A medical marijuana hearing Wednesday in Iowa City provided a platform for those in favor of legalizing the substance for medicinal purposes. The overwhelming majority of testifiers supported the medical-marijuana cause, with few offering any opposing views. Patients with chronic pain, doctors, a former drug prosecutor, and Iowa City residents partially made up the crowd and spoke before the Iowa Board of Pharmacy. The bulk of those who testified noted the medical benefits marijuana would provide to suffering patients and contended it would be a good replacement for powerful prescription narcotics. [continues 417 words]
CO-Authored by 2 Wisconsin Lawmakers, Legislation Follows Lead of 14 Other States After last weekend's Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival protest on the Capitol steps brought attention to the issue of medical marijuana, two Wisconsin Democrats have proposed legislation that would legalize cannabis for medical purposes in the state. According to a statement from advocacy group Is My Medicine Legal Yet?, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, are the co-authors of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, which if passed would allow terminally or seriously ill patients to grow or have someone else grow a small amount of cannabis for medical use. [continues 427 words]
Today is a historic day for New York, the day that the Rockefeller Drug Law reforms kicked in, setting in motion the release of 1,500 low-level nonviolent drug offenders. The new law also gives judicial discretion back to judges, who can now determine whether someone should get treatment for their addiction instead of a jail cell. I went to Brooklyn's Supreme Court and attended a public event to mark the milestone. The court room was full of activists, politicians and service providers that have been working for years to make this reform happen. [continues 399 words]
The Opinion section article, 'The Perilous Way' (Oct. 6), outlining the three risky options for us in Afghanistan, was excellent. Going all in by increasing troop strength and nation building will result in more casualties and be hobbled by a corrupt and incompetent Afghan government. We tried that at the beginning of our war in Vietnam. It failed Prolonging the status quo without a troop strength increase keeps us in a prolonged, slow-bleed situation, increases the number of 'accidental guerillas,' makes our forces targets of opportunity and has no successful end game. We tried that in the middle of our war in Vietnam. It failed. [continues 508 words]
Forget Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom. It says here that the most interesting political issue in California next June might not be the Republican and Democratic nominations for governor, but possibly a ballot proposition with the following title: "Changes California Law to Legalize Marijuana and Allow It to Be Regulated and Taxed." Actually, there are three very similar initiatives now cleared for signature-gathering, but this specific one is sponsored by Richard Lee of Oaksterdam University, one of the most devoted marijuana reformers in the state. [continues 688 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy. At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of more than 38 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive government-sanctioned pot industry. [continues 846 words]
The girl wore black - skirt, boots, skimpy top - and her hair was also black, but artificially so; and her face was pale and her lips were red and her chains were silver. The hour was early and the morning air was clean, and she may have been coming off the night shift when she entered the apartment building and the door closed quietly behind her. The building is a crack house on Wilson Park Rd. At night there are fist fights on the sidewalk when little drug deals go wrong; bottles get smashed, and jagged howls of rage and outrage tear the darkness. [continues 520 words]
ARCATA, Calif. -- Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico. Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving U.S. growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers, who once made brands such as Acapulco Gold the standard for quality. [continues 1503 words]
