Speaker Of The House Refuses To Back Bill Spurred By Conviction Of Rosenthal WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert will not support federal legislation to protect pot growers and smokers in states such as California, where medical marijuana is legal, a spokesman for the Republican leader said Thursday. Dealing an early and likely fatal blow to the future of the legislation inspired by the recent conviction of Oakland cannabis grower Ed Rosenthal, Hastert spokesman John Feehery said, "I doubt very seriously that the speaker would support that kind of provision." [continues 312 words]
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert will not support federal legislation to protect pot growers and smokers in states such as California, where medical marijuana is legal, a spokesman for the Republican leader said Thursday. Dealing an early and likely fatal blow to the future of the legislation inspired by the recent conviction of Oakland cannabis grower Ed Rosenthal, Hastert spokesman John Feehery said, "I doubt very seriously that the speaker would support that kind of provision." The Truth in Trials Act, sponsored by Rep. Sam Farr, D-Monterey, and supported by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and most other Bay Area Democrats, would let individuals accused of violating federal marijuana laws introduce evidence showing they possessed, cultivated or distributed pot in accordance with state laws. [continues 253 words]
From Medical-marijuana Legalization On Down, The White House Has An Ironic Habit Of Meddling In State Affairs. On Tuesday voters in Columbia, Mo., rejected a decriminalization measure on marijuana by roughly 60 percent to 40 percent. The fact that the statute failed was hardly surprising; voters in other states defeated similar measures last year. What was unusual was the appearance of a high-ranking White House official in Columbia before the vote on the initiative, which would have allowed patients using medical marijuana to carry up to 35 grams of the drug with no penalty and make others caught carrying the same amount pay a municipal fine. [continues 1015 words]
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov) sent deputy czar Scott Burns and speechwriter Kevin Sabet to Colombia, MO, Thursday in an attempt to put the brakes on a popular initiative that would send minor marijuana offenders into municipal court instead of state court. The move marks the return of ONDCP's efforts to defeat marijuana initiatives wherever they pop up, an effort that saw drug czar John Walters travel widely during last fall's election season in order to urge voters to reject such initiatives. [continues 886 words]
Viets Complains To State Ethics Commission. The executive director of ACT Missouri filed a campaign disclosure report this morning indicating the Jefferson City group has spent $1,675 in ads in the Tribune about Proposition 1. The report comes two days after Dan Viets, a local attorney who helped write the marijuana initiative, filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission about ACT Missouri. Viets' complaint says the organization violated election laws by not reporting the money it had spent within 14 days of a campaign expenditure. He also alleges that the group, which has not-for-profit status, violated election laws by using tax-deductible money for campaigning purposes. [continues 398 words]
The bulldozer that has become the Bush administration when it comes to states' voter initiatives has rolled over a California man who was growing marijuana for Oakland's medical-marijuana program. Voters in California, Washington, Oregon and four other states, as well as the Hawaii Legislature, have been persuaded that marijuana use can help people suffering from AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and many other diseases. In 1999, a White House-commissioned study by the Institute of Medicine concluded marijuana did have medical benefits. [continues 333 words]
THE bulldozer that has become the Bush administration when it comes to states' voter initiatives has rolled over a California man who was growing marijuana for Oakland's medical-marijuana program. Voters in California, Washington, Oregon and four other states, as well as the Hawaii Legislature, have been persuaded that marijuana use can help people suffering from AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and many other diseases. In 1999, a White House-commissioned study by the Institute of Medicine concluded marijuana did have medical benefits. [continues 333 words]
In news reports across the country, drug czar John Walters and other prohibitionists have been verbally high-fiving each other, declaring the defeat of my organization's ballot initiative in Nevada to be the death knell for efforts to reform our nation's marijuana policies. Actually, the November 5 results were more ambiguous -- and encouraging -- than the prohibitionists would have us believe. Our Nevada initiative was the boldest marijuana policy measure ever proposed. It would have: (1) Removed the threat of arrest for adults who use and possess up to three ounces of marijuana. [continues 607 words]
Can It Go Legit? How the People Who Brought You Medical Marijuana Have Set Their Sights on Lifting the Ban for Everyone The drug czar is ready for pro wrestling. He already has the name, and now he's got the prefight talk down cold. In every speech he makes in Nevada, where Bush appointee John Walters has traveled to fight an initiative that would legalize marijuana, he calls out his three sworn enemies as if he were Tupac Shakur. The czar has a problem with billionaire philanthropists George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling, who have bankrolled the pro-pot movement, and he wants everyone to know he's ready for battle. At an Elks lodge meeting in Las Vegas, he ticks off their names and says, "These people use ignorance and their overwhelming amount of money to influence the electorate. You don't hide behind money and refuse to talk and hire underlings and not stand up and speak for yourself," he says. By the end of a similar speech at a drug-treatment center in Reno, he says, "Let's stop hiding. I'm here. Where are you?" The czar is bringing it on. [continues 3253 words]
The Bush administration has escalated its assault on state medical-marijuana laws from civil actions to raids on growers. So far, the raids, including the one on nationally known Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative in Santa Cruz, last week, have been confined to California. But eight other states, including Washington, have similar laws, and could be next. The only remedy to Drug Enforcement Administration Director Asa Hutchinson's arsenal of raids, criminal charges and forfeitures is federal legislation to eliminate the disparity between federal laws, and states' acknowledgement that some seriously ill patients benefit from using marijuana. [continues 248 words]
Unexpected chinks are appearing in the once seemingly insurmountable legal wall the government has erected against marijuana. Not only are western voters continuing their efforts to ease access to the drug by people with chronic ailments, there are signs that a more laissez-faire attitude may also be extended to recreational users. Even in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., important questions are being asked about the morality and practicality of the federal government's drug prohibition policies. In a move that emphasized California's resistance to federal marijuana policy, that state's Supreme Court recently ruled that people who use or grow marijuana with a doctor's approval are protected by a voter-approved law from state prosecution. "The possession and cultivation of marijuana is no more criminal than the possession and acquisition of any prescription drug," the unanimous opinion said. [continues 828 words]
Those Resisting the Drug War Take Their Cause to Congress Don't let the forest green carpeting or the college dorm room motif fool you. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law -- NORML, the people behind the effort to legalize marijuana -- have traded in their tie-dye, Birkenstocks and braids for neckties, wingtips and a haircut. (Most of them, anyway.) And they currently are in the midst of a mellow campaign to get their issue on the nation's radar screen -- in part by taking it off the nation's radar screen. [continues 1086 words]
FRANK: My name is Barney Frank. I am the sponsor of the bill. And what I am going to do is, one of our colleagues, Congressman Rohrabacher from California, has joined us very generously, because he is in the midst of an important session of the Committee on International Relations. So I am going to first introduce Congressman Rohrabacher so he can, as we often have to be, be as close to being in two places at one time as you can be, unaided by any substance. [continues 2489 words]
[continued from http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1401.a04.html ] So I am especially grateful to them for coming and speaking out on behalf of others this way. We have with us Cheryl Miller (ph) from Tom's River, New Jersey, and Cheryl's (ph) husband Tim (ph) is going to speak on their behalf. MILLER (ph): I'd like you all to meet my wife, Cheryl Miller (ph). In Washington I'm better known as Mr. Cheryl Miller (ph), because when we come to Washington it's pretty much about her. [continues 4585 words]
WASHINGTON - By their own admission, the medicinal marijuana advocates who gathered Wednesday in a basement room of the Capitol made up a bizarre partnership. And they agreed that their cause - getting the federal government to stop meddling in states' laws on the use of marijuana for medical purposes - was pretty hopeless for now. But a former aide to President Reagan and several members of Congress - including an openly gay, die-hard liberal; a one-time Libertarian presidential candidate and a Southern California Republican - said the time had come to push the matter with a reluctant legislature. [continues 521 words]
Law: Libertarians And Liberals Rally Behind Long-Shot Bill Favoring Medicinal Marijuana. WASHINGTON -- By their own admission, the medicinal marijuana advocates who gathered Wednesday in a basement room of the Capitol made up a bizarre partnership. And they agreed that their cause--getting the federal government to butt out of states' laws on the use of marijuana for medical purposes--was pretty much hopeless right now. But a former aide to President Reagan and several members of Congress--including an openly gay, die-hard liberal, a onetime Libertarian presidential candidate and a Southern California Republican known for wearing puka shells and surfing--said the time had come to push the matter with a reluctant Legislature. [continues 615 words]
What do conservatives like former Reagan administration aide Lyn Nofziger and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) have in common with two House liberals and a libertarian? They all support legislation entitled the "States Rights to Medical Marijuana Act" that would permit states to allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Nine states currently permit the use of medical marijuana, but federal law, which supersedes state law, still lists all marijuana possession as a crime. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that medical necessity is not a defense for marijuana possession. [continues 499 words]
"Caracas, Venezuela - This country's swaggering leftist leader was ousted by the military last night amid chaos that has shaken the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, ridding the U.S. of a government it considered a political pariah." - - The Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2002, referring to the coup that ousted Venezuelan president Hugo Chvez for 48 hours It is hardly worth mentioning. That explains why as of this writing nothing was written about in The New York Times or the Washington Post. The L.A. Times and the Houston Chronicle as well as the Voice of America thought it newsworthy. They are right. [continues 905 words]
Pastrana, Bush Ask a Skeptical Congress to Lift Restrictions Another difficult and controversial foreign policy issue is about to crowd onto President Bush's already overflowing plate, as Congress takes up his plan for a major expansion of U.S. involvement in Colombia's guerrilla war. Hearings scheduled to stretch into next month began last week on the proposal to stop restricting U.S. military aid to Colombia's fight against cocaine and heroin production and export. The restrictions were designed to keep the United States from becoming directly involved in South America's oldest guerrilla conflict. But the Bush administration maintains that left- and right-wing insurgents fighting the Colombian government and each other are both drug traffickers and terrorists whose activities threaten not only Colombia but the stability and security of Latin America and the United States. [continues 1079 words]
Clockwork joins the Orange County Libertarian Party in saluting Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach). You read that right: saluting-and not the one-fingered kind. The former writer of scary Ronald Reagan speeches and even scarier Orange County Register editorials warrants kudos for becoming the first California Republican to co-sponsor a medical-marijuana bill that has sparked up in the House. Authored by libertarian-leaning Ron Paul (R-Texas) and man-leaning Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), the bill would give states the right to decide their own medical-marijuana policies without interference from the feds. Rohrabacher's support is not that surprising; he previously backed California's medicinal-cannabis initiative and opposed tough mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. [continues 67 words]
