Why Do We Continue Spending Billions on a Losing War on Drugs? Our cover story this week, "Taking the high road," is about Washington and Colorado voters' decision to allow residents to use marijuana recreationally, and what that might mean for California. But there are other important matters at stake on the marijuana front, including the future of the "war on drugs." Why, after all, does the United States continue to spend billions of dollars futilely trying to keep people from using marijuana, when most Americans believe pot is less harmful than alcohol? [continues 449 words]
Solitary Confinement Can Drive Men Mad One of the positive consequences of California's fiscal distress has been its reconsideration of its over-reliance on prisons. State officials and the public at large have begun to realize that, when schools and universities and programs for the poor and elderly are being cut, it makes no sense to pay $44,000 a year to imprison, say, a low-level drug dealer. In 2011 the Legislature, responding to federal court mandates to lessen overcrowding in the prisons, passed AB 109, the so-called "realignment" bill. It mandates counties no longer send offenders convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual and nonserious crimes (drug dealing, for instance, or burglary) to state prison and instead put them in jail-or, as it's being called, "county prison." [continues 416 words]
Two States Have Now Legalized Marijuana-Another Sure Sign That Attitudes Are Changing Slowly but surely, America is abandoning its failed war on drugs, beginning with marijuana. Voters in 18 states and the District of Columbia have approved the medical use of marijuana, and on Nov. 6 Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize marijuana for personal use. It's about time. Since its inception in 1971, as Katrina vanden Heuvel points out in The Washington Post, the war on drugs has resulted in 45 million arrests but no discernible decrease in drug use. "The result of this trillion-dollar crusade?" she asks. "Americans aren't drug free-we're just the world's most incarcerated population. We make China look like Woodstock." [continues 412 words]
Notes on Events Large and Small It's now been two years since the June 30, 2010, police commando raids on eight medical-marijuana collectives in Butte County, and still nobody is facing charges. Justice delayed is justice denied, as the saying goes, but justice-viz., a speedy trial-was never the purpose. District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who masterminded the raids, wanted first and foremost to shut down the dispensaries and strike fear in the hearts of anyone else thinking of opening one, and in that he was totally successful. [continues 477 words]
Supervisors Deal With the Pain of Failure Butte County supervisors were nursing a marijuana hangover Tuesday (June 12) at their first meeting since June 5, when county voters heaved their medical-marijuana-cultivation ordinance, in the form of Measure A, right off the cliff. The supervisors were feeling the pain of a failure that came after they and county staff had spent a long, difficult year, and put up with some major abuse, to come up with an ordinance that would make considerate neighbors out of growers. [continues 480 words]
The Crackdown on Medical-Cannabis Dispensaries Is a Mistake, Sir This week I'm turning over my column to Jeff vonKaenel, president and CEO of the News & Review papers. This letter appears in the current issue of the Sacramento News & Review. - -Robert Speer Dear President Obama, Two years ago, you said your administration would not go after dispensaries in states where marijuana is legal for medicinal use. But last Friday (Oct. 7), your U.S. Department of Justice attorneys announced a crackdown on medical-marijuana dispensaries and cultivators in California. In addition, they questioned the right of local jurisdictions to regulate this growing industry. I believe that this shift in policy will do significantly more harm than good. [continues 383 words]
Because It's About a Lot More Than Marijuana This is the CN&R's third "pot issue," and readers may be asking why we're giving the herb so much space. It's a good question. One reason is that marijuana has been much in the news lately, in Chico and elsewhere. Officials all over California have struggled to respond to the emergence of a Prop. 215-fueled army of people eager to open medical-marijuana dispensaries or grow pot in their back yards. [continues 467 words]
It Has 16 Dispensaries, While Chico Has None. Why? During the several public hearings Chico's City Council held as it tried to craft an ordinance governing medical-cannabis dispensaries, one name came up repeatedly: Redding. The two towns are the same size, have similar demographics and are both located in what has long been prime pot-growing country. And yet, as Chico medical-cannabis advocates have never tired of telling the council, Redding has taken a much different tack when it comes to regulating dispensaries. [continues 1096 words]
Takes 'Baby Steps' By Limiting Number of Medical-Marijuana Outlets to Two Somehow the Chico City Council's discussion Tuesday night (June 7) of a medical-marijuana ordinance came down to a debate over "baby steps." At issue was whether the number of dispensaries should be limited to two, as several council members preferred, or be determined by the land-use restrictions governing their location, which could ultimately allow several dispensaries. To Councilwoman Mary Flynn, who preferred the former, it was a matter of taking "baby steps" at first. "This is something we've never done before," she said. "My inclination is to start small." She said the council could allow additional dispensaries in the future, if they were warranted. [continues 617 words]
DA Ramsey Trots Out Some Bizarre Logic to Justify the Dispensary Raids We've got a couple of strong stories about medical marijuana in this issue. Both show how difficult it has become for local law enforcement to stop the spread of cannabis cultivation and dispensaries. Our cover story ("The cannabis conundrum," by Managing Editor Meredith J. Cooper and News Editor Melissa Daugherty) takes another, closer look at the June 30 law-enforcement raids on cannabis collectives and the homes of their operators. As it shows, a lot of time, effort and taxpayers' money went into coordinating the 19 simultaneous raids-one of which managed to target the wrong house. Oops. [continues 413 words]
For a time Bryan Epis was a hero among medical-marijuana activists. Now he's more like a martyr to the cause. That's because, after an epic legal battle lasting since his arrest for marijuana cultivation nearly 13 years ago, in June 1997, the Chico man is now back in prison, ordered in February to serve out his original 10-year sentence. More precisely, he's in the Sacramento County Jail, waiting transfer to a state prison. [continues 727 words]
Commit County To Coming Up With An Ordinance Regulating Dispensaries Until now, Butte County has kept a low profile on the controversial issue of medical-marijuana dispensaries, watching as other counties and many cities have tried to muddle through what has turned out to be a swamp of vague and often conflicting legalities. That ended Tuesday (Jan. 12), when the Board of Supervisors jumped into the fray with both feet. The board's immediate action was to impose a temporary moratorium on dispensaries in the county, but that wasn't as significant as it might have appeared. As Supervisor Jane Dolan eventually pointed out, dispensaries already are illegal simply because they aren't a permitted use under the county's zoning ordinance. [continues 567 words]
Why I and Most Californians Think Pot Should Be Legalized In the war on drugs, weed is winning. I like that line. I stole it fair and square from Jim Hightower, the tough-talking Texan whose commentaries can be heard on KZFR. He used it in a piece he wrote recently for the online journal Alternet about the failure of the drug war. I think he's right about marijuana, the subject of our special issue this week. For one thing, polls indicate that more and more people--nearly a majority nationwide, more than a majority in California--believe going after marijuana tokers is a waste of time and money and that pot should be legalized. [continues 443 words]
Elected Officials in Chico and Elsewhere Struggle to Come to Grips With an Explosion of Pot Dispensaries Dawn Jenkins grew up in the Mormon Church, where her father was a bishop. Her husband, Mike, has owned a pool-service company in Red Bluff for decades. They have deep roots in the community. They also happen to operate the town's only medical-marijuana dispensary, called the Tehama County Patients Collective. Mike has been a medical-marijuana patient and testifies to the herb's value as medicine. He and Dawn believe in the importance of providing other patients with legal, affordable marijuana and are confident that the law is on their side. So, when they were looking for a storefront for a medical-marijuana dispensary and one came open right next door to the Tehama County Sheriff's Office, they didn't hesitate to rent it. [continues 2312 words]
After a decade of legal wrangling and more than two years in prison, med-pot pioneer Bryan Epis faces a return to prison Today (Thursday, June 21) at 9:30 a.m., Bryan Epis will walk into the Sacramento courtroom of federal District Court Judge Frank Damrell Jr., where he is scheduled to testify once again in his marijuana-cultivation case. Epis' case began with his arrest 10 years ago almost to the day and still isn't resolved. What started out as a small-time bust has become a legal roller-coaster ride, made Epis a hero among med-pot activists, and raised serious constitutional issues. [continues 1535 words]
The phrase "drug-endangered children" has entered the national law-enforcement lexicon, thanks largely to the ravages of methamphetamine abuse. Last Thursday (April 19), Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey used graphic photographs to show local reporters what the phrase really means. It wasn't pretty. As Ramsey put it, "Meth takes the parental instinct right out of parents." The occasion was a press conference at the county Probation Department called as part of the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force's release of its annual report for 2006. In addition to Ramsey, Sheriff Perry Reniff and all four of the police chiefs in the county attended, along with BINTF personnel. [continues 698 words]
