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In The Trenches

LEAP on the Hill: Stories from the week of May 15, 2009

You guys have cool little badges: I made a short road trip up to Harrisburg, PA to appear on a TV program. The prohibition crowd was represented by a 35 year police veteran. During the 20 minute debate he caught me a bit off guard, when he said, ‘we need a lot of regulations for these drugs.’ I heartily agreed & said as a starting point for those regulations, we should look at alcohol minus advertising. After the show he admitted that his position was really not that far from mine. He then pointed to my LEAP lapel badge and asked how to get one. I reached in my pocket and gave him one. He smiled broadly and we parted company. While no one was looking: The non-story of the week was made by our new Drug Czar Kerlikowski who declared that the term ‘War on Drugs’ would no longer be used. The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment's role growing relative to incarceration, Mr. Kerlikowske said. Thus, while the Inside the Beltway crowd was occupied with Pelosi and the CIA story, after 38 years the term War on Drugs ended. The Sunday talk shows never mentioned the ending of the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral domestic policy since slavery & Jim Crow. And that is fine. Medium step, IMO.
In The Trenches

Riding the Information Superhighway into the Oval Office

Riding the Information Superhighway into the Oval Office

This winter, President Obama and his staff encouraged the public to contact the White House with their ideas and to vote on those ideas at their website, www.whitehouse.gov.

With help from the thousands of organizations and individuals that are supported by DrugSense, the top suggestions were about how cannabis legalization could help the economy, create jobs, address global warming, and meet the health care crisis.

DrugSense - the Internet home of the drug policy reform movement - had long been ready for the inevitable democratic approach to governing that has been pressing on Washington since the last election in 2004.

Almost one hundred thousand people, using the viral tools for advocacy and communication pioneered by DrugSense, practically took over the Oval Office and overwhelmed the usually cool Barack Obama.

The flustered President, when asked if legalizing cannabis could boost the economy, could only sputter "no, I don't think that is a good strategy . [laughter] . to grow our economy."

If you were as thrilled as I was that our issues were the top issues on the agenda set by the public, then please make a donation to DrugSense now. The national conversation about drug policy is changing, and DrugSense is the platform that most of the reform community uses for communication and advocacy.

If you were as outraged as I was that Barack Obama made a joke about the dynamic online engagement of drug policy reformers, then please make a donation to DrugSense now. Your contribution amplifies our voice throughout the nation, and enables activists to reach the news media and their political representatives quickly and effectively.

Help stop this war on our personal rights and freedoms.

Get involved. Write. Join. Donate.

Don E. Wirtshafter,
Chair of the Board, DrugSense

Don't forget! You can spread your donation over the course of a year by automatically repeating it every month, quarter, or half year. Please visit our donation page to find out how.

Checks can also be made payable to DrugSense and mailed to:

DrugSense
14252 Culver Dr #328
Irvine, CA 92604-0326

Or you can donate toll free by calling 1-800-266-5759.

Again, donating is quick, easy, and secure online at http://www.drugsense.org/donate/.

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In The Trenches

Rejection of Budget Measures Boosts Drive to Tax, Regulate Marijuana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
MAY 19, 2009

Rejection of Budget Measures Boosts Drive to Tax, Regulate Marijuana
56% Support Taxing Marijuana, According to Recent Field Poll 

CONTACT: Bruce Mirken, MPP director of communications ............... 415-585-6404 or 202-215-4205

SAN FRANCISCO -- Today's thumping rejection of a series of ballot measures aimed at easing California's hemorrhaging budget deficit adds new urgency to the drive to regulate California's largest cash crop, marijuana, advocates said tonight.

     "It's clear that voters didn't like the solutions put forth by the legislature on last night's ballot," said Aaron Smith, California policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project. "But a Field poll last month showed solid support for making marijuana a legal, regulated product and making producers and sellers pay taxes that they now avoid. For the legislature to leave marijuana untaxed even as our state faces catastrophic cuts to schools, transportation, public safety and other critical services borders on the criminal."

     A 2006 study by public policy researcher Jon Gettman found marijuana to be California's top cash crop, exceeding the value of the number two and three crops, vegetables and grapes, combined. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, two million Californians acknowledge having used marijuana in the past month. Estimates have suggested that California could save hundreds of millions in law enforcement costs and gain more than a billion in tax revenues if marijuana were taxed and regulated as proposed in legislation introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco).

     "Now that it seems we've hit the end of the road in the search for solving California's budget mess, we need to be looking outside the box," Smith added. "Replacing the failed policy of marijuana prohibition with a system of regulation and taxation would not only be sound public policy, but it also looks a lot more politically popular than anything else being offered up by Sacramento right now."

     With more than 27,000 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 http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.

####

In The Trenches

Help pass the best medical marijuana law in the country

Dear Friends:

Yesterday, MPP's campaign committee, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project (AMMPP), launched a signature drive to place a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot in Arizona.

The initiative would allow seriously ill patients who find relief from marijuana to use it with their doctors' approval, much like the laws in the other 13 medical marijuana states do. What's unique about the Arizona law is that it would permit qualifying patients or their caregivers to legally purchase marijuana from licensed dispensaries — so they wouldn't need to obtain it from the criminal market.

The importance of this can't be overstated. Although medical marijuana collectives exist in other states, state laws permitting them are a hodgepodge, leaving them largely unregulated and subject to legal challenges. In Arizona, our initiative would provide clear guidelines for state-regulated dispensaries, thus ensuring safe access for patients — meaning that Arizona would have the best medical marijuana law in the country.

But to get the initiative on the ballot, our campaign committee must collect 153,365 valid signatures from Arizona voters, which means about 250,000 gross signatures. We know from our past successful signature drives, like in Michigan, that it costs about $2 to collect every signature (because of the costs of paying canvassers, checking validity, and so forth), which means it will take $500,000 to fund this stage of the campaign.

Can you help?

As you can see at the bottom of this message, a major philanthropist is willing to match your donation dollar-for-dollar, so AMMPP only needs you and other MPP members to donate a total of $250,000. Arizona patients and I are grateful for anything you can do to help.

The chances of this initiative winning are strong. According to a February 2009 poll, 65% of Arizona voters support removing criminal penalties for the medical use of marijuana. And we've contracted with the best political consultants in the Arizona, who are building coalitions with organizations in the state … have hired an experienced campaign manager on the ground in Phoenix … and have already garnered the support of state opinion leaders.

Will you be part of this exciting campaign and help protect another state's medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail?  By donating to our campaign committee here, you can ensure the initiative wins.

Thank you,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.
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the meth myth

there's nothing being reported as gangland killings so I just thought I'd mention what I know about this new drug.I first came across crystal meth on what was called chemical row,which was 7th ave.Eas
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What's So Funny About Trying to Legalize Marijuana?

Slightly less annoying than those who refuse to even debate marijuana policies are those who vaguely support our position, but still mock and insult us for caring about this. A good recent example was Glenn Beck's hostile interview with MPP's Rob Kampia, in which he treated Rob with utter contempt only to then announce that he's a libertarian and he gets it. It was just weird.

William Teach at Stop The ACLU put on a similar performance yesterday that I've read twice now and still don’t quite understand. He begins by framing the marijuana debate as the dumbest thing on the planet:

It seems like every few years we have to have this debate about marijuana, and sometimes other drugs. But, in the era of hopeNchange, it is becoming louder and more open. We know that Attorney General Eric Holder has told the DEA to stop raiding “medical marijuana” dealers, er, shops. We know that El Presidente Barack H. Obama thinks pot is a joke, and that lots of folks who voted for him thought the issue of legalizing ganja was a like, ya know, really, wow, cool, man….look, a quarter!

Then, once his condescension is fully indulged, he switches gears and says this:

I will say, I really do not think marijuana is that bad of a drug, there are certainly a lot worse, particularly alcohol, which is much more addictive, mentally and physically, than pot, and much more damaging to the body than pot. Personally, I couldn’t care less if it is legalized and taxed, I’ve done it, do not care for the affects. If someone wants to get high and it doesn’t affect anyone else, hey, we want government out of our private business, right?


Precisely. This is all perfectly simple and logical, so what was it that compelled Teach to begin with a barbed caricature of people who essentially feel exactly as he does? We keep seeing this kind of thing lately and I'm still trying to understand it.

The answer may be that we've reached a strange moment where the strength of our argument has outpaced the resolution of the cultural and political associations people attach to marijuana use. In other words, conservatives like Glenn Beck and the folks at Stop The ACLU might simultaneously agree that the war on marijuana is stupid, while also maintaining some animosity towards the stereotypical liberal hippie types that they generally identify the issue with.

If that's all this is about, that's fine, but I wonder if anyone would be surprised to learn that the founder of StoptheDrugWar.org, Dave Borden, has never gotten high once in his life. Or that one of the fastest growing constituencies in drug policy reform right now is former police officers who've gotten involved after becoming disgusted by the injustice and corruption they witnessed on a daily basis in the war on drugs.

To a tremendous extent, the movement to fix our drug laws is not even driven by a desire among its adherents to take drugs without legal consequence. It's about people like Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, whose dogs were shot dead in a botched police raid over some marijuana that he had nothing to do with. It's about cops choking innocent suspects, or selling drugs themselves, or framing innocent people to cover their incompetence. It's about horrible crazy fiascos you'd never even think about.

Since the effects of the drug war are never confined to those who choose to be involved, there's no easy way to stereotype people who want to change our laws. There are matters of life, liberty, and death at stake here that reach far beyond whether or not Joe Stoner can legally do as he pleases. That's why it's so hard for me to understand why people who ostensibly agree with our case nonetheless endeavor to turn this into something silly or frivolous.

Perhaps I shall email the folks at Stop The ACLU to request some further insight.

Update: I've heard back from both Jay Stephenson and William Teach at Stop The ACLU in regards to the post. Their take is that the tone of Teach's piece is intended to be humorous, while also taking a dig at naïve Obama supporters. Basically what I thought. It's always interesting to hear how peripheral observers view the issue. I appreciate that they took the time to read and respond.

Blog

Illinois Sheriff Caught Selling Lots of Marijuana

Wow, you don't hear a story like this everyday. Oh wait, actually you do. Thanks to the drug war, dramatic incidents of gratuitous police misconduct have become painfully typical:

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Sheriff Raymond M. Martin has been the law for nearly 20 years in a struggling southern Illinois county. But federal prosecutors say he's been breaking it lately by peddling pounds of pot, some seized by his own department, often in uniform and from his patrol vehicle.

Authorities on Monday led away a handcuffed Martin, 46, from his small Shawneetown office after his arrest on federal drug trafficking charges accusing him of supplying a dealer he threatened to kill when that man said he wanted out. The Gallatin County sheriff also allegedly pledged to use his authority to shut down rival drug traffickers.

For 20 years, this creep was the sheriff? Can you even imagine all the filthy things he's done in that time? One of the many reasons the drug war fundamentally will never even begin to work is that you can't even trust the "good guys." I shudder to think how often the federal drug war dollars we pour into regional law enforcement end up accomplishing nothing other than to assist corrupt cops in cornering the local market.

The whole thing is such a colossal joke, it's amazing that anyone would even bother to defend it anymore. Just look at it. How much more fraudulent and corrupt must this thing become before everyone understands what it is?
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Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty Wants to Send Dying Cancer Patients to Jail

We knew Gov. Pawlenty was likely to veto medical marijuana legislation due to pressure from law enforcement, but then the bill was changed so that only terminally ill patients would qualify. Surely, the governor would at least agree not to arrest people who are dying, right? Wrong:

He announced his intention to veto the medical marijuana bill at his news conference today. Then, amazingly, he went on to wax rhapsodic about how “The sky is blue, the sun is out. The minds of Minnesotans are turning to Memorial Day, summer, fishing.”

Tell that to Joni Whiting, whose daughter Stephanie gained some comfort and the ability to eat from medical marijuana during the last months of her doomed struggle with melanoma. Pawlenty thinks it’s just fine to treat Joni, Stephanie, and others in that dreadful situation as common criminals. [MPP]

There's no middle ground here. You either think it's ok to arrest dying patients for using doctor recommended medicine, or you don't. If Pawlenty vetoes this bill, he firmly rejects even the vague appearance of compassion for dying patients.

Send him a polite note here.