• Vet to Feds: Enough Stonewalling, Give Us Pot for PTSD

    Wired (US)
    Wednesday, November 16, 2011

    “My life went downhill from the moment I came back from Iraq,” Begin, now a 31-year-old veteran. “Doctors at Bethesda had me on so much, and on such high doses of everything, that I didn’t even know what was a symptom and what was a side effect.” At one point, Begin, diagnosed with PTSD shortly after coming home, was taking more than 100 pills a day. So many that he would stuff dozens of bottles into a backpack to lug everywhere he went. Now, he’s cut his dependency on prescriptions to zero. Their replacement? Five joints a day.

  • Cannabis crackdown threatens legal trade in 'medical marijuana'

    Federal prosecutors target legal marijuana trade despite Obama's liberal stance on medical use of cannabis
    The Guardian (UK)
    Monday, November 14, 2011

    The Internal Revenue Service, America's tax collecting agency, sent a letter demanding an initial $2.5 million in back taxes and characterised the Harborside Health Center dispensary as a drug trafficking organisation. Using a provision of the tax code originally written to help seize the assets of gangsters and organised criminals, the IRS said Harborside was disqualified from claiming its ordinary business expenses – payroll, insurance, rent and so on – as deductions and needed to pay taxes on them instead. This is not just an attempt to tax; it's an attempt to tax dispensaries out of existence.

  • Slum raids in Rio de Janeiro impress

    But what’s the impact on the Olympic city’s drug trade?
    The Associated Press
    Monday, November 14, 2011

    The police blitzes in this Olympic city’s biggest slums are meant to show the world that Rio is winning the fight against violent drug gangs that have ruled the shantytowns for decades. With this weekend’s occupation of the Rocinha slum, home to 100,000 people, authorities secured key areas near athletic events planned for the 2016 Games.  Since the security program began three years ago, 19 permanent “police pacification units,” or UPPs, have been created. The problem is of such scale that even the main architect of the program acknowledges that policing alone will not halt the drug trade. Instead, the goal of the invasions is to win back strategic territory and take guns away from the gangs.

  • The war on drugs and the shameful silence of our politicians

    Must we rely on big business, not our leaders, to pave the way when it comes to tackling a narcotics industry that is ravaging Latin America?
    Editorial
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, November 13, 2011

    In a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons, David Cameron said: "I ask the Labour government not to return to retribution and war on drugs. That has been tried and we all know that it does not work." That was in December 2002. And as a member of the home affairs select committee on drug misuse, Cameron supported the following recommendation: "That the government initiates a discussion within the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of alternative ways – including the possibility of legalisation and regulation – to tackle the global drugs dilemma."

  • Juan Manuel Santos: 'It is time to think again about the war on drugs'

    Colombia's president speaks frankly of the price his country has paid and his success in dismantling the cartels
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, November 13, 2011

    Santos spelled out the radical ideas which he hopes will create a fresh approach. He said: "A new approach should try and take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking… If that means legalising, and the world thinks that's the solution, I will welcome it. I'm not against it." But he is clear that any initiatives need to be part of a co-ordinated international plan of action and he rules out any unilateral action by Colombia. "What I won't do is to become the vanguard of that movement because then I will be crucified."

  • California court rules cities, counties can ban pot stores

    Los Angeles Times (US)
    Friday, November 11, 2011

    In a decision that could have immediate fallout for medical marijuana dispensaries, a state appeals court has ruled that California law allows cities and counties to ban the stores. The contentious issue has bounced through the state courts for years, but the opinion issued Wednesday is the first published one that directly tackles it and does so in unambiguous language. The decision could embolden more cities and counties to enact their own. It also could spur those that have bans to be more aggressive about seeking court orders to close defiant dispensaries.

  • How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

    Llewellyn Hinkes-Jones
    The Atlantic Cities blog (US)
    Friday, November 11, 2011

    This contradicts one of the central tenets of the War on Drugs, which is that the psychopharmacological effects of drug use lead to criminal behavior. Most studies show that it's in fact the competition of an unregulated market that encourages the majority of violent crime. This concept was evidenced during the prohibition era in the 1920s, a time that coincided with an increase in crime, corruption, and contempt for law.

  • Sign Initiative 502 to put marijuana legalization before state Legislature

    Opinion
    The Seattle Times (US)
    Friday, November 11, 2011

    new-approach-washA former federal prosecutor and two former judges who have not only observed but also enforced marijuana laws at the federal, state and local levels ask that these laws be changed. It is time for a different, more effective approach. That's why they endorse Initiative 502, which would decriminalize marijuana in our state and make a long-overdue change for the better in public policy.

  • It's Only A Matter Of Time

    Gary Johnson On Legalizing Marijuana
    The Huffington Post (US)
    Tuesday, November 8, 2011

    GOP presidential candidate Gary Johnson drew headlines earlier this month when he said he would issue a full presidential pardon for anyone serving a prison sentence for marijuana. He elaborated on that promise adding that it's only a matter of time before marijuana is legalized. "Clearly it is when, not if," he said of legalizing cannabis. "When 50 percent of the population says to the other 50 percent, 'You belong behind bars for your actions,' that's not good law, that is just not good law at all."

  • Reefer Madness

    Ethan Nadelmann (Drug Policy Alliance)
    International Herald Tribune
    Sunday, November 6, 2011

    ethan-nadelmannMarijuana is now legal under state law for medical purposes in 16 states and the District of Columbia, encompassing nearly one-third of the American population. More than 1,000 dispensaries provide medical marijuana; many are well regulated by state and local law and pay substantial taxes. But though more than 70 percent of Americans support legalizing medical marijuana, any use of marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Mr. Obama briefly showed a willingness to challenge the drug-war mind-set that permeates the federal drug-control establishment. He needs to show leadership and intervene now, to encourage and defend responsible state and local regulation of medical marijuana.

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