It’s Wednesday, May 7th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville.
Don’t forget to call your Congress and tell them to support HR5842 & HR5843 to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states and to legalize personal possession of marijuana. The number is 202-224-3121.
If you have a product that you would like to market to the cannabis community, you can advertise on the Daily Audio Stash. Your ad will be focused on exactly the customer base you’re seeking out; the thousands of responsible cannabis consumers who download and listen to this show. Our listeners are educated consumers who want to support the businesses that support the growing truth about cannabis, and we deliver the advertising freedom you won’t find on radio, TV, or print ads. To advertise on the Daily Audio Stash, send us an email at stash @ norml.org.
Wednesday is Cannabis Science day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re separating the stems of propaganda from the buds of truth with Dr. Mitch Earleywine. Today Dr. Mitch and I discuss yet another attempt to falsely link marijuana to aggression. Seriously, do these scaremongers even know any potheads?
Cannabis Karri brings us our musical break this hempday humpday with a New York group called Mudville and their simply-named song, “Stoned”.
And I wrap things up with another listen to the Global Marijuana March from this weekend from all around the country. Today we’re headed to Philadelphia with Ken Wolski of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey, Josh Schimberg down in Austin with Texas NORML, and back east to New York City with Rob Robinson of NY NORML. It really is about the grassroots, people, and your local NORML chapter is the place to start ending adult marijuana prohibition.
Speaking of local activism, I want to feature the best from the marijuana marches this weekend. So we’re starting another “Pass the Stash” contest where you could win a DVD from Suburban Noize Records’ rappers Kingspade. Stay tuned for details later in the podcast.
Welcome to the show, load up your Wesley Pipes and sit back with your favorite strain… This is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
(Long Island, N.Y.) On Wednesday, May 14, 2008 the Marijuana Policy Project (www.MPP.org) will host a spring soiree, a night of comedy and music to benefit MPP’s efforts to protect seriously ill New Yorkers from arrest and jail if they use medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation. Patient advocate Joel Peacock will be honored and Sony/BMG recording artist Nicole Atkins & The Sea and other special guests will perform. All funds raised will be used to pass a bill to make New York the 13th medical marijuana state in the country.
The Host Committee for the event and those attending include: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s Lewis Black, Political Pundit Tucker Carlson, Tony Award Winner Savion Glover, MTV News’ Kurt Loder, Musician Michelle Phillips, ABC’s John Stossel from 20/20, Talk Show Host Montel Williams and more.
Last year - - for the first time ever - - the New York Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill - by a 95-52 vote, sending the bill over to the Senate.
Before his resignation, Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) expressed his openness to signing medical marijuana legislation, and the new Gov. Paterson seems likely to be a supporter as well, so all eyes are now focused on the Republican-controlled Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is supportive of allowing medical marijuana, but has not brought the issue to a vote.
With the Republicans facing a tough election this November, when they could very well lose control of the Senate, we’re hoping they’ll pay attention to the public opinion polling that indicates 76% of New York voters -and even 55% of Conservative Party voters in the state –support legal protection for medical marijuana patients.
The MPP benefit will take place at the Highline Ballroom, 431 W 16th Street between 9th and 10th Aves. (212) 414-5994. Tickets for $250 in advance- $300 at the door (most of your contribution is tax-deductible) are available at (202) 462-5747 Ext. 104 or www.mpp.org/highline
wcbstv.com - NYCLU: City Now World’s ‘Marijuana Arrest Capital’
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ? Police busted nearly 400,000 people for carrying small amounts of pot in the last decade, making New York City the world leader in marijuana arrests, civil rights advocates said Tuesday while unveiling a study criticizing the war on drugs.
The study by Queens College sociologist Harry G. Levin, titled “Marijuana Arrest Crusade,” accused police of purposely singling out minorities during the 10-year crackdown. It said that data provided by stat Division of Criminal Justice Services showed that between 1997 and 2007, 52 percent of the suspects were black, 31 percent Hispanic and only 15 percent white.
Laws were revised in the late 1970s to largely decriminalize carrying small, concealed stashes of marijuana, Levin said. But he claimed police routinely “manufacture” arrests for possession in public view — still a misdemeanor — by stopping young black men on the street and goading them into emptying their pockets.
According to the study, arrests for marijuana possession began skyrocketing in the late 1990s during the Giuliani administration — a trend that continued under Mayor Michael Bloomberg at an estimated cost of between $50 and $90 million a year. There were 39,700 arrests last year alone, according to the study.
The 2007 total makes the city “the marijuana arrest capital of the world,” Lieberman said. The study says New York deserves that title because it devotes far more resources to arresting and jailing marijuana offenders than other large cities in Europe and elsewhere. It also cites a previous analysis of FBI data showing that five of the top 10 counties with highest per-capita arrest rate were the five boroughs.
Police spokesmen slammed the report, of course, saying Dr. Levine is a “legalizer” and was grossly distorting his research. Law enforcement believes that marijuana arrests are part of “quality of life” policing under the “broken windows” theory, which states that if you ignore graffiti, broken windows, garbage, etc., then people will believe that they live in a lawless zone and more serious crimes will increase.
The theory isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s the lumping of marijuana smoking in with those other misdemeanors that is the problem. It has created an adversarial relationship between young minority males and police and drives drug users toward crime and drugs that do create societal problems, like alcohol. It’s OK for young adults to sit on the stoop and drink a 40-ounce of malt liquor, a drug that’s proven to increase aggression and violence, but not to consume cannabis, a drug that leads to mellow happiness and social belonging.
In 1977, New York State decriminalized possession of personal use amounts of marijuana. Nonetheless, researchers report that New York City is now the national leader in detaining individuals for possession of personal use amounts of marijuana.
Beginning with the advent of quality of life policing, the New York City Police Department dramatically increased the number of arrests for marijuana possession: from 1997 to 2006 the Department arrested over 353,000 people for misdemeanor possession of marijuana; in 2006 alone it arrested 33,000 people for possessing marijuana. The Department also commonly holds marijuana possession arrestees in detention for up to 24 hours pending arraignment.
Published research indicates that the marijuana possession arrests are not in central business districts, and that the police primarily make the arrests in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
Join the Committee on Drugs and the Law for a discussion of the costs and benefits of New York City’s marijuana possession arrest policy. This event is free and open to the public.
The event takes place tomorrow at the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Ave.) at 6:30 p.m.
Monday & Tuesday, March 31 - April 1, 2008, Vancouver, BC, Canada.Rethinking Treatment: Recognizing and Responding to the Spectrum of Substance Use, at Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC. For more info & to register, see www.keepingthedooropen.com, or contact Dave Peterson at dave@devonknight.com or 604-677-2759.
Thursday, April 3, 2008, New York City, NY.Drop the Rock Coalition Meeting - Ending New York’s draconian Rockefeller drug laws, at the Correctional Association of New York, 2090 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd., Suite 200 (@ 125 th Street), NYC. For more info, call Caitlin Dunklee at 212-254-5700 x339 or email cdunklee@correctionalassociation.org.
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, April 3-5, 2008, Pacific Grove, CA.The Fifth Annual Clinical Conference On Cannabis Therapeutics: Re-Entering Mainstream Medicine. At the Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA. Hosted by Patients Out Of Time. For more info & to register, see www.medicalcannabis.com/
If you have events you’d like to hear featured on our NORML Daily Audio Stash Reformer’s Calendar, just send me an email with all of the relevant details. Set the subject line to “Events” and email it to stash@norml.org.
Friday is Cannabis Community day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re speaking with our good friend Steve Bloom, the webmaster at CelebStoner.com. We’ll be discussing the recent admission of past drug use by the new governor of New York, George W. Bush’s recent pardons and commutations of a few drug offenders, and the latest CelebStoner elected by your votes – George Carlin.
Next, Cannabis Karri has unearthed a tune from a British Columbia group called the Tall Brothers. They’ve got a great little jazzy number called “I’m Kinda High” that will be a perfect beginning to your weekend.
And since yesterday’s Audio Stash came out a bit late in the day, I’m going to replay my interview with Attorney Jeff Blackburn and his client, Tim Stevens, who was just acquitted of marijuana possession charges in Amarillo, Texas, thanks to Blackburn’s use of the seldom-mentioned “necessity defense”.
Finally, don’t forget that every Saturday we’re now posting the NORML Weekend Music Stash, where you can get all of the last ten songs from our daily musical breaks in one podcast, suitable for your weekend party pleasure. If you have a band that would like to be featured on our podcast, please send us an email at stash ‘at’ norml.org.
So sit back and relax with your favorite strain and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash…
In reference to cocaine, Gov. David Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he “tried it a couple of times” when he was “about 22 or 23.”
“And marijuana probably when I was about 20,” he said on the NY1 cable news station. “I don’t think I touched marijuana since the ’70s.”
“More Americans have tried a lot more during that period of time and gone on to lead responsible lives and hopefully have lived their lives to their fullest,” he said.
Well, the ones that weren’t caught, Governor. Many of them have been sentenced and punished under New York State’s draconian Rockefeller drug laws. You should do something about that now, Governor, and work to get those laws repealed and offer commutations of the sentences of non-violent drug offenders locked up in New York’s overburdened prison system.
