DEA acting administrator Michele Leonhart has overseen dozens of medical marijuana raids and blocked scientific research. Now she’s denying veterans medical marijuana, but the Senate has the power to stop her. Urge the Senate to demand a new DEA administrator.
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For Immediate Release: June 4, 2010
Canadians for Safe Access Denounce Police Raids of Medical Cannabis
DispensariesMedical cannabis dispensaries, also know as compassion clubs, have
played a vital role supplying safe access to cannabis for the critically
and chronically ill in Canada for over 12 years. These organizations
provide access to a variety of high quality cannabis strains and
preparations that can effectively alleviate pain, muscle spasms, nausea,
anxiety, and other serious symptoms. Compassion clubs are also at the
forefront of academic peer-reviewed research on medical cannabis in Canada.The services provided by compassion clubs have been appreciated by their
patients, accepted by their communities and municipalities, lauded by a
Special Senate committee, and upheld in various court rooms across the
country. -
By Evan Wood, Special to CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Evan Wood: Scores killed in Jamaica in attempt to nab suspected drug lord
* War on drugs has created a violent underground with billions to be made, Wood says
* Thousands of people die and gangs kill for profits, yet drugs get more plentiful, he writes
* Wood: Scientific, health-based approach instead of criminal approach works elsewhere
Editor’s note: Evan Wood is the founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy; the director of the Urban Health Program at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and associate professor in the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia.
(CNN) — The news of intense drug-related violence out of Jamaica is shocking and dreadful but entirely predictable. Wherever the war on drugs touches down, death and destruction result. A recent target is Kingston, Jamaica.
When law enforcement attempted to smoke out Christopher “Dudus” Coke, wanted in the U.S. for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and to traffic in firearms, scores of people died in the urban warfare. The death toll reached 73 civilians as Jamaicans were caught in the crossfire between police, soldiers and armed thugs.
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By Mac McClelland, Mother Jones
Sigh. This special report from Feet in 2 Worlds just in:
Federal immigration officials have been visiting command centers on the Gulf Coast to check the immigration status of response workers hired by BP and its contractors to clean up the immense oil spill.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana confirmed that its agents had visited two large command centers—which are staging areas for the response efforts and are sealed off to the public—to verify that the workers there were legal residents.
“We visited just to ensure that people who are legally here can compete for those jobs—those people who are having so many problems,” said Temple H. Black, a spokesman for ICE in Louisiana.
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Feature: Reining in SWAT — Towards Effective Oversight of Paramilitary
from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #634, 5/28/10
As is periodically the case, law enforcement SWAT teams have once again
come under the harsh gaze of a public outraged and puzzled by their
excesses. First, it was the February SWAT raid on a Columbia, Missouri,
home where police shot two dogs, killing one, as the suspect, his wife,
and young son cowered. Police said they were looking for a dealer-sized
stash of marijuana, but found only a pipe with residues. When police
video of that raid hit the Internet and went viral this month, the
public anger was palpable, especially in Columbia. -
Two high-school teachers in Norfolk, Virginia have been placed on paid
administrative leave because a parent objected to them handing out a
one-page flier and showing a film, both about constitutional rights, to
a 12th grade government class. -
Latest Research On Pot and Schizophrenia Runs Contrary to Mainstream Media Hype
The mainstream media loves to spill ink hyping the allegation that marijuana causes mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. In fact, it was in March when international media outlets declared that cannabis use ‘doubled’ one’s risk of developing the disease. Yet when research appears in scientific journals rebuking just this sort of ‘reefer
madness,’ it generally goes […] -
By Tony Newman, AlterNet
Despite a $40 billion a year “war on drugs” that is premised on the goal of creating a “drug-free society,” our country is swimming in drugs.
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How LSD Destroyed God’s (and Dad’s) Rigid Authority and Ended the Dull 1950s
By John Perry Barlow, Brain Waving
The following is adapted from the Foreword to Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties, by Ram Dass and Ralph Metzner with Gary Bravo, from Synergetic Press.
