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Columbian Marching Powder: How Reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws Could Help the Alleged Ivy League Drug Dealers

In 2009, after years of debate and political wrangling, the New York state legislature finally passed a bill revising the state's notorious Rockefeller drug laws. Now it turns out that the first high-profile beneficiaries of the reforms could be a bunch of kids from Columbia University. The arrest of five students on Dec. 7 — they allegedly sold $11,000 worth of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, Adderall, and LSD — may be a "test case" for the new reforms.
Chronicle
Chronicle
Chronicle
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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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Arizona Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Introduced by GOP State Rep John Fillmore

Under a bill introduced by Representative John Fillmore possession of two ounces or less of marijuana -- by anyone -- would become a petty offense and carry a fine of only $100. Fillmore says that marijuana isn't a gateway drug, as critics unscientifically claim, and all the money and time wasted by law enforcement on marijuana prohibition enforcement would be better spent elsewhere.
Chronicle
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Drug-Sniffing Dog Performance Massively Affected by Handlers' Beliefs

A new study by researchers at UC Davis has found that drug-sniffing dog/handler teams' performance is affected by human handlers' beliefs, possibly in response to subtle, unintentional handler cues. The study found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously 'alerted,' or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times-particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present.
In The Trenches

2011: Fighting Hard for Our Rights!

 

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) started the new year strong. We are working  in statehouses, city halls, courtrooms, and communities nationwide with one common goal – to protect and expand safe access for medical cannabis patients. ASA needs your support right now to keep the momentum and keep making a difference.

Can you take a minute to make a special contribution to help ASA keep fighting?

January was a busy month for ASA. In Washington, DC, our staff welcomed each of the new members of the Congressional delegation. This is an important step in building needed capacity in Congress. We also worked with the Mayor’s office in the ongoing effort to implement the District’s medical cannabis law.

Your support in January helped ASA do all this and more:

 

  • In California, Senator Mark Leno (D-san Francisco) introduced ASA-sponsored legislation that will protect patients from employment discrimination.
  • We also filed an appeal on behalf of Jovan Jackson, a medical cannabis provider facing prosecution in San Diego. This strategic appeal will help stop the ongoing prosecutions in the state!
  • And as part of our 2011 effort to re-energize and retrain our grassroots base, ASA kicked off the first of many “Putting Patients First” trainings for medical cannabis professionals in Oakland.
  • In Michigan and Nevada, ASA Chapters organized high-profile rallies to oppose federal interference and intimidation, including new DEA raids and threats to patients’ privacy – a top priority for ASA nationwide.
  • ASA filed an amicus brief in Michigan to stop the federal government from confiscating patient records.
  • ASA provided suggested improvements to correct troubling provisions in Colorado’s law.
  • I published an op-ed on patient privacy in the Huffington Post and elsewhere, reaching millions of readers.

These are all important steps in fulfilling our goal of ensuring safe access to medical cannabis for everyone who needs it. That is exactly what the nation’s largest medical cannabis advocacy organization should be doing – and you can help make it happen! ASA needs your help today to make sure we can take advantage of opportunities and overcome challenges every month in 2011.

Thank you in advance for helping us help medical cannabis patients nationwide. Your support has brought us this far, and I know you can help us win this fight once and for all.

Sincerely,

Steph Sherer

Executive Director

PS – Don't forget to register for our "National Call to Action: Activist Boot Camp" February 19-20 in cities nationwide!

Americans for Safe Access

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Event

54th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs

The Economic and Social Council established the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in 1946 as the central policy-making body of the United Nations in drug related matters. The Commission enables Member States to analyse the global drug situation, provide follow-up to the twentieth special session of the General Assembly on the world drug problem and to take measures at the global level within its scope of action. It also monitors the implementation of the three international drug control conventions and is empowered to consider all matters pertaining to the aim of the conventions, including the scheduling of substances to be brought under international control.

For more information, see http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CND/session/54.html

Latest News

Georgia Governor Pushing More Alternative Programs for Non-Violent Drug Offenders

Gov. Nathan Deal says he's moving ahead to reduce Georgia's prison population by diverting non-violent drug offenders to other programs. A 2009 national report said drug prohibition related crimes were listed as the primary offense for about 17 percent of Georgia's prisoners. Deal has made it clear he's not interested in springing repeat or violent offenders. But locking up non-violent offenders wastes their lives, strains the state's budget and depletes its work force, he said.
Blog
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Obama Opposes Drug Legalization, But Hasn't Explained Why

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Having already commented on what I liked about Obama's comments on Thursday, I think it's equally important to take a look at what was missing. By acknowledging legalization as an "entirely legitimate topic for debate," the President has elevated the conversation still further into the realm of mainstream political acceptance, but with that comes a heightened obligation for our political leaders to clearly articulate and defend their positions. Obama's polite, predictable response leaves unanswered most of the defining questions in the drug policy debate and ultimately fails to address the concerns that make this issue a top priority for a large segment of the American public.

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Medical Marijuana Proponent Files Ethics Complaint Against Iowa Representative

A Des Moines man filed an ethics complaint against a state legislator who admitted he lied about having hemorrhoids and depression to obtain a medical marijuana recommendation in California last year. Mike Pesce said he brought the complaint against Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, because the representative said he knowingly provided false information to obtain a California medical marijuana card as a way to demonstrate why a similar program should not be adopted in Iowa.
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Canadian Patients Ask Ottawa to Fix Flawed Medical Marijuana Program

A group of medical marijuana patients traveled to Parliament Hill to draw attention to the government's "wildly dysfunctional and onerous medical marijuana regulations" and the effects they are having on sick Canadians. "Ten years ago, we put in place a government program, a legal government program, that would allow sick patients to have access to a medicine that worked for them," said Member of Parliament Dr. Carolyn Bennett. "We now are seeing a perfect storm of administrative delays that have these patients with a licence waiting four to six months till the point that it expires – and then they are criminalized because they don't have a licence because the government's backlogs and lack of resources have put them there."
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Bill to Restrict Medical Marijuana in Montana Draws Fire

A proposal to make it harder for people to get medical marijuana cards for severe and chronic pain drew plenty of opposition and little support at a hearing. Senate Bill 170, by Senate Majority Leader Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, would require a panel of three physicians experienced in pain management to review and ultimately decide whether to approve or reject another doctor's recommendation that a patient be authorized to use medical marijuana for severe and chronic pain. The lone supporter of SB170 was Mark Long, representing the Montana Narcotics Officers Association.
Latest News

Czech Police Want to Use Seized Marijuana for Treatment

Czech policemen have proposed that the seized marijuana be used for medical purposes -- for instance, for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. The Justice Ministry does not oppose the idea. "It is certainly logical," Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil (senior government Civic Democrats, ODS)) said.
Latest News

Berkeley Exports Its Cannabis Expertise

In a sign of the growing professionalization of the medical cannabis industry, Mark Rhoades and Ali Kashani, the owners of the Berkeley development company Citycentric Investments, have teamed up with Debby Goldsberry, a founder of the Berkeley Patients Group, to open a number of medical marijuana facilities around the East Bay. Goldsberry, Rhoades, and Kashani represent a new breed of medical marijuana entrepreneurs: people expert in land use policy, non-profit work, and running cannabis collectives. It’s a set of services that is growing in demand as more states adopt medical marijuana laws and as more people try to navigate the byzantine laws permitting medical marijuana in California.
Latest News

Republican Lawmakers Shifting Tough-On-Crime Stance As State Budget Problems Multiply

In no state is the philosophical U-turn more abrupt than in Oklahoma, where last year the Legislature was barreling in the opposite direction. New Republican Speaker of the House Kris Steele is expected to unveil a package of proposals that would divert thousands of nonviolent lawbreakers from the prison system and ramp up paroles. Similar crash prison reductions are going on from coast to coast. Michigan has shuttered 20 correctional facilities and slashed spending by nearly 7 percent. South Carolina expects to reduce its inmate numbers by 8 percent by putting drug dealers, burglars and hot check writers into community programs instead of behind bars.
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Australia: Ecstasy Emerges As Secret Choice of Middle Age

Publicity about people being caught with party drugs usually concentrates on those in their teens and 20s. So when the Austalian Labor aide Matthew Chesher, 44, was charged with possessing one ecstasy tablet last week, the lid was lifted on a quite different phenomenon: the growing number of middle-aged ecstasy users. The generation that championed the drug in the '80s and '90s is getting older.
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