Drug War Chronicle #731 - April 26, 2012

Bills to drug test people seeking public benefits have been all the rage at the statehouse this year, but they're having a surprisingly hard time passing. We have some reasons why.

4/20 in Oakland was aimed squarely at the Obama administration and its attacks on medical marijuana distribution. Obama is alienating his base, protestors said, as they delivered a message to his local campaign headquarters.

The 2012 National Drug Control Strategy is out. It looks much like the 2010 strategy or the 2005 strategy or the 2000 strategy. There are a few new wrinkles, but nothing much has changed.

ProCon.org is a series of in-depth web sites presenting information and views from on current issues, several with relevance to drug policy. The Chronicle is running a series of info items from ProCon.org over the next several weeks -- this first one from medicalmarijuana.procon.org -- and we encourage you to check it out.

More DEA raids in California and Montana, and more action in the legislature in Connecticut and New Hampshire, among other medical marijuana news.

"Driving while black" continues to be an issue in Connecticut, and now, the state Senate has voted to beef up the state's 12-year-old racial profiling law, which police departments have been ignoring.

Saying that West Virginia employers can't find enough workers who aren't doped up, Gov. Tomblin has issued an executive order mandating drug tests for participants in the state's job training program. He already successfully championed drug testing for miners in the legislature.

Georgia has now followed Florida's lead in passing a bill requiring that welfare applicants undergo mandatory, suspicionless drug testing. Florida's law has been stymied by a legal challenge, and one is coming in Georgia, too.

The Dutch government plans to implement its Dutch-only "weed pass" system for cannabis coffee houses on the border on May 1, but it faces growing legal and political challenges. Not to mention, it just lost a vote of confidence.

Actor and comedian Russell Brand called for "love and compassion" for drug addicts at an appearance before a parliamentary committee in London Tuesday and suggested that decriminalization could be a good approach.

It's been a quiet week on the corrupt cop front, but we still have a pair of California cops who thought they were the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and an Oklahoma cop who couldn't keep his fingers out of the cookie jar---and some late-breaking news out of LA.

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