The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that bars the federal government from taking prescription licenses from doctors who recommend marijuana to patients for medical reasons. After the passage of California's medical marijuana initiative in 1996, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (the drug czar, then Gen. Barry McCaffrey) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) moved to strip licenses to write prescriptions for drugs from physicians who recommended that their patients use marijuana for medical purposes. [continues 773 words]
Democrats Also on Attack Against Drug Czar, Drug War in General A series of recent votes on Capitol Hill suggest that the medical marijuana issue is causing fissures in what is becoming an increasingly shaky consensus in support of harsh anti-drug measures in Congress. While none of the votes resulted in victories for drug reformers, they appear to signal a growing acceptance of medical marijuana in Congress and the emergence of a partisan divide on drug policy, at least at the national political level. [continues 1542 words]
Deputy Irma Parentella has introduced the first bill in the Argentine legislature that seeks to open the door to the medical use of marijuana in that South American nation. The bill introduced last week would allow cancer and HIV/AIDS patients to use the herb in clinical research trials. "There are studies that demonstrate the efficacy of the use of this drug to alleviate pain in the sick," Parentella told the Argentine daily Pagina 12. The primary pressure for the bill came from "the opinion of hospital palliative care specialists who support the raising of the restrictions that exist today in order to be able to experiment and investigate" with marijuana, Parentella added. [continues 833 words]
Cites Persecution of Pain Doctors - Tucson Case Illustrates Point Prompted by an ever-mounting list of physicians charged with over- prescribing opiate painkillers and the indictment of a Tucson physician in March, a Tucson-based medical association representing some 5,000 doctors has warned its colleagues not to prescribe opiates for pain relief and to take elaborate -- and expensive -- precautions if they do. On July 1, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (http://www.aapsonline.org), a free market-oriented group, sent out a memorandum titled "Advice to Doctors Re: Pain Management (or What the Government Has Taught Doctors)." [continues 1456 words]
Judicial Day of Reckoning Coming An Alaska Superior Court judge in Fairbanks has dismissed a man's conviction for marijuana possession on the grounds that the Alaska state constitution's privacy provisions guarantee the right to possess marijuana for personal use. Judge Richard Savell dismissed the conviction against Scott A. Thomas on June 25. He had been charged with three counts of felony fourth-degree misconduct for growing pot plants in his home last summer, but a jury found him guilty of only one count of misdemeanor marijuana possession, and now that has been thrown out. [continues 600 words]
Donald M. Topping, a founder of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii and strong advocate for medical marijuana, died June 29 at his home in Manoa, Hawaii. The 73-year-old retired University of Hawaii sociologist and linguistics professor died of colon cancer after a 15-year battle. As cofounder of DPFHI, Topping became a prominent figure in Hawaii and national drug policy circles, helping to lead the fight that led to the state becoming the first to legalize medical marijuana through the legislative process. That bill was signed into law by then Gov. Ben Cayetano in December 2000. He also made frequent appearances in newspaper stories and letters to the editor pages on various drug reform topics in the Hawaii press. Topping's was a voice of sanity as the state teetered on the edge of ice (smokeable methamphetime) hysteria. [continues 399 words]
Revised to Allow Arrests after Cops Complain British Home Secretary David Blunkett's vow a year ago to reschedule cannabis from a class B to a class C drug by this month has fallen by the wayside in the face of opposition from British police commanders. Now the promised rescheduling will not take place until at least year's end, and only after the passage of the Labor government's Criminal Justice Act, which will include revised penalties for cannabis possession and sales. [continues 720 words]
The hemisphere's first officially-sanctioned safe injection site, where hard drug users can shoot up under medical supervision, will open in September in Vancouver, British Columbia. While a safe injection site has been envisioned as a key part of the city's Four Pillars (prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction) strategy to deal with its Downtown Eastside, home to one of the hemisphere's largest and most concentrated hard drug-using populations, it has been held up for two years as local authorities struggled to win federal government approval. That finally happened on June 24, when Health Canada gave the go-ahead to the plan by exempting the site from the nation's drug laws as part of a pilot program to research its effectiveness in reducing HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and other infectious diseases, as well as reducing overdoses. [continues 873 words]
But More Battles Remain The hemp industry Monday won another in a string of victories in its two-year-old legal battle with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over the agency's effort to block the sale and possession of foods containing hemp products. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the DEA's interpretive rule barring hemp foods, ruling that the agency violated its own rulemaking procedures by failing to give advance warning or allow for public comment before it promulgated the rule in October 2001. [continues 785 words]
Students for Sensible Drug Policy's "Skate for Justice" against the drug war made its way from Binghamton to Ithaca, NY, last Sunday (6/22), with approximately 10 activists skating some or all of the journey's 49 miles, according to the Ithaca News. Starting a little after 10:00am, the demonstrators rolled into Ithaca at approximately 8:00pm, then enjoying a dinner provided at half-price by the Lost Dog Cafe. Tom Angell, a member of SSDP's national board of directors, who represented SSDP's University of Rhode Island chapter, called the Skate for Justice "a pilgrimage with justice as the destination." Angell told the Week Online that it was "an invigorating experience," even though he had to stop at 40 miles due to an ankle injury. [continues 143 words]
In the wake of the cancellation of a Montana NORML/SSDP benefit by the venue's owners after a DEA agent warned them they could face a $250,000 fine under the RAVE Act if anyone used marijuana at the event (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/290.shtml#dearave), organizers of some drug reform-related events have begun to cancel events or relocate them to friendlier territory. At the same time, national drug reform and civil liberties organizations are mobilizing against the RAVE Act, now officially known as the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act. [continues 236 words]
With Montana State University-Billings education major and founder of Teachers Against Prohibition (http://www.teachersagainstprohibition.org) Adam Jones temporarily retiring from drug reform because of a repressive probation officer, the fledgling drug reform organization has reemerged with new leadership under a new name. During a Sunday Internet meeting of the group's board of directors, the board decided to rename the organization Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, name Richard Lake chairman of the board for the next year, and appoint chairs for the group's Canadian and New Zealand branches. [continues 140 words]
Warrant Issued for Organizer for Obstructing (In)Justice Scott Bledsoe is staying out of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, for the time being. That's because Bledsoe is a wanted man in the tiny northeast Florida community. His offense? Telling the crowd at the Jacksonville Hemp Fest Memorial Day weekend that undercover narcs were among them and pointing out who the narcs were. That was enough for the Jacksonville Beach Police Department to charge Bledsoe with a misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice. Fortunately for Bledsoe, no law enforcement agency anywhere outside Jacksonville Beach gives two hoots about a misdemeanor warrant, so he continues to walk free until he goes in to face the music -- an opportunity he says he will relish. [continues 1110 words]
There is a huge sucking sound in Ontario, and it's not just delighted marijuana consumers hitting the bong. The sucking noise is coming from the huge legal vacuum into which the marijuana laws in Canada's most populous province have fallen. A succession of court rulings in the province have effectively nullified the marijuana possession law, unprecedented efforts by federal government lawyers to suspend those rulings have failed, and in the process government lawyers conceded what cabinet ministers have denied: Ontario has no marijuana possession law. While the government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien is moving ahead with a bill that would replace criminal penalties for pot possession with fines, it is unlikely to become law for months. [continues 1043 words]
How Reformers Rolled Back Souder and the Drug Czar When the House Committee on Government Affairs approved the Office of National Drug Control Policy's budgetary authorization last week, it did so only after a two-week delay. The vote, originally scheduled for May 15, had to be postponed after a furious lobbying effort by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project to alert committee Democrats that the bill contained provisions inserted by committee chairman and die-hard drug warrior Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) that would give the drug czar's office the authority to use its billion-dollar National Youth Anti-Drug media campaign fund to campaign against drug reform initiatives and candidates supporting drug reform. [continues 1415 words]
The DEA used the new RAVE Act to shut down a May 30 benefit concert for two Montana groups advocating marijuana legalization, proving critics' fears that the law would not only be used to keep kids off ecstasy, but as a tool to silence drug war opponents. The concert, a joint benefit for the Montana chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, was called off by the manager of the venue after she received threats from a local DEA agent of a $250,000 fine if someone at the event smoked a joint, according to a report by Phillip S. Smith of DRCNet. [continues 247 words]
An agent of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used threats of RAVE Act prosecutions to intimidate the owners of a Billings, Montana, venue into a canceling a combined benefit for the Montana chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (http://www.norml.org) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org) last week. The RAVE Act, now known officially as the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, championed by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), was ostensibly aimed at so-called raves, the large electronic music concerts often associated with open drug use, but was so broadly written that opponents argued it could be applied against any event or venue where owners or organizers did not take sufficiently repressive steps to prevent drug use. Opposition to the bill stalled it in the Senate last year, but this year Biden stealthily inserted it into the enormously popular Amber Alert Bill, which passed last month and was signed into law by President Bush. [continues 920 words]
In a public slap in the face to the US Justice Department's jihad against medical marijuana, US District Court Judge Charles Breyer refused to send convicted marijuana grower Ed Rosenthal to prison Wednesday. Rosenthal faced up to 60 years after a federal court jury found him guilty on federal cultivation and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors asked for a five-year sentence, but Breyer sentenced Rosenthal to one day in jail, with credit for time served, and Rosenthal walked out of the federal courthouse in San Francisco a free man. Or almost -- he must also serve three years of federal probation. [continues 770 words]
Could Escape Mandatory Minimum as Pleas for Leniency Roll In, Supporters Prepare to Rally In the denouement of the most highly-publicized federal medical marijuana prosecution yet, long-time marijuana cultivation expert and medical marijuana provider Ed Rosenthal will be sentenced Tuesday after being convicted of operating a marijuana grow operation in Oakland. And despite oft-repeated claims that he faced a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, it now appears that he will qualify under federal "safety valve" provisions for a lesser sentence -- possibly even probation, although that remains unlikely. [continues 753 words]
Canada's Liberal government introduced its long-awaited cannabis decriminalization bill Tuesday, paving the way for the elimination of criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession in the United States' northern neighbor. Under the legislation presented to parliament by Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, possession of less than 15 grams (slightly more than a half-ounce) of marijuana would no longer result in a criminal record and would be punishable only by a fine. Fines would range from $65 to $160 dollars for teenagers and $90 to $250 for adults. [continues 1332 words]
