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

    Hemp History

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 7-17-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 7-17-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2982

    Question of the Week: What is hemp’s history in United States?

    A 2000 report from the United States Department of Agriculture recounted,

    “The first records of hemp cultivation and use are from China, where the species most likely originated. Migrating peoples likely brought hemp to Europe where, by the 16th century, it was widely distributed, cultivated for fiber, and the seed cooked with barley or other grains and eaten.”

    “The Puritans brought hemp to New England in 1645 as a fiber source for household spinning and weaving … Cultivation spread to Virginia and, in 1775, to Kentucky, where the crop grew so well a commercial cordage industry developed. The hemp industry flourished in Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois between 1840 and 1860 because of strong demand for sailcloth and cordage by the U.S. Navy.”

    For her article in the 2009 UCLA Law Review, Christine Kolosov, reported,

    “So important was hemp to the earliest settlers that in 1619, the Jamestown colony passed a law making it illegal not to grow the crop. Colonies in Massachusetts and Connecticut passed similar laws in 1631 and 1632. The first drafts of the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were both penned on hemp paper, and hemp cultivation continued well into the twentieth century as patriotic farmers responded to the government’s call by drastically increasing production during World War I and World War II.”

    But according to the USDA,

    “Production peaked in 1943 and 1944. After the war, production rapidly declined as imports resumed and legal restrictions were reimposed. A small hemp fiber industry continued in Wisconsin until 1958.”

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Hemp chapter of Drug War Facts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected].

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy

    US OR: Crime, Medical Marijuana Initiatives Qualify for Ballot

    Pubdate: Sat, 17 Jul 2010
    Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
    Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/YNoZGytL
    Copyright: 2010 Statesman Journal
    Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/QEzJupzz
    Author: Peter Wong, Statesman Journal
    Cited: http://www.coalitionforpatientsrights2010.com/
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis – Medicinal – U.S.)
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries

    CRIME, MEDICAL MARIJUANA INITIATIVES QUALIFY FOR BALLOT

    Both Receive Enough Signatures for Voters’consideration Nov. 2

    Oregonians will vote Nov. 2 on mandatory prison time for repeat
    felony sex offenders and drunken drivers, and state licensing of
    dispensaries for purchases of medical marijuana.

    Secretary of State Kate Brown announced Friday that both had obtained
    more than the 82,769 signatures required to qualify them for the ballot.

    Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n560.a04.html

  • Drug Policy - Letter of the Week

    Web: Letter Of The Week – Prohibition of Drugs Sows Violence

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

    LETTER OF THE WEEK

    PROHIBITION OF DRUGS SOWS VIOLENCE

    The story about the havoc wrought by Craig Petties (June 27 and July
    4 special report, “Blood trade”) was tragic, but it could have been
    avoided. Violence is the predictable and tragic consequence of drug
    prohibition. People continue to demand drugs in large quantities,
    drug suppliers have to resort to violence to settle disputes because
    they are barred from formal legal channels, and the conditions
    created by prohibition itself make it more profitable to be a
    criminal. The same factors that produced the horrors of alcohol
    prohibition have also produced the horrors of drug prohibition.

    Blood and violence are the price we pay for prohibition. It’s a
    price that’s far too high.

    Art Carden

    Memphis

    Pubdate: Wed, 7 Jul 2010

    Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n503/a11.html,
    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n504/a01.html,
    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n519/a09.html and
    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n520/a01.html

  • Drug Policy

    Grow-Op Photos Lead To No Charges

    By CBC News

    Suspect amidst plants

    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.

  • Drug Policy

    Medical Marijuana Law in Michigan Runs into Workplace Rule

    Newshawk: Please Read the Case Facts: www.mapinc.org/alert/0440.html
    Pubdate: Tue, 6 Jul 2010
    Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
    Page: 5A
    Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/yNyaXYiQ
    Copyright: 2010 Detroit Free Press
    Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
    Author: Gina Damron, Free Press Staff Writer
    Cited: Michigan Department of Civil Rights http://mapinc.org/url/ANG6iOJL
    Referenced: Casias v. Wal-Mart
    http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/casias_complaint_6_24_10.pdf
    Referenced: Michigan’s law http://drugsense.org/url/8mvr7sW8
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Joseph+Casias
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Wal-Mart

    MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW IN MICHIGAN RUNS INTO WORKPLACE RULE

    Employers Not Required to Allow Marijuana Use

    If a recently filed medical marijuana lawsuit reaches the Michigan
    Court of Appeals or state Supreme Court, it could produce a
    precedent-setting decision that impacts employers and patients, whose
    jobs may be at risk even when legally using the drug.

    Joseph Casias — a 30-year-old Battle Creek resident who legally uses
    marijuana — filed a lawsuit last week against Wal-Mart in Calhoun
    County Circuit Court after being fired for testing positive for pot
    during a drug test.

    [snip]

    Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n523/a08.html

  • Drug Policy

    Flash-Bang Grenades Ignite Legal Battles in Michigan

    Pubdate: Mon, 5 Jul 2010
    Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
    Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/I43VcA8L
    Copyright: 2010 Detroit Free Press
    Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
    Website: http://www.freep.com/
    Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
    Author: L.L. Brasier, Free Press Staff Writer
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing – United States)

    FLASH-BANG GRENADES IGNITE LEGAL BATTLES IN MICHIGAN, AIYANA STANLEY-JONES CASE

    Originally for the Military, Use by Police Departments Has Grown

    When Leonid and Arlene Marmelshtein heard someone on the front porch
    of their small Southfield ranch house that cold winter night, they
    thought one of their adult sons had come home to enjoy Hanukkah
    dinner with them.

    But within seconds, Southfield police broke the door down — looking
    for a suspected marijuana dealing operation — and threw flash-bang
    grenades, filling the small house with deafening noise, blinding
    light and smoke.

    “I thought they were here to kill us,” Leonid Marmelshtein, 74, said
    of the police officers, who wore black hoods hiding their faces and
    had their guns drawn.

    [snip]

    Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n522.a08.html

  • Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Opium, heroin, and Afghanistan

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 6-29-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 6-29-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2956

    Question of the Week: What’s the relationship among opium, heroin, and Afghanistan?

    Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South–Central Asia, bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Although the modern state of Afghanistan was established in 1747, the country has been fought over, conquered, and incorporated within large empires for millennia.

    A report entitled, “Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The transnational threat of Afghan opium,” was published by the United Nation’s Office of Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) in October 2009. It stated,

    “Opium poppy cultivation is not a new phenomenon in Afghanistan, but the country’s global pre-eminence as an exporter is relatively recent. Opium poppy was traditionally cultivated in some parts of Afghanistan as far back as the eighteenth century.82 The first significant increases in cultivation levels were reported in the 1980s as Turkish, Pakistani and Iranian anti-narcotics policies were being successfully enforced.”

    It went on to state,

    “Between 1995 and 2000, the Taliban regime tolerated the drug trade and earned some US$ 75-100 million annually from taxing it. In the post-Taliban period, it was a source of revenue for warlords.”

    The Taliban regrouped in the south of the country, and their cumulated revenue over the four-year period (2005-2008) ranged from US$ 350-650 million.

    The report concluded that, currently

    “more than 90 per cent of the world’s heroin is manufactured from opium produced in Afghanistan,”

    that

    “global illicit consumption [of opium] is estimated at close to 1,100 tons per year, used by some 4 million users,”

    and that

    “Close to half of all global heroin consumption is estimated to take place in Europe (including the Russian Federation).”

    The UNDOC’s World Drug Report 2009 calculated that,

    “The 2007 wholesale price for a kilogram of heroin in Afghanistan ranged around $2,405.”

    In the United States, the wholesale price for a kilogram is estimated at $71,200.

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Interdiction chapter of Drug War Facts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected].

  • Drug Policy

    US: Out in the Open: Raves and Ecstasy

    Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/awards/
    Pubdate: Sat, 3 Jul 2010
    Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
    Page: A3
    Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/6Xv8yAjo
    Copyright: 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
    Contact: [email protected]
    Author: Jean Guerrero

    OUT IN THE OPEN: RAVES AND ECSTASY

    LOS ANGELES-Twenty years after their heyday as an underground
    phenomenon, the drug-fueled dance parties known as raves are making a
    comeback as massive, commercial events.

    But a recent wave of ecstasy-related deaths and hospitalizations tied
    to such events have left some officials skeptical about their makeover.

    Last week, a 15-year-old girl died of apparent drug-related causes
    following an enormous rave held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,
    prompting a temporary moratorium on such gatherings at the
    municipally owned venue.

    An estimated 180,000 people, many of them teenagers, attended the
    two-day party, known as the Electric Daisy Carnival.

    [snip]

    Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n513.a07.html

  • Drug Policy

    US NY: Editorial: Sensible Rules, Soon

    Newshawk: Please Write a LTE www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
    Pubdate: Sat, 3 Jul 2010
    Source: New York Times (NY)
    Page: A18
    Webpage: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/opinion/03sat3.html
    Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
    Contact: [email protected]
    Cited: Department of Health and Human Services
    http://www.aids.gov/about-us/?showTab=contact-us

    SENSIBLE RULES, SOON

    President Obama did the right thing in December when he repealed the
    21-year-old ban on federal financing for programs that give drug
    users access to clean needles. Almost nothing has happened since
    because the Department of Health and Human Services still has not
    issued the new rules that states and localities need before they can
    use any federal money to expand existing exchange programs or start new ones.

    Administration officials say the rules will be issued soon. They must
    be written in a way that broadens access to needle exchanges, rather
    than restricts it.

    Congress voted to withhold federal money from these life-saving
    programs in 1988 when it was already clear that clean needles slowed
    the spread of H.I.V. and other blood-borne diseases without
    contributing to addiction. Fortunately, not all states and localities
    followed that destructive approach.

    Researchers found that state-financed needle-exchange programs in New
    York City cut the infection rate of H.I.V. among addicts by about 80
    percent by giving them clean syringes and enrolling them in drug
    treatment programs. By keeping addicts free of infection, the program
    also has saved the lives of spouses, lovers and unborn children.

    State and local health officials are eager for the new rules so they
    can move forward and are pressing the Obama administration to avoid
    placing unnecessary restrictions on already proven programs. They are
    especially worried about how the new rules will interpret a provision
    of the statute that gives local police departments some say in where
    needle-exchange programs can be located. It is important to protect
    the interests of local residents and businesses, but forcing exchange
    sites to the far edges of a city or town would utterly defeat their purpose.

    Managers of these programs often reach agreements with police
    departments so that people coming in are not arrested for having drug
    paraphernalia. Federal health officials should require local clinics
    that get federal aid to confer with local law enforcement. Good will,
    good sense and a readiness to cooperate is essential on all sides.
    Successful, well-financed needle-exchange programs will improve
    public health and public safety.