 2010, just before Banka was to enter a court-ordered drug-rehabilitation program, he decided to go on one last bender. He smoked marijuana; crushed, cooked and injected OxyContin; took a variety of prescription drugs; and topped them off with heroin he had bought from Marcus Burrage. Burrage was convicted of selling the heroin and being responsible for the death. That second charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. [continues 347 words]
I agree wholeheartedly with a recent letter to the editor sharing some solid arguments for the legalization not just of marijuana but of all street drugs. A big part of the argument in favor of legalization is economic. Here is just a partial list of taxes and fees that we are missing out on by keeping drug trafficking illegal: Import tariffs. Sales taxes. Sumptuary taxes (as one would pay on a pack of cigarettes or a pint of whiskey). Licenses (like those displayed by liquor and tobacco merchants). Income taxes. Payroll (Social Security and Medicare) taxes. [continues 120 words]
The drug war is largely a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is tolerated. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. This country can no longer afford to subsidize the prejudices of culture warriors. Not just in Washington and Colorado but throughout the nation, it's time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy, Arlington, Va. [end]
Wouldn't legalizing and taxing marijuana succeed in Mr. Osler's primary goal (diverting the cash flow of the drug black market away from those who currently profit) far more effectively than any plan that maintains its prohibition? Oscar Horyd, Troy [end]
WASHINGTON - Joshua Banka's prodigious appetite for drugs killed him. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court considered whether to hold a drug dealer who had sold heroin to Mr. Banka responsible for his death. In 2010, just before Mr. Banka was scheduled to enter a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program, he decided to go on one last bender. He smoked marijuana; crushed, cooked and injected OxyContin; took a variety of prescription drugs; and topped them off with heroin he had bought from Marcus A. Burrage. [continues 822 words]
Re: Mark Osler's Nov. 8 column, "Drug policy: Moral crusade or business problem?": Mr.. Osler does not understand that molecules are not the cause of the problem, prohibition is the cause of the problem. The solution is not to try to get rid of the molecules, the solution is to get rid of prohibition and restore liberty to grow God-given plants in one's own home and yard. Bill Harris, Austin, Texas [end]
Smoking tobacco should not be encouraged, yet we do not threaten tobacco growers, vendors and users with arrest and imprisonment. Now consider dangerous sports, such as mountain climbing. The death rate on Mount Everest is about one in ten of those who make it successfully, which is a vastly higher mortality rate than just about any drug used at present in a recreational manner. Malcolm Kyle, San Antonio, Texas [end]
Regarding Ronald Fraser's "Holder's wise choice on fighting marijuana" (Point of View, Oct. 19): The drug war is largely a war on marijuana. In 2011, there were 757,969 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The result is not lower rates of use. [continues 91 words]
