Visitors from around the planet are already gathering in Nimbin for MardiGrass – the famous cannabis law reform rally – this Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2.
Mardigrass has been going since 1993 in protest against the prohibition of cannabis and will continue “every year until we are not criminals,” MardiGrass spokesperson Michael Balderstone said.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n326/a01.html and http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n326/a02.html
LETTER OF THE WEEK
MAYBE LEGALIZING DRUGS WOULD BE BEST TACTIC
Re: “Mexico can’t win drug war without U.S.” ( editorial, 4-21 ).
A colloquial definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.” We’ve been throwing billions upon billions of dollars and hundreds of law enforcement and military lives at the drug problem for decades. At what point to do we take a breath and rethink our strategy?
It is an immutable fact that humans will engage in certain behaviors for as long as they walk the Earth. It has been going on since the first hominid ate a piece of overripe, fermenting fruit and got high from the alcohol content.
Consumption of substances to alter our mental and/or physical states will never stop, at least not until medical science finds some permanent method, short of lobotomy, to do so. Even then it will have to be a voluntary alteration.
Whether by ingesting plant matter, fermented or distilled drink or some laboratory concoction, humans will intoxicate themselves. We’ve had dramatic proof of what results from attempting to “prohibit” the use of alcohol: an era of gang violence, government corruption and numerous deaths caused by adulterated product.
So what do we do about it? I submit it is time to give serious thought to legalization.
I do not come to this opinion lightly. In the course of my law enforcement career, I made hundreds of drug arrests. I worked undercover buying drugs. I fully understand the complex nature of what I’m suggesting. Without question, there are legitimate, cogent arguments to be made against legalization. It would be a complicated, problematic thing.
It would, however, wipe out, literally overnight, the illicit drug trade and with it the violent struggle for turf and profit. It would have international and national security benefits by undermining one of the main sources of funding for Middle Eastern terrorists, that being the heroin trade. It would free up huge amounts of money for anti-drug education, job creation and urban reconstruction.
It would allow for the reallocation of law enforcement personnel to tasks such as actually and effectively securing our borders, pursuing the illicit traffic in weapons and finally giving proper attention to securing our ports and other vulnerable targets.
It would provide a new source of tax revenue. It would, I believe, dramatically reduce crimes such as residential burglary, the vast majority of which are committed by dopers supporting their habits.
Such a change in policy would require an increased attention to, and harsh punishment of, such offenses as driving while intoxicated. Only in recent years has this begun to be treated as the scourge on society it so clearly is.
One obvious and legitimate argument against drug legalization is the addition of yet more intoxicants to a society already plagued with the problems of inappropriate use of alcohol, not to mention the poisonous effects of tobacco use. But they are already here: always have been, always will be.
Drug use will not go away any more than prostitution will go away any more than third-pound cheeseburgers with extra bacon will go away.
What we’ve been doing isn’t working. It’s time to try something else.
MacKenzie Allen
MacKenzie Allen of Tacoma is a retired law enforcement officer.
Pubdate: Thu, 22 Apr 2010
Source: News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a008.html
The lawyer for four California patients has cited the Americans with Disabilities Act and the fact that Congress allowed the city of Washington’s medical marijuana initiative go into effect as the reason a federal judge should hear their case. The judge agreed as these two articles state:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n319.a02.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n319.a01.html
Announcement
http://www.mamas.org/Images/2010TourFlier.pdf
Schedule
http://www.mamas.org/Images/2010TourSchedule.pdf
Pubdate: Sat, 24 Apr 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Author: John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times
Photo: Of Jack Herer printed in black and white in the newspaper http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/å-04/53454182.jpg
JACK HERER, 1939 – 2010
Proselytizer for Legal Pot
By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times
Jack Herer, an energetic advocate for marijuana legalization who was a mesmerizing presence on the Venice Boardwalk and achieved worldwide renown after he wrote a treatise extolling the virtues of hemp, died April 15. He was 70.
Herer suffered a debilitating heart attack in September, minutes after he delivered a typically pugnacious pro-pot speech at the Hempstalk festival in Portland, Ore., insisting that marijuana ought to be smoked morning, noon and night. “You’ve got to be out of your mind not to smoke dope,” shouted Herer, dressed in a green short-sleeved shirt and shorts made from hemp. “It is the best thing the world has ever had.”
He never recovered and died at home in Eugene on tax day. “Dad has not filed taxes in over 30 years, so it was wonderful he died on tax day, it really was,” said his son Mark Herer, who is the president of The Third Eye, the family’s smoke shop and hippie wares store in Portland.
Herer researched and wrote an exuberant book that became the bible of the movement to legalize hemp, a non-psychoactive strain of marijuana. “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” which was first published in 1985, has sold more than 700,000 copies. In it, Herer wields extensive documentation to ridicule the government’s ban on hemp cultivation and to highlight the plant’s versatility as paper, fiber, fuel, food and medicine.
The book made Herer into one of the most recognizable figures in the marijuana movement and converted him into a pop icon memorialized by a strain of cannabis. For decades, Herer, known as the Emperor of Hemp or the Hemperor, crisscrossed the country, rhapsodizing about the wonders of weed.
Bruce Margolin, one of L.A.’s best-known marijuana defense lawyers, recalls that Herer was always trying to teach people about hemp. “At that time I was ignorant of it like everyone else,” he said. “He educated me and many, many other people through his book and his lectures.”
Herer was born June 18, 1939, in New York City, the youngest of three children, and served in Korea as an Army military police officer. He discovered his mission in Los Angeles after he moved to the city in 1967 with his wife and three sons to work at a neon sign company. He tried marijuana two years later and quickly became engrossed in learning about it. “He was always a very curious person about everything. He read everything he got his hands on,” said Vera Donato, who was married to Herer from 1960 to 1969.
In the early 1970s, he wrote “G.R.A.S.S.,” which stood for “Great Revolutionary American Standard System.” It promoted a 1-to-10 scale for grading marijuana. He also began to invent drug paraphernalia.
In 1973, he launched a relentless effort to legalize marijuana in California, working year after year on initiatives that failed, often in league with Ed Adair, a head shop owner who died two decades ago. In 1980, the two became co-commanders of Reefer Raiders and set up camp on the lawn of the federal building in Westwood, openly smoking joints for the media. A year later, they pushed their own measure.
Herer opened a head shop in Van Nuys called High Country and recruited other owners to help fund his initiatives. In 1983, he ran afoul of a new state law that made it a misdemeanor to sell devices to use with illegal drugs. Police confiscated more than 6,000 items in two raids. Three years later, Herer was convicted and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and serve two years’ probation.
In the 1980s, he could frequently be found at an information booth on the Venice Boardwalk, a gregarious man who showed obvious pleasure in trying to persuade skeptics. “I think the thing that motivated him the most was his love and respect for planet Earth and that he was a kind and good-hearted person just naturally,” said Jerry Rubin, a fellow activist who was often stationed nearby. “He was doing a consciousness-raising lifetime exercise.”
Herer researched “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” for years, scouring the archives of the Library of Congress for evidence that he believed the government suppressed when marijuana was outlawed in 1937.
The book, updated many times, sparked a hemp resurgence, and he became a circuit-riding preacher. In 1990, Herer addressed 60 rallies in 48 places in one six-week stint.
At 6 feet and 230 pounds, with unkempt hair and a bushy beard, Herer was an imposing, but not intimidating figure, a bearish counterculture holdout who was often found in tie-dyed shorts and a T-shirt with a pot leaf overlaid on an American flag on the front and a history of hemp on the back.
Herer had a heart attack and stroke at a hemp festival in 2000. He boasted that his rehabilitation was aided by cannabis oil. When he concluded his last speech, he said, “Come over to my booth, over there, and I will see you next time.”
“He didn’t write the script, but you couldn’t write it better,” Mark Herer said. “Dad has a speech, the crowd cheers and he walks off into the sunset.”
Herer was married four times. He is survived by his wife, six children, a brother and a sister. A memorial will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Eden Memorial Park, 11500 Sepulveda Blvd., in Mission Hills.
The 2010 Pulitzer Prize has been awarded to Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post for her perceptive, often witty columns on an array of political and moral issues, gracefully sharing the experiences and values that lead her to unpredictable conclusions.
A MAP author search turns up 121 articles by her since 1998. http://www.mapinc.org/author/Kathleen+Parker
It would be hard to think of a well known conservative columnist who supports legalizing marijuana as strongly.
Asking your local larger newspapers to carry Kathleen Parker’s columns makes much sense in my opinion. Tell the newspapers that you wish to read the columns of a Pulitzer columnist. The prize is a big deal.
http://www.regulatemedicalmarijuana.org/
Backers of a new medical marijuana initiative announced that they have collected over 97,000 signatures on petitions to place Initiative 28 on the November 2010 ballot. The new initiative would add a regulated supply system of dispensaries and producers to Oregon’s current medical marijuana law. Backers need 82,769 valid signatures by July 2, 2010, to place the measure on the ballot. The campaign will continue to collect up to 50,000 additional signatures to compensate for any disqualified signatures.
“Oregon needs to create a regulated system so every patient can access quality controlled medicine,” said John Sajo, Executive Director of the Voter Power Foundation, a group which advocates for medical marijuana patients. “For many patients, producing their own medicine is physically challenging. This initiative gives the Oregon Health Department the authority to create a tightly regulated system.”
Initiative 28 will allow licensed nonprofit dispensaries to buy marijuana from licensed growers and sell it to registered patients. Both dispensaries and producers will be subject to inspection and auditing by the health department. All employees will have to be over 21 years old and pass criminal background checks. Dispensaries can’t be near schools or in residential areas and must submit security plans with their applications to DHS. Initiative 28 would also create a program administered by the health department to provide medicine to indigent patients.
The initiative also allows DHS to conduct research into the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana.
Only license fees and taxes on dispensaries and producers will fund the program. Estimates indicate that Initiative 28 will raise $10 million-$40 million the first year. Any revenue exceeding the administrative costs of the program can be spent by DHS on other health programs.
Polling by Voter Power showed that 59% of Oregon voters support the measure and 32% oppose it. Maine voters approved a similar measure on November 4, 2009, by a 58% to 42% margin.
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program currently has over 30,000 patients that have been registered by over 3000 different Oregon physicians. Current law allows patients to grow up to 6 mature marijuana plants or to designate a grower to do it for them. It is still a felony for anyone to sell medical marijuana in Oregon.
At least 12 other states currently have medical marijuana laws, and five states, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Maine, have medical marijuana dispensary laws.
For more information or to arrange interviews contact:
John Sajo
Executive Director
Voter Power Foundation
[email protected]
541-530-2221
Cultural Baggage for 04/25/10 29:00 Pat Lykos, district attorney of Harris County/Houston sees need for continuity and to change drug laws
LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2880
Century of Lies for 04/25/10 29:00 John H. Richardson of Esquire, Dr. Steve Beyer’s “Singing to the Plants” + US Govt LSD archive & surprise, surprise: marijuana backstage at Houston’s International Fest
LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2873
4:20 Drug War NEWS, 04/26 to 05/02/10 Link at www.drugtruth.net on the right margin
Sun – John H. Richardson reporter for Esquire discusses marijuana law/drug war
Sat – Dr. Steve Beyer, author “Singing to the Plants”
Fri – Pat Lykos, district attorney of Harris County 2/2
Thu – Pat Lykos, the district attorney of Harris County 1/2
Wed – Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown testifies before Congressional sub committee on drug war
Tue – Dr. Ethan Nadelmann, Dir of Drug Policy Alliance testifies before Congressional sub committee on drug war
Mon – Marijuana smoke at Houston’s “International Fest”
Programs produced at Pacifica Radio Station KPFT in Houston, 90.1 FM. You can Listen Live Online at www.kpft.org
– Cultural Baggage Sun, 7:30 PM ET, 6:30 PM CT, 5:30 PM MT, 4:30 PM PT
– Century of Lies, SUN, 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT
Who’s Next?”: El Paso Councilman Beto O’Rourke + Houston Councilman & former police chief Clarence Bradford
Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org We have potcasts, searchability, CMS, XML, sorts by guest name and by organization. We provide the “unvarnished truth about the drug war” to scores of broadcast affiliates. You can tune into both our 1/2 hour programs, live, at 6:30 central time on Pacifica’s KPFT at http://www.kpft.org and call in your questions and concerns toll free at 1-877-9-420 420.
The two, 29:00 shows appear along with the seven, daily, 3:00 “4:20 Drug War NEWS” reports each Monday morning at http://www.drugtruth.net . We currently have 72 affiliated, yet independent broadcast stations. With a simple email request to [email protected] , your station can join the Drug Truth Network, free of charge.
Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. “Prohibition is evil.” – Reverend Dean Becker, DTN Producer, 713-462-7981, www.drugtruth.net
Opinions on marijuana use have changed considerably over the years. Government policy, however, remains the same.
Neil Boyd
Associate Director, Criminology, Simon Fraser University.
My first foray into marijuana research began 40 years ago, in the spring of 1970. It was what sociologists call participant observation research; I smoked some hashish with my friends in my final year of high school and observed its effects on my behaviour. I noticed that the experience enhanced my appreciation of music, increased my appetite, and made me laugh at things that I might not ordinarily think were very funny. In sum, not a bad way to spend an evening in a small Ontario town. Perhaps not as wild and crazy as an alcohol-fueled evening, but not entirely disappointing either.
In 1972, after my second year of university, I was awarded a summer scholarship by what was called the Non-Medical Use of Drugs Directorate to study attitudes towards marijuana laws. My survey of a population in London, Ontario found that people who agreed with more punitive approaches to marijuana control were more likely to be dogmatic (as measured by the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale) than people who agreed with less punitive approaches. In retrospect, a relatively self-evident result.
By the time that I graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1977 I had become convinced that the criminal prohibition of marijuana was a waste of resources and, considering the relative harms of various drugs, an absurd proposition.
A few of us surveyed the graduating class and found that 85 per cent had smoked pot and that 70 per cent intended to continue with this indulgence beyond graduation (we failed to appreciate that red wine would ultimately appear to be both more sensible and seductive). The Globe and Mail ran the story on the front page. The dean of the Law School was not amused; he was in the midst of the “Osgoode Excellence Campaign,” trying to raise $1 million from former alumni, and our disclosure was probably not very helpful.
When I arrived at Simon Fraser University in 1978 there was very little support for the decriminalization or legalization of cannabis, there was no domestic production, and the medical use of cannabis was almost unknown. My comments on radio and television in favour of legalization occasionally provoked claims that I should be shot, imprisoned , and/or fired. It was a very different era.
Fast forward to the present: a majority of Canadians think the drug should be taxed and regulated in much the same way we tax and regulate alcohol and tobacco. Additionally, we now have a domestic production/export industry, along with a cumbersome and costly bureaucracy of “Medical Marijuana Access Regulations.”
What are the obstacles to sensible change? Some would say that smoke-ins like 4/20 are counter-productive, displaying marijuana users as childish, indulgent, and maybe just a little decadent – the portrait of cannabis consumption that your mother warned you about. But that criticism misses an important point: 4/20 rallies are best understood as political exercises, demonstrating a blatant disobedience by thousands – the tip of an iceberg of opposition – to a justifiably unpopular law.
The real problem is that no one who has the power to change the law has been listening – or at least they haven’t actually done anything to improve the status quo. I’m not sure whether the spectacle of 4/20 actually works to convince those Canadians who may be undecided, but I sympathize with the frustrations of the young hempsters.
Paradoxically, Canadians support both the removal of criminal penalties for marijuana use and tougher penalties for commercial grow operators. Put differently, Canadians are saying that they do not think adults who smoke pot in private should be treated as criminals or otherwise penalized, but that they do, understandably, have some issues with at least part of the system of distribution – young thugs with guns guarding valuable plantations, not a scenario that we are willing to tolerate.
You would think that the solution here would be easy. Just change the system of distribution – tax and regulate. Unfortunately, the Harper government only sees prohibition as a strategy. And the United States – the linchpin for change – has not shown much desire to move, at least in the near term.
Let’s acknowledge that cannabis is not harmless. Quite clearly, it’s not as dangerous as tobacco or alcohol, at least for most users, but it isn’t benign either. It can damage the lungs and impair short-term memory. Second, let’s acknowledge that criminal prohibition is costly and counter-productive. There is no compelling evidence from any corner of the civilized world to suggest that rates of consumption are related to the state of the criminal law. And third, let’s continue, some 40 years on, to ask for more creative legislation than the failed and costly status quo of criminal prohibition.