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busted
My name is Jim Simmons,I live in Schuyler Co.Mo.,last week 10/30/09 I was over at a friends house,we were sitting in his kitchen talking wen all of a sudden all of these vehicles pulled in his drive,t
In The Trenches
ASA Fresno Chapter Patients and Caregivers Monthly Meeting
ASA Fresno Chapter Patients and Caregivers Monthly Meeting
Tuesday, November 10th at 6:00 pm
Chronicle
Marijuana: Colorado Ski Town Votes to Legalize It, Measure Passes With 73%
Breckenridge, Colorado, a Rocky Mountain ski town, just voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana under municipal ordinance. Denver did that in 2005.
Chronicle
Europe: British Science vs. Politics Battle Explodes As Top Drug Advisor Fired for Heresy
The British government seems to think that if drug policy is not supported by science, you need to trash the science -- and the scientist -- not the failed policy. It fired a leading voice for science- and evidence-based drug policies last Friday for what amounted to heresy against official dogma.
Chronicle
Latin America: Mexico Drug War Update
No break in Mexico's prohibition-related violence as the death toll since December 2006, when President Calderon called in the army, has now topped 15,000. The latest victims include a US soldier gunned down in a Ciudad Juárez strip club with five other people.
Chronicle
Marijuana Legalization: California Poll of Primary Voters Finds Narrow Majority Say Keep It Illegal
A new poll of likely California primary voters has a majority in favor of maintaining marijuana prohibition, but the pollster said that should not be read as suggesting legalization initiatives will necessarily go down to defeat. Different polling questions and populations provide different results, he said.
Chronicle
Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
The drug war corrodes the integrity of law enforcement in multiple ways, as we see this week: Testilying, sexual extortion, thievery, and the usual just plain old corrupt practices.
Chronicle
Europe: Dutch Cannabis Café Owner on Trial Over Amount of Pot on Hand
Dutch authorities at all levels are tightening the screws on the country's famous cannabis coffee shops, and now a prominent coffee shop owner is on trial for violating the rules about how much he can have on hand.
Chronicle
Feature: Veterans Incarcerated and Ignored When They Could Be Getting Help, Report Finds
Nearly a quarter of a million American veterans were behind bars in 2004, many of them for drug abuse-related offenses, a new report finds. While the military, the Veterans Administration, and other agencies are taking some steps to help them, there is much more that could -- and should -- be done.
Chronicle
Weekly: This Week in History
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
Chronicle
Feature: Maine Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Maine has become the latest state to approve state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries. It joins New Mexico and Rhode Island. But locally-allowed (or not) dispensaries are the rule in California, Colorado, and Washington. Both paths have their pluses and minuses.
Chronicle
Drug Legalization: Senator Pushes Amendment to Censor Any Talk of That
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is floating an amendment to Jim Webb's bill to create a commission on criminal justice reforms. Grassley's amendment would bar any talk of legalization or decriminalization.
Chronicle
The Border: US Begins Turning Busted Smugglers Over to Mexico for Prosecution
For years, federal prosecutors on the US-Mexican border have been so swamped with smuggling cases that they refuse to prosecute busts under 500 pounds. Local prosecutors can't handle the overflow, either, so now, the US is sending busted Mexican pot smugglers back home to be prosecuted.
Chronicle
LAST CHANCE: Help StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) Win $50,000 in America's Giving Challenge
"America's Giving Challenge" is offering prizes ranging from $500 to $50,000 to nonprofits who get the largest number of gifts from supporters between now and November 7 (TOMORROW). Any gift of $10 or higher -- made through the "Causes" program, which is linked in to Facebook -- counts equally toward the prize, and gifts can be made up to once a day. StoptheDrugWar.org is a contestant, and we're asking for your help by participating and by spreading the word.
Blog
New Evidence Proves That Legalization Won't Increase Marijuana Use
No concept is more central to any defense of our oppressive marijuana laws than the argument that use will increase dramatically under legalization. Opposition to marijuana reform rests in its entirety upon the premise that marijuana = bad & more marijuana = more bad.
And yet, there exists a powerfully simple example of how wrong that is. There's really nothing groundbreaking about this latest data, but I can only assume it's surprising new information for anyone who thinks legalization is a one-way ticket to oblivion:
When it comes to debating the impact of allowing marijuana sales, there is no data more important, more relevant and more revealing than this. The Dutch people can buy marijuana anytime they want, but a huge majority of them choose not to. All of this serves to illustrate a very simple, yet significant, fact about marijuana that everyone should know: people who donât want marijuana will not use it no matter how legal and available it is.
The very idea that there exists a vast population of potential marijuana users deterred solely by the drug's illegal status is just wrong. That's not how this works. You see, no one respects our marijuana laws. People who enjoy marijuana will overwhelmingly make their own decision about it and the only thing the government can do is literally rip it out of our freedom-loving hands one at a time. We all know how badly that effort has played out.
The bottom line here is that when we debate marijuana policy, we are not weighing competing visions of how much marijuana use is acceptable in our society. The only question to be addressed â the only issue we have control over â is whether it makes moral and practical sense to punish people for marijuana. We don't get to decide how many people will use it. But it's our decision how to treat those who do.
And yet, there exists a powerfully simple example of how wrong that is. There's really nothing groundbreaking about this latest data, but I can only assume it's surprising new information for anyone who thinks legalization is a one-way ticket to oblivion:
Dutch among lowest cannabis users in Europe-report
AMSTERDAM, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands' well-known tolerance of the drug, according to a regional study published on Thursday. Among adults in the Netherlands, 5.4 percent used cannabis, compared with the European average of 6.8 percent, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, using latest available figures. [Reuters]
When it comes to debating the impact of allowing marijuana sales, there is no data more important, more relevant and more revealing than this. The Dutch people can buy marijuana anytime they want, but a huge majority of them choose not to. All of this serves to illustrate a very simple, yet significant, fact about marijuana that everyone should know: people who donât want marijuana will not use it no matter how legal and available it is.
The very idea that there exists a vast population of potential marijuana users deterred solely by the drug's illegal status is just wrong. That's not how this works. You see, no one respects our marijuana laws. People who enjoy marijuana will overwhelmingly make their own decision about it and the only thing the government can do is literally rip it out of our freedom-loving hands one at a time. We all know how badly that effort has played out.
The bottom line here is that when we debate marijuana policy, we are not weighing competing visions of how much marijuana use is acceptable in our society. The only question to be addressed â the only issue we have control over â is whether it makes moral and practical sense to punish people for marijuana. We don't get to decide how many people will use it. But it's our decision how to treat those who do.
Blog
Another Legalization Discussion From FOX News
Check out LEAP's Jack Cole on Andrew Napolitano's Freedom Watch program:
When you've got a cop and a judge on FOX News talking about ending the drug war, you know we're headed in the right direction.
In The Trenches
Last chance to buy tickets for DPA conference
Dear friends:
It's not too late to join MPP staff at the 2009 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Albuquerque on November 12-14. The conference â hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance and co-sponsored by MPP and other organizations â will bring together leading drug policy experts to weigh in on issues such as medical marijuana legislative efforts, marijuana arrests, and quite a few other drug policy reform topics.
MPP staffers will be on hand to discuss topics like messaging, effective activism, and medical marijuana patients' rights.
Here are a few examples of sessions featuring MPP staff:
* Aaron Houston, MPP's director of government relations, will talk about Congress, President Obama, and the drug czar.
* Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies, will talk about medical marijuana patients' rights and safe access to medical marijuana.Â
* I'll speak on a panel about how to leverage this crucial moment in the fight to end marijuana prohibition.
This conference happens only once every two years, so if you miss this one, you'll have to wait two years for the next one. You can find more information and register by visiting http://www.reformconference.org today.
Will you join MPP at the one of the most important drug policy events of 2009? We hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
 
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.