Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 4:22 pm | By: Radical Russ
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s top drug adviser was fired Friday after saying that marijuana, Ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.
David Nutt’s comments have embarrassed the British government, which toughened the penalties for possessing marijuana earlier this year over the protests of many prominent British scientists.
In later comments to BBC radio’s “PM” program, Nutt accused British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of making “completely irrational statements” about the dangerousness of marijuana.
“I’m not prepared to mislead the public about the harmfulness of drugs like cannabis and Ecstasy,” he said.
Although Nutt’s views have long been public knowledge, the government seems to have been angered by a recent lecture for the Center for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College in London during which Nutt accused former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith of “distorting and devaluing” researchers’ work.
Honesty… is such a lonely word… everyone is so untrue.
It’s getting tougher and tougher for governments to conceal the plain fact that now a majority of people recognize: marijuana is safer than alcohol. We’re tired of being harassed, locked up, and lives ruined because we prefer not to get hangovers when we party. We’re tired of every other commercial on the telly being for beer and boner pills, then being told our pot smoking is bad for a “drug-free America”. We’re tired of being punished for using a natural substance that doesn’t make us cause wrecks, punch people, and puke on your shoes.
This news comes on the heels of our “drugs advisor”, drug czar Kerlikowske, once again saying that marijuana legalization is a “non-starter”. It’s not a surprising statement, given that Kerlikowske is mandated by law to lie about marijuana. Three cheers for David Nutt for having the stones to tell the truth based on science!
No. I’ve never advocated legalization and certainly the president has made it clear that’s his position.
Where did the perception come from that you are permissive in drug enforcement?
The perception is that Seattle is this very tolerant city, but when I talk to my colleagues around the country and they look at what are your resources for law enforcement, targeting adults for small, personal amounts of marijuana, it isn’t high on the radar screen when you have X amount of bodies. You can look at most prosecutors across the country and they have filing standards. Police departments aren’t going to say no, don’t arrest, but are you going to take an officer off the street for four hours or are they going to choose to take themselves off the street for four hours to book somebody for a small amount of marijuana? It’s less about tolerance.
I believe we need to give Director Kerlikowske a chance to get moved into his office and a few months to get on his feet before we can start screaming, “What are you doing?!?!” at him. I like his tone and the 50/50 split between enforcement and treatment is refreshing. I’m not happy that any drug use is still seen as abuse. It is my hope that Director Kerlikowske is the bridge between a law enforcement official and a medical professional holding the office. Time will tell.
One thing to remember: it is just as irrelevant that the Director does not favor legalization as President Obama holding the same opinion. The People will change the law on a state by state basis. What we require from the federal government is to not interfere with process.
Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 8:20 am | By: Dudemaster
Fifteen years ago, I was standing in a valley of several square miles which was completely saturated with marijuana. Later that same day, I was in another field several hundred miles away, but this one was filled with poppies. What was I doing? I was in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, and other Central and South American countries, involved with helping the local communities rid their area of drug producers.
When I worked for our government in support of these efforts in the early 1990’s, drug producers would go into a village, often after executing someone as an example, and conscript the village residents into manufacturing marijuana, cocaine, or opiates. Today, they are still hard at work conscripting residents and forcing them to manufacture their illegal drugs.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m a strong proponent for legal marijuana, but I’m adamantly against the purchase or distribution of “cartel schwag” because there are innocents who die at the hands of the cartels. I would rather ‘never smoke pot again’ than line the pockets of cartels with my money. I’m hoping that someday, it will all be domestic.
I left government service a little more than a year ago, after serving more than 20 years wearing a uniform. In my senior military days, I dealt with policy and strategy, creating different solutions for different issues. Today I spend my time working policy and strategy for a University while working to influence legalization policies through letter writing and blogging.
During my research I came across a paper written by Ross Raffin which describes, in his opinion, how the current legalization movement is being done in a Federal way. He articulates quite accurately what the Obama administration is doing for the legalization movement.
Many advocates of legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana feel Obama has abandoned them. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a consistent warrior against decriminalization. Attorney General Eric Holder has a history of opposing drug policy reforms and considers the adult use of marijuana equivalent to public nuisance. Even Joe Biden, when asked about pain management and medical cannabis, responded that “there’s got to be a better answer than marijuana.” But the reality is that the Obama administration has turned the tides in favor of legalization and decriminalization in a much stronger and subtler way than open rhetorical endorsements.
Optimism for drug reform began when Obama ended federal raids on cannabis dispensaries in states which allow medical marijuana. What marijuana advocates fail to realize is that with this the Obama administration initiated a small but extremely important step towards legalization. More importantly, it has done so in a way to insulate itself from Republican attacks and attempts to distract the public.
If Obama were to walk up to a microphone today and announce that he is going to submit legislation to congress to tax, regulate, and legalize marijuana, we might have a Congress ready to impeach, or at the very least, we’d have a Congress who wouldn’t take him seriously any longer.
The Obama administration’s public hesitation towards marijuana legalization is not only understandable but, considering the impact of the current economic legislation and programs the administration is endorsing, the most pragmatic and efficient route for the moment. Legalization and decriminalization advocates should focus efforts on state-wide legalization, not nation-wide. If states are challenged in lawsuits, than the Supreme Court will be forced to rule on whether legislation criminalizing marijuana should be struck down. This is preferable to the executive putting forward a proposal to legalize marijuana from the top down. When Obama tells the country that marijuana legalization is not the path he chooses for America, he means to say that the path must first be drawn by us.
What we need to do, as a point of policy and strategy, is continue what we are doing right now. At the grass roots level, we need to be even more active in our local NORML chapters, and try as hard as we can by rallying as much support as possible to support any and all decriminalization bills or propositions in our communities and states as we can.
Our president is allowing democracy to decide the fate of marijuana, so let’s use democracy to end the prohibition and re-legalize marijuana. Start a NORML chapter, or attend a meeting and get active! It’s a chance for you to serve your country.
Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 1:20 pm | By: Dudemaster
A new Time article entitled, “Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?” examines the practical theory of how decriminalization and use, when applied to a society properly, can have resounding success; and that is exactly what is being praised for the country of Portugal.
First, let me explain the Portugal model and put it into perspective. As we all know, with the exception of thirteen states that have medical Marijuana laws, the sale and cultivation of marijuana is illegal in the United States under both state laws and federal laws. The laws may vary from state to state, but typical first time possession varies from a civil fine to a year of incarceration.
Contrary to what one might hear in the news, in The Netherlands marijuana is also a crime. The difference in The Netherlands is the Dutch have decided not to enforce those laws because it’s in contrast what the people desire. However, when the Dutch decide to go after a particular grow operation or cannabis shop, they have full charge of the law behind them to do as they please.
The Portugal model is the only one of it’s kind in Europe because they were the first European country to remove all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs including marijuana. And they have been completely legal since 2001!
Portugal
Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal’s drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%.
The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%.
According to the Time article, a CATO study concludes that Portugal’s legalization program is a resounding success having reduced overall drug use, HIV cases, and cutting addiction rates by half across the board with all hard (addictive) drugs.
This is an extremely unique report because Portugal, unlike other countries, didn’t just “dabble” in decriminalization for a select group or demographic, they simply LEGALIZED EVERYTHING.
If an individual is caught in possession of a modest quantity of drugs (below ten daily doses), and police have no further suspicions or evidence that more serious offenses such as sale or traffic are involved, the drug will be seized and the case transmitted to a local Commission composed of 3 members (a lawyer, and two from a range of doctors, social assistants, and psychologists), supported by a technical team. The Commission meets the person in order to evaluate his/her situation and with the aim of eventually diverting the person from prosecution or sending them to treatment. If the user presents evidence that use is occasional or regular, but not habitual (addicted), the proceedings are dropped”.
By embracing the idea that a nation’s drug problem is a health and human services issue, not a law enforcement problem, Portugal helped to reallocate financial resources from law enforcement to address the underlying issues of the health effects of addiction. By doing so, Portugal removed the criminal element behind their illicit drug industry.
In contrast, The Netherlands still experiences a measurable amount of crime related to the illicit cannabis (Europeans refer to marijuana as cannabis) market because they still have laws against the manufacture and sale of cannabis. California also isn’t exempt, the state still sees crime as a result of marijuana being an illegal substance (federally and state without proper authorization). As long as the United States has a Prohibition in place, we will continue to battle cartels and crime on all fronts.
Although Portugal is a smaller country, initiatives like those Portugal put into place could also be put into place in this country within our communities.
Like removing a pot of boiling water from the stove; if you remove crime from Marijuana, you wouldn’t have any crime to fight.
Could Portugal’s solution serve as a model to the United States?
Recently, Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter proposed that Congress create a national commission, not unlike Portugal’s, to deal with prison reform and overhaul drug-sentencing policy. As Webb noted, the U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of it’s prisoners”.
Let me simplify Senator Jim Webb’s proposal:
It asks for a National Commission to discuss and propose policy for prison reform.
It’s that simple.
I think it’s finally time to have this conversation. Don’t you? Contact your representative and affirm your support for Senator Webb’s proposal today.
Most of the time a state assembly member or representative needs a little coaxing to do the right thing. So your friends at the Oaksterdam University decided to hire a polling firm to ask about legalization.
A majority of voters indicated they would vote for a measure to allow cities and counties the option to tax and regulate cannabis and make adult cannabis consumption legal (53% Support/41% Do Not Support/7% Undecided) The economic benefits of taxing cannabis persuaded many voters to support the proposed ballot initiative.
Poll Results:
The Same as Alcohol – 50%
More Strict Than Alcohol – 40%
Less Strict Than Alcohol – 8%
Undecided – 2%
This poll sample was only 600, but it’s just another growing indication that the Indica will soon be set free.
My favorite statistician Nate Silver (who accurately predicted the 2008 president, senate and house races) has put his thinking cap on for Marijuana Legalization and seems to have found a trend that is very positive for our cause.
More important to the policy debate, however, may be the fraction of adults who have used marijuana at any point in their lifetimes. This is a dual-peaked distribution, with one peak occurring among adults who are roughly age 50 now, and would have come of age in the 1970s, and another among adults in their early 20s. Generation X, meanwhile, in spite of its reputation for slackertude, were somewhat less eager consumers of pot than the generations either immediately preceding or proceeding them.
…polls have generally found a fairly strong generation gap when it comes to pot legalization. As members of the Silent Generation are replaced in the electorate by younger voters, who are more likely to have either smoked marijuana themselves or been around those that have, support for legalization is likely to continue to gain momentum.
Of course it’s not about if you tried marijuana or not, you certainly can support legalization for other reasons. But if you’ve used it, you’d know that all the ONDCP garbage was certainly not true. Let’s face it, the drug war hasn’t moved one inch from it’s lies from the past.
It’s a tempting idea: Legalize and tax a commodity that a lot of people like, collect the revenues, and reap the budgetary benefits. In economic times like these, that might be just the formula we need to pull us out of the red. In this case, the truth does not live up to the hype.
Now how many examples of Reefer Madness do you think Dr. Sabet can fit within 600 words of newspaper type? Read on, dear Stasher, for the answer!
NORML’s own Dale Gieringer, Director of CA NORML, has penned an excellent editorial piece for the LA Daily News. Dale hits the positive notes of the Tom Ammiano bill and its positive effects on the California budget and economy and also gives the reader a history lesson that we’ve been there before.
By 1975, enforcement costs had become so high that the Legislature decriminalized possession of small quantities in the Moscone Act, saving the state $100 million each year. Despite dire predictions by opponents, decriminalization had no perceptible effect on marijuana use by either adults or young people.
Our opposition’s most often used comeback is that use will skyrocket, but Dale removes that argument by looking at reform in the past. Reminding people that we decriminalized and that didn’t cause the sky to fall is a strong argument for legalization and one that Dale uses to good effect.
Dale’s piece is extremely well written and is heavy on the facts. It is a template of how an editorial to a paper should be written. Make sure to check it out and while your at it check out CA NORML’s page.
Prediction: After all U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a U.S. army on the Mexican border. For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided, as the fate of Europe will be decided by the millions streaming north from the Maghreb and Middle East, sub-Sahara and South Asia.
So narco-traffickers are the same to him as Muslims “invading” Europe and destroying it’s culture. He then goes to the numbers: 6,000 drug related killings, 6,000 troops and police moved to the border. Recounting the story of Chief Roberto Oduna of Juarez and the killing of a retired army general sent to create an elite anti-crime unit in Cancun leads him to the conclusion that the Mexican government is corrupt.
Far be it for Pat Buchanan to be pollyanna-ish, he put his finger on the demand side of both the equation and the border. It is the US demand for drugs that is fueling this violence. Pat then boils down the responses to this crisis into the best description I have yet seen by a conservative.
There are two sure ways to end this war swiftly: Milton’s way and Mao’s way. Mao Zedong’s communists killed users and suppliers alike, as social parasites. Milton Friedman’s way is to decriminalize drugs and call off the war.
So, begrudgingly he chooses Milton’s Way, because we as a society cannot take the pain of our own government killing 30+ Million of it’s own citizens (by comparison the US lost 1/2 Million in all of World War 2).
Which is the greater evil? Legalized narcotics for America’s young or a failed state of 110,000 million on our southern border? Some choice. Some country we’ve become.
This isn’t a resounding call for the principals that Milton laid out, but a decision based on the fear of a Mexican narco state. So the conservative Republican “War on Drugs” dies a whimpering death in the mind of Pat Buchanan.
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 2:10 pm | By: Radical Russ
First CNBC, now MSN Money, the business-type media outlets are pushing this idea of making money from legalization. We are at a tipping point with this economic crisis and as I predicted to many of my progressive friends, it is the conservatives that are going to run point on this agenda – not the moralists who’ve claimed to be conservatives, but your Goldwater / Friedman / Buckley-type conservatives for whom economics is the first order of public interest and what you smoke is your own damn business.
Every year, about 2 million people in the U.S. are arrested for drug offenses, including using or selling marijuana, heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. About a third of the country’s prisoners are held on drug charges or for crimes attributed to drug abuse.
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
UK Drugs Advisor Nutt sacked for being honest about marijuana
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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