PBS Newshour Special Correspondent Judy Muller of KCET reports from California on how voters are navigating a midterm ballot initiative on the legalization of marijuana.
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Lawyer Kirk Tousaw discusses Proposition 19 and its potential impact on British Columbia with host Bill Good on CKNW Radio Vancouver
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When the majority says marijuana should not be a crime the law loses its legitimacy.
By Kevin Zeese
It is hard to imagine that Eric Holder’s letter threatening to “vigorously enforce” federal law if California votes for legalization of marijuana is serious. It seems timed to manipulate voters in California, but in this year when political elites are hated it is likely to backfire and lead Californians to vote to end the failed marijuana war.
During one of the greatest failed experiments in American history, alcohol prohibition, a turning point was when New York told the federal government it would no longer enforce laws against alcohol. That left it to the federal government to enforce the law. Already “the feds” as they were derogatorily known were hated in rural areas where alcohol was often produced and the feds came in and disrupted their commerce. Then, the biggest urban area refused to enforce the law. The result, alcohol prohibition ended a few years later.
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Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders supports Proposition 19
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To the editor,
Congratulations to Ethan Baron for recognizing that cannabis should be legally regulated, however, he needs to do his homework on illicit drugs and drug policy. ("Hard drugs are the source of B.C.’s notoriety," Oct 15.)
The “hard drugs” Baron mentions; heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine, are also orders of magnitude less harmful than tobacco and alcohol when used as directed in a legally regulated environment.
Meth is available by prescription, ecstasy (MDMA) is being clinically reconsidered for psychotherapy, pharmaceutical heroin, used as directed, in no worse than any other opiate, and coca tea is healthier
than coffee and other caffeinated energy drinks.Most of the crime and violence we associate with hard drugs is made worse by, if not caused by, criminal prohibition. The three evidence-based pillars of our drug control regime; prevention, treatment and harm reduction, are fettered and grossly outspent by the fourth, drug law enforcement.
The vast majority of drug users are not low-income, nor disadvantaged, nor under-educated, and consume drugs moderately and non-problematically. Most who become addicted are self-medicating
preexisting psychological problems that cops, courts and criminalization exacerbate.The more harmful the substance, the less it makes sense to abdicate control of it to unaccountable criminals who sell drugs of unknown potency, purity and provenance, on commission, to anyone, of any age, any time, anywhere, no questions asked. We have more control over cat food than we do the so-called “controlled drugs and substances.”
Matthew M. Elrod
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To: ONDCP, DEA
Drug Truth Network, a radio syndicate of more than 90 broadcast affiliates in the US and Canada has been on the airwaves for more than 9 years. The sole subject of these radio programs is the “unvarnished truth” about the prohibition of drugs.
Drug Truth Network has repeatedly attempted over these 9 years to garner an interview with all previous administrators of the DEA and all prior directors of the ONDCP, to no avail.
Therefore we the undersigned request that Michelle Leonhart, the current Administrator of the DEA and Gil Kerlikowske, the current Director of the ONDCP make themselves immediately available as guests on the Drug Truth Network radio programs to clarify the need for an eternal war on plant products.
Sincerely,
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Former Drug Enforcement Administration chief and Republican congressman from Arkansas Asa Hutchinson has stepped up to argue in favor of the status quo and continuing into a ninth decade of Cannabis Prohibition.
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By Maia Szalavitz
As California moves toward the legalization of marijuana — next month, voters will decide on Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 — a key question remains: could the new law produce a whole generation of stoners? Opponents of legalization say, yes, fearing it will lead to a massive increase in pot smoking among youth. But some supporters suggest the opposite: legalizing cannabis could de-glamorize it and ultimately prompt reductions in toking. Who’s right?
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The International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP) today released a new research report that demonstrates the clear failure of U.S. marijuana prohibition and supports calls for evidence-based models to legalize and regulate the use of cannabis. The British Medical Journal, one of the world’s most influential medical journals, published a supportive commentary to coincide with the report’s release today.
The new report, entitled Tools for debate: U.S. federal government data on cannabis prohibition, uses 20 years of data collected by surveillance systems funded by the U.S. government to highlight the failure of cannabis prohibition in America. The report has deep relevance for California as the state prepares to vote on the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis proposition and, potentially, legalize cannabis.
Listen to lead author Dr. Evan Wood discussing the report with host Bill Good on CKNW Radio Vancouver.