The Oakland City Council is talking about sanctioned medical marijuana cultivation again after some legal scares put the issue on ice late last year, and a new policy could be in place within two weeks. The council voted in December to hold off implementing its program to permit and tax industrial-sized medical marijuana cultivation businesses. The proposal, which would also double the number of permitted dispensaries, was delayed until the new cultivation law could be revised to address some legal concerns that local prosecutors said could land the council members in jail.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 2, 2011

CONTACT: Ken Wolski at (609) 394-2137

DHSS Mum About Medicinal Marijuana Program Conflicts

The LPGA has canceled the $1.3 million Tres Marias Championship in Mexico due to concerns over drug prohibition violence.

As founder of Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs, Jamie Lowell thinks the federal government's request for records on the state's medical marijuana registry will discourage legal use. He knows of a teacher who could use marijuana, but she is terrified of being identified. "When you get the application, you are under the impression all of the information will remain confidential," he said.

In 2009, after years of debate and political wrangling, the New York state legislature finally passed a bill revising the state's notorious Rockefeller drug laws. Now it turns out that the first high-profile beneficiaries of the reforms could be a bunch of kids from Columbia University. The arrest of five students on Dec. 7 — they allegedly sold $11,000 worth of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, Adderall, and LSD — may be a "test case" for the new reforms.

Under a bill introduced by Representative John Fillmore possession of two ounces or less of marijuana -- by anyone -- would become a petty offense and carry a fine of only $100. Fillmore says that marijuana isn't a gateway drug, as critics unscientifically claim, and all the money and time wasted by law enforcement on marijuana prohibition enforcement would be better spent elsewhere.

A new study by researchers at UC Davis has found that drug-sniffing dog/handler teams' performance is affected by human handlers' beliefs, possibly in response to subtle, unintentional handler cues. The study found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously 'alerted,' or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times-particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present.

Gov. Nathan Deal says he's moving ahead to reduce Georgia's prison population by diverting non-violent drug offenders to other programs. A 2009 national report said drug prohibition related crimes were listed as the primary offense for about 17 percent of Georgia's prisoners. Deal has made it clear he's not interested in springing repeat or violent offenders. But locking up non-violent offenders wastes their lives, strains the state's budget and depletes its work force, he said.

A group of medical marijuana patients traveled to Parliament Hill to draw attention to the government's "wildly dysfunctional and onerous medical marijuana regulations" and the effects they are having on sick Canadians. "Ten years ago, we put in place a government program, a legal government program, that would allow sick patients to have access to a medicine that worked for them," said Member of Parliament Dr. Carolyn Bennett. "We now are seeing a perfect storm of administrative delays that have these patients with a licence waiting four to six months till the point that it expires – and then they are criminalized because they don't have a licence because the government's backlogs and lack of resources have put them there."

Czech policemen have proposed that the seized marijuana be used for medical purposes -- for instance, for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. The Justice Ministry does not oppose the idea. "It is certainly logical," Justice Minister Jiri Pospisil (senior government Civic Democrats, ODS)) said.

In no state is the philosophical U-turn more abrupt than in Oklahoma, where last year the Legislature was barreling in the opposite direction. New Republican Speaker of the House Kris Steele is expected to unveil a package of proposals that would divert thousands of nonviolent lawbreakers from the prison system and ramp up paroles. Similar crash prison reductions are going on from coast to coast. Michigan has shuttered 20 correctional facilities and slashed spending by nearly 7 percent. South Carolina expects to reduce its inmate numbers by 8 percent by putting drug dealers, burglars and hot check writers into community programs instead of behind bars.

A state commission says minority offenders in Illinois are far more likely to go to prison for minor drug crimes than whites are. Blacks, for instance, served time in 19 percent of low-level drug cases, while only 4 percent of white offenders were imprisoned.

A court handed down the death penalty to the former deputy head of anti-narcotics efforts in China's most populous metropolis, Chongqing. Luo Li had been collaborating with drug dealers in Chongqing since 2005 and took 1.2 million yuan ($233,038) in bribes to turn a blind eye to the activities of two of them, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a court statement.

Jeffrey Haire believes that our prohibitionist drug policy has failed and opines that removing the profit from drug trafficking organizations will effectively destroy them. He says the "Law enforcement–Industrial complex" is already up and running and could handle any enforcement issues related to minors using adult substances or people operating vehicles or acting out in public. We have the expertise and the economic savvy to remove the profit from the drug traffickers and produce substances that are safe for recreational use. The key though, is to produce substances cheaply enough, and tax them reasonably so that their price still falls below what a black market producer could afford to market.

If the State of Michigan won't protect the people, activists will. So went the cry of medical marijuana groups in Michigan, concerned that the privacy of medical marijuana patients there is at grave risk. The Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs filed an emergency motion this week to halt efforts by the federal government to gain access to the records of several Michigan medical marijuana patients.

This week the Mexican military pursued drug prohibition-created trafficking suspects in operations smack in the middle of the sprawling capital. Marines raided a hotel and a home in the middle-class districts of Napoles and Del Valle, arresting one suspected member of the Zetas drug trafficking organization. On Wednesday, army units searched homes in the Iztacalco borough. Is something changing?

Jennifer Lande, Stephen Cuspilich and Charles Kwiatkowski are fighting for legal access to medical marijuana. They traveled to Trenton on a bitterly cold day to participate in a rare process of the state Constitution. They all live with serious medical conditions and offered honest and, at times, painful testimony. Their pleas for a working medical marijuana program in New Jersey created an important record for how to proceed next.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2010

The deadly drug prohibition war in Ciudad Juarez and Mexico has some U.S. churches and ministries divided on whether or not to continue to send missionaries and volunteers across the border.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 27, 2011

President Obama to Answer Top Questions Posed by Public on YouTube Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2010

Of the top 100 most popular questions as rated by YouTube users, 99 are about the drug war or marijuana. Of the next one hundred, 99 are again about drug policy. The marijuana questions don't stop there, but Huffington Post stopped counting deep into the 200s, as the president is unlikely to answer all of them. A White House spokesman told Huffington Post that the president will answer whatever questions YouTube puts before him.

Steph Sherer, a medical marijuana patient and Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, opines on medical marijuana patient privacy.

Jim Hightower, the best-selling author of "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow," opines on the drug prohibitionists' war against pseudoephedrine. He says restricting its sale has created a very lucrative black market for the pills, luring thousands of new peddlers, hustlers and opportunists into the illicit meth underworld.

NORML took the time to review the Top 100 questions on the "Ask Obama" site and condense each one into a few words so President Obama could get an idea what is important to the country. When Obama did this in 2010 he heard loud and clear about marijuana law reform. Americans asked about re-scheduling cannabis to allow medical marijuana to flourish, decriminalizing marijuana to end thousands of arrests, legalizing pot to raise tax revenue, ending prohibition to cripple Mexican drug traffickers, regulating cannabis to keep it out of kids’ hands, reforming drug laws to re-prioritize police resources, embracing industrial hemp as a truly green energy source, and using science, not politics, to dictate our drug policy. And President Obama flat-out ignored the citizenry, despite those questions dominating in both quantity and popularity. When Obama did this in 2009 he got the same response from the public. That time he didn’t ignore his fellow Americans; he just laughed at them.

Undeterred by last year's failure to pass a marijuana legalization initiative, and a plea by national advocacy groups to hold off until next year for another effort, Sensible Washington is filing a new initiative with the Secretary of State.

A medical marijuana supporter says he'll file an ethics complaint against an Iowa lawmaker who says he obtained a medical marijuana prescription in California under false pretenses to show the flaws in such a program. The Des Moines Register says Mike Pesce told a House subcommittee that Rep. Clel Baudler, of Greenfield, should be investigated.

Coca growers from the Chapare (Cochabamba) and the Yungas (La Paz) — Bolivia’s two coca-growing regions — have travelled to Bolivia’s nine departmental capitals today to publicly chew the traditional leaf and to support the Bolivian government campaign to end the UN prohibition on coca chewing.

Bob Goldberg opines on the surprise early morning raid by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Spring Valley police which terrorized an innocent Spring Valley family asleep in their home.

Monterrey, Mexico's business capital and third-largest city, is being pushed to the breaking point by a drug prohibition war that has left about 80 people, including 14 police officers, dead this year alone and pushed authorities to the limit. The city, home to more than 50,000 corporations, including some of the largest multinational businesses in Mexico, fears for its future if the prohibition-caused violence is not stopped. "This is a very difficult time, perhaps the most difficult in the recent history of Nuevo Leon" state, Gov. Rodrigo Medina said.

The Rust Belt is no stranger to America’s drug prohibition war. In her recent book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," former Stanford Law professor, civil rights lawyer, and current Ohio State University faculty member, Michelle Alexander convincingly paints the war on drugs as far more than just a failed multi-decade policy that has resulted in America becoming the prison capital of the world. She positions the drug war as part of a racial caste system that has imprisoned over a million African American men and disenfranchised even more.

A state senator is asking a question she hopes will spur debate over sentencing laws and possibly save Indiana millions of dollars: Should the state legalize marijuana? Sen. Karen Tallian, D- Portage, is sponsoring a bill that would direct the criminal law and sentencing study committee to examine Indiana's marijuana laws next summer and come up with recommendations. Senate Corrections Committee Chairman Brent Steele, R-Bedford, said he would give Tallian's proposal a legislative hearing.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 25, 2010

CONTACT: Tom Angell - (202) 557-4979 or [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 25, 2011

Senator Margaret Rose Henry Introduces Medical Marijuana

Montana's House Human Services Committee today hears a bill tackling medical marijuana in the workplace. This the third bill to come from an interim committee that spent six months working on medical marijuana legislation, Republican Representative Gary MacLaren’s (House District 89,) House Bill 43 gives guidelines and restrictions to employers on how to handle employees who use medical marijuana. Medical cannabis supporters say they interpret the bill to mean that an employer could terminate an employee simply for having a medical marijuana card, at the same time subjecting them to drug testing that violates privacy.

Here's a look at some highlights of how your dollars are being spent, from the Office of National Drug Control Policy's Drug Control Strategy 2011. Remember, they also hide several billion from the total by not including the cost of incarceration. Total drug prohibition war spending by the federal and various state governments will be approximately $69 billion.

Read about the new ganja service industry, test your medical marijuana knowledge with a quiz, or see the full Mother Jones special report on the coming pot boom.

The untold story of Mexico's prohibitionist campaign against drug trafficking organizations is the surge in lethal violence against women. As Mexico enters its fifth year of conflict and escalating militarization, the country's ability to ensure basic protections for its citizens – and, in particular, for those most at risk – has never been less certain.

 

Public Hearing on Medical Marijuana Rules This Thursday and Friday

Friends,

Gunmen who attacked a group of youths playing soccer killed seven people in the violent northern border city of Ciudad Juárez. The latest drug prohibition violence came on the eve of a one-day visit to Mexico by US secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss bilateral cooperation against the country's powerful drug trafficking organizations. The stadium where the shooting occurred was inaugurated just four months ago as part of a campaign called "We are all Juarez" that the local government has hoped will help stem a wave of drug prohibition related violence.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Mexico today for talks expected to focus on the country's accelerating drug prohibition violence. The Mexican government says the bloodshed is a sign the gangs are weakening. But business leaders and rights groups worry the strategy has backfired, sparking an endless stream of revenge killings that is spilling across the country.

Australia's early and widespread use of clean needle programs seems to have kept HIV rates among injection-drug users in check over the long term, according to a study. In many countries, needle exchange programs allow drug users to trade in used needles for new ones, but in Australia users are simply given new ones.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit for a former Border Patrol agent who claims he was fired - just weeks before his probationary period ended - in part because he said drug legalization would reduce violence in Mexico.

A dozen years after voters approved Washington's medical marijuana system, state lawmakers are debating major changes that would give patients greater protection from arrest and bring the supply chain out of a legal gray area.

Juliana Sossa, 25, was arrested alongside Jorge Balderas Garza (a.k.a. "El J.J.") after she posted the location of her Mexico City neighborhood on her Facebook page. In November, Mexican police arrested Colombian model Juliana Lopez Aguirre along with Harold Mauricio Poveda, who police say was a go-between for Colombian drug traffickers. Last May Argentine authorities arrested Colombian Angie Sanclemente (Coffee Queen 2000), who prosecutors say married the Mexican drug lord "El Monstruo" ("The Monster"), and then moved to Argentina to manage young women serving as drug mules. And in 2009, Mexican model Laura Elena Zuniga (Miss Hispanic America 2008) was released from jail after claiming she had been kidnapped by her boyfriend, Angel Orlando Garcia Urquiza, and that she did not know he was head of a Ciudad Juarez-based drug trafficking organization.