Less than six months from election day, the CA initiative to legalize marijuana has the support of half the voters, according to two polls
By Phillip S. Smith
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There’s so many gruesome and tragic stories about violence along the U.S.-Mexico border related to the drug war lately that it’s hard not to become desensitized.
However, this story from the El Paso Times about a young U.S. citizen and his friend being gunned down in Juarez, Mexico regardless of their apparent clean living, is a reminder of how bad it is.
Family members, who held his funeral Tuesday, said they did not know the reason behind the attack. News reports said the two men were coming from a boy scout camp before they were gunned down.
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LETTER OF THE WEEK
WAR ON DRUGS DEADLY
Re: Just another casualty in the criminal war on drugs, May 12.
I appreciate that there are some who will actually write articles like Dan Gardner’s column stating the sad truth. The war on drugs is offensively expensive, deadly, and extremely misdirected.
The horrible truth is that the criminals who control much of our societies today have all the power on the creation, sale and terror related to the use of illegal drugs. Giving government the ability to legally control the creation and safe distribution of drugs would take an enormous amount of power away from gangs and huge organizations that regularly terrorize people of all ages and walks of life. Yes, drugs are dangerous, but they create much more danger in the hands of gangs and drug cartels. They cannot be all jailed and will always create more drugs because it is an incredibly lucrative business and they, essentially, control the world!
Your children and mine will always be in danger of those who will take advantage of and exploit the fact that drugs are illegal and happily enjoy the profits. When will government wake up, take the power back and change this world?
Jessie Gogan, Ottawa
Pubdate: Sat, 15 May 2010
Source: Ottawa Citizen ( CN ON )
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n358/a03.html
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Pubdate: Fri, 21 May 2010
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Copyright: 2010 Statesman Journal
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/QEzJupzz
Authors: Stacey Barchenger and Peter Wong, Statesman Journal
Cited: Voter Power http://voterpower.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis – Medicinal – U.S.)PETITIONERS SEEK MEDICAL MARIJUANA OUTLETS
Ballot Measure Would Let the State License Dispensaries for the Drug
Advocates of medical marijuana on Thursday submitted 110,000 signatures, more than the amount required, for a ballot measure to allow state-licensed pot dispensaries in Oregon.
The proposed measure would not change the medical conditions under the law for which medical marijuana may be used.
If such a measure ever becomes law, Oregon would join California and a few other states that allow dispensaries. But supporters of the measure argue that reported problems with dispensaries in California are precisely what the Oregon measure is trying to avoid. And one marijuana reform-minded group says it will remain neutral on the issue.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n374.a15.html
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Pubdate: Wed, 19 May 2010
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Author: David Luhnow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+CalderonMEXICO’S ‘ELIOT NESS’ SEEKS U.S. HELP
MEXICO CITY-Ten days after taking power following a hotly contested election in 2006, Felipe Calderon sat in the gilded presidential chair and signed a decree that would shape his presidency: an order to deploy 6,000 army troops to his home state of Michoacan to take on drug gangs. Like many, the president believed the army might have trouble with the drug lords, but would at least force them out of city plazas and back into the shadows.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Some three years later, more than 23,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence across Mexico, according to government figures. The bloodshed keeps rising despite the presence of an estimated 45,000 to 60,000 soldiers-roughly a fourth of Mexico’s army-in nine states.
The 47-year-old career politician begins his first official visit to Washington on Wednesday as a leader who started a battle on the doorstep of the U.S. that turned into a war-a conflict whose consequences will shape Mexico for years to come.
Polls show that while most Mexicans support the president’s war, most think the drug lords are winning. In the past few weeks, cartel gunmen burst into the Holiday Inn hotel in Monterrey and snatched guests from their rooms. Drug gangs also blocked the highways leading out of Monterrey, Mexico’s business capital. Among the victims of the war: a groom coming out of his wedding, a 12-year-old and his mother, and scores of teens.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n371.a11.html
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Pubdate: Tue, 18 May 2010
Source: Huffington Post (US Web)
Copyright: 2010 HuffingtonPost com, Inc.
Author: Ryan Grim
Note: Ryan Grim is the author of This Is Your Country On Drugs
Referenced: SSDP’s State-by-State Report http://ssdp.org/states/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Mark+SouderSOUDER, LEADING DRUG WARRIOR, ASKS FORGIVENESS FOR SINS
Mark Souder resigned his congressional seat on Tuesday, confessing to an affair with a staffer and ending an eight-term career as a Republican from Indiana.
In stepping down, he asked God for forgiveness in a rambling, all-caps public statement. “I SINNED AGAINST GOD, MY WIFE AND MY FAMILY BY HAVING A MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH A PART-TIME MEMBER OF MY STAFF,” he wrote. “MY COMFORT IS THAT GOD IS A GRACIOUS AND FORGIVING GOD TO THOSE WHO SINCERELY SEEK HIS FORGIVENESS AS I DO.”
Forgiveness, however, is not a quality that Souder shares with his Lord. No Republican has been more outspoken in Congress in his moral condemnation of Americans who use illicit drugs. In order to punish such sinning, Souder championed and vigorously defended perhaps the least forgiving law on the federal books: the denial of federal student aid for any student convicted of drug possession, no matter how minor.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n369/a04.html
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Pubdate: Mon, 17 May 2010
Source: Huffington Post (US Web)
Copyright: 2010 HuffingtonPost com, Inc.
Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Author: Ethan Nadelmann
Note: Ethan Nadelmann is the Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. www.drugpolicy.org
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0A1XTlJAioSting, Soros, Montel and More
WE ARE THE DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE
I’ve often felt in years past that our struggle to end the drug war is relentlessly uphill. But that’s changing now, sometimes more quickly than even I can believe. The principal reason is us, by which I mean every person who grasps the lunacy of drug policies in this country and throughout much of the world, and who takes some action – no matter how small – to advance a better way.
It’s time now for DPA – the Drug Policy Alliance – to launch a new organizational identity that fully expresses each of our roles as agents of change.
This change represents the once-unimaginable progress that you and I have made over the past decade to bring drug policy reform that much closer to the tipping point. Now is the time to make drug policy reform more personal – creating an even greater sense of moral urgency, connecting the dots with more allies, and building on the common interests of everyone who makes up this movement. We can keep chipping away at the drug war but it won’t really end until a critical mass of people, communities and elected officials demand a new way of dealing with drugs in our society. That’s why we are the Drug Policy Alliance.
I’m often asked, “Who is this growing drug policy reform movement?”
We vary of course in what brings us to this cause. We are people who care about fundamental freedoms, civil liberties and human rights. We are people who care about social and economic justice. We are people who want to end racism. We are people who want addiction treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice problem. We are people who want honest drug education for our youth that fosters trust rather than fear. And every one of us – no matter our reason – believes that the war on drugs is not the way to deal with the reality of drugs in our society. That’s why we are the Drug Policy Alliance.
[snip]
P.S. Today we’re introducing a new video featuring Sting, George Soros and Montel Williams. Each of them – like so many of us – believes that our drug policies must be grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n368/a09.html
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Pubdate: Tue, 18 May 2010
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2010 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: [email protected]
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis – Medicinal – U.S.)WILL FEDS ALLOW STATE POT LAWS?
Colorado and Other States That Have Enacted Medical Marijuana Laws Should Be Allowed to Proceed Without Federal Interference.
Now that Colorado is poised to begin regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, it makes sense to consider how the potential state law jibes with the long arm of federal law.
Though President Obama’s administration is taking a tolerant view toward the 14 states with medical pot laws, future administrations might decide to strictly enforce federal laws, which don’t recognize the drug as anything other than illegal.
Colorado’s Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, has co-sponsored a measure that says as long as the doctors who prescribe, patients who use, dispensaries that sell and growers that provide medical marijuana follow state laws, federal drug agents would not be allowed to arrest or charge them with drug crimes.
That’s an important exception to make because unless Gov. Bill Ritter surprises lawmakers with a veto, Colorado is on its way to sanctioning dispensaries and creating a vast new regulatory framework for the burgeoning new industry.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n368.a07.html
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ubdate: Tue, 18 May 2010
Source: Providence Journal, The (RI)
Copyright: 2010 The Providence Journal Company
Contact: [email protected]
Author: W. Zachary Malinowski, Journal Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis – Medicinal – U.S.)FIFTEEN APPLICATIONS TO RUN MARIJUANA ‘COMPASSION CENTERS’
PROVIDENCE – The state Department of Health received 15 proposals by Monday from applicants seeking to establish the state’s first compassion center, or store, to sell marijuana to patients registered in the medicinal-marijuana program.
Two of the applications had been submitted through Friday, while 13 more came in just before the deadline passed at 4:30 p.m., health officials said.
Annemarie Beardsworth, Health Department spokeswoman, said that the department will not release the names of the applicants or other details of the proposals, including proposed center locations, until department officials review the applications.
“If we asked for a security plan, we want to know whether a security plan is enclosed,” she said.
In the coming weeks, the department will post the proposals for public view. A public hearing on the proposals is scheduled for June 21 at the department, 3 Capitol Hill.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n368/a04.html