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Gov. Schweitzer: Medical Marijuana Overhaul Bill 'Unconstitutional'

Calling the newly passed bill overhauling the state's medical marijuana law "unconstitutional on its face," Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he wants to issue an amendatory veto to fix the parts he considers legally defective. Schweitzer criticized the House for tabling in committee House Bill 68 by Sen. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, proposed by a bipartisan interim committee after much study and many hearings last year. "They threw that in the garbage and now they're going to send bring me this (SB)423, which everybody's whose read it says, 'Oh yeah, it's unconstitutional.' "
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Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson wants to legalize marijuana. (image via Wikimedia.org)
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson wants to legalize marijuana. (image via Wikimedia.org)

Two GOP Drug War Critics Seek Presidency

Drug legalizing presidential nomination candidates on the right: Gary Johnson and Ron Paul enter the fray.
Chronicle
Prohibition's filthy lucre is hard for some to resist (Image via Wikimedia)
Prohibition's filthy lucre is hard for some to resist (Image via Wikimedia)

This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Cops ripping off drug dealers, cops offering information to drug defendants, sheriffs escorting cartel dope loads, and, oh, yes, prison guards gone bad.
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This Week in History

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
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You can grow up to five of these in Holland, no matter the yield, the Dutch high court has held. (image courtesy the author)
You can grow up to five of these in Holland, no matter the yield, the Dutch high court has held. (image courtesy the author)

Dutch Can Grow Five Marijuana Plants, No Problem

Although Dutch policy only allows you to possess five grams of marijuana, the high court has ruled that you can still grow five plants, no matter the yield.
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The busts keep on coming, but so do the drugs. (Image via Wikimedia.org)
The busts keep on coming, but so do the drugs. (Image via Wikimedia.org)

Mexico Drug War Update

More mass graves have been found, and the gruesome killings continue.
In The Trenches

Medical Marijuana Bill Re-Introduced in Pennsylvania (Press Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4/27/2011
CONTACT: Chris Goldstein at 267-702-3731 or [email protected]

Medical Marijuana Bill Re-Introduced in Pennsylvania

A bill to legalize the use of medical marijuana for qualifying patients and to create a statewide system of “Compassion Centers” has been introduced in the Keystone State. Senator Daylin Leach brought SB 1003 forward on April 25th with Senators Larry Farnese, James Ferlo and Wayne Fontana as the initial co-sponsors. The legislation has been referred to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. READ SB 1003

The language is essentially a re-introduction of a bill that was active in 2009-10 in both houses of the General Assembly. The bill includes provisions for home cultivation and collects the state sales tax on medical cannabis. Last year the issue saw impressive public hearings in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh before the House Health and Human Services Committee.

Dr. Harry Swidler, an Emergency Medicine physician, said at the hearings: “Marijuana is non-addicting. There is no physical dependence or physical withdrawal associated with its use. It is, from a practical standpoint, non-toxic. Marijuana is safer by some measures than any other drug. There is simply no known quantity of marijuana capable of killing a person.”

Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht testified before the HHS Committee in August 2010:  "I have personally performed 17,000 autopsies and reviewed 36,000 other postmortem protocols signed out by pathologists throughout the United States. I have never attributed a death to marijuana overdose, nor have I ever seen such a death certificate issued by any coroner or medical examiner."

WATCH VIDEO OF TESTIMONY HERE: http://www.youtube.com/pa4mmj

Advocates at Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana PA4MMJ are pushing for several changes to the bill when it gets to committee this session. These include re-naming the bill to The Governor Raymond P. Shafer Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

Just after stepping down as governor of Pennsylvania in 1970 Shafer, a Republican, chaired a blue-ribbon commission for President Nixon that recommended two main points: 1) Marijuana should not be placed in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act 2) Marijuana possession should be decriminalized at the federal level.

Nixon ignored those suggestions and ever since the federal government has aggressively enforced the Schedule I classification that describes cannabis as having “…no currently accepted medical use in treatment …” This is the reason that 15 states and the District of Columbia have independently legalized marijuana for medical uses.

Derek Rosenzweig at PA4MMJ in Philadelphia made this statement today, “The best person to help a patient decide what medicine works best is their physician. Marijuana should be available as an option for the thousands of residents in PA dealing with terrible medical conditions that we know cannabis can help treat.”

Patrick Nightengale of PA4MMJ in Pittsburgh added this statement; “ We have spoken with older citizens undergoing chemotherapy to our young warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, who have all implored us to get a medical marijuana law passed in PA. Routinely prescribed pain medications cause abuse, addiction and deaths everyday.  We should not criminalize the possession of a plant that has never resulted in a single lethal overdose.”

Polling conducted by Franklin&Marshall in 2010 showed that a striking 80 percent of residents support passing a medical marijuana law in Pennsylvania.

More information on the statewide effort in support of safe access to cannabis at www.pa4mmj.org

To speak with advocates, medical experts or cannabis patients in Pennsylvania please contact Chris Goldstein, media coordinator at PA4MMJ, at [email protected] or 267-702-3731.

Additional contacts: Derek Rosenzweig at [email protected] and Patrick Nightengale at [email protected].

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Hearing Set for Bill Legalizing Marijuana in Maine

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, supporters of legalized marijuana in Maine will crowd into a hearing room in Augusta to support a Portland legislator's bill to decriminalize pot. Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, sponsor of LD 1453, "An Act To Legalize and Tax Marijuana," said she was thrilled to learn about the hearing that has been scheduled before the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
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Mexico’s Congress Considers Changing Security Law In Attempt to Control Drug Prohibition Violence

With the current session of Mexico’s Congress scheduled to expire Friday, members of Mexico’s House of Deputies have less than a week to deliberate over extremely controversial changes to the country’s National Security Law that would give the President the power to deploy Mexico’s Armed Forces against broadly defined internal threats to Mexican national security. PT and Convergencia parties say that the 83-page initiative to change the law constitutes a threat to individual liberties and could create a state of exception in Mexico that would effectively put the country under military control. They remain deeply skeptical of proposed changes to the law, which advocate, among other things, the monitoring and recording of private communication for intelligence-gathering purposes. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch have drawn attention to frequent abuses by the Mexican military and contend that there is a widespread systemic failure to prosecute human rights violations in Mexican military courts.
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RI State Rep. Watson Presents His Version of Marijuana Related Arrest in CT

In a televised speech on the House floor about his arrest in Connecticut last Friday on driving-under-the-influence and marijuana-possession charges, House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson admitted to using marijuana to treat flare-ups of the pancreatitis that landed him in the hospital last November. Watson, R-East Greenwich, said he took a small amount of the drug with him when he went to Connecticut that day to help a friend move because he had had a pancreatic attack the day before, and wanted the drug handy if he had another severe one.
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Medical Marijuana Bill on Montana Legislature's Agenda

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer says he hopes the Legislature gets the medical marijuana reform bill to him with enough time for him to make changes and send it back for their approval. He says when the bill gets to his desk, he's going to make sure legitimate patients still have the option to use cannabis.
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Mexico's Narco Blog: Drug Prohibition Deaths in Real Time

While much of Mexico's mainstream media, especially television stations and local newspapers, has shied away from covering killings and naming the drug trafficking organizations involved, a blog and its anonymous curator publish graphic details of spiraling prohibition violence. At Mexico's "blog del Narco" the images are gruesome and unedited: a dead man in a sports jersey with his face covered in dried red blood and grey sand; a woman hanging from a rope above a busy urban over-pass and naked bodies lined up on the ground displaying clear, uncensored, signs of torture. Some recent headlines from the site include: "Entire town taken hostage by Gunmen in Chihuahua"; "Eleven year old arrested in Acapulco with AK 47"; "Sinaloa cartel welcomes new police chief with tortured body"; and "Mass narco grave, 60 bodies found, total 148 corpses".
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Students Pursue Good Samaritan Drug Policy Shift

A new student group is campaigning for a Good Samaritan policy at Virginia Tech. Hokies for a Good Samaritan Policy wants to change the policy to protect people who call 911 when they or a friend are illegally using drugs or alcohol from disciplinary sanctions. "In these situations the clock is ticking," Mark Goldstein, an accounting and information systems major and president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said. "Every second you don’t call for help the person is closer to dying."
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In The Trenches

Drug Truth 04/25/11

*DRUG TRUTH NETWORK PROGRAMS, Apr 24 to May 1, 2011*

*Cultural Baggage*, 04/24/11, 29:00,   Reports from NORML conference in

Denver w/ Dr. David Bearman, & Steve Dillion + Paul Armentano of NORML

LINK: **http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3360*

<http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3293> *Transcript: Monday

*Century of Lies* 04/24/11, 29:00,  NORML conference reports from Denver w/ Dr. Alan Schackelford, Dr. Ethan Nadelmann + Phil Smith of Drug War Chronicle & Keith Stoup of NORML

LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3361

<http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3259>

Transcript:  Tuesday

*4:20 Drug War NEWS*, 04/25 to 05/01/11, 3:00 each, available at http://www.drugtruth.net on right margin Sun - Gary Storck of Wisconsin NORML: 2 steps forward, 1 back Sat - Dr. Robert Melamede, Pres of Cannabis Science at NORML conf in Denver Fri - Don Duncan of Americans For Safe Access (to cannabis) Thu - Eric Anderson Pres of Buck Scientific sells chromatographs at the NORML conference Wed - Keith Stroup of NORML re changes in marijuana law Tue - Mason Tvert, Dir of Safer Choice (than alcohol) in Denver Mon - Dr. David Bearman at NORML conf in Denver, (not in CB show)

*NEXT WEEK:* Cannabis Cooking Lessons & Scientific Reports

With more than 90 broadcast affiliates, DTN invites your station to join, free of charge.
--

Dean Becker

Producer: Drug Truth Network,www.drugtruth.net

Speaker: Law Enforcement Against Prohibitionwww.leap.cc

713-462-7981

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High-Ranking RI Lawmaker Faces Drug Charge

State Rep. Robert Watson (R-East Greenwich), the House Minority Leader, who criticized the Legislature by invoking the image of pot-smoking immigrants is facing drug charges in Connecticut.
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Maine Bill Eases Medical Marijuana Rules

A bill to ease Maine's regulations on the medical use of marijuana faces a legislative hearing. A separate bill unveiled last week would legalize personal use and private and commercial cultivation of marijuana, and tax consumer purchases at 7 percent.
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