Recently retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray talked about what he believes is the failure of current drug prohibition policies.
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By Paul Elam
O.K., so you found some weed in your teen-agers room.
Depending on the kind of parent you are, your reaction to that can range from mild amusement to thermonuclear. But assuming you are not going to smoke the stuff yourself, you are confronted with making some decisions on what to do about it. Perhaps you think it is time to call a counselor, or maybe even the thought of a treatment center for young people with drug problems crosses your mind.
As someone who worked in the chemical dependency treatment field for two decades, and who wrote and directed several treatment programs, let me make a suggestion about that.
Don’t.
Don’t even think about it.
To clarify, let me tell you some things you won’t hear from the staff at treatment programs, or anyone else interested in making a buck off your child’s “problem.”
First, there‘s this funny thing about teenage drug addicts. There aren’t any. Or at least they are so far and few between that I can count the ones I have seen on two fingers. So for your benefit, an understanding of addiction is in order.
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A conversation with author Christopher Fichtner, M.D.
Christopher Fichtner is a psychiatrist and the former mental health director for the state of Illinois. In his new book, Cannabinomics: The Marijuana Policy Tipping Point, Fichtner predicts that marijuana policy is about to change radically. As Fichtner points out, three public policy trajectories converging. The medical marijuana movement is gaining momentum. People are increasingly wakening up to the fact that drug prohibition creates more public health problems than it solves. And, in the same way that the Great Depression caused people to reprioritize how we spend our public dollars, the current economic crisis has got people thinking that bringing the biggest cash crop in the US out into the open might not be such a bad idea.
Reason.tv‘s Paul Feine sat down with Dr. Fichtner to learn more about the imminent marijuana policy tipping point.
Approximately 10 minutes. Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.
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You don’t see this every day President Obama signs into law the Fair Sentencing Act relaxing sentences for drug crimes. This will narrow the disparity between sentences for crimes involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine. As President Obama loosens one drug policy, the senate is advancing a bill that would toughen the penalty for pot brownies. Aaron Houston the Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy says the demand for marijuana is fueling the drug wars. Bishop Allen President of International Faith Based Coalition debates legalizing and drug addiction with Houston.
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Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm
ALMOST RIGHT ABOUT DRUGS
Re: “Mexico’s Sounds of Silence – No news is bad news when media self-censors,” Thursday Editorials. The Dallas Morning News almost got it right.
The ghastly violence in Mexico is not about drugs.
It’s about money, and we can stop it. Drug cartels don’t have a valuable product.
The drugs they sell are common and plentiful.
All they have and all they are fighting for is an illegal distribution system. There were no beheadings during most of the history of Mexico and the U.S., when any man, woman or child could buy these products easily, cheaply and legally.
No journalists are murdered today by the distributors of the most popular Mexican drugs, beer and tequila. U.S. drug prohibition laws allowed this untenable situation to develop.
Doing prohibition harder and harder and hoping for a different result will not stop it. The violence will cease when U.S. laws allow competition from well-regulated, legal sellers to put the cartels out
of business.Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas
Pubdate: Sun, 8 Aug 2010
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n000/a031.html
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Will the U.S. Join the Debate?
By Daniel Robelo, AlterNet
The question of whether legalizing drugs would help reduce the killings in Mexico has made front page news this week and is causing unprecedented debate around the world.
Last week, former Mexican President Vicente Fox called on his country “to legalize the production, distribution and sale of drugs” as the best way to weaken the drug cartels.
Acknowledging that “radical prohibition strategies have never worked,” Fox’s recommendation echoes another former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, as well as past presidents of Colombia and Brazil, who last year issued a ringing condemnation of the failed war on drugs, in favor of alternatives that include the removal of legal penalties for marijuana possession.
This latest endorsement of legalization also comes on the heels of current Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s own announcement that, while he opposes legalization, he nevertheless supports an open debate about ending prohibition – the root cause of the violence in Mexico that has now claimed over 28,000 lives.
Sadly, however, legalization is not even part of the policy dialogue in D.C. In fact, the U.S. drug czar has repeatedly said it’s not even part of his or President Obama’s “vocabulary.”
Yet despite Washington’s reticence to engage the topic, the debate about legalization is taking place in many communities throughout the U.S. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, like Calderon, has called for a debate about marijuana legalization, a proposal that Californians will vote on in November. In 2009, the City Council of El Paso, Texas – directly across the border from Ciudad Juarez, the world’s deadliest city and ground zero in Mexico’s drug war – passed a resolution “supporting an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics.”
President Calderon’s openness to debating legalization comes amid new recognition that the cartels are not just killing each other, or members of the government, or innocent civilians – they are openly challenging the Mexican state and eroding its democratic institutions.
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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010
Subject: #446 Michigan Medical Marijuana In The NewsMICHIGAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN THE NEWS
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #446 – Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Almost every day we read articles in the press which show the efforts
going on in Michigan to oppose the will of the voters.The editorial below states that “Municipalities throughout the state
have been struggling with just how to regulate the distribution of the
drug to those who can legally use it.”The state’s law is clear as you may read at http://drugsense.org/url/8mvr7sW8
It was passed by two-thirds of the voters. Even the state
legislature can not change the law without a three-fourths vote in
each house.But by a simple majority vote some municipalities are attempting to
take away rights of Michigan’s legal caregivers and patients. This
effort is being spearheaded by the Michigan Municipal League
http://mapinc.org/url/1P1nVl8N and some members of the law enforcement
community.Taking the lead in opposition to these efforts is the American Civil
Liberties Union of Michigan. Please read their latest press release
at http://www.aclumich.org/issues/drug-policy/2010-07/1460Your letters to the editor in support of the will of the people are
important.Please bookmark this link which will display Michigan’s marijuana
press articles as they are archived by MAP http://www.mapinc.org/find?275**********************************************************************
Pubdate: Wed, 11 Aug 2010
Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)
Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/px6eGJuE
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Tribune
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.dailytribune.com/
SILVERDOME POT FEST SHOULD BE CANCELED
Much to the chagrin of city officials, plans have been set for a
cannabis convention in the Silverdome for Oct. 29-31.Bruce Perlowin, the CEO of Medical Marijuana Inc., is behind the event
and bristles at referring to it as a “pot party.” He calls it the
International Holistic Health Cannabis Convention Halloween Harmony &
Harvest Festival, and says it’s a trade show.No matter how it is termed, city officials are justified in being
concerned. Medical marijuana may be legal in Michigan but the
controversial drug shouldn’t and isn’t something that can be purchased
over the counter at your local pharmacy.Municipalities throughout the state have been struggling with just how
to regulate the distribution of the drug to those who can legally use
it. Many communities have placed moratoriums on ordinances addressing
the distribution to make sure the process is appropriately covered and
that the drug doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.In fact, local officials would be shirking their duties if they did
not scrutinize the law and establish sound regulatory laws.Voters approved the proposition with their hearts, but local community
leaders need to control it with their heads.Medical marijuana is not the panacea that its supporters say it is,
and there are numerous peripheral or collateral problems associated
with its legal distribution and use. Most doctors are reluctant to say
it won’t help a suffering patient but likewise, only a few are strong
proponents.Also, making sure the drug doesn’t find its way into the hands of
those not authorized to use it will cost communities money because of
the law enforcement requirements.Medical Marijuana Inc. advertises itself as providing tools to manage
a medical marijuana business in full compliance of laws and
regulations regarding cannabis.This is one very good reason why the Silverdome festival should not be
conducted. Too many communities are still not certain about how to
regulate marijuana, which is the reason for the moratoriums.
Consequently, if all of the laws are not in place, how can festival
organizers provide accurate guidance on complying with the
regulations?In addition, Pontiac Police Chief Val Gross has expressed concern
about public safety and illegal drug use in connection with the
festival. We’re not going to second-guess Perlowin as to why he wants
to conduct the dome festival. It certainly seems premature at the very
least, considering how new the law is.Some people will undoubtedly make thousands, if not hundreds of
thousands of dollars, thanks to the new law. It’s not unreasonable to
give local communities time to institute regulations that will make
sure all of the transactions are legal.Complicating the situation is the fact marijuana use may be allowable
for some people under state law, but it’s still illegal on the federal
level.Medical Marijuana Inc. is a California-based company. That state was
one of the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana and since
then, it still is struggling with regulations over how the drug should
be distributed.While Michigan would like to become the new “Hollywood” through
increased filmmaking here, we don’t need to bring in the California
drug culture.So caution is obviously called for and common sense says that the
festival should be canceled.**********************************************************************
Suggestions for writing letters are at our Media Activism Center
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guidesFor facts about medicinal marijuana please see http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/54
A new medicinal cannabis flyer is available at http://mapinc.org/url/Rr2BR72F
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Prepared by: Richard Lake, Focus Alert Specialist
www.mapinc.org=.
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This editorial is begging for letters-to-the-editor.
Pubdate: Sun, 08 Aug 2010
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2010 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n637/a06.htmlThe debate about legalizing marijuana goes around every few years like a joint in frat house on a Friday night.
This past week we fired it up again. An exclusive Leger Marketing poll commissioned by QMI Agency shows that more than half of Canadians believe marijuana possession should not be a crime.
That’s a shame. Although possessing marijuana might appear to be a minor offence, if one at all, no one should dispute the negative impact marijuana addiction can have on people’s lives, especially
young people.Now before you pot-smoking, self-righteous readers write us that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, no more dangerous than cigarettes, stop, put your roach down and relax.
Ask Greg Thomson, whose teenage son was killed by a drug-impaired driver in 1999, how dangerous marijuana can be.
In reality, the driver who caused the accident that killed Stan Thomson was found not guilty of driving while impaired, and it is clear from the circumstances of the accident that he did not lose control of his car, rather, he attempted an illegal, high-speed pass in the oncoming lane, probably to impress his teenaged passengers and other friends in a convoy of four vehicles. See http://www.mapinc.org/newstlc/v00/n1386/a03.html
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Here’s a nice rebuttal from Dale Gieringer of California NORML to a recent column in the Sacramento Bee which raised an alarm over Proposition 19 causing carnage on California’s highways.
Pubdate: Sun, 8 Aug 2010
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2010 The Sacramento Bee
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Dale Gieringer, Special to The Bee
Note: Dale Gieringer is the California director of the marijuana legalization group NORML, the National Organization for Reformof Marijuana Laws.
Cited: Proposition 19 http://www.taxcannabis.org/
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272RISK OF STONED DRIVERS MINIMAL WITH PROP. 19
Critics of this November’s Proposition 19 initiative to legalize marijuana are raising concerns that it could lead to an epidemic of road accidents by pot-impaired drivers.
Because accidents, unlike other purported hazards of marijuana, pose a risk to non-users, such concerns deserve to be addressed seriously.
Fortunately, there exists extensive evidence showing that marijuana, unlike alcohol, does not pose a major highway safety hazard, and that
liberal marijuana laws have no adverse impact on highway safety.Studies on marijuana and driving safety are remarkably consistent, though greatly under-publicized because they fail to support the government’s anti-pot line. Eleven different studies of more than 50,000 fatal accidents have found that drivers with marijuana-only in their system are on average no more likely to cause accidents than
those with low, legal levels of alcohol below the threshold for DUI.The major exception is when marijuana is combined with alcohol, which tends to be highly dangerous.
Several studies have failed to detect any increased accident risk from marijuana at all. The reason for pot’s relative safety appears to be that it tends to make users drive more slowly, while alcohol makes them speed up.
Thus legalization could actually reduce accidents if more drivers used marijuana instead of alcohol, but it could also increase them if there were more combined use of the two.