Skip to main content

Latest

Chronicle

Feature: El Paso City Council Passes Resolution Criticizing Drug War, But Only After Killing Marijuana Regulation Language

In 1913, the El Paso city council became the first in the country to outlaw marijuana. Now, faced with the horrendous prohibition-related violence across the river in Ciudad Juarez, it has passed a resolution condemning current drug policies, but only after dropping language calling for marijuana regulation. It's got three years left until the century mark to get it completely right.
Chronicle
Chronicle
Chronicle
Blog

Synthetic "Legal" Marijuana is Becoming Popular, So They're Trying to Ban it

One of the most interesting and least-discussed issues in drug policy over the past year is the emergence of synthetic marijuana products, sold under names such Spice and K2, which are being sold openly in head shops around the country. There's one important difference between this and the fake pot that's been advertised in High Times for many years…it actually gets you high.

The manufacturers behind this trend are reluctant to explain what's in their product, but the consensus seems to be that they've synthesized a unique combination of cannabinoids that aren't technically marijuana, but sure as hell do the trick. I'm not a scientist, but I've tried the stuff and it's legit. The effects, coupled with the fact that it's sold in stores and doesn’t come up on any drug tests is enough to get a lot of people pretty excited about it.

I'm a little confused about the legality of all this, given the breadth of federal legislation dealing with synthetic drugs. Nevertheless, legislators in Kansas and Missouri are trying to ban it, which gives the impression that it's legal for now:

Missouri state Rep. Ward Franz, R-West Plains sponsored a bill that would add K2 to Missouri’s list of illegal drugs. That bill was heard before the House Public Safety committee Tuesday.
…
"We don’t know much about this, but it’s going to end up killing somebody," Franz said.

Or maybe it will cure cancer. Jut because it's a drug and people like it doesn’t mean anyone has to die. In a sane society, the invention of a substance that enhances enjoyment would be considered cause for celebration, not a massive public health scare.

Decades into our failed and vastly counterproductive effort to eradicate marijuana, we have an opportunity not to ban something similar without first studying it to see if it's actually dangerous. If synthetic marijuana products are prohibited without any effort to understand them, it will prove that the anti-drug zealots care more about imposing sobriety than protecting health.

As advocates for sensible drug policy, we should defend the legality of new drugs as vigorously as we oppose prohibition of the old ones.
Latest News
Latest News
Latest News
Blog

Europe: Anthrax Heroin Toll Rises as England Marks First Death

English authorities announced Wednesday that a Blackpool heroin user died of anthrax, making him the first fatality in England from what is apparently a batch of heroin contaminated with anthrax. The bad dope has been blamed for nine deaths in Scotland and one in Germany since the outbreak began in December. The anthrax fatality announcement from the National Health Service (NHS) in Blackpool came just five days after the Health Protection Agency issued a statement warning that a female heroin user in London had been hospitalized with anthrax. The spate of anthrax cases among heroin users is baffling police and health experts, who have yet to actually come up with any heroin samples containing anthrax spores. There is speculation that the heroin could have been contaminated at its likely source in Afghanistan, perhaps from contaminated soils or animal skins, or that it was present in a cutting agent added there or at some other point on its transcontinental trek to northern Europe. The cases in Germany and England have no known link to those in Scotland, leading to fears that tainted dope could be widespread. On the other hand, the numbers infected remain relatively small. Although harm reductionists and drug user advocates have called for measures including public information campaigns among users, swift access to drug treatment, and making prescription heroin more widely available, British health officials continue to do little more than tell users to quit. Dr. Arif Rajpura, director of public health at NHS Blackpool, was singing from the same official hymnal this week. He repeated warnings for users to stop using and advised them to be on the lookout for symptoms of anthrax, including rashes, swelling, severe headaches, and high fevers. "Heroin users are strongly advised to cease taking heroin by any route, if at all possible, and to seek help from their local drug treatment services. This is a very serious infection for drug users and prompt treatment is crucial," he said.
Latest News
Latest News
Latest News
Blog

What's more important again?

I live in the "almost as backwards as Mississippi" state of Alabama and in November of 2009 a North Alabama judge put the drug war in perspective for me.
Blog

Various Interesting Links

The El Paso City Council is back with another drug policy reform resolution. LEAP has the details.

CBS won't let NORML buy a ridiculously huge ad in Times Square because it's too political, even though CBS ran a super-controversial anti-abortion spot during the Super Bowl.

Michael Savage hates marijuana. I don't even know where to begin with this. Listen at your own risk.

Pete Guither just ruined your spring break plans. Well, actually it's the drug war's fault.
Blog

What's the Point of Asking Obama to Legalize Marijuana? I'll Explain.

In comments, Giordano questions the value of constantly confronting the President about marijuana legalization:

In the end, it makes no sense at all to ask Obama for anything more than what he’s already done for medical marijuana.  His candor on the subject of cannabis will probably wait for the day he’s no longer president, just as Bill Clinton waited before scoffing at U.S. marijuana penalties.

All of this is certainly worth explaining to anyone who genuinely expects the President to abolish marijuana prohibition. Yes, it's helpful to understand that he's not going to do that, neither next week nor on his last day in office. But I don’t think any willingness on the President's part to publicly support legalization is necessary to justify the strategic efficacy of hounding him about it at almost every opportunity.

I think we score points simply by making ourselves visible. Our early success at saturating the President's web forums was followed by an unprecedented surge in favorable media coverage. By the time the Michael Phelps saga erupted, we'd already established marijuana reform as one of the leading political issues on the internet. Web trends are measured in dollar signs like never before and we're now witnessing the rewards of our proven ability to generate clicks.

Obama's new medical marijuana policy followed on the heels of an epic escalation in positive marijuana reporting from the mainstream press. The White House's decision to leak the story to the AP on a Sunday night was a powerful exhibit in their newfound faith that you could actually score political points by placating people like us. It's hardly the end of marijuana prohibition, but it shows that we're doing something right.
Blog

Canada: Federal Government to Appeal Ruling Okaying Vancouver Safe Injection Site

The Conservative federal government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper will ask the Canadian Supreme Court to overturn a provincial court ruling that okayed Vancouver's InSite safe injection site. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government will appeal because the case raised important questions about the division of powers among the federal and provincial governments, the CBC reported Tuesday. InSite in the only supervised drug injection site in North America. It has been in place since 2003, when British Columbia health authorities won a temporary exemption from Canada's federal drug law. While the then Liberal government approved, the now governing Conservatives do not. InSite originally won a three-year exemption from the federal drug law. Under tremendous pressure, the Conservatives grudgingly gave InSite a 15-month extension, then extended it to 22 months ending in June 2008. But fearing the Conservatives' intentions, InSite operator the Portland Hotel Society, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), and two InSite clients filed a lawsuit in the BC courts seeking to have the provincial government, which under Canadian law is responsible for health care, declared the sole authority over InSite—not the federal government and the federal drug laws. InSite and its supporters won in the BC Supreme Court in 2008 and won again last month in the province's highest court, the Court of Appeals. It is those decisions, which puts decisions on whether to keep InSite open firmly in the hands of BC health officials, that the federal government now seeks to overturn. In his remarks Tuesday, Justice Minister Nicholson said nothing about shutting down InSite, instead saying the appeal was about clarifying provincial versus federal powers. "The case we'll be presenting before the court is to ask for clarification," he said. "I think it is important to do that." But Portland Hotel Society director Mark Townsend was running out of patience with the Conservatives. "The courts have now ruled twice in favor of InSite," he said in a statement Tuesday. "Last time, they thought the feds were so out of line they made them pay all the costs. We wish Stephen Harper would stop wasting court time and the taxpayers' money and start helping to solve the drug problem in our community."
In The Trenches

Pres. Obama’s Proposed 2011 Budget Bolsters War on Drugs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                               February 9, 2010

Pres. Obama’s Proposed 2011 Budget Bolsters War on Drugs

Obama administration to expand drug war by tilting funds heavily toward law enforcement and away from treatment

CONTACT: Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations …… 202-905-2009 or [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to 2011 funding “highlights” released this week by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Obama administration is expanding the war on drugs and focusing its funds toward law enforcement over treatment. The budget puts America’s drug war spending at $15.5 billion for fiscal year 2011; an increase of 3.5 percent over 2010 and an increase of 5.2 percent in overall enforcement funding ($9.7 billion in FY 2010 to $9.9 billion in FY 2011). Addiction treatment and preventative measures are budgeted to increase from $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion.

         Furthermore, President Obama chose to continue funding the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which is run by the drug czar’s office and has for years emptied its coffers on absurd anti-marijuana ads that veer far from the truth. One such ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9B-h_bU-uI) released in 2006 insinuates that marijuana use can lead to rape, a particularly dishonest claim considering that alcohol, a legal drug, is a factor in a huge majority of sexual assaults.

         “This budget reflects the same Bush-era priorities that led to the total failure of American drug policy during the last decade,” said Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations. “One of the worst examples is $66 million requested for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign when every independent study has called it a failure. The president is throwing good money after bad when what we really need is a new direction.”

         With more than 29,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit mpp.org

####

Latest News
Latest News
Latest News