Open Thread

“bullet” The Hinchey amendment could be coming to a vote this week, so contact your representative (some options for doing so are in the alert at the top of the page).
“bullet” David Murray is not only desperate, he’s really reaching in his lies to support his arguments. In his testimony before Congress last week, he said:

Founding proponents of medical marijuana in the United States have
reversed their key positions of support for medical marijuana. […]
Steve Kubby, another Co-founder of medical marijuana in California stated in a
letter to supporters on April 14th, 2006 that ‹Marinol is an acceptable, if not ideal,
substitute for whole cannabis in treating my otherwise fatal disease.Š

Kubby was surprised to learn of his supposed change in view, to say the least.
“bullet” Learn how they work. This piece on workplace drug and alcohol abuse is a prime example of the prohibitionist tactics that get swallowed wholesale by the media. Note the mis-use of statistics. In particular, you’ll see that problem drinking is defined but problem drug use is not (merely using illicit drugs is considered abuse). Also note that there is absolutely no attempt to connect either with actually being impaired on the job. This is an outright attempt to sell drug testing. Period.
“bullet” DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen says that the letters to landlords “should not be viewed as a threat.” In addition to my letter of response, I may need to send her a dictionary.
“bullet” Paul Armentano talks about a forthcoming study that demonstrates what we’ve known for some time — that whole marijuana is demonstrably better than Marinol at treating HIV/AIDS-related weight and appetite lose.
“bullet” Pain Doctor William Hurwitz received a much lighter sentence (less than 5 years) than the first time around (25 years). Given what he’s already served, he could be out in a couple of years.
“bullet” Judge rules Canada’s pot possession laws unconstitutional. This kind of thing used to happen fairly often in Canada. It’s fun to see it happening again.