ARLINGTON - Arlington's chief of police wasn't in his office on Wednesday, June 15. Instead, he was in Washington D.C. Arlington Police Chief Fred Ryan was testifying before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a hearing on alternative approaches to combating the opioid addiction crisis. He was speaking as a representative of the Police-Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative (PAARI), sharing his experiences fighting heroin and other drugs in Arlington with an approach emphasizing getting opioid users into treatment. [continues 492 words]
Let's Twist Up a Fattie... of News! Halfway There!-What's round at both ends and high in the middle? Snoop Dogg standing between two medicine balls. Also, Ohio! Governor John "Welp, I Tried" Kasich signed a bill this month to legalize medical cannabis, making the Buckeye State the 25th state. It won't go into effect for 90 days, and when it does, it will have some restrictions: Although residents with a doctor's recommendation will be allowed to use cannabis, there will not be any (legal) licensed growers or dispensaries in the state until 2017 or 2018. [continues 561 words]
Bill Targets the Taking of People's Property Without a Conviction. SACRAMENTO - Almost a year after California lawmakers rejected legislation that would restrict police departments' ability to take cars, cash, homes and other property from suspected criminals without a conviction, the bill's author is trying again as similar efforts succeed across the country. The practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, gained currency during the height the drug war in the 1980s as a way for law enforcement to financially cripple drug lords and fund anti-narcotics operations. But advocates for reforming the laws say too often police officers ensnare innocent residents who are poor and have few resources to ensure their property is returned. [continues 871 words]
Personal pot possession in California was reduced from an arrest to an infraction in 2010, but systemic racism around pot enforcement continues, a new study finds. The American Civil Liberties Union of California, in conjunction with the Drug Policy Alliance, published a groundbreaking, heavily reported piece of research Monday that concludes that the Black community in California faces ticketing for pot at a rate four times as high as whites. Latinos have about double the rate of pot tickets as whites. [continues 1008 words]
Marijuana, by Most Measures, Is Not the Scourge That Alcohol Is, Writes David Booth The National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 996 words]
Doesn't Have the Impaired-Driving Threat of Alcohol Marijuana, by most measures, is not the scourge that alcohol is, writes David Booth The National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 995 words]
BEHIND THE WHEEL: Recent studies indicate smoking marijuana far less dangerous than drinking booze The National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 996 words]
Marijuana, by most measures, is not the scourge that alcohol is, writes National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 996 words]
Marijuana, by most measures, is not the scourge that alcohol is, writes David Booth. The National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 997 words]
Marijuana, by Most Measures, Is Not the Scourge That Alcohol Is, Writes David Booth National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 996 words]
The National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that "about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn't impair them." The article - When is stoned too stoned? - further sensationalized the "crisis" by noting: "nothing would make (20 per cent of those surveyed) stop driving while stoned." With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neo-cons into paroxysms of paranoia, fearing our roads would be turned into killing fields by the demon weed. [continues 997 words]
One of the chief arguments against legalizing cannabis in California is that legalization is not needed. In 2010, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill decriminalizing up to an ounce of cannabis for all adults, no medical-cannabis recommendation from a physician required. Possessing under an ounce is punishable by a citation, which carries a fine of no more than $100 (plus fees) - or a less serious offense than blowing a stop sign on a bicycle. Thanks to this, misdemeanor marijuana arrests nearly vanished in the state, tumbling by almost 90 percent from 2009 to 2011. Nobody really goes to jail anymore just for a little bit of weed, this argument goes. [continues 798 words]
The signatures are still being tallied and verified, but an initiative aimed at legalizing recreational use of cannabis in California is on track to easily qualify for the ballot this November. Early secretary of state reports show the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which is backed by Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker, submitted more than the needed 365,880 signatures just in Southern California. And more than three-quarters of the signatures sampled from counties that have completed the verification process - 15 out of 58 - have been deemed valid. In all, some 600,000 petition signatures were submitted earlier this month. [continues 951 words]
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a proponent of the legalization effort, should be reminded that his most important responsibility as an elected official is to protect the people from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act is rumored to be bankrolled by billionaires who do not have California's best interest in mind. New York billionaire Sean Parker has purportedly been recruited to augment money that will flow from George Soros and the Drug Policy Alliance. They didn't earn billions because they are dumb, but apparently they think we are. Their stated benefits of legalization are frankly an affront to one's intellect. [continues 481 words]
Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it doesn't solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (descheduling would be better). But more important, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) - or prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process - with some strange results. [continues 601 words]
A new report from American Civil Liberties Union says the federal government's civil asset-forfeiture program disproportionately affects minorities and poor people. The program allows law enforcement agencies to seize cash and property from suspects without an arrest or conviction. The advocacy group found that almost half of the seizures by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in California involve people with Latino surnames, calling it an "ongoing attack" on people of color. Federal drug officials said they had not been given a chance to review the group's analysis, but that the pattern seems to simply reflect their fight against Latin American drug cartels. [continues 948 words]
The death of Prince, who apparently had a Percocet problem, and a 2016 presidential primary peppered with New England town halls that delved into increased heroin overdoses and prescription drug abuse have converged to create what CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta calls "a public health epidemic." Drug addiction is 2016's big nonpolitical story. CNN aired a special, "Prescription Addiction: Dead in the USA." The Senate passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act to provide grants for treatment and improved monitoring. The House also is working on legislation , with funding expected later in the year. [continues 771 words]
Feds Quit Assault on Harborside, Oakland Passes (Contentious) New Pot Rules, and It'll Be Marijuana and Trump Together on California's November Ballot. Oaklanders are in the middle of one of their biggest marijuana moments in city history. Last week, its city council approved a vast, but controversial, expansion of Oakland's medical-pot industry. The vote came the same day as Mayor Libby Schaaf's announcement that Oakland's biggest dispensary, Harborside Health Center, had prevailed in its federal-forfeiture court case. Also last week, a coalition of activists dubbed Let's Get It Right, California announced all of the Golden State would be voting on legalization of adult-use marijuana in the November 8 election. [continues 1441 words]
As BART police Sgt. Michael Williamson made his usual rounds outside San Francisco's 16th Street Station one recent gray morning, amid scores of commuters who poured up the steps from the underground railway, a woman, barefoot and twitching, sat to the side of the entrance and pulled out a glass pipe. Years ago, an officer might have searched the woman before taking her to jail for drug possession. By law, officers today still could. But law enforcement agencies in cities like San Francisco have begun shifting tactics when it comes to low-level narcotics offenses, viewing them more as a public health issue, driven by addiction rather than criminal intent. [continues 1320 words]
The reason marijuana might actually be legalized for adult recreational use in California this November is because professionals - - not stoners - are running the campaign this time. This crew is so straight that the wackiest guy to speak at the campaign's kickoff event the other day in San Francisco was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from Orange County who used to be a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. Yet even though the 68-year-old Rohrabacher told me he hasn't fired up since he was 23, it sounded as if he might have caught some secondhand caught some secondhand smoke out on Post Street when he compared the fight to legalize marijuana to Reagan going to Germany and telling Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down that wall." [continues 709 words]
