Regarding Ronald Fraser's "Holder's wise choice on fighting marijuana" (Point of View, Oct. 19): The drug war is largely a war on marijuana. In 2011, there were 757,969 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The result is not lower rates of use.

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Regarding "Woman fights to change hemp laws" (News, Oct. 13): As a retired detective, I support the work and views of marijuana legalization activist Norma Sapp. I can attest to the reduction in public safety, as my colleagues spend large amounts of time chasing a green plant, while pedophiles in chat rooms aren't being arrested. As bad, or worse, teens in Oklahoma are shot and killed every year because of marijuana prohibition. How? Hundreds of teens in Oklahoma choose to sell marijuana - not alcohol, not cigarettes - and some will be shot and killed every year. We need to legalize/regulate and tax marijuana now.

Howard Wooldridge,

Dallas, Texas

Wooldridge is co-founder of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition).

[end]

It's A Losing Battle

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, commander in chief of Washington's failed war on drugs, recently issued what looks a lot like a domestic version of Vermont Sen. George Aiken's famous 1966 face-saving formula for exiting from America's lost war in Vietnam: Declare victory and get out. After more than 58,000 U.S. deaths, that's exactly what we did.

And now a timely American Civil Liberties Union report, titled "The War on Marijuana in Black and White," explains why Holder's similar announcement is especially good news for blacks nationwide and in Oklahoma.

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LITTLE AXE - Few Oklahomans could rival Norma Sapp's efforts to legalize marijuana.

She drove a motor home across the United States, serving as the support vehicle for a friend who was riding his one-eyed paint horse, Misty, across the country to raise awareness of a message: "Cops say legalize marijuana, ask me why."

She has walked the marble hallways of the state Capitol more times than she can remember to advocate for changes in Oklahoma's marijuana laws.

And she ran for a state House office in the 1990s - and quickly learned she didn't want it.

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Regarding Leonard Pitts' "Maybe nation is ready to end 'war'" (Commentary, Aug. 16): The drug war is part of the problem. Illegal drug users are reluctant to seek medical attention in the event of an overdose for fear of being charged with a crime. Attempting to save the life of a friend could result in a murder charge. Overzealous drug war enforcement results in preventable deaths. Rehabilitation also is confounded. I think it's safe to say that turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero tolerance zeal. Eliminating the penalties associated with illicit drug use would encourage the type of honest discussion necessary to facilitate rehabilitation and save lives.

Robert Sharpe, Arlington, Va.

Sharpe is a policy analyst at Common Sense for Drug Policy, in Washington, D.C.

[end]

It's been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law.

And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes.

And a war on money, spilling it like water.

And a war on people of color, targeting them with drone strike efficiency.

We never call it any of those things, though all of them fit. No, we call it the War on Drugs. It is a 42-year, trilliondollar disaster that has done nothing - underscore that: absolutely nothing - to stem the inexhaustible supply of, and insatiable demand for, illegal narcotics. In the process, it has rendered this "land of the free" the biggest jailer on Earth.

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IN his call to change the way mandatory-minimum sentences are used in federal drug cases, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said this: "We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate - not merely to convict, warehouse and forget." Oklahoma lawmakers should take heed.

Holder is taking a reasonable approach to try to alleviate overcrowding in the federal system. He wants to give judges more of a say in how long to incarcerate nonviolent offenders who commit drug-related crimes. Now, judges' discretion is limited by mandatory-minimum sentences that grew out of President Ronald Reagan's "war on drugs" in the 1980s.

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His Drug Task Force Took Money From Travelers on I-40 but Did Not Make Arrests.

HINTON - A district attorney is returning funds in three more cases where his drug task force took money from travelers on Interstate 40

Two of the three cases involved stops where money was seized but no one was arrested. A total of $21,227 is being returned in the three cases.

"I was really, really very scared," said Julius S. Crooks, 28, who is getting back $7,500 and a semi-automatic rifle.

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Oklahoma has taken a giant step backward with regard to marijuana. Thanks to a new law, starting this fall anybody who drives in Oklahoma within 30 days after consuming marijuana will be "driving under the influence" as a matter of law. One of the authors of this new law (House Bill 1441) was unaware that marijuana is a Schedule I drug and was therefore unaware of the consequences of his legislation. Nonetheless, I remain optimistic that marijuana will soon be legal in Oklahoma.

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Are Americans becoming more libertarian on cultural issues? I see evidence that they are, in poll findings and election results on three unrelated issues - marijuana legalization, same-sex marriage and gun rights.

Start with pot. Last November, voters in the states of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, by a 55-45 percent margin in Colorado and by 56-44 percent in Washington.

In contrast, California voters rejected legalization 53-47 percent in 2010. These results and poll data suggest a general movement toward legal marijuana.

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Tulsa attorney Sabah Khalaf advertises his opposition to marijuana laws on a brightly colored van that is decorated with pot leaves.

The yellow 1975 Volkswagen van, which has been parked in downtown Tulsa parking lots in recent weeks, acts as a rolling invitation for those accused of marijuana crimes to call Khalaf if they find their hobby has gotten them in trouble with the law.

However, it also acts as a sort of high-mileage political statement.

"I am not afraid to stand up for what I believe," he said.

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WHILE the debate over state efforts to nullify federal laws has often focused on Obamacare, both liberal and conservative individuals have promoted nullification.

The Pew Charitable Trusts notes 13 states are openly defying federal drug law by allowing medical marijuana, plus Colorado and Washington have legalized the drug for straight-up recreational use. So liberals who loudly decry Obamacare nullification efforts are silent on this front. Yet if attempts to nullify Obamacare through state action are illegitimate - or even racist, as liberal critics claim - isn't the same thing true of efforts to negate federal drug law?

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Editor, The Transcript:

Regarding your Feb. 27 editorial, while there have been studies showing that marijuana can shrink cancerous tumors, medical marijuana is essentially a palliative drug.

If a doctor recommends marijuana to a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy and it helps them feel better, then it's working.

In the end, medical marijuana is a quality of life decision best left to patients and their doctors. Drug warriors waging war on non-corporate drugs contend that organic marijuana is not an effective health intervention. Their prescribed intervention for medical marijuana patients is handcuffs, jail cells and criminal records. This heavy-handed approach suggests that drug warriors should not be dictating healthcare decisions.

It's long past time to let doctors decide what is right for their patients; sick patients should not be jailed for daring to seek relief from marijuana.

ROBERT SHARPE MPA policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.

[end]

Change, they say, is usually incremental. Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, has been trying for the past six years to get her colleagues in the Oklahoma legislature to at least hold a hearing on her medical marijuana bill.

That hearing finally came this week. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee defeated a proposal to legalize the medical use of marijuana.

The legislation would have allowed a qualified patient or designated caregiver to possess up to eight ounces of dried marijuana and 12 plants.

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Committee Votes 6-2 Against Legalization

OKLAHOMA CITY - A Senate committee on Monday defeated a proposal to legalize the medical use of marijuana in Oklahoma, but the bill's author said she considers it a victory that the measure was even granted a legislative hearing.

Members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-2 against the measure in a party-line vote with Republicans in opposition.

"I consider it a victory for the citizens of this state," said Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, who has introduced several bills over the last six years to allow for the medical use of marijuana or ease the penalties for possession of the drug. "I think it's a step in the right direction in terms of moving it forward and getting some indication of what people's reservations are so we'll know what to address."

The bill would have allowed a qualified patient or designated caregiver to possess up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana and 12 plants.

[end]

A measure that would no longer make second and subsequent charges of possessing marijuana a felony in Oklahoma remains alive, despite skepticism from several members on a legislative committee.

"I believe that while our constituents don't support us coming down here and legalizing it, I do believe that they support us being smart on crime," said Rep. Cory Williams, author of House Bill 1835. "We're not being soft on it; we're not legalizing it."

Williams, D-Stillwater, agreed Wednesday to stop a committee hearing on his measure so he could do more work on it, in particular, coming up with a maximum number of charges in which a simple marijuana possession could result in a felony.

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Four years ago, Michelle Obama picked up a shovel and made a powerful symbolic statement about America's food and farm future: She turned a patch of White House lawn into a working organic garden.

That was a great move, earning kudos from just about everyone this side of Monsanto and the pesticide lobby. But now, as she begins another four years in the people's mansion, the first lady is probably asking herself: "How can I top that? What can I do this time around to plant a crop of common sense in our country's political soil that will link America's farmers, consumers, environment and grassroots economy into one big harvest of common good?"

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State Sen. Constance Johnson continues her fight to allow medical marijuana use in Oklahoma. The Forest Park Democrat has again filed legislation seeking to adopt rules allowing medical marijuana use in the state.

This is not her first attempt. Sen. Johnson's never got a committee hearing this past year. Her plan would direct the State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision to develop rules that allow physicians to prescribe marijuana for patients with debilitating medical conditions.

She also proposes developing rules for licensing, production, distribution and consumption of marijuana. The Senate's chair of Health and Human Service Committee declined a hearing request last year, saying it was a federal issue.

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A legislator who couldn't get an interim study last fall on the benefits of medical marijuana has filed two measures to ease the state's tough marijuana laws.

Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Forest Park, has filed separate bills to establish a medical marijuana program in Oklahoma and to reduce the penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Senate Bill 902 would direct the State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision to develop and adopt rules that allow people with debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana with approval from their physicians and to establish fees for the "licensing, production, distribution and consumption" of marijuana for medical purposes.

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The war on marijuana is going up in smoke, and it's about time. There is no bigger waste of money and resources in all law enforcement.

Failure is too polite a description for the long campaign to eliminate the pot trade in the United States. A colossal flop is what it is. After four decades and billions spent, marijuana is easier to get, and more potent, than ever.

More than 40 percent of all Americans over 12 have tried it, and at least 30 million people smoke it every year. The most recent national drug survey found that 18.1 million Americans had used it during the previous month.

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