Alaska Possibly Next State to Legalize Recreational Marijuana
by Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Feb 9, 2014
Washington and Colorado have already legalized recreational marijuana, and Alaska is on its way to be the next state to follow the act. Twenty other states already allow medical marijuana use, and President Obama has talked of letting states regulate themselves in this matter, though pot still hasn’t been declassified as an illegal drug federally.
With plenty of signatures to put the initiative before legislators, the law would allow anyone 21 years or older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow up to six Cannabis plants, paving the way for cancer treatments, muscular dystrophy symptom relief, and recreational use – but also a veritable treasure trove of tax revenue for the state.
Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska’s Division of Elections has commented that the state requirements for signatures has been met, and now “ It’s a matter of officially getting the certification documents signed by the lieutenant governor.”
Feds make first step towards hemp legalization
RT USA
Feb 4, 2014
Hemp plants (AFP Photo)
The United States federal government may not be ready to sanction marijuana use, but a new agriculture bill is set to legalize preliminary stages of hemp production in states that allow the practice.
A new farm bill, passed by Congress on Tuesday, would allow universities and state agriculture departments to establish industrial hemp growing programs. If these research programs go well, they could pave the way for commercial hemp farming to become a reality.
Hemp is a plant in the same family as marijuana, though it lacks its cousin’s high levels of THC and is therefore much less potent. It’s used to create numerous products, including cooking oil, clothing, paper, and rope. According to the Associated Press, the US imported about $11.5 million in hemp products in 2011.
“This is big,” Eric Steenstra, president of advocacy group Vote Hemp, told the AP. “We’ve been pushing for this a long time.”
Although hemp used to be grown in the United States, its cultivation was outlawed under the 1970’s Controlled Substances Act. Supporters of the decision’s review believe, however, that allowing states to move forward with industrial hemp will help the country gain a slice of a market that’s currently controlled by China.
“Oregonians have made it clear that they believe industrial hemp should be treated as an agricultural commodity, not a drug,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who helped author the amendment, told The Oregonian in a statement. “By including language easing restrictions on industrial hemp in states where it is legal, Congress sends an important message that we are ready to examine hemp in a more appropriate way.”
As AP noted, 10 states have already passed laws enabling hemp cultivation, though federal law has kept those efforts from moving forward. These states are Colorado, Washington, California, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia – some of which are preempting the farm bill’s passage by beginning to draft rules and regulations to govern hemp production.
According to The Wall Street Journal, some law enforcement groups are not pleased with the development. Because hemp looks so much like marijuana, they argue that legalizing its production could have an adverse effect on their effort to keep the illegal drug off the streets.
Meanwhile, some advocates, such as Steenstra, think the hemp provision indicates the federal government may be preparing to soften its position on recreational marijuana use. Others aren’t as convinced.
“On the one hand, I think it’s part of a larger agenda to normalize marijuana, by a few,” Kevin Sabet of the anti-pot group Smart Approaches to Marijuana told AP. “On the other hand, will it have any difference at the end of the day? I would be highly skeptical of that.”
Two states – Colorado and Washington – have already legalized recreational marijuana use, a list that seems poised to grow over the course of the next two elections. Advocates in Alaska and Oregon are hoping to take up legalization initiatives during the 2014 midterms, while 2016 could see the issue on the ballot in Arizona, California, Maine, and others.
Dutch mayors want legal home grown weed
RT
Feb 3, 2014
Сannabis plants (AFP Photo / Alain Jocard)
35 Dutch municipalities are asking the government to let them grow cannabis. Dutch laws on marijuana allow people to smoke it legally but a recent global spate of pro-weed legislation is leaving the Dutch lagging behind some other countries.
Dozens of mayors and experts from 35 Dutch towns and cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht gathered last Friday in Utrecht arguing that the current laws, which allow the sale but not the cultivation of marijuana, mean that Dutch coffee shops, which sell the drug, have to get it from illegal gangs, encouraging organized crime and wasting valuable police time.
Ahmed Aboutaleb, the mayor of Rotterdam, said that cannabis cafes had to rely on “murky worlds” and that the current situation in Holland was unsustainable, according to the public broadcaster RTV.
As a result of the meeting a manifesto addressing the government has been penned.
However, the Dutch government disagrees and argues that any change in the law would not be welcomed by neighboring countries, which could see Dutch grown weed in their own backyard.
“We agree that crime and nuisance have to be fought, but we disagree on the right instrument,” said Ivo Opstenten, the Security and Justice Minister as cited by The Independent.
Utrecht’s alderman for public health, Victor Everhardt who hosted the meeting of mayors has been pushing the proposal since 2011 of the creation of cannabis clubs where the THC content of cannabis plants could be properly regulated, but his suggestion has been rebuffed by the Dutch government.
But now the international tide is turning as the world gradually becomes more weed friendly. The United States, which for decades has operated a tough no tolerance approach to drug use branded the “War on Drugs”, has legalized cannabis shops in Colorado with Washington State look set to follow.
Colorado now allows the regulated growth of marijuana, which is taxed, for recreational use.While in South America Uruguay became the first nation to fully legalize pot.
Since the 1970’s Holland has been one of the few countries in the world where you can have a joint without worrying about getting busted as the possession of small amounts of cannabis has been legal. Dutch cities have become favorite destinations for weed hungry tourists.
As a result a so called wietpas policy, which in English translates as ‘weed pass’, came into effect in the Netherland’s three southern most provinces on May 1st 2012. The law was to prevent foreigners from legally purchasing cannabis in coffee shops, but Dutch citizens and expats with residence cards were able to sign up for the ‘weed pass’.
The policy proved unpopular with communities in the southern cities where it became law complaining of a rise in the number of street dealers. Many locals also refused to sign up for the pass out of fear that their names would appear on a government list or that their employers may get wind of their recreational habits.
The ‘weed pass law’ was due to be introduced nationally on January 1st 2013 but in November 2012 it was repealed. Each city in Holland is now able to regulate the sale of marijuana as they choose.
“It’s not like tourists are going to say OK, there’s no cannabis here anymore. Instead they’re just going to try and find it on the streets, leading to a larger black market, more disputes with dealers, no control over its quality and all the other problems we used to have,” said Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam’s liberal mayor as quoted by DailyMail.
Research from Intraval, an independent agency that carries out social scientific research showed the number of coffee shops decreasing from 1999 to 2011 by 22 percent.
US announces early release plan for nonviolent, low-level drug offenders
RT USA
Jan 30, 2014
Andrew Burton / Getty Images / AFP
The Obama administration announced Thursday a new clemency effort that encourages defense lawyers to refer to the Department of Justice low-level, nonviolent drug offenders for early release from federal prisons.
Speaking before the New York State Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole unveiled the plan that seeks to determine possible clemency for inmates whose long-term incarceration “harms our criminal justice system.”
“You each can play a critical role in this process by providing a qualified petitioner – one who has a clean record in prison, does not present a threat to public safety, and who is facing a life or near-life sentence that is excessive under current law – with the opportunity to get a fresh start,” Cole said.
In addition, the US Bureau of Prisons will begin informing such low-level, nonviolent drug offenders of the opportunity to apply for early release, Cole said.
The announcement follows other initiatives and statements regarding prison reform made recently by top officials. Attorney General Eric Holder said in August that the same type of low-level drug offenders, with no ties to gangs or major drug trafficking organizations, would no longer be charged with certain offenses that instituted harsh mandatory sentences.
President Obama followed Holder in December with the commutation of sentences of eight inmates serving extensive terms in prison for crack cocaine convictions. All of the eight – recommended by the Justice Department – had served at least 15 years in jail and had been convicted before the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which was passed in effort to close large sentencing disparities between those convicted for crack and those for powder cocaine crimes.
Obama said at the time those eight inmates would have received shorter sentences had the law existed when they were convicted, adding some would have already served their time by then.
Cole said the Justice Department would like to send more of those kind of cases to the White House.
“The president’s grant of commutations for these eight individuals is only a first step,” he said. “There are more low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who remain in prison, and who would likely have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of precisely the same offenses today.”
Cole did not specify how many candidates the White House will consider in the clemency program, though there are currently thousands of inmates serving time in federal prison for just crack cocaine crimes.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney is in charge of advising the White House on the merits of specific cases.
Cost savings is a residual benefit of the commutations for such low-level offenders. Holder, testifying before a Senate committee Wednesday, said federal prison costs make up one-third of the Justice Department budget, amounting to “a growing and potentially very dangerous problem.”
The total cost for incarcerating federal prisoners in 2010 came to US$80 billion. The federal prison population has shot up by 800 percent since 1980, and prisons are operating at 40 percent over capacity, according to the Justice Department.
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee also advanced the Smarter Sentencing Act, which would reform mandatory minimum statutes. The new bill would shorten sentences and give judges more leeway to use their own discretion during sentencing. In addition, the legislation would allow inmates to return to court to seek sentences pursuant to the Fair Sentencing Act.
Kansas Woman Left to Die In Jail Over Small Amount of Marijuana
by Amanda Warren
Activist Post
Jan 28, 2014
Brenda Sewell and her sister Joy Biggs had recently purchased a motor home from a Colorado couple. The couple delivered it to them in Kansas City and the sisters drove the couple back to Colorado.
It was on their way home, just after crossing the Colorado-Kansas border, when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer pulled the women over for suspected speeding in Sherman County.
Biggs never could have guessed that in less than 72 hours she’d be helping a jail mate try to revive her dying sister who was foaming at the mouth.
While suspected speeding last Monday was the reason the officer pulled their car over, the discovery of a small amount of marijuana is why they were taken to a Goodland jail where they were both denied a phone call.
Sewell, age 58, was on legal prescriptions to treat long-term problems with her thyroid, hepatitis C and fibromyalgia. She had purchased the marijuana from Colorado, where it was recently made legal, to manage nausea and lack of appetite.
Florida Supreme Court Gives Initiative Approval, State to Vote on Medical Cannabis Legalization This November
The Joint Blog
Jan 27, 2014
Today the Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling on the medical cannabis legalization initiative that is vying for this November’s ballot. In a close 4-3 
decision, justices determined the initiative is valid, and will be put to a vote.
This ruling comes just days after campaigners received confirmation that they had collected enough voter’s signatures on the initiative to secure its place in the election (roughly 1.2 million signatures total).
The Supreme Court was incited to issue a ruling by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Republican legislative leaders, including House Speaker Will Weatherford. Detractors claimed the initiative’s summary was misleading by interchanging the terms “medical conditions” and “diseases”. Weatherford says the initiative is not about compassion, but about the “Coloradofication of Florida”.
The Florida Supreme Court responded in favor of the initiative: “We conclude that the use of ‘diseases’ instead of ‘conditions’ in the ballot summary will not reasonably mislead the voters”.
Recent polling shows 65% of Florida voters already in favor of the initiative; written as a constitutional amendment, the measure will need a 60% majority to pass.
John Morgan, an Orlando-based trial lawyer and previous fundraiser for President Obama, is the primary backer of the effort, and says that campaigners won’t be slowing down any time soon. “I think the amendment kind of passes itself. It’s like ‘Are you in favor of fresh air?’”, says Morgan “But with that said, at Morgan and Morgan we don’t take anything for granted. Something that seems obvious might not be so we will play it as if we’re behind. That’s how we will treat this campaign.” Morgan has put $2.8 million into signature gatherers and advertising for this campaign so far, and has made it clear that he will continue to fund the effort, spending “whatever it takes” to get the initiative passed.
– TheJointBlog
Yet Another ‘Suspect’ Detained and Subjected to Three Enemas By Overzealous Cops
by Matt Staggs
disinformation
Jan 26, 2014
The anal obsessions of our drug warriors continue to be expressed on hapless citizens. This time, a 54 year-old man once convicted of meth possession:
IF you think that protests about overzealous law enforcement are over the top, listen to what unfolded when the police suspected that David Eckert, 54, was hiding drugs in his rectum.
Eckert is a shy junk dealer struggling to get by in Hidalgo County, N.M. He lives a working-class life, drives a 16-year-old pickup and was convicted in 2008 of methamphetamine possession.
Police officers, suspecting he might still be involved in drugs, asked him to step out of his pickup early last year after stopping him for a supposed traffic violation. No drugs or weapons were found on Eckert or in his truck, but a police dog showed interest in the vehicle and an officer wrote that Eckert’s posture was “erect and he kept his legs together.”
That led the police to speculate that he might be hiding drugs internally, so they took him in handcuffs to a nearby hospital emergency room and asked the doctor, Adam Ash, to conduct a forcible search of his rectum. Dr. Ash refused, saying it would be unethical.
“I was pretty sure it was the wrong thing to do,” Dr. Ash told me. “It was not medically indicated.”
Eckert, protesting all the while, says he asked to make a phone call but was told that he had no right to do so because he hadn’t actually been arrested. The police then drove Eckert 50 miles to the emergency room of the Gila Regional Medical Center, where doctors took X-rays of Eckert’s abdomen and performed a rectal examination. No drugs were found, so doctors performed a second rectal exam, again unavailing.
Doctors then gave Eckert an enema and forced him to have a bowel movement in the presence of a nurse and policeman, according to a lawsuit that Eckert filed. When no narcotics were found, a second enema was administered. Then a third.
The police left the privacy curtain open, so that Eckert’s searches were public, the lawsuit says.
After hours of fruitless searches, police and doctors arranged another X-ray and finally anesthetized Eckert and performed a colonoscopy.
“Nothing was found inside of Mr. Eckert,” the police report notes. So after he woke up, he was released — after 13 hours, two rectal exams, three enemas, two X-rays and a colonoscopy.
The hospital ended up billing Eckert $6,000.
PN 