The promotion of industrial hemp as a silver bullet to protect agricultural lands from development is a case of misplaced enthusiasm. Sugar and pineapple have experienced greatly reduced plantings due to cheaper production elsewhere. The 10-year legislative promotion of ethanol in fuel could not induce a single investor to build a plant to produce it. The ship has sailed on industrial crop production in Hawaii due to high costs of land, water and labor. Legislative enthusiasm to support Hawaiian agriculture would be better focused on improving the water supply to agriculturally important lands, enhanced grower access to local markets via an open statewide auction house and enhanced interisland transportation, such as the Superferry. Let's not waste valuable tax dollars on developing a crop like industrial hemp that can and will be more cost effectively produced in other mainland states, if and when it becomes legal to do so. Joe DeFrank Mililani [end]
One of Macomb County's smallest communities could become a battleground over the enforcement of marijuana laws. A local group that calls itself Coalition for a Safer Utica filed petitions Friday calling for a city charter amendment that would liberalize marijuana use in the city. Mike Lumetta, who led the petition drive, said the goal is to reduce the enforcement of marijuana laws to the "lowest policing priority." Lumetta said his group collected the signatures of more than 180 registered voters. If those are verified, the proposal could go to voters in November. [continues 273 words]
The Global Commission on Drug Policy minced no words last June when it released its report on the war on drugs. "The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the report concluded. "... Forty years after President (Richard) Nixon launched the U.S. government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug-control policies are urgently needed." Chief among the commission's recommendations: Decriminalize and even legalize some drugs, like marijuana. [continues 829 words]
Craig Yaldoo, Michigan's drug czar, spoke Wednesday at a luncheon given by the Warren, Center Line, Sterling Heights Chamber of Commerce. If you want to pick a fight with Craig Yaldoo, simply suggest the war on drugs is a failure. "There's this idea or notion that we've lost the war on drugs, that it's not worth fighting," said Yaldoo, Michigan's drug czar. "(People ask), 'How can I support a strategy that hasn't been able to eliminate drugs from our schools, our workplaces, our communities?' [continues 422 words]
Columnist Frank DeFrank: "For a few fleeting moments, those cops and social workers and activists who serve so proudly as soldiers in the "war" on drugs were forced to consider an outside-the-box approach to a problem that continues to grow despite their best efforts." Mere unorthodoxy or dissent from the prevailing mores is not to be condemned. The absence of such voices would be a symptom of grave illness in our society. -- Earl Warren, Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice [continues 403 words]
If you haven't been already, sometime in the next few months you'll likely be approached and asked to sign a petition to put a measure on the ballot that would reform Michigan drug laws. Depending on whom you believe, the Michigan Drug Reform Initiative, a proposed amendment to the state constitution, will: * Decriminalize many drug offenses; * Focus on treatment rather than incarceration for users; * Reserve the most severe prison sentences for major drug dealers. Or it will ... * Cripple law enforcement agencies in their efforts to apprehend and punish drug dealers; [continues 312 words]
