Vancouver, British Columbia -- Psychedelic rock booms through the Vapour Lounge. In the store, young and some not-so-young people smoke pot through a variety of devices. And owner Marc Emery stands in the middle of it all, proclaiming his goal of defeating the U.S. war on drugs. Known as the Prince of Pot, Emery has sold millions of marijuana seeds around the world by mail over the past decade. In doing so, he has drawn the attention of U.S. drug officials, who want him extradited to Seattle. Emery has agreed to plead guilty in Seattle to one count of marijuana distribution in exchange for dismissal of all other counts, and the U.S. attorney is pressing for a sentence of five to eight years in a U.S. prison. [continues 1091 words]
The State Police and the New Jersey Army National Guard took to the South Jersey skies in a Black Hawk helicopter last week to train officers how to locate and bust marijuana growers. A day later, lawmakers in Trenton approved a bill they hope, if enacted, would allow seriously ill residents to legally use marijuana for medical purposes. The two events highlight a thorny question for New Jersey: How do you make it legal for some residents to smoke pot, while it's against the law for everyone else? Lawmakers are looking at 13 states that allow medical marijuana to make sure the legislation they pass has enough restrictions so only those who really need it can get it. [continues 862 words]
Lawmakers Won't Touch a Popular Law, Even If It Would Save $190 Million Over Five Years North Carolina's habitual-felon law is powerful: A three-time criminal who breaks into a parking meter or has a crack pipe with cocaine residue can be sentenced as if he were a rapist. It is expensive: These longer sentences add an average of$195,000 in prison costs for each habitual felon, a News & Observer analysis shows. Since the law took effect in 1994, taxpayers have committed an additional $1.5 billion to house habitual felons -- and an additional $264 million to build prisons for them. And it is untouchable at the General Assembly. District attorneys and sheriffs have squashed all attempts to change it by painting opponents as coddlers of criminals, said former Rep. Joe Kiser, a Republican and the former sheriff of Lincoln County. [continues 2320 words]
A Longmont group is pushing to reduce the penalty for pot possession and hopes to get people talking along the way by Dana Logan "Penalties against a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use. The National Commission on Marijuana and Abuse concluded years ago that marijuana use should be decriminalized, and I believe it is time to implement those basic recommendations. Therefore, I support legislation amending federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana." - President Jimmy Carter to Congress, 1977 [continues 2225 words]
To the Editor: My name is James Joseph Munson. My friends call me Oaky Joe. I would like to share with you some of my experiences from over the last 1.5 years or so. Today I went to one of my good friend's memorial. He was a retired veteran who was very proud of his country. I asked my friend about a year ago if he would come to court to testify on me and my wife's behalf. My friend told me that he wanted to but that he was not feeling very well. When my wife and I had our second and third cases come up we asked my friend again if he could come to court. He assured us that he would if he was physically able to. He did come to court and he did testify under oath that I had been supplying him with his medical marijuana for quite some time. My friend had to be wheeled into the court in a wheel chair with a respirator. My friend was so weak that Judge Brown let him testify before the lunch break so that he could leave. After my friend got home he became sicker and sicker. So much so they had to take him by ambulance to the hospital in Lakeport. His health deteriorated even further and was put into ICU. The facility in Lakeport felt like they needed to send him to the veterans hospital in San Francisco. They stabilized my friend after two weeks and he returned home. Five days later, however, my friend died. [continues 597 words]
