British Medical Journal On Harm Reduction
Strict laws on the criminalisation of drug use and drug users are fuelling the spread of HIV and other serious harms associated with the criminal market and should be reviewed, say experts. In this video, epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani and other leading commentators describe which countries are leading the way in tackling HIV infection among injecting drug users.
By Stephen Rolles, senior policy analyst
Stephen Rolles argues that we need to end the criminalisation of drugs and instead set up regulatory models that will control drug markets and reduce the health and social harms caused by current policy
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010
Subject: #441 Legalized Pot? Like Getting Bonged In The Head
LEGALIZED POT? LIKE GETTING BONGED IN THE HEAD
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #441 – Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
The column below illustrates that a columnist may cover a topic
well.
An anonymous donor has challenged DrugSense and MAP to raise $25,000
in new donations and/or increases in current periodic donations. Once
the goal is achieved the donor will provide us with $25,000. Today we
are about four fifths of the way to this very important goal. Please
help us meet the challenge! http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
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Pubdate: Tue, 13 Jul 2010
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/H11qQ2tj
Copyright: 2010 PG Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Author: Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Cited: Proposition 19 http://www.taxcannabis.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Proposition+19
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?261 (Cannabis – United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis – Medicinal – U.S.)
Legalized Pot? Like Getting Bonged in the Head
In November, Californians will have the opportunity to vote on a
ballot initiative legalizing all marijuana use, whether medicinal or
not.
According to the latest poll of likely California voters, Proposition
19 will pass. This will put the Obama administration in an awkward
position.
The federal government is already suing Arizona for its recently
enacted immigration law. What will the Obama Justice Department do
when a state goes rogue by establishing its own rules when it comes to
licensing and taxing the sale of weed?
California law will be in opposition to federal law as well as in
violation of a 1961 international treaty that prohibits the
legalization of cannabis. The U.S. is a signatory to that treaty.
In a surprising move, Alice Huffman, the president of the California
State Conference of the NAACP, threw the prestige of her organization
behind Proposition 19.
Citing a new study by the Drug Policy Alliance, Ms. Huffman insisted
last week that the legalization of marijuana is, among other things, a
civil rights issue because blacks are more likely to be arrested for
pot possession than whites, even though blacks use it at far lower
rates.
In California, blacks make up 22 percent of those busted for marijuana
possession despite being less than 7 percent of the population.
National NAACP Chairman Julian Bond applauded Ms. Huffman’s stance, as
did the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and the California
Black Chamber of Commerce.
Shortly after Ms. Huffman endorsed Prop 19, a group of black religious
leaders called for the civil rights leader’s head. “Why should the
state NAACP advocate for blacks to stay high?” asked Bishop Ron Allen
of the International Faith-Based Coalition. “It’s going to cause crime
to go up. There will be more drug babies.”
Closer to home, a bill to legalize medical marijuana use continues to
languish in both chambers of the state Legislature despite polling
that puts voter support for it at 81 percent.
The Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates oppose medical
use of marijuana, no matter how restrictive Pennsylvania’s laws would
be compared to California’s.
(It’s interesting that the leading politicians of our state favor
liberalized gun laws, expanded gambling and the expansion of
controversial hydraulic fracturing techniques to extract natural gas
from below ground in ways that could adversely affect the state’s
water supply.)
There’s also concern that the revenue stream created by legalizing
marijuana in California and other places is overstated. The Rand
Corp.’s Drug Policy Research Center said that the state’s premium weed
could drop from a high of $450 an ounce to $38. California would have
to slap on a consumption tax to double or triple the price to get a
workable funding stream.
The criminal black market for marijuana would collapse, but it could
be replaced around the edges by law-abiding folks growing and selling
their own weed. Why is that such an unacceptable outcome?
A state highly skilled at slapping on taxes like Pennsylvania could
use the legalization of marijuana as an opportunity to provide a
“gateway service” to the Liquor Control Board as it transitions out of
the liquor control business.
Overnight, the LCB could become the Legalized Cannabis Board. The LCB
could bring the benefit of generations of condescension by bored
clerks to a sector of the economy that desperately needs it. Dealing
with the culture of the LCB would be such a bummer for most potheads
that demand for marijuana would drop precipitously. It is an elegant
way to deal with both sides of the demand curve.
There would be those who would rather grow their own weed and avoid
paying any taxes than buy it from state middlemen. As someone who
doesn’t personally indulge, the thought of neighbors growing a patch
of Mary Jane in their back yard for private use doesn’t exactly terrify me.
For most of our history, Americans grew and consumed marijuana in
various forms. Aren’t we politically mature enough to go back to the
days of deciding what merits watering in our own back yards? If
dealing with hemp was good enough for George Washington and the
Founding Fathers …
Only ideologues are unable to admit what is obvious to everyone else:
The Drug War has been an unmitigated disaster. It has resulted in the
fattening of profits for drug lords, the destabilization of nations,
the corruption of law enforcement, the reallocation of dwindling
national resources down rat holes, the expansion of the
prison-industrial complex, expensive wars overseas and national hypocrisy.
You don’t need to smoke a bong to see that.
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Suggestions for writing letters are at our Media Activism Center
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
For facts please see Marijuana: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/53
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Prepared by: Richard Lake www.mapinc.org
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Poll commissioned by LDDPR demonstrates public are ready for drugs discussion
Three other drugs: Magic Mushrooms, Amphetamines, and Mephedrone show a majority in favour of legalisation and regulation, whilst 3 in 10 people would prefer the state regulate rather than prohibit heroin supply. These poll results demonstrate that the public is ready for a mature, open discussion of alternative approaches to drug policy and that there is no need for politicians to fear a backlash should they express doubts about the wisdom of our current approach.
Rather than just ask whether each drug should be “legalised”, the poll gave brief descriptions of three regulatory options and asked the public to pick which they thought most tolerable for each of a series of drugs. The options were:
Light regulation (drugs sold like tobacco and alcohol are now)
Strict government control and regulation (an example of how government could heavily regulate a legal market in an attempt to minimise harm)
and Prohibition (the current status of illegal drugs).
Figures below supporting legal regulation add the percentages for “light regulation” and “strict government control and regulation”
Headline results include:
• 70% support for legal regulation of cannabis, with 1 in 3 of those polled feeling that it should be sold in a similar way to alcohol and tobacco.
• More people supporting legal regulation than prohibition for 3 other drugs: Magic Mushrooms (52% to 34%), Amphetamines (49% to 40%), and the recently banned “legal high” Mephedrone (41% to 39%).
• 39% support for the legal regulation of ecstasy sales, 36% support for regulation of cocaine, and 30% of respondents supported the legal regulation of heroin.
• For alcohol and tobacco over 1 in 4 respondents supported strict government control and regulation and 8% expressed a desire for tobacco to be prohibited.
• Very little variation in opinion dependent on which political party respondents support.
The Adam Smith Institute Blog
The decriminalization of drugs has the potential to save the British taxpayer money, and simultaneously improve the security and health of the general public.
By Karthik Reddy, Guest blogger
Faced with the dire need to restore discipline to British public finances and a rising rate of reoffending among prisoners, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke announced yesterday broad changes to the way in which the government administers criminal justice. The prison population of England and Wales recently surpassed 85,000 inmates this year, a historically unparalleled number that is expected to continue to grow even further in coming years. As a proportion of their populations, England and Wales lock up nearly 150 of every 100,000 residents, a number that represents one of the highest rates of incarceration in Western Europe.
By CBC News
RMCP in North Vancouver say they have busted an outdoor marijuana grow-op, but despite having photographic evidence of the suspects amongst the plants, they won’t be able to press charges.
Police say they first got a tip that three men appeared to be unloading marijuana seedlings from a pick-up truck on Mount Seymour Road on June 22.
[snip]
Then three days later the RCMP bicycle patrol located an outdoor grow operation hidden in the forest, complete with about 66 plants, potting soil, pots, water and fertilizer.
A search of a nearby vehicle, which was linked to the original suspect, also turned up a camera, with photographs of the original suspect and others standing amidst the grow-operation.
But despite the photographic evidence none of the men were charged, because the photos were not enough evidence to make a case in court.
Cpl. Peter DeVries said the case demonstrates the “daunting task police face in gathering enough evidence to successfully prosecute criminals for the offences they commit.”
“In this case, even photos showing the suspects standing among the marijuana plants was insufficient. Demonstrating that a suspect had both knowledge that the plants were in fact marijuana, and the intent to grow and distribute it, requires more than simply a photo showing him standing next to them.
“Notwithstanding the police’s inability to secure a charge in this case, the fact that this batch of marijuana will never make it to the street helps in the effort to thwart some of the more insidious crimes associated with drug trafficking,” he said.
As support for the Vienna Declaration grows we will be profiling signatories and members of our writing committee here and in our blog. Check back regularly for updates and to learn more about who is supporting evidence-based drug policy, and why.
By Alice Huffman, President of the California NAACP
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” said the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967 when he spoke out against the Vietnam War. At the time, he was roundly criticized by friend and foe alike for speaking out on an issue considered outside the purview of civil rights’ leaders. Dr. King understood better than most at the time the true cost of war — in lives lost, in futures squandered, in dreams deferred and in misspent resources. Eventually, a majority of Americans came to agree with him about the war in Vietnam but he did not live long enough to see the shift in public opinion. His moral courage lay in speaking out in the face of disagreement, caring more about his integrity than popularity.
As leaders of the California NAACP, it is our mission to eradicate injustice and continue the fight for civil rights and social justice wherever and whenever we can. We are therefore compelled to speak out against another war, the so called “war on drugs.” To be clear, this is not a war on the drug lords and violent cartels, this is a war that disproportionately affects young men and women and the latest tool for imposing Jim Crow justice on poor African-Americans.
We reject the oft-repeated but deceptive argument that there are only two choices for addressing drugs — heavy handed law enforcement or total permissiveness. Substance abuse and addiction are American problems that affect every socioeconomic group, and meaningful public health and safety strategies are needed to address it. However, law enforcement strategies that target poor Blacks and Latinos and cause them to bear the burden and shame of arrest, prosecution and conviction for marijuana offenses must stop.
The report released this week by the Drug Policy Alliance confirmed that marijuana law enforcement in California disproportionately targets our youth. Despite consistent evidence that Black youth use marijuana at lower rates than Whites, in every one of the 25 largest counties in California, Blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than Whites, typically at double, triple, or even quadruple the rate of Whites.
The Drug Policy Alliance has released a report that documents widespread race-based disparities in the enforcement of low-level marijuana possession laws in California. The report finds that African Americans are arrested for marijuana possession at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites. Read the report (PDF).