RI delays decision on medical marijuana licenses
State health officials have delayed a final decision on licenses for up to three compassion centers where medical marijuana would be distributed.
Latest
Latest News
Chronicle
Growing in popularity
Rasmussen Poll Finds 43% Favor Marijuana Legalization, 42% Oppose
Support for pot legalization remains in the forties, but is higher than opposition and is trending upward, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.
Chronicle
too much cash can corrupt cops
This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
A sleazy federal probation officer gets indicted, a bunch more cops get arrested, and two big city East Coast dirty cops head for the slammer.
Blog
jimwebb_0.jpg
Webb Criminal Justice Commission Passes House by Unanimous Consent
Big news from Washington today -- Senator Jim Webb's has just passed the US House of Representatives, by unanimous consent -- an important milestone that brings this important reevaluation of o
Blog
ChiefBurton.png
Awesome Police Chief Works to Educate Citizens About Their Rights
Here's Columbia, MO Police Chief Ken Burton talking about how he uses the new Flex Your Rights video, 10 Rules for Dealing with Police, to teach people about their rights during police encounters:
Event
Harm Reduction Coalition After Party Launch Event and Fundraiser
The Harm Reduction Coalition is hosting this launch event and fundraiser to premiere our new online social marketing campaign, After Party! After Party is a smart and sexy music video-style HIV prevention campaign addressing the link between alcohol and drug use and unsafe sex. The After Party campaign is directed towards young adults, including African Americans, Latinos, and men who have sex with men of all races/ethnicities. Come to the After Party Launch Event and celebrate with us as we start our campaign!
To register, see https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1627/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=61395
For more information, contact Erica Poellot at [email protected].
Latest News
Final vote clears way for large-scale indoor medical marijuana growing in Oakland
Oakland is set to become the first city to allow large-scale pot growing for medical use â and the standard-setter for the lucrative and largely uncharted territory of industrial-scale medical marijuana businesses.
Latest News
Mexico justice means catch and release
Prohibitionist justice doesn't seem to work very well. Records obtained by The Associated Press show that the Mexican government arrested 226,667 drug suspects between December 2006 and September 2009. Less than a quarter of them were charged and only 15 percent saw a verdict (and the Mexican attorney general's office won't say how many of those were guilty).
Latest News
Billions Wasted in Mexico Pushing Failed U.S. Drug War Tactics
Prohibitionist policies abound, and they cost us dearly. A new report by the Government Accountability Office makes painfully clear that the U.S. is wasting taxpayer dollars on the drug war in Mexico. After two full years, the U.S. has no clear measures in place to determine if its $1.6 billion aid package to Mexico -- known as the Merida Initiative -- is having any impact whatsoever on the strength of the cartels.
In The Trenches
D.C. Medical Marijuana Law Clears Congressional Hurdle (Press Release)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 27, 2010
D.C. Medical Marijuana Law Clears Congressional Hurdle
Congress Takes No Action to Overturn D.C. Council Bill; Officials Now Tasked With Establishing Regulations, Taking Dispensary Applications
CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP director of communications …………… 202-905-2030 or 443-927-6400
WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to District of Columbia Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s medical marijuana law cleared a mandatory 30-day Congressional review period Monday night, after Congress declined to take action against a D.C. Council bill that allows the District to license between five and eight medical marijuana dispensaries. Norton made the announcement on Tuesday. The District will join 14 states across the country in having effective medical marijuana laws.
This historic development comes almost 12 years after 69 percent of District voters approved a referendum on medical marijuana in 1998. Congress had blocked the law’s implementation until last year. Now the District Department of Health and Mayor Adrian Fenty are tasked with developing a set of regulations for dispensaries that will be licensed to distribute medical marijuana to qualified patients. Medical marijuana is not fully legal yet, as the new law allows qualified patients to legally possess marijuana only if it comes from a licensed dispensary.
“After thwarting the will of District voters for more than a decade, Congress is no longer standing in the way of effective relief for D.C. residents who struggle with chronic ailments,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “This moment is a long overdue victory for both D.C. home rule and the wellbeing of District residents whose doctors believe medical marijuana can help ease their pain.”
Under the bill, patients who are suffering from chronic conditions including HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis, and receive a recommendation from their doctor will be able to obtain safe access to medical marijuana through a system of licensed dispensaries. A task force will be charged with, among other things, recommending additional conditions, such as PTSD or severe, chronic pain to the list of qualifying conditions. Unlike the laws in 13 out of 14 medical marijuana states, patients will not be allowed to grow their own medicine, though the task force will also examine the issue of home cultivation. Medical marijuana will be subject to the city’s 6 percent sales tax.
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
####
In The Trenches
Stop Congress from doubling penalties for pot brownies
Tell the Senate: |
Dear friends,
Yes, you read that correctly. A bill has just reached the floor of the U.S. Senate that would double penalties for any edible products combined with medical marijuana in California and other states that provide relief for patients. The worst part is that the bill was written and sponsored by a Democratic senator from California!!!
The bill is currently awaiting a vote. That's why we need you to write your two United States Senators today and urge them to defeat this terrible bill.
As you probably know, many patients prefer to eat - rather than smoke or vaporize - medical marijuana. To illustrate how inhumane this bill is, consider this scenario. The bill would double the federal prison sentence if a college student home to help care for his brother undergoing chemotherapy baked marijuana brownies for him to eat, even if it was recommended by his doctor!!!
Please write the Senate now to defeat this heartless bill. And if you appreciate SSDP taking the lead on important issues like this, please consider donating today.
Thanks,
Aaron Houston
Executive Director
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Washington, D.C.
In The Trenches
LEAP's latest video: the best for last!
|
Here's the 
In The Trenches
Drug Truth 07/26/10
Cultural Baggage * Century of Lies * 4:20 Drug War NEWS * Time 4 Hemp
Note: I now produce a segment each Friday at 11:45 PM Central for Time 4 Hemp on American Freedom Radio (dot com)
Cultural Baggage for 07/25/10 29:00 Len Richmond, producer of new film: "What if Cannabis Cured Cancer" + Michael Krawitz re VA's allowing med marijuana & Paul Armentano re bogus Govt stats for emergency room visits for marijuana
LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2999
TRANSCRIPT: Tue
Century of Lies for 07/25/10 29:00 Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow - Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness"
LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3000
TRANSCRIPT: Mon
4:20 Drug War NEWS, 07/26 to 08/01/10 Link at www.drugtruth.net on the right margin -
Sun - Paul Armentano of NORML re Sen. Feinstien not representing her consituents Sat - Mason Tvert of Safer Choice on why DARE dares not compare alcohol to marijuana Fri - Neil Franklin, director Law Enforcement Against Prohibiiton on being prohibited from attending SAMHSA conference Thu - Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow"
Wed - Mary Jane Borden of Drug War Facts re narco violence in Mexico Tue - Paul Armentano of NORML on emergency room visits for marijuana Mon - Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access on positive VA ruling on medical cannabis use
Programs produced at Pacifica Radio Station KPFT in Houston, 90.1 FM. You can Listen Live Online at www.kpft.org
- Cultural Baggage Sun, 7:30 PM ET, 6:30 PM CT, 5:30 PM MT, 4:30 PM PT
- Century of Lies, SUN, 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT
Who's Next?": Larry Talley of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and now at James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. http://www.bakerinstitute.org
We have potcasts, searchability, CMS, XML, sorts by guest name and by organization. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates. You can tune into both our 1/2 hour programs, live, at 6:30 central time on Pacifica's KPFT at http://www.kpft.org and call in your questions and concerns toll free at 1-877-9-420 420.
The two, 29:00 shows appear along with the seven, daily, 3:00 "4:20 Drug War NEWS" reports each Monday morning at http://www.drugtruth.net . We currently have 74 affiliated, yet independent broadcast stations. With a simple email request to [email protected] , your station can join the Drug Truth Network, free of charge.
Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Prohibition is evil." - Reverend Dean Becker, DTN Producer, 713-462-7981, www.drugtruth.net
Blog
LEAPlogo.png
Pro-Legalization Cops Banned from Anti-Drug Event
There's something very seductive about police officers speaking out against the drug war and explaining how their experiences led them to oppose prohibition. Maybe that's why government officials don't want LEAP represented at an upcoming conference on substance abuse:
Blog
bill-clinton-vienna.jpg
Bill Clinton Calls for Harm Reduction
Three new videos from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, filmed at the Vienna AIDS 2010 conference this month. In one of them, former US President Bill Clinton calls for harm reduction, an approach to substance misuse and other social issues of which the most well-known example is needle exchange programs.
Blog
It could be a lot worse
Sometimes I get so frustrated at the way the governments,federal and provincial(state in US)are poking their noses into every thing we do and say.We live in a world that is increasingly more contro
Blog
Brain Surgery
Putting the criminal justice system in charge of treating drug addiction is literally attempting to do brain surgery with a billy club. ==== My own idea. Pass it on.
In The Trenches
The DEA is Out of Control: We Can Stop This!
|
In The Trenches
Federal Drug Agency Bans Pro-Legalization Police Group From Conference (Press Release)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 22, 2010
CONTACT: Tom Angell - (202) 557-4979 or [email protected]
Federal Drug Agency Bans Pro-Legalization Police Group From Conference
SAMHSA Doesn't Want Views Expressed at Treatment Event in Chicago
CHICAGO, IL -- A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who support legalizing and regulating drugs is crying foul after a federal agency reneged on a contract that gave the law enforcers a booth to share their anti-prohibition views at a government-sponsored treatment conference in Chicago next week.
After accepting registration payment from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration initially told the police group that it was canceling its booth at the National Conference on Women, Addiction and Recovery because of overbooking and space concerns. However, Sharon Amatetti of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment later informed LEAP that, in a decision rising all the way to SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde's office, the group was actually being disinvited for its viewpoint.
"It's alarming that the federal government is trying to silence the voices of front-line police officers who just want to network and collaborate with treatment professionals to achieve our shared goal of preventing substance abuse through effective public policy," said Neill Franklin, a former narcotics cop with the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Department who is now executive director of LEAP. "Perhaps the administration was most concerned that LEAP's law enforcers planned to shine a spotlight on the fact that under President Obama, the White House's drug control budget maintains the same two-to-one funding ratio in favor of harsh enforcement tactics over effective public health approaches."
On a phone call with LEAP, Pamela Rodriguez of conference co-host TASC, Inc. of Illinois said that the police group wasn't welcome at the event because "our policy perspective and our policy objectives are different from you guys." She added, "It is the emphasis on prohibition vs. legalization that, for me at least, is the glaring dissonance with regard to our agenda."
SAMHSA has since refunded LEAP's money. The conference takes place July 26-28 at Chicago's Downtown Magnificent Mile Marriott Hotel.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and its 30,000 supporters represent police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents and others who want to legalize and regulate drugs after fighting on the front lines of the "war on drugs" and learning firsthand that prohibition only serves to worsen addiction and violence. Info at www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.
# # #
Latest News
Rutgers turns down Gov. Christie's offer to grow N.J. crop of medical marijuana
Federal drug prohibition often uses the power of the purse to control the drug policies of the various states. Rutgers University has declined a request from Gov. Chris Christieâs administration to be the lone grower of New Jerseyâs medical marijuana crop because the drugâs illegal status would jeopardize millions of dollars in federal funding. The governor was counting on Rutgers to be the sole grower and a number of teaching hospitals to be the only sellers as a counter proposal to the law that passed before he became governor that would allow up to six nonprofits to provide and distribute the drug.