• Focus Alerts

    ALERT: #466 Will Michigan’s Local Reform Laws Be Repealed?

    WILL MICHIGAN’S LOCAL REFORM LAWS BE REPEALED?

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

    DrugSense FOCUS Alert #466 – Thursday, March 10th, 2011

    In the months ahead the following local Michigan laws could be repealed:

    Ferndale Medical Marijuana Ordinance http://www.drugsense.org/cms/node/49

    Flint Code Amendment-Medical Marihuana http://www.drugsense.org/cms/node/42

    Traverse City Medical Marijuana Ordinance http://www.drugsense.org/cms/node/50

    Ann Arbor Medical Marijuana Ordinance http://www.drugsense.org/cms/node/52

    Plus Detroit’s needle exchange and medicinal marijuana laws as well
    as other progressive drug policy reform laws in other cities.

    Please read Michigan House Bills 4216, 4217, and 4218 at
    http://www.legislature.mi.gov/

    If these bills become law all that is needed is for the Michigan
    executive branch to make “a finding of probable financial stress” for
    any local government unit within the state. The very large majority
    are now suffering financial stress. Once the finding is made an
    “emergency manager” appointed by the executive branch takes over
    that government and has unbelievable powers to change anything that
    may have a financial impact. Thus if our reform laws have a
    financial impact in one person’s opinion they can be struck down.

    We were alerted to this possibility by folks who watched these two TV
    shows – http://drugsense.org/url/wXxPawCG and http://drugsense.org/url/gz0evdaG

    What can you do? If you live close enough you could join the tens of
    thousands protesting this power grab at the state capitol.

    Plus consider writing LTEs to the Michigan newspapers shown here
    http://www.drugsense.org/cms/geoview/n-us-mi

    And please send this Alert to others who may be interested. You may
    also send it as a link to this Alert from the DrugSense Blog
    http://drugsense.org/blog/category/wycd/alerts

    It is not what others do, it is what you do.

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

    Prepared by: Richard Lake, Focus Alert Specialist www.mapinc.org

    ===
    .
    DrugSense provides many services at no charge, but they are not
    free to produce. Your contributions make DrugSense and its Media
    Awareness Project (MAP) happen. Please donate today. Our secure Web
    server at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm accepts credit cards
    and Paypal. Or, mail your check or money order to:
    .
    DrugSense
    14252 Culver Drive #328
    Irvine, CA 92604-0326.
    (800) 266 5759
    .
    DrugSense is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising
    awareness about the expensive, ineffective, and destructive “War on
    Drugs.” Donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
    .
    Unsubscribe: http://drugsense.org/unsub.htm

  • Cannabis & Hemp

    UMass Professor Drops Bid To Grow Medical Pot

    WASHINGTON (AP) — A University of Massachusetts-Amherst professor says he’s dropping his nearly decade-long fight to persuade the government to let him grow marijuana in bulk for medical research.

    Horticulturist Lyle Craker wanted to cultivate marijuana to boost research into the plant’s potential medicinal benefits. But he’s been rebuffed — even as more than a dozen states have legalized medical marijuana.

    Craker, 70, said he saw no end in sight to the legal wrangling, given the likelihood of an appeals process that could run several years, or even decades. He was frustrated, too, that he never got a hoped-for boost from the Obama administration.

    “I’m disappointed in our system,” he said. “But I’m not disappointed at what we did. I think our efforts have brought the problem to the public eye more. … This is just the first battle in a war.”

  • Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week

    BILL COULD LEGALIZE, REGULATE MARIJUANA USE

    A Solid and Sensible Case for Legalization

    Thank you for making such a solid and sensible case for the
    legalization and regulation of marijuana [“Legalize marijuana,”
    Opinion, Feb. 20].

    As Seattle’s police chief for six years, and as a law-enforcement
    officer for nearly three decades before that, I saw more than enough
    on the front lines of the drug war to convince me that it’s time to
    end marijuana prohibition.

    In addition to powerful economic and civil-rights arguments,
    marijuana legalization will allow law enforcement to focus on
    preventing and solving crimes against persons and property.
    Legalization will eliminate a huge, untaxed revenue source for gangs
    and cartels whose members never hesitate to use violence against each
    other, the police and innocent citizens in order to protect their
    illicit profits.

    Our state’s lawmakers have an opportunity to do the right thing
    locally while also taking a powerful leadership role in the national
    movement to end marijuana prohibition. For doubters and proponents
    alike, The Times’ editorial should be required reading.

    Norm Stamper, Eastsound

    Pubdate: Wed, 23 Feb 2011

    Source: Seattle Times (WA)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n000/a010.html

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net - International

    ‘High’ holy men downed by Nepal cannabis ban

    Mohideen Mifthah

    KATHMANDU, March 2, 2011

    (AFP) – Police in Nepal on Wednesday cracked down on the sale of cannabis at a major religious festival where the drug is smoked legally by thousands of long-haired holy men to honour a Hindu god, an official said.

    Marijuana is illegal in Nepal, but under an ancient legal loophole authorities allow holy men — known as sadhus — to smoke it during a night of often wild celebrations in honour of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

    Thousands of pilgrims travel to the sprawling Pashupatinath temple complex in Kathmandu every year from all over Nepal and India to mark the occasion, which is known as Shivaratri.

    At one time the government even used to provide marijuana for the occasion, but authorities said they decided to enforce a ban on holy men selling the drug because of complaints they were dealing to local people.

    “The holy men are free to use the drugs for themselves. But they can’t sell it to others,” said Narottam Vaidhya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust, which looks after the temple complex.

    “Not all the sadhus are holy men and some come with bad intentions. Our aim is to prevent people from posing as holy men in order to break the law,” he told AFP.

    Vaidhya said armed police, some of them in plain clothes, had been deployed to the area to look out for anyone breaking the law ahead of Wednesday’s celebrations.

    “As of today, we have arrested seven sadhus for selling drugs,” he added.

    Sadhus, who renounce all worldly possessions and usually live in caves or temples, have been coming to Kathmandu for hundreds of years to celebrate the festival.

    They mark it by smoking cannabis because Hindu mythology suggests Shiva himself enjoyed the drug.

    Shivaratri is a public holiday in India and Nepal, where all government offices and schools are shut for the day.

    Huge camps are set up to accommodate the visiting sadhus, many of whom arrive weeks ahead of the celebrations.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Harper’s Faith-Based Drug War

    We should not pretend that Bill S-10 has anything to do with evidence – or with making our country a safer place in which to live.

    by Neil Boyd Associate Director, Criminology, Simon Fraser University.

    The Harper Conservatives are under fire for their extraordinarily expensive legislative initiative, Bill S-10. Among other things, the bill seeks to spend at least hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on prison building, in order to impose a mandatory minimum term of six months in jail for anyone who grows more than six marijuana plants. Most Canadians, experts and non-experts alike, have criticized the proposal as costly and counter-productive, noting that it will imprison individuals who are mostly non-violent and who sell to willing adult consumers.

  • Focus Alerts

    ALERT: #465 Will New Mexico Repeal Its Medical Marijuana Law?

    WILL NEW MEXICO REPEAL ITS MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW?

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

    DrugSense FOCUS Alert #465 – Saturday, February 26th, 2011

    It seems more likely than not that the New Mexico Legislature
    http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/ will repeal the state’s medical marijuana law.

    New Mexico became the 12th state in the country to allow legal access
    to medical cannabis. The bill, the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use
    Act, passed the New Mexico State Legislature and was signed into law
    in the spring of 2007.

    News clippings about this effort to repeal the law will be found at
    http://www.mapinc.org/states/NM/

    If the law is repealed it will encourage similar efforts in other
    medical marijuana states.

    Please do whatever you can to help stop this effort. Tell your
    friends. Forward this alert or send links to it. Support
    organizations opposing the repeal effort.

    Below is an Associated Press wire authored by Sue Major Holmes which
    provides details.

    Please note that the alert “Will Montana Repeal Its Medical Marijuana
    Law?” is still valid as there has been no final decision by their
    legislature. http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0464.html

    Verified facts about medicinal cannabis are found at
    http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/54

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

    MEDICAL MARIJUANA REPEAL POSSIBILITY

    NM Lawmaker Wants to Repeal Medical Marijuana

    ALBUQUERQUE (AP) – A freshman New Mexico lawmaker who’s a high school
    teacher in civilian life is trying to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law.

    The law “sends a bad message to kids, that somehow marijuana is good
    for you,” said Republican Rep. Jim Smith of Sandia Park, who teaches
    at East Mountain Charter High School east of Albuquerque.

    Gov. Susana Martinez said during her campaign last year the state’s
    medical marijuana law put state employees in the position of
    violating federal law. The federal government classifies marijuana as
    a Schedule 1 drug, a category reserved for drugs that have “no
    currently accepted medical use.”

    But after taking office Jan. 1, the Republican governor focused on
    New Mexico’s pressing budget issues and said repeal was not a
    priority in the 2011 legislative session.

    Smith said, however, he was encouraged by an effort in Montana to
    repeal that state’s medical marijuana law. Montana House Speaker Mike
    Milburn argues the multimillion dollar marijuana industry has gone
    far beyond what voters envisioned when they voted for it in 2004.

    Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said she would sign a repeal of New
    Mexico’s medical marijuana law if it reached her desk.

    Some legislators who voted for the law originally said earlier this
    month they were troubled by the expansion in medical conditions that
    qualify for the program and the growing number of people using it.

    Only patients with conditions approved by the health secretary can
    legally use medical marijuana. When New Mexico’s law went into effect
    in July 2007, the state had seven approved conditions, including
    cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and HIV-AIDS. Now
    there are 16, plus some people in hospice care can qualify. The
    program is overseen by the state Department of Health.

    As of Feb. 16, the day before Smith introduced his bill, New Mexico
    had 3,218 active patients.

    Smith’s measure is expected to be heard next week by the House
    Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, whose vice chairman is
    Democratic Rep. Antonio Maestas of Albuquerque, who sponsored the
    medical marijuana law in the House.

    Maestas said the program has proved to be more valuable than
    expected, with soldiers returning from war using it to treat post
    traumatic stress disorder.

    “Moving medical marijuana out of the criminal justice realm is
    difficult for many people to accept, but I believe the vast majority
    are in agreement it was a great decision and should not be rolled
    back,” he said.

    Smith said it’s hard to argue against people in pain who say medical
    marijuana makes them feel better, but he believes there are medical
    alternatives.

    He said he’s encouraged by the 27 co-sponsors, both Republicans and
    Democrats, who signed onto the one-page bill when it was introduced
    earlier this month.

    “The people I got to sign the bill were very passionate about wanting
    to get rid of medical marijuana,” Smith said.

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

    Prepared by: Richard Lake, Focus Alert Specialist www.mapinc.org

    ===
    .
    DrugSense provides many services at no charge, but they are not
    free to produce. Your contributions make DrugSense and its Media
    Awareness Project (MAP) happen. Please donate today. Our secure Web
    server at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm accepts credit cards
    and Paypal. Or, mail your check or money order to:
    .
    DrugSense
    14252 Culver Drive #328
    Irvine, CA 92604-0326.
    (800) 266 5759
    .
    DrugSense is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising
    awareness about the expensive, ineffective, and destructive “War on
    Drugs.” Donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
    .
    Unsubscribe: http://drugsense.org/unsub.htm