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Chronicle
Weekly: This Week in History
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
Chronicle
Europe: Nice People Take Drugs, Says British Advocacy Group
A British drug reform advocacy group is bound to shock some sensibilities with its new bus-side ad campaign, but that's precisely the point.
Chronicle
Canada: New Heroin Maintenance Pilot Program to Get Underway Later This Year
Canada's Conservative government is hard-line on drug policy issues. It wants mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes and it is in court to try to block Vancouver's safe injection site. But now, it is funding a heroin maintenance pilot project--again.
Chronicle
Medical Marijuana: Rhode Island Dispensary Bill Passes House, Now Goes for Final Senate Approval
The Rhode Island legislature is well on its way to passing the medical marijuana dispensary bill by overwhelming veto-proof margins. Take that, Gov. Carcieri!
Chronicle
Drug Testing: Random Suspicionless Drug Tests Suffer Double Smackdown in Louisiana
Louisiana proponents of random, suspicionless drug testing are smarting after being handed a pair of defeats in the past 10 days.
Chronicle
Canada: Supreme Court Clarifies Asset Forfeiture Law, Allows Graduated Sanctions
In its first review of Canada's asset forfeiture laws, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that judges must look at the circumstances of each case in deciding whether full, partial or no forfeiture orders should be issued. In the US, prosecutors make forfeiture decisions.
Chronicle
Europe: German Parliament Approves Heroin Maintenance
Germany is about to become the latest country to move heroin maintenance from pilot program to permanent. In the US, we maintain our addicts behind bars.
Chronicle
Medical Marijuana: Veterans Administration Says Positive Marijuana Drug Screening Will Not Void Pain Contracts for Vets with Doctors' Recommendations
Is the Veterans Administration changing its tune on medical marijuana? Well, not exactly, but now it looks like at least they won't throw you out of their pain management programs if you're a registered user in a state where it's legal.
Chronicle
Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
Cops pocketing drug money, cops ripping off drug dealers, cops protecting drug dealers, cops stealing dope, and, of course, another dope-smuggling jail guard.
Chronicle
Job Opportunity: Legal Coordinator, Americans for Safe Access, Oakland, CA
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research, is seeking a Legal Coordinator to work from its office in Oakland, California.
Chronicle
Feature: New York Republicans, Prosecutors in Last Minute Bid to Block Rockefeller Reform Provision
New York Republicans and prosecutors lost the battle over Rockefeller drug law reform in April. They were back this week with a last-ditch effort to repeal one of the new law's key provisions. But with the governor and Democrats in the Assembly standing firm, it looks like it ain't gonna happen.
Chronicle
Feature: DC Moves Toward Stricter Penalties for Khat
Taxi drivers' wake-me-up or terrorist drug threat? The herbal stimulant khat is popular with elements of America's immigrant East African population despite being banned by federal law. Now, Washington, DC, home to one of the nation's East African immigrant communities, wants its law to be as severe as federal law. A battle is brewing.
Chronicle
Medical Marijuana: Mid-Atlantic Movement as Delaware, New Jersey Bills Win Committee Votes
Medical marijuana legislation saw progress in two more states this week, as bills advanced in New Jersey and Delaware. But the New Jersey bill just got more restrictive, too.
Chronicle
Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy
"Drug Smuggling Scientists Are Always Ahead of the Game," "If Pawlenty Wants to Be President, He Should Reconsider His Opposition to Medical Marijuana," "States Don't Need Federal Permission to Legalize Marijuana, Part II," "Top Anti-Drug Researcher Changes His Mind, Says Legalize Marijuana," "Rogue Philly Drug Cops Add Molestation to Their List of Crimes," "If There's No 'War on Drugs' Anymore, Then What's the Helicopter For?," "Yes, the Case Against Marc Emery is Political," "LAPD Raids Its Own Officer in Weird Botched Investigation," "Legalizing Drugs is an Idea That Speaks for Itself," "Orange County Seniors Demand Medical Marijuana Access."
Chronicle
Please: Don't Shoot!
The killing of Tarika Wilson, an unarmed mother holding her child, and the maiming of that child, is an inevitable consequences of the overuse of SWAT teams and the growing paramilitarization of the drug war.
Blog
Does America Have the Stomach for Legalization?
Earlier this week, NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof used his Facebook page to start a lively conversation about legalizing drugs. This comment in particular caught my eye:
It's an interesting point and I would respond by asking whether America has the stomach (or the cash) to continue the war on drugs for another 10 or 20 years. The drug war has been falling out of favor with Americans for a long time now, but it seems the floodgates have burst open in recent months. It's gone from being an issue no one wanted to talk about to suddenly gracing the op-ed pages of major papers as a matter of routine. The fact that NYT's Nicholas Kristof wants in on the conversation is a perfect example of the issue's cascading momentum.
It's only a matter of time before the next Michael Phelps-level marijuana media frenzy explodes in everyone's face again and each time it happens, the calls for legalization reverberate louder than before. It's certainly true that "deeply entrenched interests, opinions, attitudes and beliefs" continue to shape the debate, but that's always the obstacle to any seismic shift in our political culture.
It can't happen overnight, but the surging drug policy dialogue that's emerged in recent months is a necessary and promising first step on the path towards long-term reform. For the first time since the drug war began, we're witnessing the White House score political points by toning down the tough talk and pandering to the public's widespread drug war fatigue. The new administration is not about to disarm their great drug war army, but they've established the premise that our current political climate no longer favors the war rhetoric and saber-rattling that have traditionally been considered obligatory by politicians and the press. It's a subtle, yet significant milestone.
In the end, there will always be paranoid parents, unscrupulous prison-industry profiteers and misguided moral crusaders doing their part to derail the discussion. But we've gotten this far in spite of them and we'll continue to press on. Remember, we don't have to "uproot or steamroll" our opposition, we just have to beat them by one vote.
"I favor legalization/decriminalization in theory, but I wonder how a policy shift of such magnitude would play out in the real world, or if it's even possible," wrote Stephen Wittek. "A lot of deeply entrenched interests, opinions, attitudes and beliefs would have to uprooted or steamrolled, and a lot of people would scream bloody apocalypse. Regardless of whether or not it 'makes sense,' the question at the heart of issue is 'Does America have the stomach for legalization?' And I'm pretty sure the answer is 'no.'" [Huffington Post]
It's an interesting point and I would respond by asking whether America has the stomach (or the cash) to continue the war on drugs for another 10 or 20 years. The drug war has been falling out of favor with Americans for a long time now, but it seems the floodgates have burst open in recent months. It's gone from being an issue no one wanted to talk about to suddenly gracing the op-ed pages of major papers as a matter of routine. The fact that NYT's Nicholas Kristof wants in on the conversation is a perfect example of the issue's cascading momentum.
It's only a matter of time before the next Michael Phelps-level marijuana media frenzy explodes in everyone's face again and each time it happens, the calls for legalization reverberate louder than before. It's certainly true that "deeply entrenched interests, opinions, attitudes and beliefs" continue to shape the debate, but that's always the obstacle to any seismic shift in our political culture.
It can't happen overnight, but the surging drug policy dialogue that's emerged in recent months is a necessary and promising first step on the path towards long-term reform. For the first time since the drug war began, we're witnessing the White House score political points by toning down the tough talk and pandering to the public's widespread drug war fatigue. The new administration is not about to disarm their great drug war army, but they've established the premise that our current political climate no longer favors the war rhetoric and saber-rattling that have traditionally been considered obligatory by politicians and the press. It's a subtle, yet significant milestone.
In the end, there will always be paranoid parents, unscrupulous prison-industry profiteers and misguided moral crusaders doing their part to derail the discussion. But we've gotten this far in spite of them and we'll continue to press on. Remember, we don't have to "uproot or steamroll" our opposition, we just have to beat them by one vote.
Blog
Does Smoked Marijuana Have Medical Value?
Yes, lots. Caren Woodson at Americans For Safe Access takes a look at the research.