After the Seattle Times came out with a powerful editorial for marijuana legalization last month, the drug czar was immediately on a plane to go talk to them. Some speculated that he would apply pressure on the paper to ease off. Whether that was on his mind or not, it’s clear that the Times has made up its mind and is holding to its position.
In today’s paper: The serious business of marijuana legalization
THE marijuana legalization bill, House Bill 1550, may be stopped for this session of the Legislature. But this issue has been moving as never before, and it needs to keep moving.
This page has been part of it. On Feb. 20 we came out for regulation and taxation of cannabis for adult use, which HB 1550 would do through the state liquor stores. That The Seattle Times would say this lowers the risk for public officials to say it. At the hearing Wednesday at the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, you could feel the change.
There were no Cheech and Chong jokes. This was serious business.
Excellent.
The only time politicians speak seriously is when more dollars for them to spend is in the discussion.
Any thing that reduces funding for their bureaucratic empires can never be discussed at any level of government.
Marijuana Bill Should Reflect Shift in Culture
CN Source: Spokesman-Review Editorial Washington State 3.17.11
Because Congress refuses to update the absurd Controlled Substances Act, states are trying to figure out the best ways to implement the sane and popular wish that marijuana be made available for medicinal purposes. It’s not the first time states have become the laboratory for ideas that are eventually accepted nationwide. By a wide margin, Washington state voters in 1998 passed a medical marijuana initiative, but the Legislature has never devised a system to implement it. This muddle has produced expensive police investigations and controversial arrests that have lost sight of the voters’ intent. full story
Marijuana Legalization Hearing in Washington State
CANNABIS CULTURE – Marijuana activists, politicians, and former law enforcement officials spoke at the Washington State Legislature today in support of Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson’s House Bill 1550, which would legalize cannabis and make it available for retail purchase in state-run liquor stores. full story
3 Selected to Dispense Medical Marijuana in R.I.
Rhode Island is one of four states that has authorized state-regulated marijuana dispensaries. full story
RI Looks at Legalizing Pot for Recreational Use
CN Source: Associated Press Providence, R.I. 3.16.11
Rhode Island would become the first U.S. state to legalize marijuana for recreational use under legislation that would replace criminal penalties for possession with alcohol-style regulation and taxes on America’s most widely used illicit drug. The proposal would lift the ban on possessing marijuana for anyone over the age of 21. It would still be illegal to smoke it publicly, or while driving a vehicle. Cash-strapped Rhode Island, which legalized medical marijuana in 2006, would stand to make tens of millions of dollars off the deal. full story
I am PROUD to live in Washington State.
Been away a while, be away just a few days more…
When I come back, and find an open thread here at the drugwarrant, I’ll convey you a story. I don’t quite know yet how it ends….but I’ll give you a little teaser..here’s a linky-link…
DEA been VE-WY, VE-WY BUSY here of late…
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/03/dimitri_mobengo_mugianis_iboga.php
Not just WA; in Texas they arrested a Colombian shaman with ayahuasca late last year, and released him only when his well-connected friends mobilized a defense. Some people thought that the DEA didn’t want the case to go too far to avoid broadening the precedents on traditional ayahuasca use that have already been established in western circuit and district courts.
http://www.freetaitajuan.org/
Is it MM sentencing for de-funding please bargain Rehabs? Same charge as preventing or curing profits from Big Pharma. 5 to 40 years. These little DEAth Monkey’s climbing around trashing kids toys and Grandma’s milk glass collections, smiling and grunting. Cash in the pockets, shoot the pets and cuff the parents of the kidlets they’re saveding from deeruggs! From lethal injections confiscations protecting the DEAth row inmates from dying with dignity. To harassing religious healers and taking their herbs. Ibogaine and Ayahuasca would put Kashkowske out of business, taking all of their statistics away for drug related incidents. Sickening bossterds.
Free Dana Beal!
Cures Not Wars
2011 Marijuana March
Goal of 420 Cities! Sign Up Today!
Advanced Ibogaine Drug Addiction Treatment
Therapy at our Center/Clinic at Hacienda La Mision Mexico
for Heroin, Alcohol, Meth, Cocaine, Oxycontin
Erowid.org: Ibogaine
1985 Ibogaine patented for use in treating Heroin addiction.
Colombian shaman arrested in TX, charged with Ayahuasca possession
On Tuesday, October 19, 2010 while en route to leading traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies in Oregon, indigenous Colombian healer Juan Agreda Chindoy was detained in the Houston International Airport. He was formally arrested by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) for possession of his traditional medicine Ayahuasca. He is now being charged as a federal criminal and is facing up to 20 years in federal prison. Taita Juan is certified by his community and by the Colombian ministry of health as a traditional healer. He is one of the few remaining indigenous spiritual leaders in the world that holds the ancestral medicinal knowledge of an ecosystem that is rapidly disappearing. Taita Juan is a father, a husband and a godfather to more than 20 children. With more than 3000 supporters from several countries in the world, his life and work have touched many.
This was posted on the freetaitajuan.org website:
“It is with great joy in our hearts that we write to update our community with news that the criminal charges against Taita Juan have been dropped as of today, November 16, 2010. At some point within the next couple of days, the court will begin the process of transferring Taita Juan out of prison and into the immigration authorities who will make arrangements for his return to Colombia. We will have more details by the end of today, in the meantime thank you again for keeping this prayer alive and strong. We did it!”
Help put pressure on Senator grassley and his drug war mania. below is a link to his “heres the scoop’ site. There hes blaming suicides and a murder of a high school priciple on K2 / spice , a synthetic cannabis….so my question is…how ‘dangerous’ is the synthetic Marinol, made by big pharma?
It doesnt matter, there are no controls on these and other substances. Let bring this to Mr grasselys attention.
http://us.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=deqdgretikn7a
More Washington State News: I-1149, an initiative to eliminate penalties for adult possession, use, transport, cultivation, and sale of marijuana, is now available for signature.
Sensible Washington, the sponsor, must gather 241,953 valid registered WA voter signatures by July 5th to get the initiative on the November ballot.
For more info: sensiblewashington.org
Sheesh, it’s only about half the number required to get an initiative on the California ballot. California has around 7 times the population of Washington.
No initiative in CA has ever been passed without paying the signature gatherers, (Petition circulator). No initiative has ever failed while paying Petition circulators. At least until 2000. Not sure after that since I haven’t collected sigs since. The Casino’s were paying 25 cents a sig. Prop 215 was 10 cents if memory serves.
Free Love…
Petition circulator
Most campaigns require the use of paid petition circulators: usually independent contractors who are paid by the signature.
Laws governing the initiative process in California
The number of signatures needed to qualify a measure for the ballot is based on the number of votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election (10,094,839 in the 2010 election).
The California State Legislature cannot amend or repeal an initiative, unless doing so is explicitly permitted by the initiative. Of the 24 states with the right of initiative, California is the only state that doesn’t let the Legislature amend or repeal citizen initiatives.
Senate Bill 24, sponsored by Democrat Ellen M. Corbett and co-sponsored by Mark DeSaulnier and Dean Florez, would have made it illegal to pay initiative circulators on a pay-per-signature basis.[14],[15] The California Senate passed SB 24, but the weekend of October 10-11, 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.
Alright, another reason to Boycott Wallmart…
Signature gatherers say Wal-Mart doesn’t like pot initiatives
A pair of signature gatherers who were ordered by a court to stay away from Wal-Mart stores are claiming that they were harassed by store managers who didn’t want them getting signatures for an effort to legalize marijuana.
Ever notice that Prohibition is always tied to a Depression? And ending said Prohibition the last time brought us out of that Depression. What about this one???
Plus, it’s interesting how powerful an addiction is called “politics.” Ever notice how hard they fight being taken off the addiction?
My accolades to the Washington Post and the mirade of Washatonians who are pushing this drive.
Anyone want to chip in on a gift subscription to the Times for Mr. Kerlifries? He might be feeling a little homesick here in DC you know.
The legendary acid chemist, longtime sound man and financier for the Grateful Dead, Bear Owsley Stanley, died with his boots on six days ago in Australia.
http://undergrowth.org/bear_owsley_a_practical_solution_to_prohibition
“Ever notice that Prohibition is always tied to a Depression? And ending said Prohibition the last time brought us out of that Depression. What about this one???”
http://1929crash.com/
Drinking alcohol excise taxes were an incredibly large part of Federal revenue before the income tax was passed. But I don’t find the thinking that drinking alcohol prohibition caused the Great Depression, nor does history find it’s repeal pulling us out of that morass. The economy in the 1930s was caused by the same out of control use of leverage which led us to where we are in today’s economy. The difference and why we’re doing better is that the extreme moralists weren’t allowed to have the government stand aside and watch the economy crash and burn as the powers that be did in 1930.
Additionally, he advocated weeding out “weak” banks as a harsh but necessary prerequisite to the recovery of the banking system. This “weeding out” was accomplished through refusing to lend cash to banks (taking loans and other investments as collateral), and by refusing to put more cash in circulation. He advocated spending cuts to keep the Federal budget balanced, and opposed fiscal stimulus measures.
We have a working model to look at and use as a frame of reference that his advice was precisely the wrong thing to do. Fortunately for those of us alive today the knuckleheads that subscribe to Mr. Mellon’s mindset weren’t able to have their idiocy of conflating morality and the economy rule the day as happened in 1930. It was this particular stripe of stupidity that caused the Great Depression. It wasn’t until the Government was able to use the “moral necessity” of prosecuting World War II as a reason for deficit spending which succeeded in lifting the country out of the economic morass that the so called moralists had sentenced the people to suffer. The economy doesn’t know a moral buck from an immoral buck. One of the pieces holding the current economy down is that we didn’t manage to get these people shut up entirely. Every piece of the stimulus packages had to have thousands of different moral arbiters sign off on it. The fairest, easiest, and quickest way to fix it would have been to print up a fresh batch of money and distribute it equally to every man woman and child with a valid Social Security number. Fairest because the printing devalues everyone’s money equally. The check you would have gotten under this scheme would have been compensation for this devaluation.
As much of an anti-prohibitionist as I am, prohibition didn’t play that much of a role in causing either fiscal calamity. There was a substantial depression in the 1870s that may have exceeded the scope of the 1930s without getting the press, and there wasn’t a significant prohibition in force.
Let’s try to remember that correlation doesn’t equal causation. Fiscal calamities have been caused by tulips, civil wars, South Sea Companies, speculation on railroads, the list goes on but the one thing that every fiscal calamity has had is the spending of money that didn’t exist. We certainly can’t say that a gold standard would have kept us out of the current mess. We had gold backed money in the 1930s and we still talk about that financial morass. You’re not going to get me to buy into the fiat money argument. Conch shells were extremely valuable and used as money for millenia. Until one day some schmuck looked at his money and said, “what the fuck is so valuable about a bunch of god damned seashells?” and bye bye value. One can cause a fiscal calamity no matter what is “backing” the money, so there’s no valid argument that money backed by some object is more stable than one backed by the full faith and credit of the government. The government’s backing is a whole lot more substantial than a freakin’ seashell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_money
Japan Dumps Tons Of Marijuana On Burning Nuclear Reactors
“Back then the connection between prohibition and the economy was asserted daily and hotly debated.”
— Prohibition and the Crash –by J Henry Phillips
http://1929crash.com/
Maryland Senator Millard Tydings used statistical data to refute every argument advanced by proponents of prohibition. His 1930 book examines economic effects and how the 18 powers granted Congress by the Constitution plus the character of the American people doomed economic dictatorships from the outset.
–Before and After Prohibition, by Senator Millard S. Tydings of Maryland
http://1929crash.com/Tydings30TOC.pdf
Herman Feldman was Professor of Industrial Relations at the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, Dartmouth College–1927. The way he tells the story, all of the postwar economic growth was due to the beneficial effects of national prohibition. After the Crash his output ceased.
–PROHIBITION: Its Economic and Industrial Aspects, by Herman Feldman
http://1929crash.com/feldmtoc.htm
The DEA Let me get this straight sorry my mind is very muddled at times even when not medicated,they are arresting folks for using a med Ibogaine that has risks but may help folks overcome chronic Addiction when the have lost all hope and tried everything else OK, another INSANE has usual day in USA has I state on regular basis I’m what can you expect,you have all heard they have had SWAT like raids on folks selling unpasteurized raw milk lately too that’s Illegal too WTF, Oh CRAZY hazy Days.
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