NORML Blog » Blog Archive » High Times Publisher and NORML Founder Mount Legal Challenge to Massachusetts Pot Laws!
On Saturday, September 15, 2007, NORML Founder Keith Stroup and High Times associate publisher Rick Cusick were arrested for smoking a joint at the 18th annual Boston Freedom Rally on the Boston Common. This is an event held each year to protest the continued arrest of responsible cannabis consumers in that state, and depending on the weather, it attracts from 15,000 to 50,000 supporters to the Common.

Keith and Rick have candidly acknowledged that they were sharing a joint, but they have pleaded not guilty and announced their intentions to challenge the constitutionality of the Massachusetts marijuana laws, and to argue for a jury instruction informing the jurors of their common law power to refuse to convict an individual, if they do not believe the offense should be a criminal matter. This long-held power of jurors is generally called jury nullification.

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Snag in deal by U.S and Canada’s Prince of Pot | Politics | Reuters
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A deal to resolve the extradition fight between Canada’s “Prince of Pot” and U.S. drug authorities has hit a snag, the marijuana activist said on Wednesday.

The United States wants to extradite Marc Emery — who founded a political party and campaigned across Canada to legalize pot — on charges he illegally sold marijuana seeds from his Vancouver store to American buyers.

Emery tentatively agreed with U.S. prosecutors in January to plead guilty in return for the charges being dropped against two other defendants and he being allowed to spend the bulk of a 10-year sentence in Canada.

Canada must also approve the deal, but its prosecutors say a Canadian judge cannot be ordered to impose a U.S. prison sentence of no release for at least five years that is stricter than Canadian law requires.

“The Canadian government says that’s not legal in Canada … and so Justice Department in the United States says the deal is not possible because the Canadians are not playing ball so to speak,” Emery told reporters.

Emery was in court in Vancouver on Wednesday to set a date for his extradition trial, but a judge agreed to postpone the hearing until April 19 to allow his lawyers, U.S. and Canadian prosecutors to continue negotiating.

Emery said he will fight extradition if a deal is not reached.

Emery has accused Canadian police of bowing to U.S. political demands by arresting him in 2005, since his activities were well-known and tolerated in Canada — where he even paid taxes on his seed sales.

It’s bad enough that the US anti-marijuana policies create huge injustice in our own country. What’s more troubling is that our superpower status has made it possible to overtly manipulate other governments into committing anti-marijuana injustices.

MyFox Colorado | Denver’s Marijuana Policy Under Review
DENVER — Three times since 2005 Denver voters have said they don’t want people arrested or prosecuted for carrying less than an ounce of marijuana.

Wednesday, we learned police and prosecutors have not changed their policies. But that might be changing.

The Marijuana Policy Review Panel is charged with implementing the city’s latest marijuna ordinance. On Wednesday, it introduced a resolution recommending the city attorney’s office no longer seek conviction for petty marijuana cases.

The panel met at the Denver City and County building trying to find out why hundreds have been arrested since voters passed the three laws starting in 2005.

Since 2004 through last year, arrests have continually climbed. This, even though voters said starting in 2005, then again in 2006 and 2007, they wanted them to drop completely.

Denver modeled its lowest law enforcement policy after Seattle–which had 125 arrests in 2006. That compares to Denver’s which is estimated to be about 1,400 arrests.

The panel will vote on the resolution at its next meeting.

It’s tough for the drug warriors to give up, even when the people want them to. They’re addicted to Drug War. Let’s hope our allies are successful in forcing Denver to obey the will of the people.

And stay tuned next week; we’ll be speaking with Mason Tvert of SAFER in Denver, who spearheaded the three initiatives and sits on the Marijuana Policy Review Panel.

Pot plants end up at San Jose recycling center - San Jose Mercury News
Workers at the GreenTeam recycling center in San Jose were sorting material Friday when they opened a large trash bag and found five pounds of marijuana plants inside.

They called police to report their find at around 11 a.m., Officer Jermaine Thomas said.

The marijuana plants had been shoved into a large, black plastic bag, Thomas said, and could have come from anywhere in the county. The plants have been seized as evidence and won’t make it to the composting bin anytime soon.

A pound of the leafy-green stuff can go for as much as $750 on the street, Thomas said. It was unclear how much of the pot in the bag would have been sellable.

Well, because of prohibition, I’d say all of it was sellable. Desperate tokers in a dry spell will buy leaf and stems and make hash or tea out of it. And in the case of some of the finer strains, an ounce of the stuff can go for $750 on the street.

And they called police? Since when do guys working at a recycling center pass up five pounds of free weed?

CaribWorldNews.com - Global Caribbean Daily Newswire
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Mon. March 3, 2008: Jamaica’s new Bruce Golding administration may consider legalizing ganja, a top government official said Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Kenneth Baugh revealed that a seven-member government commission has been researching possible changes to the anti-drug laws pertaining to marijuana-related cases.`We have discussed it, and we are preparing a report to present to the prime minister,` said Deputy Prime Minister Kenneth Baugh.

The move comes five years following the 2003 commission report that recommended legalizing pot in small amounts for personal use. Members of the almost 700,000 strong Rastafarian movement has long lobbied for the legalization.

But such a move could mean loss of Jamaica’s U.S. anti-drug certification. On Friday, the U.S.` latest drug report again claimed that Jamaica is the largest producer of marijuana in the Caribbean and a major transit point for drugs entering the U.S.

Many countries in the world have joined with the United States in outlawing marijuana, but a primary reason for that is the strong-arm economic tactics employed by the US to force other countries to enact marijuana prohibition. With Jamaica’s large Rasta population who use the herb for religious sacrament, there is great public support for legalization. But the poor country would be crippled by US economic sanctions if it were to do so. We should practice that democracy we’re all so fond of and allow countries to set their own drug policy without extortion from our government.

The supporters of prohibition reform have marijuana-related legislation pending in Hawaii, Vermont, Hew Hampshire, California, New Jersey, Missouri, and Maryland. Here are the details:

Hawaii: The House Health Committee passed HB2675 HD1 Relating to Medical Marijuana with the following provisions:

1. Increase the adequate supply from 7 plants to 14 plants (deleting reference to mature and immature plants) and allowing one ounce of usable marijuana per plant.
2. Establishing a task force within the UH College of Tropical Agriculture to study safe growing facilities, seek possible solutions to inter-island transportation of medical marijuana. It also names who should be on the task force.

Vermont: The Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 238. As amended, SB 238 would replace existing criminal sanctions outlawing the possession of up to one ounce of cannabis with civil sanctions punishable by a fine, but no criminal record.

The House Agriculture Committee recently passed legislation, House Bill 267, that seeks to define industrial hemp as an “agricultural product” and establish regulations for its production by state-licensed farmers.

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Top Obama Flip-Flops - washingtonpost.com
Decriminalization of marijuana: While running for the U.S. Senate in January 2004, Obama told Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use. In the Oct. 30, 2007, presidential debate, he joined other Democratic candidates in opposing the decriminalization of marijuana.

I think it’s interesting that the Post is criticizing a “flip-flop” for becoming more punitive toward cannabis smokers.  It’s the kind of “flip-flop” that people who wouldn’t support the senator would want to see, isn’t it?  Wouldn’t decrim be something the political establishment would want him to “flip-flop” on?

Whatever brings the subject up in conversation, I suppose…

N.H. bill would decriminalize marijuana - The Boston Globe
Two first-term state representatives from Nashua have filed legislation to decriminalize the possession of up to 0.25 ounce of marijuana, hoping that New Hampshire might join 12 other states that have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of pot.The bill, which is expected to be voted on by the House next month, would make the possession of such quantities a civil violation that would carry a $200 fine instead of a criminal misdemeanor that could result in up to a year in jail and fines of up to $2,500.

The bill is sponsored by two first-term representatives, Representative Andrew Edwards, a 21-year-old Nashua Democrat, and Representative Jeffrey Fontas, another 21-year-old Democrat from Nashua.

On Feb. 14 , when a working group of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted, 4 to 1, in favor of the lighter penalty, it was the first time in more than 20 years that a group of Granite State legislators had recommended the decriminalization of marijuana. On Feb. 19, however, the full committee voted, 13 to 5, to recommend that the House not pass the law.

The bill is scheduled to go before the full House March 5.

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MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (AP) — Marijuana is now the biggest source of income for Mexico’s drug cartels and the U.S. is committed to cracking down harder on traffickers, U.S. drug czar John Walters said Thursday.

Walters made the comments following a meeting with Mexican officials who want the U.S. to prosecute marijuana cases more zealously to reduce the amount of cash gangs can spend on guns.Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora discussed the subject with Walters and U.S. federal prosecutors from the border region Thursday during a meeting in the Baja California resort of Los Cabos.

Walters said the U.S. government is seeking additional resources to prosecute traffickers of marijuana, which now earns cartels about $8.5 billion or about 61 percent of their annual estimated income of $13.8 billion. Cocaine sales earn the cartels about $3.9 billion, and methamphetamine about $1 billion, he said.

“While the criminal organizations that are a threat to both of our countries make a lot of money off of heroin and cocaine and methamphetamine, the vast majority of their money to buy guns, bribe, corrupt and destroy lives is from marijuana,” said Walters, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

$8.5 billion!?! How long will it take our government to realize that many millions of Americans love to smoke marijuana, and that rather than try to eliminate it and see all that $8.5 billion amassed by criminal cartels, we could be pumping that money into our economy and taxing the sales of marijuana similar to how we tax alcohol. Have you heard of any Mexican alcohol gangs lately?

MONTPELIER, VERMONT — The Vermont Senate voted last Wednesday to scrap jail terms for first- or second-time offenders caught with up to an ounce of marijuana, giving initial approval to a bill that would give those people fines or send them to court diversion. Debate on whether to give the bill initial approval — which the Senate ended up doing on a 22-7 roll call vote — prompted a wide-ranging discussion of marijuana policy, about the message the legislation would send to young people, and about whether laws against marijuana were causing more harm than the drug itself.

Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, introduced his comments on the topic with a bit of humor.

“I’m not so naive as to think that marijuana is a completely harmless drug,” he said. “It’s responsible for some of the worst poetry every written. And as a musician, I can tell you it wreaks havoc on the drummer’s ability to keep the tempo.”

But he added, “The harm that is done to actual people’s lives because they’re pot smokers is not done by pot-smoking. The harm that comes to people’s lives because they’re pot smokers comes from the state. The problems in their lives do not come from lighting up a joint. It comes from getting caught.”

Critics of the bill said it would send the wrong message at a time when the state is grappling with a growing problem with use and abuse of harder drugs.

Current Vermont law calls for those caught with up to two ounces of marijuana to be given up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

The bill before the Senate Wednesday would give those caught with up to one ounce a choice: They could either pay a $500 fine — $750 on a second offense — and have a criminal record, or they could go to a court diversion program, which would result in no criminal record but likely would require counseling and community service.

It’s good to see the remarks from Senator McCormack. As a musician, I have to disagree a bit about the drummer’s timing remark. I think we could easily say that marijuana helped inspire some of the greatest songs and greatest musicians of all time. But he’s right about the harms from marijuana. As my musician father once told me, the worst side effect of marijuana is prison.

House Bill 2067: HB 2067 and its companion bill in the Senate (SB 2547) seek to amend existing limits regarding the amount of cannabis patients may legally possess and grow, prevent employers and landlords from discriminating against medical cannabis patients, and impose legal liability on law enforcement officials who improperly seize cannabis from state-authorized patients.

House Bill 2673: HB 2673 seeks to protect those medical marijuana patients in the public workforce who may be subjected to random  drug testing. Under current law, state-authorized patients may be penalized or even terminated by their employer for their off-the-job use of medical cannabis. Passage of HB 2673 would grant these patients the same legal protections already afforded to employees prescribed other prescription medications — including oral THC (aka Marinol) — and would not jeopardize on-the-job safety or performance.

House Bill 2677: HB 2677 seeks to limit the criminal prosecution of adults who possess small amounts of cannabis in the privacy of their own home. Specifically, this bill would encourage local police to establish a policy that sets private adult marijuana offenses as the “lowest priority for investigation, citation, and arrest.”  Similar ‘deprioritization’ policies have been enacted in several metropolitan areas — including Oakland, California and Seattle, Washington — and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

(SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA) A group has formed in Santa Barbara to put an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize cannabis for industrial and nutritional products, medicinal preparations, and for recreational and euphoric use. The group announced the California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative Campaign on Friday at a press conference on the steps of Santa Barbara City Hall. The initiative would also include clearing all criminal records for people involved in non-violent cannabis, hemp and marijuana offenses.

The group, headed by Jack Herer argues that not only does cannabis serve as a medicine to many sick, but that cannabis is the only way to reverse the greenhouse effect and can be used as paper, fiber, and food as well. The U.S. government, they say, is hiding these facts.

“I can know about cotton, flack and nylon,” said Herer at the press conference, “but there’s not a word of hemp in the schools.” Herer, who ran for president of the United States twice as a member of the Grassroots party, said that for 5,000 to 6,000 years 60 to 80 percent of the world’s production of fuel and clothing was made from hemp. The group is hoping that the dialogue will begin to introduce the idea that a hemp cultivation program can eliminate greenhouse gasses while replenishing the atmosphere and replacing fossil fuels with hemp bio-fuels.

For the Santa Barbara-based efforts to get the legalization initiative on the California ballot, valid signatures from roughly 434,000 people are needed. The group is also looking to bring the discussion to Congress this summer via the Government Oversight Domestic Policy Subcommittee, which is chaired by former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, a supporter of marijuana decriminalization.

A discussion and debate on the ballot initiative will take place on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery.

A vote is expected later today on HB 1623 — a bill reducing penalties for possessing less than .25 ounces of marijuana from a class A misdemeanor (punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 or up to a year in jail) to a violation punishable by a $200 fine.

HB 1623 is currently being considered by the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. The subcommittee met Feb. 14, and the bill emerged from the subcommittee with a recommendation of “Ought to Pass” (OTP).

Next, the whole committee (20 reps) will vote on the bill in an executive session today, or perhaps Wednesday or Thursday. From there, the bill goes to the floor with a recommendation of OTP or ITL (”Inexpedient to Legislate”) from the full Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. This recommendation will carry a lot of weight with the full house (400 reps), so we are very focused on earning a positive recommendation from the committee.

We are optimistic about our prospects of earning an OTP from the committee, but the vote may be very close. It would certainly help for these representatives to hear from you, especially if you live in one of their districts. Contact info for the 20 reps can be found at NHCommonSense.org.

WINDHAM, NH — Retired Salem police Officer John Tomassi is among a handful of police officers who believe the criminal penalties for marijuana possession are too severe.

Tomassi, a Windham resident, is testifying in support of a New Hampshire bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. If passed, people caught with a quarter ounce of pot would receive a ticket and a maximum $200 fine.

Attempts to legalize marijuana have failed in the past. But last week, a House subcommittee passed this bill 3-1 with some amendments….

Tomassi, who now teaches economics at Bentley College, sees the problem from both an economic and law enforcement perspective.

Legalization would not end the nation’s drug problem but it would stop the violence, he said. Last year, 1.8 million people were charged with drug crimes, Tomassi said.

“You would like to think most of them were major drug dealers,” he said. But most were charged with marijuana possession. Tomassi said drug dealers fear the legalization of drugs, which would dry up their profits and put them out of business. He draws a parallel between the current situation and crime during Prohibition.

Police officers are often on our side when it comes to reducing the penalties for personal marijuana possession. They are the ones on the front lines of the drug war who see firsthand that prohibition is a costly failure. They’d much rather be busting people for real crimes, but the laws require them to harass and arrest people who use marijuana. And what kind of message do we send to kids when we arrest more people for growing or possessing a non-toxic plant than we do for all violent crimes combined?

Many fine activists are working hard to free up police resources for serious crimefighting by eliminating the laws against marijuana possession. Be sure to check out today’s Audio Stash and hear our interview with one such activist, Matt Simon from the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy.

Pot Decriminalization Bill Approved In State Senate

MONTPELIER, VERMONT — It’s on to the Vermont House now for a bill that would relax penalties on Vermonters caught with small amounts of marijuana.

The Vermont Senate gave final approval to the bill Thursday after defeating an amendment that would have given prosecutors the decision-making power over whether minor cases should be sent to court diversion.

ith up to an ounce of marijuana. Opponents said the bill sends the wrong message to young people, while supporters said it would match state law with the existing practice of prosecutors.

New Hampshire Subcommittee Approves Pot Decriminalization Bill

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — A House subcommittee yesterday approved a bill to reduce the consequences of possessing small amounts of marijuana. The Criminal Justice and Public Safety subcommittee voted 3-1 to reduce to a violation, punishable by a $200 fine, possession of less than one-quarter ounce of marijuana. It is not clear when the full committee will vote on the bill.

Current law makes possession of marijuana a misdemeanor, which carries a fine and criminal record upon conviction. A violation would not mean a record, Rep. David Welch, R-Kingston, said.

“Young folks who aren’t always making intelligent choices could screw up their chances at a Pell Grant for college later on,” under current law, he said.

While we prefer outright re-legalization of the herb, it will take incremental steps to get the public to go along. Decrim at least removes the threat of arrest and all the ancillary harms from arrest for responsible adult cannabis consumers.

For tomorrow’s Stash it’s Valentine’s Day and I’m going to be examining the effects of marijuana on sex and love. What I’d like to know from the listeners out there is what your experience with marijuana has taught you…

…does marijuana act as an aphrodisiac for you, or does it depress your libido?

…is this effect different for men vs. women?

…does the effect change after long-term, heavier usage of marijuana?

…have you ever had a romantic partner who didn’t use marijuana, and if so, did that cause any rift in the relationship?

Send me your comments at stash ‘at’ norml.org and I’ll read the best ones on the podcast (with your initials or nickname only to protect your identity.)

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(–”R”R …still smokin’… )

“When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently - that was the point” - Sen. Barack Obama.

With Illinois Senator Barack Obama racking up big wins in the Democratic primaries and caucuses lately, there has been more scrutiny about his views on marijuana reform.  In 2004, he had stated that he supported the decriminalization of marijuana.  He has backed off of that position recently (as detailed on the Stash last week and at Drug War Chronicle and CelebStoner.com), but I see that as just political posturing.  Given that he’s admitted his past use of marijuana and cocaine in his youth, perhaps Obama knows that he needs to protect himself from what could be a political liability — appearing to be “soft on drugs”.

Yet I think the success of the Obama campaign, in light of his honesty about marijuana use, shows that our society may finally be ready to enact meaningful reform of marijuana laws.  You need only think back to Bill Clinton’s “I didn’t inhale” from the 1990s and Judge Ginsberg’s doomed Supreme Court nomination from the 1980s to see the progress being made.  Now you can be a serious candidate for political office even if you are one of the 90 million or so that have tried marijuana!  And you don’t even have to elaborately parse your marijuana experiences into a nonsensical rationalization (”I didn’t inhale”?  Please.  He was a sax-playing longhaired college kid studying abroad in the late 1960s!), you can be honest even if you “inhaled frequently”.

I’d prefer that Obama could stand by his 2004 call for decrim, but with the pressing issues of this election like the Iraq occupation and our floundering economy, I can understand how he wouldn’t want to be distracted and vulnerable to attacks on drug policy, which, while important to us, isn’t an issue that he’d want sidetracking his campaign.

Just the fact that he can be honest about his marijuana use is a positive step.  To have a president who was honest about marijuana and can understand what marijuana and the people who use it are really like will certainly be an improvement over the current administration.

Plus, I don’t think an Obama Administration would surprise us like the Clinton Administration did by ratcheting up the War on Marijuana and setting records for annual marijuana arrests.  It seemed like Bill Clinton’s administration tried to counter a “soft on drugs” image by locking people up.  Clinton put himself in that corner by sheepishly deflecting questions about his use, implying that marijuana use was something to be ashamed of, something to deny.  Obama’s openness leads me to believe that he wouldn’t feel the same pressure to be “tough on drugs”.  Also, I think his background as an African-American man may make him more sensitive to the injustices of the War on Marijuana.

Only time will tell, and he hasn’t gotten the nomination yet.  But I am hopeful about finally seeing some meaningful change in marijuana policy at the federal level.

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NORML’s Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano makes a convincing argument about how we can re-legalize marijuana. We’ll discuss that and other topics on tomorrow’s Stash, but I wanted to post this clip of his essay:

MAKING POT LEGAL: WE CAN DO IT — HERE’S HOW

This month marks my 13th year working for marijuana law reform. During this time I’ve witnessed many successes and many more signs of progress. Nevertheless, it remains frustratingly clear that despite sincere efforts and millions poured into campaigns, very little headway has been made toward attaining the larger, essential goals of the movement — specifically, abolishing the criminal laws that result in the arrest and prosecution of more than half a million Americans every year for possessing even small amounts of herb and establishing a framework for regulating legal access to marijuana to adults. Is either one of these goals achievable? Certainly. Is either goal realistic? Not until we as a movement instigate significant shifts in both public attitude and political opinion.

…Legalizing Cannabis Like Alcohol Will Send a Public a Message That Pot Is “OK”

Of all the concerns commonly expressed by the public, fears that marijuana regulation will imply that pot is “OK” may be the easiest to respond to. Why? Because compared to the use and abuse of other legal intoxicants — most notably alcohol and tobacco — the responsible use of marijuana is, by typical societal standards, “OK.” Pot lacks the dependence liability of tobacco or booze and, unlike alcohol — or even aspirin — marijuana consumption is incapable of causing a fatal overdose. According to government survey data, the majority of Americans who use pot do so intermittently — not daily — and most voluntarily cease their habit by time they reach their early 30s. (Compare this use pattern to most people’s use of cigarettes, a habit that often continues unabated throughout one’s lifetime.) Of course, inhaling marijuana smoke over time may be associated with certain pulmonary risks, such as wheezing and chest tightness. However, most of these adverse effects can be mitigated by vaporizing cannabis — a practice that heats marijuana to a temperature where active cannabis vapors form, but below the point of combustion.

It is time for marijuana law reformers to embrace rather than dispute the notion that the responsible use of cannabis by adults falls well within the ambit of choice we permit individuals in a free society. Reformers shouldn’t be afraid to educate the public as to the relative safety of cannabis, particularly when compared to the use of other common intoxicants. Recently, a regional education campaign comparing and contrasting pot use with alcohol launched by the group SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation) resulted in a majority of Denver voters electing to do away with minor marijuana law enforcement within the city’s limits. The enactment of a similar marijuana “image enhancement” campaign by reformers on a national level would arguably result in a significant increase in public support for broader legalization.

I’ve always believed that it’s the moral issue that most impedes our efforts - that somehow smoking pot is intrinsically “dirty”, the province of “slackers”, and a mark of “immaturity”.

Personally, I make the case that smoking pot is the smart choice if you wanna get intoxicated (the SAFER case). As George Carlin said, “It don’t make your breath stink and you won’t puke on your shoes.”

That’s why I love media portrayals of pot smoking that show it neutrally or at least as no big deal. I saw one of the episodes of the new “Bionic Woman” series (thankfully, only one), where the bionic woman is leading her 14-year-old sister away from a stern lecture at the office of the young girl’s principal. Bionic Woman says, “I can’t believe you! Caught smoking pot behind the bleachers? How terribly cliché.”

And that was it. No demonization of the girl, no plot line that has the girl “paying the price” for her demon weed, no lectures about saying no to drugs. It was as if the girl had been caught toilet-papering the cafeteria.

I encourage everyone to take the positive message public. For example, many times when a politician or celebrity does something stupid, someone will remark, “My goodness, what the hell are they smoking?” Don’t let a slur like that stand! Would you let them say (of a female), “My goodness, is it her time of the month or what?” It’s just as bigoted a remark. I respond with, “They must be smoking crack, because marijuana smokers are smart responsible people.”

Remember, this is a civil rights issue. We must fight every assumed negative perception if we hope to make any headway.

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