Tuesday, June 10, the Hammer Museum hosts Judge James P. Gray, retired police chief Norm Stamper, and author and activist Marc Mauer in "The Crime of Punishment," a discussion forum about the inequity in which the American criminal justice system is steeped and Tricky Dick's still-lumbering "War on Drugs." Mauer indicates that although there's (probably) no conspiracy afoot to cultivate this racism, Americans have tacitly consented to it by allowing clearly discriminatory policies to be enacted and enforced. [continues 355 words]
OK, we aren't big fans of needless paperwork and don't care to share too much information about our personal finances. But, come on, who does the police union expect to fall for their empty threats that 600 well-paid drug cops will bail from their jobs if forced to comply with new financial disclosure rules aimed at heading off a repeat of the Rampart scandal? In a radio commercial, Tim Sands, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, says drug cops face possible "identity theft" if they must turn over detailed tax returns, bank account information and other details of their financial holdings every two years. The new rules, approved last month by the police commission, are called for in the ongoing federal consent decree, which gave federal judge Gary Feess the power to oversee how the department is run in the aftermath of the Rampart scandal that rocked the department a decade ago. [continues 278 words]
A Family Searches for Answers in the Strange Death of a DEA Agent Known As 'Rubberneck' And 'Buckles' The grieving father crushes a cigarette into a crowded ashtray on the kitchen counter and stares blankly at a tiny TV screen next to the sink. It's 11 a.m. on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, exactly one year since he last saw his son, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Jeffrey T. Bockelkamp, alive. Today the father, thin and expressionless, is drinking in the family home in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, a blue-collar suburb of Scranton. [continues 4493 words]
[Re: Letters, Aug. 16] I'm a person who has had seizures since 1975. It was when I started using cannabis in 2005 that I saw my seizures reduced from over 36 to five per year. The reason why patients use cannabis is because it works for so many people. I've been living two years practically seizure-free and I'm thankful to Los Angeles CityBeat, whose articles on medical cannabis in 2005 alerted me to the use of cannabis for seizure disorders. Yvonne Collins Los Angeles [end]
I'm writing about Mindy Farabee's story: "Remaking California Prisons." Unfortunately, the common-sense solution to California's prison problem lies in Washington, D.C. - not Sacramento. Since the vast majority of all of our violent crime and property crime is caused by, not drugs, but rather our drug prohibition policies, the common-sense solution is to re-legalize all of our now illegal drugs. Then the drugs can be sold in legal, regulated and licensed business establishments. Then drug dealers as we know them today will disappear for economic reasons. Then our so-called "drug-related crime" will be in our past - not our future. Most people currently employed in law enforcement are against the re-legalization of our now illegal drugs. That's because we would need far fewer law enforcement personnel if all drugs were re-legalized. [continues 110 words]
Reading about the medical marijuana-themed playing cards my organization recently distributed to U.S. Congress members ("Dope Dealing," issue of Aug. 29), I realized we could design 20 more decks and never run out of arguments for providing safe access to seriously ill patients. Unfortunately, the federal government continues to harass patients who use medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, even in the 12 states with laws protecting them. This summer, the Drug Enforcement Administration staged armed raids on licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in California and Oregon despite the protests of local citizens and officials. Surely federal law enforcement officials have better things to do with our tax dollars than bullying cancer patients. - -- Dan Bernath Assistant Director of Communications Marijuana Policy Project Washington, D.C. [end]
As a former marijuana addict, I am upset with the heavily pro-marijuana-dispensaries line your publication continues to take with regard to this obviously important issue. While I have no objection to California citizens' rights to pass such a law, nor even the basic concept of "medical marijuana," I believe the intent of the law has been taken to an extreme which in the end will not serve sufferers of legitimate diagnosed problems. I have seen advertisements in your paper as well as others (notably the L.A. Weekly), which have made claims that so-called "medical marijuana" will help sufferers of problems as distinct as depression, seizures, and cancer. While I don't doubt that those under chemotherapy can benefit from marijuana's miraculous ability to induce the "munchies," being someone who has suffered in the past from clinical depression and seizures, I can say that I was never so depressed as when I was addicted to marijuana. It is a known depressant, much like alcohol, and though it can provide some temporary relief it can never solve such problems in the long term. As far as seizures are concerned, I doubt that the proponents of "medical marijuana" would be able to find a single reputable neurologist who would prescribe this form of treatment. [continues 208 words]
[Re: "Lies, Damned Lies, and Marijuana," July 19] While Harry J. Anslinger is rightly characterized as a blight upon American history, one point deserves correction. The following statement is often attributed to Anslinger: "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers," he pronounced. "Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others. Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men." [continues 288 words]
[Re: "Lies, Damned Lies, and Marijuana," July 19] It's good to see exposure of the hypocrisy called marijuana prohibition. Any list of laws that serve no useful purpose must put marijuana prohibition at the top. America's politicians have wedded themselves to Reefer Madness fables, fictions, and false witness for so long that the only hope for change is to vote these sleazeballs out of office. What is a representative worth if he/she is too stupid or too hidebound to see the truth about marijuana. Anyone who supports punishment for a "marijuana crime" does not deserve to hold public office. Citizens serving on juries must deliver simple justice by refusing to convict in "marijuana only" cases. A very good reason for refusing to issue any guilty verdicts is the fact that the money wasted on enforcement, courts, and prisons by itself could save Social Security. Ralph Givens Daly City, California [end]
I'm writing about Bruce Mirken's thoughtful letter ["Stay on the Grass," July 26]. It was recently reported by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime that 12.6 percent of all Americans between the ages of 15 and 64 used pot at least once in 2005. In the Netherlands where marijuana is quasi-legal for adults, only 6.1 percent of all Dutch between the same ages used marijuana at least once in the year 2005. Most drug war cheerleaders proclaim that if marijuana were re-legalized, pot use would skyrocket. I believe that the Netherlands example shows that this probably would not happen. [continues 96 words]
BAD MEMORIES OF THE DEA'S WILD DAY IN L.A. Considered as paramilitary theater, the DEA raids last week on medical marijuana clinics across L.A. County were a nice touch of the old "shock" and "awe." Special care was shown in the timing, striking as they did during a press conference held at L.A. City Hall announcing a one-year moratorium on new collectives. The measure is widely held by local activists as legitimatizing efforts to self-regulate the area's burgeoning medical marijuana. At the conference, three L.A. City Council members - Dennis Zine, Janice Hahn, and Bill Rosendahl - said that they had sent a letter to Drug Enforcement Agency administrator Karen Tandy requesting the feds cease threatening clinics with asset forfeiture notices. Councilman Zine, an ex-cop, affirmed the city's intent to "uphold the will of our voters and adopt sensible guidelines to regulate the provision of medical cannabis in our communities." [continues 1259 words]
[Re: "Lies, Damned Lies, and Marijuana," July 19] Mick Farren is to be commended for exposing the racist roots of marijuana prohibition. The original reefer madness myths have all been exposed as lies. Unfortunately, our government continues to lie about marijuana. Record numbers of U.S. citizens arrested for marijuana possession have been forced into treatment by the criminal justice system. The resulting distortion of treatment statistics is used by drug czar John Walters to make the claim that marijuana is "addictive." [continues 135 words]
Congratulations on an excellent wrap-up of the latest in our government's unscientific and futile war on marijuana ["Stay Off the Grass!" July 19]. Readers should be aware that it's not just folks like the Marijuana Policy Project and the ever-wise Mick Farren questioning U.S. government dogma on marijuana. For example, a recent analysis in The Lancet, one of the planet's most prestigious medical journals, found marijuana to be markedly less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco. And the British government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has stated, "The high use of cannabis is not associated with major health problems for the individual or society." [continues 215 words]
[Re: "Stay off the Grass!" July 19]: Across America, I hear a lot of marijuana-flavored music from the stall walls of our finest coffeehouses, chocolatiers, and music retailers. However, I find it highly disingenuous on those merchants' parts to woo me into their THC-free environs with spiritual Bob Marley music or the righteous sounds of Louis Armstrong, when both great men were life-long advocates of cannabis decriminalization. Congress can nullify its draconian anti-cannabis laws more quickly than it allocates hundreds of billions of dollars for distant war operations in central Asia. Reasonable state and local restrictions should replace the immoral federal prohibition, whose time now has truly come to an end. Ivan Smason Santa Monica [end]
'Operation Alesia' Has Raided Pot Farms on Public Lands Last week, an unprecedented collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies began a well-publicized blitz campaign in northern California's Shasta County to root out illegal marijuana gardens hidden in national parks and forests - a phenomenon that occurs statewide and is partly the result of stepped-up eradication efforts and tighter border security. At a news conference in Redding, officials involved in what is known as Operation Alesia trumpeted the successes of the three-tiered campaign, which involves at least 400 people from Shasta County law enforcement, the National Guard, and 15 other agencies. During the conference, Director of National Drug Control Policy John P. Walters described marijuana growing on public land as a threat to public safety and the environment, and referred to growers as "violent criminal terrorists." [continues 784 words]
A History of Federal Confusion and Persecution Over the 'Evil Weed' Since March 2003, we have been listening to George W. Bush and his surrogates offer the American People a progression of reasons for invading the sovereign nation of Iraq and the resulting bloody mayhem. The rationales, the excuses, and the all too obvious lies have progressively eroded support for the war, until, as we move into the fifth year of the conflict, considerably less than a third of the country appears to believe a word that comes out of the White House. As wretchedly disastrous as the falsehoods about Iraq have proved to be - from WMDs to spreading the gospel of democracy - they can only pale in comparison to the lies that have been told about marijuana, if only by the duration of the deceit. [continues 1089 words]
As the City Works to Control the Number of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, More and More Patients Are Signing Up When a working group of city officials and medical marijuana advocates first met in February to decide how Los Angeles should regulate its medical marijuana market, they were surprised to learn that nobody could say how many dispensaries are in the city. No one was keeping track. Within the next few weeks, the L.A. City Council is expected to unanimously pass a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries, the first step in an effort to regulate the city's rapidly expanding medical marijuana market. Since November 2005, the number of dispensaries has grown from four to somewhere between 100 and 200 today. Medical marijuana advocates and dispensary operators support the moratorium, because it will allow the city to cap the market until well developed regulations are in place, without disrupting supplies to patients. [continues 1131 words]
Feds Use Asset-Forfeiture Laws to Spell Evictions for Medical-Pot Providers White House drug czar John P. Walters isn't a figure to command awe, so rhetoric had some considerable slack to transcend. Out in Redding last Thursday, July 12, to bestow federal benediction on a National Guard/Shasta County pot-eradication drive, the director of the Office of National Drug Policy called on America to overcome its "reefer blindness" and realize the marijuana plants destroyed by Operation Alesia were sewn on its own public land by "violent criminal terrorists." The meme was the message as Walters gave the money quote another airing: "Don't buy drugs," he declared. "They fund violence and terror." [continues 1286 words]
Regarding your thoughtful editorial "A Free Pass" [July 7]: It seems a little strange that Bush would consider Scooter Libby's 30-month prison sentence for the crime of lying under oath to cover up the crime of treason "excessive." It also seems a little strange that Bush has no concern for those terms to multi-decade prison terms for the not-so-heinous crime of growing or transporting the natural herb marijuana. The natural herb that has never been documented for killing a single person in the 5,000-year history of its use. Kirk Muse Mesa, Arizona [end]
Progressive Dennis Kucinich takes over a new House subcommittee, signaling changes in national drug policy. The Democratic sweep in the 2006 mid-term elections has done more than finally install a woman as speaker of the House. It has also put one of the most vocal critics of the ill-starred "War on Drugs" in a position to affect federal drug policy. On January 18, Ohio Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, one of the most progressive Democratic voices in the House, was appointed as chair of the new House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on domestic policy, causing drug reform organizations coast-to-coast to rejoice in hopes that a moment for significant change may have finally come. [continues 1133 words]
