But Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Others Weigh Getting in Business

Nothing kills a buzz like the sight of federal agents seizing tens of thousands of marijuana plants from a tribe's reservation.

One year ago, a wave of euphoria swept Indian country when the U.S. Department of Justice released a memo that many read as the feds giving the nation's more than 560 tribes an unrestricted green light to grow and sell marijuana on their reservations - even in states such as Wisconsin where weed remains illegal.

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China has nearly 1.4 billion people - four times as many as the United States' 321 million.

So, does the U.S. really incarcerate more people than China (and Russia, too)?

That is the claim from Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joe Donald, who is challenging recently appointed state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley in the spring 2016 election.

State appeals court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, who was a candidate for the high court in 2011, and Madison attorney Claude Covelli also are running.

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The Ho-Chunk Nation may look to legalize marijuana on its tribal lands.

The tribe's electorate voted in favor of the move at a Saturday General Council meeting by a 2-1 margin. Votes at the annual meeting of tribal members are not binding, and the tribe now is studying the legal implications of the possible policy change.

"The vote overturns previous policy refusing to legalize marijuana. During the session, tribal members spoke of the health benefits and that drug addiction already a problem in the communities," said Collin Price, the tribe's public relations officer.

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Considering the article in Wednesday's paper "State rep plans anti-heroin bills," if Rep. John Nygren really wants to curtail opiate abuse in Wisconsin, he should consider sponsoring legislation legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

Research recently published by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research found that states that allow patients to access medical marijuana through dispensaries have reduced rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

In addition, a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that enactment of statewide medicinal cannabis laws is associated with a 24.8 percent lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rate.

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Members Must Now Design Operation on Reservation That Avoids Raids, Arrests

Now that Menominee tribal members have told their legislators to legalize marijuana, the difficult task begins of designing a profitable weed operation that does not result in the tribe or its customers getting busted.

"Tribes are treading on very dangerous grounds" when it comes to growing and selling marijuana, warned Dorothy Alther, director of California Indian Legal Services. "If I was representing tribes out there (in Wisconsin) I would say it might not be such a good idea."

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Seeking Revenue, Tribe Weighs Legalizing Use

Still burning from the January rejection of its long-sought Kenosha casino, leaders of the Menominee tribe will find out this week whether tribal members want to tap a new vice to help it find economic bliss - growing and selling marijuana.

The approximately 9,000 members will vote Wednesday and Thursday in a two-question advisory referendum asking whether the Menominee should legalize marijuana on their reservation for medical and/or recreational use. If either question is approved, tribal legislators would begin the process of writing ordinances to legalize marijuana on the reservation, located near Shawano, said Gary Besaw, tribal chairman.

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On Thursday, Gallup released a poll showing that 44 percent of Americans have said they've tried marijuana, the largest number the survey has ever recorded.

This isn't too far off from what other polls have found (this Pew Research Center poll pegged the number at 49 percent), and given that people are being asked to admit to behavior that is illegal in most places, the true number is almost certainly higher.

So we're past the point where most American adults have tried pot, which helps explain why support for legalization has also become a majority position.

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Before he tried marijuana, he thought of trying suicide. Heavy drinking hadn't helped. Nor had various pills prescribed by Veterans Affairs doctors. He was still angry, still depressed, still could not sleep.

But he found that marijuana helped. It took the anger and depression away. It took the sleeplessness away. Most of all, it took the 11-year-old boy away.

PFC Jared Hunter never knew the boy's name. He was just some Iraqi kid who liked to hang around the Army base outside Baghdad. "He didn't really speak English or nothing. He would just kind of follow us around and would point things out or tell us if there was somebody there who shouldn't have been." The soldiers adopted him as a mascot. Hunter bought him a soccer ball.

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Public, religious groups, law enforcement coalition support ending marijuana prohibition.

H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as, "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." We may think that is something from the distant past but then we are reminded of it from time to time, even in 21st century Wisconsin.

Legislation which would end the prohibition of the use of cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana) has been introduced in the Wisconsin Assembly. What has taken them so long to reform prohibition is a mystery. So far, 23 states and the District of Columbia permit the use of this herb with a doctor's prescription for medical use. A few states are treating cannabis more like alcohol.

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A 62-year-old Milwaukee man caught smoking marijuana in his federally subsidized apartment is not entitled to a second chance at keeping his home, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held Thursday.

In a 6-1 decision, the court agreed that a federal law preempts Wisconsin's five-day notice rule in evictions over criminal drug activity, and reversed a Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the tenant, Felton Cobb.

Cobb argued that he was entitled to promise not to smoke in the apartment again.

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Cannabidiol Rule, Federal Memo Raise Questions

In 1991, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the creation of the Wisconsin lottery meant Indian tribes here could open gaming halls on their reservations - a ruling that paved the way for the explosive growth of tribal casinos in the state.

Today, some tribal leaders are betting that legal lightning could strike again. This time they're hoping that lawmakers may have unintentionally opened the door for tribes to grow and sell marijuana last year when Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill legalizing a derivative of marijuana for limited medical use.

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Menominee Legislator Says Research Must Be Done First

Now that the Menominee tribe's dream of opening a Kenosha casino has gone up in smoke, the tribe is looking for a new way to raise cash - growing marijuana.

Craig Corn, a tribal legislator, opened the door Friday to growing marijuana on the reservation near Shawano. In a tweet Corn sent out Friday, the former tribal chairman said: "Now we embark on a new economic endeavor, it is time to progress forward. We are gonna fast track a effort to legalize Marijuana."

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Panel Delays Action on Ordinance

A proposed ordinance that would all but eliminate fines for possessing a small amount of marijuana in Milwaukee sparked a debate Thursday about racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Study after study has shown that marijuana use among all ethnic groups is the same, Molly Collins, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, told members of the Common Council's Safety Committee.

"In Milwaukee County," she testified, "African-American people are 4.9 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession and in the city of Milwaukee, it's about 5.48 times more likely."

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The illegal drug market causes damage in many developing nations, but there are two countries with major drug booms: Afghanistan and Myanmar. Both countries have a long history of being ravaged by endless conflicts. Amid great confusion, the opium market has bloomed. In Afghanistan, many farmers carry massive debts from the drug traffickers after receiving their help during the start-up period. Unfortunately, most end up never being able to pay the money back as government raids often destroy the crops that were promised to the drug dealers as payment. If such unplanned obstacles appear, many farmers are trapped between two extreme solutions. They either give up their family to the drug dealers for collateral, or they have to flee their land. Both options are very dangerous, and many find themselves taken as hostages or killed. The government intervention of directly destroying the opium fields has turned out to be highly ineffective-farmers encounter desperate troubles that can only be solved through extreme means. The illegal drugs also help give power to militant groups such as the Taliban. They control the opium market and continue to strengthen from its profit. While the fields are getting destroyed, there are new fields created to make up the loss and the efforts of the government only victimize the poor. Therefore, the Afghan government is being ineffective in solving the problem.

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It should apply to everyone who receives taxpayer funding.

The governor has proposed that people receiving state-funded benefits, such as FoodShare and W-2, be tested for illegal drug use.

But why limit this service to just these people? How about the corporate CEOs and boards that benefited from those financial "incentives" doled out by the Wisconsin Economic Development Council? These were taxpayer-funded, too.

If the governor doesn't want to chance "wasting" state money by supporting drug use by the poor, let's have him be fair and start scheduling urinalyses for the economic spectrum's upper end, also.

Jeff Zdrale,

Neenah

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We are a deeply punitive society. One misstep, one act of poor judgment, one stroke of bad luck or fate, and you could be marked for life, a pariah, someone with whom the rest of us "good people" want nothing to do.

Drug users are a prime example of this sad philosophy. The most recent manifestation of our collective attitude of non-forgiveness comes courtesy of Gov. Scott Walker's expected budget proposal to require drug tests for all FoodShare and BadgerCare applicants, as well as certain recipients of unemployment benefits.

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La Crosse County leaders fighting the local heroin epidemic credit a life-saving drug with eliminating fatal overdoses.

No heroin users died in 2014, thanks in large part to the availability and skyrocketing use of Narcan, the antidote for an opiate overdose. Two people died in 2013 and five in 2012 of accidental heroin overdoses, La Crosse County Medical Examiner Tim Candahl said.

Nationally, heroin deaths surged 39 percent in 2013 in 8,260, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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If any journalist needs to stick to the facts, the "dean of the state Capitol correspondents," Matt Pommer, has a special need to be accurate.

But accuracy was sorely lacking in his recent opinion piece, "Community policing under fire in Madison."

Pommer notes that the Dane County Board rejected a federal grant, the "Cannabis Enforcement And Suppression Effort" (CEASE), but goes on to wrongly state "the grant provides money to fight heroin, other drugs and gun traffic."

Not true. The $5000 federal grant was solely for cannabis eradication.

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BLACK RIVER FALLS - Authorities and community members are becoming increasingly concerned about the prevalence of heroin use and dealing in Jackson County.

Use of the highly addictive opiate is rising, based on drug investigations, arrests and other information provided to law enforcement, and its impact in local communities continues to expand, local authorities say.

"Overall, I believe that heroin is having an effect in Jackson County because it is not just about recreational drug use. It is about a drug that many times takes lives because people buying and using the heroin don't know exactly what they are putting into their body," Jackson County Sheriff's Department Capt. Tim Nichols said.

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When we learn of the accidental murder of a baby by shooters intending to hit a rival drug dealer two doors away, it's time to think about what might be done to stop such madness.

Because one-issue gun advocates are willing to spend unlimited money to sway an election, we cannot regulate possession of firearms or ammunition. It may be time to carefully consider whether we can tamp down the greed that propels this violence. That means examining whether legalizing drugs would result in fewer deaths.

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To the Editor:

Your recent editorial, "Our View: Not everyone is on board with marijuana enforcement," raises some very valid points.

When President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs in 1970, marijuana prohibition was a new thing. But 45 years later it has become an industry. We have become so conditioned to the negative indoctrination of almost five decades of anti-pot propaganda that we often blindly accept it.

In 1997 President Bill Clinton, responding to the legalization of medical cannabis in California, commissioned the Institute of Medicine Report on medical cannabis. This federal report was released in March 1999, and although heavily politicized, still acknowledged that cannabis had great medical value. It also debunked the so-called "gateway theory."

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