• Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week

    NO LEGAL AUTHORITY

    By way of introduction, I had a 24-year career in federal law
    enforcement and then worked for the state judiciary and the
    enforcement branch of the Department of Land and Natural Resources
    for 13 years. I am a strong supporter of law enforcement. Even so,
    I was appalled by the piece in West Hawaii Today Oct. 31. It
    appears a major travesty of justice is playing out here.

    To see two medical marijuana patients improperly denied boarding on
    an aircraft and then detained by the Transportation Security
    Authority representatives for arrest by the local police is ludicrous
    if I can accept WHT’s assurance that they were in full compliance
    with state law. According to the article, a TSA spokesman stated
    their only mission is to keep explosives off planes ( something they
    have not done in nine years to the best of my knowledge ). That
    amounts to tacit admission that TSA exceeded their statutory
    authority in this case.

    The local police then “stole” their legally owned property and
    conducted what appears to be an illegal arrest. Worse the prosecutor
    for whatever reason decided to levy criminal charges against the two
    individuals that seem to have been in full compliance with the law,
    and if so, they are victims and NOT criminals. Lastly, the judge in
    the case failed to see the baselessness of this case and is pursuing it!

    We all have to comply with various laws such as wear your seat belt,
    comply with speed limits, don’t drive and use a cell phone, etc. If
    we don’t like the laws, we must work within the system to change them
    and follow them in the meantime. Law enforcement has the same
    obligation and should be held to an even higher standard in this regard.

    Yet in this case it appears we have the feds, the state and local
    authorities who don’t agree with our medical marijuana laws, choose
    to violate them and harass law-abiding citizens and try to prosecute them.

    My advice to the two victims that now find themselves defendants is
    to sue their butts off. Enforcement and the courts are not above the law.

    For the record, the only marijuana I ever touched was samples of
    evidence in a seizure case for illicit trafficking cases. Some
    sanity needs to get interjected here, and if a cardiac patient is
    driving down the road with prescription drugs in his or her car and
    is stopped by police, would their medication be seized, that person
    get arrested and face criminal charges? I think not.

    I’d love to have someone in law enforcement advise us why in hell
    people holding legal prescriptions are treated differently based upon
    the particular drug.

    We’ll get silence as none of the entities in this case have ANY legal
    authority for their actions, nor a leg to stand on.

    Keith King

    Kailua-Kona

    Pubdate: Mon, 8 Nov 2010

    Source: West Hawaii Today (HI)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a055.html

  • Hot Off The 'Net - International

    What Can We Learn From The Portuguese Decriminalization Of Illicit Drugs?

    A new study (http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/6/999.full.pdf+html ), published this month in the British Journal of Criminology shows that decriminalisation of all drugs in Portugal did not lead to increases in drug-related harms. The article, written by Dr Caitlin Hughes of the University of New South Wales and Professor Alex Stevens of the University of Kent, reports on the first independent, academic study to assess the effects of the Portuguese policy.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Arizona Joins the Medical Marijuana Club

    By Phillip Smith, Drug War Chronicle

    After trailing on election day and all the way through most of the late vote counting, Arizona’s medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 203, pulled ahead at the end of last week and, with all votes counted, was declared the unofficial winner Saturday. The final tally had the measure winning, 50.1% to 49.9%. The measure won by about 5,000 votes out of more than 1.6 million cast.

    “Voters in Arizona have sided with science and compassion while dealing yet another blow to our nation’s cruel and irrational prohibition on marijuana,” said Rob Kampia, Marijuana Policy Project executive director, in a statement greeting the outcome. “Arizona’s law now reflects the mainstream public opinion that seriously ill people should not be treated like criminals if marijuana can provide them relief, and that doctors should be able to recommend marijuana to patients if they believe it can help alleviate their suffering.”

    The Marijuana Policy Project had advised and helped finance the campaign. Arizona will now become the 15th medical marijuana state when official results are announced November 29. The state will then have 120 days to create regulations.

    Phillip Smith is an editor at DRCNet.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Obama’s Pick for Top Drug War Enforcer Needs to Answer Some Tough Questions

    By Paul Armentano, The Hill

    This Wednesday, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will be considering Michele Leonhart for the position of director of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Several organizations that lobby on drug policy issues have voiced serious concerns regarding Ms. Leonhart’s nomination.

    As Interim DEA director, Ms. Leonhart has overseen dozens of federal raids on medical marijuana providers, producers, and laboratory facilities that engage in the testing of cannabis potency and quality. These actions took place in states that have enacted laws allowing for the production and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, and they are inconsistent with an October 19, 2009 Department of Justice memo recommending federal officials no longer “focus … resources … on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

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

    N.Z.: Cart Of Burning Cannabis Pushed Inside Police Station

    Wellington, New Zealand police will decide Friday whether to charge cannabis legalization activists who pushed a shopping cart full of burning marijuana into the central police station foyer.

    Officers will study CCTV footage showing the shopping cart loaded with smoking weed being pushed into the central police station at the height of a legalization protest, reports 3 News.

    The protest, part of the Armistice Tour, a nationwide push for cannabis law reform, began Thursday morning with more than 100 people gathering on Parliament’s front lawn to promote the benefits of marijuana over legal substances like alcohol and tobacco.

    The protesters gathered outside the Wellington police station about 6 p.m., when the “smoke bomb” was pushed into the foyer, according to Julian Crawford, an activist and candidate with the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.

    The shopping cart had plastic cannabis leaves on top, with real marijuana burning underneath, Crawford said.

    Police seized the shopping cart and escorted the protesters outside the foyer, according to Crawford.

    What had been a “vocal” but peaceful protest started to wind down shortly thereafter, Crawford said.

    No one was arrested after the protest moved to the police station, but police will be reviewing the CCTV footage to determine whether anyone will face charges, according to Senior Sergeant Shannon Clifford of Wellington police.

    The police also seized the shopping cart as an “exhibit” and were “investigating the contents” of it, Sgt. Clifford said.

    “Despite the presence of police and parliamentary security guards this morning at Parliament many of those present were openly smoking cannabis cigarettes,” 3 News reported.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Focus Alerts

    ALERT: #462 Arizona Becomes 15th State to Approve Medical Marijuana

    ARIZONA BECOMES 15TH STATE TO APPROVE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

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

    DrugSense FOCUS Alert #462 – Monday, November 15th, 2010

    Today the article below was printed.

    We call it to your attention not because of the source newspaper but
    because few newspapers put their Associated Press articles on line.

    Please watch your local newspapers for versions of this story as they
    represent a letter writing opportunity.

    Verified facts that may be of value in your letter writing are found
    at http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/54

    MAP posted articles specific to Proposition 203 are found at
    http://www.mapinc.org/find?273

    Articles about medicinal cannabis are found at http://www.mapinc.org/find?253

  • Letter of the Week

    Letter Of The Week

    SAFE DRUG

    Buddy Sims, in his letter “It ain’t medicine” (Nov. 1), wrote, “The
    American Medical Association recommends that marijuana remain a
    Schedule I controlled illegal federal substance.”

    The AMA recently passed a resolution urging the rescheduling of
    cannabis as a Schedule II drug in the Controlled Substances Act.

    Further, Kevin Sabet, as part of the ONDCP, is mandated by law to lie.

    Cannabis has been in the human pharmacopoeia for thousands of years
    with no known case — ever — of a human overdose.

    When cannabis was discovered to have cancer-fighting potential in
    1974, the study was buried.

    The U.S. government owns U.S. Patent 6630507, Cannabinoids as
    antioxidants and neuroprotectants.

    The U.S. government also distributes half a pound of pre-rolled
    medical cannabis cigarettes to the four remaining patients enrolled
    in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.

    If science and truth were the standard, cannabis never would have
    been made illegal in the first place.

    Allan Erickson

    Eugene, Ore.

    Pubdate: Sun, 7 Nov 2010

    Source: Vail Daily (CO)

    Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n894/a01.html

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Are Parents Just Saying No to Marijuana Legalization?

    By NATE SILVER

    Among other disappointments for liberals last Tuesday was the failure of California’s Proposition 19, which would have rewritten state law to allow local jurisdictions the right to regulate and tax the use of marijuana for personal consumption.

    The measure, which was defeated 54 to 46 percent, had seemed destined to lose after polls found its position slipping in the final few months of the campaign.

    Still, the defeat was a bitter one for advocates of liberalized drug laws, particularly since liberals had a strong night in California over all, re-electing Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, electing a new Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, and soundly defeating another ballot measure, Proposition 23, which would have suspended California’s stringent air pollution laws until its unemployment rate declined.

    Proponents of marijuana legalization, like the group Norml, have put a happy face on the measure’s defeat, nothing that the 46 percent of the vote it achieved is better than any similar initiative in any other state, and that national polls show support for legalization having increased significantly over the past 10 or 15 years.

    Others have been more skeptical, however. Tyler Cowen, a libertarian-leaning economist at George Mason University who writes columns for The Times, commented on his blog that “we’re seeing the high water mark for pot, as aging demographics do not favor the idea,” and that he couldn’t see marijuana “climbing the legalization hill, if it can’t make it through current-day California.”

    The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle expressed similar sentiments, noting that parenthood — and the changes in attitude it can cause toward drug legalization — was a significant barrier to such initiatives passing.

    The relationships between age, parenthood and views on marijuana are a bit complex, so it’s worth going to some effort to untangle them.