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Drug War Protestors Block Traffic Along Mexican Border
Sandwiched between violent cartels and a brutal military occupation force, the Mexican people are understandably running out of patience:
Hundreds of people in Mexico have blocked key crossings into the US in protests against the deployment of the army fighting drug traffickers.
Traffic was brought to a halt on a number of bridges in several border towns in northern Mexico.
The protesters accused the army of abuse against civilians. [BBC]
We tend to view the U.S. and Mexican governments as well as the cartels as the primary actors in shaping the discussion of the nationâs drug war, but the Mexican people themselves will likely begin to play a more visible role as the situation further deteriorates. Rampant civil rights abuses by the Mexican military are quickly becoming regarded as a cure worse than the disease and it may only be a matter of time before public sentiments tip in favor of a dramatic change of course.
As one might expect, the Mexican government has been quick to dismiss the protestors, even going so far as to accuse them of collaborating with the drug traffickers:
â¦the governor of one state - Nuevo Leon - said he believed the Gulf drugs cartel and its armed wing, the Zetas, were behind the border protests.
"There are reasons to believe it has to do with the Gulf cartel and the group known as the Zetas," Governor Natividad Gonzalez said.
Unbelievable. I guess the idea that the citizens of Mexico would complain about human rights violations by their own military is so inconceivable that it simply must be the drug lords who made them do it.
Ultimately, it should prove difficult for the government to continue portraying public opposition as a PR experiment sponsored the traffickers. Trivializing public sentiment is a losing proposition in the long term, especially when youâre thoroughly unprepared to address the conditions that are pissing everyone off.
If anyone is serving the political and financial interests of the drug traffickers it is the U.S. and Mexican government officials who continue to champion the failed drug strategy that is ripping Mexico apart before our eyes.
Blog
Legalizing Marijuana Doesnât Mean We Have to Legalize Horrible Crimes
Calls for legalization in the aftermath of the Michael Phelps media frenzy havenât met with much backlash, probably because the gold-medal winning bong-monger kinda breaks the mold as far as stoner stereotyping goes. So we should be grateful, if anything, for the few anti-drug zealots that are so unhinged, so consumed by reefer madness, that they feel compelled to speak even when doing so serves only to further expose and embarrass their crazy beliefs:
Ok, I donât think you understand. We want to legalize marijuana, but not murder. Does that make sense? Armed robbery, etc. would still be illegal. No one will ever try to legalize violent crime, so shut up and stop worrying about that.
Itâs a shame what marijuana does to some peopleâs brains.
The recent incident involving Michael Phelps getting caught smoking pot has caused the age long debate to rear its head again on whether or not we should legalize or at least decriminalize our drug laws. The idea in attacking the drug laws is that people should be free to make their own decisions. The problem with that line of reasoning is that you would never be able to draw the line on establishing any law. Everything would have to be legal, including armed robbery, murder, assault, etc. In essence, it would be anarchy. [Shreveport Times]
Ok, I donât think you understand. We want to legalize marijuana, but not murder. Does that make sense? Armed robbery, etc. would still be illegal. No one will ever try to legalize violent crime, so shut up and stop worrying about that.
Itâs a shame what marijuana does to some peopleâs brains.
Blog
Ryan Frederick Update
Ryan Frederick "Odds and Ends," via Radley Balko.
Chronicle
Reportaje: Reformadores de las polÃticas de drogas boicotean cereales Kellogg por despedir a Michael Phelps a causa de foto con narguile
El reportaje de la foto de Michael Phelps con el narguile ha cobrado vida propia. Se ha granjeado una enorme cobertura mediática, gran parte de ella abiertamente crÃtica de la legislación sobre la marihuana y la conducta oficial para con los fumadores de marihuana. Ahora los reformadores de las polÃticas de drogas, sintiendo una oportunidad de hacer progresar la causa, han organizado un boicoteo a los cereales Kellogg por negarse a renovar su contrato de patrocinio.
In The Trenches
Americans for Safe Access: California Weekly Alert
ASA California Weekly Alert: 2-13-2009
Weekly Round Up
1. Advocates Meet with LA City Council Member to Contest Proposed Ordinance
2. Coachella Moratorium Set to Expire, Council Draws Plans for Dispensary Ban
Chapter and Affiliate Meetings
3. Tuesday, February 17th â Sacramento: ASA Affiliate Compassionate Coalition
4. Wednesday, February 18th â Fullerton: Orange County ASA Meeting
5. Saturday, February 21st â Los Angeles: L.A. ASA Meeting
6. Tuesday, February 24th - San Francisco: SF ASA Meeting
7. Wednesday, February 25th - Oakland: East Bay ASA Meeting
City and County Hearings
8. Wednesday, February 18th - Palm Springs: City Council to Consider Dispensary Ordinance
Court Support
9. Monday, February 23rd - Los Angeles: Protest to Support Charles Lynch Against Federal Injustice
Special Events
10. Saturday February 14th - San Francisco: Spread the Love Valentine Seed Planting
11. Saturday February 14th - Sebastopol: Valentineâs Day Heart Party!
12. Saturday February 14th - Sacramento: Gardening, Work day & BBQ at the Freedom House in Sacramento
13. Saturday February 14th - Berkeley : Natural Remedies Health Services Presents:
14. Sunday February 15th - San Francisco: Celebrating the History of 215: with Denis Peron featuring an unreleased documentary & local Medical Cannabis films.
15. Monday February 16th - Sacramento: Medical Marijuana Art show & Informational Nights.
16. Tuesday February 17th - Berkeley: Book signing and talk with Doug McVay author of Drug War Facts at BPG
17. Tuesday February 17th - San Francisco: CCA Party!
18. Tuesday, February 17th San Diego: San Diego Protest Against Local Raids! âA walk towards freedomâ
19. Wednesday February 18th - Oakland: Medical Marijuana University 6pm-9pm
20. Thursday February 19th - Oakland: ASA Organizers Training and Open House
21. Friday February 20th - Oakland: Movie Night at Oaksterdam Student Union
22. Saturday February 21st - Los Angeles: LA-ASA Meeting & Activist Training
23. Sunday February 22nd - Oakland: East Bay Medical Cannabis Activists Mixer
24. Wednesday, March 11th - Riverside County AIDS Conference to Include Medical Cannabis Panel
Weekly Round Up
1. Advocates Meet with LA City Council Member to Contest Proposed Ordinance
The Los Angeles City Attorney issued a revised version of the proposed ordinance regulating medical cannabis dispensing collectives this week. However, the newest version of the draft ordinance changed little from the one published just hours before January's Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) meeting, to which there was community opposition.Â
Patients and advocates who served on the city's working group and other community members joined LA Councilmember Dennis Zine in rejecting the City Attorney's draft and calling on the committee to request a new ordinance incorporating the working group's input. Many provisions in the draft ordinance are problematic, including those which ban edibles and concentrates (both legal under California law), require disclosure of patient data, and seek to exclude storefront collectives from locating within the city with requirements more stringent than those applied to liquor stores or strip clubs, and despite being recognized as legal by California Attorney General Jerry Brown. In addition, the City Attorney's draft ordinance is based on faulty assumptions about medical cannabis law and patients' associations.
The City Attorney insists that sales of medical cannabis and storefront facilities that provide it on behalf of legal patients' collectives and cooperatives are illegal. As a result of this outdated and incorrect opinion, the City Attorney developed a draft ordinance that seeks to regulate the collective cultivation of medical cannabis, instead of the storefront facilities from which medicine is provided.  In August of 2008, the California Attorney General published guidelines that make it clear that patient collectives and cooperatives are legal. Section IV(C)(1) of the Guidelines specifically recognizes that legal collectives and cooperatives may maintain storefronts to provide medicine to members.
Â
Dozens of cities and counties in California have already adopted guidelines regulating storefront facilities, and none have seen negative legal consequences as a result of exercising their right and responsibility to enact sensible regulations. In fact, research and experience shows that jurisdictions that adopt regulations have fewer complaints and less crime surrounding facilities.Â
Advocates met with LA City Councilmember Ed Reyes and city staff to discuss the City Attorney's draft. As Chairman of the PLUM Committee, Reyes will have a tremendous impact on whether the committee forwards the flawed ordinance to the full City Council or sends it back to staff for more work. Councilmember Reyes made no decision based on the meeting, but promised to confer with city staff before the issue comes back to the Committee later this month. Community members must continue to let Councilmembers Reyes and Huizar on the PLUM Committee know that we do not support the City Attorney¹s draft ordinance! There is as yet no commitment that the committee will reject this unworkable ordinance.
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Chronicle
Reportaje: Ya es hora de un nuevo paradigma en las polÃticas de drogas, dicen lÃderes latinoamericanos
El miércoles la Comisión Latinoamericana sobre Drogas y Democracia publicó un informe que pide la reducción de daños, el tratamiento del consumo de drogas como cuestión de salud pública y la despenalización de la marihuana. El informe fue una intervención con miras tanto a Washington como a Viena, donde la ONU se reúne el mes que viene para tramar la estrategia mundial para la droga.
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In The Trenches
MMJ Week, Tuesday: Do Your Homework â Know the Issues
Do Your Homework â Know the Issues
Medical Marijuana Week - Tuesday, February 17th
Dear ASA Supporter,
There is a lot of important information out there about cannabis as medicine. Did you know there are over 17,000 published scientific articles on cannabis and âcannabinoidsâ since 1996? Did you know that DEA Judges have now twice ruled in favor of medical cannabis, and DEA Administrators have twice ignored the rulings? Can you recite ASAâs Federal Policy Recommendations? Spend a day reading and learning about why this issue is so profound.
According to the widely respected magazine, The Economist, âIf cannabis were unknown, and bioprospectors were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough.â (Economist, May 5, 2006).
Thereâs a reason for all this excitement. Cannabis may soon be considered one of the defining medical discoveries of our generation. For 40 years, efforts to recognize the plant's medical properties have been denied, ignored, and suppressed - all because of a negative stigma. To fully understand this issue, you should know the science, the law, and the politics.
Learn about the science. Read about Dr. Mechoulamâs discovery of the human endocannabinoid system in the 1990âs and why major pharmaceutical companies are developing their own âcannabinoidâ research departments. Read about some of the most important studies of today which show promise in the use of cannabis to treat an extraordinarily wide array of conditions.
www.safeaccessnow.org/researchdatabase
www.medicalcannabis.com/reference.htm
www.safeaccessnow.org/additionalresources
Learn about the law. Understand what court cases over the years have ruled for or against medical cannabis. Know why states have the right to enact medical cananbis laws, but the federal government also has the right to interfere with them. Read about the DEAâs own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, who ruled, âIt would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.â And read about the most recent DEA ruling, released by another DEA Judge in 2007, which demanded that DEA lift barriers to cannabis research. Understand how DEA Administrators ignored the rulings and acted directly contrary, putting cannabis research back over 20 years.
DEA Judge Francis Young Ruling
DEA Judge Bittner Ruling
Landmark Decisions in Medical Cannabis Law
Learn about the politics. Did you know that even before 1996, 35 states had some form of medical cannabis law on the books, but that they were all unworkable due to legal loopholes? Learn the "inâs and outâs" of medical cannabis laws in 13 states â and which ones are tentatively considered âthe 14th and 15th medical cannabis statesâ. Learn all this and more here:
Medical Cannabis Laws in 14 States
ASAâs Federal Policy Recommendations
And when you're done, you'll be even better prepared to become an ASA Ambassador!
Sincerely,
George Pappas
Field Coordinator
Americans for Safe Access
Americans for Safe Access is the nation's largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.
In The Trenches
Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc. February 2009 Minutes
Monthly Public Meeting Minutes
Lawrence Township Library
Tuesday, February 10, 2009; 7:00 PM â 9:00 PM
7:20 PM:  Meeting called to order. January 2009 minutes approved. Discussion:Â
àâCome to Trenton to support medical marijuana, Monday, 2/23/09.â The vote by the entire NJ Senate on âThe New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Actâ (S119), as amended, is expected to take place on 2/23/09. CMMNJ will send Press Releases before the vote to rally support, and after the vote to discuss the outcome. Contact your senator today. Members of the national organization, Patients Out of Time, plan to assist in passing this important legislation. If the bill passes in the senate, it will then go to the NJ Assembly.
Â
àUpcoming events: Chris Goldstein, CMMNJ & Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) will host a free, educational seminar on medical marijuana on Wed., 2/18/09 from 12:30 PM â 2:00 PM at the Rutgers/Camden Law School, Room 207. Ken & Jim Miller will be on WIFI 1460 AM Radio on 2/12/09 at 4:30 PM. NORML NJ is meeting on 2/21/09 at 7:00 PM in Toms River, NJ to rally support for medical marijuana. (For NORML NJ meeting info, contact [email protected] ). CMMNJ plans to join SSDP Rutgers on May 2, 2009 in a march for medical marijuana in New Brunswick, NJ.
Â
àRecent publications: The Times of Trenton published CMMNJâs OP-ED, "Drug laws vs. medical science" 1/15/09. The Nursing Spectrum published the article, âThe Great Debate: Medical Marijuana or Not? Will New Jersey legislators pass a law in 2009?â on 1/26/09. The Asbury Park Press published Jim Millerâs LTE, âSupport warranted for medical marijuanaâ on 2/9/09.
Â
àRecent appearances: CMMNJ appeared on WIBG 1020 AM Talk Radio on 1/20/09.  A podcast of the live radio show is expected to be available soon. CMMNJ and Chris Goldstein hosted a free, educational seminar on medical marijuana on 2/3/09 at the Willingboro Public Library.
ÃÂ Update on Jackson, NJ Crohnâs patient Mike Miceli who was arrested for medical marijuana on 9/4/08.
ÃÂ CMMNJ has new photos, etc. on Facebook and Facebook Friends of CMMNJ.
Â
àCMMNJ attended the Americans for Safe Access (ASA) national conference call 1/28/09. Federal policy towards medical marijuana is changing! Â
àTreasury report: Checking account: $1864.45. PayPal account: $577.59. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to CMMNJ, a 501(c)(3) organization, to support public education about medical marijuana. Donations may be made securely through Paypal or checks made out to âCMMNJâ and sent to corporate headquarters at the address below. Thank you for your interest and support.
 9:00 PM Adjourn meeting.
Next Meeting: March 10, 2009 from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM at the Lawrence Twp. Library, 2751 Brunswick Pike (at Darrah Lane), Lawrence Twp., NJ (Tel. #609.882.9246). All are welcome. Snacks are served. Meeting at the library does not imply their endorsement of our issue. For more info, contact:
Ken Wolski, RN, MPA
Executive Director, Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc. www.cmmnj.org, 844 Spruce St., Trenton, NJ 08648, (609) 394-2137
In The Trenches
LEAP on the Hill: Stories from the week of February 13, 2009
When preparation meets opportunity: Due to crazy scheduling, on Thursday morning Karen (my better half) dropped me off at the Metro at 06:45. Thus I was talking to the Capitol Police Officers at 08:00, when a tall gentleman walked around the metal detector which only Congressmen can do. I had been chatting with the officers about my issue and the Congressman made a comment on what I had just said. The next words out of my mouth were: "Ellsworth. Indiana. Former sheriff." Though my words were stilted and awkward, the Congressman did not mind and we had a 4 minute LEAP conversation. At the end he asked me to contact his office to set up a longer chat.
Note: I have made an extra effort to know all the former police, prosecutors and judges in the Congress. FAMM produces a Congress Directory which has a foto of each Member. It is my Bible that I consult daily. It sure paid off this week.
At the donut shop: The last of 8 meetings on Thursday was more important than the previous 7 combined. The aide represented one of the most powerful members of Congress. As I introduced myself, he said he had been a county deputy sheriff for several years. Two minutes later it was like we were colleagues back at the donut shop, swapping stories. Forty-five minutes later, he said he would ask his boss about the feasibility of ending Modern Prohibition. I have shared this information in more detail with my colleagues in DC.
Striking Gold: Each week I send out 7-8 one minute emails to reporters and columnists whose article did touch or could touch Modern Prohibition. The response rate is about 25%, usually just saying thanks for the note. Last week I sent such a note to Kathleen Parker, after she wrote One Toke Over the Line about Michael Phelps and 'The Bong.' She wrote back thanking me and asking for a conversation.
A few minutes after my chance encounter with the Congressman, she and I chatted for 45 minutes. The next day this chat resulted in the column she wrote that was read by XX millions of Americans, as she appears in 350 major newspapers across the country. To put this in perspective, about 12 million people heard or read or saw Misty and I go across America to help bring an end to prohibition. This took 7 months. I accomplished roughly the same # of contacts with one 45 minute interview!
BONUS: A few hours later Ms. Parker was on Air Force One with three liberal columnists, flying with President Obama to Chicago. I have good information that Mr. Obama read her column. It was a double crown and double Swiss chocolate celebration at our house.