A civil lawsuit filed yesterday against the city of Columbia and police officers claims a family’s constitutional rights were violated in a February SWAT raid at their home. The suit specifically cites violations of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the 14th Amendment, a citizens’ rights measure ratified after the Civil War.

A Mexican journalist threatened by drug gangs said he had been granted political asylum in the United States to escape the drug trafficking organizations' increasingly violent campaign to silence the media.

When Barron Bowling wouldn’t let a car pass him from the right seven years ago, it sparked road rage that left him beaten and lying on blistering pavement. Bowling’s attacker turned out to be federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent Timothy McCue, who was in an unmarked car with two colleagues.

 

The 2011 Montana legislature will be taking up changes to the Montana Medical Marijuana Act voters passed in 2004. Demonstrators held signs in Missoula, saying "Leave medical marijuana alone' and 'Don't take our medicine from us.' They warn the legislative bill could double fees for patients, limit caregivers' service, charge a $10,000 fee to dispensaries, and set other restrictions.

The Ann Arbor Chronicle is suing the city of Ann Arbor, claiming City Council members violated the state's Open Meetings Act by engaging in "secret discussions" during which they formulated plans for a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries. In the lawsuit filed in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on Friday, the Chronicle says council members held a closed session meeting on July 19 and broke the law by discussing and possibly giving a directive to the city attorney regarding medical marijuana policy.

The death toll from an ambush staged against police in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero has risen to eight, with one officer wounded, officials said.

Michelle Alexander, a longtime civil rights advocate, litigator, and author of 'The New Jim Crow', goes where mainstream journalists fear to tread. She explains how mass incarceration in the United States has emerged as a comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control -- and how those who turn a blind eye to the problem share in the blame.

The drug prohibition violence that's forced about 230,000 Juárez residents to flee their homes is likely to continue for several years, experts said. Edgardo Buscaglia, a global organized crime expert, said Mexico's president does not have the political support in his country to do what is needed to make a lasting change, which is to arrest and prosecute high-level politicians and business owners who protect the drug traffickers. Last year, the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute published a study by Hal Brands, "Mexico's Narco-Insurgency and U.S. Counterdrug Policy," that states "Narcotics-driven corruption is rampant, government control of large swaths of the country is tenuous at best, and predictions that Mexico is on the way to becoming a failed state are frequent."

As organized labor faces declining membership, one of the United States' most storied unions is looking to a new growth industry: marijuana.

The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland runs Ohio's only legal syringe exchange program. Cleveland first allowed syringe exchanges in 1995, when more than 17 percent of new HIV infections were associated with intravenous drug use. Last year, that number had fallen to 3.4 percent, according to the Cleveland Department of Public Health.

Tom Flanagan, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary and a former Conservative campaign manager, opines on why he thinks conservatives should be more consistent, and re-examine their views about an issue that is more important than the long-gun registry – prohibition of mind-altering drugs.

Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, opines on why he is convinced that Washington state will probably be one of the first two states to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.

Nicholas W. Payne, the Green Party candidate vying to unseat five-term incumbent Rep. Clark J. Chapin, R-New Milford, believes the state would save both dollars and lives by legalizing drugs. "This election's all about money, jobs and taxes," Payne said. "In New Milford you don't see violence on the streets ... It's the expense of (fighting illegal drugs) I'm going after."

T-Mobile "did not approve" of a company called EZ Texting, which does business with a website, WeedMaps.com, that provides information on the location of legal medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Today, EZ Texting sued T-Mobile in the U.S. District Court in New York City. EZ Texting says that on Sept. 10th, T-Mobile began "unlawful blocking" of its 313131 text service, which it offers to business and non-profits to help get their message to the public.

 

Drug prohibition has long been corrupting law enforcement in many ways. Now, the ACLU has taken Camden County and New Jersey officials to federal court on behalf of a man who spent more than a year in jail on drug charges, which were dismissed after the cops who arrested him were charged with planting evidence on him and many others.

Since legislation was passed in 2006 creating a medical marijuana program, Rhode Island has seen rapid growth in the number of people legally permitted to use medical marijuana to cope with a host of medical maladies, including chronic pain, anxiety, hypertension and nausea. There are now 2,250 patients in the program and 1,656 caregivers, or those permitted to grow up to 24 marijuana plants for designated patients. That’s more than double the numbers from a year ago.

The New England School of Alternative Horticultural Studies — previously billed as Rhode Island’s first medical marijuana school — has decided to cancel its inaugural class and indefinitely postpone operations over concerns that the Rhode Island Department of Health has not offered it explicit approval.

Mexico became a manufacturing mecca thanks, in part, to its inexpensive labor and proximity to the massive U.S. market. But there is a new reality on the ground in that country these days: a surge in violence tied to the prohibition-based war on drug traffickers that Mexico's President Felipe Calderon mounted after his election in 2006. The result has been a wave of kidnappings, extortion and murder that is threatening the country's economic health and causing multinationals to examine closely how they operate and invest in Mexico.

Drug prohibition isn't stopping Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). The Australian Crime Commission says highly sophisticated Mexican DTOs are having a significant impact on the Australian cocaine market. The surge is linked to one of the most powerful and brutal syndicates involved in the drug war in Mexico, the Sinaloa organization.

It appears that there is a growing contingent of marijuana users and people associated with the industry, both legal and illicit, who are actively fighting against efforts to make marijuana legal for all adults.

On the bullet-ridden streets of Mexico, weary residents ask a pertinent question about the recent arrests of some leading alleged drug traffickers -- do they really mean the Mexican government is regaining control or will they only lead to more bloodshed? GlobalPost's Ioan Grillo tracks the string of high-profile arrests, but concludes they won't end the drug war.

Authorities in 13 states thought they were acting to curb a public health threat when they outlawed a form of synthetic marijuana known as K2, a concoction of dried herbs sprayed with a synthetic cannabinoid. Barely six months after Kansas adopted the nation's first ban on K2, even police acknowledge that the laws are all but meaningless because merchants can so easily offer legal alternatives.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeau said illegal immigrants have been living in caves and operating as drug spotters. Residents are afraid to leave their homes because spotters watch their every move, Babeau said.

Mexico is celebrating its 200th anniversary as an independent nation and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican revolution. But some of the celebrations are being scaled back as the country is being swept by a wave of drug prohibition violence.

The medicine is now available over the counter, but it may soon become a controlled substance, according to the FDA. This is because some people ingest cough syrup containing Dextromethorphan for "robo-tripping" purposes. Manufacturers cite that fewer patients would be willing to see a physician for a simple cold and cough prescription, and thus would skip treatment, exacerbating a common and usually harmless condition, if cough syrups were restricted and made a prescription drug.

Washington has added chronic kidney failure to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana is permitted under state law but has rejected petitions to add Alzheimer's and neuropathic pain.

Old, wealthy men held hostage and humiliated; paramilitary cops in ski masks taking dudes into custody; people walking the streets in body armor, automatic weapons out; and all the dead bodies and shot-up cars. Facing a situation like that, it’s no surprise that Blog Del Narco’s author, who’s not even 30 years old, would want to stay anonymous. Which is why it’s remarkable that he’s given an interview to Boing Boing describing what it’s like to work in a wealthy city turned urban warzone.

Sydney, Australia's safe injecting site at Kings Cross will become a permanent fixture after operating on a trial basis since 2001. Legislation lifting the center's trial status will also confirm it will remain the only safe injecting center of its kind in New South Wales.

Relevant figures applicable to the debate over legalizing cannabis in California via Proposition 19 are presented.

The California Beer & Beverage Distributors disclosed it donated $10,000 to defeat Prop 19 — which would regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol. The alcohol lobbyist's funds will help spread the lie that employers must tolerate stoned employees, and the talking point that 'California doesn't need another legal, mind-altering substance.' The move echoes the tobacco and alcohol industry's help creating leading drug war group Partnership For a Drug-Free America.

California's Proposition 19, a ballot initiative to legalize the sale and use of marijuana, has won the support of one of the state’s most powerful unions, offering the proposition a shot of mainstream legitimacy as well as a potential financial and organizational lift. The decision by the executive board of the Service Employees International Union of California will be announced in the next few days, according to officials who have been briefed about it but were not allowed to speak publicly before it was announced.

About 60 medical marijuana users and their supporters gathered outside the Health Department's offices to protest the agency's announcement last week that it was not granting licenses to any of the 15 groups that had applied to become the state's first medical marijuana distributors.

 

Dear friends,

Today at press conferences in Oakland and Los Angeles, a group of police officers, judges and pr

Despite campaign promises to the contrary, the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder hasn’t stopped raiding marijuana dispensaries operating in states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes. But the DOJ has demonstrated one marked change now that it’s under Democratic control: The department has stopped publicizing medical marijuana raids, both by requesting that more cases be sealed under court order and by refusing to distribute press releases.

Over the past weekend Mexico saw a proliferation of drug prohibition violence, including the slaying of 25 people in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and a prison break that saw 85 inmates escape.

The founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil, discusses the utility of marijuana. He points out that in recent years, studies have shown potential for treating nausea, vomiting, premenstrual syndrome, insomnia, migraines, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, alcohol abuse, collagen-induced arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, bipolar disorder, depression, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, sickle-cell disease, sleep apnea, Alzheimer's disease and anorexia nervosa. What if cannabis cures cancer?

NEWS ADVISORY: September 10, 2010

CONTACT: Tom Angell - (202) 557-4979 or media//at//leap//dot//cc

New Mexico’s approach to medical marijuana is one of the most strictly regulated in the country, but patients share problems with those in less regulated states when it comes to lawfully obtaining seeds or plants. Currently, New Mexico patients who are authorized to grow their own medical marijuana don’t have many legal ways to buy seeds or starter plants. Now the state has proposed a fix to the program that could change that.

The head of an association of border factory owners said the sector is in crisis mode as unrelenting drug prohibition violence in northern Mexico has spooked investors into curtailing operations at some plants and rethinking expansion at others.

 

Dear friends,

When GW Pharmaceuticals was given the green light to prescribe their cannabis based medicine Sativex, MS sufferers across the UK breathed a collective sigh of relief. But, a number of Primary Health Care Trusts, the organizations that run the UK's hospitals, apparently passed a memo around explaining they wouldn't be funding any Sativex prescriptions. So while the medicine is now legal, only those that can afford it can have it.

Gunmen have killed the mayor of a town in northern Mexico as he sat at his desk. He is the third politician slain in the past month as drug prohibition-related violence escalates.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2010
11:25 PM

The operators asked the LA's City Council on yesterday to allow more dispensaries, saying many medical marijuana distributors will simply operate illegally.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today that the violent, drug prohibition-created Mexican drug trafficking organizations were starting to look like an insurgency. Prohibition violence -- including beheadings, hangings and shootings -- has expanded from the border area to more of the country, including several car bombs for the first time this year. Mexican drug gangs have been blamed for the significant uptick in violence, increasingly against government officials and institutions.