• Cannabis & Hemp - Focus Alerts

    #452 Time for California to End the Unwinnable Marijuana War

    TIME FOR CALIFORNIA TO END THE UNWINNABLE MARIJUANA WAR

    **********************************************************************

    DrugSense FOCUS Alert #452 – Sunday, September 11th, 2010

    Kevin Zeese, the president of Common Sense for Drug Policy
    www.csdp.org wrote the following for posting to various websites,
    including ours.

    The facts presented both in the article and the references may assist
    you in writing letters in response to the many articles, both pro and
    con, appearing in California newspapers.

    Proposition 19 news clippings may be found at http://mapinc.org/find?272

    To date only about a dozen letters on our side which mention
    Proposition 19 have been published in California newspapers. In an
    election that may be close your letters could influence enough voters
    to make the difference.

    A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed,
    it’s the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead

  • Cannabis & Hemp

    Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ Sentenced to Five Years

    Pubdate: Sat, 11 Sep 2010
    Source: Seattle Times (WA)
    Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/rxc0sghl
    Copyright: 2010 The Seattle Times Company
    Contact: [email protected]
    Author: Mike Carter
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

    CANADA’S ‘PRINCE OF POT’ SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS FOR SELLING MILLIONS
    OF CANNABIS SEEDS

    Marc Emery, Canada’s “Prince of Pot” and a powerful voice in the
    debate over the decriminalization of marijuana, was sent to federal
    prison for five years on Friday for selling millions of cannabis
    seeds by mail and phone order, the culmination of a five-year
    prosecution and plea agreement that saw Emery extradited from Vancouver.

    In a statement to U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez and in a
    letter to the court, Emery admitted his attempt to force a change in
    U.S. and Canadian drug laws through “civil disobedience” and flouting
    the laws was “overzealous and reckless.”

    “I acted arrogantly in violation of U.S. federal law,” he wrote. “I
    regret not choosing other methods — legal ones — to achieve my
    goals of peaceful political reform.

    “In my zeal, I had believed that my actions were wholesome, but my
    behavior was in fact illegal and set a bad example for others,” he said.

    The five-year prison sentence was no surprise. Emery and the
    government had agreed to it as part of a deal that saw Emery
    surrender to U.S. authorities in May after fighting extradition from
    Canada for four years.

    Two clerks who worked for him at his seed store in Canada had pleaded
    guilty earlier and received probation.

    Emery was indicted in 2005, and at the time, the then-director of
    Drug Enforcement Administration, Karen Tandy, called Emery’s 2005
    arrest a “significant blow” to drug trafficking and the
    “marijuana-legalization movement.”

    “Drug-legalization lobbyists have one less pot of money to rely on,”
    Tandy said at the time.

    Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n745.a04.html

  • Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week – Mexican Killings: Legalize Drugs

    Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

    LETTER OF THE WEEK

    MEXICAN KILLINGS: LEGALIZE DRUGS

    In Thursday’s Voice of the People [“Drug Users, Cartel Killings”],
    Lakeland resident Frances Clark wrote, “Innocent people are dying by
    the thousands in Mexico because of the drug cartels, and we must ask why.”

    The why is money. Illegal drugs make money for gangs and cartels
    because they are illegal. Marijuana ( hemp ) represents 60 percent
    of the money earned by Mexican drug cartels. Members of said cartels
    are already upset by California’s legalization of marijuana for
    medical purposes because it is cutting into their profits.

    States should “think about the innocent people who are dying each day
    by these murderers in order to get their ‘product’ across our
    borders,” Clark wrote. That is because the drug cartels have no
    incentive to smuggle legal drugs.

    Alcohol prohibition created the economic base for Al Capone and his
    like to control citizens, politicians and police. The war on drugs
    has created the same environment.

    It’s past time to end the War on Drugs. In our economic climate,
    it’s time to legalize and tax them.

    Glenn Festog

    Lakeland

    Pubdate: Sun, 5 Sep 2010

    Source: Ledger, The (Lakeland, FL)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a038.html

  • Focus Alerts

    #451 Our ‘War on Drugs’ Has Been an Abysmal Failure

    OUR ‘WAR ON DRUGS’ HAS BEEN AN ABYSMAL FAILURE

    **********************************************************************

    DrugSense FOCUS Alert #451 – Friday, September 10th, 2010

    Today The Guardian printed the informative column below.

    While much of the information may not be news to you perhaps it will
    be to the about 1,146,000 daily readers of the newspaper.

    Your letters to the editor will let the newspaper know you appreciate
    the column and articles about this topic.

    **********************************************************************

    Source: Guardian, The (UK)

    Page: 33 of the Main section

    Copyright: 2010 Guardian News and Media Limited

    Contact: [email protected]

    Author: Simon Jenkins

    OUR ‘WAR ON DRUGS’ HAS BEEN AN ABYSMAL FAILURE. JUST LOOK AT MEXICO

    The West’s Refusal to Countenance Drug Legalisation Has Fuelled
    Anarchy, Profiteering and Misery

  • Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week – End Prohibition, California

    Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

    END PROHIBITION, CALIFORNIA

    Re “Legalizing is a dangerous choice” (Insight, Aug. 22): San Mateo
    Police Chief Susan Manheimer claims that after marijuana is
    legalized, drug cartels will continue to profit from selling
    it. That’s ridiculous.

    As a former police chief myself (Seattle, 1994-2000), I’d
    respectfully like to ask Manheimer to show us the wine cartels that
    grow grapes in our national parks to compete with the legal and
    regulated alcohol industry.

    Back here in reality, of course, we know that once America ended its
    failed experiment with alcohol prohibition, violent gangsters were no
    longer able to keep selling booze on the black market for a profit.

    Similarly, we can drive street dealers out of business when we take
    marijuana out of the shadows and place it under the control of safe,
    regulated, licensed businesses. Passing Proposition 19 will be good
    for police and for citizens who want safer streets. It’s the last
    thing the drug cartels want.

    Norm Stamper, Eastsound, Wash.

    Pubdate: Thu, 26 Aug 2010

    Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n679/a06.html

  • Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week – Legalizing Drugs Could Diminish Dangers

    Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm

    LETTER OF THE WEEK

    LEGALIZING DRUGS COULD DIMINISH DANGERS

    Norm Jackson evidently feels strongly the most effective way to
    minimize the harm caused by drugs is to prohibit them by law
    (“Legalizing marijuana makes no sense,” June 16). Didn’t we try that
    with alcohol, only to realize that prohibition caused more harm than
    before, including deaths and blindness caused by adulterated booze?

    Adulterated street heroin killed my 19-year-old son in 1993, so I
    vehemently disagree with Jackson. We should legalize all recreational
    drugs and stop throwing gazillions of dollars down a rat hole
    persecuting a vulnerable minority whose drugs of choice differ from
    those chosen by “respectable” people.

    Alan Randell

    Victoria, British Columbia

    Pubdate: Thu, 19 Aug 2010

    Source: New Times (San Luis Obispo, CA)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n462/a09.html

  • Cannabis & Hemp - What You Can Do

    Who is for & against Proposition 19?

    We have updated our list of who is for and against Proposition 19.

    FOR

    The International Longshore and Warehouse Union

    The National Black Police Association

    The United Food and Commercial Workers Union

    The California National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

    Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

    The Drug Policy Alliance Network

    Students for Sensible Drug Policy

    The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

    The American Civil Liberties Union

    The Courage Campaign

    Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the former United States Surgeon General

    The Cannabis Consumers Campaign

    DRCNet

    DrugSense

    Common Sense for Drug Policy

    Marijuana Policy Project

    Citizens Opposing Prohibition

    The California Black Chamber of Commerce

    Retired Orange County Judge James Gray

    Republican Liberty Caucus

    California Young Democrats

    AGAINST

    The California Chamber of Commerce

    The California Police Chiefs Association

    The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

    Mexican Marijuana Trafficking Organizations

    The California Narcotics Officer’s Association

    Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown

    Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer

    The California League of Cities

    Mothers Against Drunk Driving

    Please check out the new Proposition 19 website at
    http://yeson19.com/ – and please do whatever you can to support the effort.