Facing a Huge Budget Shortfall, Chicago May Switch to Issuing Fines for Marijuana. Last year, police in Chicago arrested more than 23,000 people for simple marijuana possession, 78% of them black. But those charges are routinely dropped by judges, and the head of the Cook County Board, who is facing a serious budget gap, wants the police to knock it off. Facing a $315 million shortfall, Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a 5% spending cut and threatened layoffs if necessary. Preckwinkle last week discussed the idea of merely ticketing pot smokers with Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy, and while no decision has yet been taken, the notion is percolating through the police bureaucracy. [continues 392 words]
Author John Gibler's New Book Surveys Surveys the Unending Flow of Drugs North and Guns and Cash South and the Tens of Thousands of Murders They Cause. In Mexico, journalist John Gibler points out, there is the War on Drugs and then there is the drug war. The War on Drugs is the spectacle -- the well-publicized deployment of troops, the high-level diplomatic meetings, the perp walks of captured capos before the media, all designed to show that the Mexican government is dead serious about confronting the "menace to society" that Mexican drug trafficking organizations, the mislabeled "cartels," represent. [continues 930 words]
The campaign to pass California's Proposition 19, the tax and regulate marijuana legalization initiative, is seeing some good-sized late donations The campaign to pass California's Proposition 19, the tax and regulate marijuana legalization initiative, is seeing some good-sized late donations, including contributions from Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker. Meanwhile, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps heir David Bronner has kicked in tens of thousands more for a get out the vote effort in the campaign's final weeks. And they're not the only ones making sizeable late donations.Prop 19 would legalize the possession of up to an ounce of pot by adults 21 or older. It would also allow adults to grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana and possess the harvested results. It would give cities and counties the local option to allow, tax, and regulate commercial marijuana sales and cultivation. [continues 1016 words]
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) kicked off a TV ad campaign aimed at gaining support for a California marijuana legalization bill in the legislature on Wednesday, but ran into problems with several TV stations around the state, which either rejected the ad outright or just ignored MPP efforts to place it. Still, the spots are up and running on other Golden State stations. Playing on California's budget crisis -- the state is $26 billion in the hole and currently issuing IOUs to vendors and laying off state workers -- the 30-second spots feature middle-aged suburban Sacramento housewife Nadene Herndon, who tells the camera: [continues 894 words]
Is A Tidal Wave Of Reason About To Change Pot Laws? Sometime in the last few months, the notion of legalizing marijuana crossed an invisible threshold. Long relegated to the margins of political discourse by the conventional wisdom, pot freedom has this year gone mainstream. Public support for legalization is climbing to a majority position, with a just-released Zogby poll finding that 52 percent support the legalization, taxation and regulation of pot. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have softened his position on pot by calling for an "open debate" on the subject. Meanwhile, Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco introduced Assembly Bill 390, legislation that would tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. [continues 564 words]
Is a Tidal Wave of Reason About to Change Our Pot Laws? Sometime in the last few months, the notion of legalizing marijuana crossed an invisible threshold. Long relegated to the margins of political discourse by the conventional wisdom, pot freedom has this year gone mainstream. The potential flu pandemic and President Obama's 100th day in office may have knocked marijuana off the front pages this week, but so far this year, the issue has exploded in the mass media, impelled by the twin forces of economic crisis and Mexican violence fueled by drug prohibition. A Google news search for the phrase "legalize marijuana" turned up more than 1,100 hits -- and that's just for the month of April. [continues 1319 words]
As the money crunch punishes states coffers, legislators are callously pushing drug testing for welfare and unemployment recipients. With states across the country feeling the effects of the economic crisis gripping the land, some legislators are engaging in the cheap politics of resentment as a supposed budget-cutting move. In at least six states, bills have been filed that would require people seeking public assistance and/or unemployment benefits to submit to random drug testing, with their benefits at stake. In Arizona, Hawaii, Missouri, and Oklahoma, bills have been filed that would force people seeking public assistance to undergo random drug tests and forego benefits if they test positive. In Florida, a bill has been filed to do the same to people who receive unemployment compensation. In West Virginia, both groups are targeted. [continues 1424 words]
President-elect Barack Obama met Monday with Mexican President Felipe Calderon to discuss bilateral issues of major importance for the two countries. In addition to NAFTA and immigration policy, Mexico's ongoing plague of prohibition-related violence was high on the agenda. More than 5,400 people were killed in the violence last year, and more than 8,000 in the two years since Calderon ratcheted up Mexico's drug war by sending thousands of troops into the fray. The multi-sided conflict pits rival trafficking groups -- the so-called cartels -- against each and the Mexican state, but has also seen pitched battles between rival law enforcement units where one group or the other is in the pay of the traffickers. [continues 1153 words]
After an exhausting seven-year struggle, New Mexico joined the ranks of the medical marijuana states last year. As of July 1, the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program will be a year old, but while parts of the program are well underway -- patients are registering and obtaining ID cards -- the state law's innovative system of state-licensed production and distribution of medical marijuana is stalled in the regulatory process, with no end in sight anytime soon. Under the New Mexico law, the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, patients suffering from a narrowly circumscribed set of illnesses -- cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord damage with intractable plasticity, and HIV/AIDS -- can, with a doctor's recommendation and upon registration with the program, legally possess and use up to six ounces of marijuana, four mature plants, and three seedlings. The law also calls for a medical advisory board to determine whether other conditions should be added to the list. [continues 1004 words]
In what is likely the first arrest for possession of salvia divinorum anywhere in the nation -- and definitely a first in North Dakota -- a Bismarck man now faces years in prison after he bought a few ounces of leaves on eBay. Kenneth Rau, a bottling plant worker with an interest in herbalism, altered states, and religion and spirituality, was arrested by Bismarck police on April 9 when they searched his home looking for his adult son, who was on probation for drug charges. [continues 1412 words]
When Walter Cronkite spoke out against current drug war policies, Bill O'Reilly -- predictably enough -- launched an attack. Walter Cronkite, the legendary CBS news anchor widely dubbed "the most trusted man in America," has joined the legions of those who have earned the scorn of Fox News television host and commentator Bill O'Reilly -- and it's all about drugs. Or is it? While Cronkite's views on drug policy were what set O'Reilly off, the talk show host strayed far from the issue, touching on everything from Cronkite's age and mental condition to the evils of secular humanism. [continues 1075 words]
Medical marijuana patients and supporters from around the country are heading to Washington a week from now to demand that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reschedule marijuana. Under current drug schedules, marijuana is considered a Schedule I, like heroin or PCP, with no approved medical uses. Organized by Americans for Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org) under the rubric "Stop the Federal War on Patients Forever," demonstrators will begin converging on Washington on Saturday, October 2nd for a weekend of training and preparation, followed by a day of press and other events and the submission of a petition demanding that HHS revise its position that marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use" the following Monday, followed up by rally at HHS at 10:00am, Tuesday, October 5th. [continues 547 words]
OREGON, MONTANA STATE AND COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, LOCAL INITIATIVES MAKE NOVEMBER BALLOT Three medical marijuana initiatives will go before voters in November. State election officials in Montana and Oregon certified that initiatives in those states have qualified for the ballot. Seven states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Washington -- have passed workable medical marijuana laws through the initiative process, while voters in Arizona in 1996 passed a measure that has been unworkable. In Hawaii and Vermont, medical marijuana has come though legislative action, while Maryland legislators passed a lesser bill allowing medicinal use to be used as a defense in marijuana possession cases. [continues 1688 words]
Educators for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.efsdp.org) is an organization devoted to harnessing the weight and credibility of the teaching professions to the task of bringing about more enlightened drug policies, especially as they relate to schools and students. Originally known as Teachers Against Prohibition (TAP), the organization changed its name last year after founder Adam Jones, a young University of Montana-Billings education major, was forced by law enforcement pressure to drop out. Jones, who was on probation on a minor drug charge, was harassed and jailed repeatedly by his probation officer, forcing him to temporarily give up activism if he wanted his freedom (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/290/dearave.shtml). [continues 1756 words]
Health Canada confirmed this week that it has a proposal under development to undertake a pilot program where marijuana grown under government contract will be made available through pharmacies to medical marijuana users registered with Health Canada. The move, which, according to press reports, will begin in British Columbia, will make Canada only the second country to provide the herb at the drugstore. The Netherlands began making medical marijuana available through pharmacies last year (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/301/netherlands.shtml). [continues 1234 words]
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org), the national campus drug reform organization headquartered in Washington, DC, has been busy this month. The group has seen more colleges pass resolutions calling for repeal of the Higher Education Act's anti-drug provision, SSDP's public enemy number one. SSDP national office members joined students and drug reformers to confront drug czar John Walters and a new anti-drug reform student organization in Washington Tuesday night. And down in Albuquerque, the local chapter had some curious dealings with a nervous DEA agent at a debate it sponsored. [continues 1177 words]
President Bush used his State of the Union address in late January to announce he was budgeting $23 million to encourage school districts to do pilot student drug testing projects. The line item would be a ten-fold increase over this year's $2 million appropriation, which financed pilot projects in eight school districts. The Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP (http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov) and drug czar John Walters have made expanding student drug testing a "national priority" in this year's anti-drug strategy, and Walters has been hitting the theme wherever he appears. [continues 1054 words]
Detroit voters will go to the polls in August to decide whether to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana in Michigan's largest city, and supporters and opponents alike are gathering their forces for what looks to be a hotly contested political battle. The Detroit Coalition for Compassionate Care (http://www.mmdetroit.org), sponsor of the proposal, seeks to amend the city code sections dealing with controlled substances and drug paraphernalia to carve out an exclusion for medical marijuana users. "The provisions of this division [of the city code] shall not apply to any individual possessing or using marijuana under the direction, prescription, supervision, or guidance of a physician or other licensed medical professional," says the amendment. Similar language would amend the city code's paraphernalia section to allow medical marijuana users to possess their medical marijuana delivery systems (pipes, bongs, rolling papers). [continues 689 words]
More of the Same, and Some Hidden Costs In a time when the federal government faces multi-trillion dollar budget deficits and is warning of belt-tightening all around, the federal anti-drug budget will increase by 4.7% this fiscal year to $12.468 billion dollars. John Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) presented the new budget proposal Monday. After two decades of ever increasing federal spending on the war on drugs, the FY 2005 anti-drug budget is largely more of the same -- a small cut here, an increase there, always expanding overall, but its essential contours unchanged -- as always, law enforcement eats up most of the federal billions actually spent to impose prohibition. [continues 1580 words]
The Marijuana Policy Project (http://www.mpp.org) hopes the second time is the charm. In 2002, MPP attempted to make Nevada the first state to legalize marijuana possession and regulate its sales, but its initiative was beaten back after facing a strong counterattack, and picked up only 39% of the vote. Now, MPP and its Nevada affiliate, the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana (http://www.regulatemarijuana.org) are set to try it again. On February 18, CRCM filed papers with the Nevada Secretary of State's office to get the signature-gathering process underway for the Regulation of Marijuana Amendment. Proponents must now gather some 51,000 valid signatures by June 15 to get on the November ballot. If the measure passes in November, under Nevada law it must be resubmitted to the voters for a second approval in 2006. [continues 1253 words]
