Huffington Post

Our friend Mason Tvert at SAFER penned an excellent op-ed at HuffPo letting retailers know the peril of alienating responsible adult marijuana consumers:

Late last month, Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) — the organization I run — called for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks Coffee after it and other companies appeared on the “sponsor” page of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association (CDIA), a shady group of law enforcement officials lobbying to wipe out the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana system and keep marijuana as illegal as possible. With a board of directors composed almost exclusively of narcotics agents, along with a website and merchandise decorated in a skull motif with images of the grim reaper, military helicopters, and the slogan “Death on Drugs,” it’s safe to say these guys are not so much concerned with public safety as they are with fighting — and maintaining — an endless war against marijuana and other drugs. After all, it provides them with job security, and marijuana enforcement is their bread and butter.

Word of the boycott spread quickly across the web, and with a boost from some traditional media coverage (including some in Starbucks’s hometown of Seattle) resulted in thousands of Americans contacting CEO Howard Schultz to let him know they would not be giving their business to his company until it did some explaining. Not long after, Starbucks issued a formal statement in which it distanced itself from the CDIA and assured the Starbucks faithful it does not support such anti-marijuana crusaders. Another business listed as a “sponsor” on CDIA’s website was The North Face, one of the leading producers of hiking and mountain sports equipment and apparel. After receiving messages from people swearing off their products, the company took action to ensure everyone knows they are not actually a sponsor of the CDIA and do not support the group’s mission. In light of all the bad publicity and these major companies disputing any tie to the CDIA, the organization removed its Web site entirely. Apparently they do not have quite the level of support from the business community that they were suggesting.

As Mr. Dylan once said, “The times, they are a changin’”. Yes, they are indeed. This brings to mind what Admiral Yamamoto said of America after the Imperial Japanese fleet attacked Pearl harbor in 1941: “”I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Cannabis consumers are legion in our country. We must never give up or surrender in the fight against this incredibly wasteful and tragic War on the American People.

A Purdue University student group believes it now has leverage that could lead to changes in the university’s residence hall marijuana policy.

By a vote of 2,970 to 2,567 – a 54-to-46 margin – Boilermakers voted in favor of making the punishment for getting busted for pot in campus housing on par with being caught with alcohol.

The nonbinding student referendum was included on ballots during the Purdue Student Government elections held March 30 through April 1. Results were released late this afternoon.

“Now that we have the results, we’re wanting to sit down and have talks with the residence hall council,” said junior Sara Wislocki, president of Purdue’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “… When we first contacted the residence halls, before speaking with us they wanted to know what proof we had that students would want this change.”

Currently, students caught with alcohol in residence halls face a range of penalties, which include referral to an alcohol education program or being kicked out of campus housing for continued violations.

But residence hall contracts are terminated the first time a student is caught with marijuana or other illegal drugs.

NORML worked with Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, a Denver-based group that is pushing colleges to reconsider policies around student marijuana use.

“We’re looking at it from the angle of marijuana being safer than alcohol,” Wislocki said. “Students causing the majority of problems are the ones who are too intoxicated. As a woman, I’d rather be around men smoking than those who are drinking – they have less aggressive behavior.

“Yet the university’s policy is more lenient toward alcohol.”

Let’s not forget that for Purdue students under age 21, a boilermaker is just as illegal as a bong hit.  Nobody ever thinks of underaged drinking as “using illegal drugs”, but that is exactly what it is.  It is illegal for a minor to even possess alcohol, let alone use it.  Yet our society thinks of underaged drinking as some sort of “rite of passage”.  “Senior keggers” in high school are given a pass by many parents.  College drinking game parties are a must for new freshman and returning sophomores who are rarely 21 years old.  And every semester, some college near you reports the sad death of a student from alcohol poisoning or a DUI crash.  It’s time to let our young people make the safer choice of intoxicant – marijuana – and maybe save a few young lives in the process.

“We believe our policy should reflect truth and justice, so we’re calling on the university to equalize the punishments for marijuana and alcohol,” said Jacob Holloway, who is working to place the question on the ballot through Students for Sensible Drug Policy. The campaign is sponsored through a partnership among SSDP, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER).

The question on the petition asks students, “Do you agree that university sanctions for the possession and use of marijuana should be no greater than those imposed by the university for the possession and use of alcohol, and that the university should establish a task force to develop, implement and study such a policy?”

Students who visited a table hosted by SAFER and NORML in front of the Arkansas Union this week asked the groups a myriad of questions about the initiative, such as, “Will this actually do anything?” and “Can I get in trouble for this?”

via – The Arkansas Traveler “Students seek ‘Sensible Drug Policy’ to lessen pot punishment”

I’ll answer those. Nothing will ever happen to reform marijuana laws on college campuses or in counties  or states or on the federal level if we collectively do nothing. It is only a matter of time before Prohibition touches you: maybe a it’s a random police traffic stop that finds you in possession of a joint. Maybe you’ll have the misfortune of being diagnosed with cancer as I was and have no legal right to medicinal marijuana. Perhaps you’re a Texas resident and a member of your family in Mexico is kidnapped or killed by drug cartels.

Freedom of speech is one of our most cherished American rights. College years are arguably among the best years of your lives to become active in issues that involve you. You’re expected to dissent and call for change. It’s your country and your government. One of the great laments of the older generation is that the college generation of this century lacks passion and drive. Prove them wrong and make a difference in all our lives.

If  you live in this country, the War on Drugs touches you. It makes no difference whether you are a marijuana user or not. We all pay for the billions wasted and mourn for the lives needlessly lost. We should not ask for change, we should demand it.

“Send a Strong Message” to USA Swimming

Tell them to reinstate Michael Phelps and stop driving athletes to drink!

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5559/t/4030/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2533

USA Swimming suspended the 14-time Olympic gold medalist following the publication of a photo showing him using marijuana at an off-season party. USA Swimming was not required to punish Phelps, according to Executive Director Chuck Wielgus, but it “decided to send a strong message to Michael…”

That message: athletes must only use alcohol when they party, and they will be punished if they make the safer choice to use marijuana instead. After all, the 23-year-old swimmer would never have been punished had he been photographed chugging Budweiser beer — an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

If you agree Michael Phelps should be reinstated and that athletes should not be driven to drink, please take a second to click on the following link and “send a strong message” to Chuck Wielgus and USA Swimming:

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5559/t/4030/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2533
Mason Tvert, Executive Director
SAFER – SAFER Voter Education Fund
office: 303-861-0033 – fax: 303-861-0915
mason@saferchoice.org - http://www.SAFERchoice.org

DENVER — Prosecutions for private adult marijuana possession plunged more than 21 percent in 2008, reaching the lowest rate since 2005, according to the Denver City Attorney’s Office.

Director of Prosecution Vince DiCroce presented the 2008 statistics to the Denver Marijuana Policy Review Panel at its meeting Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the Denver City-County Building. The Denver City Attorney’s Office is required to provide the Panel with marijuana possession statistics every six months.

Prosecutions fell from 2,105 in 2007, to 1,658 in 2008, the year following voters’ adoption of a city ordinance designating adult possession the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority” and Mayor John Hickenlooper’s subsequent appointment of the Denver Marijuana Policy Review Panel. The Panel was established to implement, monitor and report on the new ordinance. In May 2008, it recommended the city halt prosecutions for adult marijuana possession, and in August it called on city police to refrain from citing adults during the Democratic National Convention.

The new trend in marijuana prosecutions is NOT the result of fewer arrests for other offenses, according to DiCroce, who speculated that the number of charges filed for all offenses in Denver likely increased or held steady in 2008.

“Our city punished far fewer adults for marijuana possession this year, yet the sky did not fall,” said Mason Tvert, a member of the Panel and the executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), the organization behind the successful marijuana initiative campaign. “Hopefully this is just the beginning of Denver’s shift toward a more rational approach to marijuana.”

“There are still far too many adults in Denver being needlessly punished simply for using a substance that is far less harmful than alcohol,” Tvert said. “It’s time to stop these prosecutions altogether and start allowing adults to make the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol, if that’s what they prefer.”