James "420 Jim" Stevens collected signatures on paper and on his motorhome during his trip to Washington through small town America. It came to him in a dream, like Martin Luther King had a dream, inspiring him to crisscross small towns across the country on his way to Washington, James "420 Jim" Stevens said in front of his rolling petition for federal marijuana legalization. Stevens parked his motorhome colorfully decorated in five-fingered cannabis leaves in front of the Boot Hill Museum and collected signatures and explained his one-man, one-dog trek through America. [continues 885 words]
People who try to stay abreast of the federal government's displays of wasteful spending and lack of judgment might want to take note of a pending trial in Spokane, Wash. Federal prosecutors there are seeking mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years each for a 70-year-old medical marijuana patient with no criminal history, three of his relatives and a family friend caught growing marijuana on some rural, mountainous property owned by the family. Washington has legalized medical marijuana and is moving forward with plans to license people to grow and sell recreational marijuana to adults. However, growing marijuana anywhere in the United States still is a violation of federal law. [continues 306 words]
The arrest of Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was described by Attorney General Eric Holder as a landmark achievement. Early in the "War on Drugs," spectacular arrests and sensational drug seizures were followed by pronouncements from law enforcement officials that communities were now safer with fewer drugs on the street. The purpose of those pronouncements was to provide validation for the war on drugs. There have been no such assessments following the arrest of Guzman. The arrest will not impact the availability of drugs on the street. [continues 180 words]
Legalize pot. Tax it, get it out in the open and get some control over it. Stop using it as a means to incarcerate poor, often minority, young in order to fill the pockets of the privately owned penal system. Pot doesn't kill, alcohol does, through intoxicated, often enraged, drivers on our highways. Pot doesn't kill, nicotine does, through cancer and heart patients who swell our hospitals and overwhelm our health system. Pot does tend to make the user laid back and somewhat lazy, but I'll take that any day over an erratic drunk or a smoke snorting nicotine addict. Legalize pot. - - Beth Vannatta, Halstead. [end]
It's commendable to keep cannabis (marijuana) away from youth (Legal or not, marijuana use remains a 'rocky' road, March 9, 2014); however, caging responsible adults who use the plant is the wrong way to do it. A sane or moral argument to continue the discredited prohibition of cannabis doesn't exist. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Let Colorado have legal pot. Kansas can sit back and watch how this experiment goes and wait for more science on the health and societal impact of marijuana use. I attended a public awareness meeting about marijuana in Hutchinson on Tuesday night. Even though The Hutchinson News was a sponsor, I thought I might confirm my past support for legalizing pot. It must have been an effective program, as I walked away instead in support of the people who are fighting pot usage, especially at the youth level. I have too much respect for those people to marginalize pot. Downplaying the effects of pot is exactly why it is a problem with our youth and in our schools. [continues 630 words]
To the editor: I found the Jan. 27 editorial on medical marijuana well-intentioned but inadequately researched. I urge you and your readers to review the article posted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/ and some of the associated links. Like you, Dr. Gupta initially was opposed to the use of medical marijuana. However, he completed in-depth research on the subject. He now believes that, in certain instances, medical marijuana offers the only hope to individuals who suffer from certain specific and intractable conditions, such as epilepsy, that have not responded to established treatments. [continues 128 words]
Uruguay has volunteered to be the canary in the cannabis field. The small -- population 3.4 million -- Latin American nation has voted to legalize the growth and sale of marijuana. The country's senate narrowly, 16-13, approved a law allowing individuals older than 18 to buy up to 40 grams -- just over 1.4 ounces -- a month from state-licensed dealers. Individuals also have the alternative of growing up to 1.06 pounds of pot for their own use. The price is likely to be around $1 a gram. [continues 303 words]
Welfare Recipients Subject to Loss of Benefits for Failed Test; JoCo Rep Says Legislators Should Lose Pay Legislative leaders picked someone to administer their new drug-testing program this week, but it appears the names of lawmakers who fail won't be made public, and they will face no penalty. The Legislative Coordinating Council unanimously chose Jeff Russell, director of Legislative Administrative Services, to run the testing program that was attached as an amendment to a bill requiring testing for some recipients of cash assistance. [continues 725 words]
Will pot soon be legal in Kansas? Fire It Up Kansas, a non-violent nonprofit organization, sure hopes so. According to the group's Facebook page, it only has one purpose: to "legalize marijuana on a state and federal level for the purpose of medicine, production and recreation." To further its efforts, the organization is planning to use a billboard campaign to promote the legalization of marijuana in the state. Co-founder and president of Fire It Up Kansas, Mike Golden, said that the intent is for the legalization of marijuana to be seen as a legal market instead of a black market. [continues 795 words]
I was fortunate to attend the Silver Haired Legislature at the Capitol recently as an observer. The first speaker was Jack Cole, a retired New Jersey narcotics detective, who spoke passionately and with statistics to about his belief that the drug war is a total and complete failure and a whole new approach is needed. The next speaker was Gov. Sam Brownback. He neither recognized, thanked or commented about Cole's speech. Brownback spoke about the accomplishments of his administration. When he mentioned Kansas had a $400 million surplus in state coffers, there was no applause. I believe most everyone in the chamber knew Kansas schoolchildren were being deprived of a first-class education so the governor could brag about his budget. It was nothing to brag about or applaud. As Brownback left the chamber after speaking, a lady from western Kansas approached him with a petition to legalize industrial hemp so she could grow it on her farm. She asked the governor to take the petition, but he declined. Brownback claims to be compassionate, but I feel his actions speak much louder than his words. Topeka [end]
TOPEKA - The Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature, a senior-citizen advisory group, has approved a resolution in support of medical marijuana. Jim Snyder, 80, president of the Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature, seated in the Kansas House chamber after the group's meeting. The Silver-Haired Legislature approved a resolution supporting medical marijuana. Jim Snyder, 80, president of the Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature, seated in the Kansas House chamber after the group's meeting. The Silver-Haired Legislature approved a resolution supporting medical marijuana. [continues 294 words]
When Jack Cole, executive director of the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, spoke several years ago in Salina, he claimed the nation's drug laws were based on racism. Cole should know. He started as a police officer in 1970, the year the war on drugs was started by the Nixon administration. Cole, who spent years as a drug agent, said the drug war gave Nixon a way to target blacks to win over frightened white voters. Forty-three years later, an ACLU analysis of crime data would seem to support Cole's contention. An Associated Press story in the June 5 Journal on the ACLU study showed that, nationwide, blacks are arrested at a higher rate than whites, even though marijuana use by both races is about the same. [continues 223 words]
To the editor: The most compelling points in your four-part story on the recent marijuana sweep were: (1) the sweep's huge cost, (2) the minimal effect it had on the supply, and (3) what was not discussed. One question is what will be the cost to prosecute and imprison these people. I have read it costs between $24,000 to $50,000 a year to imprison someone. What part do our marijuana laws play in our country imprisoning a larger percentage of people than any other country? Are the effects of marijuana so terrible that we should waste money like this? And how will the confiscated property and cash be used? [continues 155 words]
LEAWOOD, Kan. - Two former CIA employees whose Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables. Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff's deputies searched their home in the upscale Kansas City suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener - a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that netted marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and cash from several other locations. [continues 605 words]
An oft-touted solution to many national problems is to legalize drugs and regulate them, thus providing a new source of revenue. People wouldn't be put in jail for drugs, so they could get on with their lives and get jobs. It's supposedly a win-win situation. However, the legalization of drugs would have several bad consequences that do not get mentioned because of how appealing the potential revenue sounds. Regulation would still cost money. Take methamphetamine, for example - the cost of police enforcement would not disappear just because citizens aren't being arrested for possession. Decriminalization could never make it legal or safe for a meth lab to be running in a residential area. The chemicals used to cook meth are at great risk of exploding in the process. Even if meth was legal, the dangers of someone wanting homemade instead of store-bought meth would continue. The police would still have to find and shut down meth labs. [continues 531 words]
I've enjoyed debating about public policy for nearly half as long as I've been alive. During that time, I've had impassioned and engaging arguments about almost every conceivable political issue. The War on Drugs, however, is an exception. Frankly, the topic is kind of boring. Nearly everyone in America learned about the prohibition of alcohol during their middle school history class and/or from watching mob films. We all know it was a calamitous failure that made the problem enormously worse at everyone's expense. As John D. Rockefeller Jr. wrote in 1932, "a vast army of lawbreakers has been recruited and financed on a colossal scale." [continues 538 words]
They Say Their Family Was Growing Vegetables in the Basement. LEAWOOD, Kan. - Two former CIA employees whose Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables. Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff's deputies searched their home in the upscale Kansas City suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener - - a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that netted marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and cash from several other locations. [continues 634 words]
Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, has introduced a bill that would require drug testing of the poor and jobless in order for them to receive state benefits. He claims it's not punitive. It is typical Republican thinking. Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, had it partially right when he said such a mandate should be extended to CEOs of companies receiving tax dollars. But a drug testing mandate would not be truly fair unless it was extended to all persons whose employment is paid for by the taxpayers. [continues 98 words]
I am very displeased with Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, and the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. The decision to again try to sweep medical marijuana under the rug and hope it goes away is bad policy. Colorado has legalized marijuana completely and Nebraska has partially decriminalized it, but Kansas still maintains its ineffective and very expensive charade of prohibition. A number of us have attempted to contact the committee and its chair and have received absolutely no reply. More than $14 million of Kansas taxpayer money was spent in 2009 to arrest, prosecute and punish about 5,157 of the 277,000 Kansans who used marijuana that year. [continues 98 words]
Inside Kansas
