The Drug Policy Alliance has an opening for an Internet Communications Associate, working as a member of the communications team to begin August 2nd, 2010.
Based in DPA’s Office of National Affairs in Washington, DC, the Internet Communications Associate is part of DPA’s Communications team. This position requires the candidate live in the Washington DC area. Telecommuting will not be considered.
A 62-year-old grandmother in Washington, DC tells AP that police came to her home serving a drug warrant for her 28-year-old grandson. The grandma asks to put her dog in the back yard or the bathroom. The cops tell her the bathroom would be fine. Later, the cops open the bathroom door, claim this 13-year-old dog named “Wrinkles” attacked them, and they shoot it multiple times. By the way, the grandson hasn’t lived in the home for a dozen years and the only drugs cops found were what they claimed was “drug residue” on some baggies, which the grandma contends is the residue of fortune cookies.
Watch the video here http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/23934405/index.html
Please take a moment to sign the petition at http://CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com/animals to protest the cruelty of the unnecessary killing of pet dogs by police during encounters with citizens.
from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #637, 6/18/10
A 21-year-old father-to-be was killed last Friday night by a Las Vegas Police Department narcotics officer serving a search warrant for marijuana. Trevon Cole was shot once in the bathroom of his apartment after he made what police described as “a furtive movement.”
Trevon Cole with fiance Sequoia Pearce (photo from Sequoia Pearce via the Las Vegas Review-Journal Police have said Cole was not armed. Police said Monday they recovered an unspecified amount of marijuana and a set of digital scales. A person identifying herself as Cole’s fiance, Sequoia Pearce, in the comments
section in the article linked to above said no drugs were found.
Pearce, who is nine months pregnant, shared the apartment with Cole and was present during the raid. “I was coming out, and they told me to get on the floor. I heard a gunshot and was trying to see what was happening and where they had shot him,” Pearce told KTNV-TV.
According to police, they arrived at about 9:00pm Friday evening at the Mirabella Apartments on East Bonanza Road, and detectives knocked and announced their presence. Receiving no response, detectives knocked the door down and entered the apartment. They found Pearce hiding in a bedroom closet and took her into custody. They then tried to enter a bathroom where Cole was hiding. He made “a furtive movement” toward a detective, who fired a single shot, killing Cole.
June 19, 2010
Joe Califano: Just as stupid as ever; after all these years.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., is a native New Yorker, Harvard educated lawyer, and career bureaucrat who entered federal service in 1961 after a stint in the Navy and soon became a behind-the-scenes power in the Johnson Administration after JFK’s assassination. He later served as Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Health Education and Welfare between 1977 and 1979.
Unfortunately, a misguided interest in Medicine has apparently kept him enamored of the false notion that criminal prohibition can be rehabilitated into good public policy, thus he founded the Center for Addiction and Drug Abuse at Columbia University (CASA Columbia) which has since become entrenched as a drug war propaganda machine with a prestigious Ivy League address. While editing a low-budget drug policy newsletter between 1997 and 200I, I became very familiar with an unending stream of CASA “studies” that inevitably found evidence in favor of coerced “treatment” while decrying the money spent on criminal prosecution. In fact, one of the more pleasant consequences of my recent immersion in a study of cannabis users had been not having to deal with the conundrum represented by Mr. Califano and his ilk: are they evil or just stupid?
Sadly, the latest evidence has me leaning more toward evil. Yesterday afternoon, during my return from Oakland after interviews with nine typical victims of cannabis prohibition had left me more convinced than ever of the policy’s stupidity, good old clueless NPR provided me with nearly ten minutes of teeth-gnashing evidence of its fecklessness: a report on the latest carnage in Mexico followed by a typical witless endorsement from Joe C.
Now I get it. Like anything human it’s not all or none, but a combination of the two: thus anyone who takes Joe Califano seriously must be as evil AND stupid as he is.
Doctor Tom
By Ed Rosenthal
Why Californians Should Vote In Favor of Tax & Regulate In Northern California there is a debate raging among commercial marijuana growers over whether they should vote in favor of the Tax & Regulate proposition that is on the November 2nd ballot in California. Some growers fear that legalization will bring in major corporations that will dominate the industry, reducing Humboldt into an Appalachian-type county once again They say, why should we vote for this? It might be putting us out of business.
Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jun 2010
Source: DrugSense Blog
Website: http://drugsense.org/blog/
LETTER OF THE WEEK
MARIJUANA DEBATE SHOULD PROCEED
I hope Mayor John Cook realizes that the debate for marijuana
legalization needs to happen.
After vetoing a unanimously approved resolution calling for such a
debate last year, Cook and the rest of America have watched Mexico’s
drug war death toll exceed 22,000 people.
Despite increasing troops and escalating a war on drugs, there has
been no decrease in drug use, availability or flow over the
border. There has only been more bloodshed.
Like Mayor Cook, I don’t want young people using marijuana. But I
understand that keeping it illegal doesn’t stop teenagers from having
easy access to it.
We need to focus on controlling marijuana in order to prevent tragic
murders like the UTEP students killed recently in Juarez.
The demand for marijuana in the U.S. is not going away. Ever. It
is prohibition that is causing the violence across our border.
If marijuana is produced, taxed and sold in the U.S. to people over
21, these cartels will lose their largest market.
Jonathan Perri, associate director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Pubdate: Wed, 9 Jun 2010
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Newshawk: Taking the Initiative http://www.drugsense.org/caip#take
Pubdate: Thu, 17 Jun 2010
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Page: 7A, top of page, four column banner headline
Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/i5kHhmhl
Copyright: 2010 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Author: Naomi R. Patton, Free Press Staff Writer
Cited: Coalition for a Safer Detroit http://www.saferdetroit.net/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?261 (Cannabis – United States)
MARIJUANA VOTE IS 1 STEP AWAY
Detroit Commission Must OK Language
Detroiters are one step away from a November vote on whether to allow
possession of small amounts of marijuana.
The Detroit City Council’s Internal Operations Committee declined
Wednesday to vote on amending a city ordinance that would allow
anyone 21 and older to legally possess less than 1 ounce of marijuana
on private property. The issue is now headed to the Detroit Election
Commission for approval of the ballot language.
Advocated by the Coalition for a Safer Detroit — the group that
successfully got medical marijuana placed on the ballot in 2004,
which passed — the ordinance would amend Chapter 38 of the city code
regulating controlled substances.
Tim Beck, a registered medical marijuana user who filed the
petitions, says the amended ordinance would “free up the Police
Department to pursue crimes with actual victims.”
In 2009, Beck said, there were 1,500 arrests for misdemeanor
marijuana possession in Detroit.
Detroit police spokesman John Roach said the department’s legal staff
is still researching the impact of legalized recreational marijuana.
The City of Denver and the State of Alaska have similar laws.
Legislation in Seattle and California has been proposed.
[snip]
Newshawk: Congratulations Philippe http://drugsense.org/pages/phil
Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jun 2010
Source: Ring, The (U of Victoria, CN BC Edu)
Copyright: 2010 The Ring
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://ring.uvic.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2134
Photo: Lucas with statue of Sir John A. MacDonald at Victoria City
Hall. http://www.mapinc.org/images/lucas.jpg
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Philippe+Lucas
A PASSION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
Victoria City Councillor and Vancouver Island Compassion Society
founder Philippe Lucas has had his share of life experiences. Lucas
was exposed to hepatitis C through the tainted blood supply at age
12, but the condition was only diagnosed in 1995, the same year that
his father committed suicide. “Sometimes life makes choices for us,
and with the benefit of a little longevity we can see that even the
most adverse event or situation can lead to some positive outcomes,”
says Lucas, whose personal experiences with medical cannabis led him
to conduct a number of research projects on this topic over the last 15 years.
Graduating with a Master of Arts in Studies in Policy and Practice-an
interdisciplinary graduate program in the Faculty of Human and Social
Development aimed at those involved in social activism, human
services and community work-has provided an opportunity to “deepen
the theoretical underpinnings that form the base of progressive
reform efforts, particularly in the area of drug policy,” says Lucas.
Recipient of the 2007 UVic Blue and Gold award for community
contributions, Lucas has worked towards raising awareness on social
issues such as homelessness, drug policy reform and food security.
Currently a research affiliate and board member with the Centre for
Addictions Research of BC at UVic, Lucas says, “I have a passion for
work and research around progressive social change towards the
legitimization of a patient-centered, community-based approach to
medical cannabis.”