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    Judge Jim Gray on Coast to Coast AM

    Judge Gray was on Coast to Coast AM last night. This is the show website summary:

    “George Knapp welcomed Judge Jim Gray for a discussion on the possibility of reforming America’s drug laws, taking illegal drug usage from a criminal issue into a social and medical one. “Drug prohibition is the biggest failed policy in the history of our country, second only to slavery,” he declared, adding that a victory today in the War on Drugs is simply slowing the pace of defeat. People should be held accountable for their actions (such as putting others’ safety at risk), but not for what they put in their body, he commented.

    “Judge Gray cited four steps that could help with the drug problem, and serve as an alternative to incarcerating people for usage– education, treatment/prevention, economic incentives, and individual responsibility. The Rand Corporation released a study that said there was 7 times more benefit for drug treatment per dollar as compared to imprisoning users, he reported.

    “He cited a successful program in Switzerland for heroin users that gets away from the punitive mentality. Right now, such groups as drug lords/dealers, juvenile gangs, and terrorists are benefiting from the current drug policy–and almost everyone else is losing, Gray remarked. An initiative to legalize marijuana is on the November ballot in California, and if it passes, the state could generate huge amounts of tax revenue, end the medical marijuana dispute, and allow for the drug to be strictly regulated. Gray advocated not for legalization of drugs, but for them to be sold under strict regulations, such that they are not advertised, or made available to children. He also spoke in favor of allowing individual states to try out new policies that would work best for them.”

    Show Audio http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2010/05/16

    Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 500 stations in the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and Guam, and is heard by nearly three million weekly listeners.

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    Listen to the Story

    Plummeting Marijuana Prices Create A Panic In Calif.

    by Michael Montgomery

    Prices for marijuana is much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with growers.

    Enlarge Justin Sullivan/NPRMarijuana in California costs much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with more than a dozen growers and dealers. But the people who don’t have quality product aren’t selling it, according to a former underground grower who now cultivates medical marijuana.

    Prices for marijuana is much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with growers.

    Justin Sullivan/NPRMarijuana in California costs much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with more than a dozen growers and dealers. But the people who don’t have quality product aren’t selling it, according to a former underground grower who now cultivates medical marijuana.

    text size A A A

    May 15, 2010

    For decades, illegal marijuana cultivation has been an economic lifeblood for three counties in northern California known as the Emerald Triangle.

    The war on drugs and frequent raids by federal drug agents have helped support the local economy — keeping prices for street sales of pot high and keeping profits rich.

    But high times are changing. Legal pot, under the guise of the California’s medical marijuana laws, has spurred a rush of new competition. As a result, the wholesale price of pot grown in these areas is plunging.

    Demand Not Meeting Supply

    In 1983, the Reagan administration launched a massive air and ground campaign to eradicate pot and lock up growers in northern California. Charley Custer, a writer and community activist, had just arrived to Humboldt County from Chicago. With the Reagan crackdown, Custer recalls, wholesale prices shot up — to as high as $5,000 a pound. That sudden and ironic windfall for those growers willing to risk prison time transformed the community.

    What’s happening is the people that don’t have quality product aren’t selling it. So they’re the ones that are creating this panic. So it really comes back down to that, just like in every other agricultural industry. When you get too many vineyards and too many people growing vines out there, then only the good ones make it.

    – Tim Blake, former underground grower who now cultivates medical marijuana

    “A lot of people were living on welfare and peanut butter and banana sandwiches for a long time before pot made it possible to be part of the middle class,” Custer says.

    Nearly 30 years later, Custer says that boom may be over.

    “Outdoor growers are having a hard time unloading their fall harvest,” Custer says. “And this is six months later and when some people do move it, they don’t get nearly the price they were hoping for.”

    That goes for both legal growers who cultivate limited quantities of pot under the medical marijuana laws and illegal operators who often grow larger amounts.

    Prices are now much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with more than a dozen growers and dealers. Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says some growers can’t get rid of their processed pot at any price.

    “We arrested a man who had … 800 pounds of processed,” Allman says. “Eight hundred pounds of processed. And we asked him: ‘What are you going to do with 800 pounds of processed?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know.'”

    Continues: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126806429

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    Why Won’t Illinois Legalize Medical Cannabis?

    Whatever you think about medical cannabis, put it aside for a
    moment to hear the cases of those who oppose it and those with severe
    illnesses who say they need it to live.
    (1st segment = 3:05)
    http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/special_report/medical-marijuana-debate-20100513

    Medical Cannabis Supporter and Opponent Face Off
    EXPERTS:  State Rep. Lou Lang is the man pushing for Illinois’ medical
    cannabis law.
    Peter Bensinger, a former DEA administrator, is against it.
    (2nd segment = 9:37)
    http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/medical-marijuana-debate-guests-20100513

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    Drug Policy Disconnect

    By Coletta Youngers, May 6, 2010

    The rhetoric has changed. According to new U.S. “drug czar” Gil Kerlikowske, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Obama administration doesn’t use the term “drug war” because the government shouldn’t be waging war against its own citizens. In March 2009, U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke described the opium poppy eradication effort in Afghanistan as “the most wasteful and ineffective program that I have seen in 40 years.” He bluntly stated that the U.S. government had wasted millions of dollars on a counterproductive program that generates political support for the Taliban and undermines nation-building efforts. And in his trip to Peru this past April, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela noted that the fundamental problem is not coca cultivation itself, but poverty and inequality.

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    Marc Emery

    It’s Official: Conservatives Extradite Marc Emery

    By Jeremiah Vandermeer and Jacob Hunter, Cannabis Culture – Monday, May 10 2010

    Video: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/05/12/pkg.brown.canada.drug.king.CTV

    Marc Emery kisses his wife Jodie goodbye before turning himself in to Canadian authorities. Marc will be extradited to the USA to face charges for selling cannabis seeds on the Internet. (Photo by Bill Keay, PNG)Marc Emery kisses his wife Jodie goodbye before turning himself in to Canadian authorities. Marc will be extradited to the USA to face charges for selling cannabis seeds on the Internet. (Photo by Bill Keay, PNG)CANNABIS CULTURE – The extradition order to send marijuana activist Marc Emery to the United States for an expected five-year prison term has been signed by the Canadian Minister of Justice, Rob Nicholson.

    Cannabis Culture has learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada made their decision shortly after Emery turned himself in to Canadian authorities this morning: The Prince of Pot will be handed over to the United States for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.

    READ THE JUSTICE MINISTER’S LETTER CONFIRMING HIS DECISION (PDF)

    “I am absolutely devestated that this Conservative government has opted to send my husband, a Canadian citizen, to the United States for a ‘crime’ that amounts to a $200 dollar fine in Canada,” said Marc’s wife Jodie Emery. “This case is about silencing my Husband for his marijuana activism. This Conservative government has declared a culture war in Canada and my husband is it’s latest victim.”

    Marc spoke to reporters outside of the downtown Vancouver Law Courts before turning himself in, and said orders to extradite him would be the equivalent of outsourcing our justice system. He said he hopes some good comes from his imprisonment.

    “If he sends me away, it will anger millions of Americans and millions of Canadians,” he told the press. “I need them to be angry, otherwise we won’t get any change on this drug war.”

    Marc’s lawyer and fellow marijuana activist Kirk Tousaw told Cannabis Culture that in all likelihood, Marc would be sent south across the border by the end of the week where he will eventually appear before a sentencing judge. Marc is expected to be sentenced to five years as part of a plea deal arranged with American prosecutors.

    YOU CAN STILL HELP! Please contact Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle, Washington and tell him that he should let Marc Emery return home to Canada with a no-prison sentence instead of the 5-year term in the plea deal.

    Mail: Honorable Ricardo S. Martinez
    U.S. Courthouse
    700 Stewart Street, Suite 13134
    Seattle, WA
    98101-9906
    USA

    You can also contact Conservative Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews and tell him to allow Marc to sever his time in Canada as part of the Treaty Transfer process.

    Office of Public Saftey
    Phone: 613-944-4875
    E-mail: webmail.psepc-sppcc.gc.ca
    Web Contact Form: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/abt/min-eng.aspx
    CLICK HERE for more contact info.

    You can also call the Minister of Justice’s Rob Nicholson and voice your displeasure in his decision.
    (613) 995-1547
    (905) 353-9590
    (905) 871-9991
    (905) 354-0527
    [email protected]

    Honourable Robert Nicholson
    House of Commons
    Ottawa, Ontario
    K1A 0A6

    CLICK HERE for more information of how to HELP MARC EMERY

    Opting to wait until Marc was in custody on a bail technicality, Nicholson sent the order to Marc’s lawyers shortly after he entered custody. Marc had expected to be out on bail again today as the Justice Minister was expected to request another extension on the controversial move.

    Marc’s case started in 2005 when American Authorities raided his Vancouver store and offices with the help of the Vancouver Police Department. Marc, whose business sold marijuana seeds to “Overgrow the Government” donated all the proceeds of his business to various activism groups working to legalize marijuana and medical marijuana.

    “Today’s decision is another step in Canada’s adoption of the failed and harmful drug war approach that, ironically, the American government is moving away from,” said Tousaw. “Canadians are deeply opposed to this extradition and the outsourcing of Canadian criminal justice policy. This unpopular decision is sure to hurt the Conservative government at the ballot box in the next election. Mr. Emery is resolute and told me, from his jail cell, to never give up the fight for cannabis freedom.”

    MORE INFO AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE…

    News clippings at http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery

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    California Can Lead the Nation

    We’re taking our movement national!

    As grassroots momentum and news coverage builds around California’s ballot initiative to control and tax marijuana, it’s increasingly clear that what happens at the ballot box in our state this November will impact the whole country. That’s why we’re urging California’s delegation in the U.S. Congress to endorse this groundbreaking initiative.

    http://dpa.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=554&s_src=email

    A win in our state will virtually guarantee more victories throughout the country — but we’re up against the drug war establishment and its powerful law enforcement lobby. To win, we’ll need allies, and we can gain a lot of ground with our senators and representatives in Congress on our side.

    Urge your members of Congress to endorse California’s marijuana ballot initiative:
    http://dpa.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=554&s_src=email

    So far, not a single member of the California congressional delegation has spoken out in support of making marijuana legal. They’re scared of losing votes, but they’re not paying attention to the tide of public opinion.

    Polling shows more people support ending marijuana prohibitionthan ever before. California Democratic Party chair John Burton even acknowledged recently that promoting marijuana law reform is the key to attracting voters in their 20s and 30s.

    We need to show members of Congress the tremendous scope of our movement and to prove that supporting reform is not a political risk. Urge your members of Congress to get behind California’s initiative to make marijuana legal: http://dpa.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&idU4&s_src=email

    Sincerely,

    Stephen Gutwillig
    Director, California
    Drug Policy Alliance Network