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Drug war chokes agriculture

Due to drug-prohibition violence at the US-Mexican border, US authorities are requiring Mexican cattle to be inspected on the US side which is increasing costs to ranchers in a number of ways.
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The War on Marijuana = Federal $$$ for Local Cops

If you've ever wondered how police departments can afford to send so many officers off into the woods looking for pot plants, the Wall Street Journal just figured it out:



IGO, Calif.—Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, his budget under pressure in a weak economy, has laid off staff, reduced patrols and even released jail inmates. But there's one mission on which he's spending more than in recent years: pot busts.

The reason is simple: If he steps up his pursuit of marijuana growers, his department is eligible for roughly half a million dollars a year in federal anti-drug funding, helping save some jobs. The majority of the funding would have to be used to fight pot. Marijuana may not be the county's most pressing crime problem, the sheriff says, but "it's where the money is."

Every year, more money is spent and more marijuana is discovered. The growers then respond by planting still more. New records are set every harvest season, keeping growers and the police who pursue them steadily employed. The big losers in this ridiculous cycle of idiocy are the taxpayers, who spend billions on this stupid self-perpetuating escapade while neighborhood crimes go unsolved.

Just because some people think legalizing marijuana might "send the wrong message," we're instead stuck in a massive domestic war that we can't afford, and we're losing worse every year. Meanwhile, cops and criminals just continue cashing in.

For more, check out this interesting exchange between MPP's Mike Meno and a California reporter who's been following the story.

Today is Juvenile Justice National Call-in Day

Announcement

Sentencing Project
 

Today's the Day!

Tell Your Congressional Representatives to Make Juvenile Justice a Priority This Year


For too long, "tough on crime" political rhetoric has resulted in juvenile justice policies that are bad for youth and don't keep the public safe. More effective ways to deal with juvenile offenders exist, and now is the time for Congress to take action, but we need your help.

Right now please let Congress know that voters care about juvenile justice reforms.

Three major juvenile justice initiatives remained stalled in the Congress:

·         Reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), which is currently three years overdue for reauthorization. The JJDPA, first enacted in 1974, promotes the use of effective community-based alternatives to detention, keeps youth out of adult facilities, reduces the disproportionate involvement of youth of color in the system, and promotes other research-driven best practices in the juvenile justice system. Call on Congress to reauthorize the JJDPA bill, S. 678.

·         Increasing appropriations for juvenile justice programs, which were the only category of children's programs that received a significant decrease in funding in the President's proposed budget. In order for the States to make positive changes, they must receive the federal support they need to prevent youth crime and rehabilitate juvenile offenders. States have experienced a steady decline in funding for juvenile justice programs since 2002. Ask Congress to preserve and increase juvenile justice appropriations for the coming fiscal year.

·         Passing the Youth PROMISE Act to promote cost-effective prevention-based strategies to reduce youth crime. Among many improvements to juvenile justice, this legislation allows representatives from the communities facing the greatest juvenile crime challenges to develop a comprehensive plan to prevent youth crime through a coordinated prevention and intervention response. 

Action item:  Today, contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. House Representative and urge them to make juvenile justice a priority in the 111th Congress by:

•    Reauthorizing the JJDPA;
•    Increasing juvenile justice appropriations; and
•    Passing the Youth PROMISE Act.

Click here to contact your Congressional Representative and Senators today. After entering your zip code, you will be provided with the phone numbers for your representatives, along with suggested talking points and a feedback form to report on the response you received.

Thank you for your help.

 

The Sentencing Project is located at 1705 DeSales Street, NW 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20036.  Send an email to The Sentencing Project.

The Sentencing Project is a national, non-profit organization engaged in research and advocacy for criminal justice reform.

Investigators raid medical marijuana protest organizer

John Roberts, a legal medical marijuana patient and caretaker, organized a protest outside the Saginaw County Courthouse last week accusing the Saginaw County Sheriff of illegally raiding patients and caretakers. Now he's been raided by the DEA, which confiscated his medical marijuana and growing equipment even though under Michigan state law he and his fiance may possess 132 plants and a little more than one and a half pounds of usable marijuana. Roberts believes the timing of the raid to be clear indication of payback by misguided law enforcement.

ACLU alleges Pawtucket gave illegal drug test

Perhaps the most damaging Constitutional causualty of drug prohibition has been the erosion of the 4th Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union has held for years that random drug testing is illegal. They are helping a woman who serves as a police department matron and court interpreter in Pawtucket, RI sue the city after she was forced to take a drug test in order to keep her job.
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A Scary New Drug Threatens Our Children: Nutmeg

Just watch this news report and try not to laugh:


My favorite part is at the end when the anchor concludes, "Wow. Well, parents have a very real concern about the nutmeg, but so far there are no reports of deaths from nutmeg overdose." That is classic.

Here's the thing about nutmeg: it sucks. According to Erowid, its effects "are considered unpleasant by most who experience them." I've never heard it compared to marijuana before today. For thousands of years, nutmeg has disappointed people who were stupid enough to try getting high on it.

So, there's actually only one way that an epidemic of nutmeg abuse could ever occur, and that's if someone makes news reports about how you can get high on it, stirs parents into a panicked frenzy, and inadvertently puts the idea in teenagers' heads to go screw around with giant bottles of nutmeg. Nice going, FOX.

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Huff Post: UN Drug Policy in the Dark Ages

I'm on Huffington Post again tonight, with a post chastising the UN (and western governments generally) for: 1) continuing the ludicrous coca runaround in South America's Andean region for another year; and 2) turning a blind eye year after year to the indirect support that western funds and cooperation gives to the death penalty for nonviolent drug offenses, mostly in Asia and the Middle East. Check it out here -- comments welcome in either location. If you haven't already, check out our Chronicle articles on these two topics here and here.

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What's the Big Deal About Narco-Subs?

The DEA is proud of having helped Ecuadoran authorities capture this "narco-sub":

Silly DEA -- don't they realize what the implications are, of drug traffickers having the wherewithal to operate a submarine? It means they have effectively unlimited resources to devote to the task of finding a way to get their product from point A to point B, and to reducing the cost associated with doing so. If it's not over the border, it's under it. If it's not by air, it's on the sea. If not on the sea, then under the sea -- using narco-subs. Apparently lots of narco-subs:

Oh, and don't forget, if not here, then there. Silly DEA. Random thought on the DEA photograph: Does this remind anyone else of Yoda in the jungle on his planet, using the force to lift the damaged spacecraft, Empire Strikes Back movie?

Press Release: Colorado Petitioners Seek Medical Marijuana Access for PTSD Patients

MEDIA ADVISORY                                                                                                                                               

JULY 6, 2010

Colorado Petitioners Seek Medical Marijuana Access for PTSD Patients

At Rally Tomorrow, Veterans Will Submit Petition to Colorado Health Officials to Add PTSD to State’s Medical Marijuana Law

CONTACT: Brian Vicente, Sensible Colorado: 720-280-4067 or [email protected]; or Mike Meno, MPP director of communications: 202-905-2030 or [email protected]

 

SOUTH DENVER, COLORADO — Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 7, the medical marijuana advocacy group Sensible Colorado and local veterans will hold a press conference and rally to coincide with the official submission of a petition to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment that would add post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, to the list of conditions eligible for medical marijuana recommendations in Colorado. The petition is being filed on behalf of Denver resident Kevin Grimsinger, a retired Army sergeant who served in Kosovo, Operation Desert Storm and Afghanistan. As detailed in a recent Denver Post article, Grimsinger suffers from PTSD related to stepping on a landmine in Afghanistan. Numerous studies, including a 2007 study in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, have found that marijuana can be an effective treatment for severe PTSD symptoms—a condition suffered by 20 percent of soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to 2008 RAND Corporation study.

         Despite such findings, earlier this year, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment actively lobbied members of the state legislature to oppose an amendment that would have allowed individuals diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder to have access to medical marijuana, if they have a recommendation from a psychiatrist. In 2009, the New Mexico Department of Health added PTSD to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana patients in that state after a recommendation of approval from an advisory board of eight medical practitioners, who examined the evidence and determined that the use of marijuana by patients with PTSD could be a beneficial treatment option, if used in accordance with a recommendation from a psychiatrist.

         WHAT: Press conference and rally to support medical marijuana access for PTSD patients

         WHEN: Wednesday, July 7, at 11 a.m.

         WHERE: 4300 Cherry Creek Drive, South Denver (CO Dept. of Public Health and Environment)

         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.

####

Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc.: July 2010 Agenda & June Minutes



Monthly Public Meeting Agenda
Lawrence Twp. Library (Mercer County) Room #3
Tuesday, July 13, 2010; 7:00 PM -- 9:00 PM

7:00 PM:  Call meeting to order.   Approve May 2010 minutes.  Discuss:

NJ Senate and Assembly approved a 90-day delay in implementing the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, which was scheduled to take effect July 1, 2010.  CMMNJ held a rally & press conference to oppose the delay on 6/17 in Jersey City.  More amendments to come? See NBC coverage of the issue.  Send a pre-written letter to your NJ legislator today opposing any more changes to the law.   CMMNJ received a reply from DHSS.

Report from Jahan Marcu, a cannabinoid researcher from Temple U. School of Medicine.

Cures Not Wars press conference at Manhattan City Hall steps, Thurs., 7/8, from 10-11 AM.

Upcoming CMMNJ events: MS Patients Support Group in Livingston, NJ, 7/12/10 @ 7 pm;  Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ, 7/31/10, 8pm--12 MN;  Rittenhouse Square Concert Series 8/6, 8/13 & 8/20; Stakeholders Meeting with ASA's Steph Sherer 8/21 10-4PM; NJ League of Municipalities, 11/15-18/10.  Volunteers needed for upcoming events.

Treasury report: Checking: $4,387.71; PayPal: $2,017.43.  Tax-deductible donations to CMMNJ, a 501(c)(3) public charity may be made through Paypal on our web site, or send a check made out to "CMMNJ" to the address below.  Get a free t-shirt for a donation above $15—specify size.  (100 new t-shirts received--$700; 500 magnets ordered--$170.)
  
CMMNJ's scheduled meetings are the second Tuesday of each month at the Lawrence Twp. Library from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM.  All are welcome.  Snacks are served.  The library is at 2751 Brunswick Pike, Lawrence Twp., Tel. #609.882.9246.   (Meeting at the library does not imply their endorsement of our issue.)  For more info, contact:

Ken Wolski, RN, MPA
Executive Director, Coalition for Medical Marijuana—New Jersey, Inc. www.cmmnj.org
219 Woodside Ave.
Trenton, NJ 08618    
(609) 394-2137 [email protected]



 
 
Monthly Public Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, June 8 2010; 7:00 PM -- 9:00 PM
Lawrence Twp. Library, Mercer County, NJ

7:00 PM:  Call meeting to order.   May 2010 minutes approved.   Discussion:

The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act is scheduled to take effect in July 2010.  Gov. Christie asks for 6 -- 12 month delay.  CMMNJ held a press conference June 4, 2010 on the State House steps in Trenton to say "no" to the delay.  Chris Goldstein gave a review of the media coverage. 

CMMNJ's supporters are asked to tell NJ state officials to implement the law as written.  Contact Governor Christie: http://www.nj.gov/governor/contact/
Contact DHSS Commissioner Alaigh: http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/dhss/contact/contact.pl?page=marijuana  CMMNJ is sending another letter to DHSS. 

NORML will be asked to provide a Capwiz letter to send to legislators.  (Request to have a Roll Call of legislative supporters on web site.)  Steve C.
detailed how he suffers from Crohn's Disease without access to marijuana while paying exorbitant prices for less effective pharmaceuticals.  Several LTE's already published.  Diane Forrnbacher is coordinating Patients Advisory Group.  Svet Milic, Peter Rosenfeld & Frank Fulbrook are coordinating the ATC Advisory Board.

Events:  New Jersey State Nurses Assn. "Medical Marijuana Breakfast" was postponed.  Excellent front page article in the May/June 2010 edition of The American Nurse, "Exploring the science of medical marijuana."  Report of successful Gay Pride Parade on 6/6/10 in Asbury Park.  

Upcoming CMMNJ events:; Jersey City Press Conference, 6/17/10 at City Hall, 1:00 PM; Southern Shore Music Festival, 6/19/10, Bridgeton, NJ, noon to 8 PM; Project Freedom Wellness Fair, Lawrence Twp., 6/22/10 3 pm to 7 pm; MS Patients Support Group in Livingston, NJ, 7/12/10 @ 7 pm;  Dingbatz in
Clifton, NJ, 7/31/10, 8pm--12 MN;  NJ League of Municipalities, Atlantic City, 11/15-18/10.  Board to discuss Rittenhouse Sq. Concert series.

Treasury report: Checking: $2,789.79; PayPal: $2640.34. More magnets & t-shirts ordered. 

CMMNJ's scheduled meetings are the second Tuesday of each month at the Lawrence Twp. Library from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM.  All are welcome.  Snacks are served.  The library is at 2751 Brunswick Pike, Lawrence Twp., Tel. #609.882.9246.   (Meeting at the library does not imply their endorsement of our issue.)  For more info, contact: Ken Wolski, RN, MPA, 219 Woodside Ave., Trenton, NJ 08618     (609) 394-2137 [email protected] www.cmmnj.org

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