Tuesday is a day that marijuana supporters have been looking forward to forever: The second-ranking official in the Justice Department will answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about U.S. marijuana policy, just days after the feds said they would have a hands-off policy toward the two states - Washington and Colorado - where recreational pot recently became legal. For many, it's mind-blowing to have a discussion about the U.S. policy on marijuana - before the Senate, no less - after the previous before the Senate, no less - after the previous political generation's single-minded admonition of "Just Say No" when it came to pot. [continues 1126 words]
Thanks so much for calling for marijuana to be classified like alcohol in your latest column. I hope you'll keep watching and covering this issue as the push for legalization heats up, and I thought you might be interested in hearing about a group of police, prosecutors and judges who are pushing in favor of legalization. These members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) fought on the front lines of the war on drugs, witnessing how prohibition only serves to make substance abuse and market violence problems worse. Now, they are actively working to change the debate on drug policy issues so that more voters understand that continuing to keep marijuana illegal harms public safety, not protects it. [continues 358 words]
The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 is gaining momentum, and its key advocate isn't your stereotypical, hippy-dippy, pot-smoking liberal. It's a Republican former federal prosecutor and retired Superior Court judge James Gray. Those in the Newport/Costa Mesa area are probably most familiar with Jim through his weekly Daily Pilot columns, "It's a Gray Area." He's a guy with strong opinions and never one to shy away from controversy. A few weeks ago, I asked Jim why he's co-authored this act and why he feels it has legs in 2012. [continues 476 words]
"Future generations will look back at us as idiots for this war on drugs, the same way we mocked the Roaring Twenties prohibitionists," said retired Sutter County Deputy Sheriff Nate Bradley in response to my May 15 column, "Time to put medical pot issue behind us." While the thrust of that column was to shine a light on the failure of lawmakers to reconcile Proposition 215 ---- California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which legalized the use of medical marijuana - ---- with the official state's "Reefer Madness" attitude towards law enforcement, reader feedback has firmly come down on the side of outright legalization of marijuana, never mind medicinal use. The arguments in favor are compelling. [continues 385 words]
Proposition 19, an initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, was soundly defeated in the November election after the state's political establishment, Democratic and Republican, came out strongly against it. We had concerns with a provision related to the ability of employers to combat marijuana use at the workplace, but we are glad to see that advocates are planning to take another stab at the issue for the November 2012 election. It really is time to look at ways to reduce the drug war and all the costs, injustices and assaults on individual liberty that this war entails. A starting point could be marijuana legalization, given its wide use and nonaddictive nature, although the devil always is in the details. [continues 429 words]
Science tells us cannabis is safer than over-the-counter drugs. It was endorsed by the AMA in 1937 and just last year the AMA called for the rescheduling of cannabis. The 1999 federally funded Institute of Medicine Report debunked the so-called "gateway effect." Marijuana has been legal for years in Alaska with no apparent ill-effect on the populace. Cannabis is legal in Portugal and Spain and essentially legal in the Netherlands, with no adverse effects there. Data from the Netherlands reveals only 13 percent of high school kids use marijuana compared to 19 percent in the U.S. [continues 90 words]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Backers of California's Proposition 19 call it a landmark challenge to America's war on drugs. But passage of the initiative to legalize pot for recreational use may open up a legal war between California and the federal government. Some fear a renewed surge of federal raids - similar to actions that shut down medical pot shops, targeted suppliers and doctors after California voters passed Proposition 215, its medical marijuana law in 1996. Even some fervent proponents of the initiative to allow anyone 21 and over to smoke pot say federal authorities will quickly sue California to overturn the new law. [continues 989 words]
Backers of California's Proposition 19 call it a landmark challenge to America's war on drugs. But passage of the initiative to legalize pot for recreational use may open up a legal war between California and the federal government. Some fear a renewed surge of federal raids, similar to actions that shut down medical pot shops, targeted suppliers and doctors after California voters passed Proposition 215, its medical marijuana law, in 1996. Even some fervent proponents of the initiative to allow anyone 21 and over to smoke pot say federal authorities would quickly sue California to overturn the new law. [continues 961 words]
Ex-Law Enforcement Officials Say Keeping Pot Illegal Does More Harm Than Good Calling low-level marijuana arrests a "waste of time" that take up valuable crime-fighting resources, a group of law enforcement officials this week called on California voters to pass Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana for their own sake. Comprised of police chiefs, judges and prosecutors, the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition said marijuana's illegality is doing more harm than good by jamming the justice system with misdemeanor possession offenses that have had no impact on the usage rates and availability of the weed. [continues 383 words]
Legalizing marijuana would put a big dent in drug cartels and free up police, prosecutors and judges to go after violent crimes, a law enforcement group said Monday in endorsing Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure. Proposition 19's passage in November would decriminalize an estimated 60,000 drug arrests made in California each year, said former Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray. Officers would have more time to go after burglars, robbers and those committing violent assaults, he said. [continues 187 words]
A former long-time police chief of California's third-largest city said Monday that state voters will have the opportunity "to strike more of a blow than law enforcement ever could against drug cartels" by approving Proposition 19, the measure that would legalize the possession and regulated sales of marijuana. Joseph McNamara, who headed the San Jose Police Department for 15 years, called the ballot measure a potential "game-changer" that would allow police agencies to devote more resources to fighting other crimes and undercut criminal syndicates that are largely funded by illegal marijuana sales. [continues 545 words]
There is something very weird about asking directions to the marijuana expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. You feel like a young rebel. You wonder if the security guards think you're high. And you fear someone's going to get busted. Paranoid? Hardly. Marijuana's illegal and the smell of pot is in the air. I'm not kidding. It's Saturday afternoon and a dozen or so people some in wheelchairs, some with dreadlocks are smoking weed. Outside. In public. In Anaheim. Near Disneyland. [continues 869 words]
ANAHEIM - They came to learn about marijuana laws, how to start a medical dispensary business, what they could do to change the stigma of the drug. Inside a cavernous hall at the Anaheim Convention Center, more than 1,000 people gathered Saturday for Orange County's first medical marijuana convention, an all-day event called the Know Your Rights Expo. Attendees swapped stories, perused 120 vendor booths and listened to talks by medical advocates, political strategists, even a retired Orange County judge. [continues 829 words]
Sitting across the table, at a Starbucks in San Clemente, Kandice Hawes is all business in black Capri pants, a fashionable top and a demure gray sweater. "Of course I smoke pot," she says in a loud voice that expresses both surprise and amusement at the question. Holy smoke! I look around, worried someone might hear. After all, I lived through Nancy Reagan's America when smoking marijuana was pretty much the same as shooting heroin, when all drugs were lumped together under the "Just Say No" campaign. [continues 903 words]
Talk about murky. The economic impact, the potential social and legal landscape, even the split between the pro and con sides in the squabble over the initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California - they're all about as clear as smoke from a bong. Most medicinal-marijuana advocates think it would be just fine if good-time tokers joined their legal crowd. Others worry it might ruin the purity of using pot as medicine. [continues 1640 words]
A petition in California has placed a measure in support of the legalization of marijuana on the ballot for November, and the success of this measure will demonstrate the resolve of the American people not to be ignored by their government. The federal government has exhausted all avenues through which to block the legalization of marijuana. They have inflated the budgets of law enforcement and bloated our prisons; they have refused the acknowledgment of well-known and well-regarded medicinal benefits, and they have demonized a harmless plant and the proponents of its use. They have done so consciously and maliciously, and the public has lost patience. [continues 820 words]
Former county judge James Gray and former police officer Jeff Studdard deserve praise for bravely speaking out against the harmful and ineffective marijuana laws they spent so much of their lives enforcing ("Slowly, limits on pot are fading," Cover story, News, Tuesday). As a former chief of police in Seattle, I also saw how the prohibition of marijuana and other drugs does nothing to stop substance abuse. Rather, it fuels the vast and violent drug cartels and street gangs that control the obscenely profitable illegal market. Prohibition guarantees high rates of property crimes, public corruption, disease, violence and death. [continues 67 words]
States' Moves Reflect 'New Era' of Acceptance LOS ANGELES -- James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less. "I ask kids all the time, and they'll tell you it is easier to get marijuana than a six-pack of beer because that is controlled by the government," he said, noting that drug dealers don't ask for IDs or honor minimum age requirements. [continues 1808 words]
WHEN THE Assembly's Public Safety Committee voted 12 days ago to approve the legalization and regulation of marijuana in California, knee-jerk reactions were sure to follow. This was only a first step toward legislation, but San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer quickly described the looming possibility as "mind-boggling." John Lovell, speaking for the California Peace Officers Association, said it was "the last thing our society needs." It wasn't hard to envision lawmen up and down the state nodding in agreement. [continues 721 words]
With multiple initiatives in circulation and an Assembly bill gathering headlines, discussions about legalizing marijuana have become part of California's political discourse. Advocates on one side argue that the result will be an economic boon as tax revenues rolls in and jails rid themselves of nonviolent offenders. Defenders of prohibition say legalization would be a nightmare of stoned kids, addiction and highway deaths. Or maybe the reality would be a lot more mundane. "Most of the popular debate is dominated by two groups-avid pro-marijuana crowd, and the true prohibitionists," said Michael Vitiello, a University of Pacific law professor who has written several articles on the topic. Both sides, he said, are prone to "gross overstatements." [continues 1221 words]
