• Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    If Not Now, When? The Slow Rise of Marijuana Reform

    Last month the United States reached a milestone in the debate over cannabis’ place in our society. For the first time since it began asking the question, the Gallup polling organization recorded 50% support for legalizing marijuana sales to adults.

    That number has been a long time in the making, as attested by our banner art this month; the trendlines show public support levels from 1970 to the present.

    Why now? What’s changed lately to bring so many people around? And where are we going from here?

    To discuss these questions, we’ve invited a quartet of marijuana reform activists to a roundtable discussion. Each will present an essay on a different facet of marijuana policy, and our conversation this month will be about political strategy, possible future trends, and the interplay among various sub-issues in the field.

    Kicking things off will be Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), writing about the biomedical aspects of cannabis and its prohibition. He will be followed by former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper, now with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, who will discuss public education and messaging; and Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, who will discuss upcoming ballot initiatives and legislative developments.

    Although each of the four is more or less in the same camp on this issue, each also brings to the table different experiences, different perspectives, and different areas of expertise. We hope you will find a discussion among them educational and thought-provoking.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Missouri ballot measures proposed to legalize marijuana

    THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Posted: Tuesday, November 8, 2011

    JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. • Advocates can begin collecting signatures for two proposed Missouri ballot measures that would legalize marijuana.

    The secretary of state’s office said Monday the initiative petitions have been approved for circulation to get them on the 2012 ballot.

    One proposal would amend the Missouri Constitution to legalize cannabis for people 21 and older, allow doctors to recommend use of medicinal marijuana and release prison inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses related to cannabis. It would also allow the Legislature to enact a marijuana tax of up to $100 per pound.

    The second proposal is similar but would enact a state law instead of amending the Missouri Constitution.

    http://bit.ly/vvkkwV

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Hemp Activists and “Truthers” Unite

    Posted by Camron Wiltshire on November 5, 2011

    HempVia the Bob Tuskin Radio Show:

    After 11 years, the Florida Hemp Fest is back with a new twist.

    Dennis “Murli” Watkins, who served four months of jail time for orchestrating a “doobie toss” at the event in 1994, is bringing back what used to be an annual celebration of marijuana and a protest for its legalization. —Gainesville Sun

    Murli just so happens to be a supporter of the “truth.” When we were contacted by him to set up a table and to give a talk on various topics such as the Federal Reserve, fluoride, and 9/11 we gladly accepted.

    Watkins said this year’s edition will touch on other, even more controversial issues than legalizing pot. “Hemp has been cultivated for thousands of years. Here it is almost 2012, and we’re still fighting this same stupid battle,” he said. “9/11 was an inside job and they’re worried about someone smoking a doobie. They’ve got to get their priorities in order.” Watkins said there will be a “9/11 truth booth” set up at the event, which will be held on the city’s Bo Diddley Community Plaza downtown. —Gainesville Sun

    Lets be blunt, no pun intended, The hemp/cannabis movement has always gone hand in hand with the type of information we cover on a daily basis.

    While you obviously do not have to get high to “wake up,” I think that it is pretty well documented that the powers that shouldn’t be do not like marijuana for many different reasons, namely the fact that it may inspire thinking outside the box.

    http://www.disinfo.com/2011/11/hemp-activists-and-truthers-unite/

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    The Drug Czar Just Says No to Marijuana Legalization

    By Jacob Sullum

    Drug Czar As Mike Riggs noted this morning, the Obama administration last Friday night finally got around to addressing the “We the People” online petitions urging repeal of marijuana prohibition. First it had to deal with the clamor for excising “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (a cause that attracted 20,328 signatures) and removing the slogan “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency (12,273). By comparison, the eight petitions recommending some form of marijuana legalization totaled more than 150,000 (possibly overlapping) signatures; the most popular one, “Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol,” by itself attracted more than 74,000. If you bother to read drug czar Gil Kerlikowske’s embarrassingly weak response, you can see why the White House buried it in the weekend news graveyard.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Coalition Calls for Marijuana Legalization and Regulation to Reduce Gang Violence

    Coalition of BC Law Enforcement, Health and Academic Experts Call for Marijuana Legalization and Regulation to Reduce Gang Violence

    New Polls Shows 87% of British Columbians Link Gang Violence to Organized Crime’s Control of Marijuana Trade

    October 27, 2011 [Vancouver, Canada] – In the wake of high-profile gang violence related to the illegal marijuana industry in BC, a new coalition of academic, legal and health experts has released the first of a series of reports and polling results aimed at pressuring politicians to legally regulate marijuana sales under a public health framework.

    The Angus Reid poll says 87% of BC respondents link gang violence to organized crime’s efforts to control the province’s massive illegal cannabis trade while the report, called Breaking the Silence, clearly demonstrates that cannabis prohibition in BC has been ineffective and caused significant social harms and public safety issues.

    “From a scientific and public health perspective we know that making marijuana illegal has not achieved its stated objectives of limiting marijuana supply or rates of use,” said Dr. Evan Wood, a coalition member and Director of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. “Given that marijuana prohibition has created a massive financial windfall for violent organized crime groups in BC, we must discuss alternatives to today’s failed laws with a focus on how to decrease violence, remove the illicit industry’s profit motive and improve public health and safety.”

    The new coalition, Stop the Violence BC, released the report in tandem with results from an Angus Reid poll that overwhelmingly demonstrates that lawmakers lag far behind public opinion on revamping marijuana laws in BC.

    Breaking the Silence: Cannabis prohibition, organized crime, and gang violence

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Marijuana Arrests

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 10-10-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 10-10-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3581

    Question of the Week: How many people were arrested for marijuana last year?

    Every September, the FBI releases its annual “Crime in the United States” report that counts arrests in the United States according to a number of categories, among them drugs.

    This report doesn’t make marijuana arrests obvious. Instead, these numbers must be gleaned by computing them.

    To do so, one starts by referencing Table 29 of Uniform Crime Report, which lists the estimated number of arrests by category. Note that drug arrests for 2010 equaled 1,638,846. Those for reported categories like disorderly conduct, fraud and burglary equaled about 615,000, 189,000 and 290,000 each.

    Then, to compute arrests for marijuana, the separate parent webpage to Table 29 must be referenced. The “Download Arrest Table Excel” link on this page goes to a spreadsheet version of the “Arrests for Drug Abuse Violations Percent Distribution by Region, 2010” table at the bottom of the page. Here you will find percentages for total arrests by substance positioned against these percentages by region.

    Marijuana arrests must be computed by multiplying the percentages for possession and for Sale/manufacturing times that aforementioned total number of drug arrests for 2010.

    Doing the math, at 6.3% of total drug arrests, there were about 103,000 Americans arrested for selling or manufacturing marijuana in 2010. At 45.8% of total drug arrests, there about 751,000 Americans arrested for merely possessing marijuana in 2010. Together, arrests for both selling and possessing marijuana added to a total of 854,000 arrests in 2010.

    Sound complicated? Probably so for numbers of that magnitude.

    These facts and others like them can be found in the tables at the bottom of the Marijuana chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

     

     

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    marijuana-arrests.com

    An Online Library About Marijuana Possession Arrests, Race And Police Policy In New York City And Beyond

    U.S. government studies consistently find that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young blacks or Latinos. Yet, in large cities and counties throughout the United States, young blacks and Latinos are arrested and jailed for marijuana possession at much higher rates than young whites.

    In New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, police arrest blacks for marijuana possession at seven times the rate of whites. Usually, the people arrested were not smoking in public. Police typically found the small amount of marijuana when they stopped, frisked, and searched the young people, often in their own neighborhoods.

    Marijuana-Arrests.com is an on line library of materials about the huge numbers of racially-biased marijuana possession arrests, their consequences, and the law enforcement policies and operations which produce them.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - International - Law Enforcement & Prisons - Question of the Week

    What was the Rainbow Farm?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 9-11-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network in loving memory of all victims of the tragic events that converged on 9-11-01. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3534

    Question of the Week: What was the Rainbow Farm?

    Paraphrasing a January 2002 Washington Post article entitled “Was Rainbow Farm another Waco?”, the Rainbow Farm was a …

    “34-acre farm and an adjoining 20-acre wood near Vandalia, [Michigan]. [Tom] Crosslin bought the farm … as a place where he and [Rollie] Rohm could escape their urban life. … He turned Rainbow Farm into a campground and began holding pro-pot festivals every Labor Day and Memorial Day weekend.”

    On Friday, August 31, 2001,

    “the building where bands waited to go onstage — was burning. … A helicopter from WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana shooting fire footage for the evening news [was told to] leave because the cops said somebody was shooting at them. … On Sunday, the FBI arrived, more than 50 strong, summoned to the scene because the helicopter shooting was a federal crime … John Bell, head of the FBI’s Detroit office … sent three FBI SWAT teams, each composed of three sharpshooters …

    in the woods … at a campsite … two agents fired, one of them shooting Crosslin through the forehead, killing him instantly.”

    Early the next day,

    “two state police snipers fired from 150 yards away.  One missed.  The other shot through the stock of Rohm’s rifle and into his chest, killing him.”

    The Rainbow Farm might have simply been counted among estimated 40,000 paramilitary SWAT raids that occurred in 2001, but in the context of history, it was no ordinary raid.

    It was the harbinger of what was to come.

    Eight days later on September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners, flying two of them into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into a Pennsylvania cornfield, killing a total of 2,977 people.

    The 9/11 Commission Report released in 2004 found that FBI priorities were

    “driven at the local level by the field offices, whose concerns centered on traditional crimes such as white-collar offenses and those pertaining to drugs and gangs. … In 2000, there were still twice as many agents devoted to drug enforcement as to counterterrorism.”

    The report concluded,

    “In sum, the domestic agencies never mobilized in response to the threat. … The terrorists exploited deep institutional failings.”

    Perhaps one failing was the drug war.

    These facts and others like them can be found on the Interdiction Chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Parents Using Pot

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 8-20-11

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 8-20-11. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3512

    Question of the Week: How many parents use marijuana?

    The U.S. Census estimates that families in households with minor children – married and single parent male or female – comprised roughly 62 million persons in 2010. An average of the percentage use figures in the 2010 Monitoring the Future study indicate that around 15% of those within the childbearing years of age 20-35 consume cannabis monthly, with about 5% being daily users. Daily use likely equates to medical use. Simple multiplication of these two percentages times the estimated 62 million persons heading family households places the number of marijuana using parents in the United States at least as high as 9.5 million and patient parents near 3 million.

    The U.S. Census also estimates the number of children ages 12-17 at 24.8 million. Monitoring the Future projects the percentage of adolescents who currently use cannabis at 13.8%. The result of multiplying the two figures is roughly 3.4 million young people who use cannabis at least monthly.

    Ironically, the aforementioned Monitoring the Future percentages indicate a steep decline in cannabis consumption during childbearing years. The prevalence of those using it within the last 30 days drops from 20.6% of 18 year-olds to 12% of 29-39 year-olds.

    “The Social Epidemiology of Substance Use” report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health confirms this trend, finding that, “in the context of family relations, it is primarily the assumption of greater family responsibilities that has been associated with cessation of use. For example, becoming a parent for the first time has been associated with cessation of marijuana use.”

    These facts and others like them can be found on the Families and Youth chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.