So much to talk about.
– Sanjay Gupta on CNN
– Attorney General vows to end the war on drugs, or do something about sentencing, or something.
– DEA in the crossfire
– Kevin Sabet apparently lies
– Plan Mexico falling apart
– Changes in the laws in Uruguay, Illinois, and other exotic locations
on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “Insights are achieved in treating behavioral disorders by focusing on the tetrapartite synapse of the brain: 17-Dec-2024 — …neuroscientist Dr.…” Dec 22, 12:56 on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “A study from Emory University details modern attitudes toward professional psychedelic therapy: ATLANTA, Georgia, USA, 17 December 2024 – …from…” Dec 22, 12:41 on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “Canadian cannabis researchers are complaining that research funding for marijuana research is being sponsored by for-profit industries instead of the…” Dec 22, 12:12
on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “I strongly disagree with Servetus’ statement about Dave Weldon. His views on marijuana are not only outdated but also harmful…” Dec 17, 07:40 on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “Brain volume changes seen in opioid users: 10-Dec-2024 — OAK BROOK, Ill. – Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine…” Dec 12, 22:14 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Doctors and medical professionals working on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic found significant relief from psilocybin while participating in…” Dec 7, 14:24 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Ayahuasca (DMT) effects on the brain in reducing fear and anxiety are modulated by cross-talk between two serotonin receptor sites:…” Dec 7, 13:38
on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “If you thought Bondi and Weldon are bad, I know plenty of Louisiana politicians in both parties who are even…” Dec 6, 11:26
Regarding the AG (I don’t think he specifically said anything about ending the WOD): Maybe the administration really HAS been working on a response to the situation in WA and CO for the past 9 months. Maybe their response will cover much more than just those two states, like actual reform of US drug policy. Maybe they’ll finally do the right thing.
But if history teaches us anything, politicians only do the right thing when there’s a really good reason. In other words, they benefit. I’m not sure what has changed recently that would make the administration think drug policy reform will somehow be good for them. At least from their point of view.
The winds of change have arrived. I think its blowing in the wind, Tony – in the faces of a few who have much to hide. 2016. They might want to sabotage it now. Then again, the more foresightful ones are grabbing their ass now. Its an interesting time to live in. Watch and take names.
Items one, two, three, five and six occurring in the span of one week is outright unbelievable. Especially taken in light of the fact we’ve seen entire administrations come and go without as much movement. It’s easy to forget where we were ten years or so ago. Item six marks more steady progress. items one, two, three and five may for shadow significant change. I am wondering…was Gupta put out there to soften up the public at large?
Oh yeah…item four…we already knew that.
I’m not the only one looking at this water fowl and seeing a duck: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/08/eric-holder-drug-sentencing_n_3727389.html
Thats funny. I was just there before you posted this by a few seconds. Interesting.
My guess = hide number 3. Sleight of hand trick. Watch the right hand.
translated: get the DEA story off the front page. Song and dance, song and dance.
Holder vows to end war on drugs….
I don’t think he actually said it, but it fits with Kerlikowske’s past nonsense, and I was referring to this article.
Watch out for falling bricks. This couch is a work zone. Get those hard hats on. Remember, when that siren blows, get clear of that wall, it’s coming down.
“But if history teaches us anything, politicians only do the right thing when there’s a really good reason. In other words, they benefit.” Is this the kind of thing you had in mind?
Feds and Mexican drug cartels find common ground on legalized marijuana
http://tinyurl.com/ml2se6b
I think this point of view explains a lot. Correlation does not prove causation – It sure explains where the money goes though. I half expect as much of a splash from Holder as ending the war on drugs by the Gil and the ONDCP. Some mighty fine changes to sentencing laws are sure being floating around.
Reactions to the “Ganjay Supta” special?
I only yelled at the TV a few times, and I actually figure some of the “balance” that was included is probably helpful in making the overall message more palatable to our real “target audience” — people that are (a) dumb enough to still believe, in the year of our Lord 2013, that cannabis prohibition is good policy and (b) likely to take their cues from a TV doctor. (The good news for us is that there’s likely a lot of overlap between those two categories.)
Yup. For each silly simplification (like THC v CBD), the special pushed at least twice against the boundaries of positive talk about pot on mainstream TV.
The segment on the girl Charlotte was really powerful, and at many little places where we’d expect the show to raise doubts and anxieties about pot, it didn’t, going instead for the “not-such-a-big-deal” perspective.
Overall, big win.
I watched about half of it online before I had to turn it off. I have not watched tv for about 15 years, and that was almost an overload. It also affirmed my decision to stop watching tv. The format of tv leaves me cold. Why can’t they just present the information in a logical way instead of bouncing around from subtopic to subtopic? Anyway, I guess for a tv show it was ok.
Justice Dept. Seeks to Curtail Stiff Drug Sentences-NYT
http://tinyurl.com/kzp6afa
Ungghhh. “In a major shift in criminal justice policy, the Obama administration will move on Monday to ease overcrowding in federal prisons by ordering prosecutors to omit listing quantities of illegal substances in indictments for low-level drug cases, sidestepping federal laws that impose strict mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related offenses.”
Not good enough. That would allow any willy nilly whim to re-instate the current practice. I sure hope for the sake of any credibility they still have that the announcement will go a lot farther.
We’re starving and they throw us a skittle.
What I find amazing, is the Colorado brothers with their giant greenhouses FULL of beautiful plants. The fact that they outed themselves on national TV completely blows me away considering that the DEA has historically raided everyone that’s ever done that.
Even Harborside with it’s absolute adherence to state law was raided by that bitch Haag and they even tried forfeiture proceedings. Aren’t they currently raiding in WA regardless of state law?
Hopefully the brothers are really smart (who’s going to raid someone who provides medicine that saves little kids lives) or they’re setting the DEA up for the negative publicity that arises when they do get raided (for supplying schedule 1 drugs to kids).
Either way, I give them props for having huge cajones to challenge the feds. Can you imagine the DEA wringing their hands at the sight of those greenhouses and all the land they’re on!?
I mean, cmon, we know that the feds don’t respect state’s rights and this seems like a giant FU to them with an even bigger ‘what u gonna do about it’? I was stunned by seeing that.
Please pass me the cheetos…
Aren’t those the same brothers that had a mmj reality show of their own a while back? Looks like they still haven’t been raided. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if it happened now, since they’re admitting to providing dangerous schedule 1 drugs to a child. And it also wouldn’t surprise me if CPS tried to take that little girl from her parents.
and in the land of psychedelics…
Psychedelics Show Promise for PTSD Treatment
http://guardianlv.com/2013/08/psychedelics-show-promise-for-ptsd-treatment/
First ‘magic mushroom’ family tree produced
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/356190
and this is interesting:
Speaking with Psychonaut Hamilton Morris about sleep
Ibogaine’s long, strange trip
How fear and loathing have kept an addict’s best friend underground
http://clatl.com/atlanta/ibogaines-long-strange-trip/Content?oid=1232076
and thanks to the voice of Russia we now know about the US Army’s LSD gun:
US Army builds spray gun to contaminate terrorists’ foodstuffs with LSD
Long time reader, first time poster.
Pete, I’ve been reading your blog ever since I started smoking pot a few years ago. The first time I tried it, I immediately thought, “Why is this illegal? There has to be some logical process to it.” As I’ve come to learn from your blog and others, the effects of the war on (some) drugs sickened me. From the Pima County SWAT officers that shot down a former Marine in his own home a couple years back (in the city I live in no less) to the gruesome executions happening everyday in Mexico due to our unending demand for drugs, and the corrupt, misguided polices that make them illegal in the first place.
You, and the others here on the couch have enlightened me to all that and I thank you all for it.
However in the span of less than a year after Colorado and Washington legalized Marijuana all this happened.
The winds of change are coming, I can feel them. .
Welcome to the couch, Ben. Have a seat…but not over there. That spot is kinda sticky.
Thanks Darkcycle, appreciate it haha.
Darn it. I thought we had the wiggler housebroken. Where is that rolled up newspaper?
Yeah I found that sticky spot this am,,just before I figured out what George Carlin meant about not trusting farts anymore after 60.
Barry McCaffrey vows to end war on drugs….. Prison to Asylums on the tax dollar. Koch drug dention centers. Wall St gives the orders and they are not against profits. Hemp is why Ganja is dangerous.
Heard this before?
“We’re going to be ruthless,” said prosecutor Joseph Coronato of Ocean County, N.J., where 75 overdose deaths have occurred this year. “We’re looking for long-term prison sentences.”
Dealers being charged drug overdosed eaths
http://bit.ly/1bmX3OC
So let’s put aside the morality or logic of holding dealers responsible for overdoses, there are some very good reasons why this is a bad idea.
For one it is doubtful that there will be any deterrent effect from the increase in penalties. The penalty for selling heroin or other opiates is already severe enough to deter most people who might enter the market if prohibition was repealed. There is a point of diminishing returns where additional penalties will have no further deterrent effect. Dealers do not operate on a daily basis expecting to be caught, nor do they expect their clientele to die from their product (it would be bad business to kill your repeat customers).
Many dealers are dealers in name only. Often they are addicts who support their habit in part by acquiring drugs for others, plus a modest fee. Such people are driven by forces more powerful than criminal law can hope to influence.
How much will the increased penalties cost taxpayers? An added 10 years to a sentence can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. As in all aspects of the drug war, this will undoubtedly fall heaviest on the poor and minority communities, exacerbating the already unconscionable racial bias in the US prison system.
Treating overdoses as crime scenes is likely to make the problem of fatal overdoses more likely. Since the increased penalties will have little to no deterrent effect, we can expect the frequency of overdoses to remain unchanged. However people will be less likely to call for help if they are aware that they will be criminally liable, especially if they sold the drugs themselves. This is where “Good Samaritan” laws come into play, where immunity is given in cases of overdoses. Specifics differ and some laws do not grant immunity for selling or for those on probation or in drug court.
What is more important, saving lives or punishing people for using opiates? History has taught us that we cannot do both. Short of a complete repeal of opiate prohibition, methadone, buprenorphine and heroin maintenance has a proven track record of saving lives, improving the health of addicts and the community in general. Naloxone access should be dramatically expanded to get OD kits in the hands of opiate users, and should also be available over-the-counter (OTC). If we are truly serious about ending the “epidemic” of opioid overdoses, this is the way forward.
This is the perfect example of how prohibition is a killer. Many overdosing drug consumers, who might have made a full recovery in hospital, will be dumped on the street to die. Their using companions will understandably take fright when faced with the possibility of a murder charge. If they wanted dead addicts they couldn’t have designed it better…..oh, that is what they want…I forgot
I suppose that CNN wanted to have some balance to the show but putting the NIDA wicked witch of the East on was way past balanced,,I wish he had interviewed Calvina Fay because no doubt her bulging eyed and spittle dripping off her chin would have stolen the show.
My biggest problem was the addiction bullshit,,it has the same fucking addiction level as coffee and I think that is a lie,,I think coffee is more addictive than marijuana and the NIDA lied to make marijuana sound dangerous.
I bet Gupta gets good editorial control, but it’s interesting to wonder about the backroom discussions over what to include and exclude, for “balance” and other reasons…
I was a bit disappointed that when Gupta brought up the University of Mississippi program, he didn’t mention Irvin Rosenfeld, the IND program or the fact that the feds already give it to a hand full of people for medical purposes.
Marijuana Stops Child’s Severe Seizures pics/vids
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/667
By Saundra Young, CNN – Thursday, August 8 2013
Charlotte Figi had her first seizure when she was 3 months old. Over the next few months, the girl, affectionately called Charlie, had frequent seizures lasting two to four hours, and she was hospitalized repeatedly. Her seizures were dramatically reduced from 300 a week to three a month with medical marijuana’s help.” – Read the entire article at CNN
Jeffrey’s Journey
Why Do Democrats Defend Nixon’s Drug War?
– If You Think Marijuana Isn’t an Important Issue
– Democrats can’t afford to put it on the back burner any longer
– Tea Partier Shows Up Obama on Drug Policy
Drug Czar linked to deception
– Drug Czar is Required by Law to Lie
– UK’s Drugs Czar Fired For Marijuana Truths
– Cover-Ups, Prevarications, Subversions & Sabotage
– Anti-Drug Campaigns Dumb Down Vital Message
– Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc.
– GOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab ‘Torture’ Centers
Remember the guy in the Dr’s video with the quivering stomach? His reaction to one inhalation is the same reaction I get in respect to PTSD. One hit and PTSD’s gone for the next 24 hrs. No more “sticky” thoughts filled with anger, pain or excitation. I get to live a normal life for another day.
Once at the VA in Tx, a Dr asked me if I was taking anything for my PTSD. I said “Yes.” He asked, “What?” I said, “Im not allowed to tell you.” He asked, “Why?” I answered, Because Texas is NOT a Compassionate State. And since I haven’t said, you can’t just write down what you THINK I meant because I’ll sue you personally if you do.”
AG Holder clarified his statements on the drug war, advising, but not mandating, that federal prosecutors seek non-mandatory-minimum crimes to prosecute people, thereby placing sentencing options back into the hands of the sentencing judge.
Holder recommends that such prosecutors “reserve the most severe penalties for serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickersâ€. He recommends more drug treatment or community service, and complains of the cost of long term imprisonment to the government, while not even mentioning the immorality of persecuting people for drugs.
Holder’s comments remind me of the instructions given to inquisitors who tortured suspected heretics. The inquisitors were given rudimentary guidelines on torture methods, and then told to use their own best judgment with regard to how severe the torture should be. Relying on the best judgments of idiots, authoritarians, sadists and psychopaths proved unworkable for torturers, just as relying upon prosecutors to use their best judgments in shutting down medical marijuana dispensaries has proven a disaster.
In the end, Holder is nothing but another useless government blowhard. He doesn’t have the power to put into effect the changes he recommends, and in reality he’s only looking out for a corrupt government, not the citizens he’s charged to protect.
Not remotely good enough. In fact, it’s insulting.
As long as the government continues the bounty money for drug arrests and the seizure laws the police will continue chasing the gold regardless of what the prosecutors do with the cases.
I noticed the other day in listening to Mr Obama talking about the NSA/Snowden deal and he was laying down his usual smooth “oh, we were going there anyway” schpiel and near the end I caught something I hadn’t considered before… he said that his administration will work with the other branches of government to rectify the problems…
…’work with the other branches…’ and right there I got that that phrase (and when I ran it thru Google’s BS translating software had my perception confirmed) means they will do nothing but bicker and throw some sound bites around the media, point fingers and continue to act like 14 year olds, with too much control (and hardly enough understanding) of other peoples’ lives.
I’m w/o cable so am relying on y’all’s take on Gupta’s show, so spit it out.
Here’s the unofficial YouTube copy of the Gupta documentary. Hopefully it will stay up long enough for you to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3IMfIQ_K6U
…’work with the other branches…’
Separation of powers is a political doctrine originating in the writings of Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws where he urged for a constitutional government with three separate branches of government. Each of the three branches would have defined powers to check the powers of the other branches. This idea was called separation of powers. This philosophy heavily influenced the writing of the United States Constitution, according to which the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the United States government are kept distinct in order to prevent abuse of power. This United States form of separation of powers is associated with a system of checks and balances.
Obama wouldn’t be the first…
Clinton Asks Supreme Court To Overturn MMJ Ruling
Justice Dept Seeks To Curtail Stiff Drug Sentences
In a major shift in criminal justice policy, the Obama administration will move on Monday to ease overcrowding in federal prisons by ordering prosecutors to omit listing quantities of illegal substances in indictments for low-level drug cases, sidestepping federal laws that impose strict mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related offenses.
Holder Seeks To Avert Mandatory Minimum Sentences
Heston died, NRA’s Mandatory Minimum Didn’t
NRA History of Mandatory Minimums
I just listened to Holder and he is still moving the deck chairs around on prohibition until he takes the incentive out of police targeting drugs as their main objective and through that marijuana because it is so easy to find a pot user,,then the money they earn has to be spent on more drug war,,it is a self feeding cancer in our society and until they cut it out it will continue to consume it’s host.
This is a cancer cannabis can’t touch,,only the government can cut it out.
Moving the deck chairs, indeed. Selective enforcement is what’s caused so much of the harm in the WO(S)D. More of the same. It’s not like he’s exhibited any control, or even influence, over his underlings so far. Why would they listen to him now?
What he said sounded no different than what he’s been saying all along, at least with respect to the war on drugs. He’s only making recommendations regarding DOJ priorities. Prosecutors are still free to do as they please. I don’t believe he said anything about actually changing any drug laws.
Sound familiar? Remember the Ogden memo? How well has that worked as a defense? In some cases it’s exacerbated the problem, as rogue prosecutors have taken the “guidelines” as carte blanche to wage their own war on mmj.
Unless Holder’s announcement is leading up to something bigger and more concrete (it very well could be), I’d say there’s nothing to see here, move along.
And just about ths time last year we were hearing the AG tell congress they had no choice but to enforce all federal laws,,it isn’t up to the DOJ,,,something either changed his mind or he is lying now.
It’s as if they just can’t stop themselves from acting like total assholes.
Children taken from medical marijuana-prescribed parents in California
this is the same city that had to pay steve foley a possible 5.5 million (it’s secret) for getting shot in the back of the knee while drunk.
Missed the show on Sunday but caught the link by Servetus. Thank you.
In my opinion the show seemed propaganda-free. That, in and of itself is a huge step in the progression towards full legalization.
The minor issue I would have is in the beginning where they claim cannabis IS THC and CBD or Cannabidiol. While they are the two most significant cannabinoids they are not the only ones by far.
In fact, if U.S. patents are any indication, it’s the RATIO of THC-to-CBD rather than simply a large amount of CBD that appears to be medically important. Currently the patents cover the ranges of 10-to-1 THC/CBD and 1-to-10 THC/CBD.
Charlotte’s Web, the high-CBD (20, or 30-to-1 CBD-to-THC) cannabis used by the parents of the little girl to treat her seizures may or may not be the best fit for her although it’s difficult to argue with their success.
I use both high-THC and high-CBD varieties in managing pain. While high-CBD is awesome for joint-pain and neuropathy, it’s practically useless for headache.
I had a recent headache that made me wonder if I needed to go to the emergency room. My first thought was to medicate with high-CBD. I used small balls of CBD-rich kif on top of one-hitters of CBD-rich cannabis. In addition, I medicated with a CBD-rich tincture.
NOTHING.
That is, until I took one-hit of Granddaddy Purple and got immediate relief. Granddaddy Purple is probably somewhere close to California dispensary average THC content of around 15% THC.
I bring this up because their will be a tendency by the newbies in the medical profession to love CBD but down- play THC’s role. That would be a HUGE mistake.
And, while we ARE making progress, don’t ever underestimate the power of folks with guns to protect their MARKET SHARE, or the value of the Drug War to American Empire.
Part of being an Empire is the ability to move freely around the globe at will. Ending prohibition based on science and/or medical value is a huge monetary threat to EMPIRE and those who make a living via prohibition.
While this does make it more difficult, the end result of cannabis legalization is that it brings us closer to legalizing democracy.
Nice points.
The “THC gets you, CBD is medicine” meme is on the loose, tho it came through somewhere in the show that “THC is medicinal, too.”
That’s what I’m talking about… the way we rollup and dispose of Prohibition could, should, serve as the model for how we set about reclaiming the rest of our Commonwealth – from the bankers, Pharma, BigBadDirtyOil…But it CAN NOT happen ’til we ax the lies & misrepresentations from the discussion – “Addiction” was tossed around far too freely in last night’s block – which, if it means anything in the Cannabis context, means someting different – but every time it gets used without rebuttal, that scarey chord sends chills down the spines of the low-info consumer…& Wasn’t that D. Evans on the recent tape segment with Officer Neill from LEAP, complaining that Big MJ would be targeting kids to get’em hooked while they’re young? Bullshit! This stuff is w/in our power: No TV ads, period! & no ED, underarm testosterone, no Ambien w/its 40 seconds of side-effects! And I could have gone another 10 years w/o seeing that harridan Volkow. Geeez, what a liar…
So, no, last night’s show didn’t kick the can as far forward as I’d hoped, but it did highlight how we need to strengthen our messaging.
“Holder said new approaches – which he is calling the “Smart On Crime” initiative – are the result of a Justice Department review he launched early this year.”
Smart on crime? new approaches?
What a coincidence, he sounds just like our friends at Project SAM
NYC Stop and Frisk ruled unconstitutional. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/nyregion/stop-and-frisk-practice-violated-rights-judge-rules.html?pagewanted=all
Federal Judge ruled city liable, designated an outside monitor, pilot camera wearing program and community meetings…nice start.
And Bloomberg is scared. He -has- to appeal this, in his view. Unfortunately the higher the appeals go, the less the courts seem to be concerned about the 4th amendment.
Kevin Sabet is taking door number 2. Promote rescheduling, but not for cannabis in “raw form”.
Should Marijuana Be Rescheduled? http://tinyurl.com/n4ufdtm
Suddenly Kevin says it has medical value.
Here comes the setup for Sativex,,we knew it was coming and here it is,,look for Sativex to be approved any day now,,especially after the Guptka show. It probably kicked FDA approval to the next medicine out.
You know clay, you’ve been saying that FDA approval of Sativex is imminent since at least June of 2010.
June 19, 2010: Sativex is also in the final stages of approval by the FDA in the US.
August 13, 2013: …look for Sativex to be approved any day now.
You better believe that you’ll hear it from me seconds after it’s announced presuming that it ever does get approved.
It’s going to take me a while to figure out this new angle of his…is it really new?
It’s definitely confounding.
He says: “An approved product based on ingredients found in Schedule I substances can be prescribed.”
Does anyone know of an example other than Marinol? If a defining criterion of Schedule I is “no medical value,” how can you have Schedule I substances (or “preparations” containing them) as medicines?
Tough assignment they gave Kev-Kev this time…
(scientists have long known that THC boosts appetite).
What an amazing revelation your researchers have come up with Kevin. As if we really need scientists to confirm what we’ve known for centuries.
Once it is approved for medical uses how can the substance remain schedule 1?
It has tons of medical uses – some are without much modern scientific “proof” – to satisfy the FDA, lawsuit fearing medical malpractice lawyers, all those w/ vested interests in it remaining illegal.
AKA = Lobbyists for BigPharma, Big/Private =Incarceration-For-Profit, Rehab/Addiction/Treatment-For-Profit, Personal Crusaders with egos to maintain, People desperate to avoid the cognitive-dissonance of addressing their past/personal substance misuse/abuse (who’ve claimed themselves to be “powerless to their addiction to/of _fill-in-the-blank-substance_”), And especially all the people that have made some element of Drug Prohibition their entire adult life’s work!
“…How can the substance remain schedule 1?”]
It can’t…
UNLESS, we have to get the current House of Representatives to agree on the actual legislation, But = right now, they probably can’t agree on a damn Lunch/Pizza Order much less meaningful Legislation that’s not “Tough on Crime”… a bill that rolls back Cannabis Prohibition.
I Suppose there IS a chance we can get the (R) Libertarians to go along – because they care more about ‘Smaller Government’ & ‘Less Spending’, More than they care about forcing their personal beliefs about the morality of substance use for private/personal/adult recreation – onto others.
More simply, Do they REALLY want to spend those BILLIONS of their money the ‘Big Government’ takes in the form of ‘Socialist Taxes’ = So they can continue to shove the remnants of the Temperance Movement and (Racism, Nixon’s “Tough on Criminal Anti-War Hippies Boondoggle”, and Aunt Nancy’s Protectionist “Save the Children” project) down other peoples’ throats?
Getting such a bill to the Floor of the House of Representatives -could be difficult and there’s surely someone in the Senate would be lobbied to Filibuster it, And then we’d have to get Barry to sign it which means facing a ton of the inevitable “Choom-Gang” Snark.
He’d have to risk people trying to spin his political/presidential legacy as more than “the 1st black president who addressed healthcare, immigration, and *of course* – he legalized pot…”
Refreshing to see my pessimism renewed in this new day of hope! (Sorry I had to link to Tokeofthetown)
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2013/08/rhode_island_pot_tickets_increase_despite_decrimin.php#more
Did they expect the city managers and police to ignore an easy fine like that,,revenue is revenue. If the citizens want to stop it thaey can start sitting the fines out on weekends,,when it starts costing them instead of making them money they will quit.
This Is Your Brain on Crony Capitalism
Scott Shackford| Aug. 12, 2013 via @reason
“I wrote a marijuana column in 2013 that assumes people don’t know what ‘getting baked’ means.”Credit: The Hills Treatment CenterFolks, today, as Attorney General Eric Holder announces a plan to scale back the impact of mandatory minimum federal drug sentences by deliberately omitting some information from indictments, it has become even more important to discuss an addiction that is plaguing the community. I am talking about the terrible addiction of crony capitalism in the drug treatment community.
How to Process Eric Holder’s
Major Criminal Law Reform Speech aclu.org
Eric Holder’s Drug War Speech:
Don’t Get Too Excited Yet rollingstone
The attorney general’s words on mandatory-minimum sentencing were powerful, but their immediate impact is likely to be minimal. Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech today on mandatory-minimum sentencing for drug offenders is far more important for its symbolism than its substance. Here’s why:
Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks
at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates
San Francisco ~ Monday, August 12, 2013 justice.gov
Thank you, Bob Carlson, for those kind words – and for your exemplary service as Chair of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates. It’s a pleasure to be with you this morning. And it’s a privilege to join so many friends, colleagues, and leaders – including U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Haag – here in San Francisco for the ABA’s 2013 Annual Meeting.
Real #DrugPolicyReform: DOJ’s Change
in Mandatory Minimum Policies
by Rafael Lemaitre on August 12, 2013
Today, the Department of Justice refined its charging policies regarding mandatory minimums for certain nonviolent, low-level drug offenses. The policy changes are part of the Department of Justice’s “Smart on Crime†initiative, a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system aimed at ensuring federal laws are enforced more fairly, and federal resources are used more efficiently, by focusing on top law enforcement priorities.
Obama’s Pot Problem By Tim Dickinson
The Tragedy Of Civil Forfeiture
via @HuffPostLive
Policing For Profits huffingtonpost
Under civil forfeiture, Americans who haven’t been charged with wrongdoing can be stripped of their cash, cars, and even homes. Taking illicit gains away from criminals and funneling them into crime-fighting has garnered support, but who else loses?
In 2011, 1 in 25 Americans was arrested
By Natasha Lennard Aug 7, 2013 salon.com
The War on Drugs still accounts for startling arrest rates, borne out in FBI stats
Medical Researcher:
Anti-Marijuana Activist Is Dishonest norml.org
by Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director
In a country where it is increasingly difficult to find a living and breathing person willing to publicly debate in favor of maintaining cannabis prohibition’s status quo, one newly formed anti-marijuana organization and it’s primary spokesperson rightly lands in the crosshairs of medical researcher and cannabis policy reform activist Sunil Kumar Aggarwal, M.D. for conducting (from the time he was a college student-through his work at the Office of National Drug Control Policy-to now forming an anti-cannabis non-profit created to try to stem the ever-growing tide of public opinion in favor of legally controlling cannabis with regulations and taxation–not the brute force of the racially disparate, expensive and wasteful criminal justice system) a systematic and intellectually dishonest public relations campaign against cannabis.
CNN’s Gupta apologizes for misleading public on marijuana,
but doesn’t say ‘legalize it’ seattlepi.com
In a long mea culpa and apparently equally long documentary to come on Sunday, CNN’s chief medical correspondent – Doctor Sanjay Gupta – says he was part of misleading the public about the evils of marijuana.
Kosher Certification Bans All GMO Ingredients
One group after another is denouncing the genetically modified poison on grocery store shelves, adding to the chorus of voices demanding real untainted food.
Natural Food Certifiers has announced today that any food product that contains GMOs is no longer eligible to be certified as kosher under their “Apple K†kosher certification program.
Orthodox Rabbi Says Medical Marijuana Is Kosher
Catch 22²
Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 584 concerns marijuana.
Concise Description This measure would decriminalize or exempt from licensing certain marijuana-related activities, exempt medical-marijuana patients from marijuana blood limits for driving, restrict blood-test evidence, authorize vacating convictions, and remove duties to assist federal authorities.
Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]
It’s in the petition stage, gotta find me one to sign:
http://www.reallegalization.org/petition