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Hey Barack Obama, Fixing Marijuana Laws is Smart Politics

As the Obama campaign appears to gain momentum, the Senator has been reluctant to support any change in the way recreational marijuana users are treated by the criminal justice system. Given Obama's past sympathy for marijuana reform, it's a pretty safe bet that his current position is politically calculated. But what if he's making the wrong calculations?

As SSDP's Tom Angell explains in this LTE, actual public support for marijuana decriminalization simply defies conventional political wisdom:
Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman is absolutely right that decriminalizing marijuana will save taxpayers boatloads of money and free up limited resources so that police can focus on preventing violent crime, as he pointed out in his recent column "A truth Obama won't dare tell" (Commentary, Feb. 3).

But it's absolutely wrong of Chapman to say, as he does in the column, that endorsing this common-sense policy change "would be considered political suicide" for a presidential candidate like U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

To the contrary, a CNN/Time Magazine poll taken in 2002 shows that 72 percent of Americans support marijuana decriminalization.

Obama's latest position opposing decriminalization will only win him favor with the mere 19 percent of Americans who, according to the poll, favor the continued arrest and jailing of otherwise law-abiding citizens who happen to use marijuana.

Supporting the criminalization of responsible adults is not only a senseless and cruel public policy, it is politically foolish. [Chicago Tribune]

Of course, polling data like this doesn’t necessarily reflect precisely how those same people will behave at the ballot box. And, as Pete Guither explains, any candidate endorsing reform faces the prospect of vicious mischaracterizations from their opposition.

All of this is true. Still, success in American politics has always depended on a candidate's ability to gracefully negotiate divisive issues. Just as an opponent's harsh attacks might chip away support for a controversial policy position, so may passionate words and sound reasoning reshape public opinion itself, turning polling data on its head and bringing legitimacy to ideas long relegated to the political fringes.

In that rare instant when the pre-written script is abandoned and the truth is permitted to speak for a moment on its own behalf, we have no frame of reference for the political viability of marijuana reform in presidential politics. The "foolishness" Tom describes is the mistake of recognizing common ground within the electorate and declining to indulge and nurture public values which run parallel to the candidate's own.

I suspect that the moment an already exciting and change-driven candidate takes the marijuana issue on the offensive and challenges Americans to envision a better policy, the popular preconceptions of our pundits and politicians will be disproved. If I am correct, then the biggest obstacle facing any politician who'd like to reform our marijuana laws is nothing other than his/her own willingness to throw the first punch.


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Check out this article!

The lunacy of the UAE (Dubai) is described rather well here: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/08/uaes-very-scary-drug.html I took the liberty of asking for a donation to DrCNet and Leap in post #61.
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Drug Czar's $2.7 Million Super Bowl Ad Gets Terrible Viewer Ratings

Did you see the Drug Czar's Super Bowl ad last week? The one with a drug dealer complaining that he'd lost all his customers because all the kids are getting high for free by stealing prescriptions from their parents' medicine cabinet? No? Well, don't worry because no one else noticed it either.

USA Today reports that ONDCP's latest ad was rated second-worst out of all 54 ads appearing during the game. Just look how many stupid ads were still vastly more popular than ONDCP's. And the #1 spot was a Budweiser™ ad, of course, which just goes to show how people would rather be offered beer than be encouraged not to eat random pills.

As usual, ONDCP's failure comes at a high cost to everyone, specifically a mind-blowing $2.7 million in tax dollars for 30 forgettable seconds. It's almost as if ONDCP's ad campaign is liquidating its remaining assets after their latest brutal congressional funding slash.

Will Congress now get the message and finally stop subsidizing this embarrassing spectacle? Hopefully so, but for once I almost feel sympathy for the Drug Czar. I've criticized ONDCP for focusing on marijuana despite the fatalities associated with increasing abuse of prescription drugs. This new message is a step in right direction and I'd give 'em the benefit of the doubt if the ad didn’t utterly suck.

The whole premise is ridiculous, implying that pharmaceutical diversion is bankrupting the illicit drug market. The last thing anyone needs is a $2.7 million announcement from the Drug Czar that we've basically won the war on illegal drugs and must now simply lock our medicine cabinets and march merrily towards total drug-freedom. Meanwhile, the actual risks associated with prescription drug abuse are ignored entirely. After all, there is a powerful perfectly legitimate industry that markets these drugs on the very same airwaves and you can bet that you'll never hear ONDCP enumerate their dangers with the same vigor they've routinely brought to bear in their towering archive of anti-marijuana propaganda.

So no, there's really nothing surprising or coincidental about the fact that ONDCP's new campaign against pharmaceutical diversion is its most boring to date.
In The Trenches

Letter from the Drug Czar: Don't help the Marijuana Policy Project

[Courtesy of MPP] Dear MPP Supporter: Now that most of the 50 state legislatures are back in session — and many are considering marijuana-related bills — I’ve decided it’s time for me to lay down the gauntlet. I'm concerned. Last year, you and MPP made my life difficult by making Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law permanent and expanding the medical marijuana law in Vermont. Unfortunately, there’s an even bigger explosion of legislative activity in the state legislatures this year. So I’m ordering you not to make a monthly credit card pledge to MPP to support the following state lobbying activities this year: MPP has retained professional lobbyists to pass medical marijuana bills in Illinois, Minnesota, and New York — something my office isn’t permitted to spend money on. And in California, MPP’s Sacramento lobbyists and a wide coalition of medical marijuana supporters are working to pass legislation that would prevent local and state law enforcement officials from cooperating with the DEA in its raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. Worse yet, MPP is spending your money to pass marijuana decriminalization bills in New Hampshire and Vermont. Local press reports have been favorable to the efforts and — outrageously — the Vermont Judiciary Committee passed the decrim bill by a 4-1 vote just five days ago! In Ohio and Kansas, recipients of MPP grant money are working to pass medical marijuana bills in both states. And other horrible — you would probably call them “good” — marijuana-related bills are also pending or imminent in Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. Some people say that I’ve been lying, propagandizing, and illegally spending taxpayer money for the seven years I’ve been in charge of the federal government’s drug war. But how could these claims even be true, given that MPP has continued to have success after success with a much smaller budget? This must stop now. It’s vitally important that you not join MPP’s monthly pledge program. With candor, honesty, and love, John Walters P.S. I was especially upset that MPP’s Rob Kampia referred to me as an "ugly man with a cold heart" in his interview with the Austin Chronicle in August. Who the heck does Mr. Kampia think he is? ========================================================= The Marijuana Policy Project hopes that each of the 180,000 subscribers on our national e-mail list will make at least one financial donation to MPP's work in 2008. Please visit http://www.mpp.org/donate to donate now. MPP will be able to tackle all of the projects in its 2008 strategic plan -- http://www.mpp.org/2008plan -- if you and other allies choose to fund our work.
Event

MN: Second Chance Day on the Hill

Please join us for this very special event. This day is a day for all of us. It is the chance to turn back the tide and NOT end up like Illinois, with 47 prisons and 30,000 inmates in re-entry each year. Or, Wisconsin, with 32 prisons.
In The Trenches

Minnesota: Second Chance Day on the Hill

[Courtesy of Second Chance Day on the Hill] Greetings, On February 13, 2008 in the Rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol between the hours of 11:00 and 12:00, large numbers of people will converge for the first ever "Second Chance Day on the Hill." In Minnesota, our prison population has increased by over 45% in the past five years. 6,000 people per year leave corrections and return to their communities. They cannot find jobs at a living wage. They have great difficulties finding affordable and adequate housing. They are ineligibile for Financial Aid to go to school and for many other basic services. Representative Michael Paymar, Senator Julianne Ortman, Anoka County Attorney Bob Johnson (Former Chair, ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions), Dan Cain (RS Eden, former MN Sentencing Guidelines Commissioner), Les Green (SCSU, former Parole Board Commissioner), and our good friend, Sue Watlov-Phillips (Co-founder of the National Coalition for the Homeless, ED of Project Elim) will be amongst those speaking--full slate attached. We have one of the best corrections systems in the United States, yet I submit that if we continue to increase the number of incarcerated at the current levels, the system will break...as it has in 5 other States where, according to a recent study by the Justice Policy Centers, the budget for Corrections exceeded the budget for Education. Whether you are driven to the table via work on; Racial justice: (3.5% of our citizens are Black, yet they form 35% of our prison population; Natives 1%, with over 7% of the incarcerated); Homelessness: Wilder's last survey noted a 30%+ increase in the number of those without housing (of our 20,000+ homeless) who cited criminal records as a barrier to sustainabilty. Mental Health: We have become the "New Bedlam" after the infamous hospital in 19th century England where the mentally ill were indiscriminately housed with predatory offenders. In a city (Minneapolis) where a schizophrenic panhandler who was homeless was arrested 47 times...how was his behavior corrected? Answer: It wasn't. Veterans: In 1998 there were over 221,000 veterans in prison and Jail in the USA, and now we have over 200,000 on the streets, homeless. As our young women and men fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan they fight for Democracy and Freedom in the name of a nation that imprisons more of its own citizens than any nation on the face of the earth. No matter who you are, surely you see the problem in that set of statistics. The Chemically Dependant: Since 1980, the number of those in prison for non-violent offenses in the US has increased 600%. Our corrections budgets exceed the costs of the current conflicts in the Middle East. In the words of Justice Kennedy (paraphrased) in his 2002 to the ABA Hall of delegates, "I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that an 18 year old sentenced to 10 years in prison cannot conceive of what 10 years means." How does a jail cell "fix" an addiction? Members of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession: Surely, you must see this series of problems more clearly than all of us...the endless chain of men and women in their 20s who mull through the dockets day after day, year after year...in time, perhaps, they (we) become just numbers. Surely, what you see each day must strike you as an impossible equation to carry out for another 25 years. This day is a day for all of us. It is the chance to turn back the tide and NOT end up like Illinois, with 47 prisons and 30,000 inmates in re-entry each year. Or, Wisconsin, with 32 prisons. My grandfather was a physician at the Mayo Clinic. My Dad a College professor for 37 years. I, like so many of us in the 70s, strayed. I've been a soldier, a homeless veteran, a teacher and a social worker. I've come to see and understand the need for Second Chances. Once, we believed in and took pride in being the State that treated those who were ill...now we lock them up. Surely, this situation is not tenable for much longer and I think we all sense that. Join us for this event. It is one last chance for us to pause and ask, "Is this really what we want for our children, for the next generation?" Surely, we were meant to be so much more. Guy Gambill Community Organizer Second Chance Day on the Hill (612)-208-1815 (612)-644-4817
Event

WOLA & IPS Brown Bag Discussion: Conceptions of Coca

Please join us for this important discussion! For Bolivia’s indigenous majority, the coca leaf has deep historical, religious and cultural value. Coca leaves are chewed or consumed as a tea – mate de coca – served widely throughout Bolivia and Peru. The Coca-Cola Company purchases Peruvian coca leaves, which are used as a flavoring agent in the world’s most popular soft drink. More recently developed coca-based products include baking flour, toothpaste, shampoo, wine and various medicinal products. Yet the coca leaf has often been vilified in international debates and treaties. Presently, there is an international campaign to remove the coca leaf from Schedule 1 of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, where coca is listed as a dangerous drug along with cocaine and heroin. Bolivia and Peru have long protested the lack of differentiation between the coca leaf and cocaine in the 1961 Convention and Bolivia’s election of President Evo Morales has given new impetus to efforts to change the convention.
Event
In The Trenches

Tuesday: Meet Your Senators! Drop in on their District Offices Today!

[Courtesy of ASA]

Dear ASA Supporter,

Celebrate Medical Marijuana Awareness Week by urging your U.S. Senators to support medical cannabis research! Today and tomorrow, hundreds of activists throughout the country are “dropping in” on their U.S. Senators’ district offices. Join your fellow activists as they seek out their U.S. Senators’ at their local district offices today to talk about supporting access for FDA-approved medical cannabis research. Urge your Senators to support medical marijuana research by signing-on to the letter Senators Kennedy and Kerry are circulating to enable FDA-approved research. Visit www.AmericansforSafeAccess.org/MMJWeekTuesday to take action right away!

Background:
The federal government refuses to allow private researchers and scientists to conduct medical cannabis research using their own non-governmental materials, creating an obstruction for FDA-approved medical cannabis research. At the same time, the FDA and DEA claim there is not enough research to determine the medicinal values of marijuana. This hypocrisy and gridlock must end now!

Drop in on your U.S. Senators’ local district offices on today! Visit www.Senate.gov for contact information for your local district office.

When meeting with your Senators’ offices please bring with you the following materials, which are enclosed in this packet:

 


1. The Kennedy/Kerry letter of support
2. Research/Gridlock campaign fact sheet
3. University of MA’s letter of support

What to Ask:
Please support medical cannabis research by co-signing the Kennedy/Kerry letter to Acting DEA Administrator, Michele Leonhart, urging her agency to follow the recommendation of Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner and grant a license to Prof. Lyle Craker of UMass Amherst to grow marijuana exclusively for federally-approved research. To join the letter, contact Graham Shalgian in Senator Kennedy’s office at 617 565-3170.

Follow Up:
At your meeting or drop-in, be sure to schedule a follow up meeting to discuss other pressing national medical cannabis issues. After you take action, be sure to contact [email protected] to let us know how it went!

If you have questions about scheduling meetings with your senators’ offices, contact [email protected] or call (510) 251-1856 ext. 321

Sincerely,

Caren Woodson
Director, Government Affairs
Americans for Safe Access

In The Trenches

Monday: Join the Movement, Become a Member of ASA Today!

[Courtesy of ASA]

Dear ASA Supporter,

Welcome to Medical Marijuana Week! Today, we're calling on you to "Join the Movement" by becoming a member of ASA. Donate today. Your voice needs to be heard, and we need your support to keep fighting for patients’ rights more than ever. Don’t wait any longer to get on board!

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. ASA works to overcome political and legal barriers by creating policies that improve access to medical cannabis for patients and researchers through legislation, education, litigation, grassroots actions, advocacy and services for patients and their providers. ASA has over 40,000 active members with chapters and affiliates in more than 40 states.

Medical cannabis patients and current Executive Director Steph Sherer founded ASA in 2002 in response to federal raids on patients in California. Since then, ASA has been instrumental in shaping the political and legal landscape of medical cannabis. Our successful lobbying, media, and legal campaigns led to positive court precedents, new sentencing standards, more compassionate legislative and administrative polices and procedures, as well as new legislation.

 

2007 Major Accomplishments

  • September 2007: Defeats Senate amendment that would have blocked implementation of state medical marijuana laws
  • April 2007: Co-sponsors the largest annual HIV/AIDS constituent-based federal advocacy and education event in the US, training hundreds of HIV/AIDS advocates to lobby for medical cannabis issues.
  • March 2007: Files successful vindictive prosecution motion in the federal case of Ed Rosenthal, leading to the dismissal of the majority of his charges.
  • February 2007: Files a lawsuit against the federal government demanding that the FDA and HHS stop spreading misinformation on medical cannabis and correct the information the have published.
  • January 2007: 500 patients and advocates rally outside the Los Angeles federal building, in protest of DEA raids.

Take action by joining ASA today!

  1. Donate to ASA: Take a moment right now to make a sustaining monthly pledge to defending safe access. Your monthly pledge of $10, $25, $50, or even $100 will let us know we have the resources to keep fighting for you!
  2. Spread the Word: Forward this message widely to friends, co-workers, and family to encourage them to join you in the national movement to protect safe access!

Sincerely,

Steph Sherer
Executive Director
Americans for Safe Access

Blog

On the Border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

I'm now down in the Lower Rio Grande Valley on the border between the US and Mexico. I've been staying in a hotel on the US side in McAllen, Texas, because, somewhat surprisingly, a hotel with an internet connection in the room is cheaper on this side. But I've been crossing the river every day to scout out Reynosa, the city of about half a million, on the other side, and to talk to informed observers, as well as common folks, there, about the recent wave of drug prohibtion-related violence and what can or should be done to reduce the toll. One thing I'm finding is that people are very nervous, whether its the man in the street, human rights observers, businessmen, or even the US enforcers on the north side of the river. The human rights advocate I spoke with didn't want his picture taken ("there are several narco families on my block"), the Reynosa businessmen absolutely refuse to say anything on the record (although they complain bitterly of local corruption), people on the street look around nervously when I ask about the drug trade and the violence, and when I tried to take photos of the border crossing here, ICE agents ran up and demanded I stop. While the violence here has subsided from the violent spasms of a few weeks ago, it continues, with my human rights observer reporting that another narco killing had occurred in the city Sunday night. That makes 14 so far this year in Reynosa, out of 23 total homicides. I'll be getting into some more of the numbers in a feature article on the situation here that will appear on Friday. The poverty in Reynosa is striking. There are guys trying to sell calendars on the streets, there are guys quite eager to show me the way to "Boys Town," and there are other guys quite eager to peddle whatever drug I desire. I haven't taken them up on that, though. Meanwhile, my schedule in Mexico City next week appears to be filling nicely. I'm set to meet with Congresswoman Elsa Conde, the author of the marijuana decriminalization bill, early in the week, as well as with a bunch of Mexican reform activists. I'll also be talking to various Mexican academic experts and people working with drug users in the city. And I take advantage of being in Mexico. Yesterday, I stuck my head in the door of one of the numerous dental clinics just across from the bridge in Reynosa that cater mainly to American visitors. Before I knew it, I was in the chair and getting that crown I had long needed but could never afford. It cost $125, no appointment necessary, in and out quickly, and now I can drink cold drinks again. I'll be trying to talk to as many people as possible here between now and Friday, so stay tuned.
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