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Montel Williams Cited for His Medical Marijuana Pipe

Williams was caught by TSA with his medical marijuana pipe while going through a security checkpoint. He paid the citation of $484 and was released to resume his travel plans. Williams suffers from multiple sclerosis and is a prominent advocate for legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Latest News

White Privilege and Illicit Drugs

Algernon Austin, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, explores white privilege in conjunction with the war on drugs against the backdrop of the book Dorm Room Dealers: Drugs and the Privileges of Race and Class by A. Rafik Mohamed and Erik D. Fritsvold.
Chronicle
Taliban fighters, Afghanistan (image via Wikimedia)
Taliban fighters, Afghanistan (image via Wikimedia)

Mexico 2010 Death Toll Higher Than Afghanistan

The bloody insurgency in Afghanistan claimed more than 10,000 lives last year, but the death toll still trailed that of Mexico's prohibition-related violence.
Chronicle
Latest News

Missoula Jury Pool Creates Uproar Across Nation After Marijuana 'Mutiny'

A jury pool's action — and the reaction to it — has serious ramifications for continued prosecution of low-level nonviolent drug crimes, not just in Missoula County but around the country. The story "hit a nerve" around the country, said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the national Drug Policy Alliance that advocates drug law reform. "It shows the emperor-has-no-clothes dimension to what happened. It's an expression of what many people feel — that marijuana possession should no longer be illegal," he said.
Latest News
Latest News

Mexico's Intensifying Drug Prohibition War Spills Into 2011 (Audio)

Mexico's drug prohibition war continues to claim victims at an astounding rate, and there are no signs that the violence will ease any time soon. In 2010 alone, the death toll from the violence was more than double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq during the past seven years. This NPR broadcast explores whether the situation might improve in 2011.
Latest News

Study Explores Therapeutic Value of Ecstasy

The recreational drug known as ecstasy may have a medicinal role to play in helping people who have trouble connecting to others socially, new research suggests. In a study involving a small group of healthy people, investigators found that ecstasy prompted heightened feelings of friendliness, playfulness and love, and induced a lowering of the guard that might have therapeutic uses for improving social interactions. The researchers suggested that ecstasy might help people with post-traumatic stress disorder as well those with autism, schizophrenia or antisocial personality disorder cope with a variety of emotional difficulties.
Latest News

Abandoned Horses Are Latest Toll of Drug Prohibition

Found tottering alone in the desert with their ribs visible and their heads hung low, horses play a backbreaking, unappreciated role in the multibillion-dollar drug smuggling industry created by drug prohibition. Mexican traffickers strap heavy bales of marijuana or other illegal drugs to the horses’ backs and march them north through mountain passes and across rough desert terrain. With little food and water, some collapse under their heavy loads. Others are turned loose when the contraband gets far enough into Arizona to be loaded into vehicles with more horsepower.
Latest News

Felons Who Want Medical Marijuana Put State in Awkward Position

Out of 320 requests from felons on supervision in Washington, seven people have gotten permission to use medical marijuana — a select group that includes a forger wasting away from AIDS and a white-haired grandmother named Kathy Parkins with fibromyalgia. A frustrated group of advocates, attorneys, physicians and patients says the state's Department of Corrections is ignoring the state medical marijuana law by substituting its judgment for that of doctors who recommend the drug. The policy, they say, is ripe for a legal challenge, although none has been filed.
In The Trenches

I Will Double Your Gift to DPA

We Are the Drug Policy Alliance.

We're making great progress!  Have your gift matched to help us reach our goal of $100,000!

Donate 

Donate Now!

Dear friends,

A major donor to DPA believes in this cause so much that she will match your year-end donation right now. She asked me to forward you this note. Please donate today.

— Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance

Dear Friend,

I give to DPA every year, and I know that they are accomplishing a lot with my donation. Let's come together to help them out. Give today.

I will match your tax-deductible donation to the Drug Policy Alliance if you give right now through the end of the year. And I’ll keep matching gifts like yours until we reach $100,000.

Why? For me, the choice is easy. DPA is a smart, tough, effective organization, and with my support—along with yours and thousands of others who want to end the war on drugs—DPA can get us there.

That's why I'm challenging you today—by offering to double your gift—to be as generous as possible.

Sincerely,

A fellow reformer

P.S. I know that these kinds of decisions are tough. Rest assured that your contributions to the Drug Policy Alliance are making a big difference. Please donate today.

Event

California NORML Conference -- Marijuana Reform: Next Steps for California

Please join us at the "Marijuana Reform: Next Steps for California" conference.

Directions and Transit information

Pre-registration is $30 per person (includes lunch).

You may pay by following this link: http://www.canorml.org/conferencereg.html

Or you may download a registration form and send it in with a check to:

CaNORML
2261 Market St. #278A
San Francisco, CA 94114

If you have questions or special dietary restrictions, please write: [email protected]

Sponsored by:

 

See sponsorship information.

In The Trenches

SAFER: Time to Double Down

SAFERchoice.orgSAFER's BlogDonate to SAFERHelp the Cause

2010 was huge.  2011 will be even bigger...

Thanks to your support SAFER was able to accomplish quite a bit this past year.  Here are just a few of the highlights:

• We started the Women's Marijuana Movement, whose launch and educational activities -- as well as its actions to support California's Prop. 19 -- put women front and center in the public debate surrounding marijuana.

• We expanded the SAFER Campuses Initiative, helping students carry out actions on 80+ college campuses and work to bring about actual policy changes at schools where students have adopted SAFER referendums.

• We continued to build momentum and support for marijuana reform in Colorado, setting the stage for an unprecedented campaign to legalize marijuana statewide in 2012.

With your help we can do even more in the new year.  A generous supporter has offered to match any donations we receive this week, so if you can help SAFER with a tax-deductible end-of-year donation, whatever you give will be DOUBLED!  Just click the button below or visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate and lend us twice the support heading into 2011.

The coming year promises to be our busiest and most important since we got started in 2005.  And with your continued support we can ramp up all of the above projects and have a huge impact on the direction and success of the marijuana reform movement.

Whether it's a one-time donation or a monthly pledge, your contribution will lend tremendously to our work in 2011. Just click on the button above or visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate to make a contribution and have it doubled today.  And if you give $25 or more we will send you your choice of SAFER T-shirt or a copy of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?

Thank you again for being a part of the SAFER movement and making our work possible.  And from all of us at SAFER, we wish you a safe and happy new year.

In The Trenches

Invest in the Future of Drug Policy Reform

Happy New Year from Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Happy New Year Friends!

This was an amazing year for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

We helped bring the issue of marijuana legalization into the national spotlight by launching the Just Say Now campaign, a project with our friends at Firedoglake, that provided important tools like a free online phone banking system for activists around the country to call voters in four states with marijuana reforms on the ballot.


Act now!Make a tax-deductible donation to help SSDP continue our important work.

Our chapter network continues to expand throughout the U.S. and with the addition of an international liaison, SSDP is now rapidly expanding outside of the states and into key places like Mexico City.  And for the first time, we hosted our international conference on the west coast and with over 500 people, it was our largest conference to date!  Now that 2010 is behind us, we're looking forward to 2011.

This is the last chance to give a tax-deductible gift in 2010, so please consider donating today.  Our goals in 2011 are ambitious, and we couldn't do what we do without the generous support of people like you.


Sincerely,

Aaron, Jon, Stacia, Patrick, Garret & Edward
National Staff

www.SchoolsNotPrisons.com

P.S. There's still one day left to get your early-bird discount when you register for our 2011 Training Conference & Lobby Day at the University of Maryland, March 17-19, 2011.  More details at conference.ssdp.org

 

Connect with SSDP

 

Latest News

Treating Mexico's Drug Prohibition War Patients Costs El Paso's County-Run Hospital $4.7 Million

Since the start of Mexico's drug prohibition war, 200 people wounded in Mexico have been treated at El Paso's county-run hospital at a cost of $4.7 million, according to the latest figures from the University Medical Center of El Paso. "Local taxpayers are footing the bill for the consequences of a conflict that is occurring on foreign soil," said Jim Valenti, UMC's chief executive officer, and Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa, founding dean of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.
Latest News

Federal Fake Marijuana Ban Challenged

A Duluth man is now part of the first lawsuit challenging a federal ban on several ingredients found in synthetic marijuana products. Jim Carlson owns Last Place on Earth in downtown Duluth. He was already challenging the city's ban on fake pot ingredients.
Latest News

Marijuana Activist Declares Bid to Lead B.C. NDP

Longtime marijuana activist Dana Larsen announced his bid for the leadership of the provincial party from the Vancouver office where he dispenses medical marijuana. The 39-year-old is the first candidate to publicly announce his intention to take over the party since Carole James resigned on Dec. 6. James has said she will remain at the helm until an interim leader is chosen in mid-January. Larson, the founding editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine from 1994 to 2004, says he has support from many members of the provincial NDP party, but admits he isn't in the "inner circle."
Latest News

Mexico Army No Match for Drug Trafficking Organizations

Four years and 50,000 troops into President Felipe Calderon's drug prohibition war, the fighting has exposed severe limitations in the Mexican army's ability to wage unconventional warfare, tarnished its proud reputation and left the U.S. pointedly criticizing the force as "virtually blind" on the ground. A series of secret diplomatic cables leaked recently revealed the United States' profound unease over Mexico's efforts, despite public assurances to the contrary, with stinging language criticizing the army as stymied by well-protected fugitive drug lords. U.S. diplomats and Mexican intelligence officials say the Mexican military and police distrust each other, refuse to share intelligence and resist operating together, squandering important potential gains.
Latest News

80-Year-Old Virginia Republican Lawmaker Leads State's Marijuana Decriminalization Fight

80-year-old Republican Delegate Harvey Morgan, also an assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University, is leading the charge to decriminalize marijuana possession. Legislation proposed by Morgan, known as House Bill 1443, would replace the criminal fine for possession with a civil penalty and eliminate the 30-day jail sentence and criminal record that would follow conviction. "In 2007, nearly 18,000 people were arrested in Virginia for simple possession of marijuana...This places a tremendous burden on law enforcement, prisons and the judicial system. In these times of economic hardship, we need to closely examine how our tax dollars are spent," Morgan said.
Chronicle
marching down Avenid Cinco de Mayo
marching down Avenid Cinco de Mayo

A Thousand March for Marijuana in Buenos Aires

Part of Argentina's boisterous cannabis nation took to the streets of Buenos Aires last Saturday to celebrate a year of activism and call for further reforms.