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Newsbrief:
Seattle
Initiative
to
De-prioritize
Marijuana
Enforcement
Makes
2003
Ballot
11/1/02
A local initiative that would
make the prosecution of marijuana cases involving possession of less than
40 grams the city's "lowest law enforcement priority," will go before Seattle
voters next September. The City Council voted Monday to let voters
decide whether to approve the measure, known as I-75, after the Sensible
Seattle Coalition (http://www.sensibleseattle.org)
gathered enough signatures to bring the measure before the Council.
The Council could have simply
voted to make the measure law, but declined to do so. According to
the Seattle Times, some members doubted the measure was necessary given
that the city prosecuted only 173 misdemeanor marijuana cases last year.
But Sensible Seattle, including
many of the people who organize the city's annual Hempfest, and its political
allies, view the move as part of a broader anti-prohibition movement.
"I see this as one small step in the national debate about the need for
drug reform," Councilman Nick Licata told the Times.
Drug czar John Walters apparently
agrees. During an October 11 visit to a convention of recovering
addicts and alcoholics in nearby Bellingham, Walters took time out to attack
I-75 and statewide initiatives in Arizona and Nevada as undermining the
Bush administration's effort to fight drug abuse. "We can't face
the drug problem without dealing with marijuana," Walters told the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer. "Americans must begin to confront drug use --
and therefore drug users -- honestly and directly."
-- END --
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Issue #261, 11/1/02
Editorial: The Space Between the Lines | Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Says Feds Can't Punish Doctors for Recommending Medical Marijuana | Learning the Hard Way in Ohio: The Trials and Tribulations of Issue One | DRCNet Book Review: "Addict in the Family," by Dr. Andrew Byrne | DRCNet Interview: Dr. Harry G. Levine | More Than 700,000 Marijuana Arrests Last Year -- Meanwhile, Violent Crime on Increase | November Coalition Roadshow Hits East Coast | DRCNet Survey/Book Giveaway Contest | Newsbrief: Rockefeller Kin Arrested in Rockefeller Law Protest | Newsbrief: Euro Parliamentarians Found Guilty, Scolded by Judge in Manchester Marijuana Civil Disobedience | Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cop Story | Newsbrief: UN Says Afghan Opium Crop Up Almost Twenty-Fold Over 2001, Trade Employs a Half-Million People | Newsbrief: Liberia Prepares to Join the Drug War | Newsbrief: Chattanooga Jail Full, Faith-Based Alternative Sentencing Offered to Drug Offenders | Newsbrief: Mississippi Supreme Court Bars Telephonic Warrants, but Says It Was Okay Just This Once | Newsbrief: Seattle Initiative to De-prioritize Marijuana Enforcement Makes 2003 Ballot | Media Scan: William F. Buckley in National Review, 2002 Voter Guides and Election Resources | Calling on Students to Raise Your Voices for Repeal of the HEA Drug Provision | Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision | The Reformer's Calendar
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