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LEGISLATION
Federal, state, and local bills and initiatives
NAACP panel: Should marijuana be legalized, and how would it impact African-Americans?
Should marijuana be legalized? Yes. What impact would it have on African-Americans? Well, first off, it might mean that not 1-in-3 black men would be under correctional supervision (prison, parole, probation) and there might be more young black men in college than prison.
Boston Herald laments police inability to collect pot fines or lock up tokers
Thumbing their noses at the state’s lax new pot law, Bay State stoners are brazenly lighting up in front of cops and then refusing to pay fines – leading some frustrated police chiefs to all but give up the fight. Local police report widespread defiance of the six-month-old law, and a Herald review shows a [...]
DEA Inadvertently Speeding Prohibition End
(http://www.isria.com/pages/17_July_2009_70.php) The US anti-drug agency supported the Mexican government’s position of rejecting any dialogue or pact with organized crime. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) approved the Mexican government’s position of not negotiating with drug traffickers or criminal groups, whose only possible destination is prison. Mexican President Felipe Calderón “Is right not to make agreements with [...]
Locking people in cages – good old fashioned American entrepreneurship
They* say “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” So, I suppose, if you build a better peopletrap, they’ll construct a four-lane highway to your mammoth corporate headquarters. Eagle Modular – www.jailcells.com – Detention Housing Eagle offers the only proven cost effective solution for immediate correctional facility expansion [...]
Stash Founder Chris Goldstein’s “Open Letter to Bill Maher: The High Heckler”
[From NORML New Jersey Executive Director and Stash Founder Chris Goldstein's blog, Freedom is Green. -- "R"R] INTERVIEWER: Are you still on the board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)? BILL MAHER: You know, that’s a good question. I haven’t had much contact with them in recent years. I was [...]
John English II: Reefer Madness Boogaloo
My favorite locksmith-turned-prohibitionist, Portland’s own John English, has penned four more anti-pot screeds in the online Examiner. Some people cringe when they read tripe like John’s, but I jump for joy. Not only does John provide irreplaceable blog fodder, but the idiocy of his writing and fallacy of his reasoning illustrate how desperate prohibitionists are [...]
CBS News highlights economics of American marijuana cultivation
Real nice video, until the obligatory “gateway drug” counterargument in the last fifteen seconds. Watch CBS Videos Online
Substance abuse counselor: Legalization doesn’t equal addiction
(KESQ) PALM DESERT – Substance abuse counselor Jennifer Mayes is all for legalizing pot. She says legalization doesn’t necessarily equal addiction. “You give the ok. Yeah, sure it’s gonna be used more but you’re talking about also the addiction part of it, I think, you’re talking about a totally different aspect,” says Mayes. It’s a [...]
California Board of Equalization report: legalized marijuana would reap $1.38 billion
The California State Board of Equalization released a legislative analysis today estimating that the state would collect up to $1.38 billion in new revenue from taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana. The report is based on Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s (D-San Francisco) groundbreaking legislation, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education act (AB 390) that would [...]
Esquire interviews Rep. Barney Frank on decriminalization bill
ESQUIRE: Could you tell me why you’re doing it at this time? Everybody says you guys have got so much to handle right now. BARNEY FRANK: Announcing that the government should mind its own business on marijuana is really not that hard. There’s not a lot of complexity here. We should stop treating people as [...]