Drug War Chronicle #641 - July 23, 2010

The city of Oakland is about to take medical marijuana production to a new level. It just passed an ordinance that will allow for four city-permitted industrial-scale cultivation operations. Small- and medium-scale growers have not been included in the scheme yet, and while council members have said they will address that, the community is concerned and speaking out about it.

A comic turned activist and a madam turned convict are throwing a splash of color into an otherwise lackluster New York state campaign season. And they're doing it with a consistent anti-prohibitionist message.

In the late 1960s, a small group of California surf bums and teenage working-class troublemakers took LSD, found God, and set out to turn on the world. Nicholas Schou's "Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World," from St. Martin's Press, is their story.

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California cities and counties are laying off firefighters and police officers as they face a seemingly never-ending budget crisis. A new report from the state Legislative Analyst's Office says they could gain "hundreds of millions of dollars a year" if Proposition 19 passes. Hmmmm...

A new poll finds majority support for pot legalization and a strong majority who believe the drug war has failed, but a lot of people who blame Mexico for America's drug problem.

More bad apples in the Big Apple, a major drug corruption scandal brews in Tulsa, the city of Oakland pays big for bad cops, a Georgia deputy cops a plea, and a South Carolina state trooper goes down.

Last Friday, the Juarez Cartel unveiled a frightening tactical innovation: the car bomb. Meanwhile, the killing goes on...

The same folks who brought us the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act now want to add dispensaries to the mix, and their initiative has qualified for the November ballot.

Hawaii-based Roger Christie and his THC Ministry have been proselytizing for pot for years. Now, the feds have indicted him, and they've managed to persuade a federal judge that he's "too dangerous" to be allowed out on bail. Welcome back to Bizarro World.

Drug reformers have been grumbling about the Obama administration's decision to nominate acting DEA head Michele Leonhart to be permanent DEA administrator since it was announced. Now, a drug reform coalition is calling on Obama to withdraw her nomination, citing recent DEA raids on medical marijuana providers. But there's more than that.

Even though the European Union demands a free market and the free movement of people within its borders, the EU's Court of Justice has ruled that a Dutch border town can bar foreigners from buying pot there.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

"Jane Hamsher Talks Marijuana Legalization on MSNBC," "Diane Feinstein Wants to Continue Arresting Marijuana Users, and Other News," "How to Get Arrested for Marijuana in One Easy Step," "The New Politics of Marijuana Reform," "DARE Attacks Marijuana Legalization While Praising Alcohol."

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