Tag: Marijuana Reform (page 10)

Times-Standard reporter Dave Santcliff writes that California could lead the nation out of the depression by legalizing marijuana:

Right now Californians pay $170 million a year for arrests, prosecution and imprisonment of pot offenders, according to statistics released from NORML. Poof! That would go up in smoke, and reduce the prison population as well.

Right now there's talk among lawmakers of an early release program for as many as 58,000 prisoners in the next couple of years because of overcrowding and fiscal shortfalls. There are plenty of good reasons to support AB 390.

As It Stands, it's time to legalize marijuana and jumpstart California's sagging economy into the 21st century.

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Finally, we get an answer from President Obama on the recent DEA medical marijuana raids in California. And, it's the right answer.

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

It's good to know President Obama will keep his campaign promise. Now, the question I have is, will AG Eric Holder file federal criminal cases against those busted after Obama's inauguration? The DEA's first post-inaugural raids were reported here.

During the presidential campaign, President-elect Obama pledged numerous times to end DEA raids on individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state law. The U.S. Attorney General is the member of the cabinet who will implement Obama¹s criminal justice policies, including federal marijuana enforcement.

Confirmation hearings for Obama's nominee, Eric Holder, are scheduled to begin on January 15th before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Holder's past positions on drug law reform are outlined here.

Via NORML:

Please help NORML make sure the next Attorney General keeps the promises made by President-elect Obama! Call or write Senator Leahy's office at (202) 224-4242 and say:

From the time Sen. Barack Obama announced his candidacy, I wrote and wrote about his record on criminal justice issues, particularly with respect to our drug laws. I didn't like what I learned and said so repeatedly. While his policy positions and Hillary's were quite similar, the difference between them, I thought, was that he had spent a lot of time thinking about these issues and legislating on them as a state senator in Illinois. I felt, rightly or wrongly, that we least had a chance with Hillary to convince her on a few points since she hadn't paid a great deal of attention to these issues in the past, either as First Lady or as Senator. She'd be more of a blank slate. Of course, that's all water under the bridge. I only mention it because readers are bound to respond with, "Well Hillary wouldn't have been any better." It's beside the point.

On his website, Change.gov, Obama asked readers to ask a question about the policy change most important to them. The results: the number one question among 7,000 policy topics raised was legalization of marijuana. His response: No way. [More...]

Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of NORML, takes a hard look at President-Elect Barack Obama's appointment announcements to date and finds them not a good sign for those seeking marijuana law reform.

While we've documented likely Attorney General nominee Eric Holder and VP-Elect Joe Biden previously (Also see NNDB and Radley Balko here), Allen points out three other stumbling blocks: Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, ONDCP Transition Team Director Dr. Don Vereen and likely Drug Czar Former Congressman James Ramstad.

In an e-mail, Allen tries to put some optimism in the picture: [More...]

In California, two men have been sentenced to 20 and 22 years for dispensing medical pot. Federal prosecutors had asked for 24 and 30 years.

The case was closely watched because of the clash between state and federal marijuana laws. To federal authorities, it was simple. Though California voters legalized the medical use of marijuana in 1996 under Proposition 215, federal law trumps state law and federal law views the drug -- even when used for medical purposes -- as illegal.

.... Friday, Scarmazzo cast himself and Montes as crusaders who went to trial rather than cut a plea deal with authorities because they are fighting for the rights of medical-marijuana users.

President-Elect Barack Obama pledged to stop federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries -- although he was the last of the ten Democratic candidates to do so. We need him to hold Attorney General Eric Holder to it. Anyone taking bets?

In other Modesto, CA news, a man got 35 years for stealing a purse. No wonder California prisons are bursting at the seams.

As U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., Eric Holder sought to raise marijuana penalties and restore mandatory minimum penalties for drug crimes. From the Washington Times, December 5, 1996 (via Lexis.com):

Eric Holder yesterday said he will seek to make marijuana distribution in the District a felony and reinstate mandatory-minimum sentences for convicted drug dealers. Mr. Holder,...said the D.C. Council's vote a year ago to repeal mandatory minimums was "misguided," leading to a backlog in the court system. He also warned that the city is on the verge of an explosion in violence associated with the sale and use of marijuana.

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Drug Czar Bill Walters (Office of National Drug Control Policy, aka ONDCP)is going out with a whimper.

on ONDCP’s blog, the drug czar’s office unveiled what may be their lamest anti-marijuana campaign yet. Yes, your tax dollars are actually funding this. For now.

By the way, jobs held by people who’ve acknowledged smoking marijuana include governor of California (Arnold Schwarzenegger), astronomer (Carl Sagan), mayor of New York (Michael Bloomberg), billionaire rock star/songwriter (Paul McCartney), and — well, you get the point.

Text of ad below:

University of Colorado campus police seized two ounces of marijuana from student Edward Nicholson's dorm room. As a result, he was charged with possession of marijuana and suspended by C.U.

It turns out, Nicholson had a caregiver's medical marijuana card, allowing him to distribute to medical marijuana patients, even though he himself wasn't a medical marijuana patient.

His criminal charges for possession of marijuana were dismissed and his suspension by C.U. has been reversed. Now, Nicholson wants his pot back and his lawyer says he believes that will happen. [Update: the local news tonight showed Nicholson leaving the police department with his pot. They gave it back.][ More...]

The Bush Adminstration's Drug Czar John Walters said on C-Span last week (video here) that it's a lie that 800,000 Americans were arrested for pot last year. He said folks would have better luck finding a “unicorn” in jail for pot.

NORML has the statistics:

Police arrested a record 872,721 persons for marijuana violations in 2007, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report released today. This is the largest total number of annual arrests for cannabis ever recorded by the FBI. Cannabis arrests now comprise nearly 47.5 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor cannabis offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a cannabis consumer is arrested every 37 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

More....

The Drug Enforcemnt Administration releases statistics every year on drug seizures. In past years, as I wrote here, up to 98% of the marijuana plants they seized was unusable, non psychotropic "ditchweed."

What's "ditchweed?"

[It's] a term the agency uses to define "wild, scattered marijuana plants [with] no evidence of planting, fertilizing, or tending." Unlike cultivated marijuana, feral hemp contains virtually no detectable levels of THC, the psychoactive component in cannabis, and does not contribute to the black market marijuana trade.

NORML senior policy analyst Paul Armentano has an article today questioning why the DEA, this year, is no longer publishing "ditchweed" stats.

Good question.

Amsterdam without marijuana coffee shops? Is nothing sacred?

On July 1, the Netherlands becomes one of the last European countries to ban smoking in restaurants and bars.

The Health Ministry says the ban will apply to cafes that sell marijuana, known as coffee shops. But this being Holland, which for centuries has experimented with social liberalism, there's a loophole: The ban covers tobacco but not marijuana, which is technically illegal anyway.

It gets more complicated. [More...]