SAFER and supporters of marijuana policy reform have won Round 1 in the fight against the Arrest and Prosecution Industry and the companies that sponsor their efforts to keep marijuana illegal.

After being subjected to an action that resulted in thousands of e-mail messages and several unflattering news accounts, the Colorado Drug Investigators Association (CDIA) shut down its Web site entirely and many of its "sponsors" distanced themselves from the extremist anti-marijuana organization. Apparently this law enforcement group has far less support in the community than it had led people to believe on its Web site. Needless to say, we're not surprised. We are, however, shocked that this group would list any company as a sponsor without receiving permission.

Starbucks, the largest "sponsor" listed and a primary target of SAFER's call to action, released a public statement to ensure everyone knows it does NOT support the anti-marijuana group at the national level. Rather, the company said, "It is up to the discretion of our local teams to support those groups that are relevant in their neighborhoods."

Although we feel Starbucks should develop a policy prohibiting its stores from lending support to these types of groups, and that it should be looking into groups like the CDIA who have used their logo without permission, SAFER is no longer calling for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks or these other companies.

Rather, we urge you and all supporters of marijuana reform to use YOUR "discretion" and decide for yourself whether you wish to give them your business. After all, no local store or company should be lending its support to such these extremist organizations lobbying to maintain Marijuana Prohibition so they can continue to arrest and prosecute people for marijuana. SAFER will continue to keep an eye out for stores or other companies that lend support to the Arrest and Prosecution Industry and shady groups like the CDIA, and we will be sure to keep everyone posted on how you can take action if the need should arise.

As the Seattle Weekly's blog put it:

"[This Starbucks boycott is] nothing but a minor brew-ha-ha. But more evidence that we've now entered an (amazing) alternate dimension, where speaking out against pot actually gets you more bad PR than speaking out for it."

If you support SAFER's efforts to expose these types of shady partnerships and take on these anti-marijuana groups, please help us continue to do so by visiting http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate and making a donation today. If you contribute $25 or more you can receive any one of SAFER's T-shirts or a copy of Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? signed by coauthor and SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert.

As always, we greatly appreciate your ongoing support, and we thank you again if you were among those who took action or helped us spread the word about it.

MEDIA ADVISORY                                                                                                            
NOVEMBER 3, 2009

MPP of Nevada Asks Law Enforcement to Explain How Steering Adults Toward Alcohol Over Marijuana is Making Us Safer
Demand comes as major new report shows marijuana arrest rates in Nevada increasing faster than the national average, while binge drinking in Nevada is also growing steadily

CONTACT: Dave Schwartz, MPP-NV Manager……………………………………………702-727-1081

LAS VEGAS — At a news conference on Thursday in front of the new Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters construction site, the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada will ask law enforcement officials to explain how steering adults toward the use of alcohol instead of marijuana is making our communities safer. Specifically, MPP-NV will display a sign asking members of law enforcement to complete this sentence: “Steering adults away from marijuana use and toward alcohol makes us safer by ___________.”

     This event coincides with the release of the most exhaustive collection of data ever on U.S. marijuana arrests, penalties and related information. Assembled by Professor Jon Gettman at Shenandoah University in Virginia, the new report finds that marijuana arrests in Nevada increased from 4,504 in 2003 to 7,950 in 2007. The arrest rate for possession per 100,000 residents in Nevada increased 57.9% over that time period, compared to just 12.7% in the U.S. While Nevada law enforcement was using its power to punish and intimidate marijuana users, binge drinking rates in the state rose 16% in those four years, but just 1.8% nationally.

     Who: Dave Schwartz, manager, Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada

     What: Press conference to challenge Nevada law enforcement’s marijuana arrest rates

     When: Thursday, November 5, at 11:00 a.m.

     Where: Southeast corner of Alta Blvd and Martin Luther King Blvd, Las Vegas, NV

      MPP of Nevada is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Nevadans about the true nature of marijuana and about the harms caused by marijuana prohibition in the state. For more information about MPP of Nevada, please visit http://www.mppnv.org. 

####

One week ago today, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske (aka the Drug Czar) issued a statement declaring the issue of marijuana legalization a "non-starter" not even worthy of discussion in the Obama Administration.

The Drug Czar's statement also highlighted the extraordinary social and health care costs associated with widespread alcohol use, suggesting that similar problems would occur if marijuana were to be regulated and treated like alcohol.  Yet every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it is far less harmful than alcohol both for the user and for society.

In response to the Drug Czar's statement, SAFER has launched an on-line petition, calling on the drug czar to either start basing our nation's drug policies on reason and evidence instead of mythology and ideology, or start explaining why he'd prefer adults use alcohol instead of a far safer substance -- marijuana. 

Please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj32wxb or click on the button to the right to sign the petition today. Then forward word of it to anyone who might be interested in siging on before we present it to the drug czar.

Along with launching the petition, SAFER has issued...

An Open Letter to the Drug Czar About Marijuana Legalization

On the afternoon of Friday, October 23, at a time when government bureaucrats make announcements they hope will not be picked up by the media, you issued a statement boldly declaring:

Marijuana legalization, for any purpose, remains a non-starter in the Obama Administration. It is not something that the President and I discuss; it isn't even on the agenda.

As the individual most directly responsible for marijuana policy in this country, this seems utterly irresponsible.  Worse, your decision does not appear to be based on reason or evidence.

Let's begin with one glaringly obvious omission in your statement. You failed to cite a single societal or health-related harm caused by the use of marijuana. Not one! Instead, you offered up some weak guilt-by-association scare tactics.

To test the idea of legalizing and taxing marijuana, we only need to look at already legal drugs -- alcohol and tobacco. We know that the taxes collected on these substances pale in comparison to the social and health care costs related to their widespread use.

Apparently, you believe that marijuana users should be punished and perhaps even jailed because alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical drugs are so harmful to users and society.

Sorry, Mr. Kerlikowske, but that just doesn't cut it. If you are going to remain closed-minded in your approach to marijuana, you are going to need to step it up. Unfortunately, you know as well as we do that you don't have a whole lot going for you, which explains your flaccid, evidence-free statement.

Sadly, we have come to expect this kind of nonsensical garbage from our nation's drug czars. (After all, you have Kevin Sabet, a Bush Administration holdover and former speechwriter for his drug czar,

John Walters, feeding you the same old lines.) But what makes your position on marijuana legalization even more shameful is your background as a law enforcement officer on the streets.

You know -- and maybe at some point during your tenure you will have the guts to admit -- that alcohol is really the drug in our society that causes the greatest amount of harm. This isn't an attempt to demonize alcohol, mind you; it's simply based on alcohol's close association with serious health problems and violent crime, as documented by scientific research and government statistics. The use of marijuana, on the other hand, does not have serious health consequences and is not associated with violent behavior.

Again, you know this from your time on the streets. If you've forgotten, just recall the alcohol-fueled Seattle Mardi Gras riot that occurred on your watch. Or ask you're predecessor, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who called alcohol "the most dangerous drug in America today," during a 1999 ONDCP press conference.

So just why is it that you want to punish people who use marijuana, when you know the likely result is that many of these people will simply turn to using alcohol instead? Ya know, because it's "legal."

We don't want to hear that alcohol does not fall under the mission of ONDCP. You, sir, raised the subject by asserting -- contrary to everything known about the two substances -- that we should look at our experience with alcohol if we want to get a sense of the potential social and health care costs associated with more widespread marijuana use. Moreover, given that the two substances are so popular in our society, you simply cannot discuss the prohibition of marijuana without considering its impact on alcohol usage rates.

You hold a great deal of power in your hands. You can help determine whether we continue to steer adults toward using alcohol -- which you know produces serious societal harms -- or whether we instead allow them to make the rational choice to use a safer substance: marijuana.

Come on. Show us that it is possible to be the drug czar and be thoughtful, open-minded, and accepting of scientific evidence at the same time. Or, at the very least, why don't you find some actual statistics to back up your bluster?

In an historic hearing Wednesday, the California legislature examined the pros and cons of marijuana legalization.

MEDIA ADVISORY   
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

MPP of Nevada to Offer $10,000 Challenge:
Marijuana is Safer Than Alcohol -- Prove Us Wrong and We'll Pay $10,000

Press Conference Sept. 23 to Reveal Details

PHOTO-OP: Large Mock Check For $10,000

CONTACT: Dave Schwartz,  MPP-NV Manager...................................................702-727-1081

LAS VEGAS -- At a Las Vegas news conference Sept. 23, the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada will announce details of a $10,000 challenge to the people of Nevada. MPP-NV will pay $10,000 to anyone who can disprove three statements of fact that demonstrate that marijuana is objectively and unquestionably safer than alcohol.

     MPP-NV manager Dave Schwartz will unveil a large mock check for $10,000 as he announces specifics of the challenge, which kicks off a long-term public education campaign regarding the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol, and the harm caused by marijuana prohibition.

     WHAT: News conference to announce the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada's $10,000 challenge

     WHO: MPP-NV manager Dave Schwartz

     WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 11:00 a.m.

     WHERE:  Near the emergency room entrance of University Medical Center Hospital (behind the hospital), corner of Goldring Avenue and Rose Street, Las Vegas.

     MPP of Nevada is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Nevadans about the true nature of marijuana and about the harms caused by marijuana prohibition in the state. For more information about MPP of Nevada, please visit http://www.mppnv.org.

####

In the past few years, Colorado-based activist Mason Tvert has taken the notion of comparing marijuana to alcohol and used it to great success, first in organizing college students around equalizin

SAFER is hosting a party to celebrate the launch of Marijuana Is Safer. The event will include appetizers and an auction, and all proceeds from book sales will benefit SAFER.

The highly acclaimed book co-authored by SAFER's Mason Tvert, Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, is now available.

Mason Tvert is the cofounder and executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and the SAFER Voter Education Fund.

Three of the nation's most successful marijuana policy reform organizations will come together at the Oaksterdam University Student Union in Oakland to premier the highly acclaimed new book, Marijuana

Acting on a petition from the public interest group Public Citizen, a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel last Friday voted narrowly to recommend that a widely used opioid pain medi

Here’s drug czar John Walters shamelessly using a young woman’s death as an opportunity to plug student drug testing:

Heroin killed 19-year-old Alicia Lannes, and her parents say she got the drug from a boyfriend.  Experts say that's how most young kids get introduced to drugs: by friends or relatives.
…
While teen drug use is declining, Walters says a Fairfax County heroin ring busted in connection with Lannes' death proves it's still a problem.  He supports a federal program used in more than 4,000 schools to randomly drug test students.

"There's no question in my mind had this young woman been in a school, middle school or high school with random testing," said Walters, "She would not be dead today." [FOX DC]

Walters sounds supremely confident, as usual, yet the reality is that random drug testing is often impotent when it comes to discovering heroin use. Student drug testing programs typically rely on urine tests, which can only detect heroin for 3-4 days after use. Only marijuana -- which stays in your system for up to a month – can be effectively detected this way. Thus, random testing actually incentivizes students to experiment with more dangerous drugs like heroin that increase your chances of passing a drug test.

And thanks to the complete failure of the drug war, heroin is stronger today than ever before:

The drug enforcement agency says the purity of heroin found in Virginia is typically higher than usual—making it more deadly.

"They tend not to know how to gauge the strength and they usually take more than they need to," said Patrick McConnel, who oversees Treatment for Youth Services Administration Alcohol and Drug Services.

There are no easy answers here, to be sure, and I don’t claim any monopoly on the solutions to youth drug abuse. But I guarantee you that the problem isn’t our failure to collect more urine from young people. As long as the most dangerous substances continue to be manufactured, distributed, and controlled by criminals, the face of our drug problem will remain the same.

Responding to recent data suggesting that young Queenslanders are switching to ecstasy in the wake of a steep increase in the state government's tax on popular "alcopops," a leading drug researcher

New England Patriots running back Kevin Faulk was suspended for one week and fined two weekly paychecks, or about $300,00

By the narrowest of margins, the Aloha State's Big Island Hawaii County Council has rejected a state and federally funded marijuana eradication program known as "Green Harvest." The action came dur

Oddly, the Drug Czar has created a new webpage that offers great tips for any teen looking to catch a buzz. The page claims to be a warning guide for parents, but the potentially deadly secrets contained within it are available for anyone to see. I was able to access all of the site's content without even being asked to verify that I'm over 18.

I've learned to steal drugs from the elderly because they don't monitor their pill count or throw away leftovers because they're super old and confused. Also, there's like a billion websites that don't even check prescriptions and will send me anything. I'm gonna go cure my boreditis now. Thanks, Office of National Drug Control Policy!

You can urine test them. You can take away their financial aid for college. But you can't stop the kids from getting high. Some people will try anything, and I don't think arresting them is going to help:

Information Bulletin
New Drug – JENKEM

On 09/19/07 Cpl. Disarro received and email from a concerned parent regarding a new drug called “Jenkem”. The parent advised their child learned about this drug through various conversations with several students at Palmetto Ridge High.

Jenkem originated in Africa and other third world countries by fermenting raw sewage to create a gas which is inhaled to achieve a high. Jenkem is now a popular drug in American Schools. Jenkem is a homemade substance which consists of fecal matter and urine. The fecal matter and urine are placed in a bottle or jar and covered most commonly with a balloon. The container is then placed in a sunny area for several hours or days until fermented. The contents of the container will separate and release a gas, which is captured in the balloon. Inhaling the gas is said to have a euphoric high similar to ingesting cocaine but with strong hallucinations of times past. [Snopes]

This doesn't sound like a good idea. But what shall we do about it? You can't pop people for poop possession, or piss-test people for piss sniffing. Should we launch a massive public education campaign warning kids that fermenting their excrement and breathing in the resulting fumes will get them wasted? That could backfire.

So I don't know what the solution is. For starters, we should wait to see if this is a real problem or just another hysterical response to a couple gross, though isolated, incidents. If there really is a rising trend of Florida youths sniffing fermented feces, maybe it's just an overreaction to the Miami DEA Chief's recent claim that marijuana will kill you.