Every day I will repost the news stories I read on the air… and add my own commentary afterward. My opinions are mine alone and not necessarily the official stand of NORML… but they usually are. Let’s hit it!
Oregon’s marijuana suppression fund clipped
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oregon authorities seized a record number of marijuana plants last year, but now face a sharp drop in a federal grant used to eradicate clandestine outdoor marijuana grows.
President Bush’s latest budget proposes a 67 percent drop in the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, just as planting season nears.
Byrne Grant money over five years in Oregon totaled $21.7 million and helped fund drug courts and treatment programs across the state. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the program a “vital source of funding for drug eradication efforts in Oregon” and said he’s trying to rectify the cuts, mandated in a budget bill Congress passed in December.
The Byrne grant was cut to $170 million this year. Oregon will get $1.2 million, down from $3.4 million last year.
I cut the grafs that demonized the “Mexican drug gangs” that are always mentioned in stories like these. It’s almost like the ghost of Harry Anslinger has come full circle; they demonized the Mexicans in the Southwest in the early 20th century by calling hemp “marijuana”, they demonize the Mexicans again in the 21st century.
That’s not to say there isn’t environmental degradation and potential violence in our remote forest lands due to black market profiteers trying to tend a garden of gold… but it ain’t the Mexicans and it ain’t the marijuana, it’s the prohibition. If you imprisoned people for growing and eating carrots, there would be deadly Mexican carrot gangs.
UN Board Says Marijuana Vending Machines Are Illegal
The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Marijuana vending machines in Los Angeles violate international treaties and should be shut down, the U.N.-affiliated drug control board said Friday.
At least three Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries have installed vending machines to distribute the herb to people who carry cards authorizing marijuana use. Supporters say the machines, which dispense 1/8th or 1/4 of an ounce of marijuana at a time, offers users lower prices and increases security.
The Drug Enforcement Agency and other U.S. agencies have been shutting down major medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California in the last two years and charging their operators with felony distribution charges.
In its statement, the Vienna-based drug board also said scientific research about the therapeutic usefulness of cannabis or cannabis extracts was still in progress and had not produced much evidence.
Uh… doesn’t medical marijuana, period, violate certain international anti-drug treaties? And note to the public relations geniuses behind the medical marijuana vending machines: you call it (or media calls it) “vending machine” and Ma & Pa ‘Merikun envisions li’l Sally and Billy buying gumballs for a quarter, and whammo, you just lost the media cycle. “Eek! Li’l Billy’s gonna get a blunt from a soda machine!”
“Automated Dispensary Vault.” There. You can have it, no strings attached. Can’t guarantee the media won’t still call it a “vending machine”; you just be dogged about correcting them and replying, “Have you ever had to give a thumbprint to get a Coke from a vending machine?”
California Hemp and Health Initiative 2008 in Circulation
Bay Area Indy Media by California NORML
Activists are circulating a sweeping legalization initiative for the 2008 ballot, the California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative. Sponsored by veteran hemp advocate Jack Herer along with Eddy Lepp and other activists, the initiative would repeal criminal and civil penalties for cannabis, ban drug testing for metabolites, and provide that marijuana be regulated in a manner similar to the wine industry. Also included is a controversial provision ordering the immediate release from jail of all non-violent marijuana offenders, which many believe goes farther than voters would be apt to support. The initiative closely resembles previous hemp initiatives that Herer has sponsored since 1990, none of which have come close to qualifying for the California ballot.
The initiative needs 434,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot; signature gathering continues through April 5, 2008.
Herer is not hiring professional signature-gatherers, but is calling on volunteers to circulate the initiative. A poll last year by California NORML found that California voters remain strongly opposed to legal marijuana by a 60-40 majority, even though a similar majority agrees that marijuana users should be treated like alcohol users and not sent to prison.
For more info on the initiative, see http://www.calhemp08.org
I had a minor quibble with the way this story was presented. The sentence originally read:
The initiative closely resembles previous failed hemp initiatives that Herer has sponsored since 1990, none of which have come close to qualifying for the California ballot.
Which I thought was inaccurate and a bit mean. If the initiative didn’t make the ballot, it didn’t fail. Nobody voted “yea” or “nay” on it. You could say “previous initiatives that failed to qualify for the ballot” and that would be accurate and fair. I also debated whether to say “come close to qualifying”, but I figured that’s accurate if they really didn’t gather a realistic number of signatures to qualify.
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Well, ask and ye shall receive! I put out the call to stoner musicians everywhere and said, bring me your tunes, your jams, your compressed MP3s yearning to be heard! And you responded!
