WASHINGTON - American officials have been quietly raising questions about whether Canada's marijuana legalization might slow traffic at the border, and are being told by their northern neighbours there's no reason that should happen. The issue has come up in phone calls between high-level officials and again in passing this week during a first face-toface encounter between Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and his U.S. counterpart, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. It hasn't been contentious, he said. "The only thing they say is, 'Will this cause lineups?'" Goodale said in an interview. [continues 313 words]
Arash Shirazi is a pretty cosmopolitan guy. A music agent and filmmaker, he hangs out with creative types and bohemians. He's lived in L.A., and spent time in cities such as, yes, Amsterdam, so it's fair to say that he's not particularly prudish in his social life. And yet - leaving a Washington parking lot recently, he took pause when a distinctively skunky scent passed under his nostrils. Of course he'd smelled marijuana before. But this was a weekday afternoon - in Georgetown! [continues 1191 words]
[photo] Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun) The Maryland General Assembly has hired outside counsel to aid its ethics investigation of a state lawmaker who championed medical marijuana while having a business relationship with a prospective dispensary, a spokesman for the Senate president confirmed Friday. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said on the floor of the legislative body that the ethics committee had recently tapped an outside lawyer to help on a matter. [continues 386 words]
Illegal drug use and trafficking have led to a multitude of ills in the United States, sometimes because of racially infected law enforcement, particularly in black neighborhoods. But is decriminalizing small amounts of narcotics at least part of the answer to the scourge? Two major human and civil rights organizations make a good case for it and advance the decriminalization discussion in a report released Wednesday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are engaged in a major push to change the way federal, state and local governments deal with drug enforcement and abuse. [continues 770 words]
D.C. Tenants Face Eviction As 'Drug Nuisances' Even When No One Is Charged With a Crime For eight years, Rajuawn Middleton, an assistant at a major downtown law firm, lived in a four-bedroom red-brick home she rented on a quiet tree-lined street in Northeast Washington - until she was forced out over a few cigarettes containing a "green leafy substance." In March 2014, police arrested her adult son on charges of possessing a handgun outside a nightclub. He had not lived with Middleton for years, but two weeks later, D.C. police looking for more guns raided her home. [continues 3063 words]
The Aug. 16 editorial "Don't reclassify marijuana yet - research it" would have benefited from more research itself. The Drug Enforcement Administration's refusal to reschedule cannabis has nothing to do with health, for if it cared about safety, it would need look no further than itself. You're more likely to be shot by a DEA agent than you are to die from an overdose of pot because the latter has never happened. The burden of proof has unjustly fallen on legalization advocates; initially convicted by racism and xenophobia, cannabis has been proclaimed guilty until proved innocent. [continues 63 words]
By Changing Visitation Rules, Prison Officials Go Overboard in Trying to Contain Drug Smuggling. PRISONS AND jails are struggling to contain the spread of an easily smuggled drug, Suboxone, prized by incarcerated addicts to dampen their craving for heroin and other hard-to-get opioids. But in trying to keep it out of facilities, some corrections officials are going overboard, imposing restrictions that punish the families and children of inmates, most of whom are blameless. That is what has occurred in Maryland, where, in an effort to block Suboxone and other contraband, state prison authorities established a policy that prevents inmates from prolonged holding or cuddling even their small children and babies. The policy, in effect since last fall, is draconian and cruel: It applies equally to fathers, mothers and even grandmothers behind bars, including one who wrote a moving piece in The Post's Outlook section this month, pleading for more time to hold her baby granddaughter. [continues 368 words]
The DEA Is Right to Allow More Places to Grow Pot for Studies. THE DRUG Enforcement Administration made headlines last week for sticking to the status quo: The agency declined to change marijuana's classification under the Controlled Substances Act to a lower, less strictly regulated schedule. Marijuana sits alongside heroin and LSD in the DEA's Schedule I category, reserved for the most dangerous substances. Schedule II drugs include narcotics such as methadone and oxycodone that are medically useful but have a high potential for harm. Advocates say the current classification of marijuana makes little sense: They cite studies that show pot can help patients manage pain without any serious risk of abuse. The only problem? The Food and Drug Administration has done studies of its own, and its experts do not agree. [continues 272 words]
WASHINGTON - The US State Department summoned Philippine embassy Charge d'Affaires Patrick Chuasoto on Monday to seek clarification of what it said were "inappropriate remarks" made by President Duterte against US Ambassador Philip Goldberg. Elizabeth Trudeau, director of the State Department press office, said Chuasoto was called in for an explanation of Duterte's remarks but declined to give further details. Duterte has openly called Goldberg "gay" and "a son of a bitch." Duterte's dislike for Goldberg dates back to the campaign period when the diplomat called him out for making a joke about the rape and murder of an Australian missionary during a 1989 Davao City prison riot. [continues 147 words]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) - The United States expressed concern Monday over the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines, a key US ally whose newly elected president has launched a bloody war on crime. President Rodrigo Duterte was swept to power in May after pledging to end crime in the Philippines using the same "shoot-to-kill" methods critics say he employed as mayor of the southern city of Davao. Since Duterte assumed office at the end of June, police have reported killing more than 400 drug suspects while the country's largest broadcaster ABS-CBN put the death toll at 852 to include reported summary executions. [continues 161 words]
The outstanding article "How's Amanda?" [front page, July 24] was an excruciatingly accurate portrayal of the everyday reality of countless families overwhelmed by the power of heroin addiction coupled with their frustration with the high rate of relapse to heroin use after entering treatment. But the article said the average heroin addict dies after 10 years of heroin use. Taking the article's accurate estimate of a total of about 1.6 million heroin addicts in the United States and linking it to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention count of annual heroin overdose deaths, 10,574 in 2014, the risk of overdose death for a heroin addict is about 0.6 percent a year. That means that over the course of 10 years of heroin addiction, about 6 out of 100 heroin addicts die of a heroin overdose. This shockingly low number explains why so many heroin addicts are oblivious to the risk of overdose death: Overdoses kill a very small percentage of their heroin-using friends each year. Robert L. DuPont, Rockville The writer was director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse from 1973 to 1978. [end]
Although I agree that heroin addiction is a tragic and growing problem in our country, I was appalled by the casual treatment given to tobacco addiction. Although Amanda Wendler was depicted as smoking cigarettes throughout the article, her act of smoking was never referred to as an addiction, only as a crutch to help her avoid heroin use. The article stated that 350 people start using heroin every day. In contrast, the surgeon general estimates that more than 2,500 kids try their first cigarette each day and there are more than 42 million addicted smokers in the United States. There are almost 500,000 deaths each year from tobacco use - more than from alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders, suicides and AIDS combined. I find it interesting that when dealers of illegal drugs are apprehended, they generally are sent to prison, whereas the tobacco industry purveys its addictive product with impunity. John O' Hara, Bowie The writer is president of the Maryland Group Against Smoker's Pollution. [end]
The New President of the Philippines Unleashes a Surge of Extrajudicial Killings of Drug Dealers and Users. RODRIGO DUTERTE, the new president of the Philippines, is overseeing exactly what he pledged in his campaign: a terrifying surge of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers, users and criminals. From the day after he was elected, May 10, to Aug. 4, by a local account, there had been 571 killings, most of them simple executions by police and vigilante groups. Mr. Duterte promised to "shoot to kill" and eliminate drug dealing in the country in six months. In fact, he is killing the rule of law, and that could undermine Philippine democracy. [continues 407 words]
The Aug. 2 Health & Science article "Cause of death" showed the human face and family tragedy of heroin addiction. The heart-wrenching stories of the fatal overdoses of Jordan Roche and Kelsea Brandt, among others, revealed that those who succumb to addiction aren't criminals. Rather, those who forsake their families, friends, careers, health and futures suffer from a bona fide disease of the brain. Brandt and Roche lived in Harford County, Md., where I'm privileged to work with our drug courts. Every day, our elected and appointed officials, treatment providers, law enforcement officers, education officials, faith-based groups and nonprofit agencies work to overcome the stigmas of substance-use disorder. They work to discourage and prevent drug use by children, youths, pregnant women, those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and others. [continues 57 words]
The House of Representatives recently passed a number of bills designed to combat the epidemic of dangerous drugs sweeping across the United States. No congressional district has been spared from this problem, and people are dying at an alarming rate from the use of fentanyl, bath salts, flakka, K2, Spice and other synthetic drugs. But lawmakers failed to act to close a major entry point for these terrible drugs into the United States: the global postal system. Anyone with a laptop, wireless access and a credit card can order these poisons over the Internet from abroad and have them shipped directly to their home through the U.S. mail. This is not a new problem - Congress has held extensive hearings on this issue, starting as far back as 2000. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 340 million packages enter the United States through the international mail stream, with little or no electronic manifest data associated with them. Our federal law enforcement agencies have no way to perform risk assessments on incoming postal shipments before they arrive and are forced to manually screen millions upon millions of postal parcels in an attempt to intercept these deadly drugs. [continues 351 words]
Regarding the July 30 editorial "One reason for cannabis caution": A 1967 study reported that THC (the major psychoactive component of marijuana) caused psychotic-like effects in some normal human subjects. An ever-increasing number of scientific studies show that cannabis use has triggered symptoms involving psychosis and schizophrenia. Today's cannabis with extremely high THC content helps account for that. The editorial noted the increase in children being treated for cannabis-induced symptoms in Colorado and stated that it is important for the District to wait to see what further harmful effects are found. One needs only to study the existing literature. Not only can those with developing brains lose up to 10 IQ points, but also brain anomalies have been found in users of all ages. One out of six youths and one out of 10 adults who use marijuana become addicted. Research shows that marijuana use impairs DNA. Secondhand marijuana smoke is more harmful to cardiovascular functioning than cigarette smoke. What more proof could one require? [continues 61 words]
Marijuana Is Anything but Harmless Voters in at least five states, including California, will be asked whether they want to legalize marijuana for casual use on Election Day. Four states and Washington D.C. have already taken this step. "This is really a watershed year for marijuana legalization," said F. Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. Proponents like the Drug Policy Alliance claim that legalization should occur partially for "health" reasons. The Marijuana Policy Project has called pot "harmless." Others say it is "safe" and even "healthy." Nearly all proponents seem to deny or minimize its risks. Popular culture reinforces this view portraying use generally as a risk-free endeavor. And big business looking to cash in on legalization is all too happy to propagate this claim. [continues 627 words]
Children's Marijuana-Related Trips to the ER Have Increased in Colorado. WHEN CHILDREN steal cookies from the cookie jar, they usually suffer little more than a scolding. When those cookies contain cannabis, it's a different story: According to a study published Monday, exposure to marijuana among children in Colorado has increased in the two years since the state began selling the drug legally - and so have the emergency-room visits that follow. Colorado gave the green light to medical marijuana in 2000. In 2012, the state sanctioned recreational use, and by January 2014, dispensary store shelves were stocked with potent products of all shapes and sizes. Since then, marijuana-related trips to children's care centers have almost doubled, though incidence overall remains low. Edibles in particular seem to entice unsuspecting children who think they are sneaking everyday snacks, though secondhand smoke is also a culprit. After accidental marijuana consumption, most children simply become sleepy. In the worst of cases, they can end up with a breathing tube. [continues 308 words]
A Story of Truth, Lies and an American Addiction She had already made it through one last night alone under the freeway bridge, through the vomiting and shakes of withdrawal, through cravings so intense she'd scraped a bathroom floor searching for leftover traces of heroin. It had now been 12 days since the last time Amanda Wendler used a drug of any kind, her longest stretch in years. "Clear-eyed and sober," read a report from one drug counselor, and so Amanda, 31, had moved back in with her mother to begin the stage of recovery she feared most. [continues 5637 words]
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one part of the American people to affirm the political bands which connect them to the other parts, and to assume within the nation, the connected and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of their fellow citizens requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to affirm their connection. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among us, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and, if they choose the path of alteration, to abandon old and institute new legislation, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing the powers of government in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that legislation long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to repudiate the integral connection among Americans, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such legislation, and to provide new Guards for their future security. - Such has been the patient sufferance of African Americans; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to advocate the end of Prohibition. The history of the present War on Drugs is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having as a direct consequence the severing of the connection between African Americans and the rest of the American polity. [continues 755 words]
Illegals Aren't The Only Worry Americans Encounter With Open Borders The two groups with the most to lose with a Donald Trump victory on Nov. 8 would be the Mexican drug cartels and their Chinese suppliers. The reason is pretty simple: Mr. Trump has made securing the border his principal campaign theme. If the border is secured by a wall or some combination of means against the flood of illegal aliens and potential terrorists, then it automatically puts a major hit on the flow of narcotics across the border. If they can't get the illegals in, they can't get the dope in, either. [continues 700 words]
The District's 'State' Fair Can Celebrate Marijuana, the Leading Agricultural Crop It's difficult to hold a state fair when the District of Columbia is not even a state and is unlikely to become one, but a fair is always fun, with displays of pigs and cows and the bounty of the field, usually with a Ferris wheel and a midway offering unlikely freaks and games where the customer is never always right. The District's "State" Fair, to be held Aug. 28, a Sunday, at Storey Park on First Street NE, won't have a lot of agricultural exhibits because truth to tell there are not many amber waves of grain on a fruited plain between the Anacostia and the Potomac Rivers. But what the District does have, more or less, is something 46 states don't have. Marijuana is to the District what rice is to Arkansas, corn to Nebraska, wheat to North Dakota, cotton and catfish to Mississippi and blackberries to Oregon. [continues 468 words]
In his June 24 Federal Insider column, "Does the DEA share blame in the opioid fight?," Joe Davidson asked if the Drug Enforcement Administration shoulders some of the blame for the nation's opioid deaths. Do gun manufacturers take responsibility for the end user? In the chemical industry, in which I have worked for more than 30 years, we have product stewardship. We take responsibility for the products we make from the time we manufacture them to the end user's actions. We call this "cradle to grave" accountability. [continues 110 words]
Chinese Fentanyl From Mexico Is Just One Lethal Legacy of Open Borders There is also the Open Borders of things. What are they bringing with them? Heroin? Cocaine? Methamphetamines? And now fentanyl? Plus the murder and gang violence that are a part of this trade? On June 9, The New York Times ran this headline on Page A1: "Drug That Killed Prince Is Making Mexican Cartels Richer, U.S. Says." The first line of the story reads, "The drug that killed Prince has become a favorite of Mexican cartels because it is extremely potent, popular in the United States - and immensely profitable, American officials say." [continues 744 words]
Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, had a fairly easy time at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where his efforts to change the opaque culture of the agency won praise. Then it was Sen. Richard J. Durbin's time to ask questions. The Illinois Democrat wasted little time with niceties. He wanted to know whether the DEA is one of the bad guys in the fight against opioid addiction. "Who is responsible when it comes to decisions made that have created this and made it worse?" he asked. The DEA, according to Durbin. He quoted Rosenberg's testimony about the DEA's enforcement activities against "the violent cartels and drug trafficking gangs responsible for feeding the heroin and prescription drug epidemic in our communities." But that strategy has "one key element missing, and it is an element that you have responsibility for," he told Rosenberg. "That is the overproduction of opioids by the pharmaceutical industry." The numbers are staggering. In 2014 alone, the industry put 14 billion opioid pills on the market with DEA approval, "enough for every adult in America to have a one-month prescription," Durbin said. More than 28,000 people overdosed and died from prescription opioid and heroin, an illegal opioid, that year. Many heroin addicts started with prescription opioids. [continues 570 words]
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that evidence found by police officers after illegal stops may be used in court if the officers conducted their searches after learning that the defendants had outstanding arrest warrants. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority in the 5-to-3 decision, said such searches do not violate the Fourth Amendment when the warrant is valid and unconnected to the conduct that prompted the stop. Justice Thomas's opinion drew a fiery dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said that "it is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this type of scrutiny." [continues 664 words]
The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government - or that's how it works in theory, anyway. In practice, though, court decisions over several decades have created so many exceptions to this constitutional principle as to render it effectively meaningless in many real-world situations. On Monday, the Supreme Court further weakened the Fourth Amendment by making it even easier for law enforcement to evade its requirement that stops be based on reasonable suspicion. The justices ruled 5 to 3 that a police officer's illegal stop of a man on the street did not prevent evidence obtained from a search connected to that stop to be used against him. [continues 497 words]
Safe Injection Site Physician Testifies on Opioid Epidemic The U.S. Senate turned to Vancouver for answers to America's drug woes on Wednesday, flying in the B.C. doctor behind a prescription heroin study to testify about his pioneering treatment trial. Dr. Scott MacDonald, lead physician at Providence Health Care's Crosstown Clinic, spoke at the request of the Republican-dominated Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Senate's most powerful committee. "In British Columbia we need every tool in the toolbox to rise to the challenge the opioid epidemic presents," MacDonald told committee members. "Of course we would like to see an end to people dependent on heroin but for those already suffering it is essential to provide care, and care based on evidence. [continues 144 words]
Committee Tries to Understand Supervised Clinic Concept As Crosstown Clinic Physician Testifies to Its Efficacy Members of a U.S. Senate committee looking to confront drug abuse struggled with the concept of prescription heroin and raised concerns about supervised-injection sites increasing crime as they heard testimony on Wednesday from a B.C. doctor who helped lead one of the most radical interventions in North America. Scott MacDonald, physician lead at Providence Health Care's Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a hearing in Washington titled "America's Insatiable Demand for Drugs: Examining Alternative Approaches." He was one of four experts invited to speak, and the only one from outside the United States. [continues 568 words]
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]
The marijuana policy landscape changed rapidly between 2002 and 2013. During that time, 13 states passed medical-marijuana laws, nearly as many relaxed penalties for marijuana use, and Colorado and Washington became the first states to fully legalize recreational pot use. Opponents of marijuana liberalization warned that these changes would bring devastating consequences, particularly for kids. The president of National Families in Action, an anti-drug group, warned that commercial marijuana would "literally dumb down the precious minds of generations of children." Psychiatrist Christian Thurstone, an outspoken opponent of Colorado's marijuana legalization, argued that "the state's relaxed laws have made the drug widely available - and irresistible - to too many adolescents." [continues 666 words]
Regarding the May 22 front-page article "Struggling to look away from the screen": Since when is mislabeling a condition as an addiction helpful to the patient or the public? The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as a chronic brain disease that affects neurotransmission within the reward section of the brain. The dysfunction in these circuits leads to "an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors." Compulsive Web use has not yet been documented as a behavioral condition, for example gambling, that is an addiction. [continues 75 words]
The Explosion of Smuggled Mexican Heroin Is Killing Thousands "Lobos" has made another bust. Back in December, the K-9 dog Lobos and his human partner, Fayette County Texas Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Randy Thumann, made a routine stop on Interstate 10 and Lobos' super nose turned up $4 million in liquid methamphetamine hidden in the vehicle of two Mexican nationals. A month later, the law enforcement pair made another stop on I-10. This time, Lobos found $428,000 in cash hidden away in a Honda Odyssey driven by Jose Cortez, 28, and Maria Martinez, 26, both Mexican citizens. [continues 730 words]
Marijuana Is the Trendy Herb for Those Who Want to Get Baked During Dinner As Matt Doherty wrapped up his cooking demonstration, a woman in the audience raised her hand to ask a question: How long would the cannabis-infused butter he had shown them how to make keep in the fridge? "I've never had it go bad," replied Doherty, the manager of a Capitol Hill hydroponic supply store. He paused. "It doesn't last long in my house." The audience at the cannabis food festival "Blazed and Glazed" giggled a little too hard at the joke. Many of the onlookers had arrived at culinary incubator Mess Hall as baked as a tray of the green herb that Doherty had put in the oven. [continues 1439 words]
Congress Should Create a New Federal Research Classification for Scientists. JUNE 30 could be a red-letter day for federal policy on marijuana: The Drug Enforcement Administration has promised to decide "in the first half of 2016" whether to change the drug's status under the Controlled Substances Act. At present, it is on Schedule 1, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse" and is among "the most dangerous drugs . . . with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence," according to the DEA. Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin and ecstasy; and for many people, including those who have petitioned the DEA to "reschedule" pot, marijuana simply doesn't belong in that category-because it isn't that dangerous, and because, they argue, it has medicinal uses. [continues 383 words]
Each week, In Theory takes on a big idea in the news and explores it from a range of perspectives. This week, we're talking about drug scheduling. Need a primer? Catch up here. There are rumors that the federal government may soon lift its ban on marijuana, but that wouldn't end marijuana prohibitions in the United States. This incongruity is the result of federalism: the ability of each jurisdiction - the federal government and every state - to maintain its own laws as to which drugs are illegal and which are not. [continues 688 words]
David Umeh's rented SUV yanked to a halt in front of the glass-and-steel facade of City-Center DC, glitzy home to Gucci and Dior and Hermes and the next customer of the marijuana revolution. A young woman slid out the passenger side and strode up to a man still dressed in the sharp gray suit of a Washington nine-to fiver waiting outside the center's tony apartment building. He grinned as she handed him a bottle of apple juice with lemon and mint, for which he had shelled out upward of $55. "Fresh-pressed," she told him, sticking to the script that Umeh had taught her. [continues 1192 words]
Pot Advocates Find High Hopes Dashed at White House WASHINGTON - It took a pot-smoking protest outside the White House, but on Monday, advocates for marijuana legalization were set for a historic face-to-face meeting with the Obama administration about easing laws governing the drug. Except, it wasn't. Leaders of the successful ballot measure fight that legalized marijuana in the nation's capital said they were granted a White House meeting, but it was with two junior-level staffers in Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy. [continues 263 words]
Marijuana Advocates Had Hoped to Speak With Obama, Got Staffers It took a pot-smoking protest outside the White House, but on Monday, advocates for marijuana legalization were set for a historic face-to-face meeting with the Obama administration about easing laws governing the drug. Except, it wasn't. Leaders of the ballot-measure fight that legalized marijuana in the nation's capital said they were granted a White House meeting, but it was with two junior-level staffers in President Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy. [continues 506 words]
Regarding the April 21 news article "Canada to introduce bill to allow marijuana sales": The idea of people from the United States jumping the border to take a few legal puffs of pots seems dangerous to me. Wouldn't it be a safer solution for border states to legalize the drug to save potential partakers from driving in unfavorable conditions for anounce of herbal bliss? Couldn't we as a nation finda way to follow Canada's lead and regulate the substance like we do alcohol and cigarettes? Wouldn't it save border patrol and law enforcement's time if Americans stayed put to get their product? Charles Clark Jr., Manassas [end]
The National Cannabis Festival at the RFK Stadium grounds Saturday afternoon seemingly offered so much: rolling papers of all sizes; neon-pink bongs; "Hydroponics for Everybody" books; free issues of Dope magazine; several odor-protecting clutches from the Annabis purse collection; and an "Educational Pavilion" for yoga techniques or lessons on entrepreneurship and local "Potlitics." One thing at the National Cannabis Festival not technically allowed: the consumption or sale of cannabis. Although it's been legal since Feb. 26, 2015, for people in the District to possess up to two ounces of marijuana, it's still illegal for ordinary citizens to sell it to one another or smoke it in a public place. [continues 571 words]
The Justice Department Restarts Incentives for Asset Forfeiture. THE JUSTICE Department calls it a tool to crack down on terrorists, kleptocrats and fugitives. So why did it result in the seizure of money and other assets from law-abiding people? Welcome to the weird world of civil asset forfeiture, in which the government can take property without charging its owner with a crime. There are some legitimate reasons for the practice, such as cracking down on sophisticated organized-crime rings, that manage to separate criminals from tainted assets. But even after years of criticism and reports of abuse, the federal government still has not reformed its piece of the system enough to keep its application narrow and fair. [continues 374 words]
Nadeau: Vote Will 'Tie Our Hands' In Regulating Pot The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to impose a permanent ban on private marijuana smoking clubs, ending months of political hand-wringing over where to allow residents to consume pot. In a 7-to-6 vote, the council made permanent a 90-day ban on pot clubs in the nation's capital, where marijuana possession is legal though still a federal offense. The ban's passage did not come easily: Democratic council members Brianne Nadeau and Vincent Orange both tried to delay the vote, saying a permanent ban would undercut a task force studying how to regulate pot clubs. Set up in February, the task force has 120 days to offer recommendations to lawmakers. [continues 483 words]
Howard Marks, a Welsh-born, Oxford-trained drug smuggler who for years ran a globe-spanning marijuana ring, enraging officials and entertaining the public on both sides of the Atlantic as a countercultural scofflaw, died April 10. He was 70. Mr. Marks revealed last year that he had inoperable bowel cancer, and his death was announced by Pan Macmillan, the publisher of his most recent book, "Mr. Smiley: My Last Pill and Testament "(2015). Other details were not immediately available. [continues 902 words]
The inaccuracies and misinformation in the April 6 editorial "Striking the right balance on judicial reform," which discussed criminal-justice reform bills in the Maryland legislature, are inexcusable. The editorial should have mentioned the data, report or discussions of the Justice Reinvestment Coordinating Council, which served as the basis of the legislation. The House bill, as amended, would save about $100million over the next 10 years, not the $247 million the editorial cited, because it strikes the right balance between criminal-justice reform and public safety. And the House took the time to reach consensus on the bill in an open, collaborative and transparent process. [continues 192 words]
A divided D.C. Council voted on Tuesday to ban marijuana clubs, where residents and visitors to the nation's capital might have smoked pot without fear of being arrested. The 7-to-6 vote marked council members' second about-face on the issue in four months and hinted at their unsure footing as they navigate fast-shifting public sentiment about marijuana use. The issue has become the next marijuana-policy frontier in the District and other places where voters have already legalized possession. [continues 698 words]
District Split Over Legality of Drug In the latest twist in the District's struggles over legal marijuana, the D.C. Council Tuesday moved to permanently ban pot clubs in the city, just two months after the body approved a task force to study the issue. Whether pot can be consumed legally in private clubs is just one of the thorny issues the District has faced since it legalized cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana but continued to keep sales of the drug illegal. [continues 709 words]
An Oakland-based company has started delivery cold-pressed juice in the District - with a side of free marijuana. As a way to skirt the District's law against selling cannabis - while still taking advantage of residents being allowed possess up to two ounces of pot - HighSpeed is offering to sell residents juice and "gift" them some marijuana with their order. The company started in Oakland in 2015 and begin deliveries in the District about two months, having already served about 300 customers, according to HighSpeed. [continues 394 words]
Rally Pressures Obama to Deschedule Marijuana The local activists who helped legalize marijuana possession in the District were on the trail of bigger game Saturday, lighting up in front of the White House to protest the way federal laws classify the drug. "This is about needless incarceration," Dave Anderson said as he walked along a 51-foot inflatable joint that protesters planned to march from 15th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW to the gates outside of the north lawn of the White House. "We've got local momentum in D.C., so this is an opportunity for a dialogue." [continues 716 words]
Advocates Say Addicts Need Long-Term Care Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and the Democratic-controlled legislature are weighing options for tackling the fast-growing heroin epidemic that has taken root across the state and throughout the country. Many of the solutions focus on loosening criminal penalties for drug offenses and shifting more money - including the potential prison savings - to treatment and rehabilitation programs. The efforts have drawn praise from experts, including Joshua Sharfstein, the physician who served as state health director under Hogan's predecessor, Martin O'Malley (D). But they are viewed with skepticism by some advocates, who want the state to immediately and significantly expand long-term residential treatment. [continues 1270 words]
Inside District of Columbia
