Drug War Chronicle #922 - March 29, 2016
Dear Drug War Chronicle reader:
Please accept my apology for the absence of Chronicle emails from your inbox these past few weeks. My time has been consumed with our work on global drug policy reform, as next month's "UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem" (UNGASS) approaches. You can read something about what we've been doing in a news article here. Some important work like the Chronicle email editions unfortunately slipped through the cracks amidst the press of things.
Please note that Chronicle articles are published straight to our web site on most days, and can be accessed through our home page or at http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle on any timetable you'd like, whether or not an email has gone out. Today's issue of Drug War Chronicle includes the major pieces we published during the last few weeks, as well as the most recent of our daily "Chronicle AM" roundups and other standard pieces.
Lastly, if you subscribe to the full-text edition of Chronicle emails, please note that those will probably return next week, but may wait until the last week of April after the aforementioned UN session is completed, due to the time constraints. If so, you'll continue to receive these table-of-contents editions in the meanwhile.
- David Borden, Executive Director
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With Final House Vote, Pennsylvania Set to Become 24th Medical Marijuana State
The bill had been held up for months, but now it is moving fast.
UN headquarters, New York City (Creative Commons)
Open Letter in Advance of the UNGASS Calls for Obama to Go Bold
More than 200 organizations have signed on to a letter to President Obama urging him to take a strong stance for reform at the UNGASS on Drugs next month.
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Bill Maher-Inspired Protest Will Smoke Out the White House
DC's leading legalization advocate reschedules 4/20 to protest Obama's inaction.
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Review Essay: Drugs and the Mutation of Criminality in Latin America
Fed by poverty and social inequality and fueled by the drug war and the profits to be made, novel forms of criminality are emerging in Latin America. Two reporters and a novelist try to understand.
Joep Oomen RIP (voc-nederland.org)
European Drug Reform Stalwart Joep Oomen Dead at 54
One of our friends is gone too soon.
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Medical Marijuana Update
A medical marijuana bill is promised in Ohio, bills to expand medical marijuana get filed in New York, patients and supporters rally to demand action in Iowa, and more.
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February's Drug War Deaths
Police enforcing the drug laws killed four people last month, two of them unarmed.
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Drug War Idiocy: One Indiana Deputy Killed, Another Wounded in Midnight Drug Raid Over a Syringe
That's a pretty poor reason for a midnight drug raid.
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This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
A crooked Louisiana deputy working on a DEA task force pleads guilty, an Ohio reserve police officer gets caught slinging ecstasy, and more.
The FDA is mandating a "black box" warning for opioid pain pills. (wikimedia.org)
Chronicle AM: Pain Pills to Get "Black Box" Warning, FL to Get Syringe Exchanges, More... (3/23/16)
The Vermont marijuana legalization bill gets a first House hearing, it's do or die tomorrow for Georgia CBD legislation, the FDA orders "black box" warning for quick-acting prescription opioids, Florida's governor has signed a syringe exchange bill into law,and more.
Moves to subject people seeking public benefits to drug testing expand to two more states. (wikimedia.org)
Chronicle AM: TN Pregnant Women Drug Law Fails, AR Welfare Drug Testing Starting, More... (3/24/16)
An asset forfeiture reform bill moves in New Hampshire, Arkansas and West Virginia advance welfare drug testing, a global commission on public health calls for drug decriminalization, and more.
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Chronicle AM: New AP Poll Has 61% for Pot Legalization, PA MedMJ Bill Not a Done Deal Yet, More... (3/25/16)
Sixty-one percent of respondents said "legalize it" in a new AP poll, Vermont's pro-legalization governor attacks the Massachusetts legalization initiative, a Georgia CBD bill dies, a drug war justice caravan begins heading from Central America to the UN in New York, and more.
Shona Banda is suing the state of Kansas, local police, and a local school district over her son's removal from her home.
Chronicle AM: Michiganders Say Legalize, Kansas MedMj Mom Sues Over Son's Removal, More... (3/28/16)
Popular sentiment favors marijuana legalization in Michigan, Denver activists plan an initiative to approve cannabis social clubs, Florida's CBD cannabis oil law gets expanded, and more.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.